When tending to her wounded lover, one witch discovers that some wounds lie deeper than the flesh.
This was my January Patreon project voted on by my lovely patrons, consider joining to influence future votes.
Pre-read by my fantastic girlfriend, Dawn, many thanks to her for the help.
CW: Discussion and Depiction of Rape.
She followed the path of blood through the forest, seeing splatters of red upon the litter and surrounding trees. The situation was never going to be good when you needed to follow a trial of viscera to find somebody and it was even worse when it was somebody you loved.
Her mind attempted to calm her frayed nerves, struggling to interject even a ration of logic into her rapid and anxious train of thoughts.
This was not a trail of viscera but merely a few bloody breadcrumbs. It was surely not a grievous wound or else her beloved wouldn’t have been able to flee this far into the forest for safety.
But when it was somebody you loved, your mind had a habit of ignoring the obvious for the far more likely doomsday scenario that it surely must’ve been. So, she continued to rush forwards, throwing caution to the wind.
“Vanessa!” she screamed.
No voice responded, merely the rustling of the canopy and the noises of a few nearby creatures. Thankfully, they all sounded small and harmless.
She huffed through clenched teeth and struck forwards at quite the clip.
Her hand moved on its own and a blue aura washed outwards, highlighting the blood in a translucent glow. A tracking spell, one of the first she had learned in her youth.
“Vanessa!” she tried again.
There was a groan from up ahead, a human groan, a groan of pain and discomfort. But at the very least, the pain revealed that there was surely life inside of its host. The question was, how much of that life remained.
Not helpful.
She gritted her teeth even tighter and sprinted ahead, as fast as her legs could handle her, coming upon a clearing with a small creek running down the middle.
A familiar woman was leaning against a tree, gritting her teeth together. Her usually pale face was an even more sickly white and her long red hair was matted against her scalp in a sheen of sweat. Her green eyes were wide with pain and adrenaline.
She was clutching her left arm where her garb had been torn and a massive chunk of flesh had been removed.
“Glad you finally showed up, Carol,” Vanessa hissed. “Was worried I’d…” She chuckled. “Well, I’m not worried about what I was worried about anymore.”
“What happened?” Carol asked.
Though she shook her head. That was a question that could wait until the bleeding had been mended.
She swished her hand in an arc through the air, causing multiple vines from the tree above them to glow blue. They cast enough light that she could see what she was doing as she examined the arm closely.
Thankfully, her early prognoses about massive chunks of flesh being removed had been a little overblown. In reality, there were a series of four cuts that had been drawn across her arm. They were deep and feral, looking much like they had come from some sort of wild animal.
“Should see the other guy,” Vanessa joked.
Her voice was scarily weak.
“I’m sure you extracted adequate revenge,” Carol replied, winking at her. “I’d be ashamed if you didn’t.”
She drew forth a cleansing salve and approached the arm. Thankfully, Vanessa was a good patient and removed her hand from the wound, giving Carol exclusive access to the bloody appendage.
Thankfully it seemed like there was a lack of gore.
The cuts were deep but not so deep that it looked like there was any damage done to the muscles or fat. A small miracle considering how feral the attack looked.
Carol started to apply the salve which was a mixture of local herbs and alcohol that would get the job done nicely. Though it did make Vanessa hiss, revealing that maybe she should include a pain numbing agent into the next batch she manufactured.
“Hurts,” Vanessa growled.
Carol nodded. “And hopefully that hurt will stop an infection from taking hold. Think of it as a small price to pay to stop gangrene. If that happened then I would have to amputate and I can promise you that would hurt a whole lot more.”
“Take the arm,” Vanessa teased, forcing a smile “I’m sure I know a spell that could help me grow another one.”
“I’m not testing that,” Carol shot back.
When the salve had settled, Carol drew forth a thread and needle, using it to start mending the wounds. Thankfully, she had shown a little foresight and coated both items in a numbing agent, meaning she would hear very little bitching from her companion.
“Thanks for coming out and finding me,” Vanessa whispered, looking off to the side.
Was there shame in her unfocused eyes? It was hard to tell.
Carol snorted. “I don’t know if you know this but I do kind of love you, dear, and I don’t tend to let the people I love die in the woods.”
