I knock at a small stone house's door. A woman responds with a shrill voice, telling us to keep it down. I wait for a few moments, expecting her to come over and open the door. When she doesn't, Vikiana and I exchange a glance, I knock again.
“Too loud!” She yells. “Argh.” She adds. “Just come in.”
I blink and turn the handle. Inside, we find an old woman with deep wrinkles sitting in a rocking chair with a goblet in hand and a keg at her feet. Her blouse likely used to be gray, it's brownish now.
The house has a single room, there are dirty clothes lying about and many containers spread out on the shelves and tables, many of which were knocked over and some don't even have a lid which means that their contents spilled. That's not encouraging.
“I had an accident at a forge.” I speak up.
“So?” She asks without seeming to care.
“Aren't you a healer?” I question.
“Sure.” The old woman sighs. “Take a chair or something and come over.”
I look around, finding a stool buried under a pile drapes dirtied by blood and... other things. I shudder and just walk up to her. I pull my sleeve up and show her my swelled right forearm.
“Did a Noble use pincers on you?” She asks, looking at the two rips on either side of my forearm. “Could be sprained, throw a healing construct on it.” She dismisses.
“At least take a damn look.” I grunt. “I think some metal got into my bones.”
“Fine, but it'll cost you.” The old woman sighs.
She takes a gulp of whatever liquid's in her goblet and picks a leather runic glove out of her pocket. It looks like it was shredded and sown back together, kind of how my original sleeve glove ended up once Celyz' construct activated.
“Pay up.” The old woman demands, holding her hand out. I drop a few silvers on her palm. “That ain't gonna cut it, sweetheart, the thing loses integrity every time I use it.” I frown and add a gold coin.
I try to take the silver back because I don't have any more of these coins but she immediately pockets it all. Then, she doesn't even fit the glove on, she sets it on her lap and assembles a construct over my right forearm. Wow, that's a scam if I ever saw one.
“That's not an accident.” The old woman comments in a gruff voice. “Did you take the institute's gold or piss a smith off?”
“Neither.” I reply. “Arm was fucked and I needed it.”
“I can see that.” She replies flatly. “Robbery gone wrong, eh. Whatever you scored, I doubt it's worth what you did to yourself there.”
“What did I do?” I ask.
“All I know is that the iron is screwing with your marrow.” She slurs. “I've seen weirder stuff around here but they're usually dead or close enough that the distinction is in semantics.”
“What kind of things did you see and can you fix me?” I ask.
“Odd organs that shouldn't be in people.” She replies. “Rejects from a pet project of one of the institute's degenerates. They're thrown out once in a while when they don't want to admit to their boss that they failed. Saw a kid with a hole in his skull once, chunk of his brain missing but still breathing and pouring flow out as he regenerated.”
“That can't be true!” Vikiana exclaims, horrified. “The Emperor banned this project, a whole University wing was burned at the stake for that when they were exposed!”
“You go and tell that to Martha, she'll be delighted to learn that her son was in fact not used as a battery by a madman short on funding because it's outlawed.” The midwife replies sharply.
“That's a thing?” I say, aghast.
“It's cruel beyond belief. Their victims have to be conscious because if the brain is too damaged, they lose their access.” The old woman tells me, shaking her head.
“They go so far as to pervert the Lake's blessing...” I say, disbelieving that the institute would go so far. “Do they take people from the slums?” I ask.
“Rarely since there was a riot and the Templars intervened, they mostly use slaves. The rest of Meiridin doesn't care so long as we keep quiet and people here don't want to poke their heads out to get hammered down.” She tells me. “Now, about you. It'll take a few weeks but I can fix this.”
“I don't have that kind of time.” I reply. “Would you be able to do it faster if you had the flow?”
“Yes, in a perfect world with unlimited energy but it would take me a few hours and your arm would be just as unusable for a week because this...” She pokes at the exact spot where the iron merges to either side of one of the fractures, provoking a sharp pain. “Is infected and your bones still need to heal correctly. It would be a lot less painful if I did this over a few... actually how are you even coherent?”
“I've been wondering the same thing about you, the alcohol in your drink is burning my nostrils from here.” Vikiana comments.
“It's just a morning brew.” The old woman shrugs.
“Flow isn't an issue.” I speak up. “I have an extended family and they all pitched in, she's holding most of it.” I throw a glance at Vikiana.
“Alright then, grab me that pot over there.” She tells me, putting the glove away.
“You aren't going to use the runic glove at all?” The Exemplar asks, taking hold of a small clay pot and handing it over.
“Don't need it, this isn't going to involve much healing at first.” The old woman replies. “Luckily, you didn't go too deep or merge all the way around the bones so those portions on the other side of the mess you made are reconnecting just fine. All I need to do is excise the iron and it'll fix itself.”
