Marachius Ainsley

Setbacks

“And here, brother Ainsley,” is a more serious case this morning.” The priestess led the young paladin towards one of the beds in the healing ward. “Mr. Potter has a farm outside of the city walls. He had an accident this morning with one of his tools that resulted in a rather nasty gash in his arm.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Marachius said quietly as he leaned forward for a closer look. On the inside of Mr. Potter’s right forearm was bandage which was already staining red.

“As we’ve discussed before, usually with cuts we would let the body heal naturally over time. But in this instance, the cut is severe enough to be concerned about damage to the nerves. Mr. Potter already complains of tingling in his fingers.”

“That’s right,” the farmer said gruffly as he watched the two standing next to his bed, discussing his condition.

“Mr. Potter has agreed to let you attempt to heal the wound as part of your training,” the priestess continued, looking to the farmer who nodded his assent after a moment. “Are you ready to give this a try?”

“I’ll do my best, ma’am.”

The young paladin sat down on the stool next to the bed. Gently, he pulled back the bandage so that he could see the wound, causing the farmer to grimace a little. Marachius could see that this was a much deeper cut than what he had been dealing with over the last week or two. Taking a deep breath, he placed one hand at the farmer’s elbow and the other at the farmer’s wrist. His head lowered, Marachius closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then there was a faint glow that started to build up around the wound. Mr. Potter’s fingers started to twitch, then suddenly he let out a yelp. Distracted by the cry, Marachius’ concentration was broken and he jerked his head up.

“Arm feels like its on fire!” Mr. Potter said loudly.

“That’s enough,” the priestess said calmly, putting her hands on Marachius’ shoulders and gently pulling him from the stool and moving him to the foot of the bed. The priestess then took a seat in the stool and cradled the farmer’s arm in her hands. Quickly, his fingers stopped spasming as a glow formed around the wound on the arm. The wound closed until there was only a thick, red line down the arm.

“That should do,” the priestess said as she stood from the stool. She watched as the farm flexed his fingers tentatively.

“Yeah, doesn’t hurt now,” Mr. Potter responded.

“Good. I’ll have someone come and check on you in a little while and hopefully we can have to back home soon.” The priestess smiled at Mr. Potter and then walked to away, the young paladin following in her wake.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Marachius said quietly once they were out of earshot of the patient.

“What do you think happened?” the priestess asked calmly, no hint of anger.

“I don’t know, ma’am. I focused on the wound, but then he said he felt pain.”

“Its not that uncommon,” the priestess replied. “Especially when someone is coming from a more martial background. The simplest way to explain it is that you were forcing it too much. You need to relax more, follow the flow of the Light more. Gently nudge it instead of trying to push it.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll try to do better next time.”

“I know you will, Brother Ainsley. It will come with time,” she added with a slight smile. “Experience makes us all better.”