Fan Fiction ❯ Healer #1 Healer in the Dark ❯ Learning One’s Love... and One’s Selves!?! ( Chapter 5 )

Chapter#5:Learning One's Love... and One's Selves!?!

So it was that Millicene spent the next six weeks. Svaro Velkenos, as she now knew his full name to be, would often spend every free moment of time that ether of them possessed in her company. More then half of that time he was ungloved and caressing her softly about the face or holding her hands in his own. She had learned so much. If this was going to continue much longer she would know him almost as well as she knew herself and the assassin that now seemed to live inside her mind with her. However after the first few days she was pleasantly surprised that he had stopped teasing her about the eventual taking of her innocence.

She was happily walking along the road with Dokorrip and the Orc Captain Origlan when she heard the sounds of training coming from the yards of the Sun temple. Along with her growing knowledge of Svaro she had gained a great deal of control over the knowledge of the assassin in her head as well. Paeljendri had been a fierce and feared member of the Assassins Guild down south in the lower thirty of the three hundred peace treaty allied nations for well over three thousand years.

Eerie enough as it was he had taken this job expecting to die. He had grown weary of his life and the only way out was to slit his throat or have someone else oblige him. So he had taken a job from a man who usually did his own killing knowing that it would be far more difficult than anything he had attempted. She had learned so much that she wondered if the Dark Elf's very soul wasn't tied up within her own now.

Deciding that she should discover if this was so she turned aside and walked into the sun temple. Dokorrip seemed slightly flustered for some reason but she dismissed it and went to seek out the wise Priest. Sun Blessed Kuraul was easily enough located. He was sitting over to the side of the training yard on a bench, staff in hand, waiting for his turn with to spar with the master of staves.

"It is possible Daughter of the most blessed lady." Kuraul agreed after he heard her story. "Know you if it has occurred before?" She inquired softly. He shook his head. "Soul workings are recorded in the tome of the Setting Sun. It has been many years since I have read any of it's pages and no one has read it all in it's entirety for centuries. We shall look after staff practice and see though."

Dokorrip was enchanted thoroughly by Pavornai as the shirtless Dark Elf went through his turn at combat with the temple's master of staves. The reason for his older friend's excellent physical condition became more and more obvious with every strike and every parry of the blows coming from his opponent. The much larger man who was the current master of Staves was half Darkling half Dragonkin, which made him strong even for one born of the dark races. It was only by centuries of practice and some less then honorable techniques that Pavornai managed to keep from being defeated. This only impressed the young Orc all the more.

He idolized the Healer very much for her good heart and strong will. Even so Pavornai more and more seemed to be the kind of man that Dokorrip wanted to be, someday when he was grown and become old enough to be even a quarter as wise. The Stave Master called the match finished and the Healer smiled and gestured he run along with the young priest. He walked beside the sweaty Elf as he grabbed a cloth from a nearby initiate to wipe his face and dab at his neck. Dokorrip sent tingles of healing energy from his own reserves to sooth the bruises and one near to torn muscle that his friend had earned.

He was rewarded with a grateful smile and a happy hearted embrace from his friend. It was then that it occurred to him what was s truly wrong with him of late. He swore internally and walked on beside Pavornai. He doubted the Dark Elf would do aught but laugh. However his growing sense of honor insisted he do what needs be done. He realized now why his cousin the thief rejected all that had to do with honorable behavior. It was burdensome when such things as this came up.

Pavornai walked along with the young one. He had heard the boy's heart rate pick up when they embraced and was pondering the many things that could mean. "Is there a place where we might speak without being overheard friend Pavornai?" The Orc asked. He nodded and gestured that they enter the library of the Temple and go up to the second floor. The Tomes were kept in the fourth floor atrium under light of the sun so he need not worry about anyone seeking such lofty wisdom here. Here was the book repair shop, and as it's normal occupant brother Nemios was ill and in his bed today, no one would seek this place and interrupt.

Slowly the boy began. First he apologized for any offense that what he had to say might give. Then he made several false starts that amused Pavornai very much. Just by the amount of nerves displayed by the teen he knew what Dokorrip was going to say. "Ah damn it all to the lower pits of the dark void! It's very simple and I am not going to try to dress it up pretty anymore! I have found myself to have aberrant feelings for you in the manner that I should be having feelings towards maidens of my kind."

The young Orc hung his head, and when Pavornai made no comment one way or the other he turned to go. Pavornai made what for his kind would be a very snappy decision at that moment. He decided he would teach the boy what the things he had said really meant even if the lad's life expectancy was only one thousandth as long as his own. He reached out and caught the trailing hand of the fleeing Orc and whispered softly so as not to startle him further.

