Chapter 22: Chapter 22: Druid’s Revelations

It wasn’t long before the rest of the party fell fast asleep underneath the hollow shelter of the tent. Lysa stood by the dormant horses, placing a hand next on their chests and feeling their exhausted hearts beat. Yaihan stood over the druid and watched as her head slowly leaned against Midnight’s neck. 

“Lysa?” he whispered. The druid darted up with a spurt of energy before turning around to face the cultivator. 

“Oh! Yaihan!” Lysa said, startled. “What is it you need?” 

“If you’re tired, you can rest with the others.” Yaihan peered at the elevated bit of earth a short walk from the makeshift camp. “I can keep watch myself.”

“No, I’m fine,” Lysa said as she got to her feet. Her gloves remained on her hands as she brushed of the dirt from her top. “I just wanted to see if Midnight and Zephyr were all right. That was a long a dangerous journey we went through. If anyone deserves a peaceful night’s sleep, it’s them.”

“You look like you could topple over at any moment,” Yaihan said as he stared the bags underneath Lysa’s eyes. Her posture had her slouched forward while her stance wobbled from side to side like a blade of grass in a gale. 

“I can stay up.” Lysa turned her eyes away from Yaihan before quickly placing her hands behind her back. “Besides... we have our orders, remember?”

“We do. But what Fei-Lu doesn’t know won’t hurt her.” Yaihan handed Lysa a blanket. She eyed the piece of cloth and then looked at the cultivator. He gave her a gentle nod.

“Thank you,” she said as she took the blanket from his hand. She wrapped it around her shoulders and headed towards the lookout point. “But even if I fell asleep, I doubt I’d be able to rest more than a few minutes.”

“Why is that?” Yaihan asked as he walked beside the druid. Lysa kept her eyes focused on the dirt as she clutched the ends of the blanket so it wrapped tighter around her arms. 

“Oh. It’s... complicated. I don’t want to bore you with the details.”

“It’s not like we have much more to do.” Yaihan shifted his gaze from Lysa to the empty horizon ahead. “Haven’t heard anything more than a breeze since we got up here.”

“I know. But with Onis, you can never be too sure.” Lysa’s head remained low. She lifted her eyes up intermittently to make sure that she was still heading towards the elevated section of land. 

“That doesn’t mean I’m not opening to listening. If it’s something personal that you don’t feel like sharing, I understand,” Yaihan replied calmly. “I know I don’t come across as that great of a listener.”

“Oh, it’s not that at all,” Lysa said, finally raising her head to make eye contact with the cultivator. He skin carried a hint of crimson as she covered her heart with her hands out of embarrassment. “You are quite pleasant to be around. Very open-minded. And for someone so powerful, you are also quite soft-spoken. It’s just...” The druid’s words tapered off once they reached the foot of the elevated area. Lysa kept her arms behind her back as her eyes fixated on the jagged rocks that dotted the side of the stone hill.

“Do you need help with getting up there?” Yaihan asked. The druid slowly turned her head to face the cultivator, her eyes close to bursting with tears. “Lysa?” the cultivator asked, slowly reaching for her shoulder. The druid flicked her head away, shutting her eyes tight. 

“I’m sorry. I... I didn’t mean to lose my composure like this,” Lysa said while sniffling. She lifted her head and stared at the obstacle in front of her as she wiped away a tear with the back of her wrist. 

“We have a long night ahead of us,” Yaihan whispered, keeping his hand on the druid’s shoulder. “If you want to talk, I am here to listen.”

Lysa sobbed. She took in one more deep breath through her mouth before making eye contact with the cultivator. Her face was a bright crimson, but her face no longer carried a look of hopelessness. “Thank you. I... think I could use someone to talk to.”

Yaihan’s eyes drifted down to Lysa’s hands. They stayed crossed and resting behind her back. “Can you make it up there by yourself?”

The druid shook her head. “If I needed to, I could. But it wouldn’t be easy.”

