The midday sun hung high above the village as Lassim followed Elder Daxion through the narrow streets.
Daxion led him through the village toward a cluster of houses on the far side. He stopped in front of a small home, a stone structure with a modest front yard. The door was slightly ajar, and the soft glow of a healing technique being used filtered out from inside.
"The healers are inside. They’ve been working non-stop," Daxion said, his tone lower now, out of respect for the citizens, now patients, within.
Lassim followed him inside. The air was cool and thick with the scent of herbs and some medicinal oils and potions that had been used.
A man lay on a low bed in the center of the room, his face pale and gaunt. Beside him knelt a young looking water elementalist with dark blue hair tied back in a neat braid that reached the middle of her back.
Her hands glowed faintly with a soothing blue light at the Spirit Ascension stage, level 1 power level as she channeled water mana over the worst and most gaunt, dried out portions of the man’s body.
Two nature elementalists, still in the Spirit Transformation stage helped with their green mana glowing faintly, standing beside her, assisting with the other aspects of the recovery—restoring muscle function and repairing some of the cellular damage caused by the life-draining attacks—via the leaves hovering gently over his body.
The water spirit warrior glanced up at the newcomers and gave a small nod of acknowledgment before turning back to her patient. "Leader Daxion. We’re just finishing up here. He’s stable for now, but it’s slow work. This is one of our more severe cases."
Lassim knelt beside her, observing the patient closely. The man’s skin was tight over his bones, his breathing shallow. He could feel the faint traces of abyssal corruption lingering within the body, though most of it had already been cleared.
Daxion nodded towards the woman at the center of the room, speaking with a pair of younger, supportive healers. "This is Mareen, our head healer. She’s been leading the efforts here. She will be able to make the most of your help."
Lassim’s eyes left the man and faced her directly to greet her, immediately noticing Mareen’s sharp gaze as she returned the gaze.
Daxion called to her. "Mareen, this is Lassim, the Sect Master’s personal disciple."
Mareen offered a quick nod, her face brightening a little. "Thank you for what you’ve done already to protect us like you did and getting rid of the threat for us." She wasted no time and gestured to the patient. "Please, show me what you’re able to do so that I can get a better idea of how you can assist. How would you heal this patient?"
Lassim returned to face the dried out man with Mareen still knelt beside him as she waited to see what he could do.
Lassim placed his hands gently on the patient’s chest as he summoned the power of his [Lifestream] technique, feeling the surge of water mana flow through him as it channeled outwards. The divine potency of his mana swirled like a cool river, flowing naturally toward the gaunt, weakened areas of the man’s body, filling the cracks where life force had been drained.
As Lassim focused, he directed the water mana to seek out the deeper damage in the patient’s cells across his body and circulating through the body’s natural pathways.
A soft glow surrounded the man’s body, and his color began to return rapidly. His shallow breathing deepened, and the tightness of his skin loosened as vitality crept back into him.
Mareen watched closely, her expression a mixture of curiosity and approval. "That’s an incredible technique," she said quietly, standing up as Lassim finished his work. "The energy is returning to him so much faster than what I’ve been able to do. What technique is that?"
Lassim rose to his feet, pulling back his mana as the man’s body stabilized. "It’s called [Lifestream], a technique I learned recently."
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Mareen’s brow furrowed. "[Lifestream]… I’ve never heard of it, but it seems much more advanced than my [Healing Waters]. The way it revitalized him—it’s not just healing physical injuries. It’s mending his life energy and rebuilding some of the fundamental broken connections for even his mana pathways.
I’d never be able to accomplish that without a deep mastery of [Healing Waters] like my mentor has or just a flat out better technique."
She reached out to touch the patient’s wrist, checking his pulse and energy flow. "This is remarkable. Your technique is more suited for these kinds of severe cases than anything we’ve been able to do with all three of us. With your help, we may be able to speed up the recovery of the others!"
Lassim gave a nod of acknowledgment, pleased to see that his technique was effective. He still had a lot to learn about the technique to achieve the ultimate goal for it that he wanted—using it effectively in battle—but this was proof that it could be a powerful tool regardless.
He’d seen it heal limbs after the Sect War when he helped triage the patients back at the sect, but seeing it easily cleanse the corruption and return life to someone so frail was a nice surprise. Its power truly held promise for the future.
At that moment, Daxion, who had been observing the demonstration quietly, coughed to get their attention, "Ahem. Well, you two seem to have things under control here. I’ll leave you to it and get back to overseeing the village’s return to normalcy. Lassim, I trust you and Mareen will handle the rest."
Lassim gave a respectful bow as Daxion left the house. He knew the elder had a heavy burden to carry, but now that the immediate threats had been dealt with, there was still plenty of work to be done. The healing team needed all the support they could get.
Mareen stood up with a bit of urgency, "Come, we should go on to the next patient," she said. "We have a few houses with patients in nearly equal states to visit, and with your technique, I think we can make a real difference to stabilize the worst of them today."
Lassim agreed, and together with the other two nature elemental healers that were Mareen’s temporary apprentices/assistants, Fris and Trista, they exited the small house, making their way to the next residence on Mareen’s list.
The streets of the village had grown busier, with miners and other workers returning to their daily tasks and hoping to restock on food supplies with fresh goods now that shops were beginning to open. The oppressive atmosphere from before was now mostly gone, replaced with a sense of cautious hope.
