An Intro to the Light

4/22, morningI woke up to the sound of church bells ringing loudly nearby. I won’t lie, I panicked and fell out of my cot. Apparently stress resistance doesn’t kick in unless I am in some kind of danger. I got up and put on my cleanest shirt and pants combo, tucking my necklace underneath it, and followed the group of other people shuffling down the hall outside my room.

I was rewarded with breakfast. It wasn’t anything terribly tasty, just gruel with some kind of ground meat and carrots in it. I ate it all; the version of me from this world had much lower standards for food and I was hungry. The rest of the trainees were fairly forgettable, generally looking like a bunch of farmers and riffraff like myself, other than one girl in a simple grey robe with her red hair in a bun. She had much better table manners and sat a bit apart from the rest of the table. I’d be willing to bet she was from a rich background.

I sat down next to her. A light went on in the back of my head; my communication talent letting me know I was in dangerous territory already, and offering me suggestions to smooth things over. I erred on the side of caution for now, nodding respectfully with a “my lady.” I cringed internally, but my communication talent confirmed it would be an appropriate greeting for a minor noble to give another noble of unknown rank. She relaxed slightly, and surreptitiously kept an eye on me as I ate with impeccable table manners, mostly by copying hers. I stayed silent. I didn’t want to seem too eager.

After a short time, most of the people around the table filed out, including the redhead. I was about to follow when McBride arrived and waved for me to follow him.

“With no preexisting martial or magical experience, we will need to feel out the proper regimen for you. Evenings will consist of weapons drills and exercise, in the mornings we will be giving you a basic understanding of vital skills. Woodcraft, first aid, field maintenance, scouting, arcane and holy magic, and some basic trade skills. If you turn out to have particular aptitude in any one area, we will set you up with an apprenticeship and you’ll be focusing on that. It’s not glamorous, but you can save a lot of lives making potions for the front lines, for example.”

My mind was going a mile a minute while I followed the marshal. Hopefully I’ll be able to learn a lot, but I didn’t have any perks that would make me particularly adept at alchemy, repairs, or weaponry. I was very much banking on soul talent to keep me away from the front ranks, so I’ll need to figure out how things work quickly and get training as a spellcaster.

“This is the first place you’ll be working. This infirmary is where sister Anetta sees to the wounds of those who have returned from the field. She will be teaching you first aid, and assessing if you have any aptitude with the light.”

Anetta was a pretty blonde woman of around thirty wearing black and orange robes. My best guess is that they were some kind of vestments, but they had a much lower neckline than any priestly vestments I’d ever seen in my old life. She had a radiant, welcoming smile as she greeted us. “I welcome any who wish to serve in the light. I hope you are ready to begin your training, as we could be called to put it in use at any time.”

(Art by NovelAI https://imgur.com/a/UNXEXZl)

I went along with her lessons. The basics were about what I expected. Clean the wound, apply pressure to stop the bleeding, wrap it with a sterile bandage, replace the bandage routinely if you can’t get it to a healer. First aid was definitely a patch job to get someone safely to the nearest healer, but the process was nothing I hadn’t seen before.

The interesting part was when she pulled out a set of old bits of cloth torn into strips, a manic gleam in her eyes. “There is no act of service too small to do some good in the world. The light teaches this, and it is reflected in some of the simplest boons that it grants us. You must pray to the light, and if your wish is pure then it will answer, even in something as simple as this.”With that she took a strip of cloth and prayed over it. A soft glow came from her hands, and where it passed through the cloth the accumulated grime and dyes disintegrated, leaving behind a nearly white strip of linen, sterile and perfect for a bandage. She looked up at me with a bright smile and handed me one of the old rags. “Now you.”

I was stunned as I took the bandage. Sure, I’d never seen magic before, but I’d also been dead and was in a recreation of a world I’d played a video game adaptation of. I was feeling pretty comfortable with the fantastic. What shocked me is that I understood what she was doing. A whisper in the back of my head explained that holy magic required a total belief in the rightness of what you were trying to do, and total focus on the task. It seemed so obvious, so intuitive, I was sure I could do it.

I focused entirely on cleaning the bandage. I fully bent my will towards sterilization. It kind of worked? Where Annetta looked like hers had been bleached, mine looked a lot more like it had been rinsed in hot water and squeezed out. Which, incidentally, is approximately what I felt like. I sighed and looked up to apologize and saw that she was absolutely beaming.“Praise the light! That’s much more than I managed on my first try. We’ll have you healing the wounded in no time.” Apparently soul talent was working as advertised. She kept chattering for a few minutes before a man with an ugly but shallow cut on his arm came in.

She gave me around fifteen minutes to get my bearings. I checked my vitals with the necklace, it looked like that had taken around half of my spiritual energy to do, but I was fully recovered after five minutes. I took the rest of the time to plan. I should try to distribute these necklaces, and Anetta seemed like she would be good to have on board. I have no idea how relatively powerful she is as a priestess, but even if she is basically a no name it could pay to have someone with an official posting in the church. I don’t know if I’ll stick with holy magic, either; if I end up training as a mage or warlock I might not get another opportunity. Plus, I’ll be honest, she was attractive.

I checked my inventory and found the necklace that had appeared there while I slept. It was a diamond on a golden chain. I didn’t think she’d take the bait on a romantic angle, but she seemed painfully wholesome. “Thank you for this. I’m excited to begin learning. In my family it’s tradition to give a gift when starting an apprenticeship. My home was destroyed by the Scourge, but I still have this. Please, take it.” I proffered the obviously expensive necklace with as earnest an expression as I could manage. Hopefully I wasn’t laying it on too thickly.

“Awwww. That is so sweet. I’ll treasure it forever. You know I haven’t had many students, this is the first gift I’ve gotten.” She eagerly took it and fumbled with the clasp. “Um. I don’t have much jewelry. Could you help with it?”

“Of course, I’d be happy to help a lady.” I stepped up behind her, did the latch and watched it melt away instantly. I was bit surprised at how easy that was; if everyone was up for free jewelry then I’d have a grand old time here.

“Oh stop that. I’m your teacher, young man. That’s very inappropriate.” Her chiding tone was flattered but serious. If the catalog was telling the truth, she will change her tune soon enough; no need to rush it.

“Sorry. Sorry, I just haven’t gotten used to your company yet. I didn’t mean any disrespect.” The rest of the day she put me through my paces; she had me purify another bandage once every thirty minutes, and it was already getting easier. By the fourth time I didn’t even feel dizzy, and my vitals put it at a 20% expenditure of energy, recouped in a minute.

Anetta seemed rather possessive when she told Marshal McBride that I needed to stay in the chapel with her to learn how to heal. I figured healing would suit me just fine; I could learn the rest when I had time.

••••••••••