She opens the pot and takes a thin knife and a sharpening stone out of it. I blink in surprise, having expected her to use some kind of ointment. She starts honing the blade.
“Weird place to store your tools.” I note.
“Steel is expensive, I don't wanna get robbed.” She explains.
Once she's done sharpening the knife, she pours some of the liquid in her mug on the blade and then uses a fire construct to burn the alcohol off and heat the blade. She seizes my forearm and splashes the rest of her drink on it.
While her actions are odd, the old midwife does seem to know what she's doing so I start transferring my flow over to Vikiana through the floor in a little stream so that she doesn't have enough to make a construct.
The Exemplar understands my intent and absorbs the energy into her reserve to turn it golden before sending it over to the woman who ignores the ball of flow forming near her to poke at my forearm with the point of her blade.
“Hm.” She grumbles. “You want a drink? This is going to hurt like a bitch.” She tells me.
“I'll be fine.” I reply.
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“Here, chew that.” She grabs a thick piece of wood with strips of leather wrapped around it and many bite marks on it.
She sets it between my teeth and I clamp down on it. I focus on slowly transferring my flow while making sure that Vikiana hands the same amount over to the midwife. I feel the small knife biting into my skin but the pain is shallow compared to the constant one that I've been putting up with for days.
Once the incision is made, the old woman takes a weird pair of scissors with flat tips out and slips them into the wound to push it open so that she can clearly see what she'll be working on. She then links to the golden ball of flow and assembles a construct that looks very similar to a merging construct.
“What are you doing?” Vikiana asks, apparently having noticed the same thing. The concern in her voice surprises me but I assume it's because she's afraid of all the threats I've made.
“Going to merge the bone-iron thing she made with the pure iron to weaken the edges and break the stuff off.” The old woman replies with the practiced calm voice of someone who's used to reassuring patients. “It'll be like scooping the rot out of an apple except this is bone.”
“Maybe we should try someone else.” Vikiana says.
“It isn't any harder than sowing fingers back on.” The midwife shrugs.
“I don't have the time or the inclination to find a healer that won't ask questions, or pay what they'll ask.” I tell the Exemplar.
She starts working on me without waiting. Bursts of agony shake me as she alters bone-iron alloy. I communicate reassurance to my limb and it releases a gust of the cool substance that eases my suffering.
The midwife starts grumbling about the bleeding and assembles a tiny construct to deal with it. I grow hazy and lightheaded, mind wandering to that small golden construct that floated inside my forearm but not inside my body. I absentmindedly notice that even though it is surrounded by my flesh, I can't affect it because it isn't inside.
The old woman seizes my right wrist with her left hand and used the weird scissors to grip something inside my forearm. I hear a small crack and a harsh spike of pain in my bone. I bite down on the piece of wood to avoid screaming.
It gets worse as she takes a small lime out of her chest pocket and starts filing at my bone, scraping the surface to remove the iron left over. Even more of the cool substance pour into my system. My mind drifts, I start seeing odd shapes at the edge of my field of vision.
I struggle to remain upright on the stool, the Exemplar moves and takes hold of my shoulders to steady me. I start transferring the flow directly to Vikiana's palm as it allows me to stop concentrating so hard on making it go through the ground.
The old woman sets a splint and bandages before getting started on the other bone. I'm sad, angry, I want to laugh and yell. I feel almost no pain when the woman digs through the other side of my arm, none when she files that bone down too despite the vibrations running up my arm.
By the time she's done, I'm barely coherent and Vikiana starts dragging me out of the house. I grip at her and stop her. I struggle to fully open my eyes to vaguely glance in the midwife's direction.
“I, have. Things, there. Um.” I blink, pointing at my chest.
“She has scars.” Vikiana translates.
“That!” I exclaim and then my voice dies down. “Glove it, them.”
“I'm not going to be using them for such a minor thing, I told you it deteriorates every time I use it.” She shakes her head.
“More gold.” I add but she laughs.
“This isn't something I can buy with money. I could get arrested just for having it, it's not against the law but that doesn't stop them from finding reasons.” The midwife then shoos us out.
I stumble out despite Vikiana supporting me because I can barely feel even the tip of my toes and my emotions are so out of whack that I can't even tell what they are. I fight to remain conscious as we go through the slums.
If the Exemplar attacked or tried to run now, I doubt I could do a thing to stop her. I try to threaten her with the signaling construct but only the gargling of a madwoman leave my mouth.
My knees give away and one of them hits the pavement. I barely notice as Vikiana drags me into an alley and sits me down. She leans in and says something to my face, I see her lips move but can't make sense of the sounds.
I raise my hand and wave at her. I don't know why, I no longer make sense even to myself. She frowns and picks me up, carefully placing me on her shoulder. I black out for a moment when my right arm hits her flank, yet there is no pain.
