Turns out he could.
Before he knew it, a soft, white energy was flowing from his hands, and the wound sealed itself before his very eyes. The man's groaning immediately went from painful to relieved, and his mother dropped the poultice in shock, the glass shattering against the floor.
The discovery that his son was capable of divine magic brought his father much joy. Though his father himself only had the barest hint of the ability, he taught Gaius everything he knew, and gave him access to every tome he had on the subject. Gaius soon became something of a prodigy, much to his family's pride, but by age seventeen it was clear that his father's books and teachings would not be enough to reach his full potential. So his parents reluctantly began to consider sending him to the city, to seek full-time instruction in a larger temple with more experienced priests.
Then, a mere few days before his eighteenth birthday, disaster struck. His mother had gone out to collect some herbs, going deeper into the woods than usual, in a route she had never traveled before, only to step on a rusty bear trap, and there was no one nearby to hear her cries for help.
She had been missing for more than two days when a hunter found her and carried her back, but by then it was too late. Gaius's healing easily cured the surface wound, but infection, hunger, dehydration, blood loss, and the summer heat had long since set in. One of her elixirs might have done the trick, but in her delirious state she was unable to specify which one, and Gaius's studies had mainly been focused around curing physical ailments. Incapable of keeping food and water down, or even forming a coherent sentence, she perished that night.
Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.
15-Dec-2017 02:05:57
- Last edited on
15-Dec-2017 03:44:05
by
NotFishing