“But it’s dangerous out here,” Vanessa replied.
As she looked at Carol, her gaze seemed a mite unfocused. Concerning but not the immediate issue that needed to be addressed.
“And we’re both witches with enough cantrips under our belt that we can take of ourselves,” Carol replied, shooting off a glare. “Or at least that’s the story you told me before you came out here to get mauled.”
The wound was sealed and the bleeding… well it was hard to tell what the bleeding was doing due to the amount of red that already covered her arm.
So, Carol drew forth her canteen and washed away the blood and salve. Thankfully, it seemed like her battlefield remedies had worked at stopping the bleeding.
Next, she drew forth some bandages and started to wind them around Vanessa’s arm. They were bound tight but would protect her from any further infections or debris. That is if it wasn’t already too late for such things.
Thankfully, no more blood leaked through the sterile material.
Small miracles are all a witch could ask for in situations like this.
“So, what attacked you?” Carol asked.
Vanessa forced a smile. “Promise not to get mad?”
“I’m caring for your wounds and not here to scold you,” Carol replied, though a grim smile did cross her lips. “The scolding can come after I’m positive that you’ll survive.”
Vanessa sighed. “Such a drama queen. It’s just a few little cuts.”
“And those little cuts can have greatly different long term effects on your well being depending on where they’ve come from and what condition they are mended in,” Carol shot back. “Now please tell me what attacked you in the forest.”
“It was…” Vanessa shook her head. “Reptile, two-headed, looked like a snake but walked on eight legs with razor sharp teeth and talons.”
Carol’s mind went through an encyclopedia’s worth of botanical and bestiary entries, trying to find one that might fit the bill. The reptile nature and two-headedness were never a good sign; those beasts always had the most magical bullshit attached to them.
She’d narrowed the options down to three: two were salvageable, one was certain death.
“Green, brown, or red,” she asked.
Please don’t be red.
“Brown,” Vanessa answered.
Carol sighed in relief. “Their poison is mild and slow acting. It is completely treatable if we can get you back to my laboratory.”
“How slow acting?” Vanessa asked.
There was fear in her eyes and Carol placed a comforting hand upon her shoulder.
“We’re talking about the scope of days here, and not hours,” Carol said, leaning forward to give her a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry for scaring, hun.”
“You need to work on your bedside manners,” Vanessa grumbled.
Carol snorted. “And you need to work on not scaring me half to death with your little escapades into the forest.” She smirked. “This isn’t your first close brush with death but I would very much like it to be your last.”
“Not my fault that all the profitable substances are out here,” Vanessa shot back.
She tried to cross her arms but winced at any attempt made to move her wounded appendage. That wasn’t a good sign but Carol kept her lips sealed. There was nothing to be gained from feeding into her beloved’s anxieties anymore than she already had.
Carol stood up and motioned with her arm, using telekinesis to search through her surroundings for anything useful. She managed to find two sizable and sturdy sticks, plus a series of massive leaves from a Buckshire plant. They were perfect for putting together a jury-rigged stretcher for carrying Vanessa out of here.
Vanessa looked at it and took the hint, easing herself into it.
“I could walk,” she chided.
Carol rolled her eyes. “As much as I’d like to believe you, I would be very worried when you inevitably ate shit.”
“Alright, alright, let’s just get this over with,” Vanessa shot back.
Carol whisked the air with her finger and the stretcher lifted up from the earth. Thankfully, neither it nor her patient ate shit as they started to walk back through the forest.
Carol watched as the solution boiled and the various plants inside the beaker started to break down. They gave the water a yellowish and sickly colour, though this was exactly what she was looking for.
Her gaze briefly went to Vanessa who was laying out on an operating table, drumming the fingers of her good hand against the ancient wood.
“How are you feeling?” Carol asked.
Vanessa worked her jaw. “I can barely feel one arm but I don’t exactly feel poisoned. So… okay, I guess?”
“And you will feel a whole lot better after I’ve given you this solution,” Carol interjected.
She grabbed a small pinch of a white energy powder, sprinkling it into the solution. It would provide a nice little kick to make the elixir fast acting while also hopefully helping with some of the pain and numbness that her beloved was currently feeling.
