Read Blood and Steel (The Cor Chronicles Volume I) Page 19
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“I am very lucky,” Rael said in the larder, pouring himself red wine. “If you had been holding your sword differently, you may have severed my hand from my wrist. As it is, I bled quite a bit.”
“I’m sorry,” Cor said looking at the man’s bandaged wrist. A dark red spot stained it where the sword had gone through, even though Rael had bandaged it twice already.
“No! You do not understand,” Rael started excitedly, “You have accomplished with almost no teaching what took me weeks to unlock with an accomplished Dahken training me!”
“I still don’t understand. What happened?”
“You felt the pain of your wounds; you truly felt it. When you bleed, if you can find the,” Rael paused, trying to select his words, “the center of the pain, it will give you more strength than you can imagine.”
“Will I be able to do this every time?”
“It will likely take some time to master it, but again, it took me nearly three weeks to understand.”
“How old were you?” Cor couldn’t comprehend going through that every day for weeks. Before joining Naran, Cor had never felt real pain before, nothing more than a skinned knee. Learning the ship had caused pain – deeply sore muscles, broken blisters, splinters and rope burns – the pain of hard work. Having one’s flesh opened by cold steel was a pain of a whole different sort.
“Younger than you are now,” answered Rael quietly, gulping down the rest of his wine.
Cor sat quietly for a few moments, watching the man as he poured himself more wine. “Why are my wounds gone, but yours aren’t?”
“That is simple. You drew my blood after I wounded you and quite substantially at that. When you spill another’s blood, your body will heal itself.”
“That’s why,” Cor reasoned, “two hundred Dahken can kill an army.”
“Exactly. Is there anything else you do not understand Cor?” Rael asked after the boy had been quiet for a few minutes.
“You can’t heal yourself?”
“Only if I inflict a wound on another. There were some Dahken in history that had the ability to heal wounded Dahken, but that power was rare. I would not even begin to know how to access it,” Rael explained. Rael sighed as he stood from the table. “Come, you should study for awhile.”