Chapter 25: 25. Broken and Mended

Excerpt from Yenna Bookbinder’s ‘The Travelling Mage’s Almanac.’

“On this particular occasion, I have not only taken far more grievous wounds than I have ever endured in my life, but also inflicted them. Not once in my days up until this point did I ever dream of doing harm to another—bar perhaps some particularly frustrating colleagues—and I hope that I never shall have to make combat a routine part of my existence. Mayi has shown her exceptional skill as a doctor of mundane medicine, as I can barely feel my burns or the place in my gut where I was stabbed. Still, it will take some time to recover, and perhaps this moment of reflection will do me well.

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As Yenna recounted what happened with the beast-march and the water elemental—for the sake of both her journal and her doctor—she stopped and frowned over a particular detail.

“Mayi, just how long was I unconscious?” The mage’s quill waited patiently, hovering in mid-air—Yenna had been forbidden from moving around too much while she healed.

“Didn’t I tell you? Narasanha and the captain brought you in around the afternoon, and were out cold overnight. It’s nearly midday.”

Yenna’s frown deepened—it didn’t feel good to lose that much time. “I suppose I’ve never been injured so badly before. Is that normal?”

“Absolutely not!” Mayi looked up from the salves she was preparing, her expression filled with surprise. “We were all dreadfully worried you had fallen into a coma from the shock of it all.”

There was an awkward silence, and Mayi averted her eyes—Yenna still hadn’t been able to put her robes back on, her bandages leaving little to the imagination. Feeling that the conversation was done, and not entirely sure how to start it again, Yenna got back to filling in the last few details in her journal. There was still a lot she didn’t entirely understand about what had happened, and Yenna hoped there was time for her to unpack it all while she recovered.

Mayi kept her company for a little while longer, long enough to finish replacing some of the burn salves she had used up. Though they spent much of that time in silence, Yenna quite enjoyed it—it was a comfortable silence, near someone kind without the bother of having to speak. It gave Yenna plenty of time to scratch out notes and theories while enjoying the safe feeling of having another person nearby.

Shortly after Mayi left, Yenna decided to deal with some more practical concerns. Her magical repertoire included an arsenal of convenient traveller’s spells—simple things that cleaned and mended. With a sweep of her hands, she removed the layer of burnt leather and cloth from the outside of her pack, though it left a rather unsightly dent that she would have to find the materials to repair. 

Yenna’s robes were far easier to fix. It was largely the upper half that was burned, though parts of her caparison had become singed—along with her legs, for that matter. Though her spells weren’t quite up to the task of truly repairing any given garment¹, especially not with this level of damage, Yenna’s robes were themselves enchanted to facilitate restoration. The same enchantments in her robes that prevented them from being instantly destroyed by magical accidents or incurring everyday wear and tear also provided a kind of guide to the magic of a repairing spell that allowed it to regenerate. The mending took over an hour, but it gave Yenna plenty of time to think.

Her thoughts still swam from her brief time connected to the elemental’s mind. When it had poured its thoughts into her, Yenna had been assaulted with all of its feelings, and sensed its fear. There was nothing natural that could even harm a water elemental—by their very existence, one could hurt them about as easily as one could damage a river’s flow with tooth and nail. Given the state of the beast-march, it was unlikely it was a beast—though the idea of a beast strong enough to threaten even an army of that size was worrisome indeed. After thinking it over, Yenna came to a familiar but undesirable conclusion—she needed more data.

Being confined to the tent away from everyone else wasn’t an issue for the mage, who much preferred her own company. However, the problem was more the opposite—with nowhere to go, and everyone knowing where she was, it was very easy for people to drop in unannounced to visit her. The first of those was the captain, whose massive horn presaged her arrival—though it was her voice that caught Yenna’s attention.

“Yenna! Are you awake?” Eone barely waited for a response, her booming voice startling the mage and causing her to drop the book in her hand.

“I ab– argh!” Yenna bit her tongue in surprise. “I am. Come in!”

Hunched low to enter, the captain squeezed herself inside—it was a night and day difference in size between Eone and Mayi, with the captain trying her best not to poke a hole in the roof of the tent by standing up too much. If she was surprised or otherwise put off by Yenna’s state of dress, she didn’t show it.

“How are you feeling?” Eone hunched down and sat cross-legged in front of Yenna. She had a package in her hand that the mage couldn’t help but be curious about.

“I’m doing well, thanks to Mayi’s efforts. I’m not exactly sure what happened after I got stabbed, but I think you saved my life.” Yenna thought back to the last thing she saw before falling unconscious—Eone’s strike that shattered the elemental’s core. “I’m, um, not really sure how to thank you.”

The captain laughed loudly, causing Yenna to jump again in surprise. “You don’t need to thank me! Had to stop the thing anyhow, and besides—I know you’d do the same for me.”

Eone’s unbeatable smile left Yenna unsure how to respond, so she merely nodded and changed the subject. “So, um, how are you feeling? Oh! The townsfolk, too—are they okay?”

“I’m quite alright—that thing just knocked me on the head and had me out for a moment. As for the townsfolk, well… have you a shirt or tunic of some kind? I’m not sure you want guests like that.” Eone gave a sly nod toward’s Yenna’s state of dress, and the mage sighed.

“Guests, is it? Then I suppose they’re okay.” With a magical hand, Yenna reached into her pack and retrieved a loose shirt—her comfortability with bare skin extended no further than medical professionals and trusted allies. After the kesh had managed to cover herself, Eone called out for some to enter—though the captain had to shuffle herself over to one side before the tent could get too crowded.

