38 Healing by Fire?

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- Lungs are filled with air, thanks to it we live, thanks to it our fire breathes, thanks to it Qi inside us is constantly in motion. With proper breathing, the sea of Qi or the stomach becomes active, the slightest effort and the Qi leaves our body, forming fire," Shu took a deep breath, raising her hand higher. Instantly, a golden flame lit up in her hand.

- Different attack techniques allow you to create a sharper and stronger flame in the right place with the right vector of movement. Most fire magic techniques were created for combat..." the temple abbess continued to speak until she was interrupted by the princess.

- Everyone who has studied in the school knows that. That's not why I came here. My patience is running out," Azula finished in a commanding tone, reminding her of her status and the immense power attached to it.

- All in good time, Mistress," Shu remained unwaveringly calm. - Our magic is by far the most dangerous and deadly. Fire is always with us, so we are not isolated from magic like other peoples. The magic of our people is completely different, fire... it is alive and it will live on as long as the fire mage himself remains alive. It is very difficult to heal with our gift. Few have a predisposition for it.

- You think I'm not talented enough for your fire techniques? - Something in the princess' words made the Mother Superior flinch. Azula had no intention of tolerating doubts about her genius.

- Absolutely not," Shu replied. - The technique you are interested in is contrary to all known fire magic. We call it the Qi Healing technique. With your permission, I will demonstrate how this technique works.....

Shu extinguished the flame in her hand. The room became a little darker, but after a second her hands began to emit a bright golden light and a circle of golden flame appeared above them. Looking at the girls' reactions, I saw exactly what I expected to see. Mei remained outwardly calm, she's not a fire mage, she's not that interested in all this. But Azula was watching with undisguised interest, carefully watching every movement of the old fire healer. Like me, but if the princess understood little, looking at the world with the limited view of human eyes, I saw much more than ordinary people or even mages.

- Thanks to this technique, you can learn about other people's injuries, even those that they themselves have no idea about. Even if the wound is not on the body, but on the soul. This technique helps with any ailments," Shu took the hand of one of her assistants, beginning to run her hands over it.

And while everyone was focused on the magic being presented, Shu continued to talk about the technique.

- This is the first stage of the technique, in the second stage the magician learns not only to identify an injury or a disease, but also to treat it with his Qi, which penetrates into the body of the patient and helps to fight diseases and regenerate wounds....

For more than an hour the old woman told literally everything about this technique. The history of its appearance, its application, the reasons for its low spread among the people: the difficulty of mastering it and the need to know a lot of things for the best use of the technique. In general, there were more than enough reasons why no one knows about fire treatment, or even guesses.

Her lecture was very informative. A long time ago this technique was invented by one of the Avatars, whose statues can be found in this temple. Her name is now forgotten, but her contribution to the history of the Fire Nation was significant, especially for women with a gift for magic. This fire technique was completely non-combative, which affected its popularity among the people. Since people no longer remembered that there was once another way to conquer fire. The cult of power, the military system of the country, to all this was added a very large difficulty in accessing the technique, as well as the small popularity of the Temple and its location on the border of the country. Such a technique was of no interest to those who knew of its existence.

And, as the woman admitted, there were very few real masters of this technique in the Temple, namely seven elderly women, including herself. In addition, conventional medicine did not stand still. It was much easier and more profitable for people to go to a doctor than to the temple. This even applied to the highest members of society. As Shu herself had said, using this technique required a monstrously extreme amount of control that a fire mage would never need. Which only added to the difficulty of mastering the technique. And on top of that, there was the need to know about diseases and how the human body worked in order to better apply fire healing techniques. As a result, it turned out to be a kind of useful technique, but medicine can easily cope without it, and at times cheaper and more accessible to ordinary people.

With the current level of education, people in power simply did not see any great benefit from such magic. Healing is like healing, most of the world can manage without doctors, but I saw the huge potential of the magic I saw. I even understood the principles of the technique much better than the locals, who simply lacked the education to appreciate the power and usefulness of such a treasure.

In the meantime, talk had turned to practice. Shu cut the young assistant's hand, gave a deep, but still a scratch to the girls. Then, right in front of their eyes, she began to deftly run her hand over the wound. The woman's hand went over the scratch the first time and the bleeding stopped. Another movement and the blood began to be drawn back in. On the third time, the scratch began to fade, the skin began to heal, and on the fifth time, not even a scar was left of the scratch.

After the peculiar lecture and demonstration was over, the princess was provided with all the necessary books and scrolls on fire healing. The residents of the temple were well prepared for her arrival and fulfilled the girl's instructions perfectly. Having received everything she needed, Azula decided not to waste any time and started practising....

