They arrived at the infirmary, and Cole led her to the man. He was older, early forties maybe. He was with a woman who she assumed was his wife.
"Lady Herald," the woman gasped out upon seeing her, dropping to her hands and knees. Her husband bowed as low as he could in his chair.
"You don't have to do that," she said awkwardly. "My name's Holli."
She offered her hand to shake, both of them righting themselves and looking at her like she had grown a second head.
"This is my husband Clemens Loewe, and I'm Argeda, my lady," Argeda took her hand so gently as if she thought Holli might break.
Holli shook their hands. "It's nice to meet you. This is my friend, Cole."
When they looked confused, Holli turned to where Cole had been only to find him gone. Holli let out an embarrassed titter.
"Sorry, I didn't realise he'd gone." She shook it off, looking to Mr. Loewe as she took a seat on the bed to be at eye level with him. "Can you tell me what happened to you?"
"A riding accident, about ten years ago. I've not had the use of me lower half since. They say— they say you can heal things normal mages can't."
"Sort of," she replied. "I don't want to get your hopes up; there are some things I can't fix. I have a few questions, just to help me figure things out if that's all right."
He nodded. "Anything."
"There's no function at all from the waist down?"
He nodded.
"What about sensation? Can you feel anything, like if anyone touches you?"
He shook his head.
"What about bladder and bowel control?"
"Complete loss of control," he replied quietly, hesitantly, and with flushing cheeks.
Holli nodded. She was by no means a doctor, and what she did know was just... from reading, YouTube, the first aid courses she'd taken, and watching medical dramas mostly—which weren't always a reliable source.
"Can I have a look at your legs?" She asked gently.
He nodded, removing the blanket from his lap. He was wearing a robe of some kind, thank fuck; that would make it easier. He lifted the fabric, and she could see his muscles had atrophied. She knew that could sometimes involve bone loss as well, but she had no idea how to tell if that was the case here.
"So, honestly speaking, I've never healed a case like this before," she said. But she had regrown limbs. She didn't see why it wouldn't work on this. This was an injury, and so far she'd healed a hundred percent of the injuries she'd worked on. "But we'll take a crack at it, see if I can't manage it. I should warn you, it can be quite a painful experience if it does work. If you start thrashing about, I may have to get people to help hold you down."
They didn't have anaesthesia here; they usually used alcohol or an herbal tincture not as potent as what they had in her own world. Holli wasn't keen on the alcohol, and they didn't have the other stuff in stock. She had spoken with Stitches and Adan about anaesthesia. She knew originally they used ether gas, but she had no idea what the equivalent here would be. Adan and Stitches were trying to figure it out. They were also the only ones she had spoken to about germs. She remembered what happened to the original guy who tried to introduce the concept and was reluctant to be put through a repeat.
"I'll just get Adan to help me get you up onto the bed."
Holli signalled the man, who came over to help her out. Together they got Mr. Loewe up onto the bed, placing him on his stomach so she could get to his back.
She shifted the fabric so she had access to his back, placing her hands upon it. She could feel the damage, a wrongness that didn't belong in the tissue making up the spinal cord. While she had healed nervous tissue before, it was nothing of this scale or this old.
It was more difficult to work her magic into him, into these broken parts of him. They felt they had done their healing; there was nothing left to fix.
She poured her magic into it though, forced it, restoring those broken connections, burning away the sub par healed tissue and fixing it the right way. She could almost feel it, cell by cell, see it.
She was vaguely aware of pained groaning and grunting, but it sounded so far removed from her she could barely hear it. Her vision tunnelled, the groaning and grunting became screams, but still so far away it didn't bother her. There was so much to be done, so much to be put right.
She could see a heartbeat in her eyes; was it hers or his? The pumping of blood, the whoosh of it in her ears.
She thought she could hear her name being called at one point, but it was so difficult to hear over the heartbeat. Then there was a snap, and the heartbeat stopped.
-
The infirmary was in chaos as Holli stood over a man on the bed. Solas had heard the screaming, visceral and soul-chilling, echoing about the castle halls. He had come running, ready for trouble. And by the crowd also making their way through the halls, he wasn't the only one. He had not been expecting to find Holli in the midst of healing a man, the source of the screams. Holli had seemed to be entranced, oblivious to everything around her. The power in the room, emanating off her, it was immense.
There was a woman sobbing in the corner; Adan was standing nearby, looking pale and shaken. And the man was still screaming.
