A Long Time from Home Ch. 04

Author's notes:

This is an Alternate Reality story, where Atlantis, which the inhabitants called Baylon, was real and inhabited by a powerful humanoid race called Baylons.

About half the story happens in the bronze age and I've researched a lot for this story. If you find anything that looks like a mistake in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it. :)

A note about the language and notation:

The Baylon language is a predecessor to Latin, which is why it looks like Latin at a glance.

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

It's a long story and I suggest that you read them continuously (At least for a first time read).

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

P.S. I haven't gotten an editor yet, so any mistakes are mine. Interested editors are welcome :) Just be warned that this is a LONG story :)

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Chapter 4 -- Flashback: Healing

Arcem Discendi in Lescare.

The castle's name was Arcem Discendi (Baylon: "Citadel of Learning") or rather it was the Baylon name for it. Unlike most other Baylon training castles, it wasn't located on the island of Baylon, but on a small oval shaped island far away, in an area we called Lescare.

The humans inhabiting Lescare was in general short, with dark hair and brown slanted eyes, and had formed a multitude of various sized kingdoms in the area. We traded with most of them, especially the Shang since that was one of the largest kingdoms and their ruler, Zi Zhao, wasn't scared of us, as some of the other rulers were.

The Lescarians called the castle, and the surrounding area, Mount Penglai, but as it was a training castle for Baylons and most of the students didn't speak Lescarian, almost everybody called it Arcem.

Except from holidays with my family, Arcem had been my home for most of ten years: My father had taken Kaeso Atilus Maximus up on the offer and when summer was over, I had entered Scholastics Mentalis at the Dominus Grande's personal recommendation.

Like all the other kids there, I spend five years learning the foundation of mathematics, languages, alchemy, physics and history, as well as getting the basic concept of Ars Mentalis, which is using your mind to create a desired effect on the world around you.

All this may sound boring, but Ars Mentalis teachers were masters of the mind, and they knew exactly how to make it entertaining. So, we solved funny puzzles with numbers and letters, sang children's songs about history and in general had a great time playing while learning.

Then, when I was ten, I discovered what the Dominus Grande had meant about 'personal recommendation': Instead of taking the next ten years at Schola Mentalis, a Mage showed up and transported me to Arcem Discendi, where I would train under the Dominus Grande himself along with nineteen other kids.

We still learned Ars Mentalis, math, physics, alchemy and all the other scholastic skills, but combat training was added along with many other teachings. Some easy and some difficult.

Meditation training was one of the studies that most people found extremely taxing, but as my mother had taught me that since I was four, it was easy for me along with the training in Vis Vitae that went with it.

Like mages drew from the power of magic, called Primal Essence, and Mentats drew power from the energy of the mind, users of Vis Vitae drew power from the energy of life.

While that sounds simple, it's actually rather complicated, since Vis is generated by both body and mind of all living beings. That means that a healthy body have more Vis than a sick body and a happy mind has more Vis than a sick mind.

The Lescarian regarded Vis Vitae as an almost holy force, but to me and the few other Baylons that have been trained in it, it was simply another force to be used.

Not that it's easy to use for most people, since using Vis Vitae required a special and fast form of meditation, that could be entered in a heartbeat and left again almost as fast, making Vis a useful tool in combat.

However, none of that mattered right now, as I was spending time for myself, and the castle garden has always been one of my favourite places when I need to relax. This time was no different and as always when I really needed to get my mind on something else, I was painting.

Mostly because I like to paint, but also because it's different from combat, Vis, Ars Mentalis and all the rest that we train every day and I fully understood both my mother and grandmothers need to do this. I hoped that I would be as good as they are one day.

The sound of footsteps on the gravel, made me look in the direction of the path and a moment later Verina Julia Serranus came into view. As always, she was dressed in a Lescarian kimono, complete with a fan and a golden headdress. However, with her white hair and pale blue round eyes, nobody would ever mistake her for a Lescarian.

