Lee washed his hands with Create Water as he hopped out the back of a carriage of some well-to-do merchants. Regina stood beside the door, waiting for his exit. She had started to take her role of protecting him much more seriously ever since he had gotten poisoned, and he wouldn’t turn down her well-wanted help.
Lee stored the silver pieces he’d gotten paid for his healing services in his hidden cache. He looked up to the sky, watching in real-time as the orange hue of the setting sun dimmed as night arrived.
“Just a broken foot. Someone dropped a crate unloading their supplies.” