After the pleasantries concluded, the red-haired man, Jayr, walked over and looked at me. "I am Jayr. Your mother has asked me to examine you to determine if I can repair whatever damage you have going on within your body. Is that okay?"
"Okay? Yes!" My heart leaped in joy and gratitude even though he hadn't done anything yet. I could still make the trials if he fixed me! "What do I need to do?"
You just need to relax. I am going to do most of the work. This will involve examining your body in different places utilizing the healer's touch. What this means is I will touch you and have my mana enter your body in different places which may be injured or potentially part of what is causing your problems. These places include your feet, legs, neck, back, and head. As my mana travels through these parts, it may hurt a little, but in order to discern the problem, I need to send my mana into the various pathways to find out exactly what is keeping you down. I am going to check all areas which seem to be infect and work my way back to the brain which controls everything. Do you still want to do this?" His voice was soft and soothing.
"Absolutely! I heard you might be able to heal me. If so, I could participate in the knight's trial. Right?" It had to be true. I knew it would be a lot of work, but Tyia said healing wizard's magic worked a lot faster than other healing. I could still make it! Better still, since my mom was King Garret's immediate underling, I might be accepted into the royal household! This could be better than I could ever have dreamed especially since the king himself is here! "How long do you think it will take?"
"That we shall see, young lord. I am skilled in my craft, but until we determine the extent of your injuries, I won't know for certain. You are young and have a lot of life left in you, so the strain on my body should be less. This means I should be able to do more in less time and use less of my own mana—life energy—during the process. It also means you should be able to recover much more quickly. Since half your body is affected, it may take some time, but I will do what I can. Are you ready?"
I was ready. I wanted this magic to work so very badly. "Yes, I am ready," I responded.
Jayr smiled a calm, reassuring smile as he leaned over pulling the covers up from my feet and legs. He touched my left foot.
Closing his eyes, he held my foot for twenty breaths before removing his hand. He repeated this process with my right foot. Each ankle, knee, and thigh followed in that order. I couldn't tell exactly what he was doing, but he told me every place before he touched them, then after about twenty breaths, he said "okay," and moved to the next.
Completing these locations, Jayr replaced the blanked covering my legs and rolled me onto my stomach. His right hand was warm, almost uncomfortably so, as he rolled me over. He then settled his hand on my lower back. where it warmed even further. This was different than before. I could feel the warmth flowing downward along my spine, but not very far. Once it got to the bottom of my back, before reaching my tailbone, the warm sensation stopped. After my lower back, he did the same to the middle of my back in several steps eventually reaching my neck. Each time, the warmth from his hand would spread into an area after he touched it and expand from there down to the same area on my back, and up to above the next area he would test.
Eventually, he touched my neck. This was different from my back and legs. Instead of feeling heat, I could feel something tingling travelling both into my upper back and into my head. It wasn't a pleasant sensation, nor did it burn like my back. The longer he held it the more it tingled until it felt like dozens of bees repeatedly stinging my neck. The stinging didn't limit itself to the area around where he was touching like the heat had done, instead it travelled, not just in my back, but all the way down to both hands. The stinging grew worse. Instead of feeling like dozens of bees, it felt like hundreds of bees everywhere except my face and below my beltline. With tears coming from my eyes, I did my best not to show the pain. After what seemed like an eternity, when in fact, it only took more breaths, the stinging subsided. Relieved, I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding.
His face looked grim and turned even more pale than it was before. Taking a number of deep breaths, Jayr shook his head trying to shake off the fatigue caused by his efforts. He had only been working his magic for a few minutes, and I'm barely over half his size, so, the stinging couldn't be using that much mana, could it? I admit, it was worse than being hit with a switch, when I misbehaved, but it wasn't entirely unbearable. I'd been stung by a hornet's nest just last year, and this was only a little worse than that day only this time, once he stopped, the pain evaporated immediately. Of course, last year, Master Whitehair was able to make a poultice and put on the wounds so by the next day, I was up and about again but the pain remained for most of the day and then because a terrible itching. Was making these stings really making him that tired?
Imploring him for an answer, my mom inquired, "did you find out what's wrong, Jayr? It looked like something was happening that time. Can you feel anything, Von?"
I tried to move my legs, first my right, then my left. Still, they refused to do what I wanted. With all the effort I could manage, I tried to move both at the same time, but nothing occurred. Hope was beginning to abandon me. "It felt like bees all over my neck stinging and biting me all the way to my fingers. I hope it means it's working."
