The buzzing never left; it was the only constant thing it his life so far. Even in his sleep he tried to feel for anything about himself, some memory to find out who he was and in response: the harder he pushed the louder the buzzing got. The thing that quieted the buzzing was another sound that suddenly started to ripe into his mind, it was the sound of screams.
“FIX IT”
“DON’T SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A MATTER OR THE CUT WILL NOT KILL YOU, I WILL!”
Being Jerked awake James looked to his right to the source of the noise… but really, they were so loud it was coming from all around him. On the thin bed next to him laid a man in torn armor, cuts that bleed all along the side of his body. What was seemly the biggest was an arrow that was being pulled out, the arrowhead had corroded green veins in it. It scared James to see someone like that so he in what little way he could get away while still staying on the bed.
“I don’t understand why your party pressed you to keep the arrow in, clearly it was the source of the poison”
Brother Francis shook his head and dropped the poison arrow into a metal bucket beside the bed and motioned to one of the women who was also standing beside the man bed.
“Sister Mary take that thing out back and burn it. A thing such as that does not belong in my home”
“You mean a place of healing, At once Brother Francis”
Brother Francis gave with a questing look as Mary quickly made her way to the back but the sound of the man screaming once again quickly pulled his focus back.
“How bad is it? Am I going to lose my leg?”
The man pleaded for an answer while sitting up, the sweat dripping off his face. Brother Francis forcefully pushing him back down in response.
“The question you should ask is not if you will lose your leg but your life. After that, question how you treat others because your actions have put you in this condition and pray to Phelous”
Brother Francis held his left hand over the now exposed and multicolored wound, a light appeared in his palm. While James watched he started to notice something else so he learned closer to them and focused harder.
What are those lines?
Skill Observation Acquired
Seeing that somewhat transparent scroll appeared before him with those words made James jerk backwards but the message stayed for a few more seconds before burning away. Looking around it appeared no one else saw it. One of the other women at the other side of the room seemed to notice his reaction. James froze for a moment then put his hand in the thumbs up position and awkwardly smiled
I don’t know what my hand symbol means but it feels like the right thing to do, also don’t want her to think I have issues
Thinking about James suddenly realized he could now think much clear. The buzzing never left but now things felt…normal? Maybe that’s to strong of a word but much better than last night. James turned his attention back to Brother Francis and the wounded man. It had only been moments but now Brother Francis was starting to sweat. Another thing he noticed was he could see better what was happening the healing. The lines coming from the ball of light coming from Brother Francis palm seemed more defined if only slightly. He could now tell there seemed to be a strange color that traveled from the wound, up the lines and into the palm where they just disappeared.
“Sister Mary are you back yet?”
Brother Francis said annoyed but still not taking his eyes off what he was doing with the man’s leg.
“I am here”
She answered while speeding up her walk to come back, grabbing a small piece of cloth and started to dab and Brother Francis forehead
“Stop that, I need you to get the guard outside for… what your name?”
Brother Francis asked while looking directly at the man he was treating.
“Joshua” he said worried about the outcome of the questions being asked
“Yes yes Joshua, tell the guard there has been an attempted murder”
he said matter of fact way and stood up straight trying to stretch his back stopping his healing
“What are you talking about? Me and my party were fighting goblins you crazy old man. Getting hurt is natural!”
Sister Mary came back in with the guard that had been standing right outside the doors, the guard seemed tense and was looking around.
“Not here, the people who tried to kill him where this man own party”
With Brother Francis statement not just, the guard was speechless but everybody around who could hear.
“That is crazy, the would never do that like I explained before, a goblin…”
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“I know, a goblin shot you but why did you not take out the arrow so your healer could treat it, your party does have a healer or was I informed wrongly”
“Well yes that’s true bu..”
“And even if that was not true, which it is, you must have immensely noticed how this was not any ordinarily arrow wound with the way the color of your skin was changing?”
“I did…”
“Which leads to the next question, why did you keep it in” Brother Francis asked while throwing his arms forward toward Joshua
Joshua at first said nothing, then slowly spoke, as if each word carried a massive weight
“Daniel our healer said so”
Brother Francis walked over and sat down next to him
“Was he the only one who said so?” he asked but he did so in a way as if he already knew the answer
“No… they are agreed right after Daniel told me to keep it in” At this point Joshua spoke seemly stunned
Apparently, the guard connected a few more things in his mind and without speaking to anyone else inside quickly walked out to find the rest of Joshua’s partly
“From the way you look Joshua you know I am right. Before you ever came in here, I knew about you, and you know who told me? Those people you beat who needed healing from me. You’re a mean drunk, actually you’re just a mean person. Your own party tried to kill you because of now bad of a person you are and you were too stupid to figure it out”
Joshua as if all the strength left this body weakly tried to push Father Francis away but instead Father Francis grabbed his wrist and held him
“There not going to jail because in the end even with what I pointed out it comes down to their word or yours and no one will believe you. You will be safe for tonight but tomorrow you will leave and If I was you, I would leave the town”
Without waiting for an answer Brother Francis left the stunned Joshua where he was and walked over to James
“Sorry about all of that, can you come with me? I know a better place to talk without people like him around” Brother Francis motioned for James to get up
Is he safe to be around?
