Completed [Flashback]Should've Known Better

[Litani]

Timestamp: 2nd day, Winter Season, 511 She was tired. It felt like she hadn't slept in days. Maybe she hadn't. "I know I can do this!" "And what if you can't?" "But I can!!" "And what if you can't? What if you do it, and he loses the arm? What then, Lit?" She turned away from him furiously, angry with him for doubting her, angrier with herself for being angry with him at all. He had every right to question her - what she suggested could well be dangerous. Hells, it was dangerous. But not to her. She knew full well what she intended to do, how to get it done, and how much it would be worth to the boy once it was over. "Oh give him some Lillian root and Iskyny and I'll be done in 20 chimes!" She regretted it as soon as she said it, as soon as she saw his face. Alder wanted to trust her - no, he did trust her, but sometimes her impulsiveness made it difficult. There were ways of doing things, and ways not to do them. That was something he was trying continually to teach her. And in this case, well, it was complicated. "This is not just some boy, Lit." He was the only one who called her that. Ever. And she knew he did it to try to calm her down, because he was the only one. To everyone else, she was just 'healer', 'harper', 'Litani', or, in a sneered laugh, 'fish girl'. The latter, of course, had come from his children... she didn't have to ask where they had learned it from. "He is the only son of my wife's sister." And there it was. The family did not want her to touch him because she, Alder's apprentice, was too close to him. Because his wife was jealous and this was her nephew. And her jealousy might cost the child, the son of a carpenter, the use of his right arm, maybe for the rest of his life. The boy could not have been older than 10 summers. He fancied himself in training to be a knight, and perhaps one day he could see that for true. Certainly his family encouraged it; even if they were no one of specific consequence - carpenters and seamstresses all, a proud family tradition that the boy would always have a place with - they were well off enough to see that he was educated and offered the best of opportunities. And so when his lessons were done each day, he'd take himself to the yards and start training with the ponies that were kept there. He'd been told to stay away from the warhorses, to leave the beautifully barded stallions for when he was older. Well, he had a hard lesson to learn about following orders if he meant to be a knight. The horse had skittered under the light, uncertain weight and bucked when the boy kicked his heels and pulled back on the reigns at the same time. The beast was too much for him and, in a desperate attempt to cling to it, he'd toppled to the ground holding the reigns and jerked the creature's head, nearly getting himself trampled on in the process. All anyone could say was that he was lucky to only have a dislocated shoulder. A badly dislocated shoulder. He'd come to Alder's shop howling and crying in pain. No amount of cajoling from his father or comforting from his mother would calm him down - no threat of punishment, no promise of sweet, no attempted guilt trip about being a big boy who was almost a knight, and knights don't cry of course... No. None of that was having an effect and Litani could see why right away - the child's arm hung at an impossible angle and she cringed to see it, feeling almost immediately how badly wounded he really was. This was nothing that would heal with a sling and some time, as his mother tried to insist. If she did not set the joint properly, the nerves would fray and the muscles would lose their ability to work. He'd be a puppet with a string cut. She could feel it as certainly as if it were her own body hanging in the balance. Thanks to her... Gift. (To be continued...)

[Litani]

