Jennie backs away a few paces to shift into her human form to help Rosie transfer the witch, the half-demon, and the griffin into the healing hut. Rosie hunches down and inspects the wound on the half-demon’s side immediately.

The healer puts two fingers on the injured woman’s wrist and holds the back of her hand an inch away from the woman’s nose. She feels a pulse but it is faint and barely there. But it’s there , the healer tells herself, and her patient’s breathing may be labored but she is breathing and nothing is blocking her airways.

Rosie can work with that; she can work with anything as long as death hasn’t claimed them. And she’ll be damned if she ever lets death win.

Never , she swore to herself the moment she decided to be a healer.

Never on her watch.

The healer’s eyes scan her patient’s face; Lisa’s eyes are closed and her lashes are long, her nose, from the side, slopes perfectly, followed by beautiful plump, parted lips.Pretty , registers in Rosie’s subconscious. Doll-like .

But there was no time to spare looking at and admiring pretty things - the healer has her game face on and those thoughts tuck themselves away in the far corner of her mind. She focuses on inspecting the half-demon’s wound and torn garments. She’ll have to get the clothes out of the way. She tries to carefully peel back the torn oversized sweater the other blonde woman was wearing, but the some parts of the cloth are stuck to the wound because of dried blood and Lisa winces and hisses in pain.

“Shh, I know it hurts,” Rosie whispers in the softest most comforting voice and puts a hand on the half-demon’s shoulder. “Pain is actually good right now - it means you’re alive.”

There was no sarcasm in the healer’s voice and Lisa weirdly felt like she was already being healed just listening to it. Rosie has an idea of what the poison might be from how it smells, but she’s yet to confirm her suspicions. But if she’s right, the fact that the half-demon isn’t numb to pain yet is a good sign.

“I’ll do everything I can to make you stay alive, okay?” Rosie doesn’t wait for a response but Lisa hums affirmative. The half-demon feels herself fading, the healer’s voice serving as a lullaby, teasing peaceful rest. She tries to struggle, thinking it best to stay awake lest to risk completely giving into oblivion and never coming back. But only a breath later, Lisa passes out.

Unknown to her patient, Rosie meant for her to sleep. She had slipped in a sneaky little spell she crafted herself. It was a sleeping spell, meant to not be obvious because there were no words to it; but it was with the tone, softness, and sometimes the cadence of her words that she casts it. She created it after healing many agitated magical users and magical beasts. It was meant to induce the subject into peaceful rest, like they were in a blank daydream, dulling their senses, thus allowing the patient’s body to conserve the  strength and energy they have and jumpstart their bodies to work on healing itself. It sounds complicated, but it’s really a simple spell that Rosie is surprised no one else has thought of it. Casting it wordlessly was the trick, and Rosie is quite proud of devising a way to do it with the vibrations and sound of her voice.

Satisfied that her patient is now asleep, Rosie gets to work. She conjures a small astral dagger that fits perfectly in her palm. It glitters and sparkles under the moonlight as she lifts it up and  uses it to make the tear on the side of demon’s sweater bigger. There’s a ripping sound, and Rosie pulls the shredded garments away to expose the whole of the other blonde’s torso.

Lisa was wearing nothing underneath her sweater.

Rosie realizes this but it doesn’t bother her. She’s seen and worked on bodies of all shapes and sizes, all states of undress. The demon’s body was fit and there was absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about but it registers in the healer’s mind that her patient might appreciate an ounce of modesty. She uses the dagger to cut off most of the skirt of her nightgown and covers the demon’s chest with it then ties the cloth securely.

She shifts the now covered-up demon a little to the side so she can visually examine the wound. Rosie’s heart sinks to her stomach. The poison bubbled in the demon’s blood like a  hot tar pit on freshly cut meat. Black rot has started spreading on the woman’s insides from the wound opening to her stomach and the rest of her torso. Everything reeked of death and decay, the stench more potent now that everything is exposed to air. Rosie’s suspicions are confirmed. It was poison from a corrupted Hynerian frog’s skin. The creature is difficult to catch and the poison even more difficult to make. and the healer knows of no other witch who grows the rare plant that is the antidote to this poison, except for herself.

Someone wanted this half-demon dead.

She has to move fast before the poison and rot reaches her patient’s heart.

