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“You’re controlling my pain?” asked Alora. “How? Is it some kind of healer magick?”
Laethan sank onto an adjacent bed, his eyes looking up to the ceiling as if the answer were etched in the wood planks. “It is my gift.”
When she glanced at Kaevin, he offered only a shrug.
“Because you’re a healer?” Feeling lightheaded, Alora struggled to sit up, letting her legs hang from the side of the bed. She patted the lumpy mattress in invitation, and Kaevin sat down supporting her with an arm around her shoulder.
A long, heavy sigh preceded Laethan’s response. “I possess the same gift as yours, Alora. I’m gifted in empathy.”
“I don’t understand.” Kaevin frowned at the healer. “If you have the gift of empathy, why weren’t you the one training Alora? Raelene said the gift is rare, and no one else in Laegenshire possessed it. She traveled to Rivershire to interview someone gifted in empathy.”
“Had I known Raelene would be given such inept advice, I would have confessed. And I suppose now my secret will be exposed, at any rate.”
“But why keep your gift a secret?” asked Alora. “Is it because you’re a man and ashamed of your feelings?”
For once, Laethan seemed quite speechless, staring at her with his mouth agape, as if she’d asked him if he liked the smell of stinky socks. He blinked a few times and lifted his eyebrows. “Why would I be ashamed of my emotions simply because I’m male?”
“I don’t know,” Alora admitted. “It sounds silly when you ask, but I think a lot of guys in my realm try to hide most of their feelings. So why hide your gift?”
Laethan’s customary scowl returned. “Being a healer is my life. I’ve worked hard to hone my skills.”
“So your healing gift is more valuable than your empathy gift?” asked Alora.
Laethan appeared upset by her question. “Have you taught her nothing, Kaevin?”
“There’s no such thing as a healing gift, Alora. Remember? We talked about all the major gifts,” said Kaevin.
“I know,” she recited, ticking them off on her fingers. “Agility, bearer, discernment, farsight, judging, language, shaman, strength, weapons, and wisdom. But you told me there were a ton of minor gifts, like empathy, and a bunch were obscure. I just assumed healing was one of those rare minor gifts.”
Laethan scanned the room, his gaze resting for a moment on three occupied beds on the far side of the room. Evidently assured no one could eavesdrop, he pursed his lips and continued his explanation. “Healing is an occupation, not a gift. Most healers are gifted in wisdom, as there is much to learn and remember, and faulty memory can cause death. Agility is useful, as well as minor gifts of touch and water source.”
“Water source? Why does that help?” asked Alora, failing to see how finding a good location for a well could help a person with healing.
“Those with a water source gift can detect any fluid, though it be hidden from site. That gift is invaluable for determining the source of bleeding inside the body.”
“Oh, I get it. They act kind of li
ke a magic CT scan,” Alora joked.
Blank stares.
“Wow, this is a tough crowd.” She chuckled. “What does all that have to do with keeping your empathy gift a secret?”
Laethan stretched his lips in a wide grimace. “Those gifted in empathy are strictly prohibited from being healers.”
Kaevin was as surprised as Alora, his mouth opening and closing like Pavarotti, a goldfish Alora had managed to keep alive for over a year when she was seven.
“Why?” he asked. “It seems as though empathy would be a valuable gift for a healer.”
“It could be, but...” Laethan drummed his fingers on his knees. “Alora, do you know the difference between a major and minor gift?”
“Yes. A major gift is a power that’s kind of turned on all the time and affects everything you do. And a minor gift is something you use whenever you feel like it, so you can turn it off and on like a light switch.”
She saw the whites of Laethan’s eyes as they rolled around.
“And Alora knows that empathy is a minor gift,” said Kaevin. “But her gift appears to be quite difficult to control.”
“Empathy is an unusual gift—rare and not well-understood,” said Laethan. “Because it is so weak in most, it is considered a minor gift. Sometimes, however, the gift grows stronger with age, until it acts much more like a major gift, an essential part of a person, affecting every aspect of life.”