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“This is the town’s mayor, Leynleyn, and his daughter Luye.” Eone held out a hand to introduce the two yolm as they entered. The mayor Leynleyn was a shockingly short yolm, shorter than Yenna. His bald, wrinkled head and fine suit certainly painted the picture of a man who had enjoyed a long and comfortable life—the bandage covering a graze on one side of his face insisted that it had suddenly become a bit less peaceful. His daughter was a fairly young woman with a rather hefty bandage on her arm. She had a starry-eyed expression, and it took Yenna a moment to recognise her—Luye was the girl that had incidentally stopped her Wroth-filled rampage.

“Mage Yenna!” The mayor was all smiles as he approached, leaning down to clasp Yenna’s hands—he stopped short after seeing the bandages. Clearing his throat and straightening himself up, the man continued. “On behalf of the town of Sumhrell, I want to personally thank you for your contributions in protecting this town and its people from the beasts who attacked us.”

Leynleyn nodded pointedly to indicate he was finished speaking, and gently put a hand on his daughter’s shoulder. She looked a little shy but stepped forward slightly to speak, playing with a lock of her long black hair.

“Mage Yenna, um, I think you were the one who saved me. I don’t remember much of what happened after I got dragged off by that wolf, but, um, I remember seeing you fighting the beasts.” Luye stared at the ground as she spoke, stumbling over her words. “It was like I was stuck underwater, and then you pulled me out.”

Yenna’s academic mind kicked in, and all other concerns were thrown to the wayside. “Could you tell me more about it? Do you have a lingering headache, or any difficulties? Noticed a particular thirst or longing for water?”

The mayor and his daughter both looked at each other, confused. Eone laughed aloud, and gave them a smile—the pair were reassured, and the mayor began to answer.

“I’m quite alright, Ms Mage.” the mayor nodded. “Nothing unusual. I’ve spoken to a few other townsfolk, and they all seem okay—no one can recall what happened after they were captured, and all of those I spoke to said they felt like they had been saved from drowning. Is there anything we should be worried about?”

Yenna shook her head. “I was concerned that the elemental had possessed your bodies, or perhaps left behind some kind of fragment of its being—it sounds like you were dominated by its will, your own minds forced aside. In the long term, your minds would have been overwritten and completely replaced with the elemental’s will—short term exposure generally means you might just get a bit of a headache. I’m just glad we could stop it in time.”

The mayor’s face fell, and his daughter went pale. Yenna wasn’t sure what to say—it had been the facts of the matter, but after a moment she realised this brush with a kind of death had affected them. Her own thoughts turned to Luye, and how Yenna herself had nearly harmed her in her anger. An awkward silence filled the air and once again Eone came to the rescue.

“Yenna, the mayor brought something to me earlier that he hoped would be of interest to you. They would like to keep it, if possible, but while we’re staying here for your recovery they want to let you study it.” The captain held up the package in her hand and set it down in front of Yenna. There was a clanking of glass as Eone unwrapped the bundle and after a few layers were peeled away she revealed two chunks of a blue, translucent material—fragments of the water elemental’s core.

The mage’s eyes widened—such an object was an extremely valuable find, especially given its size. It was just a shame that they didn’t have all of it, though the method of its acquisition had likely ended up with some of its pieces washed away downstream.

“Well!” Yenna couldn’t help but smile, murmuring happily under her breath. “Perhaps I’ll get the evidence I wanted after all.”

“What was that?” The mayor frowned.

Yenna shook her hands emphatically. “A-Ah, nothing, just talking to myself. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I’m sure the elemental can still tell us a lot, even like this.”

“W-wait, is it still alive?!” Luye piped up, looking rather concerned. Leynleyn and even Eone suddenly tensed.

“W-well, not…really.” Yenna played with the edge of her bandages, her capacity for conversation slowly fading. “Elementals aren’t alive like you and I, and exist in a state between that of a spirit and beast. Their magical existence permeates the representation of elementality, forming a crystallisation– erm, that is to say, this is a solidified chunk of magic that made the elemental’s actual body. If you were to flood it with appropriately aligned magic, and the appropriate material—in this case, water—you could give life to a new elemental, with some memories of the previous one. There’s no worries of it accidentally coming back to full strength.”

Everyone began to relax, and Yenna sighed with relief. After that explanation, they handled a few more pleasantries—more thanks, well wishes for recovery, farewells and promises to return. When everyone was gone, Yenna sighed again. She was determined to get better soon, even if only to avoid people dropping in on her so liberally.

Turning her attention to the remains of the water elemental’s core, Yenna immediately got a strange feeling. There was a kind of pull, like something tugging at a loose thread deep within her. The fragments of the elemental’s mind was calling to her in some way, attempting to take something from her that it could never hope to grasp without Yenna being willing to help. It reminded her of a similar awful feeling, of being compelled to action—it reminded her of the black book.

Yenna gulped. “I need to talk to Demvya about this.”

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¹ - Simple mending and healing spells repair severed bonds by reuniting already present matter. The exact method varies between spellcaster and discipline, but it is universally accepted that a spell that creates new, replacement matter is more involved. Beyond replacing lost material, one also needs to mind how the thing being mended existed before-hand. Objects that have remained in a singular form for a long time have a kind of ‘imprint’ existing within them that a spellcaster can draw from, but it acts only as a guide—a caster may need a particularly skilled touch to restore delicate works.

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