(Scars do not appear to be cause of death –shock ... - Bad Request

Marta... Ravel... nodded slowly. "As well he should, shouldn't he, Marta?
Yes... yes, he should, Marta. Powerful magic to be found the guts of an
immortal, yes... not like teethies... or eyes..."
I nodded, and her Ravel's face had become her own again, as if nothing had
happened. "You helped me thrice already. Would you help me again, then?
The legends claim you are a powerful mage, Ravel. Can you teach me some
of the Art?"
Ravel frowned disapprovingly, her bluish skin twisting like a rag. "Does Ravel
know the Art?! Is your mind gone a-way of the mortality, a thing all
up-and-lost?! I have forgotten more of the Art than you shall..." She jabbed
me with one of her talons. "Ever." She jabbed again. "Know."
"Can you teach me some of the Art, then?"
Ravel narrowed her black-veined eyes, studying me. "Mayhap I could be
persuaded by one such as you... though any other would NOT have such a
chance, nor the boon I offer. Are you a rudimentary student in the arts or
am I facing a tried-true-and-tired... attired? A-tired master?"
I shifted, "Somewhere in between, beautiful Ravel. I still have much to
learn."
"Flatterer... and yet your words warm me." Ravel's voice changed,
alternating in pitch, like someone plucking a stringed instrument. "Much
have I learned tending this garden. Charms and incantations, distilled from
the barbs..." She began to hum slightly to herself. "...rhyming, swaying ways
of the consonants constants and motions that bring the briars to your aid...
listen, the branches will speak of it."
I closed my eyes and listened.
A great trembling passed through me then, as if dozens of barbed snakes
were burrowing beneath my flesh. My veins writhed, sinew twisted and
stretched from muscle and bone. Just when I thought the pain was more
than I could bear, I suddenly, instinctively, began humming, the same tune
that Ravel did... and the pain ebbed. In the distance of the maze I could hear
the clicking of the tree creatures, as if responding to my call.
I continued to hum.
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