JP - The Keep - Healing Room - A Symbol in scars

“I will,” Miyuki answered as she let Difyr proceed with the examination. She would see all the scars that looked far too much like that of claws and knife cuts, some even similar to stab wounds. There were a few thin lines where her fur refused to grow back, indicating possible burns that destroyed the roots and possible nerves. Other than that, she was merely pregnant.

Difyr did not know whether or not to not find a certain pattern in Miyuki’s scars, she knew it could be there but hidden by Miyuki’s fur. “Do any of the scars still hurt?” Difyr asked, pouring Miyuki another cup of tea.

“No, not most…the only ones that have ever gotten some pain even today are these.” Miyuki explained, gesturing to the ones along her back. They were large and deep, a sign flesh had been torn away when she’d been injured. “It took my father a long time to get me to heal from them…”

“I have some salve that might help.” Difyr went to the cupboard and took out a jar of salve. She hesitated a moment then took out a book, it was one of the journals kept by her mentor, the healer Ertzel, saved from the fire that consumed the healer’s cottage and still smelled of smoke. Difyr set the jar on the bed closest to Miyuki and flipped through the old pages carefully before stopping on one with a symbol the old healer had sketched, something she had observed carved in the flesh of the victim’s of Galina’s men. A circle with three horizontal lines and two vertical lines running through it. Difyr showed it to Miyuki. “Have you seen this anywhere?”

Miyuki looked at it and her eyes went wide before she moved aside some of the fur on her left inner thigh. She had been letting the fur there grow extra long to hide the symbol, but if it was important, she’d let Difyr see. All she really recalled at the time of her assault was the pain. “This…” She whispered as worry formed on her face.

The symbol confirmed what Difyr had already suspected. She set down the book. “You can get dressed.”

Miyuki, confused, pulled her clothes back on. “What…what does it mean?” She asked.

Difyr sighed. “There was this woman named Galina, she’s more of a demon these days. She gets these men to follow her and she has them attack women, she seems to get some sort of power from it. There are others who have and have had this mark left on them, it’s like her signature.”

Miyuki touched her thigh where the mark was. “I…I see…” She whispered. “I don’t…I just don’t understand why they would go after me…”

“Their first victim I know of was the best friend of Aislyn Gerthrim, about 20 years ago. Aislyn fired her from her father’s inn- now a pile of rubble owned by her brother and his wife but that's another story… They have attacked complete strangers too.” Difyr said. “I’m sorry it happened to you too.”

"Does it mean something else is going to happen?" Miyuki asked, her hand moving to her stomach where her unborn child waited to meet the world one day.

Difyr picked up the jar of salve. “Supposedly it would mean your child will be a so-called child of Molech- but Bai said that’s the case for Pinja’s twins and probably all the babies due to be born soon conceived during the raid. As far as I can tell the twins are normal, and I know two other supposed children of Molech who are adults now. They seem… mostly normal.”

"We're they all born from human mothers, though?" Miyuki asked.

“As far as I know, but the population around here is predominantly human.” Difyr said. “When Galina isn’t targeting Aislyn or the people she cares about I think they randomly attack whoever is around.”

Miyuki just hugged her stomach, laying down on the bed. "I see," she replied. "I think I'll try to rest. I should rest if I plan to help out later."

“You’re in the right place here. You aren’t alone.” Difyr said. “I can see if I can get some of the others to talk to you tomorrow… they might be able to help.”

"Okay, thank you." Miyuki pulled the blanket over herself. As she slowly fell asleep, her thoughts drifted to Lek and their visit to the flowers earlier.

After Miyuki fell asleep, someone came to the room to get Difyr to do something about a crazy, wounded, nearly naked woman in the Main Hall.