“We don’t have time,” the woman stated. Her words were sharp, panicked as they pushed their way through the thick undergrowth. Branches tugged at the hem of her tunic and cloak, even pulling some of her brown hair from her braid, making her disheveled look more tussled. “If we don’t do something, he’ll die.”

  “Neither of us are healers, Viessa.” Her companion - a tall pointed-eared elf with short black hair- snapped. His breathing harsh as adjusted the body of the man, also an elf, flung over his back. “We should leave him, we… have a chance of escaping.”

  “What?” Viessa’s face tightened as she looked back over her shoulder at the two men. Daring the other to even think about abandoning their friend in the forest to die. “You owe him your life, Vul.”

  “And I’m thankful, but it… would be for naught if I died now.” Vul snapped, coming to a stop in a grove where the brush wasn't as thick. “Durlan would understand.”

  Viessa’s glare was piercing, her cool blue eyes lit with an appalled fire. Durlan would have never even considered leaving someone behind. Of course, Durlan was also a healer so something like this would have been easily solved.

  Her eyes swept across the two men, mostly the slumped form of Durlan as Vul gently eased him onto the ground and leaned him against one of the thick trees. He was a forest elf, which meant he was naturally lighter than other kinfolk. However, she’d never seen Durlan with so little color in his cheeks as he fell back against the bark of the tree. He was dying. The hole in his stomach that was leaking deep crimson blood through their makeshift bandages was killing him.

  Vul seemed to have reached the same conclusion that she refused to accept. “He’s not going to last the night,” he stated. “If we leave him here, he can at least pose as some distraction so that we can hopefully escape those beasts come nightfall.”

  “No,” Viessa shook her head, “we aren’t sacrificing him like that.”

  Vul sighed. “He’s as good as dead anyways.”

  “No, Vul. There has to be another way.”

  “What other way?”

  Viessa’s eyes burned as she met Vul’s. “I don’t know yet.”

  Her companion laughed sourly. “Well you’re running out of time,” he gestured to the sky. “We’ve got half a day left before those monsters are on our trail again.”

  Her eyes followed his hands up to the sun where it teetered at noon. Then back to Vul, Durlan, and finally pressed closed. Her mind whirling as she clenched and unclenched her fists. If her mind didn’t feel so fogged with exhaustion she would have had a solution. There had to be one, a simple one that they were overlooking. What she needed was rest, they all did. She opened her eyes and paced toward their unconscious friend.

  “Lets stop here for now,” She stated. “We don’t have to worry about them during the day so we have at least an hour or two to rest. Maybe Durlan will wake and we can figure out a plan.”

  Vul scoffed, saying no more as he headed across the grove to another tree and slumped down into its roots. Tucking his sword between his legs as he leaned back and settled without complaint. Viessa watched him go from where she knelt beside Durlan.

  She’d been traveling with the pair of them since winter three years ago and while she felt they worked well together, Viessa had never quite figured out where Vul’s loyalties lied. It was easy enough to say most of his personality was looking after himself, but there was also something else. A hidden companionship that kept him there. It would have been easy enough for him to ditch Durlan as he’d proposed. Even if Viessa had stayed behind. She wouldn’t have been able to carry Durlan, not when he was easily several heads taller than her and quite heavy despite how gangly he appeared. Her aptitude wasn’t in physical things, it was in magic.

  The destructive kind of magic, that was. Unlike Durlan who had the gift of being good at more than just making things explode. She sighed, slumping against the tree beside him. If the roles were reversed, if it was Viessa who’d been close to death, Durlan would be able to figure out a way for them to all escape. Even if he wasn’t able to heal her.

  “There’s always a solution to every problem, Ves.” He’d told her once when they were sitting in the archives buried in books. They’d been pouring over a riddle that’d been discovered in an ancient tomb somewhere in the Wiles. Hoping it would lead to a treasure or something groundbreaking. Most mages and scholars had been trying to solve it since the adventures had discovered it but none had had any luck. Now many wondered if there even was an answer.

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  “Maybe they’re right,” Viessa groaned as she leaned back in her chair. “Maybe there is no answer.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Durlan hummed thoughtfully. “Perhaps we’re looking at this wrong.”

