Chapter 212: Elise Tried to Heal Me and Found Something Wrong

Elise waited until Raven finished inspecting the Mk.I. That was already an improvement.

Two weeks ago, she would have tried talking to him while half the pressure system was still open on a blanket. Now she remained seated across from the fire, Mercy resting against a stone and a cup between her hands, silently watching as Raven closed the rifle’s side panel.

Valeria was reading one of the manifests recovered from Harrowgate. Roland was cleaning an arrowhead near the horses. Raven secured the final piece. Elise set down the cup.

"Now."

Raven looked up. "That sounded overly prepared."

"Because I’ve been waiting almost an hour."

"You could have done something else."

"I did. I waited."

Raven looked toward Valeria. She didn’t raise her head from the document. "Don’t drag me into this."

"I haven’t said anything yet."

"I know you well enough to recognize the intent."

Elise pointed toward Raven’s side. "I want to examine your injuries."

"They’re closed."

"That doesn’t mean they’re fine."

"Usually means something close."

"In your case, increasingly less so."

Raven set the rifle aside. That got his attention. "Explain."

Elise stood and brought over a small medical pouch. "After our fight, I stabilized you enough for Predatory Regeneration to handle the rest. I didn’t have time to examine how it was repairing the deeper damage, and since then you’ve kept fighting, training, and carrying a rifle that appears designed to punish its user."

"That last part is unfair."

Valeria finally looked up. "No. That last part is remarkably accurate."

Raven ignored both of them. "What do you want to check?"

"Ribs, lung, liver, the channels where I sensed sacred integration, and any area that has undergone repeated Stonehide activations."

Raven watched her for several seconds. "That’s a lot."

"Yes."

"Does it hurt?"

Elise looked surprised. "Probably."

Raven started removing his jacket. "Then let’s do it quickly."

Roland looked over from the other side of camp. "That was strangely efficient consent."

"I’ve had worse medical examinations."

"That isn’t reassuring either," Elise said.

---

Raven sat on a blanket with his back exposed. Elise placed two fingers near his lower ribs without touching him yet.

"I’m going to use a minimal amount of sacred mana. Perception only."

"Do it."

Light appeared around her fingertips first. It wasn’t the aggressive radiance Raven associated with Sacred Edict. This was faint and warm, and it entered his skin like light pressure. Radiant Metabolism reacted immediately.

[Trace Sacred Mana Detected.]

[Compatible Metabolic Processing Initiated.]

Raven felt the change before Elise frowned. "Your body is trying to metabolize my examination."

"Looks like it."

"I need it to stop."

"I can reduce it."

Elise withdrew her hand. "How?"

Raven activated Manual Regulation. It wasn’t a switch. It was more like assigning priorities inside a process that normally operated on its own. He reduced Predatory Regeneration’s attention toward minor inflammation, limited Radiant Metabolism’s response, and allowed the sacred traces to remain in place longer without being processed. The system responded.

[Manual Regulation Active.]

[Regenerative Priority Reduced in Selected Tissues.]

[Sacred Mana Processing Moderated.]

Elise touched him again. This time, the light remained. Her expression changed almost immediately, and Raven noticed.

"That doesn’t look good."

"It isn’t bad."

"People usually say that right before explaining something bad."

"You’re not healing incorrectly."

"That sounds better."

Elise didn’t answer. Her fingers moved slowly along one rib, then another. Raven felt the internal pressure of her magic tracing bone, muscle, and scar tissue.

"This fractured before."

"Yes."

"More than once."

"Probably."

Elise looked up. "Probably?"

Raven thought about it. "I don’t keep medical records."

"You should."

"Surviving is usually enough documentation."

Valeria put down the manifest. "No. It isn’t."

Raven looked toward her. Valeria was already approaching. That seemed inevitable.

---

Elise spent several minutes examining the side where Mercy had pierced him. The external wound had nearly disappeared. Inside, it hadn’t.

New tissue surrounded areas where his lung and liver had suffered severe damage. It wasn’t normal scar formation, and it didn’t look like simple accelerated regeneration either. Elise withdrew her hand and placed it higher.

"Your body redistributed the repair."

Raven frowned slightly. "Manual Regulation."

"I don’t mean only that." The light moved through his chest. "There are areas that aren’t repairing the way a normal human body would anymore. The tissue around your ribs is denser where you’ve suffered repeated impacts. The dermis on your forearms responds differently to magic than the skin over your abdomen."

Raven looked at his arm. "Stonehide."

"I think so." Elise moved her fingers toward his shoulder. "It isn’t only that Stonehide appears when you activate it. Your body seems to be adapting to withstand the repeated transformations more efficiently."

Raven remained silent. That was new. Predation usually presented Traits as acquired functions. He hadn’t thought much about the anatomical cost of having all of them operating inside the same body. Elise continued.

"There are changes near the channels where you metabolize sacred mana as well. Radiant Metabolism isn’t confined to a single structure. It’s integrating with nearby tissues."

Valeria knelt on the other side. "Does that mean he’s becoming sacred?"

Elise shook her head. "No."

Raven raised an eyebrow. "You sounded offended."

"I’m being precise."

"You sounded precisely offended."

Valeria smiled. Elise ignored him. "He isn’t developing sacred affinity as the Church understands it. His body is learning to process a substance that used to harm him."

"That sounds like Toxin Adaptation with religion," Raven said.

Elise looked at him. "Never say that again."

