Chapter 15: Copper Ashes

My second sleep session brought me clear back around the clock. When I woke up, I realized I was late for my promised return to Maldre's Crossing. I skipped the shower and began to dress in my local outfit when I decided to do a quick mental check on Borthun and Yela. A wave of fear and panic and the unfocused but razor clear rush of adrenaline-boosted senses hit me the second I connected!

I made a quick decision and threw on my legion armor instead, and jumped directly to them.

"Borthun! I yelled. Its Dave!" He looked at me wild-eyed for a second, before recognition sank in.

"Dave, you're late, and we accept, we accept!" He said with a grin. I knew it was the adrenaline talking, but at least he was not completely panicked.

"Where's Yela?" I asked. I could sense her nearby, but the Sun was well set, and it was very much the dark of night now in Maldre's Crossing.

"Here!" She said from beneath a nearby table. She was carrying a bundle of possessions wrapped in a table cloth.

"Do you both have everything you want to take with you?" I asked.

As I asked this, there came a crash from behind me, and I turned to see two men on horses with spears crashing through the cloth wall around the dining area. Before I could react one of them threw a spear. As the spear flew past me I reached out and moved both men and their horses to the first place that came to me, the alley a couple streets over where I usually arrived. I heard Borthun scream as I did.

I turned to look at Borthun. The spear had struck him in the shoulder. He lay on the ground now with Yela holding him. A noise behind me made me turn again and I saw perhaps a dozen foot soldiers with spears and swords running towards the three of us.

"No!" I yelled without thinking, and reached out, for the first time in anger, and whipped every rock and pebble, every loose object within sight into a hurricane of debris that circled around the three of us. Heavy, light, blunt or sharp, thousands of little pieces of debris began pounding and cutting and whipping our attackers. My whirlwind assault quickly blunting their charge and I walked toward them, throwing chairs and tables and other large objects. Several times I saw spears or swords flashing in my direction, and I jumped myself out of the way.

I became my own maelstrom, my thoughts flashing on the image I remembered so well from my first visit to Obsidian. I stopped moving towards the soldiers in front of me and threw the blurred mass of objects in my cloud of debris high into the sky above us, leaving a vacuum of silence around us. With the clear view that gave me, I could focus on the attackers themselves, and with my awareness refocused, I reached out and threw everyone I could see in front of me violently backwards, crashing into the wall of the building, twelve feet from the ground where they fell, breathless, to the ground below.

A spear bounced of my armored side. I turned slightly and saw four soldiers charging me from the side. I screamed, and dumped the closest of them into the nearby sea with a thought. I let the closest of them reach me, and ignoring the sword that raked my chest I grabbed him with Light-amplified strength and crushed both his wrists. The viciousness of my act was like a bucket of ice water on my awareness. I was getting too close, letting my anger and the situation get to me. I threw the remaining two attackers into the sea, as I had the other one.

Finally with a free second in which to think, rather than react, I wrapped my mind around my friends and took them with me to Meadow.

"Ava!" Alert the staff! I'm here and I have a wounded man and frightened woman with me."

<Ginny!> I called out without waiting for Ava's answer.

<Dave?> She answered.

<I'm at the house, I have a person with a spear wound, I need help!>

<Jump me to you!> I had her beside me before she could complete the thought. She had obviously been in bed, and was wearing only a beautiful pair of blue panties. I noticed this in some basic, back level of my brain, as Ginny began examining Borthun. I had reacted so quickly that the spear was still in him.

"Dave, I"m going to need help getting this spear out of the shoulder. Apply pressure here and jump me up to our room!" I did both things, and looked up to see Hoot, Beau, Asa and Loretta all staring slack-jawed at us all.

"Loretta, get me some towels or something to put under him. Beau, Asa. I need you both here, Ginny's going to want some strong hands and arms in a minute to get the spear out.

<Dave!> I heard Ginny's thoughts and jumped her back to us. She had thrown on her Legion undershirt and shorts and was carrying her 'doctor's bag', a gift from Doc Aillard, which apparently is a bit of a traditional doctor thing.

As Ginny began directing Beau and Asa to remove the spear, my head cleared a little more. "This is silly!" I said. "Beau! Stand over there. Asa! You move over there. Ginny keep doing what you're doing and don't touch the spear."

