CHAPTER 40: NO PAIN, NO GAIN

The water basin provided with every room was a bit too small for their purposes, so Calen asked Lydia to borrow one of the fancy bathrooms available to Elders.

When they arrived at the reserved chamber, Calen was rather impressed - the room looked like it was inside a tree, the wooden walls grown rather that assembled. The central space was occupied by a medium sized pool, large enough for two or three people, but not big enough to swim in.

"Did Elira give you instructions on how to use it, or are just going to jump in and hope for the best?" Isara asked.

"I’m supposed to put this in the water." He took out a small pouch containing sliver powder. "Then I need to wait until the liquid starts glowing, upon which I am to enter the pool."

"Do you need to... you know...?"

"What?"

Her cheeks reddened a little.

"Get naked." She whispered.

"Oh!" He exclaimed in surprise. "No, I can stay fully clothed, but I will probably just take off the shirt. Do you really think I would have asked you to help me if I had to get naked?"

"I mean if you’re life might epend on it, then I sure hope so."

"Fair point."

Calen approached the pool, and poured the contents of the pouch into the clear water.

"Now we need to wait a few minutes."

Isara observed the slowly dissolving powder, and asked quietly:

"How much is it going to hurt?"

"Not that much at the beginning, but the pain will get more intense as the time goes on, reaching it’s peak after half an hour. From then it will get weaker until it completely disappears - I can leave the pool once I’m not in pain anymore and the water turns clear again."

"Are you scared?"

Calen didn’t respond immediately, as if he had to search his own feelings.

"Nervous, I think. It won’t damage me, but I’m not particularly keen on bathing in something that will feel like acid."

The water in the pool was already turning brighter and cloudy - it would be ready in a few moments, so Calen took off his shirt, and threw it in the ground.

"Don’t die Cal, or I’ll resurrect you to kill you again myself." Isara said.

"I’ll try not to."

The liquid filling the stone bath was now completely white, illuminating the room with an unnatural glow. Calen sat at the edge of the pool, and carefully submerged himself in the elixir.

He felt the pain right away, but it wasn’t too bad at the moment - it was like getting pricked by a rather dull needle, but on his entire body at the same time.

Fortunately he didn’t have to keep his head underwater, as long as most of his body was in contact with the liquid its miraculous effects would work.

Calen found a risen part of the pool designed to sit on, and assumed a meditative position - it was going to be a long hour.

***

Twenty minutes later the pain intensified significantly, the annoying pricking it was replaced by a feeling of being boiled alive.

It wasn’t quite as bad as what he experienced in the forest, but it lasted significantly longer - and it would get much worse very soon.

"Are you alright?" Isara asked.

From her perspective it looked like he was simply sitting in glowing water, completely motionless.

Calen would have loved to give a snarky response about his wellbeing, but unfortunately he couldn’t trust his voice now, so he just nodded.

He felt the pain increase again, but he only gritted his teeth, not giving any indication as to his suffering.

***

Pain. Pure agony.

Calen felt as if his skin was on fire, but he still refused to scream - the halfway point was swiftly approaching, and he felt that something more was waiting for him, something ready to explode at any moment.

Then it hit him.

Something unlike anything he ever felt - his body was burned, freezed and torn apart, in that moment he felt as if all infernal tortures were inflicted on him at once.

His knuckles were completely white, and his palms were bleeding, cut by his own nails.

But he didn’t scream.

He refused to.

***

Calen lost any sense of time, he might have been beholden to pain for seconds or hours, he simply did not know.

When he regained his bearings, he noticed that it didn’t hurt as much anymore - the water around him was significantly darker than at the beginning, and almost translucent.

He was nearing the end.

***

Five minutes later Calen dragged his body out of the pool, laid flat on the cold dirt floor, closed his eyes, and simply enjoyed not being in pain anymore.

His blissful state lasted until he heard a quiet sob from nearby. He sat up and located Isara, who was wiping her eyes - he also didn’t miss the fact that the silver ring around her arm was giving off a soft glow.

"What happened?" He asked, his voice full of concern despite his tiredness.

Isara stood up, approached him, and enveloped him in a gentle hug.

"I think I understand the blessing now."

She proceeded to explain her experience on watching him:

"When you went in I had a sudden feeling like something was wrong, but not in a mundane sense, it was much more profound."

She didn’t let go of him while she continued her story.

"As time went by, that feeling got stronger and stronger, until I realised what the source of it - you. It was a subconscious feeling that you were suffering, I didn’t feel what you felt, but I understood you were in enormous pain. When I saw that the ring was glowing I understood it was one of the functions of the blessing."

"One of the functions?"

She finally let him go, but didn’t move away too much.

"Yeah, just think about it - if this was the only purpose of the thing it would be a pretty crappy blessing, sure it can warn you the other person is in danger, but it would also be pretty distracting if that happens during a group fight."

Isara had a point, on its own the effect was a double edged sword.

"Do you think it works with other things than being in danger?"

"Well, I can’t read your thoughts or understand what you’re currently feeling, so probably."

"That’s a really bizzare effect for a blessing to have - what if only one person is blessed at the same time?"

Isara turned away and coughed.

"...I have a feeling this specific one can be gained only by two people."

Calen squinted at her, but she ignored his stare and stood up.

"Here." She handed him his shirt. "If you have enough strength after all that, we should go talk with Cass and Ellie to plan our next move."

He quirked an eyebrow as he accepted the piece of clothing and put it on.

"Aren’t we going to Mountainfall like we planned from the beginning?"

"We are, but we have to decide when we’re going to depart - apparently Cass got really into training the novices with Baor, and he wants to spend a few more days here."

Calen rolled his eyes.

"From what I’ve heard from Lydia the initiation period for druids lasts almost a decade, those kids will be still in training after we’re done with our mission."

"Tell that to Cass, not me."

He sighed.

"Maybe I will..."

***

The four of them were sitting in Calen’s room, discussing their next move.

"Two weeks is an insane ask Cass, I know we don’t have to hurry that much, but if we take this long at every stop the barrier around Asharil will expire before I get a chance to actually inherit the flame." Calen argued.

"Those kids need my help." His friend stated firmly.

"I don’t want to belittle your abilities, really, but tell me - what do you have to offer that can’t be provided be either Baor, Lydia or Vinifer?"

Cassian crossed his arms and looked to the side.

"Morals..." He muttered, not entirely convinced himself.

Calen sighed.

"I always admired your devotion to being a good person, but you have to face it - druid trainees in a destroyed world are not going to follow the knight codex, no matter how hard you try."

Seeing his friends sour expression he proposed a compromise:

"I wanted to leave tomorrow, but if you really want more time to teach those kids we can stay for two more days."

Cassian didn’t seem particularly happy with that deal, but after a short silence he said:

"Fine."

"You’re both okay with that?" Calen asked Isara and Elira.

The girls nodded.

"Alright then, we’ll tell the Elders tomorrow." He turned to Isara. "Since you’re done with the cloaks, do you have any plans for the next two days?"

She shrugged.

"I’m going to read a book probably, we took so many of them from Koravel’s hideout that it’ll take us forever to go through all of them at this pace."

Calen nodded slowly.

"Yeah I’ll probably do the same..."

"I have a suggestion which one you should read, actually." Elira chimed in.

"Oh?"

"You should check out the one on the Flamebearers, your lessons with Lydia might be over but you should keep deepening your understanding of the flame."

"Sure, might as well learn something about myself."

It seemed like it was finally time to read the books he got from the temple’s library.