I jerked forward, stumbling as I tried to process what happened. Pain radiated from my side, sharp and searing. While moving to the right, I turned around, facing the attacker. In front of me, a man stood with a bloody flint knife. The man that I recognized. It was the saboteur from the farm. He now stood before me, ragged looking and skin pulling on his bones.

"Wha-?"

Before I could say anything. The attacker charged me again. Screaming. "It's all your fault!"

Adrenaline spiked through my system as I backpedaled, trying to escape his range as I had no weapon to defend myself. The best I could do was dodge.

"I got kicked out because of you! If you had never come, everything would be fine!" He continued screaming and charging me.

He goes to stab me again with a thrust. And in my attempt to dodge. I jumped backward and tripped. I hit the ground hard and the impact sent another jolt of pain down my back. My vision blurred as triumph appeared in his eyes. I stared him in the eyes as he was about to lunge one final time.

He got punched in the jaw by a man who finally snapped out of his stupor. The crowd was finally released from the shock of witnessing a Sage get stabbed and got riled up. Most seemed to have run, but a few stepped in between me and the attacker, while a few others decided it was the opportune time to start a beating. I lost sight of the man and heard pummeling from the other side of the meat shield now set up in front of me.

"I need a hand!" I tried to speak up over the crowd, but no one was looking at me. Everyone was busy looking at the fight that had broken out, and the noise overpowered my voice. I gritted my teeth, forcing myself to stand despite the pain. Unsteadily, I hobbled away from the crowd before I got trampled during all the excitement. Not a minute later, my assistant came running with a few guards.

"Sage, what happened?" He worriedly looks me over as he rushes to my side. Glancing down at the blood dripping down my leg.

"I got stabbed," I said while taking off my shirt. "Can you put this against the stab? I need to stop the blood loss."

He quickly jumped to obey. I winced at the pressure he was putting on it, but that was the right thing to do. After taking a breather, I addressed the guards. "The man that stabbed me is in the crowd, receiving a beating. I need you to break up the fight and try to get him out alive."

I doubted he was alive. How long had the beating lasted? A minute? Two? With how many people jumped him, he would be lucky to come out permanently disabled. But I needed to know why he stabbed me and who sent him.

After unsuccessfully gaining attention and splitting the crowd, the guards decided to physically force themselves into the crowd. The guards started physically dispersing the crowd, pulling people to the side and out of the way.

I turned, leaving the guards to their own devices, and headed towards the city center, where I could get attention to the wound from a healer. The trek was painful and slow, as we both needed to match each other's pace to ensure that he maintained the pressure on my wound.

Reaching the city center, I was noticed by some guards and quickly ushered into the medical ward, where the healers started fussing over me. "Get clean water and the distilled alcohol I showed you how to make," I barked out.

The healers quickly scrambled around, gathering the things I demanded. I was quickly provided with freshly boiled water, clean straw rags, and distilled alcohol.

"Let go of the shirt and wash the wounds with the wet rags to clean the wound. Once you are done, wash the wound with some of the distilled alcohol and wrap the wound." Two healers surrounded me, and their brows started to sweat as they quickly got to work. I winced at the straw rags, scraping on the open wound, but that's the only thing that I could source to this place. The elders would not let go of the limited cotton they had access to, no matter how I tried to convince them, saying there were perfectly good alternatives. I'd have to push them harder at the next meeting, but for now, this would work.

I grunted as they started applying the alcohol. Whistling could be heard as I breathed through my gritted teeth. They flinched at the sound, but seeing that I didn't say anything, they continued. Nausea and dizziness accompanied me the whole time. I really hope I don't get an infection.

Once they were done, they wrapped my wound up, and I finally felt like I could take a breather. "Thank you for your help. You are dismissed."

My assistant and the healers bowed, and they quickly left the room. I tried tapping my foot but quickly stopped because it caused more pain. I decided to settle for thrumming my fingers across my knees.

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Why was I attacked? How does the man tie into everything that happened in my first field and now? What did he mean that I ruined his life? All these thoughts ran through my head as I awaited the success or failure of the guards.

A guard announced his presence, and I let him in. "Sage, I am sorry to report that although we were able to extract him from the crowd, we found that he had already died."

