Chapter 252: More Than A Healer
This time, Ashlynn knew what to expect when the first injured soldiers began to pour into the tent. As much as it pained her to ignore the suffering of several men who were injured with wounds that were serious but not life threatening, she held to the instructions she’d given Heila. Their healing was reserved for people injured by the Templars and Inquisitors or with injuries so severe that they would perish without the aid of a witch.
"Heila," Ashlynn said after several hours. "Stop and rest, I’ll take care of things by myself for a while," she said, glancing outside of the tent and trying to gauge the time of day. When had Ollie come into the tent? Was it afternoon? She couldn’t remember.
"I can keep going," Heila said. Her eyes darted around the tent, taking in the dozens of wounded before rolling up the sleeves of her dress and preparing to treat another wounded soldier.
"No, you need to rest," Ashlynn insisted. "We haven’t seen the worst of it yet. If you exhaust yourself now, it will be harder later. Eat something and sit with the Ancient Oak. In an hour or so, you can come and relieve me."
"Yes, my Lady," Heila said, clearly unhappy but submitting to Ashlynn’s instructions nonetheless.
The day wore on, much like before, but this time, Ashlynn and Heila paced themselves much more conservatively. In addition, Ashlynn used one of her breaks to repeat her actions with the cypress tree, making a blood offering to the Ancient Oak and drawing on the surrounding trees to strengthen it after a morning of relying on the sturdy tree to help cleanse the injuries inflicted by the Templars and Inquisitors.
"I have to find a better way to fight this magic," Ashlynn muttered as she tended to yet another soldier suffering from gruesome burns. "I can’t keep relying on the Ancient Oak like this."
The longer she worked in the tent, the more impatience began to build within her heart. Already, the trial had revealed several weaknesses to her but there was nothing she could do at the moment to address her lack of knowledge. More than anything, she wanted to turn to Amahle or even Nyrielle’s library to find other ways to solve these problems.
Unfortunately, trapped within the visions that left her questioning reality at times, there was nothing she could do to extend her knowledge. Once again, Cecile’s words echoed through her mind, that she was too young and wasn’t ready, but those words only offered doubts. There were no solutions in them so she pushed them to the back of her mind and focused on the person in front of her, healing as best she could, one person at a time.