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Chances of Death: Seven Decks Book I
Bk 2 - Chapter 10: Back Alley Work

Bk 2 - Chapter 10: Back Alley Work

  A week later, the night and City had just turned dark, and as they were leaving one of the many small alleys in the slums, Jen said to Tamako, “my butt cheek is really burning after that last healing spell.”

  Tamako asked, “Why did the healing take so long with this one?”

  “His lung disease required me to heal his lungs at the same time as I destroyed the disease, and I’m taking it slower trying to understand how the healing spell is using the mana to heal the injuries.”

  They both pulled the hoods of their robes close around their heads as they walked further out into the street. Tamako pulled Jen towards another alley that she spotted a disabled vagrant limping into. “I’ll heal this one. It looks like there’s something wrong with her legs.”

  Jen gave Tamako a quieted snort, then said, “You’re just hoping its another vampire you can spear through the heart with that wooden javelin of yours.”

  Tamako messaged, “You have your fun, I have mine!”

  As Tamako moved into the alley closer to the limping person, Tamako and Jen stayed hidden from the vagrant's sight, and Tamako waved Jen to hold still. Once the alley was quiet, Tamako held her breath and listened. She could hear her own heart, Jen’s, and then she heard a third.

  “Dang it! I can hear her heart, she’s not a vamp! Oh well, let’s get her healed up. Do your mind control thing,” Tamako said to Jen.

  Jen learned she could infuse her voice with mana and combine it with her psych skill, this combination made it possible for her to place a person in a sedated state, and hypnotize them. Once hypnotized, she could turn off their mental pain receptors.

  “Listen to my voice and relaxxxxx. Focus on my voice and relaxxxx. There is nothing but my voice. Continue to relaxxxxxx. What is your happiest memory?”

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  The old woman’s eyes were closed as she mumbled, “It was when my father used to sing me to bed at night when I was a little girl.”

  Jen told the woman, “You are a little girl in bed listening to your father sing to you. Nothing else exists. Your body does not exist. You can’t feel your legs, arms, you can’t feel any pain. All that exists is the memory of your father singing to you.” Jen then nodded at Tamako.

  Tamako activated her body scan, and said, “It looks like the bones in her legs are rotting… maybe?”

  Through a lot of trial and error, Jen and Tamako had learned that they could just flood the person with power from their enchanted tattoo, and it would heal whatever was wrong with the person, but it took a LOT of mana. Using this method, they could only do one major healing before their tattoo healing enchantment ran out of power. If they focused their power on the specific injury, it would heal the injury while only using about 20% as much mana. Unfortunately, while they could use their power to “see” a person’s insides, they rarely knew if what they were seeing was an injury, disease, or simply normal. Eventually, they decided the most efficient mana usage was to use focused mana on all the injuries they understood, and then flood the person with healing mana for any injuries or diseases they may have missed. They would then keep their body scan going to watch and learn about the injuries and diseases the flood of healing mana would fix.

  Jen watched as Tamako used her body healing tattoo enchantment to flood the rotten bones in the vagrant’s legs, and then she saw Tamako focus the spell on re-healing her leg ligaments and muscles back correctly. Last, she lightly coated the woman’s entire body with healing mana to cure any minor problems remaining. When she finished healing the old woman, they placed 10 silver coins and some food in her pockets.

  Tamako looked over at Jen, and said, “Quit looking at me, and keep watch!”

  Jen smiled, and replied, “If I do that, your little treat will turn and run.”

  Tamako then carefully looked past Jen, and then hurled her javelin through the alley piercing the vampire through the heart. “Yes!” Tamako whisper shouted as she jumped up from her squatting position and ran over to loot the vampire for the bounty ticket. For some reason, the System didn't allow vampires to loot the bodies of the dead, and both Jen and Tamako while on several night-time healing excursions had found the gruesome dead remains that vampires left in the alleys. Men, women, and even children. No one was safe from them, and Jen and Tamako were happy to rid the City of as many of them as they could.

  Last, just before leaving the alley, Jen left the woman with a hypnotic command to forget ever seeing them, and to wake up fully after 30 seconds.