Welcome to Gaia! ::

After the few warm up visits to the HQ, Yani was feeling more like his old self again. All the drama between him and Keir seemed insignificant now...things were more normal than they had been in awhile, even if he now had a daughter to be (semi) responsible for.

In saying so, the fa'e now felt comfortable enough to once again wander the forest behind HQ like he had always done when he was a child. It was oddly calming.

At least, for a little while.

He hadn't gone too far in when he noticed an odd swath-like cutting through the forest, littered with dead stuff. Dead branches, dead leaves...even dead rodents here and there. Something was wrong. Yani started to follow the trail into the deeper forest, keeping his senses alert.

Rune kicked a rock.

Rune kicked a squirrel.

Oh s**t. That squirrel was dead.

And thus, Rune's attention was dragged away from the potential repercussions of sleeping with another person's girlfriend, and firmly dragged back to reality. Indeed, his train of though was just that basic.

He had come out here to find some sort of escape from a newfound burden of questions, and instead had found himself staring down a path carpeted with broken flora and lifeless fauna. And while he should have potentially found this disgusting and at least somewhat disturbing, he was instead both intrigued and concerned.

And as any concerned person would, he gave the dead squirrel another kick and headed in.

Aylana had just stepped out of building pushing her hair from her face. She was really hoping it was all a dream, but upon waking up in Fae she knew it wasn't. At this point she wanted to just die, she knew she was going to be in big trouble.

Shaking her head she walks towards the forest, it wasn't until she saw Rune that she stopped. Only it wasn't because of him, it was the dead squirrel he just kick. Tilting her head she arched a brow "What the hell?" she brought her hand up to cover her mouth and nose as she saw the sight.

It was enough to make her forget everything at the moment. Looking up she picked up her pace following after Rune hoping to catch up with him. She wanted to know what had cause all the death, and also she rather not watch someone she cared about get hurt also.

"I don't like this...." Yani mumbled to himself, pausing to listen intently to the sounds coming from nearby. Already a thick scent of rot and ash had begun to drift in on the wind. They were heavy scents. New, even, to judge how strong they were, yet Yani could not see signs of a fire anywhere nearby.

There is dead prey all over, white one. Like the all the sharp-clawed ones like myself killed without need and left it for the earth to eat.

The fa'e twisted his head around in time to see his hawk companion settle on a low branch of a tree, wings flicking in neatly at his sides, one of the dead rodents grasped tightly in his talons.

Did you see anything to merit such an idea? Yani inquired, growing suspicious now. What on earth would slaughter so much without eating what it killed?

There is a cloud...a man cloud, I think. Like you, but not the same. You two-legs are never the same. The bird swayed heavily on his branch and turned his head slightly. It does not move like you.

Before Yani could inquire further, Silver's yell cut through the silence left when two individuals engage in mental conversation. The fa'e jumped, the fur on his back and neck bristling.

"Who's there?!"

"Oh, sick," Rune muttered, covering his mouth and nose with one hand. It was almost enough to make him regret not wearing a shirt so that he could use it to cover his nose, and perhaps mildly protect his senses from the foul odor. Rune could never honestly consider himself a woodsman. He hadn't been camping before in his life, he couldn't start a fire unless given butane and a lighter, and f it didn't have breasts, he didn't have much of an interest in tracking it.

Thus, he was left with only the small corpses to lead him through the forest.

That was, until someone opened their damn mouth somewhere behind him and made him nearly jump out of his brightly colored skin.

He spun to find Aylana behind him - but it was a mans voice who had caught his attention, and he knew for a fact that Aylana was no man. He pressed a finger to his lips, pointing a little ways back on the trail and pushing through the foliage.

And there was a deer.

A very white, very shamany-looking deer.

"Hey. White Dude."

Aylana covered stop the scream as Rune spun around so fast he frighten her. Arching a brow she remains quiet for the moment. What could cause him to want to be so quiet.

Seeing a figure she arched a brow before smiling "That not a white dude, that Yani." slipping out of the bushes she looks back at Rune smirking "You really need to walk through the forest more often." she turns but narrows her else spotting Silver.

From the looks of him he looked bad, shaking her head she frowns. She didn't even want to knwo what happen, all she wanted to know was what was causing the dead animal within the forest "Hey Yani what going on in the forest?" she knew he wouldn't know her looks as the last time she saw him she was a teen. But hopefully he would know her voice.

