Chương 104: Chapter 99: The Body Is a Mystery

Lira had finally concluded after having a hard time understanding it. Apparently, so did everyone else. Two weeks had passed since the women had escaped Halthar. The excitement surrounding Sir Deren's duel had slowly faded into just another story for the castle servants to gossip about. And Lira's life had mostly returned to normal. The noble youths still filled the library most days, but they would sometimes skip it whenever Deren was free to give swordsmanship lessons.

Half of them had started carrying wooden swords, and Lira and the governesses had to stop several impromptu sparring sessions where boys, and one particular girl, started challenging each other over imagined slights. It meant more work on some days, but quieter ones on others. During that time, Lira dedicated herself to one task: creating a healing spell. After seeing Yolanda in pain, she had decided she needed something just in case she ever got badly injured.

And since she had already observed one healing spell in action, she figured, how hard could it be? It was, without question, the hardest thing she had encountered since discovering magic. For nearly two weeks, she spent every spare moment reading everything the library possessed on healing, anatomy, disease, and the strange force philosophers simply called Life or Vitality. She read dozens of books and magically absorbed hundreds more. She had not expected this much confusion.

Every new book seemed determined to contradict the previous one. One physician confidently explained that fever came from excessive fire humors building within the body, and that bleeding would relieve the pressure. The second warned against bleeding and claimed that fire humors could be properly treated with cooling baths and large quantities of water, since water was the opposite of fire. Another insisted on almost the exact opposite. Sweating, he claimed, represented an excess of water.

Therefore, fever was water poisoning, and therefore heating the body to speed up the expulsion of water was encouraged, while drinking water during the illness was discouraged. A fourth scholar dismissed humor theories entirely. The body already knew how to heal itself, he argued. Physicians merely interfered with their treatments. Apart from setting broken bones, stitching wounds, and amputating hopeless limbs, medicine accomplished very little, he claimed.

He didn't seem to know, however, how the body healed itself. It just did. There was also an extensive scholarly survey on the efficacy of chicken soup as a remedy for fever. The study explained that the origin of the cure was a tradition dating back to the Age of Magic, and that it was indisputably effective. However, there didn't seem to be any consensus on what made the dish effective. One theory stated that it restored Vitality because chickens naturally absorbed life mana from the earth.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Another claimed the soup's warmth strengthened digestion by establishing a balance between fire and water, warmth and liquid. A final theory concluded that it only worked because sick people usually had no appetite, and soup was simply easier to swallow. There was also some disturbing idea floating around.

One particularly ancient manuscript recommended making an herbal mixture of garlic, oregano, ginger, and mint, then inserting it into every bodily opening. By swallowing it, blocking the nostrils and ear canals with it, and even inserting it through the anus. Lira quietly returned that book to the shelf after absorbing it. That was the problem she was facing... She couldn't tell if this was actual, verifiable knowledge or just the author's not-so-hidden fetishes.

The only subject that approached something resembling agreement was broken bones. Every healer agreed that bones had to be properly aligned before they healed, but even there, she could find disagreement. Some advocated tightly wrapping the limb between wooden splints. Others preferred a mixture of clay and mashed beans. Others recommended hanging it from cloth and letting nature find its own balance.

One particularly detailed volume insisted that a healer must wash both hands thoroughly with soap before touching the patient, especially if there was an open wound. The very next book warned that excessive cleanliness weakened the body's natural resistance to illness, especially in children. And that didn't even tackle the confusion surrounding Life and Vitality.

The works on that subject were full of philosophers arguing about the nature of the Soul and the Body, and the mysterious force that separated the living from the dead. The nature of the divine also entered into the discussion, further muddying the waters. Lira couldn't help but rub her temples at the absurdity. How could people disagree about everything? The worst thing of all... For the first time since discovering divination, magic had completely failed her.

Normally, her Book Divination spell highlighted the most useful books based upon knowledge her future self would eventually possess. Except... Future Lira wasn't any wiser than current Lira. No, it would be more accurate to say that current Lira was now the same future Lira that past Lira had been consulting when she cast her first divination spell. Because she had absorbed every relevant book in the library on the subject of medicine, and yet she was still none the wiser.

It was the magical equivalent of asking someone for directions while lost in a forest, only to discover that they were just as lost as you. Her Mind Magic spells proved equally disappointing. Meditation enhanced concentration, not understanding. Perception allowed her to notice details others overlooked, but because of her lack of personal experience with healing, it didn't give her the ability to tell the difference between genuine medical knowledge and complete nonsense.

Perfect Recall helped her remember knowledge, not understand it. Remembering false information perfectly merely meant she could be confidently wrong. She even restored four of the damaged primers she had found, secretly hoping one of them would contain an authentic healing spell similar to the one Deren had cast. The first rewarded her efforts with several wind spells. The second described advanced telekinesis spells, combining mind and movement. The third focused entirely on fire magic. The fourth...

Contained more fire magic. Lira set the primers aside so they wouldn't distract her from her assigned task, making sure to hide them upstairs separately, just as she had done last time. Despite everything, she refused to give up. Every evening, she reviewed her notes before attempting to construct another healing cantrip. She experimented with dozens of different combinations. Yorad. Cipos. Kalaba. Body. Amplification. Life. Yorad. Moren. Kaldris. Body. Past. Retrieval. Yorad. Moren. Kalaba. Body. Past. Life. Pika.

Yorad. Kalaba. Mind. Body. Life. Pika. Kalaba. Cipos. Mind. Life. Amplification. Pika. Kalaba. Tureth. Mind. Life. Balance. Pika. Kalaba. Farshum. Mind. Life. Manipulation. … Sometimes she replaced one word. Sometimes several. Every attempt ended the same way. She would sit perfectly still, activate her Meditation spell, and go through all the knowledge she had collected, considering how it related to the magical words. The click never came. The spell was never imprinted.

By the end of the second week, Lira found herself staring at another page filled with crossed-out spell formulas. For the first time since she had begun creating magic, she found herself lacking understanding. And no amount of reading seemed capable of giving it to her.