Next, she grabbed two more plants, Terry Festerium and Indigo Black. They were a nice little addition that would hopefully address any potential infections that could’ve been borne from the soil and filth of the forest.
The solution was now a yellowish-green, the perfect colour for such medicines.
As the last little bits of pulp melted away, Carol killed the flame and transferred the glass beaker onto a bed of ice. With a quick flick of her wrist, she enchanted the ice, cooling the beaker to body temperature in a matter of magical seconds. All without fracturing the glass
One of the hundred different ways that magic made life easier.
Finally, Carol grabbed a medical needle out of a jar of pure alcohol, drying it off. Once it was cleaned, she then transferred a portion of the beaker’s contents into it.
“Why do all your potions involve needles?” Vanessa grumbled, flinching away from the sight of it “You know most witches drink potions, right?”
Carol snorted. “Most witches create brews that aren’t designed for strictly medical purposes. I address wounds and illnesses, not superficial afflictions; thus, my potions must be administered directly into your bloodstream. It’s also why they have a more immediate and longer lasting effect.”
“Okay but…” Vanessa worked her jaw. “What would happen if we didn’t inject me with a needle?”
“Well, I am,” Carol rebutted. “So, there’s no point in talking about what would happen if I didn’t.”
She stood beside Vanessa and gave the plunger a little squeeze, wasting some of the fluid but also ensuring that no air bubbles were trapped inside. Her gaze then went down to Vanessa’s wounded arm, searching for a vein.
Thankfully, she could call upon a quick locator spell. One which highlighted her patient’s entire blood system in a nice and convenient blue.
“It is always so creepy when you use that spell on me,” Vanessa chided, looking down at every vein in her body.
Carol smirked. “Unfortunately, medicine is a very unsettling branch of magic to specialize in. Just be thankful that I only use it for good and not evil.”
“Evil medicine?” Vanessa snorted. “What would that even look like?”
“One of my classmates ended up working for the Royal Guard,” Carol replied.
Vanessa glanced at her. “Patching up guardsmen?”
“Keeping interrogation subjects alive,” Carol answered, no mirth in her eyes. “Like I said… evil medicine.”
Vanessa shuddered. “Fuck the King.”
“Fuck him indeed.” Carol shook her head. “You never talk much about your own time in custody. Do you want…”
Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Just inject me already.”
Carol took the hint.
She did as instructed and jabbed the needle directly into Vanessa’s vein. Her lover hissed as the substance went directly into her system. Thankfully, hissing was the only sign of discomfort that seemed to be present.
Soon, colour came back to her cheeks and she even seemed able to move her wounded arm, if only a little.
“Not bad, doc,” Vanessa whispered.
Carol bowed. “Glad to be of service, my love.”
Her attention then went towards the bandage.
She started to remove the old dressings as they had acquired a layer of grim from the forest evacuation. Thankfully, the cocktail had its effect and the wounds no longer seemed so grave and inflamed. Now the cuts just seemed more like a series of gruesome gouges, a painful affliction but not the end of her beloved’s life.
“May I cast a quick examination spell?” Carol asked.
Vanessa shrugged. “What does it do?”
“Just highlights any pains you are still enduring and helps me better understand where they are coming from,” Carol answered. “Normally, I wouldn’t bother but I want to make sure that I’ve whisked away every last drop of venom from your system.”
Vanessa didn’t verbally answer but instead motioned for her to continue.
“Please lay down?” Carol ordered.
Vanessa did so, laying upon her back and remaining perfectly still.
“Guess this is a good chance to see if I have cancer,” she teased.
Carol nodded and held her hands above her beloved’s body.
She felt a slight unease at performing something like this. Vanessa had joked but there was a very real chance she could find something like cancer or a legitimate health issue with such an examination.
It would not be her first time mending something small to uncover something far greater in nature.
This was also the reason that the first rule within the medicine caste was never to treat those you had a strong emotional connection with. A rule which she was only willing to break in an emergency like this.
Orange energy started to glow from her fingertips as she muttered a few cryptic phrases in a language older than the soil their home was built upon.
Tendrils of light began to coil around Vanessa’s body, searching throughout her for any issues.