"It is alright. Many among your kind would say it is not but truly it is no more strange then to want a woman is strange." This made the lad pause and then turn about with a look of inquiry on his handsome face. Yes despite the quick way the decision had been made it was the right one. With a soft smirk on his face Pavornai informed the lad of his own intentions and watched those expressive eyes widen with wonder. Yes the right decision indeed!

Millicene walked up the library stairs with a will. Curiosity had always been one of her main motivations in life and once she was curious about something there was no stopping her until she understood it completely or at least knew enough about it to satisfy that insistent urge. She paused on the stairs though at the second floor and grinned at what the healer's gift revealed. Blocking Sun Blessed Kuraul's own sight of the events occurring on that floor with her own essence she hurried them onwards. In her heart she had suspected the very thing that the sight had revealed. She only hoped that Pavornai would be cautious. She did not look forward to mending a broken hearted apprentice.

Upon reaching the top floor Millicene's sense of foreboding awoke and screamed at her to be extremely cautious. She told it to be quiet because now there was no way to back out of this anymore. "Let us see then. Here it is. Using Gods gifted talents of magic to slay a person regardless of that person's intent towards oneself can result in trapping of the soul or complete transfer of the memory of the deceased to the one whom used their power so. Apparently it is possible as you surmised it was. Also there is a test to determine what case a person has become afflicted with. Shall I perform it for you?"

Millicene nodded to the priest and braced herself for what came next. It was surprisingly gentle caress of power. It did not stay so however, for then her mind spun and her heart ached and pounded fit to burst itself. In the end she blacked out, but though she was unconscious someone else was most certainly not.

Paeljendri woke in the body of the healer with a startled priest standing in a position of defense, ready should he attack. "She is not strong enough for such things as yet Priest. Though if we are both going to continue existing and I am not sent to face judgment far before I am ready she will have to become that strong in short order."

The Priest, called Kuraul according to the healer's memories, was an Orc of some stature and there was no doubt that he would easily overcome the girl should he try anything with her flesh. That and the Healer's own gift, the same one that had taken his life was bringing her back to consciousness. He also knew that the priest though not as gentle as his brothers in the light bearing states was definitely not one to assault a woman, mans soul in charge of the woman's body or not.

He forced the girl to stand. The simple magic had done a great deal of harm to her energy and she needed rest. Besides that, they needed to talk. "I will take the female back to her domicile and insist that she rest. Send the 'prentice' along when he is finished with his conversation with the young priest." He turned the girl on her heel and walked back out of the Room of Tomes.

Millicene, who had insisted that if they were sharing her form she be called by name, called to the Orc Captain who was her defender and they departed out the temple gates. She made it into her little home and informed the captain she needed some rest before seeing anyone and that he should only wake her if the person was near death or had lost limbs or a cup or more of blood. "Unless it is most severe Dokorrip can deal with them when he comes back." The captain nodded and she closed her door before settling into her bed.

At last it was quiet and they were alone together as they most often would be it seemed. "You need to learn if you are to live. I know the idea revolts you but it is the only way." Paeljendri told her. To which she replied, "The idea is not so sickening as it once was. I will deal with it as I must and accept the consequences as they come. I am more worried about what I should tell Svaro then I am concerned about learning the ways of an Assassin." He nodded mentally and suggested the whole of the truth be told to her paramour. "Were he as I am I would say lie to him about the whole thing. However that would be difficult and he would soon enough find out the truth. It is better he understand right away as this is most likely a permanent state of affairs." The girls own mental nod followed. "That's true. He would be most displeased if I sought to lie to him even if it was to spare his feelings."

"Would I now? Then you had best tell all and not spare me anything." The Undead one had skill that was for certain. Combined with the healer's exhaustion it had let him sneak up completely unnoticed. He had not even sensed the Captain's presence, which the young Healer was most easily capable of under normal circumstances. "It is often said that it is best to begin at the beginning when imparting knowledge that must be understood. The Assassin who first tried for my life in the marketplace is called Paeljendri. I say is because his soul yet resides with us here where the living do dwell. By using my gift to slay I expected to obtain my foe's life's memories especially the ones of all his darkest sins. However the gods were particularly displeased with myself and did instead imprison my foe's soul within my own flesh." She said.

This was his cue. Paeljendri slowly allowed his own eyes to swim to the surface of the healer's and cover them over. Dark elf eyes are not meant to sit in a human face and the difference was blatant. The Captain hissed and reached automatically for dark blue Undead magicks to attempt to remove him by mean force. "You can't do it that way Svaro. He and I are tied, one to the other, by the will of the gods." Her voice said. "She speaks truth. There might be three ways in all the worlds to get me out that would not involve her death but all of these ways are held by her enemy who has cursed her. So that leaves us as we are with little to do but pray that this is not just a punishment but a necessary thing for the greater web of fate."