She closed her eyes and turned away. The child's mother was slowly grinding herself into a fit of hysterics and the louder she cried, the louder the boy screamed. People were being drawn by the primal noise; the nearby shopkeepers weren't unaccustomed to some occasional outbursts, if a patient was in a particularly bad way perhaps, but... not like this. The mother was shouting now, and gesturing, and wringing her hands and fretting and pacing and it was all Litani could do to keep from shrieking at the woman to get out. I am here. Now. Her soft internal prayer began. The one she used to center and calm her thoughts. I am here. Now. That wench is loud, the boy hurts, but the ground is steady... Alder is here. I am here. Now. She took a deep breath. Her eyes came open and she turned around, returning her gaze to the scene to see her mentor doing his best to usher the mother out the door. She took the briefest instant to marvel. Again, it was as if he could read her mind. The Konti sighed, pushed the thought down and the feelings that went with it. The other shopkeepers were leaving also - they knew when the master was at work. Alder was doing his best to comfort the child whilst simultaneously depriving him of his mother, yet only having limited success on both fronts. His apprentice stepped in to close the gap. "I've got him," she said quietly to Alder, crossing the room to him and the injured youngling. She knelt there beside the boy, caught one of her arms very gently around him, and waited patiently for him to acknowledge her. This gave Alder just the momentum he needed to usher the mother out the door and shut it behind him; Litani puzzled slightly to see that, as she expected him to return right away. No matter. There was a squirming, incredibly unhappy 10 year old in her arms just now. "Be still, young knight... be still," she whispered softly, touching his whole shoulder, turning him to look at her. The titled had caught his eyes, as she knew it would. "Young knight," she repeated, "you were bested today..." He started to howl indignantly again but she firmed her voice, made stern her eyes, and narrowed her gaze every so slightly as she said, "You were bested, but you were not defeated." This bought her a few seconds of the child's attention span. "The greatest knights must all begin by learning, brave one. And you have learned today, haven't you?" She made her voice so soft, so motherly, so comforting that the poor boy couldn't help but melt at least some measure - he was in pain beyond his former imagining and something inside him had to know that she was here to help. Upon that something, she capitalized. "You've learned about the horses, but you're not yet done learning for the day. Come sit here." A thousand thoughts raced through her mind as she gently guided the child across the room. He cradled his arm and whimpered with every step but he obediently hopped up onto her table. It was a slender thing, almost too skinny to lay down upon properly, but just right for a little boy. Or for the parts of her trade which did not involve philters and herbs. "Your body is badly wounded, brave knight," she told him, her voice grave, but hopeful as she added, "but I can make you better." His eyes lit up almost immediately with childish eagerness. She stilled him with a hand on his chest, holding him back from moving too drastically in his sudden excitement. "It's going to hurt... it's going to hurt a lot." He began to cry, then, begging her to fix it, just not to hurt him. And why did it have to hurt him, why did she want to... She stopped him, unable to listen. It hurt her to feel that from him, even if she knew it was not true. "I will never harm you, dear one. Never. But have you ever seen a horse lamed? That is you... your shoulder is broken." In truth it was not, but it was the best, quickest way for him to understand. ...and where was Alder, anyway? She went on, daring to hope. "It is broken, but I can set it right again. Will you trust me?" The child asked her how badly it would hurt and she let her face answer without words. He nodded, cringed, and looked down but even that little movement hurt him so badly that he could barely summon the concentration to think about whether or not he trusted this woman, his uncles apprentice. He knew his uncle, he loved and trusted him, and he'd seen his uncle with her many times... surely they must be friends. And if his uncle trusted, then he would as well. He told her as much...he told her that he loved his uncle, so he would try to love her and trust her too... and her heart nearly broke in half. But she nodded to him, trying her best to keep it off her face - I'm about to break that trust, she thought, hating herself already, but I can do what he can't. What he's afraid to do. And I'll save this boy's life and livelihood. Steeling herself, Litani took a deep breath and asked the boy to lie down. Gingerly, he complied - the table's slender length made it awkward, but that was part of the point. It gave her access to the full length of the body; she stepped closer to him and asked him to relinquish control of his arm. "Trust me... " Open yourself up, fool girl. Open and feel him and you can do this without hurting him overmuch. She was afraid. And where was Alder, damnit?! You can do this. Rak'keli, guide my hand. Please... for the love I bear You... use me, fix him, let me do what I know is possible... As she slowly turned his arm, she prayed softly, silently, nearly begging her Goddess for the divine insight to guide the joint back where it belonged. One hand slowly slid beneath the shoulder blade and she winced, feeling how it was out of place, feeling how she must angle it... She guided her other hand to his bicep and pressed lightly, working the alterations of pressure and turning and holding it just so. She had to wait for a moment when the boy tensed - "Just let it go... I've got you. Relax your back if you can, relax your arm." It's working. It's working! But even as she exalted within, the victory was bittersweet - as soon as he returned, Alder would know what she was doing, and without his permission. And to his kin. And yet that is the very reason why she persisted. And why she knew she had to finish. Renewing her focus, she worked her hands before and aft of the joint, feeling Rak'keli's power trickling through her to loosen the workings of the bones, feeling it relax as she told him to, feeling it start to slip... She wanted to shout encouragement, feeling it so close! ... but she murmured softly, so as not to startle him, "Now pull against my hand, harder," and suddenly.... THUNK. It was done. (To be continued...)

