“Um, Gren, remember how you said it'd be best to keep my class to myself?”

  Be careful, Io murmured.

  Gren stopped and turned to frown at her. They'd come out from behind the cabin but were out of earshot of the others, and no one had noticed their arrival yet. “Yes...”

  “Did that apply to your friends here?”

  His frown deepened. “I asked you here to try and heal Hal, in case you forgot. I'm sort of expecting at least some of them to find out, especially the boy's parents.”

  “Right.” She turned to look towards the woods. Could she really get them to haul Hal over there away from the safety of the wards? Maybe she could do it somehow without giving away what she was really doing. She could send them away, say she had performance anxiety or something. “And they won't go telling anyone who passes through?”

  “Very few people 'pass through' this area. To trade, the Peltins have to leg it up to the road outside the woods that I was telling you about and then make the trip to town.” He crossed his arms over his broad chest, eyes ticking over the members of the Peltin family. “They'll keep their mouths shut. Their silence is a small price to pay if you end up able to heal Hal. Even if you can't, trying will mean a lot to them. But in case it doesn't work, you might want to let only a few in on what you're up to at first. I'll talk to his father. Perhaps it would be kinder not to tell Marla in case it doesn't work.”

  That was the opposite of what she'd been planning to do, but for now she just nodded. As she took in the surroundings, her eyes landed on a tiny grove of some sort of fruit tree. Would fresh fruit have lifesource? There was too much she didn't know about her class.

  “I have to practice. I've never used the spell I want to try. Can you ask everyone to give me some privacy?”

  “Sure, but I won't be able to keep them away for long.” Gren jerked a thumb, and Kate turned.

  Three of the children had spotted her and came racing over, shouting questions about Heroes and Guardians. Gren lifted the smallest of them with ease and chucked the girl over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, ignoring her delighted laughter as he led the way to the table.

  “All right, you little rodents, leave Kate alone for a bit. She's got a new spell to practice and she needs to concentrate.”

  They quickly tried to insist they wouldn't get in the way, eager to see some magic, but their parents came over and shooed them off.

  Kate made a beeline for the orchard, if it could be called that. There were only four trees, and they looked stunted. The closer she got, the more the fruit confused her. From a distance she'd assumed they were apples, but while they were red, they were shaped more like cucumbers.

  There was a young man plucking the fruit and dropping it into a basket on his hip, and he watched her approach with frank curiosity.

  “Hi,” she said, lamely, unsure how to ask for what she needed. “Um, what are these, exactly? We don't have them in my world.”

  “Lelsa fruit.” He held one out, and she took it. The curved fruit was not quite as long as a banana, and stumpy. “Not as sweet as some fruit, but they're crisp, and when you slice 'em and fry 'em they're good with salt. They're fine raw, just kind of bland. This is the year's last crop, and it was a good one. You can have a few for your journey if you like.”

  Well, that was easier than she'd expected. “Sure, thanks. Is it all right if I take a few now?”

  He shrugged, waving his hand to indicate several that had fallen from the tree. “Sure, grab some. We'll pack you more later.”

  She collected six, which was all she could comfortably hold, and hurried away again, ignoring his stare. She could hear people working in the barn, so steered around it until she was on the side facing the woods, hidden from view. Sitting down cross-legged, she placed the fruit on the ground, arranging them in a rough pile.

  Io floated closer, sounding baffled. What are you doing?

  “I want to see if fresh fruit has any lifesource in it.”

  A little, yes. The fresher the better. You're going to use them to practice? But you have nothing to heal.

  “I will in a minute,” Kate said grimly, retrieving her gauntlet from her inventory. She slipped it on tugged her skirt up, exposing her thigh.

  Kate, you are not seriously going to--

  “I am seriously going to. And it is going to suck.” Angling the knuckle spikes downwards, she made a fist, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and punched her thigh quickly before she could think better of it.

  She had to slap her free hand to her mouth to stifle a yell.

  Congratulations, you just hurt yourself for seven hit points. Are you proud of yourself? What a nincompoop thing to do!

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  She opened her stinging eyes to see Io spinning wildly in front of her face. “It's not like I can't just heal myself, relax.” She forced herself to lift her gauntlet and look at the damage. Negligible, of course. It was more bruised than bloody. She'd broken the skin, but not much else. She had held back despite herself. “Now shush, let me concentrate.”

  She reached out and put her right hand on top of the pile of lelsa fruit, frowning with concentration. A moment later she leaned back with a sigh. “I forgot to think of a key phrase. Give me a minute.”

  Just say Give and Take. That's the name of the spell, after all.

  “I'm trying to keep all my phrases short, preferably one word. That way they're easy to remember and I can say them quickly. Hmm. Okay, got it.” She put her hand back on the fruit, focusing on the spell she wanted and staring at her wound. “Leech.”

  Seriously?

  Just as before when she'd used Replenish on the tree, she felt the warm sensation of the lifesource sink into her skin. Instead of spreading throughout her body, however, it seemed as if it went through her in a straight line and out the other side of her. She watched with satisfaction as the wound healed and the bruises began to fade. Once she was fully healed, the tug of lifesource stopped.

