Healing touch (Lorica)

No fantasy world is complete without the ability to heal. Lorica is no exception. Little distinction is made between healing oneself and healing another, except that one can't heal oneself if one is incapacitated.

Healing takes two forms: that of the water element (whose practitioners call themselves healers) and that of high (true) magic.

In the former, healing is done through the use of charged-up gems, takes a considerable amount of time, and is highly limited in power.

Healing is so advanced in the latter than even a dead person can potentially be brought alive again if not too long deceased (called "warm"). It can also be used to undo miscarriages, heal grievous wounds, remove tattoos, and even to reattach cut-off hair or fingernails. The applications of healing through high magic are endless. Because healing is such a complicated art (as it must make physical sense on the microscopic level), all such magic are referred to as hexes (highly advanced, generally spells).

There is no such concept as too exhausting a healing hex, so a mage who is capable of healing can heal an entire army within moments. However, there is a powerful philosophical rationale for not healing everyone you come across. The royalty places a taboo on healing random strangers who have been injured due to combat or most natural reasons; it is only considered proper if someone has been the victim of magic, and even then use of healing magic is at the caster's discretion. Qura is quick to complain about this when she visits a hospital, but Altair refutes the validity of her reasoning. For example, if the royalty tended after everyone, fights would break out a lot more, people would be less careful, and healers would be out of work. Indeed, use of high magic on the general public for healing purposes is so rare that those affected often hail their recovery as a miracle, not as an act by any individual.

One of the first times healing is used in Chronicle is right after Qura accidentally shoots herself with creae darta. Altair heals her grave injury in seconds, and her wounded hand is restored to new.