Healing Magic

Shadi...

Shadi mumbled sleepily, and turned her other cheek against her arms.

Shadi?

The second time the voice came, she groaned and lifted her head from her arms. Sitting up at the head of the bed, Lu was staring at her between strips of white bandages. His shirt hung open on his chest, which was latticed with deep, half-healed gashes. Shadi stared back. Her tongue flickered through her lips.

“...Captain.”

Her blank expression seemed to trouble him. What she could make out of his face was twisted in a grimace. Lu reached up with a shaky hand to touch one of the wounds on his chest. Shadi moved to stop him a second too late; he hissed and jerked his hand away. 

“You shouldn’t touch,” she warned. “There was only so much we could do.” 

“Fuck,” he panted, leaning back against the headboard, and closed his eyes. He was silent for a moment. “...How’s the ship?”

“We’re here, aren’t we?” That much was true. The ship had taken a brutal beating of its own, but they’d managed to steer it to safety. He didn’t need to know the extent of the damage, she thought, or at least not while he was like this. “We are at port. I hired a shipwright with what money we had.”

“Is anyone dead?”

“...A few." Shadi pulled her hands into her lap slowly. She had been hoping he wouldn’t immediately launch back into his duties—she was prepared to take on more responsibility while he recovered—but he seemed intent on doing so. Lu gave her a pained look.

“McKellan?”

“He’s fine. A little shaken up.”

“We need to--fuck,” he gasped as he shifted his weight. Shadi frowned at him this time and rose from her chair to slither closer. She reached out to push him back into the pillows gently. “We really need to offer him a position. He tried to help me.” 

She felt a twinge of bitterness at the comment. She had carried him here from the deck herself and all he remembered was that redhead human doing some first aid magic on him? Magic that wasn’t even strong enough to close his wounds properly. Not that she was much better, but she still felt a sense of superiority. After all, she was the one waiting at his bedside.

“We tried to help you. Now ssstop moving,” she said forcefully. Lu glared up at her, but she narrowed her violet eyes at him and he wilted a little under her hands. The naga straightened up and moved to sit on the edge of the bed, folding her arms over her chest. She sighed deeply.

“We lost two men. Asher and myssself...it wasn’t enough.” Shadi closed her eyes.

The truth was that they had spent all their efforts saving Lu; there had been nothing left for the crew members who needed more than a few cursory stitches. It was still fresh in her mind: the darkness of the storm, the rain whipping her in the face as she slid wildly on the wet deck, Asher grabbing her arm and yelling frantically...then Lu, smeared with crimson, coughing blood from where he lay on the floor of his quarters. Moans of agony from the mangled men on the deck, outside his door. Her hands shaking from the effort of using every last drop of her magic. For the first time in her life, she had felt inadequate.

“We need a stronger medic, but for now, hiring him will do,” she mumbled. “Things would have been worse if…” Shadi trailed off and frowned. She didn’t want to say it--that she couldn’t have handled it alone.

Lu turned his head against the pillow to look at her. “...Yeah.”

“Next time, I will not disappoint you.”

He nudged her hand with his knuckles. Shadi looked at him sidelong. “You and Asher saved my life. Sometimes, uh…” He seemed at a loss for what to say for a moment. Lu made a noise of pain as he shifted on the pillows, prompting Shadi to get up and weave toward his massive desk, strewn with medical supplies. “Sometimes casualties happen at sea. You knew that coming in. I meant it when I said it.” 

The clinking of glass vials answered him while she picked through the dregs of their potions. “I know that.”

“It’s not good. Don’t get me wrong.”

“I know.”

“It’s just…” 

“Drink this.” Shadi slithered back to his bedside and held out a small bottle to him. It had a modest amount of a swirling, shimmering magenta potion. 

“Pain relief,” she said simply. He took it without further question. “We need more, but this should last until I can get into the market and sssearch.”

Shadi sat on the edge of the bed again. When he was finished with the remnants of the potion, she took the bottle from him and set it in her lap. There was plenty more to tell him, such as the fact that their combined efforts had only helped him on the surface level. That it would take weeks of recovery for him to heal, or even months if they were unlucky. That the ship repairs were going to be costly, and they would have to take up work at the port to pay for it (though she was fairly confident she could rob her way through this problem). And then would be him discovering the depth of his maiming. 

Lu’s roguish charm had gotten them through a myriad of sticky situations, not to mention it had even lured her into working for him, and now they were left without a face for their crew. The thought was difficult to reconcile with. Shadi felt the pressure of responsibility slowly increasing as they sat there in silence. She stared at him, expressionless, as he lay against the pillows with his eyes closed.

“...Lu.”

“Mmh?”

“When we remove the bandages from your face…” She hesitated. “What I mean to say is, when you were attacked, this thing...It mauled you. Badly. Not to the bone, but close in some places.” She watched as Lu’s hand drifted up to touch the bandages lightly. Shadi had become fairly adept at recognizing the expressions of humans, but it was difficult to read his face.

“...Captain?” she ventured. 

He opened his eyes enough for her to see they had already become glassy from the potion. He stared ahead blearily without answering her. Shadi shifted uncomfortably.

“You are still...I mean…” She leaned in to press her hand to the bandages gingerly. There had to be something she could say to comfort him. “You are still our captain. Scars will not change this.” He mumbled in an agreeing tone, turning his face away from her. “Lu…”

“I think I want to be alone,” he murmured. 

Shadi sighed, dragging more of her tail into his bed, and moved to sit beside him. She curled the heft of her tail around him loosely and rested her cheek on his shoulder. It was easy to physically comfort humans; they craved touch in times of struggle. Emotional comfort was not so straightforward.

“You have more to offer, you know. You could not run this ship on good looks alone.” He snorted derisively at that. “Ssstop. I am serious.”

“They sure helped to run things.”

“What does it matter? These men joined for a job, not to ogle you.”

“But at ports…”

By this point, she had lifted her head from his shoulder to look at him sternly. “You should be grateful you are alive,” she said bluntly. “I can’t speak for the half-elf, but I will still be here, regardless of your looks. Even if the others leave, I will remain.”

“Shadi…”

“You are more to me than your face.”

Lu was silent for a long moment. Then, his hand drifted across the blankets to find hers. He held it tentatively. “I changed my mind,” he said in a low voice. It was clear the potion was having an effect; he leaned into her tiredly. “...Stay with me. For now.” 

Shadi slipped her other arm around his shoulders. “Yes, Captain.”

“Thank you.”

“It is my job.” 

He was asleep again before he could answer. She looked down at his hand, still loosely closed around her own, and shook her head with a deep sigh. Eventually, she would have to pry herself away from him to go to the market, but for the moment, she would stay as he had asked. She closed her eyes and rested her cheek against the top of his head. Shadi stayed curled around him, savoring the warmth, until sleep overcame her again.

He had given her freedom. It didn’t matter what came next; she would remain at his side.