Kingdom of Ash

“They are, to some degree,” Yrene said.
“With their own secrets and temperaments.
You sometimes have to outsmart them, just as
you would any foe.”
Yrene took the mirrored lantern from
beside the bed and adjusted the plates within
to shine a beam of light on the infected slice.
When the brightness revealed no further signs
of rotting skin, she set down both lantern and
knife. “That wasn’t as bad as I’d feared,” she
admitted, and held out her hands over the
bloody wound.
Warmth and light rose within her, like a
memory of the summer in this frigid
mountain pass, and as her hands glowed,
Yrene’s magic guided her within the man’s
body. It flowed along blood and sinew and
bone, knitting and mending, listening to the
aches and fever now running rampant.
Soothing them, calming them. Wiping them