Yani gave Silver one of the sternest looks the fa'e probably had ever given ANYONE, ears lopping crookedly at the sides of his now-antlerless head. He would have thought Silver would know better than to startle him.

"I don't know. Not yet anyway," Yani responded, his voice calmer than he would have though he could manage; his heart was racing fiercely after the impromptu startling.

Of course, then Rune had to come through the brush and give him another mini-stroke. Lovely. Was today 'try to give Yanisin a heartattack day"? He recognized the yellow-skinned fellow as the guy who had been tossing his daughter about in a most unsafe manner. Oh great. Yanisin made a mental note to pay more attention to his surroundings from now on.

"He," Yani said after a pause and a few breaths, throwing a hand up to point at the hawk that was making short work of his stolen dinner "says there's something up ahead. What it is or who, rather, it is, I'm not sure. Do you guys smell ash and...well...dead things?" He looked from Silver, to Rune, to Aylana in turn, wondering maybe if he was just imagining things.

Weird things seemed to always happen to him while he was out in the woods.

Rune just kind of shrugged, scratching the back of his head and folding his wings neatly behind him. He looked up as Yani pointed to the hawk, arching a brow. So he talked to bird. Well, s**t. If Morty could talk to stones, then why the hell couldn't Yani talk to birds?

"Is that what that is?" Rune responded, his mouth twisting into that lopsided grin. "Well s**t, and here I was just thinking it was him." He jerked a thumb towards Silver. Certainly, he would have taken that potentially insulting comment further, were he not abruptly cut off by the sound of something possibly dying.

"The hell?" He said abruptly, turning toward the noise. There was no 'let's go check it out, guys!' or other such speech. His simply set his Converse sneakers down on the body of a dead sparrow with a small crunch and headed off towards the noise.

Aylana responded to Yani's question by simply nodding. She was to focus on the noise coming from up ahead of them. Shaking her head she slip pass the other fa'e "Okay that doesn't sound so good.." she knew they could talk soon. But right now something or someone was either in trouble or was hurt.

Cracking her knuckles she took off into a run. She kept herself ready for anything just in case. She had seen one to many things just pop out of this forest so she knew not to let her guard down.

Yanisin visibly winced at the crunch of bird bones underneath Rune's sneaker and turned a slight green where his fur wasn't the thickest. There was so much death...impossible for it all to be natural if the things he remembered learning from Sani were right. He could not visibly see any surge of life balancing that of the dead.

As everyone else set off at a run or a hurried pace, Yanisin was more deliberate in his walking, pointedly avoiding all of the corpses and keeping alert. There was no point in running since the others were already on their way. He would get there soon enough, but it was important to get as many details in passing as he could. They could be rushing into a trap for all they knew.

Follow them and tell me what they find. I will be there in a moment, Yani instructed the hawk, who was preening a wing with a blood-stained beak. The bird ruffled it's feathers indignantly but left it's perch to do as asked.

----------

Soon enough the bird had reached the little 'clearing' with the others, landing on another low branch and giving those assembled a look over. The bird was confused. The man cloud he spoke of was still there, but now it was moving. The findings were reported back to the fa'e, who was only a few yards away. By the time the fa'e came into view again, his jaw was set and he looked worried.

"Anyone know who the injured or the dead are?" he inquired before he was even in a place to be able to really notice the bodies strewn about.

"s**t." Rune ground to a halt as he caught site of Conrad. He didn't know the man, but even he was not so much of a b*****d as to be indifferent to his predicament. Rune knelt down next to Conrad, and almost immediately tried to put his hand over the wound.

Just to see his hand sink somewhat into the man. The expression that came over Rune's face wasn't so much one of 'Oh no' or of 'WTF', but was clearly more of a 'Jesus Christ my hand when through him what the hell' kind of expression. You know, the one were the eyebrows went up but the eyes didn't quite widen.

Yeah, that one.

Rune's eyes immediately went to Yani, simple for the fact that he seemed to be the most in tune with whatever was going on around here. "We need to get him some help. And unless someone here has the 'Make insubstantial s**t substantial' power.." He trailed off. "s**t."

Because that word was a real problem solver, let me tell you.

Aylana arched a brow tilting her head to the side. Falling to her kneels she wince looking over the wound before she heard his simple word. Glancing up at Yani she shakes her head "He knows Lady Airi?" she looked back down at the young man, she knew that somehow they were going to have to figure out how to move him.