That sucked. I really wanted-. No. I really needed to know what was happening. Why was I getting sabotaged, left alone to my own devices for several months, and then attacked out of nowhere? It wasn't making any sense. Was it the Priest? No, it couldn't be him. We seemed to have come to a silent agreement after I proved my worth and the plague appeared. I mean, it could have been all a show, but he didn't seem to be the type. Was there someone else in this city that wanted me dead? Or was there some kind of third party I needed to be aware of?

My hands started shaking, and I began to feel really anxious and paranoid. Panic started to set in, and my breathing increased rapidly. What if next time I wouldn't get so lucky? What if I was all by myself instead of in a crowd? I would be dead, with no one none the wiser.

"Sage? Sage Jié Míns!" The guard broke me out of my spiraling thoughts, and he watched me with worry etched all over his face. This isn't how a Sage would act. A Sage would embrace what had happened and put it behind him. A Sage would be confident and without worry. I took a deep breath and squashed all my emotions as deeply as possible before finally addressing the guard.

"I want you to tell the Chieftain about the incident if he hasn't heard of it already. For now, I will rest, and I do not want to be disturbed."

He bowed and walked out. I looked around the room. There was little here, even in terms of decorations. A simple chair with a bed and a table was set up in the room, with no door, for quick access in case of emergencies. This room connected to a bigger room, which housed all the healers, herbs, and equipment.

After the exhausting day, I decided it was time to take a nap.

* * *

I woke up feeling clammy and with a pounding headache. I grunted as I felt pain spike through my back as I tried to sit up. Dizziness assaulted me, and I felt disoriented and genuinely lost, taking me a moment to realize where I was. It seems like I did actually get infected.

"Healer. Healer!" I croaked out through my dry lips, and thankfully, a healer walked into my room and quickly realized how sick I was. Did these guys not check up on me? As I was about to get heated, I remembered that I told the guard that I didn't want to be disturbed, and it seemed he had also passed the message along to the healers. I'll need to ensure they don't leave me alone next time. But for now.

"Water." I croak out.

He quickly rushed out of the room and returned with another healer and some water. I took the jar and drank the sweet, sweet elixir. It felt heavenly as it soothed my parched throat. Once I had enough, I set it down and addressed the healers: "I need you to undress my wound and check it out. Probably clean it with water and alcohol."

They undressed the wound and I heard a wheeze through their teeth. That was not a good sign. I was glad I couldn't look, as I was sure the sight would make me feel faint. I was really hoping that I wouldn't get an infection as it could be a death sentence without any modern equipment.

"I need the wound cleaned the same way I instructed last time. And you," I pointed at the other healer who came into my room. "I need you to bring me one of every herb you have."

Both got to work as I tried to think of ways to survive this. I didn't even bother to ask them to describe how it looked, as it wouldn't truly matter how I approached this. I didn't think of using herbs before going to sleep. I didn't know why I didn't think of that, but I couldn't do anything about it right now, so I put it aside to focus.

The healer brought a sack of herbs and displayed them before me. As he displayed any ones that I found useful, I would put them aside. I only got six useful herbs out of this. One grass-looking one brought down headaches, and the other, which looked like a mix of a carrot and ginger, helped with fevers. I would mash the other four together to create a paste and put it on the wound. Hopefully, it didn't progress too far.

I ate the two orally while the healer still washed and disinfected the wound. I got the healer to grab a flat rock from the main room, poured some distilled alcohol, and let it air dry. Once I deemed it dry enough, I mushed the other four together, bashing them with a rock. Once the cleaning was done and I had enough of the rock, I got them to apply the paste to the wound and bandaged it. I told them to come back in roughly an hour so that they could remove it and bandage me up with a clean rag.

I didn't even think this time. I simply stared ahead, dazed. After a while, I heard some noise outside the room and looked to see that the Chieftain had made his way toward me.

"I've heard the news. Has the goddess blessed you?" It took me a moment to realize that this was their version of asking if I got lucky.

"I have not been blessed, it seems. How long has it been since I got stabbed?" I replied.

"Around six hours." I winced at that. It was too long to be left unattended, and I'm not sure, but I think changing a dressing often was better than not.

"It's been a fairly long time, I'm surprised." He nodded, and I continued, my thoughts scattered. "I will truly know how bad it is in a few days, but for now, all we can do is pray."

"Do you want me to bring the Priest?" I hesitated at his proposal, but I would really take anything to increase the odds, even if only through a placebo, like getting prayed over by a Priest.

"Sure, I will take you up on the offer." His eyelids seemed to twitch, but I didn't really pay attention as I had other, more significant things to worry about.