The Healer And The Boneless

Chapter 18

 I've come to terms that sword fighting wasn't my most vital asset, but I was still determined to be better at it. Eria and I had met a couple of young girls who wanted to join us. I picked up arrows from the marked trees and fake people. I found one hidden behind a rock; it was snapped in half. I walked back to the training site; Ivar was quiet this morning and only patiently watched me as he thought about our next move and when we go to France. Sleep starting to feel like a waste of time. I spent a lot of the time practicing my healing powers. Seeress tells me I needed to prioritize my abilities over comeback tactics. She was right.

"These arrows break easily. How effective are they in battle?" I asked, setting the broken ones in a pile.

"They are effective when you throw them from a very great distance."

"What is the most effective weapon on the battlefield, then? a sword?" Ivar smiled and climbed down from where he was sitting using his wooden sticks. I followed him back to the village, "The most effect Is.... a mace or Warhammer."

"Then why don't we make more of those, why don't we have more people training with those?"

"Because they are more expensive. I have selective people using those weapons, and they will stand in the middle, the people in the front will be using spears. Now, spears are cheap and very effective in battle, and they will be in the front. Swords and everything else is in the back, most likely being lead by me."

"I understand. I still want to be strong enough to use a sword or a mace."

"You are strong; it takes a lot more power than you think to use an arrow, pulling strings." For once, he made me feel some confidence after weeks of feeling like all the work I was doing was for nothing. Not that I needed the validation, but it was a nice compliment.

"I should go and meet and Seeress, have to practice my healing." I wave my hands in front of me, and he laughs.

"Come back in time for dinner, I'd like for the two of us to be alone. Talk about this war we are doing." He stammers. "I thought you talked about those things with your brothers present."

He shrugs, "I do, but I just want to know your opinion if we're going to do this together and maybe even get to know you a little more."

I smiled and felt a rush of nervous start to settle in my stomach. "Of course," I said and ran my way to Seeress home. All the while, I couldn't shake this stupid smile off of my face.

"Show me more of my past," I asked, sitting down in the same chair as I did the first time. "My child, I thought we had already fixed that." She protested but still, I recognized the same purple liquid as she poured it into the kettle and began to warm it. "I remember why my mother had to have my memory taken from me, but I don't know why I have what I have or why the village was so quick to want to kill me."

Seeress smiled and picked up the kettle and set it on the table in front of her. I signed in frustration. "Seeress, I don't know my full name. I don't know if I even had a father. I don't remember most of my childhood. I keep feeling this emptiness inside of me, and it doesn't matter what I do, be it tending a farm or try to use a sword, it doesn't matter how skilled I am with a bow and arrow, or how much I try to strengthen this gift I have, there Is this hole inside of me."

She went quiet and poured the liquid into a cup and handed it to me. "I'll give you a stronger dose. I don't know if it will work."

"It will." I closed my eyes and drank the liquid.

I was back in my house, the same stillness, and perfect vibrant energies as the first time. I felt whole. My mother was in the field, picking corn. Her hair is lighter than mine. At the edge of the hill where the sun seemed to tuck herself in, emerged a shadow of a man. I walk closer, trying to block the sun as I try to recognize him. I know it's not my brother because this man is skinner and less muscly than him. He also had a distinguishing limp.

He takes off his hat and waves, his features becoming clearer.

My father: William, I wanted to run and meet him in the middle of the field, and when He was finally standing in front of me, I reached out to touch his dirty, kind face, my hand touched nothing, "NIA?" he sang when he entered the home.

He was a healer like me. He had long arms and a diamond face, with bright blue eyes and soft white hair. He was always away from home, tending other families.

Young me rushes to his arms, and I realized this was the last time I ever saw him. My father was at heart a traveler, and he could not stay still.

My town was raided 2 days before my father's arrival, and this man lost both his young son and wife in the raid. In his anguish, he had taken me hostage and told my father that if he did not bring his family back from the dead, he would kill me.

"Maybe then you'll understand my sorrow, William," he cries and tightens his grip on me. My father knew that bringing them back to life was a bad idea and whatever rises from the dead isn't human, their soul already gone and instead replace with something maleficent.

The man kept persisting so, without a choice, my father brought them both back to life, his eyes turned white as he did so, the women opened her eyes to reveal bright red ones, she sat up quickly and jumped on her husband, digging into his throat with her nails and pulling out. The crowd gasps and I dive into my father's safe arms. He tells me to run home, but instead, people from the crowd grab me. They chained my father and claimed that he was using dark magic, he was friends with the devil. That day they hanged him, they spared my life, but they warned my mother that if they ever found out I had the same ability as my father, I would face the same fate.

My brother sided with the townspeople; my mother was hurt by his words. My brother made It clear that he never thought that a human could have my father's powers. I felt so much rage, I regretted ever saving his life. Years later, my mother and I worked every day despite being sick to make ends meet at the farm while my brother spent most of his time getting drunk or spending our little earned money in betting games. He was selfish and an asshole, but I loved him like a brother still. Memories of my brother and I playing pretend and all the times he had given me his meal, so I at least had something to eat. He was then stabbed, and I couldn't bear his cries at night or watch my mother try to calm his fever as she fell into a deep depression, for she loved him too, despite his careless ways. I remember running to the spirit lady; she smiled as I said goodbye to my mother while we heard the village people in the near distance. "I love you, Theophania. You are the light in my life."

Theophania?

The spirit lady was sweating and nervously shaking as she Cautiously tried to pull me inside the house, yet not wanting to separate me from my mother. "I don't mean to rush you, but they are incredibly near. Please, we have to hurry."

I watched my mother give me one last kiss on the forehead and then run into the forest, disappearing from my life forever.

The women sat me down, "Nia, what I'm going to do is entirely for your safety, I'm sorry."

And then my head went spinning, a rush of cold air ran through my body.

My name isn't Nia. It's Theophania De Oro, daughter of a healer, and future Queen of England.

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I know I haven't updated in a long time, but I'm trying my very best. Thank you for your support. Don't forget to vote, comment, and share.

(Chapter is divided into 2 parts. Part 2 coming soon!)