Part 3

A fierce pounding at the back of his head greeted Teylin when woke up. He kept his eyes closed while he let his body relax, willing the pain in his body to subside with a lightly whispered word. Within seconds, the discomfort of his body’s small injuries faded to nothing.

“Oh, wow!”

Teylin’s eyes immediately shot open at the noise. He’d forgotten momentarily the situation he was in. Looking up, he met the wide eyes of a young woman Teylin vaguely remembered seeing on the ship to Illyn.

“You’re a priest, aren’t you?” The girl’s voice was full of awed reverence. Thankfully, it didn’t appear that she knew exactly who he was.

Teylin waited a moment before he answered, almost certain that someone was going to jump in and chastise the girl for daring to speak to him. When it was evident that no one was going to, Teylin spoke softly.

“Yes, I am a priest.”

“Really?” The girl’s eyes lit up. “Then, please, you must help us.” She rose to her knees, curly brown hair falling to frame her face as she shifted position. Apparently she could move no farther than that without effort. Just below the hem of the girl’s pale pink dress, Teylin saw ropes binding her ankles and he guessed her wrists were bound as well. Teylin flexed his wrists minutely and found his own bound as well.

“My husband was injured. Please, do something to help him.”

That brought Teylin’s attention sharply into focus. Through some difficulty he managed to push himself into a sitting position, though he was quite sure that if anyone from the Temple of the Golden Light had seen him do such they would have gone into fits. Taking in his surroundings, Teylin found himself in a wooden cabin with at least a dozen passengers from the passenger ship. Out of the lot of them, Teylin was by far the best dressed even in his simple white robes. A good number of the other passengers seemed to be injured in some way. Judging by the way the room moved, they’d been transferred to another ship.

Teylin sighed. He wasn’t fully certain what had happened but he certainly wasn’t going to let any more people die. The faces of his guards flashed in his head and he promised himself to send a prayer for their gentle passing to Raased. But before he worried about the past, there were matters in the present that needed taken care of. Like the ropes binding his wrists and preventing him healing the injured passengers.

Closing his eyes, Teylin concentrated. In his mind, he pictured the symbol of Raased. Whispering ancient words, he focused his will on the ropes binding him and felt them slip away. He gracefully slid to his feet, to the shock of the other passengers.

“What? How did you untie yourself?”

Turning again to the young woman, Teylin smiled. “It’s a trick I learned from my father.” Not an outright lie, as he had learned the spell from the only father-like figure he had known. He just neglected to mention that said man was the previous High Priest of Raased.

“I presume you will not be angered if I tend to the injured before untying everyone else?”

The men and women around him shook their heads silently while Teylin kneeled next to the closest injured person. Passing his hand over the man’s forehead, Teylin let his eyes slip shut while he called upon Raased to heal the man’s injuries. As with all magic, he felt the light of Raased glow inside of him, extending from his hand and into the injured man’s bodies. He felt the injuries knit and heal as if they were part of his own body. Teylin couldn’t recall how long it’d been since he’d last cast a healing spell upon another person, or since he’d last had physical contact with another person. They only called upon the High Priest of Raased when there was no other hope.

Teylin sternly reigned his mind back to the task at hand. A wandering mind would only lessen the effects of the spell he was casting. Once this man’s body had been returned to perfect health, Teylin moved to the next. He forced himself not to think of the impiety of his current actions or of his deception towards the other passengers.

"What do you think you’re doing?"

Teylin cried out as he was pulled away in mid-spell, part of his mind still focused on the injuries of the man he had been healing. His mind reeled at the separation, but he managed to complete the spell before turning his eyes upon the man behind him. A fierce glare met his own confused look. The man was dressed in plain clothes, a white shirt and brown breeches both of decent make.

"Come with me."

With a surprised yelp, Teylin was pulled to his feet by the strange man and hauled out the door.