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Slowly approaching the bed where Colin was lying, I began a visual examination of the patient.
- Is this normal? Conduct an examination of the victim right here, and not in the "room"? — Without looking up from his work, he asked the teacher a question. HM interesting…
"This case is not dangerous or urgent, so I don't see the need for supporting artifacts," answered the witch, who came up behind me and carefully watched what I was doing. Was it just me or did I see the reflection of magical currents in her eyes for a brief moment?
- Yes? Well, okay, if things are this way, then let's drop this topic. At least for now.
At first glance, the guy's body lying in front of me was no different from itself, but only in its normal state. All processes in the body continue to occur as before, no deviations are observed. The pulse is stable, the muscles are relaxed. In a word - normal, healthy sleep. However, this is only at first glance.
Initially, I was confused by one fact - the pupils did not react to the light in any way, although they should have. This alarmed me. Further use of the spell showed another fact. My charms could not penetrate the body's natural resistance. Agree, if I could push through the mana resistance of stronger magicians, but could not perform the same action on an obviously weak magician, this is quite strange.
"It's strange," out of habit, thinking out loud, and also conveying my thoughts to the teacher (yes, this is the same rule about "reports" among healers). — The body's magical resistance exceeds the standard value. It is not just stronger, no, the body itself rejects any mana.
Concentrating a little, I tried to push through this barrier. However, after a couple of seconds I realized that this was a lost cause.
"Increasing the pressure did not lead to any result," I continued. "With a two-fold increase, there are no results, but if this threshold is exceeded, then the negative influence of my mana on the patient's magical body is clearly observed. A further increase in the amount of applied mana is not advisable and can lead to the death of the patient.
Well, at least the body's natural reaction to a large amount of someone else's mana was backward before. What am I talking about? It's simple, if you exceed a certain threshold (which depends on the skills of the healer himself) of the mana supplied to a foreign organism, then it will begin to reject it, even to the point of self-destruction. Of course, if it were a teacher, then such a reaction from the patient would have come much later than mine. Still, she has much better control, and mana is much more readily transformable (to a certain type).
Since it didn't work out with the help of "naked force", let's try to take the "enemy" by cunning. Closing my eyes, I used all my skills in order to feel as best as possible the "taste, color and smell" of Colin's own mana. My further actions were quite monotonous - to bring the properties of my mana closer to the "standard" one, and then direct it into the body itself.
Alas, this method did not produce any results. After trying for another ten minutes, I began to use other, more extravagant methods of influence.
I tried everything in almost an hour. And influence through auras, and forcibly opening one of the mana channels of the magical body. What can I say, I tried to "break through" the connection between the wand and its owner, but to no avail. What an interesting picture to emerge, I have never encountered anything like this. What is this killing look of a basilisk, if even a clumsily imposed curse is so strong (although, what can you expect? The highest class of danger is not given for beautiful eyes (maybe in this case it was because of them that this class was assigned).
Paradoxically, I didn't hear more than one thing or hairpin from Poppy's side. And the emotions contained only interest mixed with anticipation.
Having dropped my hands (literally), I sighed tiredly and turned towards the waiting teacher.
"I give up," he told her, looking straight into her eyes. Hmm, brown eyes this time. - This case is not on my level.
"I thought you wouldn't admit this," she said, smiling softly. - Indeed, at your current level you don't have the slightest chance of solving this puzzle. I hope there is no need to explain why I asked you to examine the patient?
"No," he slowly shook his head from side to side. "It just so happened that all my previous operations, no matter how complex they were, went off without a hitch. Perhaps you thought that I might be proud or something like that. So they gave me this task," here I fell silent, taking a short break. "Or maybe you just decided to show that you shouldn't stop there," he still smiled at the corner of his lips at the end of his speech.
And indeed, if I were an ordinary child, I would have long ago begun to consider myself exceptional or, Merlin forbid, chosen. However, I am well aware that I have room to grow.
"Well done, you're absolutely right," Pomfrey said, slowly approaching me. "Well, now that we've sorted this out, let me show you what this was all about," the teacher carefully took my hand with hers and enveloped it in her mana. - Look carefully, and also create a channel between yourself and that piece of your mana that I will "take" with me.
Nodding to her words, I activated my magical vision and created a kind of magical probe. As strong as can be.
Gently nodding to my actions, the teacher, turning her gaze to Colin, sent her Mana towards the boy with a single push. Remember I said that I was trying to tune into the boy's mana? Forget what I said, because after seeing the Grandmaster do the same thing, I realized that my skills were no good. Now I will try to explain.
What does it even mean to "tune in" to the patient's mana? This is to give such a form to your mana, so that the patient's body considers it its own. My attempts were quite simple - to see, remember, give a more or less similar appearance. However, things were a little different for Poppy. As soon as her mana came into contact with Colin's mana, she was transformed in an instant. As soon as I blinked, I could no longer distinguish between where the "energy" of the teacher was and where the patient was.
You may think that there is no difference, but this is not so. It's like wood carvers. If a master can create a figurine exactly like the original, then a beginner will have to be content with only something slanted, crooked and generally terrible. That's exactly how I felt as a newbie.
I don't think it's worth saying that the teacher was able to push her mana into Colin's body without any problems. Then came the usual scanning spells, though the only difference was that the spells were created in the guy's body itself, and were not imposed from outside.
A minute later, the result of the scanning spell came to me and what I saw shocked me. Same…
"As I see," the witch's voice invaded my consciousness. "You were able to understand why the boy's body "froze." Would you mind sharing your findings?