Yani's first instinct was to check the corpses for something familiar, but even he knew that you couldn't help the dead and the ghost-man was not past the point of being saved. At least, one could hope. The fa'e's brows furrowed as he crossed the distance between himself and Rune...part of him strongly did not want to get involved in drama. He'd been enjoying the drama-free living for only a few days. Why ruin it now?

The wound looked frightening and Yani was surprised that the being was still capable of speech, but when he knelt down to touch the man's shoulder, he too experienced the odd sink-then-stop phenomenon. That was something new.

"I don't know what we can do for him...he looks to be partially made of spirit energy and I don't know of anyone who can heal that...but I never thought spirits could be wounded in such a manner either," Yani said as he rocked back on his heels. "I could -try- to mend some of it with my limited powers, but it would be just a patch job if it worked at all. It's out of my league to try and heal him completely."

He glanced at Silver, just now catching the names he was speaking of. Yanisin did not remember a Conrad but he remembered the name Chaos well enough. And yes, Airi's name, of course, rang a bell.

"Perhaps Airi can help him if we can get him there. This seems to more of her sort of thing....at least, I hope."

The fa'e eyed the wound critically for a moment before trying his luck with a temporary patch job. His powers of spirit summoning had weakened considerably since Dusty's birth, both because he hadn't been working with them and because Dusty herself had taken some of his powers when she was born. That wasn't going to stop him from trying, however.

He settled into complete silence as little wisps of fibrous strands started to stream from his fingertips, coming very slowly at first in short segments about the length of one's index finger. They were feeble strings, but when they hit Conrad's form, they started to 'knit' together at the edges of the wound, building upon each other so that a net of sorts covered the slash. The actual lip of the wound had become 'impaled' with the strings, like suture in a surgery. As the strings grew more concentrated, the fibers tried to pull the edges of the wounded flesh closer together. Yani was uncertain if it was even doing any good but he kept at it. If the man didn't seem to be getting benefit from his efforts, he'd stop as to not waste time.

Aylana moved to the side watching Yani but not before she watched the feather fall from Conrad's hand. Picking it up she ties it into her hair for now to keep it safe. Conrad might need it later and she didn't want it left out here.

Standing she took a step back, she knew that she wouldn't be able to help lift Conrad's body. She would leave that for the guys. Glancing around she watched Silver for a moment the looked back toward Rune and Yani. If either of them needed help she would do her best to help them, but right now she was just keeping on guard.

Rune's eyes immediately widened. He had never met Airi at length, but he had heard more than he cared to from Morty. He knew that she was the reason they were here, that they owed their lives to her, and that above all, she was not what she seemed. He glanced first to Silver, and then to Yani as he approached. Rune stood, taking a few steps back and allowing Yani to do his thing. After all, Rune was no healer.

He eyes the feather that fell from Conrad's hand, connecting them with those that littered the decaying corpses. There was one corpse in particular that caught his attention - the fox. It was mangled and distorted, different from the rest, and Rune plucked the feathers from its body with a twisted expression.

"This wasn't the only source of the attack. Someone else had to be here."

Yanisin kept going until the wound was closed, both front and back. The cloth-like strands that glistened between the partially-closed wound shined a pale red, but Yani could find no direct indication that his efforts had done any good. It was better to try than to just assume the worst, he supposed. The deer fa'e experimentally lifted one of Conrad's arms from the earth and was pleasantly surprised at how light he was. He then glanced up at Rune, since Aylana seemed to be busy and Silver looked to be in no condition for carrying a body through the forest.

"You take the legs and I'll get under the arms?" he inquired of the brightly colored fa'e as he stood up.

Rune twisted the feathers around in his hand for a moment, frowning lightly before sticking them behind an ear. Mangled and disgusting as the thing was, Rune grabbed the fox by one of its hind legs, thrusting it out towards Silver.

"Carry this," he asked, dropping the mangled creature on the ground at Silver's feet, "It's light, so it shouldn't be too hard in your condition." After all, he wasn't going to ask the only woman present to carry the thing.

"Got it," he said in response to Yani, moving to lift Conrad's feet. "Let's get the hell out of here."

Aylana looks over at the boys nodding to them, doing a final look over around the area she looks up at them again "I'll race ahead and get a room ready." with a nod she takes off running back down the path they came heading toward Fa'e.

She knew they could handle carrying Conrad and she would save them all alot of trouble by having everythign prepared when they got there.

Yani stooped over and hauled Conrad's top end up off the ground in time with Rune's lifting of the lower half.

