Chapter 108

K'tharkle - Day 38, Thursday

Jay woke up and had difficulties determining where he was for a moment. A healer was leaning over his bed and gave him a wide smile.

“You're up! Good! Do you know where you are? No? You're at the Adventurer's Guild Infirmary. You were brought in with a concussion and cranial fractures, do you know what those are?”

Jay stared at the woman dumbly, he was still not entirely awake. She was dressed in a white healer's robe and wore a ruby necklace. Her brown curly hair peeked out from under her hood and framed her face with puffs of curls. Rays of sun shined through an opened window on the other side of the room and a warm morning breeze wound throughout the room pleasantly.

The woman smiled. “That's just a fancy way of saying you got hit in the head hard and it cracked a bit. Your head I mean.”

The woman used her hands to pretend she held a skull in it and then squashed her hands together in emphasis.

Jay's eyes opened wide and ogled at her and the woman looked suddenly worried and hurriedly continued, “But don't worry we already fixed it! You're fine now. Really.” she insisted as she lay a single hand on his chest. Jay felt a tingling in his chest for a moment before the woman stopped and stood up straight.

“Looks like you're good to go. I'm guessing that fancy suit of armor you were wearing when you came in here last night came with a helmet when you originally purchased it?” she asked and waited for Jay's reply.

Jay dumbly nodded his head.

“You might consider wearing it next time you fight.” the healer said sardonically with a raised eyebrow. “This is your second time in here with a head injury.” She pushed something on the base of the bed and it folded up raising him to a sitting position. “You're all healed up now, off to breakfast with you. Oh, your clothes and armor are hanging up over there,” she said as she pointed at a rack along one side of the room.

Jay peeked under his bed-sheets and realized he was wearing very little. Very little. The healer caught his look and smiled again. “I'll give you some privacy to get dressed. Your friend Aaron, the one that came in with you, was released already so you might want to get a move on.”

“Aiden.” Jay said.

“Right. What did I say? Aiden, sorry.” the woman said with a smile.

She left and shut the door behind her quietly, not wanting to wake any of the other patients up. Just because Jay was all healed up did not mean that everyone else was.

Jay thought of getting up before he noticed a note taped to his bedside table. It simply read Jay on the front. He pulled the note off the tape and opened it. It was a simple sentence. “Turn off your title. -W”

Jay suddenly remembered his title, Pan-dimensional Librarian, and his eyes unfocused for a moment as he went through his settings until he found the section for titles. He selected Do Not Display at the head of the titles section and he breathed a sigh of relief. He would have been mobbed before ever reaching lunch.

Jay stretched in bed without getting up before he hopped out of bed and moved his arms and legs around a bit. He was feeling stiff for some reason. Jay wrinkled his nose. He stunk. His armor was filthy. His skin wasn't all that clean either.

Jay grinned and got dressed. After which he stood still and activated his Tropical Island Aura. Immediately he felt it go to work on his skin, hair, clothes, and armor. He enjoyed the thirty seconds of magical scrubbing and just stood quietly until it finished.

He was now spotlessly clean. He had been able to clean himself only once during his travels and he enjoyed the wonderful feeling of finally being once again freshly cleaned. His armor looked much better now too and practically sparkled.

It was a problem. One of the ways you could tell a working set of armor apart from a decorative one was the signs of use. Dirt. Wear. Tear. The things that pointed towards the armor having seen actual combat. Jay's armor didn't look like either one but instead a mix of the two. Its appearance after he used his aura was pristine and as clean as the day it was created.

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The armor still showed marks of use, spots where it had stopped a blow or held off teeth from reaching his skin. It gave the appearance of armor that had seen combat but then had been repurposed for decorative use it looked so clean. Anyone who examined his armor even in passing would have questions. Which was it? Was his armor for show or use?

As far as Jay was concerned his armor was for both and he grinned again at the luxurious feeling of clean clothing and armor against clean skin. His hair moved gently in the passing breeze. He was happy to be back.

Jay grabbed his belongings which had been placed next to his armor on a low table. His belongings had been in no danger of theft as no one would steal from an infirmary, especially an Adventurers Guild infirmary. Stealing from a healer was looked at as one of the worse crimes a person could commit. One never knew when they would need a healer – unless one stole from a healer because then one would definitely need a healer once caught.

Jay left the room and waved and said thanks to the healers he passed who waved goodbye and good luck in reply.

Walking out in to the morning sunlight Jay used one hand to shield his eyes and he took a deep breath. He breathed in the scent of city life, the foods, the spices, it was a heady mix and Jay could not wait to get to breakfast.

Jay took his time walking to breakfast. He enjoyed the slow pace, not having to run from anything for a change. He kept feeling as if he was doing something wrong, even dangerous, by moving so slowly and it took a bit before the feeling left him.

Jay reached the dining hall and got in line as he craned his neck back and forth to try and find one of his friends. He didn't recognize anyone and took a step forward when the line moved. Finally he reached the front of the line and took a tray. Three egg omelets, he took his with bacon and a blend of cheeses. Bacon on the side, probably more slices than he should have. Fresh orange slices, and some tart cranberry juice filled out the meal.

It might as well have been food from the gods themselves it looked so good compared to the wafers he had been subsisting off of for the last few days.

Jay eagerly took his tray of food and drink and turned to scan the room. M'redith was standing up and waving to him. She was wearing her armor. They all were, his entire group was already eating. They had class today still. Jay had hoped that they would get a day to recover but no, they had weapons practice and then Dungeon Room in the afternoon.

Jay sat down at the table with his friends and began to eat. Everyone was eating, no one was talking. It was odd, someone was always talking it seemed at their table, but not that morning. Everyone just enjoyed their breakfast.

Finally finishing up Jay sat back and looked over at Aiden who was debating going up for seconds.

“Don't do it. You have to work out until lunch. You'll regret it if you get seconds.” Norri tried to warn him but Aiden finally shook his head and went back up. He returned a moment later with a few slices of buttered toast.

“I compromised. Toast won't kill me!” Aiden said with a grin as he took a bite out of one of his slices of toast.

M'redith coughed. “You look great Jay, mind helping a lady out?” she said as she leaned up against him with a smile.

Jay winced, “Oops, sorry everyone. I'll give everyone a go at the aura as you finish eating.”

Jay turned his aura on and thirty seconds later M'redith was grinning and looked much happier. “I really missed that. Stupid library.” she remarked with a thin smile.

Norri nodded in agreement. “Stupid library.”

Jay used his aura on Norri and then Aiden when he had finished his toast.

“I'm looking forward to getting used to that again.” Aiden said as he gathered up people's trays and brought them up.

“Aiden seems good as new. He didn't even wait for me to wake up to walk to breakfast.” Jay remarked.

Norri laughed, “Can you blame him? Poor kid was starving probably.”

Everyone laughed but went quiet when Aiden came back thinking they were talking about him which just made it worse because they were talking about him.

Aiden didn't apologize for leaving him at the Infirmary. “It was life or death, I had to eat. Besides, you were in the care of that pretty healer. You were doing just fine.”

“What's that now?” M'redith said with a raised eyebrow. Thankfully she was just teasing him.

Jay sighed and looked at M'redith with a half grin, “No comment. I think I hear someone calling my name.”

Jay stood up and the rest of the group laughed and followed. The group was glad to be back and have things return to normal.

They left the dining hall and headed to weapons practice.