Noa did not miss high school. Homework assignments, lectures, and hell trapped in a classroom with thirty other teenagers. By the way he groaned, head laying in a book, he'd probably admit that he was a bored teenager all over again. By this world’s standards, he was.

How did movies like Spiderman make schooling look so much easier? Maybe I need a bully to beat up, make me feel heroic, he thought, cringing at the idea. Part of being a healer was that his heroics would happen behind the real heroes that faced off death. What if Spiderman had a healer? Noa daydreamed, only jerking up when Armael smacked his head.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“You're bored,” Armael said.

“Should I not be bored by your lecture on...?” Yeah, he had no idea what they were talking about now.

“Fine,” Armael snapped his book shut. “Perhaps we should critique your negotiating skills instead?”

“You mean with the trolls? I did quite fine. Got myself out of a life debt,” Noa retorted.

“Perhaps, but you had the life debts of two other trolls, and passed that opportunity up,” Armael noted. “Not to mention your poor haggling skills. You'll be up on that mountain fighting lions twice a week, and all the trolls have to do is build you a clinic? What if they do it in one day?”

Noa frowned, dragging his hands down his face. “I don't think like the rest of you do━I don't use people.”

“You need to learn, or at least be aware, else you'll continue to be used.” Armael stood up, and placed his book on a stack. He momentarily ran his finger over the dust on top of a different, untouched stack of books, and made a face akin to disgust. “Our upgrades must definitely come with shelving. I can't believe Priest Olwen ever went without.”

Noa snorted. “You and me both,” he said. “What if healers didn't get used all the time?”

“There's a name for those,” Armael returned to his seat, clasping his hands in front of him on the table. “High nobles; dukes, royalty. They don't get used as healers, not that it's even a common class among them. The only healers with glory would be quickeners.”

“Really?” Noa asked, a smile slowly coming to his face.

“Of course. The king himself always has one on hand. Quickeners can resurrect people. High pay and high glory. Still━”

“Hey newb, is your lesson almost up?” Noa turned, looking at Eliaz and Tin as they walked from the stairwell.

“It’s been up since he dozed off,” Armael said.

“Great, Tin here,” Eliaz patted Tin’s shoulder, “could use another lesson in [Aether Shaping]. I’ve been trying to teach him all day, but nothing.”

Armael sighed. “Do you sleep during lectures?” he asked Tin, who feverishly shook his head. “Then you’ll be my star pupil at this rate.” The priest looked directly at Noa. “Scram, kid.”

“Don’t have to tell me twice,” Noa said, rolling his eyes. “Eliaz,” he made his way to his friend, starting down the stairs. “How do you feel about starting a clinic?”

“I think that was the idea when I recruited Tin into my party,” Eliaz said.

“What if I said I traded with the trolls and they’re going to build one for me?” Noa asked.

Eliaz raised his brow. “Did you have to sell your soul?”

“What? No, why would you jump to that?”

“Because you’re pretty good at it.”

Noa pursed his lips. “Nevermind that,” he stepped out of the church with Eliaz, “we’re going to have a clinic to work out of, and I was thinking, what if we convinced more people to become healers?”

Furrowing his brow, Eliaz shook his head, “Healers make good money, Noa, but no one is just going to become a healer all of a sudden.”

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“Tin did!”

“That’s because he’s young and easily persuaded. Well, and his entire family is already egregiously poor, so a healer in the family would be more of a benefit than not.”

“Hear me out. If healers were more numerous, would people be trying to control us so much?” Noa asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?” Noa groaned.

“Why not? Everyone wants to have a personal healer. If you filled that clinic to the brim with healers, Noa, you’d simply attract people to this town, and they would all use those healers,” Eliaz pointed out, taking them down the street, but turning off rather than going to Lila’s.

Noa huffed. He’s probably right, he thought, cringing at the idea of attracting more trouble to the town. On the flip side, what if there was something bigger than just the healers? An organization. “What if we built a healers’ guild?” he asked. “It could act as a union to help create free trade and protection for healers.”

“What’s a union?”

