Holli sat down as close to the fire as was safe to do so, despite her desire to crawl right into it. Their progress today had been slow. She was aware she was the reason for it. She was trying to keep up, just doing a poor job of it. So she tried to keep her mouth shut. No need to slow them down and complain about it the whole time. Even she hated whiners.
"You're going to fall into that fire, kid," Varric chuckled from the other side of it.
"Maybe then I'll be warm."
"Here," Solas said, a quick gesture, and she felt a comforting warmth settle over her.
She sagged in relief.
"I need to teach you that spell," he said.
"No good, I'm not a mage," she said, her focus returning to her book.
She had packed her school backpack to bring with her—clothes, some lollies, toiletries, and the Atlas of Human Anatomy. She hadn't finished it, having only recently gotten hold of a copy. Second hand, but still good condition.
Her aching body was protesting the fact she hadn't just crawled into her bedroll after another long day of walking. Cassandra had scrounged one up for her. It certainly wasn't a sleeping bag, but it would do. She would be sharing a tent with Cassandra—Varric and Solas in the other. They had been discussing keeping a watch; the three of them were taking care of it. Holli had offered to be part of it, even she was capable of staying awake and alert. But they had declined; she figured no one wanted to risk putting their immediate safety in her hands.
"Eventually you will have to accept you are, or you'll be putting yourself and those around you at risk," Solas told her.
"Why are you so sure I am?" She asked. "There's nothing magical about me. Except this." She flapped her glowing hand about for a moment.
"When I was healing you, I felt your magic. It responded to mine. I can feel it now; it's depleted, but it's there."
"Are you sure it's not just this?" Again with her hand.
"I think I can tell the difference," he told her, his expression less than impressed.
"We don't have magic where I come from," she reiterated.
"And yet, here you are."
"Agree to disagree," she said, redoubling her efforts to focus on her book.
"I will let the matter rest for now. But as your magic recovers, it is going to cause problems. We must revisit the issue before then."
"Sure." Whatever got him to drop it.
"What are you reading?" Cassandra asked her, poking at the fire and providing a much-needed change of topic.
"'The Atlas of Human Anatomy,'" she replied. "I want to be a doctor when I grow up."
"Doctor?" Cassandra asked.
"Yeah, you know... um, maybe you call them physicians? A healer but without the magic? Surgeons, paediatricians, neurologists..."
She listed off a bunch of different types to see if any names sparked.
"An herbalist," Cassandra said. "Physicians and surgeons are a little more rare."
"Herbalist?" Was that how far back their medical fields were? Interesting. And scary. "Christ, do they still use leeches for everything? Humorism?" She laughed a little at the idea.
"Yes," Cassandra replied, straight-faced.
Holli's jaw dropped. Oh. Oh no. "People must die a lot here. And young, I'm guessing."
"No more so than usual."
Christ, what was usual? People tended to not realise how bad things were until they'd tasted better.
"What about magic? It must be used to heal." She looked to Solas. "You healed me, and I was shot. Even with all our advances in my world, people still die from it."
"Healing magic is very difficult, and I very nearly failed. I'd never seen wounds like yours before."
And given his extensive experience, that was saying something.
"Without the aid of your own magic, things could have been very different."
She looked annoyed at him for bringing up her own magic again. "But with healing magic, you must be able to do amazing things—repair organs, cure blindness, deafness, disease—"
"I'm afraid not. Magic can be used to treat serious wounds, yes, but it's not a cure-all."
"Why not?" She asked.
"It doesn't work like that," Solas told her. "It's complex. For the best outcomes, a combination of herbalism, other non magical treatments, and magic work best. Magic encourages the body to do what it already knows how to do, just at a much faster rate. The body does not know how to cure blindness or fight certain diseases."
How disappointing.
"Can you do all those things in your world?" Varric asked.
"Sometimes. It depends on the root cause. But we have organ transplants for failing organs; we have vaccines for so many diseases—"
"Organ transplants?" Cassandra asked, the idea apparently distasteful. "Is that what it sounds like?"
Holli nodded. "Being an organ donor is completely optional, of course; you can opt out."