I touched the spear with my thoughts, and Jumped it right out of Borthun's body and into Asa's hands. We all flinched a little as we heard Borthun roar in pain. The spear was out, and Asa stood holding it in his hands like it was a living thing.

I finally took the time to check on Yela, who still crouched by Borthun's shoulder, clutching him.

"Yela," I said to her. "Yela, look at me!" She finally tore her eyes from Borthun and looked at me.

"Dave, where are we, who are these people?"

"Yela, this is my home. The woman who is helping Borthun is my lover and soon she will be my wife." I told her, as I moved her back to sit on the couch a few feet away. "These other people are my employees and friends who live and work here taking care of my home. Can you remain calm, and accept that you are safe, while I go help my wife tend to Borthun?" She nodded her head, never taking her eyes from her mate.

"How does it look?" I asked as I knelt by Ginny's side. She had cut Borthun's shirt clean off him.

"He's lucky. The spear managed to miss any major blood vessels or organs, but that spear head left a pretty big hole, and tore up quite a bit of muscle and connecting tissue. He needs a surgeon, not a newly-minted doctor like me."

I looked her in the eyes and then kissed the tip of her nose. "Will you try something with me?"

"Yes, of course." The love of my life answered that question without a trace of doubt or hesitation.

<Join your mind with mine.> I thought as I reached out and meshed our minds together.

<Join your self with mine.> I thought. I reinforced our connection, wrapping it in Light. Our thoughts and memories and awareness blurred and blended, and we were joined.

As a single consciousness, the world around us seemed to glisten and sparkle with bits of Light, like diamonds and silver at the same time, reflected from everything. My/her gift and her/my knowledge focused our awareness upon the glittering tissues and glowing cells around the gaping wound. I/We poured Light into them, urging them to grow and heal, guiding them as they reconnected themselves into the familiar patterns the body's Light signatures remembered for them. Again and again I pulled the Light into us, and washed Borthun in it, keeping him unaware of his own pain and progress.

At last we saw the last little bit of fresh skin seal over, leaving a bright pink triangle of skin on the shoulder. I washed a Light-borne need for sleep through Borthun.

<It is done. He is asleep now.> We thought to those around us.

<Mary/Mom! Ginny's okay. She's with me. It was an emergency!> I/We managed to think before our unified consciousness collapsed in a flash of Light and then light.

Then blissful nothingness.

I woke up on my own bed, with Ginny beside me. As my eyes flickered open I heard a rustling nearby and turned my head to find Eru looking at me from a chair where he sat watchfully.

"Eru. How long have I been out?" I asked fuzzily.

"Two hours, Dave. You gave us all quite a scare."

I flushed the fuzziness and fatigue from my system. I scanned Ginny from head to toe without having to look at her and with a new understanding and appreciation. She was fine, but still soundly asleep.

"How's Borthun?" I asked, getting up.

"He is fine. He also sleeps still." Eru answered.

"And Yela?" I added as I headed for the shower.

"A bit concerned, confused, awe-stricken." Eru said. "At least we had some ability with their language, so we were able to communicate somewhat. I have been able to guide us all to a much better integration of the language in these hours. An active mind thinking in the language makes it much easier."

I took a quick shower and got dressed. I followed Eru to one of the downstairs bedrooms where they had put Borthun. Yela saw me walk in the door and she flew into my arms! I let her cry into my chest for a little while, staring at Arden and Chet over her shoulder. They both grinned back at me. I pulled back from her eventually, so I could look her in the eye.

"What happened to the Yela I know?" I asked. "She was as tough as any caravan guard, proud and strong!"

"I think that woman died amid the fighting in Maldre's Crossing." she sniffled. "Here in the afterworld there is only this crying wretch left."

"This not the afterworld Yela," I said, this is just another part of the world you know."

"I saw that spear bounce of of you! You were unharmed!" She said.

"Just a special kind of armor, that is all." I said reassuringly. "Arden, come here for a minute, would you?"

Arden walked over and stood beside us.

"This is my friend Arden. Have you two met?" Yela nodded.

I pinched the skin on the back of his hand.

"Ow!" He said, rubbing the spot. What was that for?"

I hauled back and punched Arden in the gut as hard as I could. He smiled.