Towards the end of Azula's practical training, I began to feel tired. After all, I hadn't been recharged by the girl since the morning. For the last half hour I had already been at it. Abbess Shu had almost noticed my presence in the princess, but Azula had lied to her about the effects of a secret ritual that no unnecessary ears should know about. The princess and I have identical energies. So I was not perceived as an evil spirit, but rather as an anomaly or a consequence of the ritual. A small peculiarity in the body of an already special princess.

I also remembered to tell Zula about the pool I had found. The princess instantly thought of a plan and pretended to be tired after several hours of study and practice, and succeeded in getting the girls invited to relax in a special place. No one refused. On the way they were told about this very special place, which was a healing pool in the bowels of the Temple. Its waters were special, they contained a lot of spiritual energy and had amazing healing properties.

"What a magical place... can you feel it? This water, this pool, this whole place... it's full of energy! I advise you to do the breathing technique I invented, it won't be unnecessary. I'll help you do it as correctly as possible," I suggested to Zula, as soon as she was in the room with the magic pool, Mei came in after her.

The girls did not hesitate to undress each other and headed towards the pool of healing water. Their naked bodies didn't escape my gaze. It wasn't that I was trying to peek at them, it was just the way things were. I had seen enough naked women in my spirit, but it was still aesthetically pleasing, and no matter how hard Azula tried not to look at her friend, I could still see the beauty of her body... it was beautiful!

Numerous workouts hadn't diminished a single gram of her beauty, her taut, slender body radiated a certain femininity. Flat tummy, firm butt, small breasts, skin that even in appearance was soft and pleasant. Of course, individually, May was inferior to Azula in almost every way: Smaller breasts, narrower hips, lips not so plump, ass not so voluminous... but in general for me she was much more feminine and pretty than the princess. Despite all her strength, Mei seemed somewhat fragile, while Zula... most of the time she was too masculine. Not a trait I want to see in a girl. But what May did have was a manageable raven-wing coloured hair and a terribly cynical nature that I liked. I especially liked her perpetually stern gaze.....

And while I was appreciating the beauty of Azula's girlfriend for the umpteenth time, they managed to undress and reach the water.

- What an unusual hot spring," May remarks, entering the water with a folded towel on her head.

- Do you think so? I don't see anything unusual about it," Azula joins her, deciding to leave her towel on the floor. She tried not to look at her friend with her eyes, as we now shared the same vision.

- It's hard to find the right words. He's just different, different from all the ones I've seen before," came the calm reply from May, who was relaxing in the hot water with the same calm face. Her face was gradually reddening from the heat, but she was still as unruffled and calm as ever.

- How many hot springs have you seen?

- Enough... - after these words the conversation ended by itself, and the girls began to relax in the hot water.

It wasn't strange, I'd come to know both of them well enough to know that it was normal for them to spend time in silence, even when they had something to discuss. However, I was enjoying the emotions Azula was feeling. It felt good...

"And your friend has a lot of old scars on her arms. So many stripes... they must be from frequent training with throwing knives," I let out a comment, only for Zula to pass an interested look at the girl. Mei had stopped lounging in the water in the meantime and was examining her own hands.

- Her hands itch..." she scratches her hands and then starts to look at them, finding something interesting, her pupils dilating in surprise. - The scars, are they... disappearing?

- What? No way.

- See for yourself.

Azula moves as close to her as possible, starting to watch the thin strips of scars disappear on Mei's outstretched arms. Not even a metre separated the girls.

- How interesting... - only the princess, who was mesmerised by such a magical sight, managed to utter. After coming to her senses, Zula also began to examine her body, noticing how the small scars from her childhood began to disappear from her body.

"Interesting effect of bathing in water that is overflowing with a kind of energy similar to both life energy and spiritual energy. How long has it been? Five to ten minutes? It's a really magical place. You should definitely do a breathing technique. And thanks for helping me get a closer look at your girlfriend's private parts. It's all so pretty, but of course it doesn't compare to your beauty," I add a few words of my own, reminding myself of our shared vision.

Azula abruptly looks away and takes a couple of steps away from her friend. Causing a look of incomprehension on May's part.

- Nothing... - replies the princess, at her friend's look, deciding to immediately change the subject. - What do you think is the reason for this effect?

- It's hard to say. The locals said it was a healing spring. And they were talking mostly to you, I didn't really listen to them," the girl looked at Azula, beginning to suspect something.

- I'll have to find out more about this place," the princess replies, pulling away from her friend a little more and trying not to look in her direction.

- I don't think that such a thing can be repeated by human hands," May anticipated her friend's thoughts.

Yes, building dozens or even hundreds of such sources would be a great idea. I think Azula also thought about something like that in the second place. She'd want something like that in her palace first. Except we're not the only ones who are so clever, and it's probably not possible with the current level of technology. That doesn't mean it won't always be possible, but I've been thinking about it a bit too much.

- Yeah... I guess you're right....