Not knowing the answer to his own question but thinking he was not in a position to question the hunting Brother James followed him to the backroom. The room itself was both a kitchen and storage area for medical supplies, there was even a table with chairs to sit at.
“sit down James, we should talk” Brother Francis spoke while closing the door
James sat down then Brother Francis did shortly after while picking at some leftover food that seemed to be left over from this morning
“Today started early for me so I never got to finish, I always like to have some rabbit for breakfast. Now you when’s the last time you have eaten?”
“I don’t know, the only thing I remember is waiting and seeing the light of the gate in the distance”
“Anything else, anything you can think of that could us figure this all out?”
Should I tell him of the voice? Rick trusted me with him and Rick is a good person
“Well this is something, a…”
You-remember-nothing
“James what do you remember?”
“I…don’t know, I am sorry Brother Francis I thought there was something but I forgot”
James was puzzled, he swore he was going to say something but he could not remember what it was. Brother Francis was not fully satisfied with that answer so he started to reach forward towards James heads.
“I think I can help you remember, now just hold still”
Before James could answer Brother Francis had already started. With his only an ich away from James face a bright light once again appeared from his palm. Due to how bright it was James closed his eyes for… something to happen. Would it hurt? Feel good?
IS the buzzing louder?
Truly it was hard to tell but besides for that he felt nothing, the least of which any memories.
“Anything?”
“No”
“How odd”
Brother Francis pulled away his hand with a disappointed expression
“What did the letter say?”
James did want to wait any longer to get an answer about this now that Brother Francis failed, leaving the letter the only object that could do so.
“It said what your name was and that you wanted a good life, essentially”
“Can I see it?”
“Sadly no, I sent it to a friend in the capital this morning”
James put his face in his hands in frustration, again with the dead ends.
“If the letter said nothing why send it away?”
“Well when Rick showed me the letter it was the letter itself that piqued my interest not the contents written on it. I have never felt magic quite like that, so the idea is to send it to my friend to see if they do and if they do it should give us at the very least of who your connected to”
Brother Francis leaned forward and looked James dead in the eye
“So what do you want to do in the meantime?”
“What”
The question genuinely confused James, first they point about the truth of his entire life and then what to do with his free time?
“We don’t know if that letter will ever lead us to something, in fact it may very well not. That means you can’t put your new life on hold, you have to live it! Because there will come a day where you will live no more days and at that point do you want to regret time wasted?”
Feeling that just made James confused, he knows what the words meant but what he was struggling with was realizing all the options he had and frozen to pick what to do.
“Don’t worry about what to do due to ‘endless’ choices because actually you have far less then you think”
“Why is that?”
“Your poor”
For a moment the both of them just sat there in silence then James started to chuckle to himself, soon after Brother Francis joined him and soon after that they could be heard roaring in laughter even beyond the door.
“How about this: since you will be staying here anyway (Thank Rick for that) why don’t you help me treating patients? We can see if you can use healing magic and if not, well you can still pick up some things like banging, or horse riding or who knows what else”
“Horse riding?”
“….Haha lets keep that to ourselves”
“Deal”
Axe Equip Acquired Skill Woodcutting Acquired Skill Swing Acquired Strength Risen 5 Points
Three more ‘abilities’ he got after cutting wood along with a boost to his strength, still James did not feel he should tell others about what was happening, to much of a risk, things were looking up for him
I should start writing down these scroll messages
Indeed, he felt that he would forget if he did not have it written down somewhere, also by the end of the day he stopped being scared when they randomly appeared. That night he laid down on ‘his’ bed getting ready to finish the day. It did bother him a great deal hearing those noises and James was worried it was going to get worse but for now that was a worry for another day.
“Cant be…”
James heard Joshua mumbling to himself as he tossed and turned, after being mostly healed guards did come and did what Bother Francis proclaimed: nothing. IT did come down to his word or his party and it seemed to James the guards believed the party.
“Am I a bad person?”
James turned to his right to see Joshua turned and faced him directly. No longer did he seemed like the powerful adventure that James was worried was going to hurt Brother Francis, instead he seemed like his life had fallen a part, a broken man. James could not hold his stare so he closed his eyes and turned himself over to face the other way even covering his ears.
Am I a bad person?