The Red Glaive

Bones were always hard to heal; they took the longest and required a constant healing light stream. Any extended pause in the healing could potentially cause the bone to start to heal itself incorrectly. If you returned to a heal after that, the light would continue the incorrect fix.

The boy had stopped crying now, his arm bone in much better condition after two hours of healing. Elyon did her best, and his arm would be fine. His other injury was much more complex. The poor boy had been helping his mother re-shingle their house when he fell. Elyon had already healed each of the shattered segments of his spine, but there was something else there that no sister could heal. The boy would never walk again.

"I hate you so fucking much." Sister Olia said from the doorway as Elyon worked the boy's arm. Elyon turned to look at the woman. Despite what had just come out of her mouth, she was smiling. "I'll take over your shift."

"But." but Sister Olia raised her hand, silencing her. They were already short-staffed, with many sisters suddenly vanishing on the day of the ball. They needed all hands on deck!

"I'll take your shift." Sister Olia repeated and started healing the boy. Elyon stopped her light and stepped back, frowning.

Most everyone in the hall was alright for now, but that could change in an instant. They were on track with their flask production, so Elyon resolved to boil bandages and washing linens. However, when she neared the central hub, she saw some of the sisters huddled together, swooning as they gazed towards the entrance.

Standing there looking fine in a perfectly tailored suit, cleanly shaved and hair neatly combed, stood a nervous-looking Niko holding a massive bundle of white flowers. Whatever he had been debating in his head vanished with his room brightening smile. "I bought some flowers for you!" Niko said warmly when she approached.

"So many?" Elyon said with a smile as she approached. Whatever fatigue she might've felt vanished with his presence.

"I, uh, I suppose maybe someone of the sisters would like a few?" he said while offering the massive bouquet to the nearby sisters.

Big mistake. He was swarmed by gushing sisters as they each took a flower or two from his bundle. Elyon laughed as she saw Sister Sof practically wrench a handful of stems from his hands. Sister Joslyn then snatched two of those from her hands, proclaiming she had won Niko's flowers. It lasted seconds, but in the brief melee, Sister Lind had claimed five of the white flowers, and Niko had somehow been knocked to the ground and forgotten.

"You should've known better," Elyon said, kneeling beside him. He tore his gaze away from the carnage of white petals and grinned. In his hand, he had one, wilted, nearly petal less, white flower and offered it to her. "How kind of you," Elyon said, taking the damaged flower. She wasn't familiar with its type.

She focused, feeling its life pulsing between her fingers. Yes, it was very much alive still. She allowed her light to flow from her fingers, and the flower straightened and regrew its petals. "Almost as good as new," Elyon said, helping Niko to his feet.

"I wish I could do that," Niko said, looking at the flower in her hand.

"You get to hurl destructive elemental magic like the mancers of old by courtesy of the gods."

"Fair enough," he said, standing.

"What brought you around, Niko?" Elyon said to a beaming Niko.

"Well, tonight's the ball, and I wanted to formally invite you." she could hear a few of her sisters' aw' behind her.

Elyon smiled. She had expected to go but hadn't expected him to show up until just before. Elyon had already picked out a somewhat nice dress from the donation pile with a bit of Sister Joslyn's help, who claimed to be the most fashionable at the shrine. The dress was long enough to hide her boots, which was the only pair she owned.

She took his hands in hers, and Niko beamed. "Of course, I'll go with you, Nikorni, but it's a bit early, isn't it?" she said, hoping to squeeze in a nap after a long night.

"Oh, uh.Well. Lady Sanya?" he called out of the doorway.

"I already told you, I ain't no lady." the girl said, dragging behind her a covered cart. Niko rushed to help her bring it in. "Pretty heavy for a bunch of cloth," she said, ripping away the tarp covering it.

Underneath, dresses in a variety of colors had been folded neatly. The sisters gasped. "What's all this?"

"Well, I did Lady Adelaide a favor in helping her develop her barrier flasks, so she said she owed me one back. I only asked her for one, I swear it. But she said you can have as many as you'd like; She added other things too."

Elyon held up the dress on the top. It's fine green velvet felt soft on her fingers. "Niko." she gasped. That single dress, worth a small fortune, could buy bandages at the shrine for months. There were at least a dozen ball gowns in the cart.

"Don't feel abashed. Adelaide gives them out like candy," Sanya said, "I've got some myself too, but I'm not old enough to wear them yet. I don't actually think I've ever seen her wear the same dress twice."

Suddenly the nice dress Elyon had picked out from the donation pile felt like rags in comparison. She had never worn anything outside of the standard shrine robes the sisters wore. "Thank you," Elyon said. "I'll look through them."

"I'll help!" Sister Joslyn said greedily, snatching up a couple of the dresses and holding them up to Elyon. She shook her head and dropped one, mentally discarding it.

"I wasn't sure how much time you would need by Lady Sanya says Adelaide takes the whole day getting ready."

"I ain't no lady!" the girl exclaimed, then rushed up to Elyon and started measuring. "But once you pick one for tonight, I'll get it fitted for you! All the fitters will probably be full, so I'll do it myself. I ain't as good as Fides, but he taught me good. Most of these were rejects for Lady Aeria; she's bigger than you, I think." She said, flexing her arm muscles. "So I'll have to take them in in some places," she moved her hands to her chest, "out in others."

"Alright, I'll let you two get to it," Niko said with a flush and dashed out of the shrine.

Elyon smiled and was immediately flocked by over-eager shrine sisters.