The Ogre Strength Fairy and the Eldest 'Son'
Chapter 264 - Healing Formation... Plank? You’re Right, Humans Are Unnatural!

Chapter 264: Chapter 264 - Healing Formation... Plank? You’re Right, Humans Are Unnatural!

The ancient cultivator ran her finger over top of the interior markings and used essence to turn the error into something benign before continuing on with fresh focus. While she worked the last parts, she rambled off a lesson to take the edge and her mind off of her annoyance.

"The three energies are natural, but our use of them as living beings is arguably unnatural. Both of you know that a cultivation room serves as a space where one can more easily align spirit, physical form, and essence with certain intentions that have been pre-arranged through the use of sigil carved rituals."

It was a bit of a repeat of what she told them when revealing access to her private space - the room in the small home turned workshop that she had built exclusively for Qat first, herself second. The disciples were only thought of because it seemed a waste to let it sit inactive!

"Most are in permanent structures with complex formations built into their foundations. Usually this is because people are concerned about others discovering the secrets of how their room works and copying it. Advantages over others are a currency of power."

The knife traced delicate curves onto the wood’s surface. Each mark held purpose beyond mere decoration, though it was the ones she was hiding so ’advantageously’ in the inside of the wooden material that would carry the day. Treasures of sigil secrets... forgotten to time.

’Lost due to the various systems meant to punish progress along the path to Divinity. From the hubris of societies. All that is, is. Knowledge only really lives in those that are alive.’

"What I’m creating here is cruder than what could be done with more time and planning. However, the principle I aim for remains the same. Mostly a bit of help to guide energies in specific patterns, making it easier for your bodies to process what they need."

She set aside the knife and pressed her palm against the board. Essence spread through the channels in the wood to activate the many three dimensional designs hidden beneath its surface. The air around them grew heavier... as if reality itself had condensed its pressure slightly in their immediate vicinity.

"Now then. We begin with our most urgent patient."

She stood and brought over the first bird - the midnight blue colored one whose internal damage threatened to worsen to fatality if it had been allowed to keep moving around in the bindings. The Goltbred set it down gently onto the center of the plank of wood and carefully unwrapped the silk.

Once it was ’free’, the illusionist held out her hand with a half dozen of the grains of amber resting on her palm. She held it up and stroked the injured bird’s back with her other hand as it pecked at the crystallized pieces of sap without any resistance.

To the orphans... that action seemed far too smooth for a creature that had been nearly catatonic moments before. Of course, that’s because it was.

’Yes, yes. Delicious seeds - just a couple more.’

The brunette waited until the bird had consumed the precise amount she needed it to. After that, she passed Nohre her own large portion of the amber.

"Swallow it quickly. The ritual’s influence will help process the physical energy while we work. Meditate on the feeling of your Synergy and I will establish the connection between us."

Her small hands grabbed and moved to position Nohre’s fingers along specific points of the bird’s wing. The dark haired teen could already feel the difference in how her spirit responded within this space as she tried to rally its energy towards certain thoughts.

Instead of trying to be heard over a waterfall, it was like whispering clearly into a pond.

’This really is like sitting in the middle of that room at her place... she can make something like this so quickly?’

"You also need to focus on your touch there as we work. Your ability needs direct contact with a patient. I will be guiding your Mend through the actual healing - try not to force it to do things."

Dull mint eyes studied her disciple’s spirit as it reached out to connect with the injured creature. The ancient cultivator’s own presence wrapped around them both before invading Nohre’s Astralism against its tiny, instinctually-resistant will. The unwelcome pushback was weak... but there.

The other side of the spiritual door - Elua’s side - was quickly reinforced with hundreds of mental defenses and cognitive redirections. The Aspect of her disciple was made for connecting with others, but the spiritualist still wouldn’t have been able to do this if the girl was in the same realm and had... maybe a thousand years more of training~

’Ugh. I feel dirty, interacting even *platonically* like this with someone other than Qat...’

A subtle pressure that felt reassuring rather than restrictive was all the other girl felt. Something loosened in her heart ’knowing’ that the moments of fear she detected in herself of their master today had not made her prone to failing in what was expected of her so immediately.

