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Merrin knew something was wrong. Cal and Cere were still somewhere below, and she and Greez had not heard from them since Cal’s yelp on the comm.
Then, a commotion in the water. “Greez, bring me closer to the surface!” Merrin yelled. Once they were a foot or two above the crashing waves, Merrin dove in and used her magick to propel her down to Cal and Cere. Cal swam but was slowly losing momentum and air, with Cere dragging behind him. Merrin tried to reach him as fast as she could, and once he and Cere were back on the Mantis she began compressing his chest until he coughed up whatever water he had inhaled. It wasn’t until he had stopped coughing that she noticed the large burn just below his ribs.
Cere coughed and sat up, holding the breather in her hand. “That stubborn fool, he could have used this,” she said, shaking her head. She helped Merrin move Cal to the bunk in the back.
Greez sped them away from that horrible planet. Once Cere retrieved the medkit for Merrin, she joined the latero in the cockpit to help navigate them to somewhere safe.
Cal’s skin was extremely pale, more than usual. Merrin carefully removed his gloves and the outer layers of his clothing until she could get to the lightsaber wound. She couldn’t tell how deep it went, but it looked pretty bad. The skin around the cauterized hole was an angry red and looked almost like bolts of lightning along Cal’s skin.
The nightsister gently applied a bacta-based cream to the wound, chanting as she went. She knew very little about healing incantation, but she had learned one spell from a sister before the massacre. As far as she knew, it would ease the pain.
“Hnggghh...” came a sound. Cal shifted, pain etched in his face.
“I’m sorry, I have to do this,” Merrin said quietly.
Cal reached up, his eyes half-open and glassy. He didn’t speak. His hand began searching around until Merrin reached out and grasped it. The Jedi relaxed. Then, with strength Merrin had no idea Cal had, he pulled her to him and held her close.
His breathing relaxed and his heart steadied as she lay next to him. Her own breathing seemed to relax. It felt like the most natural thing in the world to be right here in Cal’s arms. She remained with him as long as she could, hoping her magick mixed with the medkit would heal him enough.