(Backdated to sept 16)

The months had been passing and Hy-Brasil had taken it upon herself to throw all of her extra energy into taking care of her Wonder. Each visit she made there became a notable difference in the castle, and all the work she performed herself was beginning to pay off. No longer did the sprawling, structure look ready to fall to the ground, but looked more like it did in it’s glory days, or at least that’s what it’s current Knight liked to think. Sure, it still had it’s rough spots, and the gardening felt like a never ending task, but the structure was habitable and an enjoyable retreat for the Knight.

Her current visit, once again, entailed more of the endless weeding and gardening. By this point the main courtyard was free of stray grasses and weeds that were unwanted. In fact, it was looking well kept and Hy was enjoying having the down and dirty work. But, after several hours of digging, pulling, and replanting, she was not only dirty but ready to relax.

“You look like you’ve gone and rolled around in the grass and dirt like a wee child.” A lilted male voice cut through Hy’s thoughts as she meandered into the castle’s main hall. Raising brows she gave her predecessor and unwithering look.

“You know damn well what I’ve been doing all day.” She said as she brushed her dirty hands onto her skirts knowing full well her uniform would self clean itself once she powered down. “Though I won’t lie and say that doesn’t sound like a wonderful way to pass a day.” Her gaze eventually smoothed out to a tired smile.

Cashel, an older man than herself, still sported his own mane which was tied back and his face was well covered in a matching beard. Both, head and beard though showed the passage of time as grey began to become the majority over the brown in the mass of hair. Her predecessor was very much the physical epitome of what one would picture as an older, irish knight with broad shoulders and a well framed physique. His personality tended to be jovial even if Hy found that Cashel could be annoyingly focused at times. Apparently he had been very involved in medicine and research before his passing and his need to be detailed and, for lack of better words, annoyingly persistent hadn’t faded.

In truth, Cashel reminded Hy of her father in some ways and that had helped her warm up to him very quickly.

Cashel returned Hy’s unwithering look with one of his own. Not once had he been cowed by his successor’s looks. “Aye. A wee child.” He remarked. “But you might as well be a child in my book.” His own look warmed though as hers did. Anyway, I need to talk to you about a few things.”

And there he went again about the child reference. Sure, he was a few hundred years older than herself, but she wasn’t a child. Nonetheless she had learned to just let him go. It wasn’t worth the fight. “Alright, just let me go clean up a bit. I’ll meet you back here then?” She questioned with another raised brow that was confirmed with a nod from Cashel.

It didn’t take long to wash up. A bucket of water from the well and some soap she had brought along did miracles in cleaning up the red-heads hands, face, arms and any other part of her body. Her uniform could wait as it only showed some smudges of dirt, mainly where she tended to wipe her hands on her skirts.

Upon her arrival back in the great hall she found Cashel pacing near one of the more comfortable sitting chairs that Hy had arranged in the space. She’d found it locked away in storage and deemed it in good enough shape to be utilized. So, she made her way over to the man and flopped down into the piece of furniture, the well worn cushions depositing some dust into the air upon impact. “Right. So here I am.” She said with a wave of a hand. “What did you want to talk about?”

“What have you learned so far about Hy-Brasil?” Cashel questioned as he leaned against a nearby table, eyes fixated on the woman.

Hy almost rolled her eyes as she sat back in the chair arms crossed. “Come on old man, you know I’ve been more busy with getting this place back together. I can’t read any of the books here and you know I haven’t had a chance to ask you, otherwise you wouldn’t be asking me this.” Sometimes Hy wondered if the man lost track of himself with the long passage of time. Spirit or not, a few hundred years had to be difficult to endure by oneself.

A bushy brow rose at the old man reference but Cashel chose not to comment. Whether it was for the sake of time or his need to continue on with whatever it was he wanted to tell her, Hy was unsure. Still the redhead grinned back at him at his obvious dislike of the title.

“I wanted to be certain I wasn’t wasting my time covering something you already knew, but if this is all fresh information then all the better. Where to start is always the problem.”

“Well, how about the purpose of this place? Why does it exist?” Blue eyes met steel grey.

“I suppose that’s as good of a place as any.” Cashel conceded. “If it’s a bit of the dryer part.”

Hy did her best not to comment that all history was particularly dry to her. It hadn’t been a subject that brought her any sort of pleasure in school. In fact, it was just merely tolerated and studied and then promptly forgotten about if no part of it perked any interest. The only difference at this precise moment was that this bit of history could actually impact her. So, keeping her comments to herself she gave the man her full attention.

“Hy-Brasil was an island dedicated to the arts of medicines and healing. There was, is, a natural healing presence found on this island and it was cultivated during both times of war and peace. Of course there’s all sorts of rumors and thoughts about the unnatural feel to the place, but the most common and most common of scenario's is that the island is some sort of reversed hellmouth.”

“Hellmouth?” Hy quickly interrupted. The look of disapproval thrown her way was a good enough hint that she had best keep the questions until the end. Still, Cashel elaborated.

