THE LAST KEEPER

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: PAIN II

What happened next could not even be referred to as waking up. Sagiri jumped awake as if he had been hanging between life and death, and he had picked a side. He did not end up in the dark place just like time. He tried to move his body, but everything was restrained. He had snapped to consciousness, but he had not pried his eyes open yet. He tried to open his eyes, but it was like trying to move a wall.

”Do not take off his clothes no matter what you do,” he could hear N’varu’s voice above all voices, and relief flooded his body. He did not know how long he had been passed out, but he knew that if he didn’t wake up, two things were going to happen at the same time. They were going to punish N’varu again and take off his clothes anyway. He had been injured pretty badly, and he could tell from the crippling pain piercing and searing like a fire into his every bone, muscle, and melancholic cell.

how had he missed his attackers? He had been hit by their hate long before they attacked. Yet he had been too slow to evade their attack. They had enjoyed hurting him more than anything. He could feel their feelings of pleasure as they pummeled his body with punches and kicks and threw him around like a rag doll.

”We have to. It doesn’t matter what skin condition he suffers from. I am a healer, and besides, since he has not infected anyone, it can’t be infectious.” A feminine voice explained. Healer Sayaku.

”No,” N’varu said, and he could hear silence in the room. ”Take him away, he is still under suspicion too.” The feminine voice was soft, yet it held command. It was now or never. Sagiri did not want N’varu to be punished yet again because of him. He pushed past the pain, past every suffering with all he had. It was agony, but he did not have time to just lie around.

he gasped and sat up just as the junior male healers were starting to hold N’varu back.

”It was not him,” he said in a scratching voice, and all eyes turned to him. ”He is my friend,” he said, and he meant it. After hearing how much N’varu was willing to risk to defend him, he was sure that was what a friend was supposed to be. He had never had a friend to ride and die with him before, but someone risking punishment to defend you was for sure the definition. Just like he had seen kiuga defend kaka.

”So who was it?” a voice said, and pairs of boots sounded before the three men entered. it was captain lotaga and Yavaga. The latter two were later standing behind Salka, who was wearing a grave expression. Sagiri had only seen him like that when they had been attacked by assassins. He could perceive what he was feeling, and he was finally beginning to understand what N’varu had said about how his skills could work on trained veterans like Senraki and Salka. Right now, it was as if Salka had shed all other feelings, and he was just a weapon.

”Salka, this is not an interrogation room. Let me treat the boy first. He is only able to wake up now because of the black pill, the healing pill, and three pain-numbing pills. I still have to arrange his broken shoulder and jaw, and six ribs.” With the information, Salka emanated a dark aura that filled the room, suffocating Sagiri. After what Healer Sayaku said, Sagiri looked at himself. his right hand was twisted at a weird angle. His jaw was hanging weirdly, and he was surprised he had been able to speak to defend N’varu. his left eye was completely shut, and he could only open it to a slit and could not see with it.

”I will wait here then,” Salka said with finality. ”Can you relocate bones with closed eyes?” Salka asked, and even Sayaku must have realized the dangerous mood he was in because she just nodded.

”You can not take off his clothes,” N’varu said, not backing down. Even with the medication serving different purposes in his system, he could still not move much, and he knew his ribs could not be relocated with his clothes on.

”Yavaga. Lotaga. step out!” Salka commanded, and even Lotaga did not question as he stepped out. ”Veil your eyes,” he said to Sayaku, and she disappeared into another room and came out with a thin sheet before she laid it skillfully over her eyes. In some tribes, a man could not allow a woman to see them naked or even in a vulnerable position, so treating a patient of the opposite gender while still veiled was not unheard of. N’varu was still not satisfied, and he looked at Salka with weary eyes.

”Whatever is behind those clothes will not leave my mouth,” Salka said as Sayaku moved closer to get to work. ”I brought the boy north myself if I wanted to harm him, no one could have stopped me then, and if I want to harm him now, still no one can stop me. Stand still, cadet N’varu,” he said, watching the boy. It looked as if N’varu wanted to attack him if he even saw what was behind Sagiri’s skin. His statement was to keep the boy from doing something stupid.

What Salka had said was true to Sagiri’s ears. If the man was his enemy, he did not stand a chance. With his agility, strength, experience, and whatever hidden art was of his tribe he had still not witnessed, he did not stand a chance at all against him. Besides, he still needed to make allies. Captain Salka might have been the strongest warrior in the entire Galka War Academy, but he had not tried to harm him. he could take a gamble and let Salka see what lay behind his clothes. He could then maybe earn an enemy or an ally. He needed a strong ally, and Salka fit his bracket. It was time to make a stupid gamble. Sagiri turned to N’varu and nodded.

