Read Online Cathexis: Necromancer's Dagger by Philip Blood - Free Book Online

token!” Jatar exclaimed, holding the
ring high for all to see.
    Jatar turned to his guards and commanded,
“See that this piece of trash departs my palace immediately.” Jatar
turned his back contemptuously and walked out of the room, his wife
joined him at his side.
    Tysol trembled with anger. “Help me up, you
imbeciles!” he hissed to his guards.
    The watching crowd had been quiet until that
point. They were caught up in the drama of the moment, but now the
dam broke and debate exploded into a thousand forms of life.
    As soon as Jatar and Elizabeth were outside
the room Jatar sagged against his wife, he was weak from the loss
of blood.
    Elizabeth quickly helped him to a chair in
their sitting room before going to close the door. “I knew you were
more severely wounded than you let on! You had to try and end it
quickly, didn’t you?”
    “Yes, he surprised me with his confidence in
his skills. I’m not sure, but I don’t think he intended to use that
concealed dagger from the start; I really believe that he thought
he could take me easily. Did you... OUCH, careful!” he exclaimed
ruefully.
    Elizabeth continued removing his shirt,
though she quit tugging so hard.
    He continued, “Anyway did you see the
confidence he showed early in the bout? He had me thinking that he
had more skill than he did. I was probably more cautious than I had
to be, though that may have saved me in the bind when he went for his hidden dagger.”
    “My heart stopped when I read his intent
just before he stabbed you, and I almost interfered with my powers.
I wanted to run to you and cure the wound! Remaining outside the
circle was the most difficult thing I have ever done. I did see
from your aura that you weren’t mortally wounded, but then he was
on top and he raised that dagger to plunge it into your heart, so I
had to intervene. I only used a slight push to guide the dagger
into the center of the wedding ring.”
    “You did that?”
    “I’m sorry if it angers you, but I could not
allow his traitorous attack to put your life in danger! Besides,
that dagger was outside the rules,” she defended.
    “I’m not angry, my love, I thank you for
your assistance; besides, at that point, Tysol had already relinquished his rights. That
was quick thinking to use the ring, it saved argument.”
    “Yes, I could have just stopped him, but
everyone would have known,” Elizabeth noted as she examined the
wound in Jatar's side. A look of concentration came over her face
as she focused her aura powers. She used her Adept vision and saw
his aura burning in high flames of black and red in the torn
wounded area at his side. She began to soothe the aura around the
edge of the wound while closing in
slowly on the center. She reformed the damaged aura to match the
existing white and blue healthy aura colors around it. She worked
until the damaged area color and texture was even and
indistinguishable from the rest. His body paralleled the change to
the aura to fit the new pattern, and tissues re-knit and healed as
the aura healed.
    “I’ll never understand how you do that,”
Jatar said with awe in his voice as he looked at the fresh new skin
of his side.
    Elizabeth moved her gaze to his chest. The
bloody wound showed a round circle, where her ring had been pushed
into the flesh of his chest. In the center, there was a slash where the tip of the dagger had
also penetrated.
    As she concentrated her aura power into the
wound she answered his question, “Think of the body and aura as
one, when the dagger wounded the body it changed the aura to match,
so when I change the aura back the body changes to match, you see?”
She answered, while healing the chest wound, “The aura and the body
are linked; one is the reflection of the other.”
    As Elizabeth finished her minor lesson she
decided that since she had cured his body it would be a good thing
to take his mind off the whole nasty business. She leaned over
Jatar as if to inspect his side, which gave