The green eyed girl had really thought she would disappoint! Succeeding in one part made the rest feel less daunting. Which was part of the point of tricking her like this, for the schemer.

"Good, you trusted me enough. Now, I’m going to guide you in exactly how these bones should align. Channeling your Mend from here on is your main task."

The illusionist’s spirit pressed and pushed the girl’s own small flowing sense towards the injuries. Suddenly, Nohre could *feel* the intricate network of hollow bones that allowed flight. Could sense how they should fit together in perfect states.

As well as where the breaks had occurred. What tissue needed to be rebuilt.

It was all information she shouldn’t know, being offered one-sidedly from Elua er Goltbred. For a few seconds she was very overwhelmed, but the heiress merely held their three spirits steadily together and let the girl work through it at her pace.

Fusand watched them in rapt fascination. The sigils he could see pulsed with subtle energy... but it was the feeling that much more was going on than he could fathom that enthralled him. Even if he couldn’t quite make out what resonated beneath the wood’s surface, something in him screamed it was there.

Just like it always did about Elua er Goltbred in general.

After a few moments, thread-thin streams of physical energy wove out of Nohre’s fingers and into the bird’s wing where she kept up the contact. The green eyed girl watched as her Mend responded to the clear image available in her mind. The clarity of perception made the task feel almost too simple.

’This is so amazing. So much that I really don’t understand how I could be doing this!’

Each correction flowed naturally into the next as if she’d done this many times before. When tiny fragments of bone began to knit back together, she started to feel the proper way they should merge... almost like she was working *ahead* of everything and nudging it all towards the right state.

Elua’s presence remained steady in her mind throughout. Not in words, but in the intense and ancient spirit offering subtle touches of guidance. It was a task to watch it all without overwhelming her student’s growing confidence to move ahead on her own.

’But you’ve broken people before by being impatient and only thinking of a single end result. You can’t forget that.’

Her own spirit carefully monitored the flow of physical energy from the catalyzing crystallized amber. Nearly every bit was converted and channeled into the healing process. Both as fuel for her disciple to keep up on her end - and for the creature they worked on to add its own desire to be ’whole’ make its effect on the result.

That part was especially important, since the amount Elua knew about their anatomy was greater than *most* but still a fraction limited from ’perfect’. Some doctors weren’t good at letting the patient tell them what was wrong, in their own way, and figuring more out.

"The wing structure of this species is more complex in a few spots than most birds. Pay attention to how the muscle tissue covering this secondary joint connects."

Another layer of understanding bloomed in Nohre’s awareness. She could sense modifications in the bone structure from the information she just ’had’. The illusionist had updated her own understanding due to the bird’s natural focus on healing spots and sent it along.

Through it all, time seemed to flow strangely in their bubble of focused energy. The young and untested healer couldn’t tell if minutes had passed or hours had come and gone. When they finally finished with the first wing, she blinked in surprise at how natural it all felt.

The more experienced of them pulled the girl’s hands off and shifted the patient who had been so *very* accommodating to being pressed for so long. If Nohre didn’t know better, she’d think it had been asleep!

"Now for the other side. The damage there is less catastrophic, but still needs attention."

Fusand had long ago sat down and started to play with his Projections, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t impressed by what was happening. It had merely become a fidget of a habit while his mind wandered.

He’d never seen such a clear demonstration of how ritual spaces could enhance cultivator abilities *so* greatly. The room they used in Elua’s small home had made meditating and focusing much easier, but this ’space’ had clearly been designed purely for this current process they were engaged in.

’If she can do this, that quickly, in a place like this...’

His fuzzy state from earlier had cleared up and the boy’s scholarly mind rolled around implications and questions over her secrecy. Their master seemed to know a lot that no one *seemed* to know. He could somewhat gather that the temporary formation was directing their combined energies with incredible efficiency beyond what he’d read about.

The feeling in his gut was that the amber he had once consumed to the best of his carefully taught ability by the heiress was now being utilized to a higher degree in both friend and bird. All from a few ’sigil scratches’. While it didn’t make him want to study them and *nothing* else, it did make him take the concept far more seriously than in the past.

’I wonder what else out there that we take for granted has more to it than we know?’