The Healer by Michael Blumlein

rest.”
    â€œI'm glad,” he said.
    â€œAnd it kept the wolves away.”
    â€œYou saw a wolf?”
    â€œEvery day,” she said. “Lots of them.”
    He narrowed his eyes. “What wolves?”
    â€œYou know. The two-legged ones.”
    She took a chair but had trouble getting comfortable. She drew her blanket tighter across her chest.
    â€œSo, what brings you?”
    â€œI came to apologize.”
    â€œFor what?” she asked.
    He explained as best he could. She listened to him patiently, although he got the sense she didn't know exactly what he was talking about. As if she hadn't thought about it near as much as he had. Maybe not at all. Still, when he was done, she thanked him. She seemed touched by his words.
    â€œYou're a good man,” she told him, then got a little teary-eyed. Embarrassed, she looked away.
    â€œI haven't been myself lately. As you can see.” She wiped her eyes. “It's been rough.”
    â€œI'd like to help you.”
    â€œI think you just did.”
    â€œMore,” he said.
    â€œThat's sweet. Unfortunately, I don't believe it's possible.”
    â€œIt is,” he said. “I can. I know I can. I want to.”
    He was so earnest and well-meaning, and she, so not herself, that it took a moment for her to grasp what he was saying. And then her hands flew up to ward him off.
    â€œOh no. No no no. Not that again.”
    â€œI don't mean that,” he said, although, in fact, he had been thinking of the very thing. Healing the miners was so easy for him. He was ready for something harder and more challenging, something new.
    But he had to be more clever if he was going to persuade her. Or maybe just more patient, let her come to it on her own.
    â€œWhat I mean is, I could help you with your own healing. Help you make it easier.”
    She doubted this. Moreover, he was annoying her. “Do you know what's going on with me? Do you understand what's happening? I'm being drained, Payne.”
    As soon as she said it, he knew that she was right. She had the symptoms: the lassitude, the fatigue, the weight loss, the malaise. Butthis didn't stop him from denying it. Nor from trying to talk her out of it.
    â€œWork is an enormous burden. Some of these illnesses are close to Level Three. It's natural to be tired. I'm tired, too.”
    â€œNo you're not.”
    â€œSure I am. And another thing. You said that it was happening before, and it wasn't. What makes you think that this is any different? It could be another false alarm.”
    â€œIt's not.”
    â€œHow do you know?”
    She glared at him. “Look. I'm sorry, but it's happening. Please don't argue with me.”
    Despite everything he knew of the Drain, everything he'd heard and now, through Vecque, was witnessing, Payne believed it could be stopped, or at least slowed down. He was like a man who, never having been sick, does not believe in illness. Instead, he believed in the power of the will, most notably, his own.
    â€œI can still help you.”
    â€œYou can't.”
    â€œI can. But you have to trust me.”
    â€œBut I don't.”
    She might as well have slapped him.
    â€œI'm sorry, but you don't understand me, Payne. You don't know what I'm going through. You're different.”
    â€œI'm not.”
    â€œNo? You know what it's like, the way it drags you down and saps your strength? The way that everything's an effort. The way you lose your will? All you want to do is rest, but rest doesn't make you feel any better. Familiar, Payne? Tell me you know how it feels.”
    â€œYou have to stand up to it,” he said. “You have to fight. You can. You have the power to resist.”
    â€œDo you?”
    â€œDo I what? Have the power?”
    â€œDo you fight? Do you even know what it means?”
    â€œSure I do. Sure I fight.”
    She would have liked this to be true, even if it meant that he, too, was under siege. Just to feel, if