“Here.” Yaihan carefully took hold of Lysa’s legs. “Just lean back. I won’t let you fall.”

The druid tilted back, letting her upper shoulder fall into Yaihan’s other arm. He then lifted her feet off the air, using his arms like a bed as he crouched down. “Hold tight,” he whispered. “I’ll get us up there soon.” He launched Lysa and himself with enough force to clear the height of the elevated section before landing on his toes. Once grounded, he eased the druid on to the dusty earthy.

“Thank you, Yaihan,” Lysa said with sniffle as she seated herself. 

“You’re welcome.”

Both looked ahead into the canyon. Beneath them was nothing but pitch black. “Since we’re here, I might as well show you why I couldn’t climb up myself.” Lysa placed a thumb underneath one glove and began to pull it away. “I apologize, but this won’t be a pleasant sight.”

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“I assure you, I’ve seen worse,” Yaihan replied sedately. “You know what I’m able to do Oni.”

Lysa smiled before taking the entirety of her glove. Yaihan squinted his eyes, trying to look through the darkness at the druid’s hands. She then used her exposed to remove the other glove. “Here, Yaihan.” Lysa scooted closer and showed the cultivator the tops of her hands.

The skin was an unnaturally red shade and coated in blisters and warped skin. Yaihan leaned in closer and carefully pulled Lysa’s hands in closer by the wrists. Under closer examination, Yaihan saw sections of fleshed long since burned away. Fingers were sealed to one another, like the skin melted and merged. Boils and scars covered the little bits of healthy tissue that remained.

“I know... it’s disgusting,” Lysa said embarrassedly. She turned her head away as Yaihan carefully took her other hand examined it as well. The burn wounds were just as severe as the other. 

“I’m not hurting you, am I?” Yaihan asked quietly. The druid shook her head. 

“No. I don’t feel much in my hands anymore. It only hurts if I try to bend my fingers too much. Not like they’re all that flexible, anyway.”

“But when you’re a Purifier...” Yaihan began. Lysa slowly moved her hands away from Yaihan’s hold and began putting the gloves back on her hands.

“They heal up. I can use them like normal.”

“But you can’t use your healing powers to fix them?”

The druid shook her head. “I can only use my healing spells when I’m a Purifier. And since these injuries only plague me when I’m normal, I haven’t found a way to deal with these injuries.”

“Not even the water from Mending Storm?”

“That only works for discomfort and mild sicknesses. Serious injuries like these require precise focus.”

There was a brief silence as Yaihan watched Lysa finish covering her hands with her gloves. “I need to wear these to make sure my wounds stay clean. That... and they hide my hands from view.”

Yaihan lowered his head. “I am sorry, Lysa.”

“No need for you to apologize. You weren’t the one responsible. Besides, I can still use my hands when I’m a Purifier, so it’s not like I’m a liability all the time.”

“I’d never consider you to be a liability. Even if you couldn’t transform into a Purifier.”

Lysa crossed her hands in front of her heart and sighed. “I appreciate your kind words, Yaihan. But I know that without my healing powers, I would only be holding the Xiwaoans back. Just someone that would take up the already-limited resources we have. There’s a reason why Fei-Lu doesn’t let me come along a scout missions.”

“It’s because you’re too important,” Yaihan said abruptly. The druid looked at the cultivator with confusion. 

“What?”

“Lysa,” he continued placing one hand on her shoulder. “You have the most important of all gifts. The gift of healing.”

The druid closed her eyes and buried her face into the palms of her covered hands. “You don’t understand. I... I...” She sobbed harder. Yaihan stretched his arm all the way across her back and pulled her in closer.

“Tell me, Lysa. I won’t judge you.”

“I’m not even competent at healing!” Lysa moaned. She rested her head against Yaihan’s chest and continued her crying. The cultivator patted her on the back and let her weep. 

“I’ve seen the lines outside of the tent. People were willing to hurt me to make sure they kept their spot in line.”

“That’s the problem,” Lysa replied as she leaned away from the cultivator. “I can’t save everyone.”

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