Having access to Invigoration, most Awakened had no need to study healing magic. Being a Light Master, Xedros had mastered healing magic up to tier four before discovering how to create hard-light constructs.
To him tier five light magic was all about combat, he had never bothered with Body Sculpting. Nor could he just call a Healer to his home. It would mean to reveal his weakened state and risk to be killed, leaving his treasures ready to be plundered.
He didn't receive Lith in his throne room because Xedros didn't feel confident about being able to protect his treasures in the case that Lith took too much a fancy to them and decided to risk his mentor's rage for them.
In the Wyvern's mind, no Dragon would pass on such an opportunity, no matter the consequences, especially a half breed.
"Maybe." Lith shrugged. "I don't do freebies, though, and I demand my payment regardless of the outcome."
The smile disappeared from Xedros's snout, replaced by an annoyed look.
"You fail at manipulating Origin Flames because you handle them like you do with magic. Yet they're not alike. Magic is made of mana, whereas our Flames are made of life force.
The difference is the same between moving a chair and moving your arm.
"The former needs you to apply your strength on a foreign object, whereas the latter just requires awareness of your own limb. Elemental magic is the ripple effect you produce by emitting your mana, it has no will of its own unless you bestow it upon it.
"Origin Flames are just another part of your body, like an atrophied limb you've forgotten how to use. You can't inject willpower inside of them because they already have one, yours. By attempting to do so, you give the Flames conflicting orders that make them unresponsive."
"It makes sense. How do I fix that?" Lith asked.
"That was your down payment. For a Forgemaster, Origin Flames are an invaluable tool. I'm not going to take you by the hand and bring you to my level. I might offer you some more insight if you heal me." Xedros's grin returned, but Lith was too focused on his teachings to care about it.
Just the implications of those few sentences were enough to make his head spin and him glad to not have brought Solus with him. Body sculpting required physical contact and she would have had no way to hide her presence once the treatment began.
"Fine, let me uphold my part of our bargain." Lith stepped forward and placed his hands on the Wyvern's back. Invigoration confirmed his assessment about the Emperor Beast's skills while his tier five spell, Scanner, examined Xedros's life force.
Much to his surprise, there were actually two energy signatures residing inside Xedros's body and what was even more amazing was the fact that the stronger life force wasn't the dominant one.
The life force belonging to the Wyvern looked like a red sun, the mass of which was slowly getting drained by a nearby white dwarf. The red sun's surface was distorted and there were small threads connecting the two energy cores that made Xedros's life force look like a bridled beast.
Lith could hear the melody coming from the red star was overwhelmed by that emitted by the white dwarf to the point of being almost rewritten.
'Fuck me sideways. I guess Tyris could have even turned him into a lizard for good if she felt like it. Let's hope I don't get her angry by treating this jackass.' The moment Lith's Scalpel spell touched the white dwarf, the small star shapeshifted into a human form.
'Greetings, Healer. Xedros the Wyvern has violated the laws of the Council and has been punished accordingly. I wished for him to remain bedridden long enough to reflect on his own actions, but I would've never expected that he would wait this long to call for help.
'Such hubris cannot be condoned, so even though I allow you to treat him if you're capable of such a feat, be ready to stop when I say so, or you will join Xedros in his sufferings.' Tyris's voice and appearance were exactly as Lith remembered, confirming his deduction about the Constable's real identity.
Lith had never seen such use of healing magic before, so he took his time to understand what Tyris had done and how to replicate it if he ever needed to.
She had left behind a spark of her own life force, about as much as he used to produce a single breath of Origin Flames. Yet it was strong enough to cripple the Wyvern's recovering abilities for over a year, making Lith wonder how long would it last if left untreated.
Unlike what Lith would have done in her shoes, Tyris had inflicted no damage to Xedros's life force, neither temporary nor permanent. Her technique was of such finesse that it left him in awe, wishing he had at his disposal a recording device to study and discuss the phenomenon with Faluel, Solus, and maybe even Quylla.
The Guardian had employed light magic so that Xedros's body still knew what was its proper form, yet it had no idea how to achieve it, turning the healing process into a trial and error that made any attempt to speed it up a torture.
Lith attempted to restore the red sun's shape, but to no avail. The presence of Tyris's white dwarf was its cause, and removing it was beyond the scope of the bargain.
Then, Lith tried to compensate for the effects produced by the foreign life force and allow the Wyvern to mend at least most of his wounds. First, he split Scalpel into several tendrils that scanned the white dwarf trying to find some weak point.
The mere contact was enough to burn Lith's mana, sending painful spasms through his nervous system as if he had touched a high voltage wire. Then, he used light magic to attack Tyris's life force, hoping to weaken it enough to lessen its effects.
Avoiding direct contact prevented him from incurring more pain, but it didn't change the situation one bit.
'Brute force is pointless. If I employ enough strength to affect the Guardian's spell, I'll kill Xedros and get in trouble with Faluel. Tyris said that it's possible to heal this Lizzie, so I just need to change approach.'
Lith focused his attention on Xedros's life force, studying its shape, color, and the melody it emitted. Unlike humans, Emperor Beasts' life forces were raging streams of pure power. It allowed Emperor Beasts to shapeshift more easily but it also made it much harder to apply tier five healing magic to them.
The static nature of humans' life force allowed a Healer to locate the problem and focus on a single spot, whereas in a beast's case it was impossible to alter a single stream of life force without affecting their being as a whole.
Lith's task was further complicated by Tyris's spell, which distorted Xedros's life force and in turn the melody it produced. Usually, Lith would use the latter to better understand his patient's lifestream and find the best way to fix it
Unfortunately, not only was the melody off-key, but also the white star left by Tyris's spell emitted its own tune.
It distracted Lith and made it difficult for him to notice if his attempts were making Xedros's situation better or worse.