"Silver, please remind me to get one of those feathers from you when we get the HQ. I want to see if I recognize them any." It was unlikely they were from any species of bird he'd ever seen, but it was best to rule out all possibilities. If they had any magical qualities to them, that might help them place the origin.

He then nodded to Aylana. That was a good idea...it would save the hassle when they actually got him inside.

The deer fa'e then jerked his head in a "shall we go?" motion to his fellow-carrier. They needed to get Conrad back to HQ as quickly as possible.

------

Thankfully the walk wasn't too long or too difficult since the invalid strung between Yani and Rune was relatively light and the deer fa'e had been able to find a path to take them back to HQ that he used to frequently wander when he was younger.

After a bit of team work, they got Conrad inside, but now Yani had no idea where to take him. He hadn't explored the newly renovated HQ yet and so didn't know where anything was anymore. He hoped someone would speak or Aylana would come out from whatever room she was in. It needed to be somewhere quiet and private, if Airi was to be involved. The deer fa'e was well aware how shy Airi in the first place; it wouldn't be good for the injured man to become the center of attention when he was still hovering between conciousness and being blacked out.

"There has to be somewhere further in. I'd suggest somewhere the Guardians can't get to. This sort of thing," he paused, glancing down at Conrad, "I don't think this needs to be public knowledge." He jerked his head towards the hallway, "At any rate, we need to get him out of the entrance hall in case someone drops by for a visit."

Once again, Rune hefted up Conrad's feet - though, granted, it didn't require much hefting. "Now where the hell did Aylana go.."

Aylana peeks her head out of the red room waving a hand to the guys "I got some towels, and the firstaid kit. Also grabs some herbs in case you needed them Yani. The bed ready for you guys to lay Conrad on." she stepped back into the room allowing the guys to enter.

Yani looked a little bewildered at the fire demon and the door that flickered behind the first, but when Aylana poked her head out, he steeled himself and motioned for Rune to follow again.

Soon enough after entering, they had managed to get Conrad arranged on the bed and Yani went to check out the herbs that Aylana had brought to see if anything might be able to be made with them to either ease the guy's pain or to keep him in a sleep-like state for now. Unfortunately he hadn't learned very much about herbal medicine and was only able to find something that would make a mild antiseptic...and it was possible the first aid kit had something better.

"I think we ought to get Airi to check him out before I go messing with my own medical knowledge," Yani said, forcing humor into his voice as he bent over Conrad and gently pressed a finger tip to the 'stitches' he had made. They slowly melted outward from the fa'e's finger until there was nothing left to cover the wound, leaving it to the open air. Now Yani could make out the splinters that littered the injury. How nasty.

"If you guys want to track down Airi, I'm going to go back to the woods and do a sweep of the area around where we found him and the bodies. I want to make sure we didn't miss anything."

..God he hated that damn fire.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya." Rune mumbled. The last thing he wanted was to be unable to ever get anywhere around HQ, and thus kept his mouth shut against the rising urges to insult the damn fire.

Once they had Conrad settled, he nodded to Yani. "Yeah.." he said lowly, "She should take a look at these feathers anyways. Along with.." he gave a fairly disgusted look towards the mangled fox, "That."

Yani hovered over Conrad a moment, looking pensive as he tried to place the man's face with something. He felt like he should know this person.

"Don't worry about talking...you need healing before you need to start explaining anything," he said gently to the invalid before nodding to Silver as the feather was handed over. That was stuck in his hair, where it hardly looked out of place thanks to the assortment he already had there.

"I'll come back if I find anything. I do hope Airi is around...."

The fa'e nodded a farewell to all before slipping out the door again, completely puzzled. What was going on?

Aylana pulled the feather from her hair placing it on the night stand. Glancing toward Yani she nods "Okay, I think between me and Rune we can get him alittle comfortable. Seem Silver gone to look for Airi. Your be careful okay Yani?" glancing toward Conrad when he spoke again she looking over the wound.

Looking back up she watches as Yani vanishes out the door before looking to Rune "Think we should at least try to clean it alittle?" she really wasn't sure what to do. She was someone who study magic and fighting, not healing.

Barely audible footsteps had reached the front door of the Fa'e Headquarters at last. The angelic Fa'e that they belonged too had arrived a bit fashionably late considering the time between when she felt the strange flicker of spirit auras near the HQ and the time it took her to travel in her semi-weakened state.

