512 DXII. The Surgery

"Stop talking nonsense, Freydis! You will make it, you have very precise and accurate hands! If I tried, I'd be wrong for sure! Come on, my love... I'm with you!" Dag replied, looking her in the face and noting that her gaze did not divert from Claire's eye.

After those sweet words, Freydis sighed and then held her breath in her lungs, knowing that freediving would increase the accuracy of his movements, which had to be particularly cautious.

She approached the curved tip of the needle to the wound and passed the shallowest part of Claire's face, beginning to go deep.

When the needle reached the flap of bright red skin that originally held his eye still in its place, Freydis squinted her eyes and made a grimace expressing her disgust, placing the red-hot tip of the needle on it.

*tssss*

A thread of whitish smoke floated upwards and the needle penetrated the flap of skin smoothly as if it was a piece of hot butter.

Soon after, taking great care to stand still with the rest of his body, Freydis pulled the piece of flesh towards the opposite side of the eye cavity, bringing it closer and closer to the corresponding flap. 

With a cautious but decisive movement, she managed to thread the tip of the needle even under the other flap of skin and, at that point, stopped her hand.

"Take another needle and put it on fire for a few seconds... hurry up" the Shieldmaiden said in a low voice, trying not to inflate her chest that would otherwise destabilize her movement while standing still like a statue.

Dag left the girl's shoulders and obeyed immediately, grabbing another sterile needle from the healer's bag and holding it on fire for about thirty seconds, which for Freydis seemed like an eternity.

"Here, take it!" he said, returning to position and passing the red-hot object into his girlfriend's hands, after intuiting what she was going to do.

"This will hurt her despite her deep sleep" she said, slowly approaching the side surface of the second red-hot needle between the two flaps of skin she was holding together.

*tsssss*tssssss*

More smoke began to come out of the wound and Claire's body unconsciously responded to the severe pain she was feeling during the suturing process.

With nerve shots because of Freydis that was touching the deepest parts of her eye, her neck moved suddenly, as well as her shoulders, and Dag was forced to increase the intensity of his grip, forcefully pushing Claire's body against the table.

After repeatedly pressing the second needle on the cavity between the two flaps of skin, they stuck together with the formation of a small scar, which incredibly sutured the wound exactly as Freydis had calculated.

Trying to hold her hand still, she turned the second needle away and tried to pull out the tip of the first sideways, without compromising her work.

When she succeeded, she turned both of her hands away and moved her neck backward, stretching her back and easing the tension.

"Oh, fuck! Fuuuck! I did it! I managed to close the deepest wound, now all that's missing is superficial!" she exclaimed, looking at Dag waiting for his approval.

"You've been amazing, I've never seen anyone operate so accurately! As you said, the hardest part has been done already... the wounds on the rest of the body will be much easier to sew... I hope the thread in that bag is enough" Dag replied, complimenting her and ready to run away in case the needle thread wasn't enough for all of Claire's injuries.

Returning to position, Freydis prepared to suture the more superficial wound, ready to use the traditional method.

"I couldn't use the thread for the deepest wound, otherwise Claire would have to keep it inside her face forever... for this outer one instead I will use it and try to close it tight so that it'll never open... when Karl closed the wound on my knee, I remember he crossed the thread of the needle in this way, explaining to me that the sewing would be much more effective..." 

When she spoke, as if her own words helped her concentrate, she slipped the needle inside what was left of her eyelid and pulled completely the thread she had previously cut and knotted at one end, sliding it until the knot stopped. 

Then she slipped it over the other eyelid and pulled it out from underneath.

She repeated the process four times and the fifth time she crossed the thread with the others, who were all parallel to each other, pulling the whole thing and clasping Claire's eyelids on top of each other, so that they would scar.

After Dag made the tip of one of the two curved needles red-hot again, Freydis used it to slightly burn the outer surface of the eye, being careful not to hit the newly knotted wire. 

After that operation, curiously, Claire did not move and continued to sleep.

"Rest assured, she's still breathing... she's alive, she's just sleeping soundly" Dag explained, when she saw Freydis trying to figure out if Claire was dead.

To sew up the damaged eye only, the young Shieldmaiden took about an hour and soon after, without even a moment's pause, began to look for the second wound to heal, exploring the body of the young girl still unconscious.