Book 2: Chapter 15: The Healer (2)
From nearly the moment Sen applied the poultice to the older woman’s leg, he was in crisis mode. It was a constant race between him and doom. He raced to make elixirs that would shore up the woman’s energy. He hurriedly threw together mixtures to combat her sudden fever. Then, he had to make what amounted to low-powered versions of cleansing pills in liquid form to help wash away the flood of impurities that suddenly crashed into her blood. By the time he managed that, he discovered that the poultice had soaked up its limit of whatever was damaging her leg. So, it was back to the stove to make a fresh poultice. On and on and on it went, always rushing to keep the woman alive, to keep just one step ahead of seemingly inevitable failure. For three days, that task consumed every waking moment and every ounce of concentration that Sen could muster.
He barely slept. If not for the superior recovery abilities that body cultivation offered and the ability to flood his body with qi, Sen never could have kept up the pace. After a while, Sen started to feel like he’d been trapped inside some kind of nightmare where there was no success, just a constant battle to stave off the worst. Yet, in the end, it wasn’t a nightmare and Sen did manage to succeed in keeping the older woman alive. In the late afternoon of the third day, Luo Min’s mother stabilized. Her color improved, her breathing eased, and the fever broke. He needed to change the poultice again, but even that wasn’t as bad as it had been. The flesh beneath was no longer mottled, and he thought he could see where the original injury was, although he still couldn’t tell what it had been. Still, Sen couldn’t help but heave a sigh of relief as he checked the woman over with a brief sweep of his qi. There were still a lot of problems to deal with, but he thought that he could leave her unattended for a few hours while he got some sleep.
He left the older woman to her rest. She’d need to bathe the next day, but that was a problem that the older woman and her daughter could sort out for themselves. In fact, as far as Sen was concerned, the two women could sort out all of their own problems for at least the next three hours. He needed food and sleep, and he probably needed them in that order. He’d only managed to sneak a few bites of food here and there, and it was finally catching up with him. Unfortunately, Luo Min was waiting when Sen came out from the private sleeping area. He was tempted to simply ignore her and go sleep, but she looked even more exhausted than he felt. He paused on his way to the door and looked at her.
“How is she, Cultivator Lu?”
“She’s not healed, but she’s better. Stable. Enough that I’m not worried about leaving her to rest for the night without keeping a constant watch.”
“Will she live?”
Sen gave himself a moment to think that through. He wasn’t comfortable promising an outcome like that. Auntie Caihong had explicitly warned him not to do so.
He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “I hope she will. I think she will, but I can’t guarantee it if that’s what you’re looking for.”
The young woman looked a little disappointed, but there was still some relief in her expression. “I understand. Thank you for helping her, Cultivator Lu.”
“You’re welcome,” said Sen, feeling inexplicably uncomfortable at the exchange.
With that, he retreated to his tent. He set up an obscuring formation out of pure habit, ate something from his storage ring that he didn’t even taste, and dropped into a dreamless slumber.
***
While the next few days weren’t precisely easy for Sen, they were more structured. Bit by bit, he started to address the other problems that were plaguing the elder Luo woman, who was finally coherent enough that she told Sen her name, Luo Ping. In some ways, it was more mentally taxing for Sen because he needed to calibrate the elixirs he made far more precisely than the ones he’d been throwing together in a panic during those first few days. Then, it had been one last ditch effort after another. Now, he had to weigh if the fix for one problem would exacerbate another.
With her system still weakened from the long-term illness, he needed to strengthen her heart and circulation, but he also needed her to eat. The usual components he would use for strengthening her heart would likely suppress her appetite or leave her feeling nauseous. So, he found himself wandering the fields of the Luo farm, searching for alternatives to what he had in his storage ring. On more than one occasion, Luo Min went with him on these rambling hikes. He’d describe the kind of conditions necessary for the sorts of plants he needed, then she would guide him to the right places on the farm. Sometimes, he found the things he needed, sometimes he stumbled across alternatives, and sometimes he failed. In the end, though, he succeeded often enough that Luo Ping was able to keep down some food.
