“I want to have a baby,” Keija announced, “and I would rather not give birth to a Feltotem. I am not actively working with felslate anymore. Please remove these.” She swept her right hand down the length of her left arm, where bulges of scar tissue at the shoulder, elbow, and wrist encased small shards of felslate.
“What will you pay me to do this for you?” Felsmith Nal’ryssa asked.
“The remnants of one hundred demons killed on the Broken Shore, and all of my unused stock of felslate.” As she spoke, Keija opened a satchel and dumped the materials in a heap by the Felsmith’s forge.
“Very well,” Nal’ryssa responded, smiling slightly. “This will not be pleasant. Are you prepared?”
“I am prepared,” said Keija. “I have brought healers with me.”
The Felsmith looked around, and Keija knew that although she was blind, her spectral sight allowed her to perceive Keija’s sisters, Kaohana and Karaelia and Kamalia, and Kamalia’s husband, Haitou, standing nearby.
“Then let us begin.”
Keija turned and pressed her face into her husband’s chest, and Raharto wrapped his arms securely around her, leaving her left arm exposed.
With the same firm, gentle touch that Keija remembered from before, Nal’ryssa’s fingers probed around each of the lumps of scar tissue.
“Hold the wrist steady, please,” Nal’ryssa instructed. Raharto grasped her wrist firmly. With one swift, deft movement, using the very tip of her warglaive, the Felsmith sliced open the scar tissue and hooked up one end of the shard of felslate embedded within it. She took a pair of tongs that had been heating in the forge and pulled the shard out. The jagged edges of the shard tore at the tissue around it as it came out, but Keija had experienced worse arrow removals. She gritted her teeth and grunted.
In a moment, she felt the fizzing sensation of holy magic, and the pain dulled. She heard the thump of a totem dropping, and pulses of cool water began washing over the wound as Nal’ryssa carefully wrapped it.
Felsmith Nal’ryssa waited until Keija’s breathing and heartrate had steadied before continuing. Keija’s sisters continued to soothe her with small healing-over-time spells.
“Now the elbow,” said Nal’ryssa. “If you could hold it above and below?” Raharto held her upper arm, and Haitou grasped her lower arm, just below the elbow. Another swift slice, another yank with the burning hot tongs. This one hurt much more than the first one had, surprising her into growling out an “AARRRRGH!”
It took longer, this time, for the pain to subside as her sisters cast healing spells and Nalryssa bandaged the wound.
Once more, the Felsmith waited until Keija’s breathing and heartrate had steadied before she continued.
Nal’ryssa probed the shoulder scar tissue again. “This one will not be as easy as the others,” she said. “Secure the shoulder.” Raharto grasped her shoulder joint, and Haitou wrapped both hands around her arm, holding the already bandaged areas as gently as he could. This time, the slice exposed the felslate shard, but did not begin to pull it out. Nal’ryssa spread the edges of the wound with the fingers of one hand, then carefully dug with some kind of small blade until she was able to extract the shard. Blood poured down Keija’s arm. As she felt the shard tugging out, it seemed like it was trying to pull a portion of her soul with it, and she screamed, arching her back against the unyielding support of Raharto’s arm. Her head swam and spun.
Keija awoke lying on her back on the ground. Her head was pillowed on her empty satchel, a blanket had been wrapped around her, and her feet were propped up in Raharto’s lap. Her shoulder had been bandaged, and her sisters were pouring healing magic into her. Her arm throbbed from shoulder to wrist, and she felt weak all over — but her spirit felt somehow lighter and cleaner than it had since, well, since she had allowed the Felsmith to put the shards in. She struggled to sit up, and Raharto quickly shifted position to support her.
Keija looked around until she found the Felsmith. “Thank you,” she gasped.
Nal’ryssa just nodded and returned to her work.
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Kamalia et alia 