Miras Last (8 page)

Chapter
Six

“Anyone home?” Galena called at the tent
Morak indicated belonged to Morgo. Elenio opened the flap and
smiled at her. She couldn’t help it; she returned the smile and
reaching up, kissed him quickly on the lips.

“I missed seeing your irritated face when I
woke up,” she whispered.

“Am I forgiven for acting like a pain
yesterday?” he whispered back, smiling as he did so.

“Always.” She kissed him quickly once more
before stepping past him and into the tent. She found Morgo,
shirtless and smiling up at her from his own hammock. The last time
Galena saw him was during the battle. She really hadn’t been paying
attention to him and the way he’d changed since leaving him behind
in the world he knew. When they last parted, it was at the entrance
to the outside world near the base of the Mountains of the Gods.
She couldn’t remember exactly how he had looked because he had been
so utterly forgettable that often times she found her thoughts
drifting in all directions at once. The longer she was with him,
the more these forgettable traits faded. Even then, she realized
other than the dull and ghostlike look that was common among the
underground elves; she could remember nothing else of his
appearances.

Now, as she looked at him, she realized he’d
lost the pale, white skin and the limp, dull dark hair. She was
surprised to discover how handsome he really was. His skin had
darkened up, even in the winter months, to a more creamy color and
his hair, which hung below his shoulders, was now a dark brown
instead of the black it once appeared to be. His eyes held the
biggest change, as they were full of life. They even had a
mischievous quality to them. His smile was warm and friendly and
Galena found herself returning his smile easily.

“I’d get up to greet you properly, but as you
can see, I’m a little ill-disposed at the moment,” he said,
indicating the bleeding bandage at his side she somehow missed
before.

“Couldn’t Nigora help you more than that?”
Galena asked, a little shocked he wasn’t in better condition.

“She could, but I wouldn’t let her. There
were other elves in worse condition than I was and she needed all
the energy she could muster at the time. I bandaged myself up and
told her I would wait until she took care of the elves whose needs
were more critical than mine.” He grimaced horribly as he attempted
to readjust himself so he could look at her more comfortably.

“Weren’t you the one who brought me to my
tent?” Galena asked feeling clearly confused.

“That didn’t take physical strength. I just
flew you back with the wind. Nina helped some too,” he said,
grimacing slightly as he readjusted yet again.

“Hold still and I’ll get you fixed up. We
can’t have my former mentor all banged up.”

He rolled his eyes at this statement, further
evidence of the changes the above world had on him. Sitting down
across from Morgo, Elenio chuckled at their friend’s reaction, but
said nothing more. Galena shook her head, amazed with the changes
in Morgo. Placing her hand on the wound, she healed the damage to
his inner organs, the muscles, and the surrounding tissue. She
replaced his loss of blood, taking care not to energize him with
the addition of too much oxygen and nutrients to the newly replaced
fluid. Finally, she repaired the skin, making it appear as if he’d
never been wounded.

Morgo looked down and seeing his stomach
whole once more, looked up at Galena with a huge grin on his face
before commenting, “You’ve come a long ways since the last time we
met.” He put on a shirt, stood up, and stretched from side to side,
twisting his waist this way and that to test the job Galena did.
“Amazing, I feel better than I have in a long while.”

Still smiling, he sat back down while
gesturing for Galena to sit in an empty chair next to Elenio. Morgo
waited for Galena to sit before asking, “So how do you like life in
the center of everyone’s attention?” He winked at her
conspiratorially, which stopped Galena from saying anything
rude.

“You certainly are quite a bit different from
the last time we met.” Galena laughed.

“The upper world agrees with me. Elenio was
just describing how everyone has been asking for you since your
grand appearance at our most recent battle and we already know Rau
is searching for you as evidenced by the massive army he sent. What
have you learned about yourself since the last time that we talked?
What theory have you discovered to be the correct one?”

