She immediatly reached for her bow when she saw the man kneeling over the fallen figure. Before pulling it free, she cursed her ignorance and reached for her sword instead. She was not in the open woods, and should there be any more attackers, they could very well be upon her before she could loose a shot in such confines.
She stepped forward to confront the man, then stopped as she heard Ely speak. She knew this man and was concerned not for what it seemed to Dani he had done, but for the fallen woman. Perhaps she was rash in assuming the worst.
Thinking it best to let Ely handle things, she was the trained healer after all and knew this man, she stepped to the side and looked about the room for any other signs of danger or what had occured. Being careful to mark the doorways.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
There was no patience or compassion in his voice. Whilst it was hard to see precisely what Shen was doing at that distance, a sullen glow spread about before him and he seemed very still, his chin tucked to his chest.
The light was not much, but there was some blood spattered about and strangely enough, what looked like a handful of coins.
The light died and Shen took a ragged breath, speaking with some weariness in his voice.
"I am sure she will be fine. You may wish to catch her assassin and standing about isn't likely to help you a great deal."
Ely made a sound far back in her throat. She was a cheerful girl more often than not, The Cathian enjoyed being around people. She also preferred to believe the best of them here in Wistvale. Shen, however, had just hit the wrong lever and Ely's quick temper poured out.
"I don't need you to tell me what I should do, Shen. I do realize, however, that you believe everyone hereabouts could use your... helpful... suggestions."
Ely cheeks burned, in fact she was getting rather hot. She ran over to Iona and brushed hair away from her brow. If there was an assassin and currently she only had Shen's word for that, Miss Iona might say differently, Shen's cold attitude definitely did not do anything to build trust.
"Tauer, Dani there are two hallways on either side of the building, will you check them for others harmed? There are torches at the beginning of each you will need to light."
Ely looked back to Iona who she had tried to cradle against her thigh. The woman was shivering and Ely tugged Iona's robes tighter around her.
"Miss? Did you see who it was?"
She glanced at Shen again. If he was so callous, as his attitude suggested, why would he bother to heal Iona?
Catgirl Extraordinaire
“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.”
Tauer [M:150:160:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=540&page=1#18960][b]While the Light's away, the Shadows will play.[/b]
Tauer had thought that perhaps Ely and Shen were friends, but because he had just witnessed the Cathian girl lose her temper with the dark-clad man the demonkin supposed they were more like work colleagues; familiar with one another but not necessarily friends.
The suggestion of an assassin being here in the House of Healing put Tauer on edge. They tended to keep to the shadows. Killing was their art. One could be watching them right now. A chill ran down the demonkin's spine at the thought.
Hesitantly, and somewhat reluctantly, Tauer agreed to go search one of the other hallways. He hoped Dani would join him, so they could look together, but since there were two of them and two hallways, it wasn't hard to think that that meant they were splitting up.
The demon prince took a deep breath to get his courage in gear before going off to look for that torch Ely was talking about.
It was the man that had passed them on the street! No wonder Ely had seemed so familiar with him. They both seemed to work in the same field. She thought nothing of his attitude as clearly he was busy caring for someone he knew and such can put anyone on edge.
She paused only long enough to see which hallway Tauer chose and to ask a question.
"Shen, did you see which way the assassin went?"
She assumed if he had he would have said something, but better safe than sorry.
As she waited for a reply she moved in the opposite direction of Tauer and grabbing the torch in her off hand peered down the hallway.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
Celaena looked up at the building she was standing in front of; The house of Galena. She had finally made it, and she couldnt help the excited smile that crept onto her lips at the thought of learning more healing. Taking a deep breath and then letting it out slowly, she began making her way up the stairs, taking care to not go too fast, as she didnt want to seem like an overeager child. Once she reached the doors, she paused. She could hear voices, and it seemed like they were talking about something important. After several moments of hesitation, she slowly edged closer and stuck her head through the door and peered into the room. She was surprised by what she saw, and she stepped the rest of the way past the doors and looked at the scene nervously. There was a man, a woman and a cathian on the floor, and the woman seemed to be injured. There was another woman who had a bow on her back with a torch in her hand and looked to be about to go down a hallway. "Um, excuse me? I hope Im not interrupting anything, but I heard this was the place to go to learn more about healing?" she gave a nervous, hesitant smile, unable to keep her gaze from the woman who was hurt.
