Novel Full Chapter 1977 Healing Status
Chapter 1977: Chapter 1977 Healing Status
— Kat —
It was starting to get late once everything was cleaned up. A proper healer had been rushed over to help with the guard whose name Kat still didn’t know, as well as Jen. A few other guards had come through and there was a pretty intense debate over what spells to use. From what Kat could understand, any magic at all would muddy the trail that might still be there… emphasis on the might.
If it was an old bomb that was finally set off, either randomly or intentionally, then confirm which was of vital importance. If however, it was recently placed, trying to track the direction the culprit fled in, and if they were lucky get a rough idea of what they looked like was more important. Sadly, there was conflicting evidence as to which it was, and with all the destruction very hard to tell the truth. Plus, Kat had moved much of the rubble now. Not that they blamed her.
Kat was leaning on the door outside of the infirmary. It was shut firmly and it didn’t feel right to go in. Kat was debating if she should leave or not. Hedera was up and getting something to eat from Steel’s cupboards while Lily continued to nap. At the very least Lily had woken up when Hedera had and let the elf know their orb problem was solved in the medium term.
“So what does this mean?” asked Kat as she Steel approached her. Other people had taken over the watch on the road for now. Freeing Steel up for other work.
“I don’t know,” sighed Steel. “Confirmation of if this was a targeted attack or not would let me know who I need guarding Jen… but I’m not sure I have many people that I’d be sure could survive an explosion like that. I might have to remain here overnight.”
“Well, I definitely could,” Kat mentioned offhandedly.
Steel snorted. “I expected nothing less… but I still think your current investigation is important. I wouldn’t want to risk splitting the three of you up for that.” Steel sighed and flicked his helmet up so he could rub at his face a bit. Kat winced, seeing the metal gauntlets massage through his scar tissue. *Surely that can’t feel good?*
Steel sighed after he removed his hand from his face, a long drawn out one. “We need to start narrowing down options, but things are so tense that everyone is worried the wrong move will put us VERY behind. The annoying part is they’re not wrong. If we mess up there could be a lot of deaths on our hands in the worst case scenario.
“The problem, is that if this isn’t just some old bomb we missed? It’s an escalation of things. It limits the people I can trust to handle any give job. It doesn’t matter if I’d trust them with my life. Some of the kindest, and most moral people on the force… if they’re too weak to withstand something of that power. Sure maybe they won’t do something like that again… but it’s a hard thing to be willing to risk. This isn’t, or at least, HASN’T been a war. Not really. Deaths do happen but they’re so rarely targeted like this.
“I don’t want things to get to the point where I need to assign someone a job knowing they’re more likely to die on it then live… because someone needs to do it and everyone better suited has something more important to be doing. Even just these two jobs for you. A much simpler idea. Can I afford not to have your full team on one of them? It sure seems that way. Which one is more important? That’s a lot harder.
“If you catch the thieves tonight it would be humongous win for the department, and assuming they’re connected? It could reveal more of the bigger plot brewing in the background. The problem… is that if they’re connected they’re not as likely to be out tonight. Just in case.
“And if that’s true? Then I’ve wasted your night and it would’ve been better to have you guarding Jen here. Even if nobody tries anything, just making one hundred percent sure that she’ll live long enough to be questioned again, this time with her as the victim… well it would be really nice. I don’t want her to die of course, but I’m trying to save my sympathy for the moment.”
Kat decided to ignore that last part and sigh along with Steel. “I see the issues. Do you have anyone else that even could guard her?”
Steel made a ’so-so’ gesture. “When you’re at that level of power you mostly take up positions like Ramor, as the guard captain of one of the various districts. Not all of them are quite up to that standard but most are. The issue is, I can’t really pull THEM away without weakening that areas security massively and the few others we have are almost all working for Charles. With everything going on, I definitely don’t want to weaken the palace’s defences. So I’m left with… maybe five people who could manage it…
“But of those five, two of them are retired, one of them is on leave because they just got married, the second last guy is currently helping out at the palace because one of the regulars there got sick… so I have exactly one person and I might need them to lead the team we’ll be sending out to talk to the Haleblooms. Even if we’re not going to investigate them immediately over this… we need to let them know what happened and be ready for a fight.
“Which basically just leaves myself. I have work to do sure, but a lot of it can be put on hold unlike the others. It does mean I won’t be sleeping but I can manage without for a night or two…” sighed Steel.
“Didn’t Ramor say you’re only allowed to work a certain amount without stopping?” asked Kat.
Steel nodded, “Yes but there are exceptions up to a certain point for emergency scenarios that this counts as. Angie is, and likely always will be, past certain point.”
“Obviously,” agreed Kat.
The pair sat in silence for a few moments before the door opened and the cities healer came out. They were a surprisingly wiry looking dwarf. Not much taller, but a lot thinner then you normally see. In fact, their face looked a little sunken so perhaps they weren’t eating right. His name was Crag. “Alright, I’ve had a look at her and she’ll live. Probably.
“Just gotta make sure that nothing else happens and there’s sufficient time for the healing to settle in. I’ve got all of her bones back in place, most of her muscles and a good deal of her skin. Can’t just heal everything up because I don’t have the mana and it’s not good to have half your body rebuilt from a weaker healer like me.
“She’ll probably sleep for twelve hours, maybe longer depending on how resilient she is. I’m guessing about twelve, then she’ll be awake for a bit to do her business. Try and force her to eat some stuff and get some water into her before the interrogation because she’s going to need it. I mostly heal by encouraging the body to do its thing and there was a lot of encouragement needed for her…”
Crag shook his head. “The guard on the other hand, is a bit different. His injuries weren’t too bad and I fixed him up fairly quickly. I did it as soon as I’d stabilised the girl to make sure I’d have the mana for it all… yet he hasn’t woken up. Should’ve though…”
“Oh… is there anything that could be causing that?” asked Steel.
Crag nodded. “The big one that stands out is brain damage. I’m simply not a competent enough healer to do anything about that sort of damage.”
Steel nodded, as if he’d heard this before and was now remember, but Kat had to ask. “What does that mean? Is it something to worry about?”
“Could be?” shrugged Crag. “Sure I could cast some spells that would tell me how the brain is looking… but I have no idea how to interpret them. The brain is a lot more complex then the rest of the body and I’m just not at that level. Perhaps it’s a small thing that will repair itself. Could be permanent damage. Might never wake up. I doubt that last one.
“He has good armour and the damage wasn’t too severe anywhere. No excessive bleeding… but he took a good knock to the head. Just warning you. Make sure he’s careful for the next few months and if there is any pain or nausea that hangs around let me know, or call for another healer. Something will need to be done in that case… even if I’m not confident I could do that something.”