The Goddess's Gift

Lear looked up from the ancient book he'd been reading. "Someone's coming." he flicked his second set of eyes opened, then frowned. "They're fey. Well, that's a change of pace."

"And at least it's not another morning visit! Although we did already have a morning adventure today." I laughed, setting the loaves of bread I'd just pulled from the oven on the stove-top to cool

I took off my apron as Lear flung the door open. He paused, then smiled, "Oh! Hi Pima!"

"I think we need to see Winna." Pima's voice was worried.

I quickly made my way over to the door as well, glad that my fey neighbor had finally stopped by. Indeed, Pima and Mira were both there on the porch. My eyes flicked immediately to the bandage on one of Mira's little hands, and noticed that her eyes were reddened with tears, and she sniffled slightly. So this wasn't a social call, then!

"Please come in!" I told them. Hopefully whatever was wrong with Mira's hand wasn't too serious. I'd still do what I could, but not having Diana's help would really put a damper on it. "All of your family is most welcome in my home." I told them, extending the welcome to Tip.

Lear stepped aside so our guests could enter.

"Thank you so much, Winna." Pima sighed. "Mira burned her hand. It's kind of bad. I know that Diana is without a lot of her power, but you're still a healer, and I'd appreciate your opinion on it, as well as any help you can give. Because any amount of healing magic is better than none, in my opinion."

Luckily, burns were manageable. Even if it was a really bad burn, I could at least do something, even without Diana. With repeated visits and magical treatments, I should be able to heal even the worst of burns, as long as it was a small area that was affected, like a hand. A burn over a larger area, as Biren's had been, would prove much more of a challenge now. I needed to tell everyone around here to be more careful when it came to fire, apparently, given this was two burn patients in a row! Although to be fair, the fire hadn't been Biren's fault, but still.

I nodded, "I'm happy to help however I can. How'd you get burned?"

"I-I got t-to close to the fire! I-it snapped and sent a spark out and caught my fur on fire!" Mira wailed, bursting into tears anew.

"Oh my!" I blinked, inwardly glad that I didn't have fur.

"Our fur is pretty flammable, unfortunately." Pima sighed, shaking her head.

"Well, accidents happen. And I'll do what I can."

"Thank you."

I led them to the couch, telling Lear, "Would you get a clean rag, the bar of soap from the sink, a bowl of cool water, and some bandages? You'll need to tear them up, they're in the closet over there." I motioned at the closet just beside the medicine cabinet. While the medicine cabinet held just that, medicine, the closet beside it held all of my other medical supplies like bandages, syringes, cotton, sutures, empty bottles, thermometers and much more. It never hurt to have non-magical healing supplies on hand, just as a precaution, or in case I myself was the one that was hurt and someone else had to tend to me, much as Lear had when I'd been sick in the days after Veris' attack.

"Yes ma'am!" my handsome fey companion saluted at me, then darted around to gather the supplies I had requested.

-

Diana stretched, getting up. It was time for her to get involved. Helping magically was out of the question, of course, but she could definitely help in other ways.

She prodded Lou awake. Her sister opened a grumpy hazel eye, not pleased at being woken. Diana looked pointedly at the little faun who was crying on the couch.

Lou maowed, understanding her mission, then got up and stretched herself. She be-bopped over to Mira, then hopped up into the sobbing little faun's lap, immediately beginning to purr loudly.

Her silly cat sister had very little in the way of brains, but she was excellent at comforting people, and she was always happy to have the attention. Lou was also particularly good at purring, and purring was healing in its own right. As an added bonus, she even enjoyed belly-rubs, and only ever felt the need to bear-trap on to Winna's face, if the mood struck her. Though Lou did enjoy biting Winna's ankles, or flinging herself at her legs when she didn't get the attention she wanted quickly enough.

But Winna was Lou's person, which is why she behaved like that. Winna was also Diana's person, and she rumbled loudly as she made her way over to her person.

Her Winna.

She wove between the mage's legs, then hopped up beside where Winna was perched on the coffee table, examining Mira's hand. The tall, skinny fey man, Lear, hurried over with the rag, soap, bandages, and water that her mistress had asked for.

"It's not as bad a burn as you had me worried it was!" Winna smiled, tone reassuring. "Not that it's a...not bad one, but it's not as bad as I'd feared. I'll do what I can! It won't be fully healed, so you might need to bring her back in a little while for another healing session or two, I'll know more once I get it cleaned, but I can certainly help, even without Diana's magical assistance."

Diana maowed reassuringly. It was important for her Winna to have some confidence in herself again. She'd never had much before now, but now she had none. Sure, her magic wasn't as strong as her mother's had been, or any of her ancestors, now long passed, but it was still magic, and that was a lot more than what most people had around there. Well, save the fey folk, but it was still a stronger healing ability than most of them even had.

"Diana agrees!" Lear translated, smiling down at her.

