The man grimaced in anticipation of the baton rocketing towards him and tensed as he heard it cracking into pieces. I'm dead, he thought. The bone has been shattered, and any moment shall come the darkness.

But when he came to his senses, he saw that another baton was held right to the side of his head, blocking the baton of Khayin.

"Halqat," bellowed Khayin, "how dare you defend this bringer of ill will? Release your baton at once and allow me to finish him with my strike. Though my baton is splintered by yours, he does not deserve a clean strike. I will tear his skin apart regardless."

Halqat, his arm trembling and flexing, stretched across the man to protect the man and hold back Khayin, did not relent to the command.

"No," Halqat said calmly, the word delivered with authority over a tense diaphragm keeping him steady.

"Relent," Khayin, "and let me end this nonsense once and for all."

"No!" Halqat answered, and with a swift turn, flung up his baton and forcefully carried Khayin's on top of it so quickly that it flew out of Khayin's hand.

"What is the meaning of this?" Khayin demanded.

Halqat stood in front of the man, blocking Khayin from reaching him.

"I know this man," Halqat explained. "I've been waiting for him."

The man wracked his mind and tried to search for any memory, any image he could of Halqat. But there were no such flashbacks, no stories his mind could recall, which all the more puzzled him as to Halqat's claim. While searching for some tie to Halqat, his eyes idly came across Khayin's baton stuck into the ground, and he shuddered at the painful memory and the bruises surely enveloping his shoulder. And the text flittered across his sight again, reminding him of his precarious state.

[Caution! 1/50 HP remaining.]

[Total loss of HP is fatal!]

Although the full meaning of the words still eluded him, the threat implied was to be taken seriously. He did not want to speak out again, knowing Khayin's apparent hatred towards him, but he also didn't want to die, if dying is indeed what would happen after his "HP" had been totally depleted. He felt his heart pounding in his chest, and if he weren't tied down, he'd have a burst of anxiety that'd take him far from here, running until his legs collapsed.

"Halqat," the man said quietly, trying to avoid the attention of Khayin and all the other Diggers, "I only have 1 HP left." He did not know whether pleading would help his case, but he sensed that Halqat had at least some affinity for him because of how he saved his life from Khayin's baton attacks.

Halqat nodded, but still faced Khayin and the Diggers.

"Almael," Halqat said, "could you heal this man? He has hardly any HP left."

An older Digger walked into view. The man could not tell whether the many lines in his face were wrinkles, or innumerable scars that looked like they felt as a coarse as the tree bark that would dig into the man every time he leaned back on his stool. The older Digger had a cane that shone with metallic inlets but he did not seem to be putting much of his weight on it.

"Stop, Almael," Khayin interjected. "You are not to heal this man with your powers. For your own hand to heal him while I am certain he is still a cursed outsider? That is a grievous insult to us all."

"He's no good to us dead, you know," Halqat said. "He's here for a reason."

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"He's no good to us alive, either," Khayin responded mockingly. "He's no good to us at all."

"Do you not understand?" Halqat asked. "With his HP, a single bite from a mistaq would render him dead. A puny mistaq."

"Then dead he shall be," Khayin dismissed.

Halqat clenched his fist and then let the fingers flay out.

"Almael, you do not have to heal him with your own powers directly. But bring us an elixir so that the man will at least not perish before our eyes from a mere field bug. An elixir that can remove any lingering effects of nausea. I had given him a Blitzen Berry during the attack."

Almael nodded and began to walk over to a tent but Khayin grabbed the sleeve of his robe.

"Do not do this," Khayin ordered.

"I am a healer by trade and by code," Almael declared. "While we have our rules for outsiders, my elixirs are my creations and my products and can be used however I wish."

"Confabulations," Khayin dismissed the reasoning. "Simply more violations of the spirit of the Diggers. I know how much value your elixirs have and how time consuming they are to produce. Let us not waste one of these precious potions on this man so unworthy of our respect."

"Halqat is my friend and I trust his judgment," Almael said firmly. "Let us heal the man via elixir and continue on with the investigation."

Almael walked into the tent and Khayin walked back to where Halqat was.

"How much more are we going to give this cursed traveler?" Khayin asked the Diggers. "We have already given him a taste of one of our treasured plants." He looked at Halqat. "And now we are healing him? What if we are attacked right now and an elixir is soon needed?"

"Then we'll fight," Halqat said. "Some of us at least." Halqat gave a quick look at the man, still tied and seated.

Almael's hand swept open the tent and he walked towards the man with a clear long container full of a bubbly blue liquid. He tilted the container towards the man's mouth, and the liquid hovered right near the lip.

"Drink this," said Almael, holding the container near the man's mouth.

The man looked at Almael, and then at the blue hue of the strange beverage. He recalled the experience of eating the Blitzen Berry. Though it produced an incredible rush, its side effects to him were so crippling, he wouldn't want to go through the same experience unnecessarily. But being at 1/50 HP, although the full significance of that status was a mystery, was complicated by the terrifying warning that full loss of HP would be fatal. A bite from a so-called mistaq, as Halqat discussed, or even another merciless strike from Khayin would be enough to deplete him of HP. The unimaginable voyage of entering that unknown state was even less palatable than taking yet another taste of a strange offering from the Diggers.

"It's OK," assured Almael. "It will replenish your HP."

The man studied the wrinkles and scars of Almael to find a trace of deceit, yet the only element of darkness he could detect were the benign shadows cast by the hood which rested atop several white locks of hair.

The man assented and opened his mouth. Although he wished he could examine the container himself, his body was still immobile. The blue liquid was sweet and warmed his throat and stomach, and he felt a mild euphoria that if prolonged could have made him forget he was tied up in the middle of nowhere.

[Almael's Blue Elixir is restoring HP.]

[10/50 HP...]

[20/50 HP...]

The man felt relief of his anxiety that was almost as good as the flavor of the elixir as he witnessed the numbers return to their former levels.

[30/50 HP...]

[40/50 HP...]

[50/50 HP remaining. Almael's Blue Elixir has fully restored HP.]

It seemed just short of miraculous that such a thing was possible. Almael had declared himself a healer. So what other abilities were possible in this world? He had witnessed repulsive creatures and explosive arrows fired by Halqat that carved out a hole in one of them.

Was there something else he was capable of, too, then, which he did not know?

He felt his body tingle from his feet to his eyes with a refreshing energy. The pain that had lingered had vanished before he could focus his awareness again on the various creaky joints which had previously taken so much of his attention.

"Thank you," the man said to Almael, appreciating the great service rendered to him.

Almael smiled faintly then returned to the side of Halqat.

Khayin crossed his arms, displeased.

"I suppose you are happy now," Khayin said, looking at Halqat and Almael. "Now what explains your perverse interest in wasting a potion to keep this man alive? I believe you were uttering nonsense before to desperately spare his life. You may speak more honestly now if you wish. Is it to keep him as a slave? As labor? Perhaps as ransom for a future cause? His clothes are beggarly - I cannot fathom such a reason."

Halqat turned away from Khayin and looked at the man.

"No, Khayin," he said. "You are completely mistaken."

Halqat took several slow steps toward the man and stared at him, narrowing his eyes until his iris was imperceptible, before turning back to Khayin and speaking.

"This man is -- this man was -- my friend."