Solas looked curious, Cassandra a little disgusted, and Varric was a little more interested.
"So your doctors take an organ from one person and put it in another, just like that?"
"Not just like that. It's complex, and it takes ages, and the person receiving the organ has to be on medication for the rest of their lives, or their bodies might reject the organ. The shit we can do is pretty amazing when you think about it."
"It sounds unnatural," Cassandra said.
Holli shrugged. "Saves lives, though."
"At what cost?"
"Healthcare is usually free in my country, so... nothing really."
"I think she meant the spiritual cost, or the moral cost, little bird," Varric pointed out with an amused chuckle.
"Oh. Some people do choose to suffer and die instead," she shrugged again.
"May I see your book?" Solas asked.
Holli reached over to pass it to him. "Can you read it?"
"No, but these pictures..."
She scooted closer and leaned over to see what he was looking at. "It's an x-ray of a human skull."
"X-ray?"
"Where I come from, we have machines that can... look inside you, see your bones."
"This doesn't kill the person?"
She shook her head. "We have machines that can look inside you to see all sorts of stuff. While you're alive."
The medical profession had always fascinated her, and she'd known very young she wanted to be a doctor. Probably after her mum's first overdose. She could remember with vivid clarity calling the ambulance, watching the paramedics working on her. Mrs. Polatsky had tried to take her away, somewhere she couldn't see, distract her. But Holli had been stubborn, wanting to watch, wanting to know her mother would be ok. While her mum had been in hospital, Holli remembered their visits, some of the nurses kind enough to explain things about the machines and medicines when she asked.
"I'm curious as to the words," Solas said.
Holli pounced on the chance. "If you teach me to read the language of this place, I'll teach you to read English."
Josephine had said she would find someone to teach her, but Solas was right here. And from what Holli gathered, they were going to be doing a lot of traveling. Dragging a tutor around seemed a bit ridiculous and probably not what that person signed up for.
Solas thought it over a moment. "You have a deal. We can begin tomorrow, when we make camp for the evening."
Holli grinned and nodded.
"For now, it's late; you should get to bed."
Her grin dropped and her brow furrowed. Even her own mother didn't send her to bed. She was old enough to decide her own bedtime.
"It has been a long day, and we have an even longer one tomorrow," Cassandra said.
Holli rolled her eyes. They wanted to get rid of her so they could talk without her, maybe? Holli huffed, taking back her book and going to her tent. She had her little keychain light she could read by; she didn't need the fire.
Cassandra watched her go, disappearing into the tent. Holli had been quiet most of the day, trudging along a little behind them. She had been trying to keep up, but her struggle was obvious. Much as it had been on their climb to the Breach. After she had woken from that, she had isolated herself in her cottage and hadn't left it until Cassandra had come for her. People had been growing concerned. Cullen and Josephine had been using the elven maid she'd been assigned to keep an eye on her. What did she do all day? Was she eating? How was she doing? Her food intake hadn't been great, and the maid had said she spent all day scribbling things onto parchment or reading. The maid was unlettered and hadn't been able to tell them what she was writing. Turned out it wouldn't have mattered. Cassandra had seen some of those papers, and she couldn't read it either.
Since Holli had isolated herself, it had been difficult to get a read on her. While she believed the girl wasn't responsible for the Breach, her story seemed so fantastical. And if she took the fact she was from another world, it was still hard to believe she didn't know anything about how she came to be here, magically appearing at the site of one of the most destructive events of the past few years.
"How does she seem to you?" She asked the other two.
"Considering everything she's been through—is still going through—she's holding up well," Varric replied, a hint of warning in his tone. "She seems like a good kid, Seeker."
Solas kept the conversation he'd had with Holli private. Letting the Seeker know Holli didn't trust them to help her home might not go over well with the woman. Solas had seen she could be quite rash and harsh at times.
Solas merely hummed his agreement with Varric's assessment. He wasn't wrong. She had left an entire world behind—everything and everyone she knew. And still she had marched up a mountain and tried to close the Breach, half expecting to die for the trouble. He was aware she also held the slight belief that if she died here, she might wake up in her own world.
He hoped she didn't attempt to test it, because he was quite certain it wouldn't work.