Pax felt as if he was in a different world. His brother had suddenly returned into his life, but as a skilled warrior he’d already fought beside in dangerous battles. They were together, but right in the middle of an exploding war.

  Sitting in Jane’s room for close to an hour was so different it gave Pax whiplash. Instead of two brothers fighting for their lives, they had somehow switched to happier, more gentle versions of themselves.

  “Remember old Master Devorin’s garden and the pies we made?”

  “The mud pies? That we thought we could enter into the pie-eating contest?” Pax laughed as the sudden memory popped into his head. He could almost feel the sun baking the top of his head and the smell of the mud that covered their hands and forearms as they focused diligently on their work.

  “And we picked some of his prize roses to decorate them. The roses he didn’t allow anyone but himself to touch.” Titus’ grin stretched wider.

  “We got in so much trouble and had to spend an hour every day for a month doing chores for the old grouch to make up for it.”

  “But they were beautiful mud pies when we were done.” Titus shook his head with a fond smile. “They should have just let us enter them in the contest.”

  “I don’t think the tasting judges would have appreciated that.” Pax laughed.

  A sputtering chuckle escaped from Harkness, and Jane had a happy smile on her face, enjoying the byplay between them.

  Pax decided this was the most relaxed she’d been and a good time to propose what he’d been wanting to do since they sat down. Maintaining his cheerful smile, he turned to Jane and spoke in a gentle voice. “Jane? Do you mind if I touch you for a minute and look at your mana?”

  Her smile faded instantly, and she looked between him and Harkness, unsure.

  “I’m a pretty talented healer. Mistress Harkness told us how someone hurt you a long time ago. I just wanted to see if there’s anything I can do to help you.”

  She looked more confused than anything, and Pax realized she probably didn’t think of herself as injured. A mind injury that was decades old would feel normal to her.

  A different idea occurred to him. “Do you have any minor injuries? Maybe a bruise or a painful joint that has been bugging you? I could fix it.”

  She looked more interested, but still suspicious.

  “I have a wrist that has been bothering me.” Harkness held out her right hand with an expectant expression. “How about you heal that, and then Jane can show you any of her owies to fix?”

  When Pax saw Jane looking a lot more reassured by the idea, he turned and reached out for the offered hand. “Thanks, Mistress Harkness.”

  “No, thank you. It’ll heal on its own, so I’m not wasting a potion on it. But it’s quite annoying to have it twinge every time I spend too much time stirring or go to lift a heavy tray.”

  Pax nodded and gathered a small amount of his mana before he realized this would be his first time attempting this with a worker class. That was fine, because he used his mana skills to pin down where exactly to focus his Heal Others.

  So, he’d get a good look beforehand, which was perfect. He’d already decided he needed to investigate adults in each class to provide clues as they tried to determine a way to know what class a child would awaken to. After tonight, he’d just need to convince a merchant to let him take a look.

  He winced when he realized the only merchant he knew by name here in the base was Merchant Nightblade. But that was a problem for tomorrow.

  Pax dove in. He wasn’t surprised to see the same colorless mana that he’d found in both the warriors and crafters he’d worked with. Only mages seemed to have mana with colors based on their elements. In the past, he’d just moved on, but after all his work with the kids that afternoon, he’d developed a bit more sensitivity to flavors of energy.

  He took a moment to let his focus soften and do his best to get a sense of what Mistress Harkness’ mana felt like. It seemed like simple energy for a long moment. But then he decided he could sense a subtle feel of something solid and grounded. Unlike the bouncy energy he’d sensed within Finn and a few other littles, this was slow moving with a steady and powerful feeling instead.

  It reminded him a bit of how earth mana felt. Which was just confusing, because a worker was quite different from an earth mage. And given all the various flavors of mana and their various feels, Pax didn’t see how he’d be able to differentiate between a potential mage versus one of the other classes with characteristics similar to a specific element.

  He pushed his observations aside to contemplate and record later. He had other work to do right now. It was only a matter of moments for him to find the angry area of swelling inside the structure of her wrist. Like she’d said, it wasn’t severe, but he imagined it caused her plenty of pain.

  He drew on his water mana to help ease the swelling, pulling extra fluid from the tendons and even the strap of ligament that constricted the channel where the nerves ran. To his gratification, it didn’t take long to see significantly more space in the area so the tendons could slide through easier.

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  He shifted his focus in for a closer view of the bundle of nerve fibers. With the swelling eased, he could see that the bundle of nerve fibers didn’t appreciate being compressed, either. He twisted his water and flame mana together to help drain away the swelling and heat from the angry area. A final application of earth mana boosted Harkness’ own healing process to finish the job.

  Pax pulled back and smiled at her. “Well? How does it feel now?”

  She looked surprised as she moved her wrist, as if she hadn’t believed him. “It’s better. Much better.”

  Pax’s smile widened. It seemed she’d been prepared to pretend he’d healed her to ease Jane’s worry. This was a much better result, almost guaranteed to get Harkness further on their side.

  “Me next.” Jane held out a hand and pulled up her sleeve to reveal an angry burn mark, a single line about two inches long, as if she’d brushed up against the edge of a baking sheet.

  Harkness sucked in a concerned breath, instantly leaning over to look. “Jane, why didn’t you tell me about this?”

