She woke in water, limbs spread to float like one of the lily pads surrounding the pool. She kept her eyes closed for a few moments, luxuriating in the way the cool water lapped against her skin, but wrinkling her nose at the acrid smell of too many sticks of incense burning. She soon registered the sounds of footsteps approaching. A soft gasp, and pottery shattering across the floor.
Opening her eyes, she saw a white linen-clad woman, a priestess of some sort, raising her hands to her lips in shock. As the woman in the pool stood up to help with the pottery, the priestess, blushing at the woman’s nudity, skittered back a few steps.
“Who are you and how did you get into the inner sanctum of Lyr’s Temple?” the priestess asked.
The woman smiled, opening her mouth to explain everything, before she realized that she couldn’t recall…anything. Her smile turned to a frown as she realized that no memories, no name even, came to her.
“I . . . don’t know,” the woman finally replied.
—-
A bullet ricocheted off the wall next to Lyra’s head, causing her no harm but leaving a scratch on Byron’s cheek. Lyra shook her head to dispel the flashbacks that always occurred when she healed someone. Rather inconvenient in the midst of a battle.
Byron coughed up a bit of blood, clutching his chest where the bullet had passed through. His lungs cleared, he felt at the former wound. He flashed Lyra one of his now-rare smiles. “Thanks, Lyra.”
“Of course,” Lyra replied as Byron grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her down so he could shoot the mercenary sneaking up on them.
Byron then ran off – Joshua had been without backup too long, and they still had three opponents to kill.
Lyra snuck through a side tunnel, trying to get to the makeshift altar the dark priest had built. She peeked around the corner – looked like Guildmaster Lucas hadn’t lied to her this time. The priest was trying to raise new lava beasts. Lyra worked efficiently, destroying the delicate spell work required to raise such brutish creatures. She ducked behind the altar itself to retrieve the still-beating heart fueling the spell. A few quick jabs with her belt knife finished the poor organ – whose work should have finished with the body that once encased it. Lyra heard a roar of fury as the priest discovered his half-formed creatures now quivering into foul, gelatinous goo on the ground. He raced around the altar to retrieve the heart and by instinct Lyra slammed her little knife into his chest. She knew the human body well, unfortunately for the priest, and while small and lacking strength, her aim was always true.
Lyra sighed. She hated harming instead of healing, but the case was clear – this man was attempting to wreak havoc with monsters and needed to be stopped.
Joshua and Byron ran in just as the priest collapsed to the ground.
“You got one this time, Lyra?” said Joshua, grinning. “Good for you! We’ll make a warrior of you yet!”
Lyra shared a look with Byron. He knew how she felt about all the death in their line of work. “Let’s get out of here,” Byron said. “Lucas can send others for the clean-up.”
The trio sped through the tunnels, but Byron forced them to stay in the claustrophobic underground far longer than Lyra thought necessary. She was grateful to get back into the open air.
“You’ll report back, yeah, Byron?” asked Joshua, already peeling off into a side alley.
“Always,” replied Byron. He gave a slight bow to Lyra. “It was a pleasure to work with you, Lyra, as usual.”
Lyra smiled. “Because it means that you don’t go home dead or with a bunch of wounds for your wife to fret over?”
“Of course, “Byron replied, granting her another too-rare smile. “Say hello to your kids for me.”
“You as well,” Lyra replied before turning toward home. She always liked when she got to work with Byron. He was one of the few truly good men she’d met in Gearhaven.
One light still flickered in the window when Lyra returned home – Rebecca. Sure enough, the somber girl opened the door for Lyra.
“You’re covered in blood again, Ama.”
“Yes, some people needed my help tonight. I can change myself – you should be in bed with the others.”
“I can never sleep when Master Lucas comes. You always leave after his visits and come back looking sad.”
Lyra paused in the middle of removing her cloak. The girl perceived far too much for her own good. Lyra gave her a big hug and walked with her to her dormitory. Rebecca may understand too much, but Lyra still needed to protect these children any way she could – they were after all, the only thing Guildmaster Lucas had been honest about. Lyra leaned against the doorway as she watched Rebecca slip into her bed, thinking about the first time she’d met Lucas. Stuck in an Imperial hospital, unnerved by the way the medical researchers had looked at her like a piece of juicy meat, trying to dissect why she could heal people by her mere presence – Lucas had promised her a way out, a way to live free while still helping people. He gave her two weeks of peace in taking charge of the orphanage – just enough time for her to fall in love with these kids with no one else in the world – before he started demanding she start healing his agents as they went about his dirty work. Lucas always made clear Lyra was free to go whenever she chose, but also made clear the dozens of orphans he sponsored would immediately be dumped on the street if she did.
Lyra hated her invisible chains, but one day she would find a way to get both herself and her children free. Some way. Somehow.