“A Hellmouth is said to be a place where hell touches earth. In this sense, in its reverse, it is where heaven touches. A holy land of sort. Because of this there seems to be a sense of slowed time here and an increased ability for one’s own body to heal.” Cashel could see the questions burning in Hy’s eyes and promptly continued on, knowing what the young woman would want to ask. “No, that’s not to say if someone is mortally wounded they can come here and be expected to heal. That’s not how it works. The body still need to be tended to and if someone is past the point of survival there is no miraculous way to save them. But injuries can heal at a faster pace and, if you had visited while you were healing yourself, you may have noticed a decrease in the amount of pain you were experiencing.”

If that hadn’t been an admonishment for her many close encounters….

“In fact, I’d hope you noticed the flowers that tend to bloom in a cycling system here?” Cashel questioned.

Hy gave a soft nod. The flowers in question had been an enigma to Hy when she had first arrived. The tiny flora had covered the ground in a blanket of blood red that rippled and moved in the wind giving a rather eerie sense of an endless blood sea. The scent from the little blooms though had been sweet and invigorating. Hardly as unnerving as they appeared to be when rolling over the grassy knolls.

There was one curiosity about them. she’d only seen them bloom once more during her visits and she had yet to understand what triggered the blossoms to open. It didn’t seem to be the time of day or season like many normal flowers responded to. When she had asked Cashel about them back when they first perked her interest he had told her they blossom when the time was right and never earlier. It had been a cryptic answer but one she had come to realize, as she got to know the man, was his way of saying ‘he had no clue.’’

“Those flowers were the main focus of this island and a large reason why so many people came here for healing. When fully bloomed, they seem to have a potent healing attribute that hasn’t been found elsewhere to my knowledge.”

“So this place served as a hospital and medical resources facility.” Hy interrupted once again. “That explains the large medical wing and all of the research rooms. It’s a shame that I can’t read any of the research written here. I feel like there could be something extremely useful hidden right under my nose and I don’t have a way of understanding it.”

Cashel seemed to let the interruption go this time. “That, unfortunately, is something that we can’t fix. At this point it would be up to you to try and work on your own research. As you well know, there’s very little I can do physically in this world anymore, and much of the language written on those parchments, the ones that survived anyway, are well past my knowledge to understand.” A lot of the newer research which Cashel may have been able to decipher had been destroyed when parts of the library had succumbed to the elements. Even his successors tedious work to try and save what she could only resulted in a quarter of the research books and scrolls to be saved. Most of which had been the older notes written on animal hide and stored in old wooden boxes. There was scant useful information left for them. Only what Cashel had learned during his time as a Knight.

It was frustrating for the both predecessor and successor.

“Great. Fantastic.” Hy grumbled as she stood up hastily from her seat as frustration began to brew. “There could be a way for me to save someone from some horrible injuries and I can’t help them because the research has been lost, or worse, it’s here and I can’t read it.” She paced towards a window before stopping at it’s sill. Hands reached forward to brace herself against it, knuckle turning white as she worked to vent her mental struggles over this problem.

Cashel watched her. His gaze turned soft as he witnessed the turmoil that the woman was going through. He had no way to help her in this other than to offer words to calm and sooth. “Things will work themselves out. They always do.” HE said as he walked towards her. “Medicines on Earth seem to have evolved far beyond much of what I’ve learned myself.”

Hy sighed, not turning her gaze away from the rolling hills outside. “Yes, I know. It just bothers me not knowing that maybe, just maybe, something big and extremely useful could have been found here and I will know nothing about it.” She turned to face Cashel. Using the sill as somewhat of a seat she leaned back, arms bracing herself at her sides. “I am not any sort of scientist, Cashel. Research is not really my thing and I wouldn’t even know where to start.”

A hearty smile meant to comfort her spread across Cashel’s bearded face. “Well, that’s why you have me.” With gentle touch on her shoulder he managed to coax the woman away from the window and lead her towards a doorway that would eventually deposit the woman in the direction of the sleeping quarters she had claimed for herself. “Worrying about it now won’t help since there’s nothing that can be done. Go, get some rest. You did a lot of work today and the history lesson can continue another time.”

Hy paused at the door to the hallway. Blue eyes searched the steel blue of Cashels. There was a want to argue. A desire to push Cashel to tell her more, now, but he was right. Her weariness was most likely the cause of her flaring frustrations. Being tired never led to any answers and usually ended up her fumbling into problems.

“Alright. You know I can’t stay long tomorrow, right?” She had things to do that required her attention back in Destiny City.

Cashel shrugged. “Then we will continue our lesson next time. Go. Sleep.” He gave the woman no reason to argue as he himself turned to exit the room via another doorway opposite of her. It was more out of courtesy than anything else that he didn’t vanish in front of her eyes like one would expect a spirit to do. For Hy, it helped keep that sense of attachment towards the old man.

With nothing to distract her, Hy found herself stifling a yawn. Sleep was going to be much welcomed, if her mind would quiet enough for her to fall asleep that was. She had a lot to mull over.

And hopefully her typical anxieties would keep from invading as well.