Healer's Nightmare

Mara's eyes peeled back, shards of memory cut through the misty veil as if another nightmare stormed her. The urge to rise tugged at her like puppet strings. However, her bandaged wounds answered with torment that lanced through her abdomen as a gasp tore from her throat. As her vision steadied, the room morphed through the darkness. She gawked at the assembly of brass candlestands, their serpentine, green flames staining countless glass jars that lined rough-hewn shelves. 

Within each container, suspended in viscous fluid, floated organs of the human body. A shriveled, brown finger in one, an eye in another, even a whole skull in some. Specimens of rats, spiders, ravens, frogs, and snakes were cramped in the still jars. Other vessels contained samples of tentacles, bat wings, bones of unknown creatures, a salamander's heart, hooked claws, and scorpion pincers.

The air was thick with the sharp bite of ether, undercut by the deeper notes of iron and herbs even she couldn't name. The chamber itself was carved deep into living rock, its walls sweating with the same underground moisture that fed the luminous fungi growing in the corners decorated with cobwebs

In the distance, a silhouette of a hooded cloak with their back turned organized corked vials and tubes. Pale blonde hair spilled from beneath the hood, catching the green light like fine-spun threads. Later, the figure's hands moved with familiar precision over what appeared to be a dissection array, the silver tools arranged in perfect symmetry around a crystalline bowl filled with something that pulsed on its own.

"Where am I?" Her voice came out dry with a hint of agony, scraping past her scoured throat.

The figure paused in their work, setting down what sounded like glass against wood

"Oh, you're awake." The voice carried both warmth and glee. "Welcome to our little bunker."

"Rose? Is that you?"

Rosemary turned, lowering her hood with elegant fingers stained with alchemical residue. Her smile was exactly as Mara remembered it—gentle at first glance, but with edges sharp enough to be fatal. 

"You sure do heal quickly, don't you?" Rosemary crossed to a cabinet, withdrawing a vial filled with a sapphire, iridescent liquid. "Though I must admit, you gave me quite a fright. If it weren't Finn…" She shook her head, measuring three precise drops into a cup.

"Wait, is this the Finn I think I know, Finn Wyrmwood?" Mara said.

"Yes, that's him!" Rose replied.

"That bastard! I'll never forgive him!" Mara cursed as a sliver of the past pierced her.

Finn was the most devoted student of Grove, as Mara remembered, but the master never approved of his unconventional approaches to healing others. He'd resort to using curses that came with a price to pay.

"What's wrong?" Rosemary asked.

"He's worse than a freaking demon! He sacrificed our master just for some stupid power!"

"The power that saved you? You're no different from him, Mara." Rosemary said, "You sacrificed way too many souls to keep your dearest treasure alive, only to lose her in a week."

"Wait, who told you that? And what do you mean by losing my treasure in a week?"

"Good questions, Mara. First, I knew from the moment I saw the ledger. Second, do I really need to spell it out for you? Lily's dead!"

Lily's dead?

"What! No! That's impossible!" Mara shouted.

"I assure you that it was no nightmare. It was all real. Whoever controlled that shadow-weaver's carcass had done the same with your sister." Rosemary explained, "She was killed by the same person and turned into a corpse puppet."

Mara's eyes burned with tears. She dropped back onto the roughly stitched sheets, staring at the ceiling. Her mind was eviscerated of purpose, becoming a hollow shell of her former intentions. She shifted her head to the left, whimpering.

"Anyways. He should be here in a few moments. Until then, you better drink this, and you'll be good to go in an hour or so." Rose said, offering the cup.

"Is there a reason to live? She's all I had…" Mara said as she turned her head to the right.

"Now, now. If you really wish for death, then be my guest, but would you really let that wretch go so easily?"

"Revenge won't bring her back. It'll put me on the scale as that scumbag." Mara said with a sigh.

"True. Vengeance won't revive her from the dead, but do you want others to face the same fate as hers?"

Mara pondered the blonde girl's reasoning in an endeavor to dig up a reason to live.

"But I must say it was pretty smart of you to use a Lumidisk to kill the corpse-puppet." Rosemary said.