At that the conversation somehow ended by itself, and the girls began to rest in silence again. They were both not the most sociable of people. That was their nature, but my goal was to change Azula for the better. Therefore, I continued to take action.

"While you're relaxing, ask her how she's doing: the journey, the recent events," alas, Azula didn't rush to fulfil my words, or listen to them in any way, she continued to lounge silently in the water.

"What is it? Are you angry that I saw your friend naked and she doesn't realise? Come on, you're above that. It's no big deal, I've seen you naked many times too. Don't you want to talk to her about the latest news? To rub it in? Go ahead. I know you want to," I keep nudging my princess in the right direction, being the simple voice in her head.

Not immediately, but she did speak to Mei about the topics I suggested.

- May...

- Yes?

- How are you?

- I'm fine. Why? Is my face too red from the heat?

- There's nothing wrong with it... - awkward silence. - Actually, I wanted to ask you if you like travelling. - Mei was even a little surprised at her friend's sincere words. It was unusual, but even more unusual was the smile that followed the surprise, not at all in the character of such an unemotional girl.

- I liked the last island, and I hope I don't get bored waiting for the next stop," she said with her usual ironic smile with a hint of joy. - I haven't felt this kind of emotion in a long time. It's amazing that our boring country hides such secrets.....

The girls continued to talk about all sorts of small things, but I didn't take part in it, busy studying the processes that began to happen to Azula when she found herself in this spring. The place was indeed unusual and surprising. And while the girls were talking, I watched with interest everything that was happening to the princess's body. And there was a lot of interesting things happening there. Energy poured into the bodies of the ladies, and not only healed, but also improved, as it could, almost the entire structure of the organism. True, not as during the ritual of the fire lotus, less, much less. I think that after such ablutions the girls would feel just fine for a few weeks, and minor sores, like the same scratches, disappeared.

After a while Mei left the water, she was too hot, and Zula and I were left alone.

- Yoaru.

"Yes?"

- Can you repeat the fire healing technique? - Azula started a necessary topic.

"I won't try it, I won't know. I can even try now, I just need your body," I answer the girl easily. I myself, although a little doubtful, but in general I was confident in my abilities. Unlike the princess, who had no luck with this fire technique.

- Okay, we have a little more time....

We switched roles, she became the voice inside, I began to control the body. From the third or fifth time I started to get something and my hands glowed with a bluish light, a circle of fire of our standard flame was also formed. This raised a lot of questions from the girl and I had to answer them.

Fire healing, wasn't really fire healing, but rather a technique for manipulating Qi - life energy. It was much easier for me than Azula. After all, my entire body is energy. Normally, a fire mage would release Qi from his body and create fire, which is normal and natural. Here, however, it required inhuman control to pour my Qi into the patient instead of fire, without harming him. Control was never required for a fire mage, so it was no surprise that Zula had trouble with such a simple yet complex technique. For a fire mage, such a technique is extremely difficult, but here the problems lie in upbringing and already gained experience in conquering magic. Of course, it is an extremely twisted technique, but no other healing options for fire mages have been invented yet. Fire magic itself is not much suited for healing, but someone apparently really wanted to heal. It takes a lot of practice to make this technique useful, but I got the gist of it. And the point was simple.

- Wait, you're telling me this isn't fire magic? - says the young lady, slightly shocked, when I had just finished my lecture and switched places with her.

"It's like with lightning. It is also considered fire magic, but lightning is not fire, there are slightly different principles of work, but the essence is the same: Qi leaves the body of the magician, becoming magic. It's exactly the same here. I would call it not fire magic, but energy magic. You spend your energy, let's say stamina, and create fire, lightning, explosions and who knows what else," I explain my position to the girl.

- Pfft, there is no such magic! - The princess confidently states to me.

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," I reply to her with the same confidence.

This incident made me remember a moment, namely the ending of the TV series. The monk stripped the Fire Master of his magic using super old energy magic. How he did it I have no idea, but the very fact proves the presence of such magic in the world. Energy magic was interesting to me, except that the world didn't know anything about it or even realise it. It's not going to be easy to acquire knowledge of this magic.

- You're not telling me the truth again? - The girl says disappointedly to her reflection in the pool.

"No. I don't know much about it myself. But we can take today's case as an example. Just because you haven't seen or heard it doesn't mean it doesn't exist at all. Now, let's close the subject. I think we can learn this technique. We don't have to stay in the temple for a long time, just attend a couple more lectures, ask some questions and don't forget the literature prepared by the wisest ones. And on the road, we can hone that skill.

- Alright, I heard you, Yoaru.

"While we're on the subject, start practising breathing properly already, it won't take long," I remind her of a not so important task.

Taking a breath in and exhaling, Azula begins to breathe....

A few days later, finished with her training and inspection, the princess left the island. The next stop was the capital of the long established colony, Yu Dao City.