Exill felt frustrated that the women didn’t seem to understand the danger that lay a short distance away. They had been sleeping during the attack of the cancerous tentacled abomination, not bearing witness to its mind-numbing horror. He had learnt to trust his instincts and they were screaming at him that the house by the well was a dangerous Aberration.

“Dyna, your father mentioned earlier that people were disappearing at night. I think the house I saw has something to do with it.”

Describing the appearance and location of the house, he tried to impress on her the danger it posed. “Can you quickly go report this to your father? I know this is your first day at work, but this is urgent. He needs to arrange the town guard and priests to investigate it.”

“Okay, you can count on me!” Dyna flashed him a confident smile, handing her mop to Tsarra before hurrying out into the rain.

Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned to the seated patients inside. The open layout of the cottage offered no privacy to its residents and the contents of their discussion had been overheard despite best efforts to control the volume of his voice.

“There’s nothing to worry about, we’ll be opening in ten minutes so please sit tight.” Reassuring them, he turned to pour a bucket of water into the cauldron over the fire. Warm water would continuously be drawn throughout the day to wash away wounds and boil herbal ingredients.

Feeling his sanity slowly returning, he nodded at Tsarra to send in the first patient.

The morning wore on uneventfully, and Dyna eventually returned to assist Tsarra with triage. She assured him that her father had taken his words seriously and sent word to the town commander and head priest on the location of the Aberration. Comforted by the serious response, he called for a thirty minute break in the afternoon, giving them all a chance to relax.

“Pass my regards to your mother, this jam is delicious.” Exill slathered more butter and apple jam on the bread, marvelling at the sweetness. Dyna had returned with a wicker basket of goods to eat for lunch, kindly packed by her mother.

“It is apple season right now, and our cupboard is full of them! I’ll bring you some of her apple pie tomorrow.” The beaming girl hastily withdrew her hand, realising too late she had been stroking his forearm. Dyna looked over her shoulders to check Envy hadn’t witnessed her slip up.

It was then that a sudden consternation broke out towards the entryway. Envy, who had been vigilantly standing guard moved the waiting patients aside to let a red robed priest through. Exill stood up to greet Father Jonas, eager to hear the news he would bring.

“Did you find the building? Was it an Aberration?”

“Let this old man catch his breath first, I’ve been on my foot all morning…” The Priest complained when Exill pulled out a seat for him. Seeing the old man eyeing the simple meal in front of them, he brought a dish over, inviting him to eat.

“Thank you, I didn’t have a chance to eat breakfast. The town commander ordered a full search of the outskirts and I feel I’ve circled the town twice! Ah, where are my manners?”

The Priest lowered his half-eaten bread to say a quick prayer, thanking the World Spirit for the meal. Exill waited impatiently as the recovering man buttered his second slice of bread.

“Well… we were issued instructions based on your report, meaning three priests and a squad of militia were hastily dispatched to the location you described. Unfortunately, but perhaps fortunately for us, the Aberration you described was no longer there by the time we arrived.” The Priest’s bushy eyebrows slanted downwards with this implication that the two-storey building could disappear at will. Sighing in exasperation, he wrapped up the story, “Then as I said earlier, the town commander ordered a full search, and we circled the town twice to no avail.”

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Father Jonas munched on the bread wearily, looking down at his plate. Exill tapped the side of his table nervously, deep in thought with a frown on his face.

“You believe me don’t you?” He asked, struggling to accept that a house that size could simply disappear.

“Of course I believe you my child! We faced an abomination together. There are also records in the church of this decrepit building you speak of, but the most recent eyewitness report is thirty years old…” Father Jonas splayed his fingers up in the air, expressing his frustration.

“There were some who didn’t believe your claims, but they are firmly in the minority. Any insular community has detractors who don’t believe the word of outsiders. The sad fact is that cases like this are all too common outside Ark, you must know, hailing from a small village yourself.”

The Priest looked at Exill with sympathetic eyes, he had heard of the devastation the war had wrought on the villages in the eastern border. Unsteadily rising to his feet, Father Jonas took a last bite out of the bread, then turned to the entrance.

“Well… I should be off if I don’t want to miss the afternoon prayers. I’ll try to drop by sometime in the morning once I’ve recovered from this ordeal. Perhaps we will have better luck searching for that cursed Aberration together.”

He patted Exill on the shoulder with a heavy palm and sluggishly pushed past the queuing patients outside. Seeing their thirty minute break was nearly over, Exill cleared the table and led Dyna to the treatment room under the watchful eye of the Vampire.

“That was unfortunate news… you should take care to run far away if you encounter the building I described. Anyway, let’s begin our lesson.”

The first patient of the afternoon had been burned badly near the knee and his leg was covered in pale blisters filled with oozing fluid. He drew Dyna closer, demonstrating how to heal such wounds.

“You can see from the lack of swelling that it’s not infected. Our goal as healers is not to heal it completely. That would consume too much mana and put a strain on the patient’s vitality. No, we channel a steady stream of mana, restoring a thin layer of tissue under the blister. Then, with the aid of ointments, we accelerate the recovery process to a week instead of months.”

Guiding her palm over the blisters, he provided feedback by sight on whether she was using too much mana or not.

“Good, channel it just under the surface of the skin… a light touch there. With practice you will get a better feel of how much mana you should inject.”

Exill failed to mention how Scientist’s skill [Measure] allowed him to measure his mana output to a frightening accuracy. Unfortunately, he couldn’t sense the mana of others and had to judge visually how Dyna was doing.

The afternoon wore on, and he was pleased with the progress she had made in controlling the flow of mana. She was a natural at it, and her obsidian eyes burned with quiet intensity while absorbing his every word.

“Do you enjoy this work?” Exill asked, as they waited for the next patient.

“It’s more difficult than I thought... I didn’t understand what was so hard about being a healer when I could pour mana to heal wounds instantly. This is like long distance running. You need to be strategic with how much mana you use, and where.”

The Witchdoctor was impressed with her intelligence. In a short time, she had successfully condensed the crux of their profession into a simple analogy. Healing was like a marathon. If Exill tried to completely heal his patients, he would at most be able to attend to one or two a day. To treat dozens of people, you needed to be focused and selective.

“I remember you haven’t assigned a second job yet. Have you thought about what you would like to do?”

“No, father says I must let my husband decide, or my value as a wife would fall.” Dyna said with a curious lack of emotion, as if she was reciting something that had repeatedly been drilled into her.

Exill was lost for words for a moment, both saddened and taken aback that young women were treated this way. He tried to remember his alter-ego’s childhood memories to check if boy’s were equally pressured by their parents to take certain jobs. However it was to no avail.

“If your husband gave you permission to freely choose any job you wanted, what would it be?” Before he could hear her answer, the next patient came in. Exill inwardly sighed, realizing it was the merchant who needed three teeth extracting.

As always, he hated dental work. Gesturing the man to take a seat the Witchdoctor got to work, “Gather round Dyna, this is a specialized tool of mine that both cuts and paralyzes the patient. Try not to faint.”