The first thing that Carol noticed was her arm. It was highlighted as a zone of attention. The aura around it still hurt and she felt a phantom pain that was not pleasant. But thankfully, there were no signs of a poison still lingering nor were there any heats or itches that warned of an infection.
Hopefully, it would mend with time and care.
There was also a mild issue in the chest which Carol knew to be anxiety. An understandable problem to be paired with the other issue Vanessa had.
Carol felt a phantom version of the very same dread in her own chest but knew that such things would hopefully only be temporary.
Then her magic focused upon her beloved’s brain which lit up with a warning.
Oh no…
Her spell honed in and revealed that it wasn’t cancer nor a clot nor anything quite so dire.
Thank the lords. But what was this?
A wash of intense emotions suddenly came crashing down upon Carol, threatening to overwhelm her completely. Her breath was forced from her lungs and carried away by the raw negativity that these emotions bore.
They penetrated into her mind and were now her emotions as well.
How does…
She cried out as these memories came to her. Memories that were not supposed to be transferred with this spell. That is unless the memories had something to do with the whirlwind of self-loathing and hatred that seemed to be boiling Vanessa’s brain from inside of her skull.
“Please…”
It was Vanessa’s voice but it sounded so far away, carried to Carol from a great distance in time.
There was a Royal Guard within this chaotic clutter of anguished thoughts.
They were partially naked, their cock hanging from betwixt their legs. It was slick with a sinfulness, a sickly shroud that Carol could feel crawl throughout her body. It was a poison more effective and more potent than any she’d dealt with in her entire life.
It made her shudder.
It made her scream.
She ripped her hand away and looked down upon Vanessa.
Her lover looked up at her wide-eyed.
“You’re freaking me out,” Vanessa whispered. “It’s cancer, isn’t it?”
Carol blinked. “W-what?”
“Are you okay?” Vanessa asked.
Carol shook her head, coming back to the moment. Somehow, she managed to still be standing upon two legs, stumbling over to her workstation. She found a leaf of Sage Mint, placing it directly upon her tongue. It quickly soothed her, at least physically, bringing her thoughts back into line.
“I uh…” she drew in a breath. “I… it’s not cancer.”
“Thank the gods,” Vanessa said, letting out a heavy sigh of relief. “You made it seem like it was something serious.”
Something serious?! That was…
That was something that Vanessa wasn’t aware that she’d even seen.
No, she hadn’t just seen it. For the briefest of moments, she had lived it, feeling every bad emotion and ounce of self hatred that her beloved felt.
Was this a burden she lived with all the time?
The Sage Mint continued to sooth her until she spit it out, feeling her heart rate slowly crawl down to somewhere approaching a normal range.
“What was it?” Vanessa asked.
Carol opened her mouth to speak but the sentence faded as it reached the tip of her tongue. It felt like a sin to even entertain the idea of speaking about what she’d seen.
Was it really her place to even talk about it? This was obviously a secret that her lover kept close to heart, a secret she wasn’t meant to know.
How much had she overstepped her bounds with this intrusion?
But she also wouldn’t lie to her precious Vanessa either. No, she would rather die than keep a secret like this from the most important woman in her life.
“I saw…” Carol drew in a breath and let out slowly. “I saw a couple of your pains.”
Vanessa cocked a brow. “Alright?”
“Your arm isn’t infected, nor is there any poison in your system,” Carol stated. “Thought I’d start you off with the good news.”
Vanessa nodded mutely, waiting for the shoe to drop.
“I’m so sorry, Vanessa,” Carol whispered. “I… I had no idea that my spell was capable of detecting mental ailments. I…”
“What are you saying?” Vanessa whispered as a tension started to enter her shoulders.
Carol swallowed an anxious lump in her throat. “I saw what happened to you while you were in the King’s custody.”
Vanessa blinked once, then twice, no words coming forth to fill the void.
“No,” she whispered.
She recoiled away from Carol in disgust, clearly figuring out what exactly she had seen.
“I’m sorry, I…” Carol shook her head. “I shouldn’t have seen that.”
Vanessa gritted her teeth together. “Damn straight! You had no right to see that. I…” Some of the anger faded though there were still embers in her eyes. “I… I… There’s a reason I don’t talk about that type of stuff, Carol!”
