Persuasion wasn't enough and Lee had to turn to unreasonable threats for Ingrid to agree to simply bandage him without using her power. He wasn't clear how it worked, but it wasn't hard to tell that the price she would pay was too steep.
Only when they were on the way back ho she stopped pouting, and, still a bit unhappy, said, "You could've been fine by now, you know?"
Lee looked at his clumsily wrapped shoulder and shook his head, "Not until I fully understand how that works."
"There's nothing complicated about it! Even a child can understand." She said, "After I absorbed the water spark I beca a healer, like your mother. And now I can use my body as a dium to heal other people. It's my calling to ..."
"A dium?" Lee interrupted her, "You didn't get special powers from the spark?"
"No, silly!" Ingrid shook her head, "We, humans, only can use the power of the spark we absorbed. And to successfully do that we have to spend our life force ... a small price to pay to save lives, don't you think?"
"Wait!" Lee said, "But those with the fire sparks and the green ones, they aren't healing anyone. Do they also spend their life force? Or their bodies aren't diums?"
"Everyone has to pay the sa price if they want to control the Divine power." She said, "I have no qualms about it because I do it for a good cause!"
"So basically you'll get older the more people you have helped?" He asked.
"Mhm." She happily nodded, "Wrinkles are the marks of honor every healer wears with pride!"
"But wasn't it just easier to kill the wolf?" Lee asked, "You probably would've spent much less power than healing ."
"What do you an?" She said, "I don't have the ability! I absorbed a water spark. Healers don't have the power to hurt anyone – we live to save others!"
'Oh my God!' Lee finally realized the true spectrum of his own stupidity.
Not only he tried to swallow a useless crap, he almost died in the process. And even if he was successful, at best he could beco a healer, and had no chance to complete the revenge. And the worst thing about it – he basically killed his own mother!
Clearly she gave all her life force to pull him back from the afterlife, paying the ultimate price.
Maybe it was caused by the blood loss, but Lee suddenly felt dizzy and had to lie down at the roadside. He ssed up. For real.
"Are you sure you don't want to help you?" Ingrid pestered. She ant well, but for so reason Lee found the whole healing subject annoying.
It wasn't her fault though, so he said, "Tell how it works exactly!"
"There isn't much to tell." Ingrid shrugged, but then she thought she realized his intentions and said, "Oh! So you also want to beco a healer? A good choice! It's great, trust ! There aren't many n among us ... there is your father though ... and it's said he's a genius, but he works for that evil man and ..."
"Ingrid?" Lee interrupted her again, "How do the sparks work?"
"Well ... first you have to absorb one – there is a special technique for that." She said, "Afterwards it kind of settles in the middle of your chest. Think of it as you becoming its new ho."
"So you don't eat it?" He asked, already guessing the answer.
"No, silly! It'll kill you!" She laughed, "No. You have to have a technique, and you perform it in very peculiar surroundings. That part is complicated. But using the spark is not that hard. By ditating I learn to communicate with it and when I need, I let its power flow through into the person I have to save. It's miraculous!"
"It can't be that simple." Lee said.
"It isn't." Ingrid said, but didn't elaborate.
Lee didn't care. Lying in the grass and watching the clouds above, he realized he had no clue what pain and suffering he had caused Tess, but her aged face clearly showed the many sacrifices she made for him. Unfortunately there was no way to change the past, but there was also no way he could ever allow her to waste her life force on him again.
Clenching his teeth, Lee got up, trying to ignore the pain in his shoulder, and marched back ho despite the dizziness. Ingrid happily followed, misinterpreting his determined expression as a sign of her successfully guiding the child towards the right path.
He did manage to scare her out of her wits when he, half naked and bloodied, called for Tess and stated that 'all the healing nonsense stops now!'. His stepmother almost got a heart attack, but it was mostly because of the way he looked.
The only one who was happy about the events was Freeda.
Watching Tess wash Lee's wound, she proudly said, "That's a fucking real man! That's my Lee! Your grandfather would've been proud!"
After he was cleaned up and properly bandaged, Lee lied in his bed, but despite the exhaustion, he once again forbade Tess to use her powers to heal him while he was asleep. Only after she unwillingly swore to his, Alan's and Freeda's lives, he could finally pass out.
The adrenaline rush was over for quite so ti, and only his willpower let him stay conscious, as well as fear that Tess would do sothing stupid. He did consider her his mother and was afraid to find her lifeless body next to him after waking up, but currently he was a child and could only hold out for so long.
The next morning almost started with a conflict.
After waking up, Lee sensed a pleasant itch coming from the bitten shoulder, and, after glancing at it, saw that the bandage was gone. Instead of the bite marks, there was a fresh, pink skin covering yesterday's wounds. The spots weren't even scabbed – he was basically fully healed!
Before the implications registered in Lee's brain, he heard Tess say, "Don't bla ! I didn't do it!"
She was sitting next to him, almost as if she hadn't moved from the ti he passed out last night, and when he woke up, she happily smiled and caressed his forehead.
"It's all your own doing." She continued, "But you shouldn't let anyone know of your ability!"
"Ability?" Lee repeated in confusion. He wasn't fully awaken yet, and what Tess said didn't make any sense.
"Yes." She nodded, "Swallowing a spark brings so repercussions, you know? But that was what you went for back then, right?"
This was the first ti Tess ntioned Lee ssing up at the party, but he knew sooner or later they were bound to have the talk. Except what she said didn't make any sense.
"Didn't you take that thing out from ?" He asked.
"No, silly! It's impossible!" She stopped caressing his hair and poked his forehead a couple of tis, "And what made you think that swallowing a spark was a good idea in the first place? Did you really want to beco a healer like I and your dad?"
"No ... wait!" Lee suddenly panicked and threw the blanket off. He looked at his chest, but it was the sa as always. In fact, apart from the bitten shoulder his whole body hadn't changed.
"It's here." Tess pointed at his belly, an inch below his navel, "In the end it settled there. Normally when people absorb it the proper way, the spark rges with their body here, in the middle of their chest, near the heart ... but you ... well ..."
"You an ... I still have the spark inside of ?" Lee almost panicked, rembering the agonizing pain he was in.
"How do you think your shoulder was healed?" His stepmother said, "It's all on you!"
Lee glanced at his shoulder, then Tess, then his shoulder again. And then said with a bitter smile, "So I basically died a little to heal myself?"
"Don't look at it that way." Tess said, shaking her head, "From what I see it – it's a boon that let's you live more qualitative life. Of course, you shouldn't run around hurting yourself on purpose."
"But ... but how exactly does that work?" Lee asked while carefully poking his shoulder, "It's not like I did anything."
"The water elent has innate healing properties, and your injury was nded overnight by the spark's passive effect." Tess patiently explained, "All the elental warriors who have absorbed a blue spark have this ability. It's probably the only perk we have, apart from being able to help others, that is."
Lee stared at his shoulder for a while, and then softly said, "Mom? ... I'm sorry!"
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