It was like seeing double, because that was exactly what I was painting: Verina standing in that dress, with the Arcem Discendi in the background and some cherry blossom flowers drifting in the wind.

I watched as she walked towards me and remembered that another student once accused her of "going native", since she always dressed in kimono. Her reply was typical for Verina. "No, I just like the feel of silk against my body, the gentle sliding touch against my legs as I walk. It turns me on and that's a feeling that I like."

That shut the student up, which was a wise decision on his part, since Verina was one of the best martial artists in the school in general and the best when using her fans. They might look like ordinary fans, but they were made of coloured steel and the edge was razor sharp. She wouldn't use the edge on another student, but when the fans were closed, they made excellent clubs and she wasn't afraid to use them.

"Hello, Spectre." She greeted with a smile, using the nickname I had gotten at the school. "Fancy meeting you here."

"Yeah right." I replied with a grin, since she obviously had been looking for me and turned the canvas, so she couldn't see it.

She noticed the movement and her smile grew wider "Oh, a secret!"

"Don't!" I said, but it was too late. She disappeared from the path and reappeared ten feet behind me, where she could see the canvas.

For a moment, she stood there with an astonished look on her face, when she looked at herself on the painting.

I shrugged helplessly. "That's a good way to spoil a surprise."

Verina finally tore her eyes away from the painting and looked at me. "That's... beautiful, but why are you painting me? I thought you were painting some woman that I wasn't supposed to see."

"It's your birthday present." I said with a smile. "And it was supposed to be a surprise."

"Oh... Sorry about ruining it." She walked closer to the painting. "You're actually extremely good... Why haven't I seen more of your paintings?"

"'Coz you've never been to my room." I said drily.

"Good point... but then again, you never invited me." Verina said with a teasing smile.

"Do you want to be invited?"

"I don't know." She said truthfully. "I hate complications."

I nodded to that answer. As far as I knew, Verina had had her share of lovers, but she had been careful not to choose any she trained with and as she and I did train together, it might as she said, complicate matters.

I pushed the thought aside. "So why did you come here in the first place?"

"Oh, I was looking for you, actually." She said with a frown. "Master Healer Sheng asked if you could take the night duty tonight. Apparently, there's some sort of Lescarian holiday and his assistant is late in getting here."

I thought it over and nodded. I had planned to use the time to study medicine anyway, so I might as well do it while sitting in the infirmary.

"That's okay. I'll take it."

"I'll tell him." She said and to my surprise, gave me a kiss on the cheek. "It's a beautiful painting, Ivah. Thanks in advance."

Then she walked away.

I followed her with my eyes. She had a cute butt that moved just the right way in the silk kimono.

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The healer's assistant still hadn't showed when evening came, so I walked down to the infirmary to take the night duty.

As I had expected nothing happened the first few glasses and I had plenty of time to study. All agents needed a trade that they could use as a cover when the situation demands it and I had chosen to become a doctor, since I was able to heal with Vis Vitae and Ars Mentalis anyway.

It made sense when I chose it, but if I had known the amount of work that went with it, I would have chosen something else. The problem is that some people with Ars Mentalis and Ars Magica can use powers to detect lies, so all covers had to be truthful, which meant that to use that cover, I had to become a real doctor, instead of pretending to be one.

With that in mind, I studied medicine and worked in the infirmary whenever I had a chance, knowing that I had to graduate medical school at some point.

On the bright side, it was extremely interesting and Anqi Sheng, the Lescarian Vis Master who doubled as the Master Healer, was not only a wise old man, but quite funny as well.

It was mid evening when two women came in. Much to my surprise, one of them was Verina in her usual Lescarian dress and she was supporting a staggering young woman that was dressed in the same way.

"Emilian." Called Verina "We need a hand here."

That Verina called me Emilian, instead of Spectre as she usually does, meant that the young woman wasn't a fellow student.

"Put her on the bench." I said and ran over to them.

