Path Of The Broken

27. Lockdown-1

27

Lockdown

Master Healer Kevin Meagher walked through the ancient halls of the Healer Enclave. He smiled at a young healer trainee that almost fell over himself trying to clear out of his path.

“Trainee, I’ve heard good things from your tutors. You’ll be joining me in the Journeyman Healer ranks before too long, I hear.”

He smiled as the trainee blushed with pride at the compliment and continued on his way. The smile disappeared from his face as soon as he passed the trainee. They were so irritating with their abject obeisance, yet it was enlightening to point out the ones who were more useful as journeymen. While it was helpful information for future planning, it wasn’t his primary purpose today. His own assigned Journeyman kept him apprised of the best candidates, yet he did think it was essential for him to keep tabs on and have a personal connection with the potential new recruits.

Walking along the hallways, with benches and small tables at conveniently spaced locations along the old corridors, he had to acknowledge that the ancestors knew what they were doing when building the Healers’ Guild. The benches were convenient for healers to take a rest if they had just exerted themselves, or if masters needed to stop along the way between destinations to consult before heading on their own paths.

He just felt it was a shame the Healers’ Guild had strayed so far from their original purpose. Here in the heart of the Guild, where they swore to protect life, they turned their back and didn’t do anything about the cancer in their own society that threatened everyone.

There was once a time that he’d been young and naïve, and had believed wholeheartedly in the cause of the Guild. Then he’d returned to his home after seeing to healing needs of the locals in his zone. He’d found his wife and children slaughtered in their small back yard. It had made no sense to him. They were just torn apart and left, scattered, forgotten. No one had defended them even though the villagers in the surrounding houses must have seen and known what was happening. Yet even after the monsters had left, none of them had made an appearance, not even to cover his wife and child with a blanket to protect them from the scavengers.

Still, that was long in his past, and he’d made his own road. Devastated and disillusioned, he’d gone to the Killiam Order. He’d known about their existence, of course. All journeymen were alerted to watch out for the Order. They were told that the Order was filled with misguided individuals. And yet, the founder had been a healer himself. Much like him, the founder had lost his family to the blight on their society that was those with the Taint. It didn’t help that Kevin knew that he and every other healer used power from the veil as well—yet it was not to the same degree as the monsters. The healers helped people, or they were supposed to, and not just help the individuals that history had shown them over and over again meant them all harm.

The Order had welcomed him into the fold with open arms, grateful to receive someone of his stature and training. The current leader, Scholar Clements, had been particularly sympathetic to his circumstance as his own history, with his wife and child being slaughtered, had been similar to his own.

Still, he’d found a way to help drag the Healers’ Guild back to what they should have been, what they’d been formed to be. It was hard to walk through the halls with no acknowledgement of that, but the time would come. He’d made it to the Healers’ Council now, and that at least meant he had more control over what the Guild did. A day would come—soon, he hoped—when all would know what he’d done to fulfil his healer’s oath and protect the people.

The Order, with his aid, had helped him break the healers’ compulsion. That had been an integral moment in his past. Still, unlike most, he’d had the spine to go and find a solution. He’d spent his time since helping others break free of the Guild’s compulsions and move forward toward a future of helping humans against the monsters in their midst.

Master Healer Meagher smiled and nodded at another healer in acknowledgement as they walked past each other. It interrupted his internal monologue. Not that it mattered anymore; he knew who he was, he just found it useful to run through his fictional traumatic history in his head, so he wouldn’t forget it. It wouldn’t do for anyone here at the Healers’ Guild or from the Order to realise he wasn’t the person they thought he was.