“It sounds intense.” King Alric looked away, the wheels and cogs spinning in his eyes.
“It will be. But each surgery will only take a few days to recover from. And we can space them out so your body has time to settle a little before we tackle the next problem. There are two things I would like to do today, to get the ball rolling. One, I would like to do an intense application of a specific potion that will break up and dissolve your scar tissue. That alone should combat some of the numbness. The other thing I would like to do is address the rotator cuff. You have a micro fissure there that didn’t heal correctly. It’s why you can’t lift that arm much beyond your shoulder.”
King Alric blinked at him. “How can you tell?”
“From the way the injury lies, it’s obvious to me.” Sora indicated the area in question. “I can apply a specific application that will heal the tear and reconnect the muscles. It should take about thirty minutes to heal after I’m done. How does that sound?”
Looking at their expressions, it was as if Sora had indicated that he could pop up to the moon to grab an alien, and he’d be back in a moment. He didn’t think he’d said anything too incredible, but, maybe to them, he had. Sora had seen for himself how limited their medical knowledge was.
Ravi had been right to urge him to offer his services. Sora was ever so glad he’d listened. Just look at the hope and excitement in these good people. Sora felt blessed that he had the right knowledge, the right tools, to help them.
King Alric found his voice, and he sounded husky as he urged, “Please do.”
“Just one moment.” As he moved back around to his bag, he urged Lisette and Cameron, “Watch what I do. I think this is a good procedure to pass along. Dragons are constantly damaging their rotator cuffs.”
Both were quick to orient themselves so they could hover at his shoulder.
“Because of how they fly, you mean?” Cameron inquired, eyes glued to the elements Sora was pulling out of his bag.
“It’s more that they misjudge air currents, sometimes. If a storm blows in quickly enough, it can catch them off guard. And the wrong gust at the wrong moment can yank them harshly, tearing the cuff. I will bet you anything this happened when King Alric fell out of the sky.”
King Alric snorted darkly. “I’ll take that bet. It was a rough landing.”
Sora mixed ingredients, and Lisette frantically wrote down what he was doing even as he did it. He’d write it out properly for her later but was glad she was taking this seriously enough to take notes.
“Alright. Black sand, captured wind from a hollow cave—”
“Wait, isn’t that malignant?” Cameron objected.
“It is, which is why we only use a very small amount. But the wind is destructive, and we need something to break up the scar tissue. Don’t worry, I don’t apply this indiscriminately. It has to be guided. So, use that with a sliver of ice from the Endless Sea and a touch of shiranui.”
He eyed the mixture, found it not quite the right color, and added another drop of ice. Ah, better. It needed to be that light, almost grey tone.
“Good. Ready, King Alric?”
“Ready.” King Alric sounded determined.
“This won’t actually hurt,” Sora assured him, even as he dipped in a glass spoon and carefully applied the potion to the top of his shoulder. “In fact, it will feel like a relief in a moment. The scar tissue is what’s tugging at all the wrong things, so with it gone, some of the pressure will ease up.”
“Oh! It’s—” King Alric cut off, and his left hand flexed into a grip and relaxed again. “You’re right. It’s not painful, but it is a very odd sensation.”
“Yes, it is that.”
Sora applied it to another spot and watched as his diagnostic lines adjusted to show the change in the body. Yes, this was doing the job nicely. The scar tissue was disappearing without too much of a struggle. Except that spot. Bad spot. Sora dropped another application onto it and glared it into submission. There, that was better.
He continued in this vein for a while, finally coming around to the front and dealing with the pectoral area and elbow. He rocked back on his heels for a moment, watching to make sure that things were going as they should. They appeared to be.
Cameron came around as well, urgently asking his mate, “Do you feel the difference?”
“I do,” King Alric admitted. “It’s as if my muscles were bound by a strong cord all this time, and someone’s come along and cut it. It’s relieved some of the pressure.”
“That’s a good analogy for what I’ve done,” Sora said approvingly. “Now, rotator cuff. This will feel good, no pain or pressure.”
He went back around the table even as King Alric asked, “Do I need to stay still for thirty minutes, or can I get down?”
“Stay still, please. While we’re waiting on it to heal, we can talk more about what to do, and perhaps call my father and bring him into the loop.”
“I would love that. Thank you for this, Sora. You’ve invested so much time and energy into this clan, into my people. We are truly grateful for all you have done and everything you’ve already taught us.”
Sora paused, not expecting this heartwarming statement, and found himself a little choked up. He’d rarely been praised like this, so sincerely thanked, as if he’d provided an unexpected miracle.
Lisette snorted. “We got along very badly without him, clearly.”
King Alric’s expression softened as he turned to Lisette. “And your clan’s specialty was never healing. You were forced to learn things on the fly under the worst of circumstances. Your hard work and dedication have kept us all alive for five centuries.”
The older mage nodded and swallowed audibly. “Thank you, Alric, but look at what he’s already managed in twenty minutes. I feel like beating my head against a hard surface. Sora, you’re a miracle worker.”
“I’m hardly that, but I thank you for the sentiment.” Sora grinned at her, his chest puffing up a bit. He’d barely done anything to really help King Alric yet, and already he felt such a sense of accomplishment from their reactions. “King Alric, I can honestly say your clan has become very dear to me. I’m happy to help you and excited to provide you with more tools. Lisette is far too amazing to ever feel that she might be lacking.”
“We are blessed to receive any help you can give us,” Lisette replied with a warm smile.
Sora mixed up the next potion he needed for the rotator cuff, glancing up now and again to study that dark head of hair, the injuries he couldn’t immediately treat. He thought of what it must have been like, five hundred years with no option but endurance. And it was all so pointless. Any healer worth his salt would have been able to mitigate this damage right from the beginning. The very healing ability that his clan took for granted.
And King Alric hadn’t even thought to ask for help because he was past hoping at this point.
It saddened Sora, it truly did. He felt like he’d made a huge contribution to this clan by reaching out to this good king. These people didn’t have a single healer to call their own. And wasn’t that a sad state of affairs, when his clan had many? Sora knew some of them would come to Burkhard to help, but for how long? There wasn’t a dedicated timeline, not yet.