  Viessa clicked her tongue as she stared up at the canopy of trees. They had been looking at it wrong, the translations that they had been using were completely off and it was Durlan who’d discovered that. The scholars who’d originally translated the riddle had used the wrong dialect of dwarvish, meaning that some of the words weren’t correct. Once he’d made the realization it had been easy enough for them to narrow down a rough place on a map. Which was how they’d wound up there with Durlan close to dying for it.

  She swallowed back the thick taste of dread in her throat. Perhaps she was looking at the solution wrong, like Durlan had said. Maybe instead of looking at what she couldn’t do, she needed to look at what she could do. But what could she do?

  At once she sat up, her back straight as a board as her eyes moved over Durlan’s wounds. Of course. Why hadn’t she thought of that before?

  “What are you doing?” Vul’s voice was sharp from across the grove as she got to work ripping away Durlan’s bandages. He was there in seconds, pulling her away from Durlan. “Viessa, have you gone mad?”

  “I’m saving him,” She stated as she tugged her arm from his grip and went back to work.

  “Without those bandages he’ll bleed out,” Vul snapped. Trying unsuccessfully to pull her away again. “He’s going to bleed out faster if you do that.”

  “Shut up,” she didn’t spare him a glance as she pulled out her chalk and began drawing on the tree beside Durlan’s head. “If you’re not going to help, at least do that.”

  Vul hissed but stepped back. Watching as Viessa scribbled onto the bark of the tree. To him, it probably looked like utter nonsense. He didn’t know runes after all. Of course, to most mages it would look like utter nonsense too because this was something that Durlan had crafted and something that only his brain could understand. Viessa only understood the basics herself.

  It was an original spell that Durlan had made for her two years ago when they’d first started traveling together. She had admitted that she was jealous that he was able to heal, since she had no aptitude for it. Of course, Durlan being who he was he’d simply said there were many forms of healing. While Viessa couldn’t cure wounds, she could stop them from getting worse. She was only hoping that she wasn’t too late.

  “Viessa,” Vul’s voice was tight. “Tell me what you’re doing.”

  She had finished the rune circle, stepping back to look over her work. It looked sound. Perhaps not Durlan-level magic but it would work. She was sure of it. Finally she stepped back, glancing over her shoulder at Vul. He looked… worried. Stressed might have been the better word for it. He knew her magic was not the healing and mending type. Still, Durlan had made this spell for her so she’d trust it.

  “I’m going to cauterize the wound,” She stated.

  “Cauter-what?”

  “Cauterize,” she stated again. “I’m going to apply heat to seal the wound and kill any infection.”

  “I-” Vul’s mouth fluttered. “You can do that?”

  “In theory,” Viessa offered an unsure smile. “I’ve never tried.”

  “And you think now is the best time to try a new spell?”

  “Yes.” She met his eyes. “We don’t have any other choice.”

  Vul studied her face. She could see his mind turning before he nodded and stepped back. He didn’t look completely sold on the idea, but Viessa was right. They didn’t have any other choice but to try this. Durlan had told her that the spell would locate all parts of an open wound and sear it closed. The issue was that it could simply burn him alive in the process. She wasn’t going to mention that part to Vul.

  She cleared her throat, placing her hand onto the runes so that she could weave the magic through it easier. Normally just having the rune nearby would work, but this was more complex than anything she’d done before. Having the physical link would help her channel the magic. She then placed her other hand onto Durlan’s wound. Transferring the mirrored spell onto his skin. The heat was immense and almost immediate. At once Durlan’s eyes flashed open, a piercing noise of pain escaping his lips as his hands moved forward. Trying to blindly remove her hand from his stomach. Before he could, Vul was there. Holding him back as Durlan struggled.

  “It hurts,” Durlan’s voice cracked as he spoke through the tears that broke from his eyes. “P-please.”

  “Just a second more,” Viessa gasped. The magic and the sight of Durlan’s terror filled eyes sapping her energy. The spell only lasted about 30 seconds from what she could tell. Yet as the magic faded, Viessa fell away more exhausted than she’d ever felt after using magic. Drulan had also passed back out, but where the gaping wound had been was now the seared marks of her spell that’d melted his skin closed.

  “Did it work?” Vul asked, his hands hesitantly letting Durlan go.

  “He’s not bleeding anymore,” Viessa uttered. “But if he’s lost too much blood already, I dont’ t think it’ll do much.”

  “He’ll have a scar for the rest of his life,” Vul met her eyes.

  “Yeah,” she nodded. “But at least he’ll be alive.”