Galena thought back to the conversation they
had in the underground world in one of the many tunnels they
traveled while they were there. It seemed a lifetime ago. In
reality, she knew it couldn’t have been more than a couple of
months, maybe a little longer. Morgo threw out two different
theories as far as why Galena had been able to do magic even with
the marks of Rau on her hands and feet. The first theory he had was
the idea there were flaws in her tattoos. They’d almost immediately
rejected this idea, but were not entirely sure. His second theory
was she contained more magic in her than most normal elves. This
idea seemed more fitting, but once again, they were unsure.

When Elenio and Tark took her to the healing
waters at Mira’s View, it had been there Mira removed the marks of
Rau from her hands and feet, explaining to Galena she was indeed
more powerful than any elf had ever been. She explained to Galena,
she contained more magic than a hundred elves combined. Galena had
not believed this at first, but after the last couple of months,
she realized what Mira told her was true.

“The second proved to be correct. I have it
on good authority from Mira herself,” Galena said, training her
eyes on the floor. Once again, the conversation came back to her
power.

“Don’t worry, your fame will pass. When we
underground elves first showed up, we were the talk of the village
as well, but once everyone adjusted to our magical abilities, our
fame passed and we became just another elf. Your popularity may
take a little longer to die out, especially after the show you put
on, but take heart, it will pass, of this I am confident,” Morgo
said quietly to her.

She returned her gaze back to his face and
saw the sincerity there. She nodded in thanks, but said nothing to
this. She hoped he was right, just as he had been with his theories
concerning her.

Elenio reached over and taking her hand gave
it a little squeeze, further reassuring her.

“Now, while we’re on the topic of your
magical abilities. Remember another conversation we had before
about elves having talents in one area or another with their
magical abilities. I think I told you my strength was in the area
of putting people to sleep just as Nigora’s magical ability is
definitely in the area of healing. It would seem you have no limit
to a specific skill either. Am I wrong?” Morgo looked at her, a
hint of a smile on his face as he waited for an answer.

“I’d forgotten about that particular
conversation,” Galena said, thoughtfully looking up at the ceiling
of the tent. She remembered it now along with the conversation on
how using magic was a lot like exercising. When you did too much,
your body would shut down in order to preserve itself, which was
not always ideal especially when you were in a sticky situation,
such as she had been the day before. “You also mentioned you did
not have the capabilities of producing fire or causing things like
torlics to catch on fire, yet while we were fighting I distinctly
recall you setting several creatures ablaze when you struck them
with your sword,” Galena retorted, a smirk now on her face.

“Aahh, no, what you saw was the work of
Pangoro. Tark had the idea to put fire into arrows and I just took
it a step further by having Pangoro put the fire into the
swords.”

Galena felt thoroughly confused at this point
and looked to Elenio to see if he understood it at all either.
Judging by the look on his face and the lack of thoughts on the
matter, this was news to him as well.

Taking in the looks of both Elenio and
Galena, Morgo laid back on his hammock and placing his hands behind
his head, explained, “It’s much like the floating light concept
only instead of trapping light within glass orbs or frozen air, we
trapped fire within the blade of the sword. Whenever the blade
encounters anything, it releases some of the fire within. If you
recall, as the battle raged on, I lost the capability of igniting
creatures with my sword because I had used up all the fire within.
The same concept went into the arrows as well. It was a difficult
bit of magic to perform, and without the help of Pangoro who has
been doing this for a lot longer, we may not have been able to
accomplish it.”

Galena’s eyebrows raised with surprise. It
was a good idea and made her wonder if she could accomplish the
same thing with all the swords the elves used. Surely, she had
enough power to do so and it would give them more of an advantage
over the enemy for their next battle.

“Okay, back to my question. Is there anything
you have not been able to do?” Morgo asked once more, looking to
both Elenio and Galena for an answer.