Valeria laughed. Raven decided the comparison had been worth it.

---

Elise moved next to the center of his chest. There, she took longer. The light brightened slightly. Raven felt strange pressure around his heart, his spine, and several internal structures he still didn’t entirely understand. Elise stopped breathing for a second.

"Penance Sanctuary."

Raven looked down. "What about it?"

"It’s everywhere."

"We already knew that."

"We knew it was distributed. I didn’t know how extensively." Elise moved her hand from his sternum toward his side. "There are channels around the heart. Others follow part of the spine. The structures that stabilize your body during activation are integrated with deep muscle fibers. And the release mechanism appears to use multiple areas beneath the skin."

Raven remembered the Penance Hound: the gland, the thoracic channels, the plates, the motor tissues. Predation hadn’t copied a Skill. It had rebuilt anatomy.

Elise said it quietly. "You aren’t accumulating abilities."

Raven looked at her. "I already knew that."

"I don’t think you understood what that means."

That made Valeria stop smiling. Elise withdrew her hand.

"Every Trait is changing the way your body functions. Some are small adaptations. Others are creating entirely new structures. If this continues, a few years from now you could still look completely human from the outside while having internal anatomy no physician in Asteria would recognize."

Roland looked up from the horses. "That sounds inconvenient."

Raven thought for a moment. "Mostly for the physician."

Elise looked like she wanted to argue. Valeria beat her to it. "For you too, if a healer tries to repair something while assuming it’s still where it’s supposed to be."

Raven looked at her. "That is a problem."

"I’m glad one of us admits it."

---

Elise returned to his ribs. She pressed two fingers against an area that was still sensitive, and Raven tensed his abdomen.

"How many times have you broken a rib since arriving in Veyr?"

Raven opened his mouth, then stopped. Sablewood. The Ravager. The Stormhorn. Kharad. The Penance Hound. Elise. There were others. He started counting mentally. Valeria noticed.

"No."

Raven looked at her. "What?"

"You were counting."

"She asked."

Elise was now looking at him with genuine concern. "How many?"

Raven kept counting for another two seconds, then decided the number would improve nothing. "Enough."

Elise closed her eyes. "That isn’t an answer."

"It’s the answer least likely to make this conversation worse."

Roland laughed from a distance. "Good choice."

Elise pointed toward one rib. "This one fractured at least twice."

"Probably."

"Stop saying probably."

"I can’t confirm something I never recorded."

Valeria stood. "I’m going to start recording it."

Raven looked at her. "No."

"I wasn’t asking."

Elise appeared to consider supporting the proposal. Raven decided the examination was already creating too many alliances.

---

When Elise finished, Valeria didn’t leave. Suspicious. Raven put his shirt back on. Valeria pointed toward his left arm.

"Give me that."

"Why?"

"I want to check circulation."

Elise raised an eyebrow. "I already checked it."

"With sacred mana."

"Blood is still blood."

"What a discovery."

Raven looked between them. No hostility. Yet. But Valeria had that particular aristocratic politeness she used whenever something bothered her too much to admit it directly. He extended his arm.

"Do it."

Valeria placed two fingers against his wrist. A minimal amount of Blood Magic entered his vessels. Raven knew the sensation: pressure, heat, precise control. Valeria followed the flow through his forearm and up toward the shoulder.

"There’s a more rigid area here."

Elise leaned closer. "I noticed it too."

"Then now we have confirmation."

Elise looked at her. "I wasn’t wrong."

"I didn’t say you were."

"It sounded like you were implying it."

Valeria smiled. "Then perhaps you’re reading too much into things."

Raven withdrew his arm. "Excellent. Two diagnoses agree. We can stop before this becomes a medical competition."

Valeria looked at him. "Nobody is competing."

Elise nodded. "Exactly."

Raven studied both of them. "That was worryingly coordinated."

Roland laughed again.

---

Later, while Elise organized her instruments, Valeria remained beside Raven. "You’re talking more."

Raven was placing the Mk.I back inside its case. "You already mentioned that."

"Before, I would have needed three questions to get half of what you just explained."

Raven finished securing the case. "You’ve spent months complaining that I answered like every conversation was an interrogation. You don’t get to start complaining now that you’re finally getting what you wanted."

Valeria fell silent. Not because the answer was particularly profound, but because Raven hadn’t closed the conversation. He hadn’t said yes, or no, or whatever. He had answered like someone who expected her to keep talking.

Valeria smiled slowly. "I’m not complaining."

Raven looked at her. "Sounded like it."

"I’m adjusting."

"Do it quickly."

"There it is."

"What?"

"Normal Raven."

He shook his head and lifted the case. Before he could move away, Predator’s Instinct reacted. Not immediate danger. Presence. Strong. Very strong.

The forest to the north fell silent for a moment. Elise sensed it too, and her hand moved toward Mercy. Valeria turned. Roland was already on his feet.

A figure appeared between the trees. Silver hair, dark horns. Nyxara walked toward the camp with an expression far less amused than usual. She carried something over one shoulder.

A body.

She lowered it carefully onto the ground. Raven looked first at the corpse, then at her. "That’s new."

Nyxara didn’t smile. "I found something."

Raven approached. The dead man had pale skin, fangs, and unmistakably Bloodborn features. But even before Predation reacted, something was wrong. Nyxara looked down at the body.

"He was one of mine."

Raven waited. She raised her eyes toward him.

"And someone removed his Bloodline."