Page 38 of Veiled

“Save or Lose: Combat Injury and Stabilization Protocols.”

“Frontline First Aid: The Basics of Combat Medicine.”

Arcane Healing Books:

“The Magic of Restoration: A Beginner’s Guide to Healing Spells.”

“Mana and Medicine: The Intersection of Magic and Healing.”

“Elemental Therapies: Introduction to Healing Through Magic.”

It takes me two trips to collect every book listed—the textbooks so heavy Matt could come here for his workout if the gym ever shuts down.

Finally setting the last books onto the pile in front of me, I feel like I’m setting up for some kind of epic battle. The book wall I’ve made is almost high enough that I can’t see Sasha sitting across from me.

Flipping open the first book on the Combat Medicine list: “The Soldier’s Surgeon: Intro to Combat Trauma Surgery.” I’m surprised by the cracking of the binding and the feel of the crisp pages under my fingers.

“How do these still look and smell brand new? They must be ancient,” I say, more to myself than to Sasha, but she responds nonetheless.

“They're spelled, of course! It’s actually really easy if you want me to teach you. I have most of the ingredients in my room, but we would have to dig up one, no—let’s go with two—worms. We only need five worm hearts, so one worm should be enough, but if one is damaged, we would need to restart the entire process, or else it won’t work.”

“Yeah, I don’t have many books, but it would be cool to learn!”

“That’s okay, I have plenty. But I’ll stop distracting you now, so you can get back to studying.”

I only make it a few chapters before I’m excessively blinking, my eyes feeling far too heavy for me to fully focus.

Sasha catches my bored expression and chuckles softly. “It’s not exactly light reading, but you’ll get through it.”

“I guess I don’t have any other choice,” I mutter, half-laughing. “I was hoping for something that didn’t make me want to jump from the roof.”

She leans back in her chair, her fingers tapping the edge of one of the arcane healing books she picked up from my stack. “I mean, it’s the basics. The real stuff comes later when we start practicing in the labs.”

I nod but can’t help feeling a bit overwhelmed already.

Forcing myself to power through the dense technical jargon, I keep reading. This isn’t going to be something I can breeze through in one sitting—it’s going to take a lot of time.

After getting through a few really long, excruciatingly tedious chapters, I finally admit defeat. My head is aching, and I’ve reread the same page three times because the words keep blurring together.

I glance over at Sasha, hoping she’s in desperate need of a study break too, but of course not.

She’s casually flipping through the pages of her arcane healing books, completely absorbed in the material. The way she scans each page so effortlessly, she looks like she’s reading a gossip magazine poolside, not studying the complex methods of ‘The brewing and application of magical treatments in their most dangerous forms’.

“How are you managing?” I ask, trying for any distraction.

Sasha looks up from her book and grins. “Not bad. Aetheric Mending is even more interesting than I thought. The injuries that we’ll learn how to treat with Spell Casting will cut out weeks, no, months of healing time.” She looks down at the book and then back up at me.

“You okay? You’re looking a little drained.”

“Yeah, I really wish I picked all of this up as well as you do, though. I’ve read a few chapters, and I’m not even sure I remember any of it.”

“You’ll get there,” she assures me, and I can hear the confidence in her voice. “You are too stubborn to fail.”

She’s not wrong. So rather than giving in to my desire to bolt from the library, I pull on that stubbornness and begin making notes in my notebook of key points as I read. Why can’t I just find a book with notes my professor already wrote when he was a student like Harry did? I could use some of that kind of magic in my life right about now.

After four more hours of studying, my brain is fried, but I think I am starting to understand the terminology. I’ve drawn a few diagrams of stitch patterns and am going to pick up a suture kit and some bananas when we are in town this weekend so I can start practicing.

“Thanks again for all of your help! I know I am the worst student you’ve ever had, but I appreciate you!”