Chapter 56: Increasing Military Strength
Opening her eyes, everything looked blurry, as though a veil of smoke lay between her and the world. Shapes shifted in the haze, walls, furniture and someone moved from left to right, a silhouette gliding gently across the room.
As she blinked, her vision slowly cleared. The fading sunlight flickered across rough stone walls and wooden beams, and a faint scent of herbs hung in the air.
She could now see clearly, Mildred, robed in flowing midnight blue was standing by a low wooden table. She picked up a carved cup and whispered softly into it, her lips barely moving. As the words left her mouth, the liquid within the cup began to bubble gently. A thin stream of green mist curled upward, dancing in the air like smoke from a sacred censer.
"You’re finally awake," Mildred said without turning, her sharp ears twitching ever so slightly. As she turned, a soft smile spread across her enchanting face, calm and comforting like the first breeze of spring.
Her black eyes shimmered with subtle relief. With graceful, unhurried steps, she walked toward Vi, who lay on a bed of tightly stuffed straw, covered with a thick fur quilt stitched from bear hide and deer pelts. She extended the cup with both hands.
"Take this," she said gently. "It will help your body recover faster. Lord Kaelor demands my presence. I won’t be long."
As Mildred moved toward the wooden door, her boots hardly making a sound on the floorboards, Vi stirred. Her lips were dry, but she managed to speak, her voice hoarse from the smoke and battle. "Where is he?"
Mildred paused at the door, hand resting lightly on the handle. "In the town square," she said, glancing back with a knowing look, then slipped out, closing the door behind her with a quiet thud.
While walking out of the yard, Mildred glanced once more at the crack that ran jaggedly down the side of the Focus Crystal. Her pupils trembled. That kind of damage... it shouldn’t have been possible.
In all her years of study, only her master, an Acranist of terrifying skill, had ever been capable of such a feat. A Focus Crystal was a conduit of will and magic, and to crack it meant its core was forced beyond its limit, drained to the dregs, yet still compelled to act by sheer, overwhelming will. That kind of strain... that kind of force... it left her unsettled.