Known Afterlife (The Provider Trilogy, Volume One) by Trey Copeland Page B

learned of it by accident.
    Three months into her long awaited training, Higfreid was playing the role of patient, lying prone on a Healer's table, while teaching his students how to use the table as a conduit to both amplify the healing properties of the Source and the patient's ability to consume it. It was then, as Calivera shifted the Source from the Provider's spirit into the table and began to transfer it into Higfreid's body, that she temporarily lost her grip on the strange power she had kept at bay for so long. Before she knew it, Calivera was probing his soul, revealing to both of them his deepest, darkest wounds dating from his current life all the way to his first incarnation, to the dawn of time itself.
    It was over as soon as it started: Higfreid shot up from the table to break their connection, turning to her for but a brief second, his face a mix of terror and awe, before moving onto the next student as if nothing had happened. From that incident alone, she learned how to keep the eerie talent hidden from her patients, but never from herself. Whenever she treated someone for an injury or illness, a person's deeper wounds were revealed for her to see; spiritual maladies compiled over hundreds or thousands of past lives, unconsciously influencing the wellbeing of the present. She resisted the temptation to dive into the soul of each, confident she could heal those invisible wounds. In the end, she feared how people would react but more importantly, she feared what she might find.
    Over and over, she told herself, the Provider will reveal the purpose of his gift in due time . She would extenuate her decision to keep the power hidden from the whole by reciting to herself the popular verse from the Deeds: The Provider reveals that which we are prepared to see. If the Provider intended for us to know the details of our past lives, then he would reveal them accordingly. Who am I to prevent another from learning of past mistakes, the opportunity to make the hard decisions they failed to make in the past. Healing the spiritual wounds from past lives of those patients who randomly came to her shell, she concluded, was not her purpose. She would be patient.
    Despite what she assumed was a harrowing experience for the other, Higfreid became her most influential instructor and over the years of training that followed the incident, he remained a close mentor and confidant. Up to the day of Steffor's accident, Higfreid never confronted her directly about the unique ability. When he finally did, while discrete, his intent was clear.
    The moment Steffor arrived in the ancient Healer's shell shifted deep into the Trunk's sapwood coursing with the Source, they placed him on the hallowed table before an assembly of the Provider's most e xperienced Healers. They immediately began to apply all their knowledge in attempt to revive him. Calivera and dozens of others watched as they submerged the lifeless body into the Source infused table, the curved walls pulsating so bright with the Source one had to squint. But it was all for naught, the damage was too extreme, too much time had passed. After an hour with no pulse, they proclaimed him dead.
    Calivera tossed fitfully in her bed at the memory, remembering the look of frustration across Higfrei d's face as he turned from the table to catch her concerned stare. Without hesitation, as if on impulse, he requested everyone to leave the shell with the exception of Calivera. Once the room had cleared, he walked over to her and said, "If he is to be saved, it will be by your relationship with the Provider." With that, he left Calivera and Steffor to be alone.
    She had stood next to the table for several minutes, fixed on the soft contours of Steffor's pale face protruding the surface, unsure of what Higfr eid expected her to do.
    My gift, whatever it may be, does not enable me to raise the dead!
    Finally, not sure what would come of it, she lay onto the table and gently placed her forehead