As her strength slowly returned, Sen was able to finally spend a little time examining the original wound on her leg. While the flesh around it had mostly healed, that spot remained stubbornly inflamed and always on the cusp of setting off another storm of infection. After what Sen considered far too long a time staring at the obvious, he realized that there must still be something lodged in the flesh there. Knowing what that meant, he put off the conversation for nearly two hours. Then, it struck him that he was actively harming the woman by delaying the conversation. Kneeling next to Luo Ping, he tried to hide how grim he found the subject.
“I believe that the reason your leg isn’t healing properly is because there is still something in there. Something that continues to cause problems.”
The older woman gave him a level look before she said, “What does that mean?”
Sen just pushed the words out, fearing that any hesitation would mean abandoning the topic entirely. “I’d need to cut open your leg, at least a bit, and take out whatever is lodged in there.”
Luo Ping grimaced, but she didn’t seem surprised. “If it won’t heal as it is, then you can’t leave it like that, can you?”
Sen didn’t answer immediately. He could leave it that way, but he wouldn’t. Not unless the older woman told him to leave it be. He couldn’t force her to endure a process like getting cut open against her will. Well, he supposed he probably could if it came to it, but he wouldn’t.
“It would be best not to leave it as it is,” he said.
Luo Ping weighed those words for most of a minute before she answered. “Then, you’ll just have to do whatever’s necessary. My Min trusts you, so I’ll trust you.”
Sen found himself moved by that declaration. His experiences with other people since leaving the mountain had not left him with a positive view of people in general. Most of them had seemed selfish, stupid, or both to him. He wondered if it was just the sharp contrast that made that simple declaration of trust so much more powerful. It was a matter that he’d need to ponder later. Sen offered the woman a bow and explained what he planned to do and how. He wasn’t sure if the woman needed all the details, but he didn’t want to catch her off guard. She certainly looked like she would have preferred fewer details given how often she winced, but she just offered him a sharp nod when he was done.
“When will you do it?” she asked.
“Soon. Within the hour. I need to prepare some things first.”
Sen left Luo Ping to her own thoughts and started preparing what he’d need. Mostly, he needed something to numb the area around the old injury site. He could simply put her to sleep, but Sen was very hesitant to do that with someone who was so desperately ill, so very recently. No, he decided, numbing the area is the safer path. Much like the painkiller, though, he had a basic recipe for making this kind of solution. It took him around half an hour to make it, then he turned to the other problem.
He needed a blade, and one more delicate than his jian. Luo Min showed him the few knives that they had on hand. He picked the smallest of them and, promising to replace it, cycled up his metal qi. He used that energy to reshape the blade. He slowly thinned the metal down, while also reinforcing it. He didn’t want to imagine what would happen if the blade broke off in the woman’s leg. Then, he used a touch of fire qi to sterilize the blade. He glanced up to see a look of pure wonder on Luo Min’s face. She hurriedly looked away, but Sen felt a little smile cross his face. He supposed that there was something magical about watching someone remake a familiar tool into something quite different.
Gathering up the knife, the numbing agent, and a healing salve he’d made the day before, Sen went back to Luo Ping. He explained what he was doing as he slowly dripped the numbing solution over the area and then spread it out with a bit of cloth. He was very careful not to let the liquid touch his fingers, though. Losing sensation in his fingers while cutting into someone seemed like the height of folly to Sen. Before he made the incision, he turned to Luo Ping.
“If you feel any severe pain, tell me. I can always add more numbing agent, but that only works if I know that you need it.”
“I’ll tell you if it comes to that,” the stoic older woman said.
Sen had his doubts about that, but he proceeded anyway. For all of the stress and worry he put himself through, the whole thing took about five minutes. It turned out that a sharp little sliver of bone had gotten lodged into the flesh of the woman’s calf. It took a bit of effort and some very careful cutting, but Sen pulled the little piece of bone free. Then, he spread the salve over the area. He put a bandage over the area and gently secured it in place. He had contemplated stitching the wound, but he truly did not trust his own skills in that area. As long as the woman didn’t thrash around, the incision should heal fine with the aid of the salve.
“That’s it?” Luo Ping asked.
“I believe so,” said Sen. “I suppose we’ll know by tomorrow.”
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