As Rosie checks Lisa, Jennie completes her transformation a few paces away. Black fur turns into porcelain skin, claws into small dainty fingers, and angry yellow eyes, whiskers and fangs into cat-like eyes and red lips.

The art of shapeshifting requires two things: generous magical energy reserves and physical strength. Lack in one means having to compensate with the other. And master shapeshifters, other than being able to alter and enhance their animal forms, are able to do their transformations in between breaths.

Jennie still takes a little while to revert back to her human physique and it frustrates her. The shapeshifter still has a few more years of training and mastery to go before she can transform into her panther or black cat forms in a blink. She stretches her arms and legs, wiggles her fingers and toes. She turns her head side to side, getting two satisfying and resounding cracks. She sighs relief. The encounter made her unexpectedly tense.

Jisoo, in a haze of pain and exhaustion, watches Jennie’s transformation in awe, only vaguely aware that her best friend is being checked by the healer beside her. She knows at the back of her mind that she should be checking on her friend, but she couldn’t draw her eyes away from the marvel before her.

She’s seen many shapeshifters transform before but none this seamless - none this precise.

And she’s never seen a shapeshifter skilled enough to be able to switch forms in seconds. Sure, she learned about master shapeshifters from the prescribed tomes and books in her witchcraft courses but she’s aware how few actually exist in the magical world, and how most of them are probably old or dead, now. This one might just be the most skilled shapeshifter she’ll ever encounter in her lifetime. And after the fight earlier, the seer already knew that this one is strong and fast and terrifying.

Jisoo feels herself swaying back and forth between consciousness and oblivion and the line between the two get thinner and thinner. Before the seer could pass out, she sees a blurry pink dot fly seemingly out of nowhere and perch itself on the healer’s shoulder.

The rosefinch , she thinks. The rosefinch in my visions.

“Miss Rosie! Miss Rosie! The hut is ready!”

Cotton, the pink rosefinch, chirps. Its voice sound like that of a child’s, high-pitched, but with a little distortion.

Rosie turns her head and smiles at her familiar, who was always doing and giving her what she needed without her having to move a muscle or utter a word.

“Towels?” A chirp. “Hot water?” Another chirp. “The usual ingredients for an antidote? The operating tool kit? The purifying circle around the hut?” Three consecutive chirps.

Rosie smiled and softly caressed the bird’s head with a finger.

“Thank you, Cotton. I can always rely on you.”

“Anything for you, Miss Rosie.” Cotton chirps happily, before flying off of the healer’s shoulder and towards Jennie.

“Miss Jennie!” Cotton greets, flying just beside Jennie’s head as she takes a few steps to stand in front of the griffin.

The shapeshifter smiles at the familiar.

“Hello, Cotton. Let’s get to work, shall we?”

Cotton chirps. Jennie nods at Rosie who was standing, looking at her, and waiting for her signal.

Time to take the patients to the hut. 

Rosie turns back to the two women on the ground and starts the spell, muttering the enchantment under her breath. Jennie joins her, facing the griffin. Both witches’ eyes glow faintly, for only a beat, before they go back to their natural warm browns.

They perform only a simple levitation spell that doesn’t require that much skill. They needed to make their patients float, then they’ll attach thin threads of magic from their fingers to be able to pull them easily towards the hut. The three patients levitate up into the air and stop at eye-level. The two witches put their hands up and astral threads shoot out from their fingers, wrapping themselves around the bodies - Rosie’s with Jisoo and Lisa and Jennie’s with the griffin.

They all head to the hut, the three patients trailing in the air behind the two witches as Cotton flies to perch itself on its master’s shoulder.

Once in the hut, Rosie sets Jisoo down carefully on the bench on one side, set up against the wall, then sets Lisa down on the small bed for her patients. Jennie sets the griffin down at the foot of the bench beside Jisoo so the huge creature doesn’t crowd Rosie’s space. She’s certain the griffin can wait for treatment for a little while longer and the beast doesn’t whine or complain anyway, probably understanding that its masters are first priority.

Rosie turns to her friend.

“Jen, do you mind helping me?”

She didn’t need to ask however, as Jennie was already grabbing an elixir for small wounds, a piece of cloth and bandages.

“Rosie, I’m already on it.” Jennie winks. “I’ll take care of this one and you focus on her.”

Rosie nods and wastes not another second. She starts grabbing bowls of herbs and berries and seeds, combining them into one bigger bowl, creating the base for the antidote. Cotton is flying around like crazy, handing the healer the ingredients she asked for that were too far from her reach.

