Transporting Cassiathon, to the sanctuary was a task. He remained conscious yet was seized by shivers, his skin hot and chillingly cold. The dark veins were fading,. At a sluggish pace.
Tania greeted them by the gate her medical bag already unzipped. She remained calm. Her hands were firm as she led him to a stone bench, in the infirmary yet her eyes looked troubled.
"What was his action?" she inquired of Morgan, who assisted in setting him down.
"Something " Morgan muttered, his typical slickness gone. "He didn't battle the General. He battled the army. Shattered its resolve. Then he terrified it with a nightmare." He shook his head. "It was genius.. It's destroying him."
The Angel of Death arrived. He did not move toward the slab. Instead he remained at its base watching his son. The typical cosmic coldness that surrounded him was subdued, not through heat. By an intense concentrated calm.
"He reversed his energy field " the Angel observed softly. "He absorbed power together with the surrounding taint of the battlefield. He has created a fusion inside his own body." He, at last turned his gaze to Tania. "I am unable to cleanse this. Using my power would destroy the fusion and probably him well. It needs to be stabilized from the inside."
"How?" Tania questioned, sweat-drenched hair away, from Cassiathon's brow.
"With its counterpart." The Angel shifted his eyes toward the entrance, where a young woman among Morgan's refugees had been lingering, attracted by the disturbance. She was petite, with sea-foam hair and eyes that possessed a soothing deep oceanic grey. "You. Celeste, correct? Your ancestry bears the mark of the sea-god."
The girl, Celeste Maris moved ahead anxious yet unyielding. "Yes, sir. A remote blessing. Primarily it allows me to cleanse water and… detect illness."
"Perceive this " the Angel ordered.
Tentatively Celeste drew near. She refrained from Cassiathon. Instead she placed a hand on his chest. Her eyebrows knitted together. "It's… a storm. A deadly chill and a scorching disorder intertwined like wrangling snakes. They're ripping him apart."
"Can you calm it?" Tania inquired, hope battling with despair.
"Not calm " Celeste murmured, shutting her eyes to focus. ". Perhaps… I can add a third force. A mediator. The ocean doesn't battle the tempest or the lifeless coral. It contains them soaks them up and persists." A dim green glow, subtle, like bioluminescence started to radiate from her hands. It didn't confront the clashing powers within Cassiathon. Instead it softly enveloped them a steadfast essence that penetrated the fractures of his soul.
The fierce shakes of Cassiathon started to diminish. His breaths grew slower and fuller. The dark veins disappeared completely replaced by weariness. He remained unconscious. The anguish, on his visage eased into simple rest.
Celeste. Morgan grabbed her elbow. "I'm… fine " she murmured. "It's really… noisy, within him."
The Angel of Death nodded once deliberately and slowly. "You have offered him a tether. A place of calm. It won't heal the synthesis. It will help him endure it." He glanced at his son. "He's chosen a journey I cannot follow. He will require mentors I am unable to give."
His obsidian eyes moved to Celeste, then to Morgan. The message was clear. The surgeon's apprenticeship was over. Cassiathon's education now required the empath and the wildfire-starter.