SS - Chapter 43 - Spa Day

“Facinating,” Siegward muttered as he swirled a vial of water around, using the bright sunlight in the clearing to inspect the crystal clear water. “It’s obvious that the wellspring is purifying the waters in the area, but there’s something else too…”

“I know you told everyone about the spring because they wouldn’t be able to resist investigating today, so you could hear the results while we were lounging” Camille hissed quietly. “I’m on to you.”

Of course she didn’t get up to confront me, that would have required her to leave the place she’d found to lounge in the moderate sized thermal bath.

“We needed someone to check whether the water was truly safe to bathe in,” I replied, resting my head on a towel I’d folded and placed at the side of the pool. 

The water here was truly miraculous. I’d intentionally burned my left arm, and the left side of my face with Ashfire when I was young to make myself look unattractive to the prince. It was the only thing that could create permanent wounds, everything else could be fixed after a couple sessions of healing magic. 

I never once regretted burning myself, it allowed me to take advantage of the prince’s vanity and escape Iskel, but I did miss having full range of motion in my arm. Even though I could get around it most of the time, I was right handed after all, there were some limitations. Without fine motor control, cooking, sewing, and a lot of crafting was much more difficult, and I couldn’t even perform two weapon fighting anymore. Still, I thought it was worth it.

After being exposed to mist the scars my face and arm had noticeably faded, but the process quickly slowed. It still seemed to be working, it would just take hours of immersion in the water before my scars completely faded.

The effect was still so drastic that as soon as we went to the village yesterday everyone jumped at the chance to investigate.

“Any idea how the water is able to undo the scarring?” I asked. “From what I understand Ashfire does more than damage the physical body, it affects the underlying essence of living things. Whether you call it a soul, internal flow, or ideal form… whatever it is, it’s damaged so badly that healing magic can’t restore the physical form. How could enchanted water get around that?”

“I told you, you’re not allowed to ask questions today,” my mother snapped. “You’re here to rest and recuperate, not work!”

“I can do both!” I moaned. “A person can only do so much sitting around without stimulation, right Camille?”

The girl across from me giggled softly, completely ignoring my pleas for help. “The bubbles tickle.”

“Although I’m no expert on either water, or healing magic, I do have a theory,” Siegward announced, drawing an angry look from my mother. When the old man saw this, he just shrugged. “You know she won’t be able to sit still until we tell her something. I’m hoping that if I tell her the basics she’ll sit there and consider it for a while, then give her opinion tomorrow. The kingdom doesn’t have that many scholars right now, so you two might be some of the most knowledgeable when it comes to magical theory.”

“Fine,” my mother sighed, taking a seat on a nearby rock. “What’s your theory?”

Siegward pocketed the vial of water, then stood up straight and steepled his fingers in front of his chest. At that moment he reminded me of all the time he’d spent tutoring me, back when I was young.

“As you know when something is hit with Ashfire, or another ‘corrupting’ magic the damage is usually permanent. This is because these ‘corrupting’ attacks damage the person’s essence, destroying their ‘true form’ and preventing it from being recovered,” he started as he slowly paced back and forth.

“This again… I didn’t get it last time,” Camille moaned.

“Think of each person like a tin ornament, created out of a unique mold. Healing magic is the equivalent of popping the person back into the mold, and adding more tin. Not exactly good as new, but close. Corrupting attacks not only damage the tin, but also the mold so when you pour new tin in the imperfections remain,” I explained.

Camille raised her head, and stared at me for several seconds. 

“Yeah, I don’t get it,” she exclaimed before laying back again.

“Never mind,” I grumbled, shifting around so I could look at Siegward. “Please continue.”

“Based upon everything we know, it should be impossible to recover from that damage… but based upon what I’m seeing here, I think we may have been incorrect about one of our core assumptions,” Seigward said.

“What assumptions, that corrupted magic damages essence?” my mother asked.

Siegward paused. “No, it obviously damages essence, otherwise it wouldn’t be able to cause debilitating wounds. I think we need to change how we define ‘damage’. If we expand upon Medea’s previous example, previous theories would be the equivalent of having a stone mold which has parts chipped or carved out of them. You can patch it, but never fully repair it.”

I frowned. “How else are we supposed to look at it?”

“Imagine instead of a stone mold, an iron one,” Siegward explained, gesturing with his hands. “And instead of a chisel, someone takes a hammer to the outside. You would still see the same level of damage, and deformation, but the core mold is still intact.”

“What difference does that make? Damage is damage,” Camille moaned.

“It’s different because when something is bent out of shape, it can be bent back,” Siegward said. “What I think is happening here is there’s so much ambient magic in this area that it’s slowly massaging your essence, and working it back into its original shape.”

“There are plenty of other places of power in the kingdoms, why haven’t we ever heard about something like this before?” I asked.

“I’m sure other examples exist out there,” my mother hissed. “But since many kingdoms would see them as a strategic resource, something they need to hide from their neighbours in fear they might get attacked. Other kingdoms would see a healing spring as a useless resource, and destroy it in exchange to get a little bit of magic out of it.”

“Yeah… who would want to do something like that,” I muttered, sinking deeper into the pool in embarrassment.

“You have an excuse,” my mother quickly added, “you didn’t know what it was you were walking into, and once you discovered it you decided not to destroy it.”

She stopped, and turned towards me. “You have decided to keep it as is, and not destroy the spring, correct?”

“I’m not so callous to use this place, and then destroy it before anyone else can take advantage. Once we get the new towns up and running I’ll develop a rest stop and clinic to help those that get badly injured,” I replied, quietly. “That being said… Most wounds can be healed by mundane magic, so it won’t be super useful once we get a couple healers up and running, so I may convert it in the long run.“

“Keeping your options open is sensible,” my mother nodded. As she pushed herself to her feet she looked around. “I meant to ask you earlier, but where’s your elf friend?”

“She’s back at the village, visiting her people,” I explained. “She didn’t seem to think that having a spa day with Camille and I would be all that restful.”

“I don’t blame her,” Camille snorted. “You just can’t sit still.”

“I can relax whenever I want,” I snapped at her, eliciting another snort. “Besides, she hasn’t been able to see the other elf bloods since we moved into the citadel, she was probably lonely.”

“Speaking of the elves… What do you plan to do with them now?” My mother asked. “They were probably thankful that you provided them with food and shelter to start, but now you’re developing three different communities. They may want some more space.”

“I know, I really should speak with them, there’s just been so much to review lately,” I exclaimed, leaning back and putting my head against the towel. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“You should also consider what to call the different settlements. Having a little, unnamed village was fine when we were the only ones out here, but now you have several hundred people following you. They’ll want ways to identify the different areas,” Siegward said, as he packed up all his equipment.

“Tomorrow… I promise!” I moaned, mentally taking notes.

“Today is relaxation day!” Camille exclaimed.

“Alright,” my mother chuckled. “You two enjoy. I think Sieg and I have everything we need, we can talk tomorrow.”

“Thanks, we’ll see you then!” I replied as she grabbed one of the bags and helped Sieg carry their equipment out.

For several seconds after they left the only thing I could hear was the gentle bubbling of the various healing pools.

“Finally,” Camille muttered, sinking further into her bath. “I thought they’d never leave.”