Solas had watched her heal people before, but it had never gone like this. It had always been painful for the patient, but this was well beyond that.
Solas reached out to touch Holli's shoulder, pull her from this trance, but Cole was suddenly there and stopped him.
"Her magic, it won't let you. She can't hear us or see us. Just... burn away the damage, grow it again new, cell by cell, atom by atom. What are atoms?"
The man doing all the screaming mercifully passed out, silence engulfing the room. Holli continued her work, though, the ebb and flow of her magic didn't cease. Then the blood started dripping out of her—her ears, her nose, her eyes.
"Holli!" Solas called, reaching out again but mindful of getting too close. He wanted to get a sense of what magic she was using to protect herself.
Vivienne and Dorian arrived, coming to stand beside him.
"What in the Maker's name is going on?" Vivienne asked.
"Holli is healing him," Cole replied, completely unperturbed.
"And it seems to be going swell," Dorian noted.
"I've never seen it get like this before," Solas said. "We need to stop this. I don't think she is in control."
"Really?" Vivienne said, sarcasm oozing out of her.
"At least the screaming's stopped," Dorian said. "I take it there's a reason we haven't just pulled her away and snapped her out of it?"
Cole demonstrated, reaching out to touch her and being zapped for the effort.
"He looks well enough; why hasn't she stopped on her own?"
"The damage is inside," Cole told them. "So much to do, so much wrong, so much to fix. She's lost in her head again. She doesn't know what's happening out here."
"She is depleting herself," Solas said. He could feel it. "A little more and I should be able to intervene."
It was not the ideal way to handle it, but in his weakened state he was no match for her.
Cullen and Cassandra entered the room, demanding answers. It seemed everyone was talking about the unholy shrieks that had been coming from the infirmary. The mages explained what was going on.
"Get a templar in here," Cullen said. "We have plenty of them."
"No!" Solas hadn't raised his voice, but his tone brooked no argument, and the look he shot the Commander was loaded with dark promise should the other man attempt it. "A few more moments."
Sure enough, Solas could feel a weakness to exploit as she no longer had the power to maintain both the healing and whatever protective barrier she had somehow erected. What she had done was dangerous; he could guess at some of the repercussions of this. Her magic being depleted was just one of them.
With his own magic, he forcefully separated her from the man, and once that connection was severed, she just crumpled. Solas caught her before she hit the ground, placing her on one of the other beds to check her over. Adan and Vivienne tended to the man.
She had used far too much of her magic; it had started eating into her life force, causing damage to her own body. Nothing that couldn't heal over time, but he would recommend she not use her magic for a few days at least.
He didn't like this, that she could do something so dangerous while they were powerless to stop her. He should be a match for her; he should be able to overpower her, and easily, as strong in magic as she was.
Behind him he could hear the dying sobs of the woman who'd been in the corner watching in horror. Vivienne was apologising on behalf of Holli, but the woman tried to dismiss it.
"She did say it would hurt; it was just... shocking to see how much. But does this mean he's cured?"
Solas turned to watch the exchange.
"What was wrong with him?" Dorian asked.
"He's paralysed, can't move or feel his legs. It was a riding accident years ago."
Solas looked back down at Holli. He'd not warned her about attempting to heal old injuries; perhaps he should have. The body considered them healed, and that was that. But then, it had been widely believed one couldn't regrow limbs either. He had to admit, if anyone could manage it, it would likely be her. But she should not have attempted it without supervision. They would need to conceive some safeguards so something like this couldn't happen again.
Solas healed what he could of her, and then Cole was on hand with a bowl of water and a cloth, gently cleaning the blood from her face.
When he was done, he effortlessly and quite tenderly picked her up.
"What are you doing?" Solas asked.
"Taking her to her room. She likes it the most. She won't like to wake up here."
Solas nodded; that should be fine. He would check on her from time to time.
"She'll be all right?" He asked.
"She'll be fine, Cole, just take her back to her room and see she is comfortable."
Cole nodded and headed out with her. Adan would see to Holli's patient, and the rest of them filed out.
"Do you suppose it worked?" Dorian asked. "Could she truly have cured him?"
"I know she is quite the gifted healer, but I have my doubts even she could manage that," Vivienne said.
Solas kept his silence. He wasn't sure either way, and there would be no way to know until the man awoke. And when Holli woke, they would need to have another talk.