Rise Of Myth: Heir To Valor 15 The Burden Of Magic

"Whoa hey, easy. I'm almost done. The wound is sealed but his body is still purging the infection. If I stop now, he'll die before the sun fully sets." Val calmly explained. Urging his body to remain calm and trying to remain concentrated on his magic. It had been surprisingly taxing, he had not used magic this long without breaks before, and a weary expression was beginning to grow across his face.

"Step away from the boy or I will shoot." Richard repeated.

"Look, keep the gun, at this distance even if you fire, the first shot won't hit me anyway. Go ahead, come closer if you really want to threaten me with that, take a look at the kid yourself." Val returned his attention to his magic, ignoring the Chief's threat.

Richard did not approach, but studied Dan carefully, to his surprise, he did look much better, almost as if he were just sleeping and was not on Death's door five minutes ago.

At that moment, Doctor Chen returned with a grieving Dana, she had wiped away her tears but clearly she had received the prognosis by the look of her swollen red eyes.

Both of them were met with shock as they saw the scene of the Chief holding a gun trained on Val's head, who himself was ignoring them, concentrating on completing his magic. Huginn was eying the survivors nervously, unsure of whether to speak up and explain or remain silent and trust Val's instincts. Muninn herself was ignoring everyone, continuing to observe the process as if to gauge Val's finesse controlling his power.

"What's going on??" The Doctor asked.

"I don't know, he's doing something to Dan. His shoulder is healed completely." Richard replied, not moving anything more than his mouth to speak.

"What? That's not possible."

"See for yourself, Doctor."

Doctor Chen studied Dan's body, looking over the Chief's shoulder. His eyes gradually widened, noting the gauze discarded to the side and the bit of healthy skin he could see where the wound once was.

"Impossible! Let me see him!" The doctor brushed past the Chief and knelt next to Dan, inspecting the healed area.

"…How is this possible?" The Doctor looked at Val, taken aback by his glowing eyes, but following his attention to the still glowing rune on Dan's chest.

"I can explain later, but I don't know enough about medicine to know how he's doing exactly. Check him and tell me if anything seems off." Val instructed.

"Right, sure." The Doctor set about taking temperature, pulse, listening to his breathing with his stethoscope.

"He's… Fine? A bit feverish, but the fact he has a fever now is good, his immune system is working properly again. His complexion is good, his pulse and blood pressure are back up." He said dubiously, as if confirming it would break some illusion and Dan would return to his grim state.

Richard lowered his gun, still holding it with the safety off but having notably less hostility in his demeanor.

"What did you do?" Richard asked.

"I'll explain later, just keep quiet for a few minutes, this is much harder than it looks." Val replied quickly, there was some strain in his tone, and Richard remained silent, flipping the safety on and holstering his gun. The Doctor remained at Dan's side, listening to his breathing through his stethoscope.
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A few minutes later, the rune on Dan's chest dimmed and returned to a simple crimson depiction. Val placed his hand against the boy's skin and focused on his remaining mana still cycling through the body. After feeling it complete several cycles normally, he willed it to return through his fingertips. If the mana had a will of its own, he would have been convinced it was happy to return to its source. It was much easier retaking his mana than it was giving it.

Val sat back, rubbing his temples with his hands. It had been taxing on his mind, maintaining that focus continuously for nearly ten minutes. He looked down and noticed the runes on his chest dimming and returning to looking like black tattoo. His irises returned to their normal brown color, he looked up at the Chief with tired eyes and this time Richard did not flinch.

"Is he… 'Healed'?" Richard asked hesitantly.

"Yeah, he'll be alright, he might be unusually tired for a couple days, just give him food and rest, then he'll be up and about again. If you want I can probably wake him but…"

"No, it's fine, we'll let the boy sleep… Thank you, and um, sorry."

"No problem, I doubt anyone would have believed me anyway if I said I could heal him like that." Val offhandedly replied.

"Can you explain what that was that you… did?" Richard stared him curiously.

"You saw exactly what you think you saw, and yes, I'm serious." Val said flatly.

Dana seemed to suddenly wake from her stupor, her thoughts seemed to have abandoned her, hearing the prognosis just before seeing her son healthy and whole.

"He's… Healed? He'll be okay?" She asked, looking at Val, who turned to the Doctor.

"Yes, I can hardly believe it myself, but we all saw the same thing, his vitals look fine, I'm not sure I'd even believe it if someone told me he was dying just 10 minutes ago." Doctor Chen confirmed.

Tears welled up in Dana's eyes, she seemed to be stumbling over her words, trying to thank Val, who smiled gently, then dismissively motioned her to her son. She ran over to kneel over Dan, hugging him tightly and mumbling something inaudible.

Richard awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Her uh, Husband, another officer in a different precinct, didn't make it when the disasters. .h.i.t. Dan's her only son and all she's got left now. There's a lot of folk here with stories like that. Again, thank you."

"Let's move this conversation to your office, Doc can take it from here." Val suggested.

"Right, you're right, follow me please." Richard moved to leave the pharmacy, Huginn returned to Val's shoulder as he followed Richard out.