Millicene spent the rest of the night weeping sorrowfully in her bed. Her beloved had sheathed his power as he would a blade and with a look unreadable even as well as she knew him he had departed. To the girl's fearful heart this meant only one thing, that he had lost his love of her and now felt only pity and revulsion and not even so much the pity. "Not necessarily so my dove. He is strong willed and defiant of all that would rule him or influence him. If you believe me not then you should ask your high king if it is not so. He will most likely laugh nod in agreement and move onward. Since that is so should you not follow his example?" Paeljendri attempted to reassure her.

"Tricky Elf. I know in my head it's that way but head and heart are almost always at war on such matters and there is not any such animal as a peace accord for such conflicts as these. At your age I should think that you would have been in love at least once? Surely you know that it makes Fools of Sages and Mutes of Poets?" She asked softly. His mental nod was hesitant but detectable and she gave a triumphant "Ha!" When he admitted it. "I knew it! She had to be something else all together to ensnare such a bitter tainted heart as your own, no offense meant of course." Another nod. "Story time then Paeljendri. I must know what she was like and how you came across such a paragon of virtue and ninth wonder of the world as she."

Millicene sat back and watched the memories roll out of their hidden place in Paeljendri's mind. A slender waif of a light Elf floated before him in a delicate ethereal nightgown. Some sense or noise had alerted her and when she came forth to investigate she found him about to slay her father as one of her father's competitors had paid him to. "Please Skilled One spare my Father!" She had begged and had fallen to the floor in order to wind her arms around his knees. He had looked down at her fair uplifted face and after the obligatory male's look at her nearly revealed bosoms he had looked back to that stunningly beautiful face. "One thing only will I ask of you in exchange for your father's life." He had said. All he had asked for in exchange had been her name. "I am called Etherian of the Silver Birch Clan, though some who know me well call me Eria." She had said. The trembling elder male elf had been released and he had bowed. "I shall now depart as I said I would fair Eria. May no more as I am trouble you or yours." He had well wished her then turned to leap back out the open balcony doors into the night.

"Hold skilled one." Eria had asked him and when he paused she had asked him one question. "Of what good is my name to you Skilled One?" He knew what she meant, that had he cared to many would have told him who she was while she mourned her father publicly as was Elf custom. "One should always learn the name's of Goddesses as one encounters them. Especially Goddesses of Beauty as they are the rarest of all to come across even in a life so long and strange as mine own." Her eyes had widened in shock and then realizing what he said was deep compliment she had reacted. Eria walked up and with both hands on his shoulders to brace her smaller self, had stood on tiptoe and placed a single innocent kiss on the corner of his eye right above where his mask ended.

"For that I shall reverse the blade fair Eria." He had whispered in her ear. Then he had gone out the doors without looking back. However he had done as he said and reversed the blade. 'Reversing the Blade' was an Assassin's Guild saying for turning right around and slaying your employer. It was an act most often reserved for those that even an assassin found to morally repugnant to work for and decided to slay rather then allow to pollute the world further.

Elder Silver Birch had known that next morning whom had sent Paeljendri against him, for his mutilated corpse had suffered the wrath of Paeljendri over the assassin's twisted fate, and been left hanging by his ankle from the chandelier of his mansion across town from house Silver Birch. There it had been found and the guardsmen summoned though all knew that a being who could do such things to someone without letting him die until he was through and all the while keeping him silent had skill enough to evade the law keeper's web.

Thus had Paeljendri's reputation both suffered and benefited from the tale that was told. It was said that the foolish rival of Silver Birch had trafficked with a Demon of the Lower Void. The summoned beast had ended up being entranced by the beauty of the maiden child of Silver Birch. So it was his dark heart had been turned against his so called master to the idiot's detriment. However the other assassins knew better and made his life uncomfortable to say the least. The teasing of him about committing what the Guild considered one of the true sins of the profession was near endless in it's variety and cruelty. No falling in love with targets or target's relatives was allowed of course and he had broken that cardinal rule.

"Does she know?" Millicene asked aloud. "Hardly. Even I am not so skilled as to find a way to be with her without tainting her or getting her killed. That and I could not keep her in the manner of which she is most disserving should I kill a politician a week for the rest of my days." Millicene gave a mental nod and rolled over to go to sleep. It had been a long few days and she was tired unto her breaking point. However her prayer to the all father sounded more like a oath that night before she allowed herself to rest. "I shall make it all as it should be. Father of all who live, I only ask for the strength to see my tasks through." Then she fell asleep for real and the Dark Elf was left to ponder his thoughts alone until unconsciousness claimed him also.