Mike stands almost completely still, baffled by the sequence of mixed messages. In this state of daze he said the first thing that came to mind, “Scaly bastard?”

Ina sighed and collapsed, elegantly, into her seat. “Light,” she said, by way of explanation.

Mike blinked again, not sure if the fact that she referred to what was supposed to be the creator god of her people as ‘scaly bastard’ really cleared anything up for him.

“Sit down, the both of you, you are making me tired just standing there,” as she spoke another pulse of light mana left her body and Mike flinched back, afraid the floor would open up to grasp him again. It didn’t but Ina’s head tilted sideways in reaction to his reaction, she had noticed.

The Light magic sunk into the wood of the tree and two new seats rose up in front of the High Elf woman, though they seemed more like stools. They weren’t equals in this room even if she was letting them sit.

Crosse sat on his stool and Mike hesitantly followed suit. A smirk touched Ina’s expression, “I can tell you are curious, not as well as a Weaver or Searer could, but I know what you wonder, ask,” she said, immediately adding a dozen new questions to Mike already long list.

He started with the most immediate, “why is Light, the god of soul and knowledge, a scaly bastard?”

Ina smiled slightly, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. “That is a good question, let me tell you what they teach High Elves that enter Light’s clergy, maybe that will clear it up,” She responded.

“Before Light was a god, and yes the gods were not born gods; he was a High Dragon, a very specific kind of ancient Spirit. Each High Dragon was born with complete control over a single Element of mana within the Spirit realm, they are the most powerful spirits with access to only one Element. He was the High Dragon of the Element of Light. Even though now he prefers to show himself as a humanoid, his followers and High Elves who are too long exposed to the Spirit realm take on draconic traits.

“If you ever see a High Elf with the eyes of a dragon, they are currently receiving aid from Light in using their magic,” Ina said, finishing her explanation.

Mike processed this new information, the most important parts likely being that the gods were once not gods and that both Ailish and the male High Elf he had seen in the facility had had a god sitting on their shoulder, helping them with magic.

So Mike spoke the conclusion this information lead him too, “so, you are one of his servants?” he asked.

Ina sighed again and shook her head, “I was, once, a long time ago. I left the order rather early into my training, but not before the link for Light’s aid was formed between us. I have been following the path of the Sun-Gazer ever since. I hope to someday break the connection between us. It has proved useful on occasion, the gifts that Light grants his servants are not insubstantial, even if I only get the portions of the lowest ranking of them.”

“So you are directly his enemy then? I have heard you curse at him before, but I didn’t think you hated him,” Crosse interjected, looking interested and a little stunned.

Ina shook her head. “No. Opposing a god is foolishness of the highest order, especially if said god has a direct access channel to your soul. He couldn’t kill me, even if he wanted too, I am too powerful for that these days; but he can be awfully annoying, as you just saw. I am not a recourse that he can use as he wishes, and I do not follow his directives, especially when he is rude about it, like just now.” She turned her attention directly onto Mike, and he squirmed under the scrutiny.

“He recognised you and was looking for you specifically, what happened just now was his attention to capture you leaking through as he subconsciously noticed you through our bond. You have something or perhaps are something that he very much wants, which is why I asked who you are. I believe that answers my end of all of this, so now your turn. Who are you?” she asked, her intense curiosity from before returning to her eyes.

Mike took a deep breath, “I’m not entirely sure how to answer that question, but I was very recently in the presence of other High Elves that had eyes as you describe. I don’t know what brought me to this place, but I think it had something to do with a Dark Elf that was imprisoned alongside me.” Mike said.

He didn’t want to give away too much of what had happened quite so easily, hoping that Ina would take the bait and think that Light was interested in him due to Ishare and not for himself.

This piqued Ina’s curiosity, “A Dark Elf? Well, that is uncommon, I wonder what they did to get themselves captured by the Searers. Do you know their name? Or the names of any of those imprisoning you?”

Mike didn’t know whether to answer, he was trying not to be blindly trusting of this woman. She seemed nice enough but it could just be an act, Light could still be puppeteering her. He decided to not give her any information that he wasn’t certain the High Elves didn’t have already. So nothing about the AI or his spell casting, but Ishare and the tattoo wouldn't be that bad.

“The Dark Elf called himself Ishare, and there was a High Elf that he referred to as Ailish, they seemed to know each other,” Mike said.