When I came nearer, I discovered the young woman wasn't a Baylon, as I had first assumed due to her height and long white hair: Her eyes were slanted and brown like a Lescarian and while pure-blooded Baylons comes in many colours, none of us have slanted eyes, which made her a half-blood. Though rare, it wasn't the first half-blood I've seen around the castle, but she was the first one I had seen with white hair.

"Hello, I'm Emilian." I said to the young woman in Lescarian. "What's your name?"

"Yang Jia." She stammered, also speaking Lescarian.

"And what is wrong?"

"I don't know." She said, still stammering. "It feels like I'm burning and freezing at the same time and I have trouble breathing."

Fever, I guessed. Luckily, we had a lot of medicine for that. "Take your kimono off and lay down on the bench, so I can examine you. I'll go get some medicine while you do that."

I looked at Verina and switched to Baylon. "What happened?"

"We were just relaxing and talking when she suddenly started to freeze and sweat. " Verina explained. "It was weird, 'coz it came so suddenly."

"Did you eat the same food as she did?"

"Yes, and I feel fine."

Nodding, I reached out with my mind, so we couldn't be overheard. "< Who is she? >"

"< Yang Zheng's daughter >" Verina answered.

That answered most questions I had about the girl. Yang Zheng was Lescarian, one of the female teachers in unarmed combat and like all the teachers did, she lived in the castle and was allowed to have her family here. In her case, it was her two daughters, named Jia and Hao. I haven't seen any of them up close, as they tended to keep to their own quarters, but I had heard about them.

With a nod, I turned towards the patient. Yang Jia lay completely naked on the bench, looking like she had fallen asleep. Apparently, my command of the Lescarian language wasn't as good as I thought it was, 'coz I far as I remembered I only asked her to take off the kimono. Unless of course that she hadn't been wearing anything else to start with.

A quick look confirmed that there wasn't anything resembling underwear near her clothes.

I send Verina a smile and she actually blushed a bit and mumbled in Baylon. "What? She's beautiful and I like her."

She had a point about the first part, because Yang Jia was well shaped from head to toe and if it weren't for the slanted brown eyes, I would have thought that she was completely Baylon with those long legs and white hair.

I started the examination, working as fast as I could.

It quickly became apparent that it was more serious than I had assumed. Mostly because Yang Jia's skin was turning slightly blue, as her breathing was becoming more and more difficult.

I shook my head when I understood that there wasn't time: It wasn't a simple fever.

"Guard me." I said and without looking at Verina, I sat crossed legged into the air next to Yang Jia and placed my hands on her chest, above her breasts.

Gathering the Vis Vitae, I entered the meditative trance required for healing, which caused the outside world faded away, as I let the Vis flow into her. My senses followed the flow, and I could see that her life force had been disrupted due to some unknown cause. Something had invaded her lungs and it was killing her while I watched.

In an attempt to remove it, I directed the flow of power from me towards her lungs, but it skipped over the invader without doing anything.

That meant that it wasn't caused by disease, but some form of poison or toxic material, which again meant that I had to use another method.

I retracted my senses and was once again in the infirmary.

"It's serious, isn't it?" asked Verina with an emptiness in her voice that spoke of extreme self-control, when I turned my head to look at her.

"Yes." I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Turn her around on her stomach and if anything comes out of her mouth or nose, don't touch it... Oh and get the guards as well as Master Zheng in here. She has been poisoned."

Not waiting for an answer, I entered a new Vis trance and started to build up energy within me, while Verina turned Yang Jia around on her stomach.

Moments passed by slowly and it took seemingly forever before I had the amount of Vis that I needed. Opening my eyes, I forced the Vis into the girl's body, using a technique called Purgare Corpus (Baylon: "To cleanse the body").

Energy left my hands and slammed into her torso, making her entire body spasm and twitch. Then fluid and blood started running from her mouth and nose. It was a direct and hard way to do it, but it was the only way I could think of.

Verina looked at me, with worry in her blue eyes, "Is she drowning in blood?"

"Not if I can help it." I said, "I've forced the toxin out of her lungs and body."

I placed a bucket under the bench to catch the blood running from Jia and tilted the foot end, making the fluids run faster.