Shen only looked at Ely for the barest of moments. The Cathian was now close enough to see the severity of the attack. He neck had been neatly sliced open, from ear to ear. Shen was covered in her blood, or at least his hands and his wrists were. He was sweating profusely, his face rather strained with the effort of containing the dame. A torn drab of cloth was over the wound but was little but a sopping wet mess now, no longer capable of stopping blood loss.
Luckily, Shen's magic had knitted the flesh rather well.
"Pressure." Ely didn't need an explanation for that word, she was well versed in Medicine. Shen moved his hands to allow her to help and then cupped his over Iona's neck once more. It took a moment, his eyes closed but his eyelids flickering. Again that warm glow, perhaps not as bright this time. Ion's skin took on the warmth and the glow and more of the savage wound was sealed, stemming the loss of blood significantly.
Shen gasped then. It might not seem like much, but he'd had to keep Iona's heart from simply stopping. It almost had. The wound was not neat, though it was precise. Whatever weapon had been used was designed to do terrible, ragged damage.
Slumping on his knees now, he swallowed and shaking his head, he pressed his glasses further up his nose. Iona was still not stirring.
"They moved much too quickly in the dark. I could not tell you which way they went. Look for some clue."
She gave a nod of understanding, not sure if Shen would see it. He obviously had concerns of his own and she did not want to take him further from his work. She just hoped the pair of Healers would be enough to save the poor woman.
Had this been the the woods, Dani would know just how to look for signs of the assassin's passage. But this was a building, with hard stone walls and floors that left little possibility for tracks unless they neglected sweeping the floors, which she doubted, but she had to start with what she knew.
Sweeping the torch low as she held her sword out to one side she checked the floors for anything out of the ordinary. Her eyes also darted to the walls and even the ceiling for hiding places. Places where a predator would await its prey. Slowly and carefully she began to make her way down the hall as she whispered an almost silent prayer for guidance.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
Tauer was probably the closest to Celaena, the most likely to hear her faint voice or see her silhouette in the doorway.
As for Celaena herself, the room was still quite dark and not at all what one might expect in a Healing house. In fact, if the young girl was familiar with other such houses this one was the antithesis of them. Were she at all timid or uncertain she might even run back out the door.
Ely, meanwhile, had gone into assistant mode. She automatically put pressure on the wound when Shen spoke. It was what she had been trained to do in Brindisi and she did it here without thought. Thoughts would distract her. Thoughts would give her fear something to grip and hold on to. Thoughts would have her curled into the tiniest corner she could find and covering her eyes.
She had seen horrifying things in the hospital in Brindisi. People with burns, lacerations, disease, and the worst wounds from wars imaginable. Ely hated them all. The more she was exposed to them the more she did her best to defeat them. She had no healing magic at all, however. She had to battle such things with the only thing left to fight with, medicine. She learned every thing she could from how to suture wounds to the properties of every herb.
A low moan came from Iona and Ely glanced down. The slash across her throat was horrible. The Cathian girl was suddenly ashamed of her attitude earlier, too. For lashing out at Shen without realizing why he was so uncaring. He had been distant because he was trying to knit Iona's flesh back together. He could not spare the energy to be welcoming or polite. Miss Iona was much the same.
It was very dark in Dani's hallway. The torch illuminated it somewhat but there were corners, doors, other rooms that sucked away the light as she passed. Nevertheless, there were smudges on the stone floor here and there that might have been footprints headed deeper inward.