Galena looked at Elenio for which he simply
shook his head. She could feel his pride as well as read it in the
expression on his face. “So far no. Everything I’ve tried has been
relatively easy. I only blacked out after running for nearly three
days straight and then using a ton of magic along with fighting.
Moreover, I’ve figured out how to do a sort of energizing of our
bodies. It gives us a lot of energy, but when we crash from it, we
really crash. The effects from pushing our bodies so hard during
the energy rush seems to be rough physically on our bodies as well.
When I blacked out, my own energy rush had burnt out and I wasn’t
holding the Sword of Lumina, which seems to have its own energy
when I’m touching it.”

“Interesting,” Morgo said thoughtfully.

“May I see your sword?” Galena asked, curious
to see if she would be able to accomplish the same thing that
Pangoro had.

“Certainly.” Morgo sat up and reaching down
pulled his sword from its scabbard and handed it to Galena.

Galena had been able to charge Morgo’s sword
with no difficulty, much to his amusement. In Galena’s opinion, it
was a lot easier than creating a floating light orb. A single touch
with the idea of trapping fire within its breakable bounds and the
task was done. Galena smiled, thinking of Morgo and Elenio’s
enthusiasm at the idea of her being able to do the same thing with
all the other weapons the elves used. Galena felt this was an
interesting concept and it would definitely edge their chances
against Rau’s army.
First things first
, she thought.

After bidding farewell to Morgo and Elenio,
she headed in the direction Morgo had indicated Nigora’s tent was.
She felt getting everyone healthy as quickly as possible was a
little more important at the time. Some of the elves were seriously
injured and if they didn’t survive their first battle, flaming
swords would be of little use. Moreover, she wasn’t entirely sure
if she should give everyone’s sword a flaming quality to it. Morgo
confessed it took him several days to get (use) used to his sword
as well as several serious burns.
That kind of advantage may not
be for everyone,
Galena thought shaking her head bemusedly when
she recalled Morgo blushing fiercely when he told her the last
bit.

Galena was able to locate Nigora’s tent
easily considering it was the largest one and there was a line of
injured elves waiting around the entrance of it. Not even bothering
to call out, Galena entered the tent, passing the injured elves as
she did so. There were elves lying everywhere in hammocks that had
been set up for the sole purpose of dealing with the sick and
injured. Galena realized why Nigora was wearing out quickly as some
of the elves in the sick bed looked like they were on the verge of
crossing over into the Land of the Gods.

“And Morgo said she had taken care of the
extremely bad off,” Galena muttered to herself as she eyed some of
the worst cases. Spying Nigora checking on a more serious patient
across from the entrance of the tent, Galena made her way toward
her, taking a few moments here and there to heal some of the
patients along the way. When she arrived at the hammock Nigora was
leaning over, she grew alarmed. Nigora looked pale, even more so
for an underground elf. Her skin around her face appeared to be
almost gray from all the work that she had done. Sweat beaded her
brow and she looked like she was on the verge of passing out
herself. Galena reached for her shoulders, just as the older elf
started to tilt forward, her own exhaustion getting the better of
her.

“Nigora, you know better than that!” Galena
scolded her as she helped the healer to a seat next to the hammock.
“I’m here to help and you need to go find someplace to sleep if
you’re going to be any use later on.”

“So many,” she said wearily. “There are so
many and just when I think I have gotten ahead, more come.” She
placed her head in her hands, clearly worn beyond what she could
handle.

“Where are your sleeping quarters?” Galena
asked softly.

With a shaky hand, Nigora indicated a lone
hammock in the corner of the tent. Galena helped the little elf to
her feet and to the hammock, she pointed out. Once she got Nigora
comfortably situated, she went to work. She started with the more
serious elves and worked her way through the tent. By the end of
the evening, she’d started on some of the elves waiting outside for
Nigora’s aid. By the time Elenio arrived with a tray of food, she
was beginning to feel extremely tired and famished. Galena smiled
gratefully and went to him.

“You are just the elf I wanted to see,” she
said, kissing him quickly on the cheek.