Carol flinched away from her. She didn’t need a spell to feel the anger that wafted off of her lover. An anger that was directed at her.
“I had no idea,” she whispered, rubbing at her arm. “I can understand why you’ve kept it secret from me.”
“I mean I am just one more maiden among the many those bastards worked through,” Vanessa growled. “It’s not like it would’ve taken you much guessing to figure out how exactly they extracted that kind of information from me.”
She thudded back against the table and closed her eyes.
“Do you have anything that can help settle my anger?” Vanessa asked.
Carol looked at her collection and found a few mushroom caps that in low doses might help. She snapped the stem off of one and offered it to her partner.
Vanessa took it and popped it into her mouth, slowly chewing.
“I…” Carol began. “I felt what it was like? I felt how you felt.”
“Is that so?” Vanessa asked.
She refused to make eye contact.
Carol nodded. “Do you really… blame yourself?”
“I mean I got my stupid ass caught,” Vanessa bit back, flicking her wrist outwards. “Only have myself to blame that I was put in that kind of situation.”
“Vanessa, you know that’s not true. It took another sentient being to inflict that kind of abuse upon you,” Carol tried.
But she still felt the maelstrom of emotions inside of herself and knew that her words would feel weak, maybe even condescending. No, it would take more than a single feeble gesture to push through the barrier of blame and disdain that Vanessa felt for herself.
“Oh, don’t worry I have plenty of loathing for him too,” Vanessa grumbled.
She reached up and massaged her forehead.
Slowly, her temper seemed to fade, the mushroom having its intended effect. Bit by bit, her breathing normalized and brow left its unstoppable furrow.
“So, now what?” Vanessa asked.
Carol sighed. “I mean… I want to help you, babe.”
“There’s nothing you can really help with that you haven’t already given me,” Vanessa replied.
She sat back up and swung her legs over the edge of the table. Thankfully, they seemed more than capable of supporting her weight as she finally stood upon her feet. She wobbled a little but didn’t collapse to the ground in an instant.
Still, Carol stayed close, ready to support her if her legs didn’t prove cooperative.
Vanessa led the way out of the laboratory and into their lounge, collapsing into one of the many comfortable seats they had.
“What do you mean by… given you?” Carol finally asked.
Vanessa closed her eyes. “You took me in when I was a fugitive, fed me, clothed me, and gave me a place to heal.”
Heal?
Those memories didn’t feel particularly healed. They felt like a raw nerve that had just been hit by a blast of absolute anguish.
Carol didn’t comment on that however. Doing so would likely do very little good.
“You make me feel safe,” Vanessa whispered. “You make me feel loved.”
“You are loved,” Carol replied.
She gritted her teeth. There was still a wound that was left unaddressed and she was a mage from the medicine caste.
Fuck it, she was a doctor and she needed to ply her trade. Even if this was way out of her realm of expertise. Even if this was going to suck.
This was the love of her life she was dealing with.
She shook her head.
So much for the first rule of medicine.
“I…” Carol sighed. “I think we should really talk about this…”
Vanessa shrugged. “Nothing to really talk about.”
“Babe, I felt the wounds, I felt how raw they still are. I might’ve stabilized your traumas but I haven’t mended them in the slightest,” Carol said.
She made her way over to the small bar they had in their den. Though instead of going for their liquor, she placed a tea pot over a magical flame. Slowly, it started to warm, giving her time to prepare two herbal tea bags.
“I don’t really think there is a cure,” Vanessa admitted.
Carol nodded. “But surely there are treatment options? No pressure, of course, but I am here to help you, darling.”
“Maybe we could just talk about something else?” Vanessa replied, a terse edge clearly present in her voice.
Carol winced though hid it behind her work.
“We can do that if you’d like,” she said.
Vanessa was silent for a moment. Then she sighed and let out a noise that could only be described as a furious burst of anguish.
“Fuck it, the cats out of the bag already!” she declared. “You know that some absolute bastard in the Royal Guard raped me. Not like I need to keep that a secret anymore.” She swung her good hand in an arc. “Of course, if I would’ve been a better mage, I never would’ve been put in a spot where I’d get raped like that in the first place. Could have just… turned him into ash.”
