"Quickly Kali, put them on the table! Kiku, Seria, retrieve my bag and ask Violet for some thread, some Ghostfruit Liquor, and boiling hot water!"

All of the girls stand around gobsmacked.

"LADIES! DO YOU WANT THEM TO DIE!? MOVE IT!! GO!!" I shout.

My forceful shout gets them all moving.

To be honest, I'm also panicking, but the time I trained in the surgeons with Master Manato has weathered me for situations like this. It's something all light mages do.

Elijah-sama... Aria...

I get to work the second Kali puts Elijah on our table. I unhook the breastplate and drop it aside.

Ah... not good. A large puncture wound. It was diagonally angled inward to hit his lung. The blade is broken inside. This is a priority.

The hand... at least it's cleanly severed. We have a bit of time on it if we stop the blood.

I tear off my sleeve and rapidly wind it round the arm, cutting off the blood flow.

I then look at Aria. She has passed out from magical exhaustion. But I was scared shitless when she arrived. Her hair was glowing white, and her eyes had gone even bluer than usual. I had to halt a second to recognise her.

She has been stabbed in the stomach. That needs to be a priority too. The leg and hand and neck lacerations have already clotted a bit.

Seria dashes up to me with my bag. I think of needing my needle and scalpel, and they appear in my hand as I reach inside.

I tear off Elijah's tunic.

I hesitate very briefly, because, after all, I have just ripped the top off the man I like. My heart is beating furiously, seeing his muscular chest. Not a warrior, but fit nonetheless.

But there is no time for that. Surgeon first, swooning maiden later.

Kiku arrives just in time to drop a bowl of steaming water and a bottle of liquor next to me. It kicks me out of my reverie. I notice Violet hangs in the door frame long enough to peek, snorts to herself, and closes the door behind her.

I throw off my gloves, and douse my hands with liquor before washing them in scalding water. I drop the needle and scalpel in as well, and then pull them out.

Kiku gasps and chitters as I plunge the scalpel into Elijah's chest. I cut around the wound, and lever the broken metal out carefully.

"One of you, wash your hands in that water and get me a plate!" I shout.

Seria does so, holding out a plate that we had some fruit on. I drop the metal there with a ‘tink’.

What in Sendervil's name? This... this was once a choker or a bracelet or something?

Seria then hands me thread, so I quickly thread the needle, and stitch the wound closed.

I move over to Aria, and roll up her top and throw it off. I gasp. This... how is she alive from this!? And she carried Elijah back as well?

It... is clear she was run clean through with a blade. There is yellow bile here. But... it has already started healing. It is still an angry scar, of course, and blood is still leaking. I stitch it just in case.

I roll her over and check her back. The same thing. Caked with blood, but...

I massage the area. Her organs are not good. How was she magically healed straight away?

So many questions...

I clean it with alcohol and water and one of the pillowcases. Not ideal, but it will do. Now the hand.

I grab Elijah-sama's hand, carefully realign it to his wrist, and stitch it loosely.

"Michael!" I call. Seria moves to get my staff, but that’s not needed. He flies off the sofa into my grasp, nearly hitting the Sage.

Now the hard part. I place my hand on Elijah's, feel the wrist. Light spirits burst around me.

//Late//Difficult//Issues//Blood//Gone//

"No way! We'll do this!" I cry out.

I push myself up to him, like I'm snuggling. Let my mind meet his. My heart meet his. Let me see the wrist in my head. Let me see the lung. We will rebuild it all. It cannot yet have forgotten how it once was. Will... make... it whole...

The entire room swamps with light, causing Kiku and Seria to shy away. My eyes glow golden. I know they are right now.

My view becomes that of inside Elijah's mind and body. Shards of his memories touch me.

My heart raves, because I love him, and this... this is so intimate. So close.

There! You, lovely wrist! You, wonderful lung! You remember how you were, don't you? Don't you remember your master? Be that way. It is the way you are meant to be. Have my light, my love. Be as you are meant to be.

Be... as you are meant to be!

The flesh is first. It is always the easiest to convince. Then the skin and the blood tubes. And last, the bone, the sensing strings.

It is done.

With my mind still part of his, briefly, I twitch the little finger, and it moves. I force his lung to take in a breath, and his chest inflates next to mine, I feel in my breast.

The light fades, and I am rejected, recoiled, cast out from the mind that is not mine. It makes me saddened and cold... but I must go.

Everything returns to normal, and I breath sharply, hyperventilating from the strain.

//Rishya//Power//Great//Much//Smugness//

Yeah Michael, I get it.

Without doubt... that was nearly a miracle. The barriers that love allows you to overcome, eh?

I don't want to move from his chest. But I must.

I grab the remains of the ghostfruit liquor and take a shot. Two shots. More. It runs from my lips as I gulp it down. My throat burns. I want to vomit. The kick is crazy, but I feel the spiritual energy surge into me.

Before I become a useless drunk, Aria is next.

We will bring them both back from the dead. The void shall not have them! I promise!