The outside looked different to crystal blue eyes, but judging by the strange presence she could feel within, Shina was not about to stand outside contemplating the changes it had. She had learned not to harp on time changing things after what it had done to her.

Tucking her wings close to her body, the great now half-f'ae walked blindly through the new rooms that were so unfamiliar to her. It was only with her own spirit vision that she was able to sense where the auras were gathered at all. She approached the fireplace and stared into it curiously, issuing a calm, "Hello?"

Rune nodded a farewell to Yani, turning his attention back to Conrad once the deer Fa'e had gone.

People had always warned him about this s**t. This crazy, off the wall kind of stuff that fell into the lap of the Fa'e. Maybe he had just thought himself lucky enough to avoid it by chance, but he now attributed it more to the fact that he had just been more or less non existent for the past year or so.

"Just rest," he said to Conrad, nevertheless taking note of his words. "The smelly wolf man went to get some help.. you'll be able to speak soon enough."

Blue eyes gazed witha hollow expression at the demon. It had been in her experience to resist the comments of demons, and this one was no different. Besides, whether or not the demon would ever admit it, he was there to be a doorman. Without fear, Shina nodded in response, drew her wings close to her body, and stepped through the fiery door.

It only took her a few moments to make her way to the Red Room, judging by the presence of the strange spirit within. A gentle hand pushed the door open to reveal the assortment of characters assembled there. Furrowing her brow sympathetically, Shina let the scent of ichor fill her nostrils, emotions swimming through her veins like salmon against a current.

With a few steps, she stood closer to Conrad's form, glancing from him to Rune to Aylana. Aylana... Shina issued a warm smile at the Fa'e who she had at one point been so close to, but time changes things. Shina had been gone for so long...

But that was not an obstacle to worry about now. Now, the issue of the injured half-corporeal being on the bed was on Shina's mind. "What has happened?" she ventured, going right to the point.

Rune glanced up to Shina, vaguely remembering her. He smiled a bit, but his mood had been greatly dampened by the situation at hand. And to think, just last night he had been engaging in much more pleasant activities..

"We found him this way," Rune said with a slight shrug, "In the forest, along with.. that." He gestured to the mangled fox in the corner. The very looks of the thing was enough to churn his stomach. "The big bad wolf has gone to find Airi."

Aylana frowns shaking her head "Who would do this?" she glances at Rune before hearing another voice. Looking over her shoulder she smiles to Shina. But the smile soon vanish as Shina asked her question, shaking her head she sigh "We don't know, we found him like this in the forest after following a path of dead animals."

Looking at Conrad frowns "Yea Silver gone to find Airi for you. Just save your strength Conrad." looking at Rune she rubs her temples "And here I thought it was going to be a good day." there was a hint of a smile but it soon vanish as she looked back to Shina "Think you can look at his wound?"

Shina could not recall ever speaking to Rune, but she had heard of his 'sunny' disposition as a child. Of course, the teen standing before her was definitely not a child. Regardless, he seemed to know what was going on so she drank in his words thoughtfully before turning to Aylana to do the same.

"I see," she said vaguely, concern dripping across her empathic visage. The smell of the dead fox in the corner was enough for Shina's senses so she chose not to look directly at it. Besides, it's soul was no longer in its body, though Shina sensed that it had not been there for some time.

Mulling things over in her same intellectual way, Shina managed to dig up a smile for Aylana once more as she replied to her cynism with a hopeful, "The sun has not set just yet. There is still hope for this day." Honestly, she couldn't help it. It was in her nature.

Taking soft steps closer to the bed, Shina regarded Conrad with the same reassuring smile that she often used in situations of emotional distress. "I'm going to try a take a look at these wounds of yours, spirit," Shina soothed, not knowing what else to call the being before her.

It didn't take a spiritual healer to see the bits of wood lodged in the wound, and before she could do anything, they would have to be removed. After surveying the damage for a moment, she responded at last, "There are splinters in these wounds, many of them are quite small. I would try to remove them myself, but I fear the job would be better performed by someone with finite telekinetic abilities or... or very small hands." Again, she issued a reassuring smile, hoping that one of her comrades would have a solution.

"His name is Conrad," Rune said, moving to the side of the bed opposite Shina. He looked down at the man with something between confusion and curiosity. He fell to silence as Silver brought in the fairy.

Awww, it was so cute!

Aylana stepped back resting her body back against the wall. At this point all she could so is watch. She didn't really know what else she could do, being human she knew she would end up getting in the way.