As much as she wanted to, she could not take the time for a full search of every room and corner. She settled to quick checks of closed doors to see if they were locked or appeared recently opened. If unlocked she would open them to sweep her torch in the room for a check of anything that caught her eye as unusual. If the doors stood open, she would pull them shut after her check in the hopes that should anyone prove to be hiding within that she missed, she would hear the door with her sharp ears.
Her main focus were the smudges on the floor. It wasn't much, and could prove to be nothing, but it was the best she had to go on at the moment. She followed them as close as she could, being wary enough to watch out ahead of her for an ambush, not that she could see much by the torchlight. She needed more light. Perhaps there were windows nearby she could open or other torches she could light.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
Tauer [M:150:160:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=540&page=1#18960][b]While the Light's away, the Shadows will play.[/b]
Tauer had just grabbed the torch from the wall, when he noticed someone enter the House of Galena. It was a young woman with dark hair. She had asked a question upon entering the darkened room which the demon prince almost hadn't heard.
"So they tell me." He responded in a slightly hushed voice. "Come with me and remain vigilant."
The demonkin turned and headed down the hallway, secretly grateful for the company if the girl decided to follow, but also hoping she was not the assassin.
Celaena glanced at him in surprise, and after a moments hesitation and a quick glance towards the group on the floor, scurried off after the very blonde male. "Whats happened here? What happened to the woman?" her eyes swept the air around them, and her voice was nervous. She wrapped her arms around herself, wondering why she had to remain vigilant, hoping the reason wouldnt end in a fight.
Ely [M:164:1653:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=394&page=1#14814][b]A soul on fire...[/b][0:Snuffed][1:Flame On!]
There were other light sources. Now that Dani was looking for them she could see the iron brackets outside each small room that held a ball-like iron lantern. Each lantern, if investigated, would prove to have a generous amount of cotton batting soaked in whale oil. They gave less light than a torch but lasted a lot longer and she could light them as she went.
There was something else visible, too. At the farthest end of her torchlight a pale shape could be seen as the light went past. The shape looked very similar to a limb or more correctly a human leg.
It was not moving.
On the other side of the room where Tauer had caught up Celaena darkness still reigned beyond the wide circle of his torch. Tauer and Celaena's hallway was utterly silent. No voice, no rustle of possible people working, and no other sounds that accompanies all places of healing.
For Ely, Shen and Iona the battle for life was no longer being fought. They had won. The flesh around Iona's horrible laceration was knitted back together. In the widest parts of the wound new healthy, pink flesh could be seen. Ely was tentatively cleaning the blood that still covered Iona's neck and face. Her voice was quiet when she looked up at Shen, handing him a damp cloth.
She paused in her lighting of the small lanterns as the flash of pale skin caught her eye. It looked like the assassin had come this way if she see saw what she thought she just saw.
"I found someone else!"
She cried, hoping the empty hallway would carry the sound back to the healers. She gave no attempt at stealth as her torch and the lanterns would have already given her away to anyone watching from the shadows.
She moved to where she had seen the leg, careful to glance ahead of her for any signs of danger as she moved. She prayed she wasn't too late.
"I do not aim with my hand; he who aims with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I aim with my eye.
I do not shoot with my hand; he who shoots with his hand has forgotten the face of his father.
I shoot with my mind.
I do not kill with my gun; he who kills with his gun has forgotten the face of his father.
I kill with my heart."
Tauer [M:150:160:][D3v:http://rpgmenagerie.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=cs&thread=540&page=1#18960][b]While the Light's away, the Shadows will play.[/b]
Without looking back at the girl, eyes ever focused on what may be hiding in the shadows, Tauer spoke in almost a whisper.
"Apparently that woman was attacked but I don't know by whom? This is my first time here, too, so you now know just as much as I do.
What's your name? I'm Tauer. Do you have a weapon or have talents in magic? I wouldn't feel too great knowing I'd brought along an unarmed young lady to find an assassin."