For now, Katie put THAT problem aside. Then, looking back at Gwenn and the bird, she shook her head. "back home, a break like this would require surgery. I can't splint it really, not with anything that would be effective. And she's young enough that I don't think it fair to amputate it - it looks like a clean fracture - with proper attention, it should heal well enough to fly again. But..." She looked at the kitchen doubtfully. "There's just not enough to work with here. Unless..."
Gwenn waited a few moments, then said doubtfully, "I think I can splint it, but she'd ha' tae lie still for a few days, 'an she'll nae like it.
A thought then occurred to Katie, and she remembered how easily she had helped Alanna and Linnea at the hospital, helping wiht all the injured guards. She looked at Melissa. "Melissa, can you monitor me? I can fix the bird's wing, enough to heal on its own after that. I know I can."
Melissa nodded. "Of course. It's about all I _can_ do, but it's useful sometimes..."
Anwyn looked up from where she was comforting the kitten. Mairead had given up on trying to play watch-cat. There were too many strange people here, and too many strange sensations. So she had given in to the temptation to cuddle up against this she-human-cub. Now she was curiousity too. Apparently, the stranger she-human was going to fix bird-sister.
"So you're going to fix it with magic ? Way cool ! Can I watch ?", Anwyn exclaimed eagerly to Katie, stepping forward to get a better look, "I've never seen anything like THAT before. Kay gave me some stories about people using healing magic, but she doesn't know how to do any of it herself".
Katie chuckled, and looked at the girl. "It's not magic, and I can't guarantee anything. Yes you can watch, but there's really nothing to see, and don't look at the stone, OK? It'll make you sick, and you'll end up at the sink too." She said this for everyone's benefit.
Then she sat down on a chair by the table where Gwenn held the bird, and took out her matrix in its little silk pouch. She still got a thrill when she looked at it, or even touched it, for it gave her a sense of well-being and peace that she had never imagined was possible. The day that Merelda had given it to her marked a turning point in her life, and she would never forget it.
Kay felt her stomach churn when Katie pulled out the blue-fire jewel. As much as she hated to admit it, this time she'd have to force herself to tolerate its presence. There was no other better way to fix Amadaine's wing. She bit her lip softly, swallowing hard to keep from vomiting again. It helped somewhat when she hid her face in her her cupped hands. With most of the blue twinkling hidden, she didn't feel quite as disoriented.
The stone glowed softly in Katie's palm. Without looking up, she said "Melissa? Are you ready?"
She focused on it carefully, just like the way Alanna and Linnea had done at the hospital, and again at the healing earlier in the morning.
Seconds later, she felt a new touch and presence with her, that she recognized as Melissa's. It was faint and gentle, but steady. *I'm here* came Melissa's reply.
*OK* here goes. Hold still, munchkin.* Katie didn't know if the bird could understand her, but she would have said it out loud, anyway. She focused on the little bird's wing and was surprised to see how different it was from a human limb. so few webs and currents... She carefully extended a finger to come close to the fractured bones being held by Gwenn.
Gwenn looked dubiously at Katie, wondering if this was going to hurt him. The sorceress under whom he'd apprenticed had sometimes used sorcery to heal, but he'd never been in touch with the healer's subject when she did so. He turned his head from the blue stone.
Meanwhile, Katie imagined that the angry red sluggish areas were softening their color, soothing them into soft whorls of light... the extension of the wing had set the bones - lucky that! - and she tried to encourage them to reach out to each other, first from the inside, tendrils of energy reaching to each other, but so little there - not dense like human bone... She frowned, and felt herself suddenly exhale and take a deep breath that she hadn't planned on her own. Her gratitude was met by what she had to interpret was a mental grin from Melissa.
Fighting the impulse to twitch or flinch from the burning-itch sensations, Kay concentrated her focus on swamping Amadaine's small bird-mind with waves of soothing comfort and reassurance. This helped to lessen the distressed projections radiating back at her. Anwyn's distraction of Mairead was also helping, as Kay could use the kitten's delight as an additional buffer to shelter the bird's mind from what was happenning to her wing. But the effort was making her break out in an increasingly-heavier sweat. It had always been difficult for her to project one set of sensations while trying to avoid drowning in a different set.
Focusing again, Katie concentrated on the outer layer of bone, which seemed to be much more agreeable to forming a thin bridge across the thin crack of the fracture. Not much more she could do, that she was comfortable handling like this. She briefly hovered over the wound in the skin, and saw that the bird's own system had started to heal that already. There was no sign of infection.