[Litani]

*** "Just what in the name of the high Gods were you thinking?!" Litani stared at him. She stared, and she felt herself digging her mental heels in, ready for a fight. Stubborn arse you are, girl. She didn't care. She was right, she knew it, he knew it. Yet he'd come to chastise her because he felt... what? It was his right, she needed it, or he had to, to assuage his conscience? Who knows. But he wasn't guiltless either. "The same thing you were thinking when you left me alone with him." "I was hoping you wouldn't let me down, Lit." His words stung, and she flinched, but her eyes flashed a feeling of betrayal when she recovered. Her brows knit down and she frowned at him deeply, letting him read on her face that he'd hurt her. For a moment. Then, like the passing of a calming breeze, she let the expression melt away. She was right, she had the moral high ground. Or so she felt. "He will never be a cripple. Now." "Right. Right, he won't be a cripple. Yes. You saw to that. But did you stop to think for one second that you should've had his mother's permission?!" "Is she going to cut his meat for the rest of his life?" He was not the only one with words that could sting. Alder glowered at her. Gods his eyes are beautiful. "No. She's not. But she's also never going to shut up about this and if Lysa has her way..." Lysa. That was his wife. The aunt of the boy whose arm she'd just saved. The woman who resented her for... what? Being Alder's apprentice? Being younger, more beautiful, more talented by half? No. Litani knew exactly why. It was because she understood him. Because she complimented and completed him, because she knew exactly how to be his strong right hand in the practice of medicine that had been his whole reason for existing. Because her soul beat with the same heart as his. That was why Lysa hated her. That was why Lysa tried to stand in the way of her nephew being treated with an... unorthodox method. But Litani knew the body. And she knew how one thing connected to another. Rak'keli's touch graced her, guided her hands. Unorthodox or not, it had worked, and she had never failed. Nor would she ever fail... him. "If Lysa has her way, I'll leave tomorrow morning and never be allowed back." She dared. Oh, how much she dared with saying that. Whether she was right or not started to matter less, in that moment - Alder walked across the room to her, staring into her with those fierce blue eyes of his and she thought for an instant that he might throw her out. But then she saw it, in him... the same as he saw it in her. They needed each other. They belonged together. If no other way than here, working, together. Even as they fought, they circled closer, responding to each other so easily and reading each other's body language as if born to the task. He took a breath to speak, then pressed his lips together and shook his head briefly at her. She knew he meant to fire a scathing response but could not; instead he said quietly, "You know what I've done to keep that from happening." It was true. She did know. This was not a relationship that had occurred overnight, but rather one that had persisted throughout years - once, she had been curious child learning herbs from him when he was the apprentice, and then she returned to Syliras as a very young adult to study and practice beside him. In the time she was gone, Lysa had claimed him as her own and gotten sons by him, but it never changed the connection that the two of them shared. And that connection had plagued his otherwise peaceful - if loveless and unfulfilling - marriage. "I am not sorry that I healed him," she started softly, holding up one hand to forestall his words when his eyes widened to reply, "But... I am sorry that I hurt you." The raised hand then dared even more and drifted to his shoulder, just brushing there as if she wished to offer a comforting gesture but was afraid to touch him any more than that. He looked back at her for a moment and she wondered what thoughts were trapped behind his eyes. "Don't." That was all he said. Litani shrunk back, nodding, muttering some apology. She got the message loud and clear. Or so she'd assumed; he didn't move away, just stood there looking at her, confusing her sense of him with his harsh words but his soft gaze, the way his body seemed to be drawn to hers... He looked as though he wanted to move, and would any second, but he did not. Instead he stood there in silence for long moments, drinking in the sight of his apprentice until the Konti shuddered softly, feeling all but naked before him. "I have never done wrong by Lysa," he said dryly, quietly, almost begrudgingly. But then his tone shifted. Deep, helpless, imploring, passionate. "My boys..." He loved them more than life itself, she could feel it radiating off him. She knew the rest of what he might say - anything he might feel, anything he might want, he would never do anything to threaten their home and their safety. And if there was one thing (only one thing) that Lysa had ever been seen to do well in the eyes of the Konti, it was care for her children. Litani stepped back, her throat moving in a tight swallowing of pride and desire. There was only one thing to be said to the whole beautiful disaster of it all, and she managed the words before turning away from him and walking across the room to her work bench. "It worked."

[Radiant]

Litani :

Experience

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 XP
Persuasion	+1 XP
Intimidation	+1 XP
Medicine	+1 XP

Lores

Lore Earned

I know I can do this!

Treating a dislocated shoulder

Comforting a boy

Reasons why Lysa hated me

Loots

Notes :

Beautiful Solo, Litani. I love on how she could stand up for herself and her actions. I'll be waiting for more of her adventures!

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.