The presence of Silver's spirit aura was as familiar to Shina as his face so it was without a look of surprise that the angel turned to watch the door moments before the wolf Fa'e actually opened it. Before she could offer him a greeting, the precious winged fairy claimed her attentions, though she did have time to smile softly at her old Guardian.

"Oh, you will be a perfect helper, Stellar," Shina nearly cooed at Stellar, perhaps residue from her recent mommy status. For a moment her face tensed once more as she turned to face Conrad, stepping to the side and gesturing for the fairy to approach.

"Conrad, I am Shina, and this is Stellar. We are going to try to help you." Her words were meaningless and likely unintelligible to the invalid, but Shina could not bring herself to begin healing a person without atleast giving a polite introduction so that they would not be strangers. Next, she returned her attention to the small fairy.

"Stellar, it would be a great help if you could survey all of Conrad's wounds and remove the tiny splinters and stones and any other source of infection for him. If you can do that much, you will have done more than enough. Also, if you would be so kind as so place all of the splinters on my scarf here, I would appreciate it vastly." Pulling a soft purple scarf from her belt, Shina laid it down on a table beside the bed and waited for a response from the fairy.

Watching the small fairy work warmed Shina's heart. It always amazed her to see such small beings take on such large work, and Stellar was no exception to her praises. Leaning down to make eye contact with the exhausted fairy, Shina smiled warmly and whispered a soft, "You would have made Lady Airi very proud if she had been here to see this. Thank you kindly, Stellar. And now, I believe it is my turn to work. Rest, little one." The matronly air that had developed around Shina during Sei's pregnancy had never left her, only swelling even more with each time she thought about her dear son.

Moving to the other side of the bed so that her torso was facing the doorway, the angel closed her eyes for a moment, issuing soft prayers to her Father. Shina hadn't really done much healing after Sei's birth due to her own great need for healing (not that she really took care of that either), and the Fa'e found herself a little timid to begin. Who could say which of her powers had been the most affected by the birth of her son and dispersal of half of her Fa'e power?

Well, there was one way to find out. Her eyes reopened for a moment to smile at the gathered company before a more serious expression transfixed itself across her delicate features. Blue orbs swirled cloudly as Shina switched into her spirit vision. It would be key to focusing her energies on the spirit being before her and away from the distractions of the fully tangible world.

Conrad... she spoke to his spirit calmly despite her own alarm at how much weaker her connection to this world was. Yes, at Sei's birth, the spirits had bid her goodbye, but the angel was pleased to see that she was not unable to commune with all spirits. Do not hesitate to tell me if something feels wrong. Sure, it was vague, but Shina hoped that Conrad would understand what she meant.

Though her outer form appeared utterly frozen in its position, Shina's spirit was fast at work transferring her energy to fill the wounds of the being before her. Within the injured tissue, platelets stirred in response to sudden energy stimulus, moving to the walls of the wound and forming new tissues at an unnatural pace. The process proved to be far more tiring to the angel than she had expected, but Shina would not stop. She would give of herself until Conrad was well.

Threads of spirit energy laced across the wound, filling it from the inside out. The gaping hole glowed with a pale blue hue, sending ripples of excess energy flooding through the room. An hour into the process, beads of sweat began to form all across Shina's body, soaking her hairline and making her robes cling to her skin.

She wavered from time to time, furrowing her brow tighter with each draining lull of spiritual energy. The wound was closed now so that it no longer shot straight through Conrad's body, but it was still very deep on either side, leaving very raw skin exposed but covering the muscle.

Her breathing quickened, hands shaking now. It was hard... far harder than it usually was. And it was taking longer too. Having mended the life-threatening aspects of the wound the stick had created, Shina found herself drained, face paled beyond her usual complexion.

And yet still, she pressed on, determined to heal this creature. Energy moved around her form in swells as silver strands of hair lifted from their usual straight position to float in the air as if blown by a slow breeze. Blue orbs glowed with a sheen of magical energy.

But there are limits to a half-Fa'e form. Unceremoniously, the knees of the angel sagged as her mind broke consciousness with the spirit and mortal world, sending her falling backwards. Her body forced her to save herself; losing any more spirit energy would have meant the disingration of her own life.

As the angel fainted backwards, her eyes closed once more, hair falling limply down again, and hands drifting to her sides in the fall. The 65% or so of the wound that she had been able to heal would have to be enough for now. Medicinal salves and herbal remedies would have to take over from here.