Since the flow of blood and poison blocked her breathing, it might kill the girl if it took too long, I admitted to myself, while I watched the flow, but at least she had a chance now.

"Have you called the guards?"

"Yes." Said Verina. "But I can't get hold of Master Healer Zheng."

I nodded and when no more fluid came out, I placed the bench on the floor again.

Hurriedly I checked the girl. The removal had taken too long, and her heart had stopped along with her breathing, but her life force hadn't left the body yet, so she could still be revived.

An Ars Mentalis cleaning trick removed both the poison and the fluid from her mouth and airways, and I used mouth to mouth a few times, before I placed a hand over her heart, slipped into Vis Meditation and send a charge of static electricity into her.

It's really a trick meant as an attack, but Master Healer Zheng had shown me that it could also be used to wake a heart that had stopped beating, if nothing else was wrong with the patient.

I checked her pulse, but still nothing.

Again, I shocked her and felt her pulse beating weakly as her heart started. With a gasp, she also started breathing.

Slipping into Vis Meditation, I poured more energy into her, strengthening her life force, before examining her again.

To my dismay, the Purgare Corpus had removed the poison from her lungs, but the part that had been absorbed in her blood was still there and it was still killing her.

I cursed loudly, causing Verina to ask, "She is not safe yet?"

"The poison has been removed from her lungs, but it's still in her blood." I said with a sigh and looked at her. Her beautiful blue eyes were brimming with tears and I realized Jia was more than just a casual sex partner for Verina.

Looking at Jia again, I went over my options in my head. I had already used Vis-healing without any effect, and I wasn't skilled enough in Ars Magica healing to do anything magical about poison, which left Ars Mentalis.

The problem with Ars Mentalis is that by and large, you can only heal yourself.

While that is practical, it's not useful for healers, who're supposed to heal others, so a method was invented to overcome that problem and it was a method I was about to use.

It's called Tralativa (Baylon: Transfer) and as the name implies it transfers a wound or any other problem from the patient to the healer. I don't know exactly how, but then again, I don't know how to make an adamantine sword either and I still use one. Needless to say, this can be extremely dangerous and usually hurts a lot, so it's normally only used as a last resort... like now.

Using Ars Mentalis, I could transfer the poison to my own body and the neutralize it. I had tried it on a few minor poisons, but never on a fatal one like this.

"I'm gonna try something." I told Verina. "Channel some Vis into us both."

Taking a deep breath, I placed my hands on Jia's body and started the Transfer.

A shimmering field surrounded us both for a few heartbeats and I swallowed a scream as my body started to feel like it was on fire when the poison was transferred into my blood.

Shaking all over, I staggered to the nearest bed and sat down before I closed my eyes and concentrated on an Ars Mentalis trick to neutralize the poison.

A net of mental energy scoured through my body, but the poison proved to be an elusive one and it passed through the net without being affected.

I felt dizzy and lightheaded as the poison spread more, but focused my mind and did it again, this time using more energy and a tighter net, but still the poison prevailed.

Nausea set in and it became harder to breathe.

Ignoring the physical discomfort, I used Ars Mentalis again, with even more energy, an even tighter net, and using even more time.

That helped, and I could feel the poison slowly being neutralized by the mental energy.

Exhausted and relived I opened my eyes again. I had been using a lot of energy in a short time and my body felt like it was composed of lead. Not to mention the fact that I had nearly killed myself, because I had underestimated the poison and overestimated my ability to remove it. "That was close."

"Too close." Agreed Verina and sat down beside me. "What the fuck happened? Jia is okay, but you have been sitting there for a long time."

I looked up at her and discovered that I was seeing double, but as I was looking at Verina, that a bonus... like watching two sunsets at the same time.

Shaking my head slightly brought my sight back to normal. "No worries. She is healed and I'm fine."

"What now?"

"Now we have the guards to secure your room just in case the poison is still there," I said and yawned. "Oh, and you stay here, while they do that."

"You're worried that I might I get sick as well?"