Quick update: I have a new book out! Pathosis is available to read on my profile! Please check it out and let me know what you think!

Now for Chapter 12 of Selenite!

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"Ow! Dude, that fucking hurts!"

The healer in front of me winces sympathetically, but continues to dab my arm with a cloth that he keeps dipping in a bowl of clear liquid. "Sorry, but I have to clean the burn first before I can get a good look at it." He dips the cloth in the bowl again.

"What is that stuff anyways?" I ask.

"Rubbing alcohol. We don't have a ton of it, so we use it sparingly, but this is bad enough to need it." He pauses. "I don't think we'll need to use it on your head though, from what I saw of it."

"Well thank the Goddess for small favors," I hiss.

I glance around the room. Eris left to go sit in the other room, apparently too disturbed by the sight of the burn to stick around. Another girl, one I haven't seen before, has been helping the healer, bringing him different supplies when he asks.

The healer, who I think is named Koda, from what Eris said, finally sets the cloth to the side and starts examining the wound. It still hurts like hell when he presses on it, but I bite my tongue and try to make it look like it doesn't bother me.

"How did you get a burn like this?" he asks without looking up.

"A fire," I answer carefully through gritted teeth.

"Care to elaborate on that?"

"Not particularly."

"Well can you at least explain why it looks like a handprint?"

I look down. With all the blood and drainage cleared away, it does actually look like a handprint. Of course it does, you idiot. It came from your freaking hand. But I don't tell Koda that.

"Huh, that's kinda weird," I say instead. "I didn't notice that before. I honestly have no idea why it looks like that."

I must be a terrible liar, because Koda looks up at me with such skepticism that I fear he can read my thoughts. Whatever he's thinking, though, he seems to let go, because he looks back to examining my forearm.

Suddenly he lets go, pulling his hands away from my arm like someone who has touched a pan that's gotten too hot. After a pause that seems to be just a beat too long, he looks over his shoulder at the girl, who has taken a seat in the corner and is reading a book. "Helena?" She looks up from her book. "Can you grab me a pair of those special gloves from the storage room?"

"Oh, yeah, of course," she says, dropping her book facedown on the ground and rushing out of the room.

The look on Koda's face alarms me. "Is something wrong?" I ask, even though it's a stupid question with an obvious answer.

"Well, to begin with, I don't know if anything I have here will be able to fix this. I can bandage it, and maybe....did you put any sort of antibiotics on it before?"

"Yeah, just an ointment that I had."

"Hm. That's what I thought." He pauses. "This burn isn't normal. If it was, then it wouldn't look this bad if you put antibiotics on it. There's also-"

He stops as Helena renters the room, holding a small bundle wrapped in cloth. She sets it on the table and returns to her chair in the corner. Koda unfolds the cloth and lifts out the pair of gloves, which would look like they were made on animal skin, if they didn't have the odd greenish tint to them. Only after he pulls them on does he dare touch my skin again. "You see these streaks here?"

I nod. They are faint, pale, but I do see them, spreading out in a starburst pattern from the worst part of the burn.

"I've seen them before, but not in a burn. It was a different type of injury, but they looked very similar to what you have here."

"Well? What does that mean?" I ask.

"The other injury came from a type of magic. It's ancient, almost forgotten, but there are rumors of stories about it. They say that there are few who can wield it, and that those who can can be more dangerous than anything else this world can offer. Even angels and dragons." He looks down at my arm and shrugs. "Those are just stories though, and there's bound to be more than a bit of exaggeration to them. Even so, if you know where they came from, I'd recommend staying far away from whatever, or whoever, it was."

I stay silent. I suppose he takes this as acceptance, because Koda turns his attention to the smaller burns on the sides of my head. "These are similar, but not nearly as bad. I'll put a salve and bandage on them, but I don't know what good it will do. Same goes for your arm."

"Okay, that's fine," I say quietly.

For a second it looks like he's going to say something else, but he just gets up and walks out of the room.
I close my eyes and try to rest my head on the back of the chair I'm in, but the back is too short, so I end up propping it up on my arm.

My eyes snap open as a quiet voice rises from the corner. "I've only rarely seen him that scared," Helena says.

"Huh?"

"He's scared. I don't know if he's scared for you or of you, but he's scared," she says, then looks up from her book. "Eris is your sister, right Sedna?"

"Yeah, why?"

She shakes her head. "There's not a lot of time to explain. You'll be staying in this section of the building until your arm improves. There's a room across from the one you're staying in. Meet me there tonight when the moon is overhead. I may be able to give you some information."

"You're asking me to meet you, a stranger, in the middle of the night so you can tell me something?" I say skeptically. "Some would say that sounds pretty suspicious."

She grins. "I guess you'll just have to trust me."

She falls silent and drops her eyes when Koda steps back in the room, carrying a bottle of what I assume to be the salve he was talking about. I glance back over at Helena. Although at first look it seems like she's reading again, I can tell she isn't. I'm not sure what to think of her yet.

I realize with a shock that neither I nor Koda mentioned who I was when she was around. How did she know my name?