After Sagiri’s signal, N’varu stood down from whatever stupid idea he had conjured in his head to attack Salka. He had been overwhelmed, and that allowed Sagiri to perceive his intention. it was not malicious. it was aimed to protect at any cost. But even Sagiri could tell how stupid it was. Salka could just kill him in a blink, and it could have made the whole thing blow out of proportion. Sagiri still remembered the dangerous glint in Salka’s eyes when he had asked if someone ever broke into Galka War Academy. As the commander of all forces, the Galka War Academy, and the surrounding region, it was clear that the man could not tolerate any internal or external threat aimed at the Galka War Academy. If N’varu attacked him because he wanted to protect Sagiri’s secret, then Salka could have thought it a dangerous thing and eliminated them both.

Healer Sayaku walked as if she could see even without her sight. This was clearly not her first time. She worked without haste, yet still diligent and efficient. Salka watched everything like a hawk, yet his face remained stoic.

She began with the jaw. Her thumbs pressed along the mandible, tracing swelling, locating the misalignment. Sagiri’s head was steadied between her forearms. She instructed him to loosen his tongue and exhale. On the breath, she applied controlled upward and inward pressure. Bone slid back into place with a dull click. The click was loud, and it echoed in the silent room. She immediately immobilized the jaw, wrapping a firm bandage beneath the chin and over the crown to prevent movement. The process did not take long, but it was performed meticulously.

She moved to the ribs next. Every breath in the room was held as she pulled the zipper between her fingers. His mask was lying caressingly around his neck. Apart from his step-parents and N’varu, no one had ever seen Sagiri naked. He had always stayed covered ever since he could remember. He felt more naked than ever, and it took everything not to hold onto the zipper with his good hand and go back on his plan to gamble. The markings under his skin, like symbols which were circular patterns around his hands, his torso, his thighs, and legs, were dormant. They were between zinc and dark silver.

N’varu’s eyes immediately zeroed in on the markings on Sagiri’s body, and so did Salka. He had never seen anything like them before, and their arrangement seemed almost artificial. He did not know any tribe that bore the markings or tattoos of such organized precision all over the body. He could understand the ancient symbols that consisted of the markings. He still could not understand why the boy was hiding those, and he looked between N’varu and Sagiri, wondering why they could go to lengths to hide them. When they were not glowing or moving around under his skin, they were underwhelming.

”Is that supposed to be the skin disease?” Salka asked, sounding disappointed. No one answered him, however, and they resumed watching Sayaku’s hands move skillfully as she felt for the broken ribs next. The reaction was not what Sagiri had expected, but it was enough for now. It could for sure change when Salka got to see the markings come alive and grow with life. At the moment, Sagiri was too weak, and even the power inside of him must have been reserving itself to save its vessel.

Six fractures on the two on the left and four on the left side. Her hands moved skillfully, hitting several acupoints, allowing Sagiri to breathe a little better before she moved her hands to start fixing the broken ribs. Her hands palpated each rib, confirming position and stability. One by one, she applied external pressure, guiding the displaced segments back into alignment against the chest wall. The acupuncture kept Sagiri’s breathing shallow to avoid further displacement. Once aligned, she bound his torso tightly with layered compression wraps to restrict expansion and allow the ribs to knit.

Last was the left hand. Sagiri’s top part of the uniform was now totally off, lying with the bed beddings. He watched with one eye, his swollen fingers stiffly. He had never been hurt in that manner, and watching his hand sitting in the weird twisted angle made him feel a certain way he had never felt before. He missed Rusha and how gently she always took care of him. He watched Healer Sayaku as she checked circulation, then traction, followed by a gentle pull along the length of the hand to separate the joint surfaces. With precise rotation and pressure, the fractured bones seated themselves. She set the hand in a neutral position and secured it in a rigid splint, wrapping from wrist to knuckles. If Sagiri were not under the numbing medication, he knew it could have been excruciating.

She checked him once more to see if his pulse was steady and his breathing was controlled, before she stepped back. Sagiri had seen Rusha perform this procedure on her patients, and he also understood the process.

”Don’t move,” she said, finally, sweat dripping from her face. The process was delicate and needed meticulous care, and with her eyes covered, she needed to concentrate even harder and use her sense of touch to feel for every bone in Sagiri’s body. helped put back his uniform and pulled his mask up, all the while blinded, before she moved back and uncovered her eyes.

”Now, can you tell me how you got a broken jaw, six broken ribs, a broken hand, and a swollen eye?” Salka was back to his earlier mood, and Sagiri had never felt such intimidation. It was as if he had no choice but to answer the question honestly. He, however, had not decided the best course of action, and he had not even processed why they had attacked him as if they wanted to kill him.

”I fell down the ramp,” he answered, ignoring all the warning signs in his head.