The second Mike said Ailish, Ina’s expression became serious, “Ailish? You are certain?” she said, brows angling down in what could be anger or just intensity.

Mike nodded wondering exactly how significant this Ailish really was.

“Well that is going to make healing you problematic,” she said with a weary sigh.

Crosse tilted his head and interjected again, “why is that? Did they do something to him that would prevent healing?” he asked, this seeming to be more to his interest than the names.

“We shall see, Ailish is likely a high ranking Soulsear at this point, and her methods even back before I left the empire were already… extreme,” Ina said in response.

Mike thought back to something that the AI had said what felt like a long time ago. “Kept alive through excessive use of healing Magic for a couple of months…” he quoted from memory.

Ina’s eyebrow lifted in query, “So you were told? By the Dark Elf? He may have known the side effects of the overuse of healing magic if he had been in Ailish’s care for an extended period. All the same, yes, you do seem to be rather banged up, let me see what I can do for you before I interrogate you any longer,” she said, glancing at Mike’s head and thigh bandages.

She stood from her seat and took a step towards him and her hand began to glow with Light mana, this time illuminating the room, unlike her previous uses of magic, which had been directed at the tree. Mike didn’t flinch back when her glowing fingertips touched his forehead.

As the Light moved through him from her fingertips Mike had the distinct impression of being examined on an operating table, a bright spotlight above him, illuminating all of the flaws in his body for a doctor to see. His eyes widened at the impression as it passed through him, he wished he had had Arcane Logic equipped at the moment, he may have been able to intuit more from the sensation.

As the glow faded Ina frowned deeply, hand moving back from his head. As Mike watched her eyes flicked to his right arm, he followed them and found the tattoo was now clearly visible on his hand, dark vapour rising from it that Mike knew was Dark mana the second he saw it.

Before Mike could ask Ina spoke, looking him in the eyes as she did, “well, I can see why Ailish was interested in you, your mind and brain are completely shielded from my observation, as is whatever is occupying your right arm. I can say that my initial worry was correct, you have been kept alive without proper nutrition for greater than two moons, I can only do the most essential healing for you without causing serious side effects.”

“What is ‘the most essential healing’ and what are the potential side effects?” Mike asked, the first because it was directly relevant and the latter because it would be very good to know if he ever learned healing himself.

To Mike’s surprise, it was Crosse that spoke up, “when she says most essential she means that she isn’t going to make things pretty, everything will work properly but you get to keep the scars.”

Ina nodded. “The side effects of overhealing are difficult to explain, but since you are curious I will try. When I heal with Light I am mimicking the growth that the sun gives to plants, it is a natural thing, but when one has been doing it for long enough it can be applied with a much finer touch.

“This healing isn’t meant for creatures of flesh and blood, however, and has the side effect of going out of control if used too much in a short period or without care. It causes out of control replication of tissue, usually occurring in the skin first but potentially spreading to the rest of the body if not treated with a much more aggressive form of Light magic.”

Mike’s eyes widened as she explained the side effects in detail, and as she said ‘out of control replication’ his mouth dropped open. “Cancer! You are saying that healing Magic can cause cancer!” he blurted out almost as soon as she was finished, then immediately wanted to slap himself. How would an amnesiac peasant, no matter how extraordinary due to the spirit staple to his soul no what cancer was?

Ina’s expression changed to thoughtful, “That isn’t the term we use for it, but it is an apt name for the condition, it is a blight on the body and usually causes death unless it is burned out with very specific and delicate magic, too much of which can just make it worse.”

It took Mike a second to realise that the Language Skill had translated the word oddly, into something that wasn’t the term used by the High Elves to refer to it. So it was suspicious but not as much as if he had blurted out the technical term for the condition.

“Since you seem to understand the effects, wherever you may have learned them,” Ina said, giving him a searching look, eyes glancing to his right arm. “I am happy to heal you for what you have done to aid Crosse, and I will not capture you for Light, as much as I am certain he would reward me for it.

“I don’t know how much you know of Dragons, but one myth is true. All dragons yearn for a specific type of treasure, the more powerful, then the more general the specificity, and Light yearns for knowledge. He will stop at nothing to have it,” Ina explained.