  “You're right, there's not much in the fruit, but I can tell there's still a little left.” Looking at the fruit, she gave a start. The top four on the pile were bone-white and wilted. “Creepy.” She shoved them as far underneath the barn as she could reach. “Okay. So fresh fruit works, but only for tiny injuries.” She checked. “And yup, my MP hasn't budged. Pretty cool. But somehow I don't think a basket of lesel fruit is going to help me heal Hal. They don't have enough lifesource in them. It took three fruit just to heal seven HP. Also, look what happened to them. If I literally pulled all the lifesource out of a tree, it'd become dead and probably dangerous. It could fall over in a storm or something.”

  Correct. Can we stop this silly experimentation, please?

  She pointed at a tree on the edge of the farmstead's border. “You see that huge tree right there? It's probably been alive longer than Granny. How much lifesource would you say it has compared to the average person?”

  Two or three times, maybe more. If you're asking if there's enough lifesource in a tree like that to heal someone from a near-fatal injury, then yes, in all likelihood. But don't think you can just keep pulling the life out of it forever. You see how these ones are still healthy? Io floated down to the two untouched fruit. Once there is nothing more to heal, Siphon Lifesource shuts itself off automatically. The same is likely to happen with Hal. Once you reach the limits of what you can heal, the lifesource will stop flowing out of the tree. Technically his body healed itself around the injury. This is why you may not be able to put him back to the way he was with the spells you have available to you at this level.

  “But I might get spells that can later on?”

  Yes. There is a higher level Support spell called Renewal, and it is specifically for purposes like this. It can even heal brain trauma and old ailments such as Hal's. Supposedly one could even regrow lost limbs if the spell is upgraded.

  “Wow. How high level are we talking?”

  Not too high for the first level of the spell. Fifteen.

  “Okay. Good to know, but not very helpful right now.”

  This one is only suggesting, Io said delicately, that you may need to accept the fact that there is likely nothing you can do for Hal at your current level, no matter how much you would like to. If you really want to heal him, you will have to get stronger. Level up, come back, heal the boy. With Renewal, you could even heal Granny Yala's arthritis.

  “But I promised Gren I would try. And I can tell Granny Yala is hoping I can do something. She has to know I'm a Support. She's seen Heroes, and the way she looked at my gauntlet...”

  Try, if you must, Io sighed. You did tell Gren you would, after all. And the choice to do so is yours. That is why this one is trying to help. But please do not be too disappointed when it does not work.

  Kate leaned back against the barn, feeling frustrated and useless. It had said 'when it does not work' this time. Was that a slip-up, or was it gently trying to tell her what it'd been so careful to dance around until now? Io gave advice, sometimes strenuous advice, but for the most part it tried to allow her to make her own choices. But it seemed no matter how badly she wanted to help, she just wasn't capable of it yet.

  “Hiding again, are we?”

  Kate jumped.

  Granny Yala had slipped around the barn silently and was peering at her from a few feet away, leaning on a cane. The wood was painted in a kaleidoscope of different colors, likely the enthusiastic work of her many great-grandchildren. She smiled when Kate looked up at her guiltily. “Well? How was your meeting with Hal?”

  Kate lifted her gauntleted hand. “I assume you know my class.”

  “I have a hunch.”

  “I tried.” She let her hand fall again and belatedly tugged down her skirt from where she'd exposed her thigh. “Twice. It didn't work. I'm sorry. I'm too weak.”

  “At least you tried. You have my thanks for that.”

  Kate felt her jaw tighten in determination. “I can do it when I'm stronger. I know I can. I'll come back when I can fix him, I promise.”

  Granny Yala sighed quietly, her gaze drifting towards the dangerous woods. “Sadly, there are more important things at stake in the world than my poor boy's broken back. If you can find the time to come back later and keep your promise, I would be grateful to you. But I won't hold you to it.” She crooked one knobby hand. “Come here. I have something for you.”

  Curious, Kate climbed to her feet as Yala rummaged around in the pockets of her cloak. “I knew a few Heroes once. Even became friendly with one of them. A young Support Hero who took pity on a poor Giltarian girl and healed her skinned knees while she cried at the side of the road. He was passing through the town I lived in at the time with his party, and we got to know each other a little during his stay. At the time I adored him like a big brother. Now where did I put that dratted thing? Ah, here we are.” She pulled out out a thin silver chain. Hanging from it was a teardrop-shaped stone of pale green. “Before he left, he gave me this. Said he no longer needed it. I suppose he just felt bad because of how hard I cried when I heard he had to go. I'm not sure what it is; we don't have a Hero's ability to identify the truth of things on sight. But I know it belonged to a Support, so I think it would be better off with you.”

  “Are you sure? If it has sentimental value--”

  Yala clicked her tongue. “I will be gone soon enough from this world. I could pass it on to someone in the family, but it belongs with a Hero. Take it. Use it to remember your promise.”

  “Thank you.” Kate lifted the necklace, watching it spin and glitter in the sunlight. As she stared, a small information window helpfully popped up.

  “Now come along,” Yala said, turning and shuffling back the way she'd come. “Supper will be ready soon, and the children are about to explode with questions.”

  “Granny Yala.”

  Something about her tone made Yala stop and turn to look at her at once.

  Kate tore her eyes away from the necklace, ignoring the way Io was looping wildly in the air by her ear. “I changed my mind. I want to try and help Hal one more time.”