She carries me through the streets like that, through an eternity of gray buildings and shallow puddles. I grow angry and try to kick her to no effect as my foot doesn't respond. That makes me anxious so I tell my limb to increase the dosage to feel better.
I see a small tree in a garden and find it hilarious so I start giggling. When we arrive at the house, she lies me down on the bunk in the middle of the main room and tries to talk to me again with a worried expression, urging me.
Tsek shows up soon after with her shackles which he throws at her feet. I wholeheartedly laugh at her annoyed expression as she puts them on. Vikiana then starts miming with a tiny bit of flow, making shapes.
I swipe at them when they get within my range. As I do, she seems to grow even more concerned. Tsek hands his flow over and but she refuses it, pointing him at my right forearm. He directs the energy inside a construct anchored inside.
I dismantle the two things and give them the flow so that they make more shapes with them. They take it but don't do anything with it so I get mad and throw a stream of mine at them in spite.
It goes through them and I lose my connection to it. I consider doing it again but that seems boring and I'm hot so I start pulling on my shirt. Tsek hurriedly stops me and tries to talk again. I respond by sticking my tongue out.
During the few hours, the two of them deal with my mood swings as well as they can, they even manage to convince me to give them my energy to make another healing construct and leave it alone.
I recover somewhat as the cool substance circulating dissipates while less and less of it is being injected, the symbiont is likely running out. I realized as I acted like an idiot that I was but I couldn't quite help it as I felt disconnected with myself.
I don't tell my limb to stop pouring what little it is into my system as I still need it. I call for food, tons of it. Gotta feed before my limb does something stupid. My right forearm is burning up but it doesn't feel wrong and it's not as inflamed as before.
It concerns me that my every heartbeat is accompanied by a pang but as the cool substance clears out, the organ slows down and the pain lessens. Vikiana leaves and comes back with a wet towel. She replaces the one that I didn't know was on my forehead.
--- --- ---
My Lady Countess Leomi Lance stands tall in front of me while I kneel in front of her, the straight black strands of her hair frame her sexy sharp traits perfectly as she looks down at me. It makes no sense but I ask for forgiveness, saying that it's my fault, that it has to be for her to betray me.
“Shh.” A woman with light blue eyes who resemble Leomi whispers. “It's alright, it isn't your fault, it's mine.” I struggle inside the woman's arms and grunt until she fades away behind a somber veil.
Leomi reappears, this time she's reaching down with her slender fingers to touch my cheek. She doesn't say a word so I rage at her. Telling her that she dares remain silent when I went so far as to take responsibility for what she did to me.
She shakes her head sadly and points at the silver tree mask that suddenly appears on my face. I take it off and she kneels in front of me to kiss my forehead in absolution. Relief overwhelms me and I wrap my arms around her.
“It wasn't possible to save you by sacrificing myself by then but if it had been I wouldn't have. I would have done so if you were a man, Jessica. I fell so low because I was stubborn, ignorant, blind. I refused to accept responsibility but it turns out it's hard to shift blame when the one you're blaming lost far more than you did and still fights on.” The woman speaks. “I knew it wasn't your fault but when Jenna died, the damage it did to Leomi... it left her unable to deal with my Lance's death. She buried herself in training to the point of hurting herself, and then others.” I frown and firmly close my eyelids to summon the somber veil.
Leomi walks over to me, she is wearing an almost transparent clear white dress. It is so thin that I can see her sparse pubic hair through the fabric. She carefully slides the pure dress' straps off her shoulders. The cloth slides down her body, brushing against her perfect small round breasts to drop at her feet.
She then kneels in front of me. I am suddenly standing, with my hammer's handle in hand. The head is missing, although I could swear I repaired it. I bring the sharp spike down and impale my Lady through the middle of her torso to pin her to the ground.
“Leomi wouldn't stop swinging her sword. She broke her hand and kept going with her left. She told me that the pain made the pain go away. That sentence made sense to her. I actually had to restrain her and put her to work. She found solace in duty, in caring for her people, but the castle only reminded her of loss so she left.” The woman sighs. “I blamed Jenna for what happened when it was my fault for leaving. That mission only brought tragedy. I really hope you'll fix this.” The woman tells me.
I'm carrying a dead Leomi in my arms, walking in a desert, and walking, and walking. With no rest or break. After eons, only our skeletons remain, yet mine keeps going, seeking nothing.
“And then you, Jessica, you were there with my daughter, imprisoned by the Rykz. I could see the worse and the best in Leomi when she looked at you. I foresaw a repeat of Jenna but worse as you were an unbound traitor so the Rykz were far from the only threat to your life. Ironic how you've done much worse by now, yet, I don't really care anymore with what the Emperor has triggered.” The woman messes with my hair. “Sleep well.”
“Why is it so hard to live, to do what's right?” I ask.
“You're awake.” She says startled.
--- --- ---