“It’s the, erm, thing. Kind of like how we did that strike, trying to create better working conditions for ourselves, refusing to work until our employer was forced to negotiate with us,” Noa said.

“Ooh, so what you’re saying is we should have a kingdom-wide healers’ strike?”

“What? No! Eliaz, that would be impossible!” Noa paused. “Wait, how big is this kingdom?”

Eliaz stopped in front of a small wooden hut that barely counted as a home. At least it had a welcome mat in front of the door. The elf turned to Noa, eyebrow raised. “Do you not even know the country you’re in?”

“I know that I am currently in Briag,” Noa said with a lame smile and nod. Surely that meant something!

“You’re in Lauhan, only the biggest western country under Elorn’s eye,” Elvethor said.

“Right. In other words, far too large for a nationwide healers’ strike. But what if we built a guild that would regulate healers’ rights, that way they don’t get dragged around like I’ve been?”

“A guild would still have to be under the monarchy or the church, and since you’re an ardent, it’d have to be under the church if you built it. The church would still have power over all the healers in the guild,” Eliaz said, opening the door to the house.

The inside was comfortable, considering the size of the place. The front room looked to be a small dining room, while there were two back rooms. One with a bed, and the door to the other closed.

“I do all my cooking out back. Healing in this room, sleep there, and bath there,” Eliaz pointed with his finger, ending on the closed door. “I’ve already emptied out, so...” He turned to Noa. “What do you think?”

“Oh, you still want me to buy this from you?” Noa asked.

Eliaz nodded. “Do you want to sleep at Lila’s forever? At some point, she will probably start making you pay.”

Scratching his head, Noa nodded slowly. “Well, I do hope to be making some good coin soon. How much is this place?”

“About fifty gold,” Eliaz shrugged. “If you can start making money from heals, you could pay this place off in about a year and a half.”

Noa wrinkled his nose. “Plus buying my own food and necessities. Longer probably, huh?”

“Probably,” Eliaz said.

“Are you offended if I say no?” Noa asked, considering that clinic again. Why not have his home and clinic one and the same? Kind of.

“Not really. There are plenty of other people that will want to buy it. Thought I’d just offer you the chance first. But... how do I get you kicked out of Lila’s and mine’s house?” Elvethor asked, a cheeky smile growing on his face.

Noa chuckled. “With the trolls building me a clinic, I thought of having my home built in it too.”

“Noa, do the trolls actually have any carpentry abilities? Or are you getting a stone clinic?”

“Uh, good question. I’ll have to ask. If not, I need to hire a carpenter to help, don’t I?”

“Or at least to build some easily followed blueprints,” Eliaz said, sitting down at the table with a sigh.

“Actually,” Noa stroked his chin, the hair he couldn’t grow not there, like usual. “I might see if I can have the trolls train with the carpenter first, then have them build the clinic. After that, why don’t you and Tin come work at the clinic? Collectively, we might have an easier time building rapport with the community, and when you and I leave, Tin can still work out of it.”

“For some reason, I get the feeling you’re still going to try building a healer’s guild with this clinic of yours...” Eliaz narrowed his eyes.

A smile stretched across Noa’s lips. “Well, I have been thinking while we’ve been talking. A countrywide strike might not be possible, but a prominent guild of healers on strike? What happens when the kingdom’s primary location to find healers just stops healing when they’re treated poorly? Better yet, what if they cut off business with those kinds of folks altogether?”

“Well... that might actually have an effect. You’d still be under the church, but even they wouldn’t want to push valuable healers away,” Eliaz mused.

“Great! Any ideas on how to build a proper guild?”

Eliaz facepalmed. “You’re a pain in the arse sometimes, you know that, right?”

“Only as much as you are.”

The elf smiled. “I know a guy. He lives in the capital. When you get there with the high prelate, you’ll want to drop by his place. He’ll help you sort out guild management, but you won’t want the high prelate knowing you’re doing this. You would be far from the first to try to build a healers’ guild.”

“Oh? What happened to the other guys that tried?”

“Hmm...” Eliaz hummed for a long moment. “They died.”

Nothing’s easy in this world. Noa deadpanned.