"Of course," I nodded, continuing to think about what I had learned. — Even during the visual examination, I noticed one interesting point: the patient's body does not react in any way to external stimuli. Be it a bright light in the eyes, a bruise, a light electric shock or something else. This fact interested me greatly, but what you showed put everything in place," he again turned his gaze to the lying body. "The guy's brain seems to be disconnected from the central nervous system, and he himself is immersed in some kind of sleep. The body continues to work, the nerve cells themselves are in working order, but they all seem to have lost the central processor, in other words, the leader, and therefore no reaction is observed. The brain is isolated and this is very interesting, but not as much as the next fact, - taking a deep breath and exhaling, I raised my head to the ceiling, in a vain attempt to see the sky. — The guy's body doesn't release a single drop of mana out. Moreover, all the magical flows flowing in it are in an excited state, and they are all closed. Marvelous! - I still couldn't stand it and exclaimed. "His magical origin produces as much mana as it could not produce in any other case. Moreover, due to the load on the "vessel", it gradually expands. But that's not all, I was able to notice a slight improvement in the quality of the magical energy itself—here I started thinking again. After all, everything can't be so smooth... - However, even if the curse did not go away as it should, it continues to work. And whenever it will complete its work. After all, any body has a limit (unless you are a metamorph...).
Having finished my speech, I looked at the teacher expectantly, because she knows one hundred percent what this could lead to. And my expectations were not disappointed.
"That's right," she said after a short pause. "After some time, the process will come to an end and if it is not interrupted, the patient will die. As you correctly noted, approaching Colin, with a wave of her hand, she created the illusion of his body, only with certain "amendments." - Brain, - red circle around the designated organ. "In isolation, nerve impulses cannot reach it," green sparks moving from all parts of the body to the brain (do not forget about the spinal cord) collided with a red barrier. - This in itself is quite easy to treat. However, we also have another problem - a furious "stream" began to flow inside the body, right under the skin. "Mana circulates at such a speed that any impact is impossible, and even if you can achieve something, it's not known exactly what it will lead to," a small red cobweb was added to the stream. As soon as they mixed, an explosion occurred. "Therefore, the standard method of treatment is not suitable," a wave of the hand and the illusion dissipates. "Of course, healers have a means to solve this problem.
- And which one? - I asked anyway, seeing that she was not going to talk. It looks like the lesson is coming to an end, since she allows herself to be a little capricious.
"I can solve this problem in two ways," Poppy said, making a "v" sign with her fingers. — The first is to use your skills as intended as a true healer. Me, my magic and control. The second is designed specifically for medics. Mandrake Potion. As you know, the scream is dangerous for anyone who hears it. Particularly old ones can even kill. True, only weak magicians, but that's not the point. This happens due to the magical waves that they emit during screams. These waves, having reached the wizard's body, lead the mana circulation system into complete chaos. Because of this, medium-strength magicians faint, strong ones feel discomfort, weak ones die. If you prepare a potion from the bottom, using some ingredients as a catalyst, then with the help of the resulting "mixture," the witch smiled childishly, as if she had committed some kind of dirty trick. — we will be able to destroy the current flow of mana in the body. And then it will return everything to normal.
"But can't this method harm the magician?" After all, disruption of the flow of mana can lead to...
—... injuries to the magical body, as well as the aura. Mutations are possible," she finished for me. - That's right, it will be so. But we have already learned to deal with this. True, some consequences will remain, but...
- This is not significant compared to the life of the magician himself.
- Right.
There was silence. Her story gave a lot of food for thought, I even wondered how this "problem" could be solved. But I won't find out about this soon, eh.
"Teacher," a thought suddenly struck me. And why not, in the end we already managed to go down to the "room". - If we assume that some kind of magical creature looks at a person. Well, let's say a basilisk. But not directly, but through glasses, reflection, photographic lenses. What then?
"Purely hypothetically," she grinned. "The person will freeze into a statue, ceasing to feel anything." And after two years he completely turned into stone. After all, the Gorgon Medusa in legends was given her magical gaze precisely because of the basilisks.
- Interesting, - so she actually knows that the snake is hunting. But why is it inactive? And she didn't use purely healing skills within the walls of the school... - What if with a direct look? Immediately into stone? Or something different?
"No, there won't be a stone," the witch grinned. - A reasonable person will simply die. His mental body will be split under the influence of his own mana, as will his soul.
- So, there's no way to protect yourself from his gaze?
- Why not? There are as many as four pieces. The first is to be a very powerful magician. The Grand Master will be just right - interesting. Even so. - Second - don't look into the eyes, - Miss obvious. - The third is specialized artifacts, but you won't find such things during the day, especially in England - twenty-five again. It all comes down to Mother England. - Well, the fourth one is to be born a parselmouth.
— With a snake's mouth?
"I hope you didn't think that this gift only gives you the ability to talk to snakes?" - the devils were playing in her eyes. - No, this gift gives much more. No snake magic affects the magician, just like poison. A Parselton can command any snake, and it will not be able to disobey him, provided that it is not subordinate to another Parselton. Well, protection from the gaze of the Basilisk, of course.
I learned so many interesting things this evening. True, he did not complete the main task - to talk with Nev. He was already fully asleep. Well, okay, it will be in time.
Having said goodbye to the teacher, I left. But it's still interesting: who plays their game within the walls of the castle? DDD? Or at his direction? Or in spite of?
How interesting it is to live.
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