The Dragon Thief [I]

Damaged but not Dead [24]

Damaged but not Dead

Nox

Chaos ensnared the estate the moment the mages realised that the wards they planned to reinforce had already been breached.

By the time Nox had found the Summoner trespassing the estate's front region, Lanna was of course already on site. She seemed to always be in the thick of trouble. Smoke demons engulfed her and Nox watched in horror as her head was submerged by stifling smog, the feeling of choking on it all too familiar to him. He acted on impulse and threw himself into the danger. Nox remembered squaring off against the Summoner, conjuration versus conjuration, when suddenly Lucien appeared before the discarded grimoire.

The foolish bastard, Nox cursed as he recalled the split second it took the bone demon to rip through Lucien's innards like he was no more than a paper doll. He had been so careless to stroll out of the manor and into the Summoner's line of sight without a lick of awareness for his surroundings.

A hunched figure pushed through a creaky door and met with Nox, bringing him back to the present. The tense apprentice was leaning into an alcove nervously waiting for news of the bedridden witch. The healer, summoned all the way from Lalgery, curtly nodded in greeting.

"The young man has sustained a great wound to his abdomen that pierces through the skin and deeply into the flesh. His organs failed at the time of injury. There was a considerate amount of blood loss and mana loss."

Nox paled at the news.

"What does that mean? Is he okay?"

The healer huffed and nodded like a riled hen.

"Yes, he's okay. Your Master sustained his mana long enough for me to arrive and heal the witch. He will be unable to move as freely as he once did for a while, but his organs are mended, as is his flesh, to a healer's best ability. The girl however..."

Nox stilled. "Is there a matter?"

"She will not let me heal her," the old woman scoffed. "She will need to restore her mana soon if she wishes not to suffer withdrawals."

"I will see to it," Nox vowed, fuelled with annoyance at word of Lanna's unsurprising stubbornness. He could guess already that she had insisted the healer's magic be spent solely on Lucien. She had done the same when Alderyth tried to aid her.

"Alderyth will receive my bill shortly. Remind him that we agreed on a prompt payment," the crone announced before leaving. Nox took a moment to steady his nerves, then entered the room.

The curtains of two elaborate wooden windows were drawn shut, night already fallen outside over the estate. The room was generous with a roaring fireplace crackling to one side and a large four-poster bed to the other. In an old armchair sat Lanna, her scarlet hair cascading in waves over a shoulder like a cataract of rubies. She looked exhausted, those familiar black bags returning to beneath her eyes, now dull and washed out, an after-effect to summoning her soul bound creature. Still, as the shadows of the fire flickered across her face, Nox found unmatched beauty in her. He was lost in awe as she sat silently, watching the resting figure on the bed. Certainly now was not the time to delve into his complicated feelings towards the woman he once was rejected by, but he could not help admiring her in passing.

As he approached the bed closer, he could hear Lucien's shallow and difficult breaths. Looking over the witch, Nox saw he was in a cold sweat, droplets falling off his pained face and soaking the sheets around him. The blankets covered only half of Lucien's body, revealing the man's upper chest bare as he wore no shirt, bandages wrapped around his stomach and across his torso. Nox winced at the sight of the fevered witch, reduced to a hot, injured mess.