"Does that matter now?"

"Yes, it does, silly! Would Lily want the greatest healer in Ravencross to meet her end so easily?"

Rosemary's words ignited a spark in Mara. She imagined her sister's face and sought a firm resolve. Lily would never want her to stop.

"Rose, tell me something: why'd you save me?" 

"Well, to be honest, I had no such plan. It was all Finn's idea. After all, we're of the same breed."

"Same breed?"

"Mara, do you think I'm stupid, or what? You have a ledger that belongs to a plague demon just like us." Rosemary paused. "Except we didn't strike a deal with a plague demon, to be exact."

"So that's how you got your powers?" Mara asked.

"You don't say, Mara."

The door flung open with a bang.

"Oh, there you are, Finn!"

Finn stood motionless in the flickering green. Sweat traced gleaming paths down his gaunt, clean-shaven face. The right one blazed like molten gold. The left remained human, black as coal, yet somehow colder than its supernatural twin.

As he stretched his left hand, Mara caught a glimpse of a viper wrapped in loving coils around his forearm. Its jagged scales captured the light like oiled steel. The creature's tongue flicked out in the air, its eyes imitating the golden tint of its owner. Mara wondered if the snake was truly his weapon or if he was merely its favorite vessel for dealing death.

His right hand gripped the bone-white hilt of a blade lined with an octet of holes. The dark metal drank from the light rather than reflecting it. 

Another Artifact of the Black Rain?

If Mara hadn't known that this monster was a former healer, she surely would've mistaken him for an assassin!

"It's been a while, hasn't it, Mara?"

Mara glared at him.

"What's the matter? Still mad at me for saving you from those corpse puppets?" he chuckled.

"I'll never forgive you!" Mara tried to sit as she snarled at him, but the ache pulled her back.

"You're still the same whore I knew. I saved your skin, and this is how you thank me?"

Mara seethed. "I'd rather be dead than be saved by a traitor!"

"Alright, then. Let's grant your wish!" Finn said as he turned to his sword.

"Finn, stop being so childish!" Rosemary stepped in, with her arms stretched wide. "We need her!"

He withdrew his sword. "Tch!"

Rosemary exhaled a breath of relief and sat down beside Mara. She caressed the injured healer's head.

"Come on, get up," Rosemary said, picking up the cup of infusion again. "You'd better drink this."

"What's in it?" Mara asked with a grunt.

"Oh, just some Uncommon Healing Draught." Rosemary replied, "A little bitter, but not as much as your attitude right now. Look, all we're trying to do is help."

Mara pushed herself up and leaned against the headboard and sipped the liquid. Her face crumpled, and she was about to spit out the contents. However, she endured the treacherous taste and gulped down the remaining. Most of the pain petered out, but she's felt a bit nauseated, and her head spun. 

Silence squeezed in for a few moments between the three.

"I'd better be off before Venom needs more carcasses." Finn said, patting his beloved serpent. "And Rose, take care of our guest before she throws another stupid tantrum."

Rosemary nodded. "But be quick; we need to get her out of here. West was already suspecting her; she's even blacklisted Mara and set a price for her head. I know she'd approve of her at first, but our healers were a bit too good to be true."

Wait, what the hell does she mean?

"What a drag! Now I think I should've sliced her like I did with her sister's." Finn mumbled.

"Finn, you bastard! I'll kill you!"

"Shut up, whore! I've had enough of you." Finn snapped, "You know what? I should take you to that damn cesspit and leave you there. Hell's Elysium should know how to deal with you."

"Finn! Enough! This is why we always run out of allies." Rosemary yelled.

Venom hissed, whipping the air with its black tongue.

"I'll be back, and take us there. She'll have to go there some day or the other, but I doubt Forgeus would approve of her."

Forgeus? Why does the name sound so familiar?

In an instant, Mara remembered the name from Infernal Grimoire. It was the Famine Demon, one of the Seven Great Demons mentioned in the book.

"But first things first, Finn." Rosemary said,We need to get out of Ravencross as soon as possible."

"Fine, but just let me snatch a few bodies first." Finn said as he approached the door before slamming it shut.