My mom had a look of relief. "Is this a good thing? If he feels that much, do you think you can get him walking soon? Even a little at a time would make me feel better. I know some injuries take longer to heal even for you, but now that you know what's wrong, how long do you think it will take to get more feeling in his body?"
"That's just it, Maude. As of yet, I haven't determined the source of the problem. I have seen some of the damage to his spine, however, it feels different than a sword injury or a typical fall or even a crushing blow. I still have a few things left to check, and I will begin in a moment. For some reason, it felt like his body wasn't letting my mana in as easily as it should have or rather, it was entering just fine, but it wouldn't flow as I expected" Jayr sat on the side of my bed for several moments appearing deep in thought. The color came back to his face making him look healthier. He began to breath slower, his eyes shut and his palms facing the ceiling. After a handful of minutes, maybe more, he stood.
Rubbing his hands together, he looked at me and said, "Next, I will begin examining your head. It will feel a lot like when I checked your neck, maybe worse, but right now, I am still just trying to diagnose you." Starting at the back of my head he repeated the process, and much like my neck, after a few breaths it began to sting and eventually hurt. The pain was only a little worse than when he did my neck, and it only went so far as my neck, so I wasn't feeling too bad.
Jayr continued with the top of my head placing his palm on my crown causing jolts of pain to travel into my body. Unlike the back of my head, this was an even more painful experience than before. Unable to hold back any longer, I let out a yowl before he could finish. Once he finished with my crown, I could see sweat had formed on his forehead. His complexion was again a little paler than when he started.
Looking over, at the others in my room, I could see mom, Monica, and King Garret watching in fascination. I admit, I was nervous too. At the same time, I was surprised King Garret seemed so tense. I was just one little boy out of thousands of children in his kingdom, but he looked almost as anxious as my mother.
Returning me to my back and moving the blanket to make sure I was decently covered, he sat again on the side of my bed. Several deep breaths later, he stretched, looked around the room at everyone else before looking down at me. Taking a sip from a flask appearing from beneath his cloak, color returned to his face, and he somehow seemed a little younger, but in a tired voice he told me, "I hope you're still feeling alright? Only one more time. This one will be with both my hands on your temples. It will take a little more effort from both of us. I am going to push my mana through your temples into your head to repair the places in your brain, it should then travel down your neck, into your back and finally into the parts of your body where I couldn't read your body. As I open the conduits through your body, it is likely to hurt, not just a little like the last few times, this will be the worse pain you have likely experienced, ever. Do you think you can handle it?"
I gulped. My heart was pounding with fear and anticipation. If it worked, I could be up and about soon. If it failed, I don't know. I again gave a quick prayer to every deity I could remember in the hopes I would be walking today and be able to fight the golem tomorrow or the next day. Steeling my willpower and realizing out of the blue I had become very religious during the last two weeks, I nodded, conversely, my voice didn't come out nearly as confident as I wanted. "Yyyes, I, I think. Yes, I'm... I'm ready."
Jayr put his hands to my temples. This time they started off cold. As he continued, I could feel them warming and this warmth flowed from his hands into my head slowly seeping down my neck and into the rest of my body. Without warning, my chest and arms began to spasm feeling like something was trying to pull them apart. My heart felt like it would burst. No matter how fast I breathed, I felt like I wasn't getting enough air. The hair on my arms stood up on their own. Instead of the harsh stinging I felt before, I was filled with a tortuous stabbing. Every inch of my body felt like it was being shredded and flayed. I cried out in pain. The vicious attack on my body continued and I began writhing on the bed in agony. Begging for the agony to stop, I tried to think of something, anything else, hoping to push this misery away from my thoughts. No matter what I tried, it continued. Finally, it felt like someone had thrown me in a pool of lava which continued to burn hotter and hotter, trying to my bones outward to my skin.
Pushing the pain out of my thoughts wasn't working. I couldn't fight back. I was nearly unconscious with the efforts and suddenly, something snapped. It felt like a green twig just turning brown when you pull it back too far. Seeing red everywhere, my vision blurred again. My heart continued its palpitations until it felt as though it would pound its way through my breastbone. I cried out pleading to all that was good to make it stop.
Suddenly, it all came to a halt. This feeling came over me of something relieving my pain. Maybe it was all in my mind, but I saw something, or someone for just a second falling away from me and with a sigh of relief as the pain went too. I closed my eyes hoping Jayr's magic worked and I would be in perfect health again.