Schemes deriving from love

Chapter 4

“M-Maria, is that you?” Mia questioned. She was gazing at Maria, gaping with a shocked face at the horrible state she was in. At first, Mia had thought that she was the one that protected the both of them. Boy, was she wrong. One look at Maria’s body and you could tell who suffered more. Grace collapsed near Maria’s bed, held her face in her hands and sobbed, begging Yuna to do something.

Their so-called hatred vanished into thin air, and their concerned glances at each other made it look like it had never been there. Maybe it was because they hadn’t seen each other in so long that they never understood why they hated each other.

“H-Hey, L-look at m-me. It’s okay,” Maria soothed her youngest sibling with as much strength as she could, with light pats on the head and small words of comfort from time to time. Maria didn’t know she had this side to her. She didn’t know what had come over her, but she wanted to just make sure Grace stopped crying. It was probably the blood doing its job. ‘Curse this blood relationship!!’ She thought.

While this moment was going on, Yuna herself was in deep thought. She took a moment, and slowly, a solution popped into her mind. She grinned and tapped on Mia’s shoulder and she turned around. “What’s w-wrong?” She was trying her best to stay indifferent, but the sadness still seeped out.

“I don’t think you’ll make a full recovery by doing this, but you’ll be able to move around and be good as new in a few days. Can I try it?”

“Okay, but what is it?” Mia asked, this time paying full attention to her.

“Well, I have a small reserve of mana. Maybe because I don’t pay much attention to it, it hasn’t increased, but I can heal the majority of the injuries of her. Still……. It is pretty painful. You guys are sure you want to do it? I mean it is about reconnecting someone’s bones.”

“Sure, we are. She can handle pain. I mean, she jumped in that bloody fire and all. She better handle it. Right, Maria?” Mia twirled and asked with a smile. She looked extremely commanding, but it wasn’t like Maria was going to reject either. “Sure, why not?” She smirked, and then said, “Do your thing.”

Yuna smiled and was glad they didn’t reject. Many people were afraid of the brutal pain it brings about, but she had a feeling the patient laying in tatters in front of her could pull through it.

“Well then, let’s start,” Her lips stopped staying curled and her expression became stiff. She started focusing, all while the three of them were confused. “Hey, um, I thought mana was some new medicine. Was I like, wrong?”

Grace sniffled and once again tried to hold back her tears. Choking, she replied “N-Not that I k-know of.”

Suddenly a gust of wind blew in and strong light covered Maria like a blanket. It was strong that the other two covered their eyes, and Maria, half dead as she already was, could only close her eyes. Soon after, she felt a sharp pain. It was slowly growing and Maria bit her lips to make sure she didn’t show her suffering. She endured it and in the end got through the process. Even though it took long, she was satisfied with the results.