They arrived at a second home, a modest cottage nearby. The patient inside was another older man, his body similarly gaunt and weak from the Wraithmire Demons’ life-draining abilities. Lassim and Mareen entered, greeted by the man’s wife who stood anxiously by his bedside.
"Thank you for coming again Miss Mareen. I didn’t think you’d be back so soon." The woman half bowed with a bit of a hopeful look in her eyes. The woman appeared frail as well, but the man was clearly worse off as she was at least able to stand and move around.
Mareen knelt beside him, quickly assessing his condition. "Everything will be alright Adriana. I’ve got some assistance now and I think we’ll be able to have him make a significant recovery with Lassim’s help. We can help you after as well! Lassim, he’s still stable, but he’s been bedridden for days," she replied.
Lassim nodded and prepared to use [Lifestream] again. As he placed his hands over the man’s chest, he felt the familiar rush of water mana and allowed it to flow freely, just as he had before.
As Lassim worked, he did as usual with himself focusing intently on each small wound and drained spot in the man’s body. He carefully guided the energy into each area, one by one, making sure that every inch of damage was repaired. It was slow, meticulous work. His mind strained as he tried to manage every little detail of the healing process.
Mareen, standing by his side, observed for a moment before speaking up. She had gotten over the shock of seeing the activation and capability of this new technique after seeing him use it, but noticed something was off, "You’re working too hard," she said quietly.
Lassim glanced at her while still working, nearly interrupting his concentration slightly. Confused, he asked, "What do you mean?"
Mareen gestured to his hands, watching the way he carefully guided the mana. "You’re forcing the technique, directing every part of it manually. Like I said before, I’m not familiar with it, but is that how your technique is meant to be used?"
Lassim hesitated, thinking about her words. He had always assumed that he needed to control every aspect of the healing process, guiding the mana to where it was needed most. But Mareen’s question made him pause.
"What exactly do you mean? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do with healing techniques?" Lassim admitted, "I mean, I’ve never had any formal lessons on healing, but that’s just what I’ve assumed the technique needed, no?"
Mareen’s expression softened. "That explains it then. Your technique is powerful, there’s no doubt about that, but you’re overcomplicating it. Water elemental Healing techniques—especially ones like yours—aren’t meant to be micromanaged like this. The body knows how to heal itself and water healing techniques are defined by the element itself.
Water will go where it’s needed; like a dry riverbed refilling after a drought. The body is the dried riverbed and knows what "normal" should be. Your job is just to give it the push it needs. Let the technique do the work."
Lassim frowned, considering her advice. He had always thought that his role as a healer was to guide the energy directly, ensuring that every inch of damage was repaired. That’s how he was able to help regrow full limbs with no wasted energy to unnecessary parts and how he’d seen other techniques used.
But, now that he thought about it, all of the healers he’d met so far have been nature elemental spirit warriors. Perhaps their techniques needed to be more directed as they used leaves and flowers and roots to heal in a directed manner. What if Mareen was right? What if he was making it harder than it needed to be?
"Alright. I’ll see if I can do what you’re saying. Let’s give it a shot!" Happy to have some actual healing advice for a change, he tried again.
This time, he just shut off the instinctive urge to focus on each individual wound, allowing the [Lifestream] technique to flow how it wanted, more freely, trusting the mana to follow the natural pathways of the body. He felt the energy spread out, finding its way to the damaged areas without his direct interference.
It was almost exhilarating watching how the mana began to work when he wasn’t stressing and managing it like before.
It felt "right" and more natural this way and even allowed him a more complete picture of the patient’s damaged areas as they were indeed like a dried riverbed receiving the flash flood of water to restore it all.
To his surprise, it worked. The man’s color began to return even faster than before, within just 30 seconds instead of the three minutes or so it had taken for him to heal the last man that had already received considerable healing before he arrived. Not only that, Lassim felt the strain on his mind ease by nearly 95%! The technique was doing the work for him—he just needed to provide the energy.
Mareen smiled as she saw the change. "Much better. See? You don’t need to control everything. Healing with water is different from what you were doing before. Trust your technique, trust the body to heal itself.
Although, I almost want to punch you now after seeing how much faster you healed him. That technique is just complete unfair!"
Lassim smirked, feeling a wave of relief but also embarrassment for using such a powerful technique like an idiot. "Thank you. I’ve never had any training or someone to show me how to use it and I’ve been using it all wrong."
Mareen chuckled softly. "It’s easy to think that more control equals better results. I would also assume you’ve probably only ever seen or interacted with nature healers too. Am I right?"
"Yeah, pretty much." Lassim scratched the back of his head and chuckled.
He had been overthinking his technique, trying to do everything himself when he should have trusted the power of [Lifestream] to do the heavy lifting. It was an amazing lesson, one that opened his eyes to the true potential of his technique.
As he finished healing the man, Lassim stood up and did the same as the woman was now in tears, hunched over and hugging her husband whose face and gauntness had completely disappeared. He returned to the man she fell in love with and even looked slightly younger than he had been before.
Lassim’s hand touched her back as he repeated his technique on her body as well, feeling a sense of accomplishment as she looked much better and even more youthful within just 15 seconds of [Lifestream].