“You may stay at this village no longer than a month, as it will take time for whomever Light sends to retrieve you to arrive, I will not protect you from them in such a situation. I enjoy my peace, and fighting a Searer, or even worse, a Spirit-Bound, for you is not conducive to peace,” When she said Spirit-Bound her eyes once again flicked to his right arm then she looked into his eyes and raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“I am willing to teach you more if you are willing to tell more of what Ailish and Light wanted from you though, that… thing, on your arm, is very curious, I have never seen or heard of anything like it.”

Mike looked at her with wide eyes, he was reeling from her saying that he couldn’t stay, he’d thought he had found a place where he could relax for a while and learn some of the common sense that ran this world, even if it was the bumpkin kind of common sense that came from an isolated village in the middle of the forest.

That and it seemed that Ina thought Mike was likely related to the ‘Spirit-Bound’ which sounded similar to what the AI had called Warlocks. Ina had been using proper nouns that he had some context for, Searer, Weaver, Spirit-Bound. It seemed that these might be the High Elves names for each of the classes or paths. Mike wondered why the AI used terms from his world instead.

He collected himself taking in a deep breath, then exhaling, “Thank you, Lady Ina, I would be grateful for the healing. I will not stay too long and disturb the peace that you and your people have, though I do intend to help Crosse and the hunters find whatever is causing the increase in Beast activity in the area, as thanks for him saving me from my stupidity,” he said.

Ina nodded slowly, “I might help you more if and when you achieve such a thing, this kind of aggressive behaviour from the beast is odd, and their numbers have been rising. I do not believe this is simply migration, as I have lived in this area for more than a century and have not seen it before. If you wish, I will commence with the healing,” She extended a hand that once again began to glow with Light Magic.

Mike considered swapping in Arcane logic, but decided against it, he didn’t want to experiment with healing without what seemed like very necessary education. Ina might give him that education if he opened up about some things, but he wasn’t sure if that was exactly what Light was after, he had tried the stick, now it was time for the carrot.

So Mike nodded and Ina’s hand moved forward to touch his brow once more. The Light spread through him again but gave him a very different sensation, this time of a sapling in the sun, taking in nutrients from the earth and light from the sun and growing from their combination. The sensation only lasted a moment and ended. Mike blinked his eyes as Ina pulled her fading hand away from his forehead.

“You can take those bandages off of him now Crosse. He won’t be suffering from those wounds anymore. I healed the leg wound the most, Metal Magic can do rather nasty things if you leave it in too long. I guess you know that though, considering how you dealt with it. Fire purification in the way you used it is reckless but effective, he will keep the scar though.

“The head wound was trickier, it was deeper than I expected. I was able to heal the injury and even restore the hair follicles, but that was the limit. The hair will take time to grow in over the scar and will likely be white, as I couldn’t make restore the parts of the follicles that give the hair colour,” Ina explained clinically as Mike recovered from his first conscious exposure to healing Magic.

Crosse nodded and moved to start unwrapping the bandage around Mike’s head. Ina looked to Mike and continued, “you are at your absolute capacity to the kind of healing I can provide, I cannot heal you again for the time you will stay here, and I recommend you avoid healing from any other High Elf for at least as long as you were sustained with the healing Magic. Most will not be as careful when healing a human as I just was, especially a servant of Light, though I suspect you will be avoiding those anyway.”

Mike would have nodded if Crosse didn’t have his hands on his head undoing the bandage.

Crosse spoke up now instead, “I had also hoped that you could bind Connor’s bow to Mike here, but seeing as he won’t be staying in the village I don’t think you will allow it.” He sounded disappointed and a tad relieved for some reason.

Ina looked to Crosse with a gentle expression, “I won’t bind it to him now, but if you can get the elder hunters to agree, or if he contributes meaningfully to solving this Beast problem then I will do so, the bows were made to protect the village, but are also for its protectors, so one is a fitting reward for aid in this situation. Perhaps you could teach him to use one while he waits.”

Crosse nodded, or at least Mike thought he did, as Crosse was standing behind him. The last of the head bandage was removed and then Mike felt Crosse's fingers inspecting his scalp, he felt no pain but there was a brief tugging sensation.

“We’ll get out of your hair then, I’ll take off the rest of these in my quarters. Up you get boy,” Crosse said as he grabbed Mike under the armpit and hauled him to his feet. Mike went along with it a little startled.

Crosse kept hold of Mike’s arm as he pulled him towards the entrance, Mike went along with him, walking backwards a few steps before turning around. He glanced over his shoulder as they left, seeing Ina still standing, hands clasped infront of herself as she watched him go.