Morning light still filters through the chapel windows, dust drifting over the altar. Father Hallowell keeps the brittle vellum spread open, and now the diagrams stop being merely old. They match the fever, the cough, the wasting swellings Bren has seen on road and in village alike.
Father Hallowell
These leaves are older than the seminary books. They were set aside because they work, and because some feared what would happen if every healer learned them.
Bren studies the inked lines of bone, herb, and bandage. The shapes are exact, practical, meant for hands that must act before prayer is finished.
Bren Riverglade
So this is what was hidden.
Father Hallowell
Your atonement was never only copying. You needed to remember that mercy is not always gentle, and that truth can be preserved in dangerous hands.
He taps one page, where a treatment for burned flesh sits beside a note in a harder hand. The seal of restraint is plain, but so is the promise, if Bren proves worthy to carry it.
Father Hallowell
Take this knowledge to your pilgrimage. When the time comes, you will need more than good intent. You will need skill, and the courage to use it.
✓ Quest Accepted
Learn the practical healing methods in the vellum
✓ Quest Accepted
Prove worthy to carry the forbidden healing knowledge