"You thought that if you healed him, he would join with us more willingly," Nyrielle said with a heavy sigh as she listened to her lover's explanation. "My darling, you are already pushing your coven to its limits to care for Ritchel. You have healed young lord Hauke much sooner than anyone expected and Heila has done more for Ignatious in a few weeks than I was able to do for him in months. The healing ability of witches is far more powerful than I imagined, but even you have limits," she chastised.
"I know," Ashlynn said as she wrapped her arms around Nyrielle, resting her head above her lover's slowly beating heart. "I can't heal Aspakos," she said in a voice so quiet that only people like Nyrielle with extremely sensitive ears would be able to hear, even from inches away. "He, his wounds feel like a cloak laying over him, and when I look closely, I can almost see through them, like they're reflections of wounds instead of real ones. There's nothing there for me to heal."