She snapped her fingers and a small orb of blue fire materialized.
“Could do that easily enough nowadays,” she grumbled.
Carol knew that she could, remembering the scorch marks that had greeted her in the forest this afternoon. Her lover was more than adept with her combat spells.
“But you wouldn’t,” she said.
Vanessa nodded and the orb of fire suddenly extinguished. “You don’t fight monsters by becoming a monster. That much I can hold onto. But still, a girl can dream of inflicting pain upon those who hurt her, can’t she?”
Carol bit her tongue and simply nodded.
The water started to steam, so she removed it from the mithril flame and started to fill two fine china cups with water. Almost immediately, the rich scents of a dozen settling herbs and aromas reached her nose, making her sigh in relief.
She returned to her partner and placed the cups down between them before taking a seat on the other side of their coffee table.
“Do you think he even remembers who I am?” Vanessa asked, her voice hardly louder than a mere whisper. “Or is he just so used to his duties that I’m just another faceless girl that he broke and worked over on a normal day in the office.”
“Impossible to know and probably not a productive avenue to venture down,” Carol replied.
Vanessa shook her head. “I hate to think that I’m suffering like this and for him it was just an unmemorable Tuesday.” She gritted her teeth. “Did you know that he called me a boy?”
Carol shook her head.
“When he pulled down my pants and saw that I had…” Vanessa began.
Though the sentence soon faltered and shame entered her complexion.
“Well, you’re not,” Carol stated. “And he must’ve surely been blind.”
“I have a pretty noticeable cock,” Vanessa grumbled, finally finishing her thought.
Carol shook her head. “And have I ever led you to believe that such a thing lessens your womanhood to me?”
“No…” Vanessa sighed. “No, not at all. But you’re also not the only person in the world, babe.”
She took a gingerly sip of her tea and more of the tension seemed to fade from her shoulders. There was nothing magical or medicinal about the cup but it was hard to stay furious in the face of an amazing blend such as this.
“I don’t really know what I can share and what would even make me start to feel better,” Vanessa admitted.
Carol nodded. “Probably very little at first.” She sighed. “And I really am sorry that I just came barging into your brain like that.”
“I mean you only did it because I got my stupid ass mauled by some sort of poisonous feral beast,” Vanessa retorted.
She took another sip of tea and so did Carol. The two of them briefly made eye contact before glancing off to the side.
It seemed likely that the awkwardness would linger for a little while yet.
“I…” Carol started. “I’m glad that you are willing to talk about this.”
“And I’m glad that you’re so receptive.” Vanessa shook her head. “And maybe it’ll start to feel a little better the more I share. Though who really knows?’
“I hope so,” Carol replied.
Once more that pesky little silence settled into place, barely allowing even the sounds of sips and breathing to fill in the void.
“Does this change anything between us?” Vanessa asked.
Carol looked at her. “Do you still love me?”
Vanessa nodded.
“And I still love you,” Carol replied. “So, I don’t think that really changes anything between us.”
She reached across the table and Vanessa took the hint, taking her hand within her own. Her fingers were cold, numb, the sensation of anxiousness wafting off of them.
“You’re too nice to me,” Vanessa grumbled.
Carol snorted. “I like you, sue me.” She then drew in a breath. “And if… if you ever want to share more, I can promise you that not one little thing will change between us. I will love you with every little scar and wound you have.”
“Glad to hear it,” Vanessa said, flashing a smile. “Because my arm is probably going to have some pretty gnarly scars after this.”
Carol shook her head but couldn’t help but giggle.
“But thank you,” Vanessa continued. “And if there is anything you ever want to know, I can… I can try and be open about it, okay?”
“I’ll probably never take advantage of that but thank you for offering it, my love,” Carol said.
Their hands drifted apart and both of them returned to their respective cups of tea. By now, they had settled to a pleasant enough temperature to casually sip.
“His name…” Vanessa worked her jaw. “His name was Phillip.”
Carol snorted. “Sounds like a prick.”
“He was a prick,” Vanessa grumbled, glancing into Carol’s eyes. “Fuck him!”
“Fuck him!” Carol agreed.
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