  Jane shrugged, not answering, as she continued to hold her arm out to Pax.

  He scooted his chair closer before taking her arm and placing his hands gently above and below the inflamed injury. “This won’t hurt, but it might take some time for me to Heal it. I’ll need to make sure an infection hasn’t set in. Alright?”

  She nodded solemnly. Her suspicious expression had disappeared after watching him work with Harkness.

  Pax shot a quick look at Titus, and his brother gave him an encouraging nod. It was finally time to see if he could figure out anything about what exactly had happened to their mother so many years ago.

  At first, he just stared. Not only was her mana a muddy mix, but it seemed she’d been through an insane number of injuries in the past. Horror filled him as he peered closer and saw more details. Hoping it was just an isolated area, Pax pushed his Mana Sight further, racing from one part of her internal structure to the next.

  There was more evidence of damage everywhere he looked.

  Much like an ancient battlefield with broken trees attempting to regrow, Pax saw signs of injuries everywhere. Old damage, sure. But the scars were enough to make him blanch when he imagined what the injuries might have looked like fresh.

  How could she have survived all of this?

  Jagged scar tissue threaded through everything. Thickened areas on various bones bore grim testimony of how many someone had broken. They hadn’t spared muscles and tendons either. Most were still functional, but tangled areas bulged and restricted full function.

  He flashed past organs twisted into shapes so gnarled that he wondered how they still worked. A fine spider web of scar tissue crisscrossed the inside of her abdomen, tangling her internal structures further.

  Tears burned in the back of Pax’s eyes. He tried to hold them back. One escaped from under a closed lid, leaving a hot track down his cheek that quickly cooled. He refused to let go of his mother’s arm to brush it away.

  Pax knew he still had one last place to investigate, the one that her true recovery hinged on. Obviously, her body had healed enough to reach some level of basic working function despite all the scarring.

  But her mind? After what he’d seen so far, he couldn’t imagine what he’d find in her mind. And it was the only part that truly mattered. Everything else he could fix, given enough mana and time.

  Steeling himself, Pax sent his mana and awareness up and forced himself to look.

  His initial impression showed little damage, but he knew better than to be relieved. First, he checked her skull. He found two areas with the distinct thickening that even years of healing couldn’t completely erase. The uneven surface made it even more obvious that someone had hit her hard enough in the head to cause fractures in the past.

  He tamped down on his rage and moved to examine her mind, the center of who she was. The scarring wasn’t as easy to see. He had to focus on moving even closer to see the smallest details.

  The areas with diminished brain activity were the first thing he noticed. But what exactly did they mean? Was she just not using those areas of her brain now, or had they lost their function? Then he noticed a void. A very miniscule one, but once he looked closer, it was obvious that something was wrong.

  Nothing moved in the tiny area, leaving a dead zone that he had no idea how to Heal. The worst part was how many more he found once he knew what to look for. Feeling rage and numbness in equal parts, Pax did the most thorough exam he could manage, noting every old injury so he could make a record later.

  He vowed he’d do whatever it took to restore his mother to full function. Even if she never remembered her old life, he could still give her some semblance of a real life back.

  The image of someone burning out the captured mages’ magic back in the capital flashed into his mind. Was this what the aftermath looked like? But that barbaric practice was supposed to just remove their magic, not their mind, too?

  And what about her memories and thoughts? How did those relate to the small areas of old damage and scarring he could see? Would healing them restore her memories? Could he even heal something this old?

  He calmed his breathing and emotions, forcing himself to think. It seemed he had two paths to pursue. He had to fix the physical damage and scarring. But that left the lost memories and her diminished mental capacity. That wasn’t something he could detect by examining the physical structure of her brain.

  No, that required a skill that could see a person’s thoughts. Inquisitors. The sudden word made him sick. Had they done this? And how did they interact with someone’s thoughts in the first place? It was unlikely they were looking at the brain itself.

  The last words Inquisitor Evergreen said to him after that farce of an interrogation back in the capital came to mind. Mana skills aren’t a waste. With yours already at level 3 and your loyalty to the empire, you might have a future as an Inquisitor.

  It was just the push Pax needed to think of a solution. What if he could do both? Heal the physical while working with her memories and thoughts at the same time?

  Something clicked inside him at the idea, a symmetry and insight that told him he was onto something. But first, he needed to discover how to access thoughts like the Inquisitors did. Knowing them, they probably just shoved their mana into another person’s mind until they flayed things open, like flipping open a book. They were the opposite of subtle, which also explained why what they did felt so intrusive and painful.

  Pax knew he could do better. Working with his friends and all the beasts he’d helped Tame, he’d developed a light touch, helping without intruding. Now he just needed to use his mana skills to figure it out.

  A thrill rushed through him. He had a twice evolved mana skill that had to be helpful. Resolving to stop immediately if anything looked off, Pax got busy.

  First, he drew up a thick thread of his light mana. It was the best element for healing and establishing order, both of which he needed now. Then he pulled a small thread of each of the four primary elements, drawing a slightly thicker portion of flame, which had been his mother’s element while at the academy.

  Next, he drew on all three of his mana skills, knowing this wouldn’t be easy. Finally, he let his focus leave the physical structure of his mother’s brain, softening his focus like he’d done with the littles. He tried to see the entire thing at once and hoped he’d connect to the thoughts and memories that hid there.

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