The medium height blonde woman who was now looking at me shook her head causing her long hair to fall out from behind her ears. She reached up, returning it to its perch. Her face was slighly pale as though she didn't get much sunlight. This graceful woman wore the white robes, shoes, and cap of a healer. Even her gloves were white. As she leaned forward to look at my head, the sun shined through her hair looking like a halo. As it bounced off the white cloak it made her look like what I imagined a holy messenger would look like. Her smile was caring and warm, and despite my young age, something in my chest tightened and my stomach filled with butterflies. I tried to speak but only sputtered, "Hello, um, hello, uh, uh..." I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of her smile. Something about it drew my attention and I couldn't look away.
"Tyia," she said. "You must have really damaged something in your head to forget already. Master Whitehair just told you my name, and already you've forgotten." I felt my cheeks turn red and suddenly felt warm. "Here," she said, "is a bell. I'll set it right here next to your bed on the stand. If you need something, just reach over and ring it. Since you're awake, we shouldn't have to clean you up quite as much as we have been." After she said this, I suddenly realized I was only covered by a thin blanket and had nothing on underneath. Just to make sure, I lifted the blanket, causing her to smile as I did so. "Don't worry, I've seen a lot of people without clothes. When they become unconscious, the body often needs cleaned afterwards, plus some don't survive, and need cleaned before the family arrives to get their body. If you turn any redder and get any warmer, you'll be mistaken for a fire," she teased smiling at me. It was a smile which could easily bewitch an older boy.
Even I found her smile hard to resist. I felt embarrassed to have an angel looking at me and smiling. I felt a surge of panic quickly covering myself tightly. I tried to look around but the movement caused my head to spin, my stomach to turn, and my body to feet weak. I quickly shut my eyes. "I think I need to sleep. I have to show Healer Whitehair that I can be well enough to take the test next week. I have to. I don't have to be fully healed to take the test, do I? You understand, don't you? Don't healers have to take a test to become an apprentice?"
"We do, but it's not so violent as a knight's test. Once we apply or make our interest known, we are given one month to learn at least 30 plants and their uses in healing, then we take out first test by showing in writing what they are used for, then a second one a month later proving we know how to prepare them properly. If we can. If not, we can keep taking the test four times a year until we pass or give up. I had to take mine twice because I boiled the wrong root the first time, but I passed the written portion the first time. After that, we learn basic portions and more advanced herbalism with an herbalist, then we are checked for potential. If it's high enough, a journeyman will assign us to an alchemist to help us learn the basics of alchemy to prepare potions. Once we can finally make a basic restoration potion, and if our potential is high enough, a master healer will take us as a full apprentice, and we will start working with animals and people. If our potential is very high, we could be assigned to an earth witch who specializes in healing magic. From there, we will spend a year or longer working with them until we can use a rank two mending spell. After we can do that, we have choices. We can either return to the healer's guild for additional training in mixing herblore, potions, and spells; continue along the path of earth witch; or become a healing wizard."
I opened my eyes again, suddenly wide awake and my attention on her every word. "A healing wizard? What's that?"
"A healing wizard specialized in the body and its repair. A healing wizard could have you up and walking already and even has the ability to enchant your body to be stronger and more agile than before. However, using their spells takes a tremendous toll on them and they have to rest afterwards, often for as long as their patient would have had to if they had recovered on their own. To make you stronger would cause them to be practically bedridden for months. The benefit is their magic is almost instantaneous, and the healthier and stronger they are, the more they can heal. Often, they will start their journey by increasing their own body's abilities so they can perform more grand healings or lots of smaller ones. Unlike the other mages, healing wizards don't use the mana from the world to heal and improve bodies, they take it from their own life force. Thus, the healthier they are, and the stronger they are, the grander the feats of magic they can perform without their work stressing their body as much. Since they can heal someone so quickly, healing wizards are also beholden to no one, unless they want to be, as their services are always in high demand. There are two in the king's court who are very gifted and tasked only with King Garret and Queen Maisett's wellbeing. They have no other duties but to be on call for them. The princes and princess share a single healing wizard with a few other members of the royal court."
"Are you a healing wizard?" I looked hopeful, praying to every deity I could remember that she could heal me even faster. If so, maybe she could speed my healing enough to get me out of bed sooner. If luck was truly with me, she could repair me to full health so I could practice for the knight's test or at the least, take the test. Even if I did poorly on the physical portion, I knew I could pass the knowledge test.
She turned slightly away looking slightly uncomfortable. "No, I hoped to be, but my mana wasn't sufficient to avoid causing myself extreme pain and taking a lot longer to heal than my patient. I healed your skull using some of my skills, but despite only trying to aid Master Whitehair for a few minutes, I ended up passing out for a day myself." Knowing what he was thinking, she added, "I would need quite a few months or even a year to heal well enough to have you ready for the test in two months. Healing you enough for you to be ready in a week would likely kill me many times over. My body can only hold so much mana, and when I heal people that way, it saps it rapidly. I am currently just a fifth rank journeywoman but by the end of the year, I should be a healer proper. I can make poultices, potions, bandage, set bones, bring unconsciousness, but I don't have a large enough mana pool for major undertakings."
Disappointed, I tried to sit up, dizziness filled my head. "You said you can make potions. Can you make a potion to make me get stronger?"
"Perhaps, but it wouldn't last for long, and by tonight, you'd be back here worse than you were as you would probably cause more damage since you would probably act like you were healed. Unlike restoration potions, strengthening potions only last for a short time, with even the best ones lasting an hour at most before wearing off and taking a small toll on your body. As damaged as you are, it would only make you worse than now."
"How about a potion to make me heal faster? I heard they are common in some places, and some can heal broken bones in hours. I've heard they can restore arms and legs which have been cut off or even burned off. If you could make me one of those, I could be ready before the test and I could still become a page."
Tyia shook her head, her hair again falling out from behind her left ear. "It would take several weeks to gather the ingredients, and they would be quite expensive to make the restoration potions I know. Then a couple of days to prepare the potion. By the time all that could be done, you would be walking on your own and hopefully well enough already." Switching the subject, she looked him up and down once more replacing her hair behind her ear. "Did you really cause all this damage to yourself, or did you get into a fight with others?"