Chapter 711: Making Adjustments (Part Two)
"I’ll tend to the wounded personally," Ashlynn said as she dropped the pieces of the broken spoon on the table to inspect her hand. The wood splinters had scratched her deeply enough to raise a few red welts, but after becoming Nyrielle’s Seneschal, her body was more than tough enough to resist being cut by something as simple as a broken utensil.
"And I want a list of names of people who survived their own stupidity," Ashlynn added. "I’ll give them a lesson in respecting their opponents and their leaders."
"Are you sure that’s a good idea, Mother Ashlynn?" Virve asked, frowning at the leader of her coven. "If they learn that you will heal them even after such a disaster..."
"Don’t worry, Virve," Ashlynn said as she briefly gathered the aura of a stately, ancient tree around herself. "These are proud men. Brave warriors. One of the worst punishments they can suffer is to be called home to their mother so she can kiss their boo-boos and make them better."
The instant Ashlynn described what she intended to do, Virve choked on her tea, nearly spitting it out as she coughed and sputtered, thumping her broad chest in an effort to set her breathing right.
The image that filled her mind was just too... Too much. The idea of Ashlynn stepping into a healing tent filled with proud gladiators and fiercely independent woodsmen and telling them that she was there to tend their ouchies and make the pain go bye-bye was more than even she could bear.
Just looking at Ashlynn and the way her aura had become decidedly motherly as she radiated the age of ancient trees, Virve could already imagine the looks on the poor soldier’s faces when the mighty Mother of Trees entered the healer’s tent.
Her ears curled up in second-hand embarrassment and she shuddered at the thought of Ashlynn asking a mighty gladiator if he needed a spoonful of honey mixed in his medicine, or asking a skilled hunter to ’be brave for her’ while she mended his wounds.
"You, you’re not healing them to be kind," Virve said, her mouth hanging open in shock once she could finally breathe properly again. "You’re doing it to shame them into obedience!"
"It can be both, Virve," Ashlynn said gently. "I don’t want to see them suffer. I want the people who have been injured to make a fast recovery because if they try to fight while they’re still recovering, they’re more likely to get themselves killed. I want to preserve their lives, as much as I can..."
"But if I have to shame them into wearing their armor and fighting like real soldiers instead of acting like they’re putting on a show in the Arena," she said fiercely. "Then so be it. Their lives come first. Their dignity is a distant second. There’s no dignity to be found in a grave, Virve," Ashlynn added softly. "No matter how you get there, there’s only the cold, dark embrace of the earth."