It was a little strange, but not unwelcome, to have someone in the house who could actually understand her. It also meant he could understand Lou, too, but...well, that didn't really take too much, all things considered. Lou only ever had a few things on her mind, food, cuddles, or pets and scratchies. Sometimes kisses. Cause Lou did like kisses. Diana only really liked Winna's kisses, though she would tolerate them from others as needed. Lou welcomed the kissies from just about anyone, silly thing that she was.

Winna giggled, and reached down to scratch Diana between the ears, which felt very nice. She leaned her head up into the touch. Winna always gave the best scratches. Her short, neat fingernails always found the purrfect spots. "Good! I'll also send you home with some burn salve. That should help, too."

"Thank you, Winna!" Mira hiccuped, pausing from petting Lou to wipe at her tear-stained face with her other hand.

Lou maowed in annoyance at the interruption, but didn't move.

"Yes, thank you very much! I was very frightened when I saw her little hand all aflame!" Pima sighed, shaking her head. "And Tip is away today, visiting family. I panicked."

"Well, you were right to bring her here." Winna said firmly.

In all her long years, Diana hadn't been quite so fond of anyone. Well, not since Awenna, anyways. Winna reminded her a lot of Awenna. They had the same hair, and similar personalities. Diana tried to call to mind any other of her past masters and mistresses, but really couldn't remember any beyond Winna and Awenna, other than Winna's mother and aunt, before she'd gone away, of course. Even they only stuck around in her memory because they hadn't been gone, or passed, for very long.

The years that had passed since Winna's parents had died had flickered by in the blink of an eye to her. But they had also been very peaceful and she remembered much of them, at the same time. She suspected that Winna perceived time differently than she did, for now. As the mage got older, she'd see time more like Diana herself did. Neither fast or slow, but ebbing on eternally, as Diana most likely would herself.

The diluted grey tabby cat remembered being little more than just a kitten, and walking through the big old manor, in search of Awenna, who's lap was always open to her, much as Winna's was now. Awenna was most often in the library, pouring over the very same books that Lear was trying to puzzle his way through currently. Awenna was eager to know more of her family's past as well, though she hadn't been able to read many of the older books, either, since knowledge of those languages had been lost long before Diana's mother had sent her to Winna's family.

Those days had been so long ago. Diana had never bothered to learn how to read, either. It hadn't seemed particularly important, and no one had ever expected it of her, since she was a cat. But maybe if she had, she could have been more useful to her Winna, somehow.

It didn't matter. There was no sense in worrying about what might have been. Worrying wasn't very catlike, anyways.

She also remembered the day that Winna had been born. That Winna's mother had tried for a third child was unusual. The family had always kept themselves small, having usually only one child apiece, sometimes two. Even before Diana had been sent to help them, they'd had few children. They didn't want to draw attention to one themselves, though they wanted to continue the family line. It had become tradition within the family, eventually, even when they'd stopped living in fear of what lurked outside the protection the original family had brought with them. But when Winna's brothers had both been born without any magic at all, Winna's mother had wanted to try one more time, wanting to preserve the magical line, and Winna had finally been born.

"You know, you're my first fey patient!" Winna said to Mira.

"Ahem." Lear clear his throat, arching his eyebrow in amusement. "And what am I? Chopped liver?!"

Winna blinked, then laughed. "Sorry! I forgot! So you're my second fey patient, Mira!"

"That's still cool!" Mira sniffled, managing a smile.

"Let's get this cleaned." the human mage murmured, clearly in her element.

Despite the crisis, Winna very rarely lost her head. She was a very practical woman. She might have a moment of distress, but she always pulled herself together quickly and got to work, in Diana's experience.

Winna's weak magic surged into the little faun's burned hand, likely easing the pain. The mage then began to clean the wounded appendage very gently with soapy water.

Mira whimpered in pain, and her mother soothed her. Winna pushed more magic into the little girl's hand, trying to combat the pain from the soap, allowing Mira to turn her attention to Lou, who was still purring away in her lap. She distracted herself as best she could by petting the silly cat while Winna continued to work on her hand.

"Alright. The most unpleasant part is over." Winna told her, "I promise!" Diana's mistress inspected the wound again. "Yes, it's not terrible. You can come back, but I think the burn salve will actually work well enough on its own, if you put it on it every night with some new bandages."

"Alright. We'll probably come by anyways, just to say hi." Pima smiled.

"Of course! You two can come as often is you like!" Winna smiled, starting to push healing magic into Mira's hand.

"It feels nice!" Mira smiled.

"Yes, it does!" Lear grinned,"I'm often on the receiving end of it."

Winna frowned, "Speaking of which, it's been a while since I did a healing session for you."

"It's alright." he shook his head, "I'm slowly healing on my own. The progress is mostly thanks to you, though. Your help has let me heal faster than I would have otherwise."

The mage managed a smile, "Good. I'm glad to help."

They were all quiet for a few moments.

"It's really kind of nice to have company." Lear observed, settling himself down in the armchair.

"Yeah." Winna smiled. "I'm glad I have such good neighbors."

"I'm so glad Mira met you that day. We don't usually show ourselves to humans, but we've missed out on a good friend in doing so." Pima reached out and patted the young human woman's shoulder gently.

