There was a constant uneasiness sitting in the back of my mind. Ever since I watched the spy die by biting through his own tongue, the image would not leave. It had pulled me clean out of whatever comfortable routine I had been building here.
I managed to convince the princess and Kierra not to move against Maren. She could be more useful as a double agent than as a problem we had already solved. What I still could not figure out was why she slept with me. She could have slipped the bracelet onto my hand at any point during the night. She did not need to stay.
Before moving forward with any of that, I wanted to finish the princess's muscle treatment. If things turned physical, I needed her in proper condition. And if possible, I wanted to keep my inventory and weapons out of sight for as long as I could.
I had spent real effort building a small amount of trust with the princess and Kierra. With Rivena, I had been careful to avoid any situation where we were alone together ever since the slapping incident. She would find a way to make me pay for that the moment she got the opportunity.
During one of my discussions with the princess, I asked how she had managed to function normally with the damage in her body. She told me about Kierra's healing ability, which had been keeping her stable enough to fight and move. That gave me what I needed to work with, but to properly integrate it into the treatment I had to see it in practice rather than just understand it in theory.
–-_—
"Are you ready, Kierra? Apply the magic when I say."
"Yes," Kierra said, her expression tight with worry. "Do you really have to do this to yourself?"
I picked up the needle and drove it deep into the muscle of my forearm. Then I activated Anatomical Insight.
"Now."
She applied healing magic. The wound began closing. The effect was area-wide, healing everything at once without prioritizing any single point. Clean, efficient, exactly what it should be. So why had it not worked for the princess?
The damage in the princess's body was mostly mana-based. That had to be the variable. Maybe the nature of the mana itself was the problem. Maybe what was needed was someone with stronger mana to test against.
"Who has more mana between you and Rivena?"
"Rivena does," Kierra said.
"Can you bring her here for just a moment? I need to try something."
Kierra brought her in. Rivena's hand moved to her sword the instant her eyes landed on me, then shifted to Kierra.
After some persuasion from Kierra, she agreed.
Rivena's forearm showed no internal damage. Her mana flowed steadily through her body without any sign of leakage or blockage. I asked her to concentrate her mana into her right forearm, then pierced it the same way I had done with myself.
Kierra applied the healing magic again.
The process was noticeably slower. The mana was actively working against it. Even though Rivena understood on a conscious level that she was being healed, her mana was resisting it, moving to block the effect almost instinctively. It was as if the mana had a will of its own, separate from its user, rejecting anything that came from an outside source.
That was the piece I had been missing.
–-_—
After the incident, Rivena had tightened everything. Patrols across the mansion had increased and she was keeping a close watch on Maren at all times.
We began the treatment early that day. It was going to be the longest session of the entire process and the most physically draining for the princess.
Her muscles had cleared. No more dark spots when I looked through them. The mana that had been bleeding into the tissue had reduced to almost nothing, and because she had stopped forcing her mana to flow, the channels were stabilizing on their own. That decision alone had done a significant amount of the work.
I found myself wondering what she was actually capable of when fully healthy, given how much she had been operating on despite all of this damage inside her.
"How does your body feel compared to when we started?" I asked.
"Much lighter," she said. "I no longer have to force it just to move."
"After today's session you can return to physical training and sparring. Mana use is still off the table for now."
"Interesting that you say that," she said, "given that you asked me to use magic just yesterday."
"That was an emergency."
I applied the oil and began working from the feet upward.
"Does Kierra report every conversation she has with me back to you?"
"Why do you ask?"
"I have known you for sixteen days. The level of trust you have shown me does not match how cautious you are about everything else. The most logical explanation is Kierra. Something she did, maybe a form of magic, that shifted how you see me without either of us noticing."
"She does have some very particular abilities."
"Can she tell the difference between truth and a lie?"
The princess looked at me for a moment. "Ask her yourself and see if she is willing to tell you."
I moved from her feet to her calves and said nothing more.