When the wound was fully healed I removed my hand revealing to us both a light scar. Laelia took her hand back and ran her right hand over the scar. “Good work for someone without proper training, this small scar will likely be unnoticeable in a few days time.” Laelia smiled as she showed me her open hand. I looked down and barely noticed the scar myself.
“Wow, I wouldn’t even have noticed that if you didn’t point it out beforehand.”
“Hopefully by the time you are done with your apprenticeship even the smallest of scars like this one will be invisible to someone as perceptive as myself.” I looked back up to Laelia with a bit of surprise at her comment.
“Does that mean you are accepting me as your apprentice?” I asked with a ball of nervousness in my stomach.
“That is correct, unless of course you are caching your mind.”
“No, of course not. Thank you. When do you want me to start?” My breathing became easier and my posture relaxed. I had an opportunity before me and I was certain to take it.
“Are you free today? If so you can begin right as soon as I am done with my breakfast.”
“Of course I am more than willing.” I quickly answered, an opportunity to work with other trained healers was something I didn't want to pass on.
“Very good then. Just allow me to finish up eating and we can head right over.”
**********
Another five minutes passed as Laelia finished up her breakfast, during that time we spoke a bit more about magic and our plans for the future. She seemed rather interested in me and what I wanted to do with my life once my apprenticeship was over.
“I’m not really sure what I am going to do, other than brewing more potions to support myself of course.”
“You should think of something, perhaps you will find someone you want to spend your life with. Love is something that everyone should try.” Laelia said while pointing her fork at me. Though she didn’t outright say anything about herself I had the feeling that she found that belief from personal experience rather than from religion or colleagues.
Eventually we left the tavern and made our way to the clinic, as it turned out Laelia knew of a few shortcuts in the streets and alleyways of the southern district that helped cut down the trip back a few minutes. When we arrived we found a short line consisting of four people waiting. Inside was one of healers taking notes as the person in the front was giving details about his condition.
“My back has been in a lot of pain recently. Every time I go to sit down I feel it aches, like someone is pulling my back apart.” The man who upon closer inspection was around sixty years old said to the healer dressed in normal mage clothes and a piece of thin white fabric that was worn almost like a vest.
“Sir, based on the way you are describing your pain I think you might have pulled one of your back muscles. I am going to cast a quick spell to confirm this if that is alright with you.” The healer, who was a young man, said to the old man before placing the paper down and raising his hands.
“Yes, please do. I want nothing more than to be rid of this pain.” With the old man's permission the healer casted a quick tier one spell that created a small ball of yellowish magic and quickly shot forwards and entered the old man. The healer reacted like he was receiving information from the spell and slowly relaxed himself.
“Sir, it appears I was correct. You have pulled some of your back muscles. Have you by any chance been carrying around something that is very heavy throughout the day?”
“I’ve been working for one of the merchants recently moving around his wares. Am I getting too old to be working like that anymore?” The old man asked, sounding dejected.
“Not necessarily. You said you are carrying things around for a merchant, correct? Are you by any chance leaning over to pick things up when you do this?”
“I am. Why? Is it a problem?” The old man looked confused as he gave his answer while the healer looked satisfied with a soft smile on his face.
“That is likely the reason why you pulled a muscle in your back. When you do your job from now on try to keep your back straight as you pick things up. Here I will show you what to do.” Without waiting for a response from his patient the healer dropped something on the floor and squatted down with his back straight and reached down and picked it back up. Rising up he held the small object in front of the old man to show he indeed picked it up.
“Hang on just one moment sir while I fix your back pain.” The healer quickly returned to the topic of the old man's back pain and started casting another spell that had a longer cast time than the previous. Based on the time it took him I would assume it was a tier two spell. When he was done a small orb of brighter yellow light shot out from his hands and collided with the old man. Within moments the old man let out a soft sigh or relief as his pain faded.
By the time Laelia and I were next to the young healer he was already taking the payment of the old man which amounted to four copper coins. “Ah, good morning Laelia. Who is this you brought with you? Another patient for me to heal?”
“Not this time Vel, this is actually the newest apprentice. Would you be willing to show him the ropes for the morning, just start with him taking our patients' symptoms.”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Of course ma’am. Right away.” The healer named Vel said as Laelia smiled and left for a room in the back of the clinic.
“You heard the woman, take these and get a list of symptoms from those patients.” Vel said in a cheery voice as he handed me a few sheets of paper and an ink pot before pointing me towards the three patients waiting near the door.
Stepping off to the side one of the patients walked right up to me with a worried look on her face. The patient was a pretty looking woman dressed in mostly normal commoner clothing, the one difference that made her stand out was that her clothes showed slightly more skin in the shoulders and the stomach. Other than those two things she looked normal enough.
“Good morning ma’am, how are you doing today?” I asked with the intent of getting this woman's symptoms and moving onto the other two patients.
“Well… It burns when I need to piss.” I paused writing the words ‘It burns’ as I heard the woman say when it was doing so.