A rattlesnake’s tail, shavings of a balete’s bark, a liar’s tongue, water from the magical spring in the forest behind their hut, a piece of a rafflesia’s petal...

There are three things Rosie needs to do; one, counteract the poison with the antidote; two, take the poison out of the half-demon’s body, and; three, repair the damage the poison has wrought on the half-demon’s body.

Rosie wastes no time ticking off number one. The antidote sloshes around in the bowl she holds in one hand as she cradles the back of Lisa’s head with the other. She gently lifts the bowl with the concoction up to Lisa’s lips, pouring almost all of the antidote into her patient’s mouth. She tilts Lisa’s head back and immediately hands off the empty bowl to Cotton who readily accepts it. She then uses her now free hand to close Lisa’s mouth and cover her nose to make sure she swallows all of it. Lisa finally gulps everything down and coughs.

The easiest part is done. Now onto the more difficult one.

Cotton comes back with a clean bowl as replacement. The healer nods her thanks. She moves to the wound on the demon’s side and stands over it. She closes her eyes, inhales deep through her nose and blows it slowly out of . She starts gathering magical energy and pooling it into her stomach.

She reaches for the Black Mamba venom on the shelf and puts five drops directly into the wound to numb the half-demon. She silently wishes it would numb the woman enough. Lisa would need all the sensory deprivation she can get without overdosing. She sets the venom aside.

“Cotton, the tube, please.” The healer holds up her hand and the familiar gives her the instrument with haste. It was a small but thick plastic tube, about ten inches long, its one end pointed.

Demons are definitely sturdier creatures than witches. It takes ten times more force to cut their skin compared to that of a human or a witch. So , Rosie casts a spell on the instrument, covering its pointed end with magical energy, both to cleanse it and to help it pierce the half-demon’s exposed muscle.

She turns her patient to her side, puts her hand over the woman’s hip, fingers splayed, holding her steady. She holds the tube right over the open wound. She starts humming a relaxation spell. Driving anything pointed into an already poisoned and rotting exposed wound… there are no words to describe how painful it would be. But she had to drain the poison and this was the only way.

Ah, this is going to hurt, Rosie thinks. She looks at her patient apologetically even if the woman isn’t going to see it. As much as she wanted to be gentle, she had to make sure the tube pierces through the half-demon’s insides.

Okay, here goes nothing.

The healer drives the tube hard and feels the pointed end plunge into Lisa’s muscle, right at the center of the wound where most of the tar-like poison is.

Lisa’s eyelids fly open and she screams.

“Motherffuu-AAAAAHHHHHHH!!”

Rosie cringes and hums her relaxation spell a little louder, rubbing circles into Lisa’s hip. Lisa screams for another moment more and the healer worries that her spell isn’t working until she sees Lisa’s contorted face start to relax and hears the scream die down. She leans down close patient’s ear while holding the tube steady.

“That’s right, go back to sleep. It’s almost done, almost. I’m sorry.”

Rosie whispers and sing-songs her relaxation spell disguised as assurances and apologies over and over. It doesn’t take long before Lisa is completely limp on the bed, peacefully oblivious once again.

The healer exhales relief, wipes sweat off her brow. She places the other end of the tube into the new bowl. The dark tar-like poison drips out of the tube as the magical instrument does its job. After a little while, the dripping stops, and there is no trace left of the poison on the wound.

Rosie smiles. Step two is done. But now she’s come to step three, the most difficult of them all.

Right now, Lisa’s wound and insides look like spoiled, rotten raw meat. The healer exhales a shaky breath.

Rosie knew that the antidote would only be enough to save Lisa’s life. It doesn’t cure what the poison had already damaged and more than half of the other blonde’s body had already been destroyed. This meant that she would have to live the rest of her life unable to move from the neck down - unable to use her powers nor conjure anything.

But as Rosie’s fingertips touched the skin on the back of Lisa’s neck earlier, she felt a fire in the half-demon’s soul.

Lisa is different.

Somehow, the healer knows her that this half-witch, half-demon was meant to do bigger and greater things.

And she could tell Lisa is a fighter.

Oh, to Rosie, that was definitely obvious.

The woman is fighting to live and fighting hard . And something told the healer that if the half-demon had to live the rest of her life damaged from the poison, never again getting in touch with the magical part of it - that would be a tragedy the woman would never recover from.