"Those birds are awfully comfortable around people, your pets?" Richard asked.

"Uh, yeah, something like that." No sooner than Val replied, he felt sharp talons digging into his shoulder, Muninn seemed to be suppressing fits of laughter.

"Ow! Stop that!" He hissed at Huginn, who was glaring at him with contempt.

"Hmm? You say something?" Richard called back.

"No, nothing! I noticed you have running power here." Val noted some electric lamps stood up in some areas, the pharmacy and offices were particularly well lit.

"Yeah, there's a diesel backup generator out back that we've been fueling from the nearby gas stations. We've got some portable generators around that run on gas too. The natural gas lines still seem to work, but who knows how long that'll last. Water was working, but went out a week ago, we haven't had time to investigate or repair whatever is going on. We filled up a few large tanks before it went out though, so we've got enough for a couple weeks if we use it sparingly. The canned food and bottled water in the warehouse alone will keep us going for another couple months before we gotta do something. Main issue has been medicine, but not the over the counter stuff." Richard explained.

"There are people getting sick? Aside from Dan, the other's just seemed to be exhausted." Val asked with some concern.

"Uh, not sure exactly, you'd have to ask the Doctor about it, but we've seen some unusual things happen to perfectly healthy people for no apparent reason. Doctor Chen had to save a perfectly fit and healthy 28 year old from a heart attack. Some people have collapsed exhausted after tearing muscles, weird things like that." Richard scratched his head as he explained, Val noted this habit the Chief had when he was confused.

"This is concerning." Muninn whispered with a serious tone, Huginn had a grim look in his eyes too. The two ravens seemed to know something of the situation.

"You two know what's going on?" Val whispered.

"Magic is becoming a burden on their bodies, some of them must be sensitive to it, but they are not used to it and they are unknowingly exerting its power. I'll explain later." Huginn said gravely.

Val entered what looked like the store manager's office, that Richard had repurposed for his own use. He offered Val a chair as he took a seat at his desk, but Val dragged a stool over, due to the somewhat protruding length of his sword.

Muninn hopped off and began to skip around the room, taking stock of various diagrams, maps, and other things posted on the walls.

"So, these 'ghouls' you said you came here to deal with." Richard began.

"Like I said, I'm here to help, I can kill them, and make sure they don't rise again. I'm sure I can deal with them more effectively than your guys can, considering you probably don't have a lot of bullets to go around."

"What exactly are you anyway? However you knew about Dan's condition, what you used to heal him… Some sort of… Magic?" Richard asked hesitantly, like he himself thought it was a crazy notion.

"Yes. Though I'm human, like you, I just have a bit of practice with magic." Val answered flatly, but with a serious expression in his eyes.

"How is that possible? Real magic? Not the stage performance kind?" The Chief asked in disbelief.

"It would honestly take a while to explain." Val smiled wryly, unsure of what to tell the Chief.

"I have time." Richard shrugged.

"I don't. The ghoul problem will grow worse before it gets better, aside from the hospital, there's a morgue and a coroner's office nearby right?"

"There is, you're suggesting these monsters are coming from there?"

"Fresh corpses are rising first, but it won't be long before even the older, still intact bodies will suffice. I need to find and burn the bodies before they are possessed." Val explained.

Richard seemed lost in thought, digesting the implications of Val's words as he stroked his chin.

"The bodies just need to be burned then? We can do some of that ourselves." Richard suggested.

"There's a little more to it, I need to mark the bodies with a certain magic to force the souls on to the afterlife, or they'll just find other bodies or even creatures to possess."

The Chief looked at him with doubt, but seemed to just try accept it at face value. "While I appreciate the help, I'm not sure why exactly you want to help. I doubt you want money, considering the situation, but I don't have much by way of resources I can afford to pay you with. What we have now is all we've really got until we can clear and fix the roads, and start cleaning up this city."

"I want to help mostly because I can, and I plan on staying here for a bit while I resolve your ghoul problem. I don't need much by way of payment, you are correct in that I do not care about money and obviously even if I wanted resources, I can only take so much on my bike. I'm here in part for information, details about what happened a couple weeks ago and where exactly everyone went. Food and shelter while I'm here will suffice, and I'll need you to let your guys know I'll be coming and going as I please. Also, I won't be giving up my weapon." Val said with a grin.

Richard paused for a bit, thinking over Val's demands before answering. "If you can really help with the ghouls, what you're asking is no problem, but if you are as able as you seem, there are some specific missions we've been unable to undertake due to manpower and resource constraints. I'll do what I can to compensate you for your help, though it may have to wait till later."

Val thought about what kind of missions the Chief would have considering the situation and his responsibilities to these survivors. Noticing something on the desk, he grinned. "I promise I will help you with these missions too, the compensation we can discuss later, but how about a down payment for my services? I did heal the boy already, after all."

The Chief suspiciously raised an eyebrow. "What kind of down payment?"

Val, still grinning, pointed to a modern looking pocket watch, ticking rhythmically on the desk. "Just that pocket watch."