“Is this by any chance related to your job ma’am?” I asked, fearing the worst.
“I would say… most likely related to my work. Do you want to see it?” Never before had I ever written anything so fast. I quickly wrote the major symptom, the likely cause, and the likely cause before handing the paper to the women. “Please take that to my colleague standing over there, he will help you from there.”
The woman quickly took the paper and walked over to Vel with her face to the ground. The awkwardness of the situation was made worse by the indirect wording we both used, yet neither of us wanted to say the quest part out loud.
The next patient walked up with little wait and stood straight up like a soldier. He was a middle aged man with a thick and unkempt beard and head of hair, his clothes were very normal for a commoner being simple and brown in color. Yet I could see in his eyes that he wasn’t a normal man, something about his soul was different from everyone else.
“Good morning sir, how can I help you?”
“My eyes are itching, like I have bugs walking all over them.” Looking up from the paper I was holding I saw that his eyes were wide open, he was only blinking half as much as he should have been. I quickly wrote the symptom down and looked back at the man.
“Are there any other symptoms you are experiencing sir?”
“I am blind in my left eye, but I’m not here for that. I can’t afford to have my eye replaced just yet, maybe in a few weeks I will have the money to do that, but not right now.” The man said as he held his hand with his index finger pointed towards me. I looked at his eye and unlike the other blind people I've seen on the streets this man's left eye looked perfectly normal, still I wrote it down just in case there was something Vel could do.
“Is that everything sir or are you experiencing something else that is rather worrying?”
“Nope, I can’t see anything else that isn’t how it's supposed to be.”
“Then please take this and speak with my colleague over there.” I handed the paper to the odd man and pointed him towards Vel who was casting a spell on the woman with the burning disease. Almost like a child the odd man walked over and stood a few feet away from Vel and the woman for his turn.
Turning back towards the doorway there was one last patient at the moment waiting. He was a young pyrosan with a light brown complexion, both his head and face were clean shaven and he wore simple commoner clothing with both the sleeves on the shirt torn off.
“Good morning sir, how can I help you?” I said forcing a smile while hoping that this last patient would be normal.
“I got bit by a rat yesterday and now it's feeling a little weird. I was hoping someone here could check it out to see if it's infected or not.” The young pyrosan said as he brought his arm up and close enough to show me the bite on his arm. There on his right bicep was a rat bite, the wound and skin around the bite was a little pale but otherwise looked like a normal rat bite.
“Looking at the color of your skin around the bit I would say it is probably infected. Likely with something the rat had when it bit you.” I quickly wrote this all down as I spoke to the patient.
“Damn, how bad is it? I’m not going to need to take a lot of expensive medicine am I?”
“Probably not, when I am done my colleague will use a spell to treat the wound and then another for the infection. Assuming you are alright with that.”
“No I am, just the healer back home would always try to get people to take medicine for all their injuries and illnesses. I was never sure why they did it, I’m just thankful things are different over here. Thank you.” The young pyrosan was the first to thank me for helping in the day as I handed him the paper with his symptoms listed.
With that I didn’t have any more patients so I just stood by and watched as Vel treated the patients. From what I observed Vel was casting a few different types of spells depending on the injury, for illnesses he would first cast a spell that would help him diagnose the disease. When he knew the disease he would cast another spell that would treat it, if there were any physical injuries such as with the pyrosan man he would cast another to mend the wounds. After the healing was done he would collect the money which didn’t amount much past a few copper pieces for each patient.
When the last patient left the clinic Vel placed the coins he collected in a wooden box with metal reinforcements along the edges through a small hole just large enough for the coins. When he was done he walked over to me with a soft smile on his face. “Good work there. You acted almost like a professional healer.”
“Thank you, that is what I was trying to do.” I replied still a little weirded out by the behavior of the first two patients I dealt with. “Are all of the patients that we will be dealing with here going to act like that, or was I just unlucky?”
“Oh don’t worry, most patients we will be receiving will be normal. On occasion we will have someone with a few problems with their heads, but for the most part you will be dealing with the common folk of the district and the occasional traveling who is in the area.”
“That is good to hear, I was a little worried for a moment that this would be how most of the patients would be acting.” I sighed, feeling a little better that I wouldn't need to hear people talk about how their eyes feel like there are bugs on them on the regular.
“How often should I expect someone who is not entirely there to walk in and need something?”
“I would say a few every day. If there is a fight or something like a gang war that number can jump considerably depending on how bad it is. Speaking of since I don’t see anyone waiting for us I should probably teach you something as we wait.” Vel took a quickly glace to the door and the small waiting area for a moment before turning his attention back towards me. “Do you know any proper healing spells yet? Because if not, I have one that you should be able to learn in a few minutes.”
“No I don’t, not yet anyways. What is the spell?”
“The spell is called Light Healing. The spell will create a decent amount of healing energy that will envelop the whole body of the target and heal anything from light cuts to even internal injuries, the only downside to the spell is that since it is spread across the whole body the healing isn’t particularly powerful.”