"Oh, don't worry, I understand! I know sometimes humans don't react well to fey folk." Winna sighed. Diana had a feeling her Winna was thinking about the unpleasant woman who'd visited earlier in the day, demanding their help and treating the tall skinny fey man so badly, not to mention her Winna!

Diana should have walked right up and bit the mean woman's ankles, or scratched her feet, but Winna wouldn't have wanted her to.

"I'm glad to count you a friend, Winna." Pima smiled.

"And I you!" Winna beamed back.

It was good to see Winna happy. She'd been so scared after that strange bone creature had been hurting Lear, and Diana had intervened. Then Winna had been sick, then stressed, then overwhelmed and stressed...It was good to finally see her happy.

Lear, tall and skinny though he was, also made Winna happy, and that was good. Diana knew she'd judged him properly when they'd spoken for the first time.

Initially, that he'd hidden his actual identity and appearance from her Winna had angered and unsettled Diana. But once she'd learned he wasn't really hiding it, he was just injured, she'd forgiven him, though had still been a little wary for a time. But he'd now proved to be a good companion for her Winna, and he gave really good scratchies. Lou liked him a lot as well, as an added bonus.

Now her mistress was bandaging the little faun's hand carefully. Winna reached out blindly for another bandage as she focused on using the other to hold the current bandage she was using in place, but she missed it, and groped across the table.

Diana padded forward and brushed against her errant hand, directing it to its intended target. See? No magic required to be helpful.

"Thanks, Annie!" Winna smiled, realizing what her familiar had done.

Diana maowed.

"She said it's her job to help you, even if she can't do it magically." Lear murmured.

Winna blinked, then paused and bent to kiss Diana on the forehead. "I love you so much, miss."

Diana purred.

"She knows. She loves you too." the fey man said.

Lou maowed loudly, annoyed at not getting attention, and they all burst into giggles.

"She says she loves you too!" Lear snorted.

"And I love you, silly Lou! I'll give you kisses in a minute, alright?" Winna smiled down at her silliest cat.

Lou maowed in agreement.

Winna finished bandaging Mira's hand, and tied it carefully. "So yeah, keep it clean and dry, and put burn salve on it every night. Come back if you want to, and I'll gladly help again. I also suggest maybe investing in some of the same kind of heating stones I have here. Dern, the dwarf in the village, makes and sells them. They're a little expensive, but they work well, and it takes away the risk of a fire."

"Thank you, Winna, I'll have to talk to Tip about maybe getting some." Pima nodded. "Now, how much for this visit?"

"Not a bit!" Winna shook her head firmly. "First visit is free!"

That wasn't true, Diana knew, but Winna had always hated charging for her services.

"Don't be ridiculous. Accept the money, Winna." Lear snorted.

"I insist." Pima pulled a coin purse from the pocket of her neat, teal blue pinafore. "We just have standard gold coinage, is that alright?"

Diana didn't understand the intricacies of money, indeed it was an altogether silly concept, really, but the pretty gold coins reflected the light that streamed in from the window, sending it dancing across the coffee table. She batted eagerly at the flickering lights for a few moments.

"Yep, they can swap it in the village." Lear nodded.

"Oh, fine." Winna sighed.

Pima pressed some coins into Winna's hand, and she slipped them into her pocket without counting. "Thank you so much, dear." the mother faun's voice was warm and earnest.

"You're very welcome! Would you two like to stay and have some tea? I just got some bread out of the oven, and it's really delightful when it's hot like this!"

"That would be lovely, thank you! Tip won't be back until after dinner, and we were a bit bored at the house, I think." Pima said, then frowned a little, "Not that Mira getting burned is my ideal way of getting out of the house."

"No, of course not!" Winna laughed. "But it can be a silver lining, right? Her hand is going to be fine, and now we get to have tea together!"

"You all sit and chat. I'll make tea and cut up the bread." Lear said, going to the kitchen.

Pleased that Lear liked to help Winna, Diana padded after him into the kitchen, brushing up against his legs.

"Oh, hello there, Queen Diana." He smiled, pausing to kneel and pet her gently.

She maowed quietly at him.

The tall, skinny fey man blinked, then smiled. "Well, you're welcome, but don't thank me. I help her because I love her. Just like you."

Diana blinked slowly at him, communicating her happiness that he'd stuck around.

He grinned, "I'm glad you're happy that I've stayed. I'm happy I stayed too, and I'll stay as long as I can. Then when I do have to leave, I promise I'll come back. Even if I have to quit my job to do it. But I don't expect I will. I'm sure I can work things out with the higher ups. Besides, the king is a reasonable person, and he's the one that will have the final say in things."

She maowed again.

"No, I don't think I'll take Winna back. I don't think she'd like the fey capital. It's...too busy for her. And we can be a little cutthroat, which would upset her, I think. Besides, she doesn't want to leave here, which I understand."

Diana bobbed her head approvingly, and then wandered away, letting him get to making the tea as promised.

She hopped up onto the table and surveyed her cozy domain, feeling very content.