The shortcut Nathan had talked about was trough a narrow cave on the foot of the mountain on the opposite site of the mountain of the Tornarsuk.
So, in order to reach that mountain, we first had to cross the valley. Now that everyone could use the caravans, we were no longer hindered by the wounded.
Elisa was constantly switching caravans to heal those who needed it. This however took a heavy toll on her energy and she had to sleep a lot.
I couldn't go inside of the caravans due to all the holy items that hung in there. So, I had to either run or fly. Because of that I was grateful every time we stopped when the horses needed rest.
I walked up to Elisa during one of those breaks. My wings were hanging lifeless on my back. I had flown for over five hours straight and I could feel the fatigue piling up in my body. I wasn't used to flying that long because I didn't have to before.
I sat down next to her. I could tell that she was a bit uneasy, but I decided to ignore that.
"Can you teach me how to use healing magic?"
She nodded. "Yes, but I can't demonstrate it at the moment."
"You don't have to. I just need to know how to do it."
She nervously played with her hair. "well… the first thing you should know is that it is a lot different from illusion magic. You need to know how the wound would normally heal and then spread that will to the wound. It could do massive damage if you picture the healing proses wrong. It can lead to the muscles growing wrong or completely disabling that part of the body. This can be prevented with particular magic circles or chants, but I don't know those."
"So, if I were to try and heal someone right now. I would only make thing worse because its such a complex art?"
She quietly nodded.
"Then you can teach me when we are in the stone city. "
She nodded again. she didn't seem to be completely participate in the conversation. I didn't know if this was because of how tired she was, or because something made her thoughts wander.
"By the way. Who taught you magic?"
She seemed to snap out of her trance. Her forest green eyes rapidly moved from side to side as of checking if something was sneaking at her from beside her. Her heartbeat drastically quickened along with her breathing.
I placed my hand on her shoulder. "Elisa. What is wrong?"
But she remained in a state of panic. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes
"Elisa? Do you hear me?! Are you alright?"
Eventually she stopped. Her heartbeat and breathing slowly regained their usual speed. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths.
"Y…Yes, I am fine. Please don't worry about me."
A few tears were still dripping from the corners of her eyes as she spoke.
"you should go back inside the caravan and get some rest."
She didn't respond. And her gaze stayed fixed at the distance.
I helped her up and accompanied her to the caravan in which the Allenya, Alex, Yohan and Gert usually resided. of course, I couldn't enter. So, she climbed in by herself.
I walked a few meters away from the caravans to get rid of the uneasy feeling the holy items gave off when I came to close to them. I sat down in the tall grass and stared into the distance.
However, it didn't take long before Yohan came up to me. I turned around.
"Shouldn't you be with Elisa? I think that she is not doing well."
Yohan shook his head. "No. this happens from time to time. And when it does, she usually prefers to be alone."
"I see."
He sat down next to me. I could hear the soft snapping sound the grass made when his weight cased it to bed further than it could withstand.
"You know. When her mother started to study magic, she wanted to save the information she found. But she didn't think that writing it in a book would help because that could easily be misunderstood by the reader. So, in order not to take her discoveries to the grave, if she were to die of using magic in the wrong way, she taught Elisa.
At first it all seemed fine. But, after some time she became desperate to pass on her knowledge and would often hurt Elisa if she didn't learn fast enough. With the threat to make things worse she managed to keep Elisa silent for a very long time.
This is also how she got that scar on her face. I feel terrible that I didn't notice it soon enough. Who knows for how long and how much she had to suffer in order to inherit the knowledge of her mother."
"I'm sorry."
"for what?"
I scratched the back of my neck. "I asked her who taught her."
Yohan sighed. "It is okay, you didn't know."
Suddenly The loud and confident voice of Nathan rang through the fields. "Everyone get ready. Break time is over!"