Grandmother started with the bandages, unwinding the ruins of my robes. I took them strip by strip until his wounds were revealed to us. A stifled gasp escaped me as I beheld the ragged, angry edges of the hole in his side and the deep but short cut in his arm.

  Grandmother handed me the last bandage and a dark cloud settled on her brow as she studied the wounds. “The fury of tens of thousands of victims of war wrought these wounds. That is terrible magic indeed. However-” She brushed her fingers against the wound in her side and Dadan winced. “Even against those odds, he isn’t mending as he should.”

  The color drained from my face. “Why not?”

  Grandmother opened the front of his robes and revealed his pale but muscular chest. My heart gave a heavy thump of admiration that my head told to shut up. She pressed her hand over his heart and furrowed her brow. “His energy is very low and was probably that way before the fight. We’ll need to rejuvinate his strength in some way.”

  My heart skipped a beat when I recalled the long-ago visit of Lady Miansha to Eastwei. “A mending potion! Lady Miansha gave one to him!”

  Grandmother turned her head around and lifted an eyebrow at me. “How would you know about that?”

  I shrank beneath her inquisitive stare. “I guess I must have heard about it somewhere.”

  She scoffed. “One doesn’t hear about life rejuvinating medicine given to the most powerful god among the heavenly immortals unless you have an insider into his home.”

  A knock on the door made me jump.

  Grandmother looked past me and glared at the entrance. “What’s wanted?”

  The door opened and Arian reluctantly peeked her head inside. She held up a small knapsack much like the one Prince Yushir had carried with him. “The men from the forest just brought this. Prince Yushir said it belonged to Lord Eastwei.”

  Grandmother’s eyes lit up and she caught my eye. “Grab it.”

  I hurried across the room and Arian handed the bag off to me, but not before she grasped my hand between both of hers. “How are you?” she whispered.

  I gave her a tired smile. “I can’t complain.”

  She pursed her lips but slipped away, closing the door behind her.

  “Bring that over here, girl!” Grandmother snapped.

  I hurried to obey and Grandmother snatched the knapsack from me. She poured the contents on the bed, revealing intimate clothing attire, a few scarlet-red handkerchiefs, and a bottle of something.

  Grandmother snatched up the bottle and lifted the glass to her face. She studied the contents for a moment before she popped the cork and sniffed. Her eyes lit up and she drew the vial away to examine the shimmering liquid again. “By all the realms. It truly is a mending potion. I haven’t seen the like in an age.”

  A soft groan from our patient caught her attention.

  Grandmother whipped her head to me. “Fetch a glass.”

  “There’s one in my bedroom,” I told her.

  I didn’t wait for an answer but rushed out of the room and across the hall, leaving the door open behind me for a quick escape. An empty water glass sat atop my bedstand. I snatched it up and spun around.

  And nearly jumped out of my skin.

  Dian leaned against the door frame and his arms were folded over his chest. He had a smile on his lips but there was something not quite right with the look. It was too stiff. Too insincere.

  I clapped a hand over my chest and glared at him. “Don’t scare me like that! I don’t need any more scares today!”

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  He nodded at the glass I clutched in my hand. “Is that for him?”

  I blinked at him before realization struck me. “For D-Lord Eastwei? Yeah. Why?”

  Dian cocked his head to one side and lifted an eyebrow. “D? For Dadan? Isn’t that what Prince Yushir called him earlier?”

  The color drained from my cheeks but I rallied myself and slipped around him. “I really have to get-”

  He grabbed my arm. His grip wasn’t harsh but it was strong. I whipped my head up and found myself staring into his curious and intense gaze. “You know him pretty well, don’t you?”

  I twisted in his grip. “I don’t have time for this, Dian, so let me go.”

  He reluctantly opened his hand and pressed his back against the door frame to allow me through. I slipped past and hurried across the hall, not daring to look back. A sigh of relief escaped me as I closed the bedroom door behind me.

  “About time,” Grandmother scolded me as she held out her hand. “The glass.”

  I strode across the room and handed the cup to her. She paused with her hand still outstretched and studied my arm. “Your clothes are mangled. Did that young Dian hurt you?”

  “Not at all,” I assured her.

  Grandmother didn’t look like she believed me but she turned back to her patient without another word. She poured out only a half-dozen tiny droplets and corked the vial. The old woman held up the glass and studied the infinitesimal amount of liquid. “This should do it.”

  “Why not just pour it out of the vial?” I asked her.

  My companion scoffed. “And risk pouring the whole lot of it down him? He’d receive such a boost that he might explode this whole house!” She scooted closer to the bed and slipped a hand beneath the back of his neck. “Now help me hold up his head and open his mouth.”

  I scurried to the other side and together we angled his head forward. Grandmother placed the mouth of the glass against his lower lip and tipped the droplets into his gaping maw. I watched fascinated as the tiny bits of water slipped into his mouth and down his throat.

  “Now we had better stand back in case that was too much,” Grandmother warned me as she scooted back to the door.

  My eyes widened and I hurried to join her at the safe distance. We both faced the bed and waited.

  A few seconds passed before Dadan stirred. His fingers twitched and faint clouds of fiery smoke floated out from beneath his palms. The same mist floated out of his body and gave off a reddish hue that made it appear like he was on fire. Perhaps he was.

  The scarlet light pulsed and sent little shockwaves around the room. Each vibration shook my bones and made me clench my teeth. The wooden planks that made up the walls, too, were affected by his magic as they rattled and rocked to and fro. Even the floor shifted beneath each wave, opening and closing the gaps between each other.

  Grandmother crossed her arms over her chest and gave an affirmative nod. “Good. It seems to be working.”

  I loosened my jaw long enough to ask my question. “What would happen if it didn’t work?”

  “Then he’d keep bleeding out and we’d be changing his bandages right now, not standing here enjoying the vibes from his magic.”

  “Enjoying?” I repeated as I winced against another wave.

  A crooked smile slipped onto her lips and she cocked her head to one side to cast the bemused look at me. “Loosen your body and let the magic flow into you.”

  “Oh boy. . .” I murmured to myself as I closed my eyes.

  I took a deep breath in and out, and my muscles relaxed. Another wave came over me, but rather than the harsh strike, the heat sank into my body. I shuddered at first as the warmth seemed to touch every fiber of my being. A soft sigh came unbidden from me.

  Grandmother chuckled. “Quite soothing, isn’t it? A rare treat for the two of us. He’s the only god in the whole world capable of using fire magic and we get to bask in it.”

  I knitted my eyebrows together as I stared at the stunning and still god. “But why is he the only one?”

  She shrugged. “Who knows? The world spit him out when it was young and he was found by chance. A noise caught the old heaven king’s attention and he found him in a barren spot of dirt in the far east.” She cast a curious eye at me. “But surely you’ve heard all about this.”

  “Bits and pieces,” I admitted as I pressed a fisted hand against my chest. My heart thumped beneath my hand in a steady rhythm that matched the pulse of his power. “He must have been very lonely until he was found.”

  “No doubt,” she mused as she continued to stare at me.

  I wiggled beneath the attention. “What? Do I have some corpse dust on me or something?” I tried to fix my hair and smooth my torn clothes.

  “Nothing at all,” she answered as she returned her focus to her patient. “We should let the medicine do what it wants. I doubt he’ll be waking up until daybreak.” She turned away from the bed and sauntered over to the door. “Let’s go tell the king what’s going on.”