The Beast Within

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

It turned out to be Noelani, she made her appearance with an elderly Mage accompanying her.

The healer was grey haired and hunched over and Ceraun thought she looked familiar.

He moved to make way for the Mage to get closer to his mother on the bed, watching with wide curious eyes.

The Healing Magic User slowly lowered herself to the edge of the carpet, her bones and joints creaking as she did so.

She finally sat with a small groan, her eyes were squinted and Ceraun worried if she could even see.

She reached out both of her hands which were bony and wrinkly with age but he could sense the strength in them.

Some of the tension slipped out of Ceraun's shoulders, although the healer didn't look it, he could sense that she was capable.

She had not even flinched when she first saw his mother lying down so pale, getting right down to business.

Noelani hovered over the Mage who was already using her magic to try and figure out what was wrong so she could get right to fixing it.

The healer's hands which were hovering over Tes's middle started to glow a soft soothing green light which seemed to sink into her body.

Ceraun could have sworn he saw the creases on his mother's brows ease up and he prayed hard even to the Pillars that his belief in was starting to wane.

They remained like this for what seemed like an eternity, it was perhaps only a few moments but felt like forever to Ceraun.

Blinking, seemed like a luxury as he watched intently on what would happen.

The healer eventually took back her hands, her shoulders even more rounded as she sighed forlornly.

"I fear for her." The elderly healer said heavily, her voice was surprisingly strong and steady.

"Will she wake?" Noelani asked immediately, eager.

Ceraun was grateful to her because a lump had formed at the back of his throat at the first words of the healer, his tongue felt like it did not belong in his mouth anymore, he could not speak.

"No." The healer said decisively, her voice like a spear to the heart.

Ceraun felt his vision fade away his heart slowing down, he wished perhaps that he could also go unconscious, to be spared the slew of bad news.

But it was not to be, just as soon as he lost himself, he regained clarity.

The healer was speaking. "She does not want to wake up and her body listens to her, if she remains in this state, I fear that she does not have very long to live…"

"Can she be awoken?" Ceraun blurted out, his words tumbling put before he could realise it.

The healer swerved to look at him, expressive pity in her eyes, it made Ceraun shrivel up and die inside, he did not like to be pitied.

"Yes, I can wake her up." The healer said gravely, choosing to not add that it would make no difference for she would still be as when she was in a faint.

Perhaps her child could shake her out of her mournful spiral.

Ceraun's eyes glittered with hope at this, warmth coming into his bottomless, black eyes.

That was the best news he had heard since he first laid eyes on his mother's magic, he would find a way to love again if his mother could just stay alive for him.

The healer went back to work again, her brows furrowed in concentration as she let the soft, green light being emitted from her hands slowly encompass Tes's entire form, lighting her up.

The others came back from their task of fetching water at this point, their quiet voices being heard clearly from the quiet room.

Noelani excused herself to go check up on them, she would also have to be leaving soon to go to the sewing pit at the centre of the town.

Food was a very important necessity, she also wanted to give Ceraun a bit of privacy.

Ceraun did not spare her a glance as she drifted out, his eyes fixed intently on what the healer was doing, absently, he wondered how long this would go on for.

There was no visible change on his mother yet and his panic was starting to rattle underneath his skin looking for a way out.

Even the healer was starting to look immensely tired like it took all of her reserves of strength to simply sit upright but she still had their serious expression on so it meant that she was not about to give up.

Outside, Noelani had come out to help the children properly store the water.

They had all more or less begun living in Ceraun's house, Noelani was not about to leave him all to himself to face such tremendous tragedy.

Adrik felt the same, although he would never say it out loud, pretending to hide under the fact that his mother was there and thus he could not be anywhere else.

With Haneul and Auris, it was that they had nowhere to go and they had more or less sworn fealty to Ceraun, he had that ability to enthral people.

Although some were still put off by his overall appearance, that never bothered him, it would not begin now.

Noelani knew that orphans got daily rations and she could easily support herself and her son but what was to be done about Ceraun.

He could not work as he was not of age to work and even if he were, he was enlisted into the army so that was another dead end.

He was also not an orphan because his mother was still alive, somewhat.

Noelani's relief was palpable when Haneul and Auris offered to bring in their own rations so that she could manage to make a big meal out of it, much like she did the night before.

They would survive for now, at least until Tes got better, which she had to because Noelani's only child and companion would be leaving soon as well as Tes's son.

Tes still had to fulfil her promise of keeping wait for their sons together.