So the healer decides won’t let that happen.

No, she wouldn’t let the fire inside this woman die. She had to heal whatever was damaged by the poison, too.

And she can .

She thinks.

But it’s incredibly difficult, with how much damage the half-demon suffered. It’s a feat that would not only require skill, but a level of magic Rosie doesn’t even know if she’s reached yet. But she has to try.

For this woman’s sake.

Jennie lets her friend work and focuses on her own task. She puts a tiny bit of the elixir on the piece of cloth. She moves Jisoo’s face, holding her chin. The seer is still completely out of it. Jennie smirks and gets an idea.

She dabs the cloth with the elixir on the cut on the seer’s head, but she presses it hard and the seer wakes up with a pained yelp.

“OW!”

“Shh.” Jennie holds a finger to her lips. Jisoo is just confused.

“I’m sorry for hurting you,” the mischief in her eyes belies her words, “but you need to be awake so you can witness this.”

Jennie nods towards the healer who is now standing eerily still in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. Jisoo doesn’t understand but she looks at Rosie, anyway.

The shapeshifter moves her face close to Jisoo and whispers.”

“Trust me seer, you will thank me later. This is something you cannot miss.”

And Jennie is right because what Jisoo is about to see next will blow her away.

Rosie closes her eyes and stands at the foot of the bed, in center of the room. Everything is still and quiet until she starts humming a low note.

The air crackles with magical energy. Jisoos eyes widen at the sudden charge of energy in the room. She gapes, looking at the shapeshifter with confusion and shock in her eyes. Jennie is still beside her, rapt attention on the healer.

The healer starts singing an unfamiliar melody. It was haunting and eerie and Jisoo feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand. The healer shifts to a higher note, and Jisoo feels the magical energy in the room build up along with the song. The melody suddenly crescendos, the healer’s vibrato echoing throughout the hut. Jisoo hears Jennie’s breath hitch, and she feels her own get stuck in as goosebumps erupt on both their skins.

Rosie opens her eyes and the glow from them is blinding. The energy in the room is multiplied and Jisoo feels herself physically shrink back. A mixture of fear and awe grip the seer’s heart. The griffin below her hides its head under a wing, seemingly folding into itself.

A magical aura gathers around the healer, pulsating. She continues singing until her melody reaches a . Then, the aura transfers itself to Lisa, pushing itself into the half-demon’s parted lips. Lisa’s eyes open and Jisoo sees that they’re also glowing. The seer watches, transfixed, as the healer and half-demon are connected by magical energy.

The note is held in the air and Jisoo forgets to breathe completely.

The rot slowly disappears from Lisa’s flesh and then from Lisa’s wound, until her skin looked normal and her blood looked healthy. Every damaged cell in her body is being repaired

It clicks in Jisoo’s mind, whatever is happening. She realizes the healer is performing some sort of transfusion of magical energy.

The seer exhales. She’s at a loss of words.

There is nothing like this in the tomes. Was this even possible?

This is amazing.

Jennie turns to look at the seer’s face and smiles in satisfaction at the expression she sees there. She turns to her best friend with a proud, smug look.

Yep, that’s her girl.

The healer’s song comes to an end and it snaps Jisoo out of whatever haze that fell over her as she listened to the blonde sing.

Rosie feels exhaustion come over her and she falls forward, using both hands on the edge of her patient’s bed to steady herself. Her breath comes in short pants. Jennie is at her side in an instant, one hand on her arm and another on her waist, steadying her. Cotton is also flying in front of her.

“You okay?” Jennie asks, voice laced with concern. “Do you want me to get you anything?”

Rosie shakes her head.

“I’m fine. I just need to take a breath. You know it’s always draining when I do that.”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Jennie lets go of the healer’s arm but uses the other to rub her back. Rosie straightens up after having caught her breath, and clears .

“Cotton, can you get me some thread and a needle, and more water from the magical spring, please? I think there's another vial on the shelf.”

Cotton chirps and hands her a new bottle of the magical water.

“Here you go, Miss Rosie!”

“Thank you.”

Rosie smiles. Jennie leans in and whispers into her friend’s ear.

“You saved her life.”

The shapeshifter gives Rosie a kiss on the cheek.

“Good job, Rosie.”

The healer looks down and blushes.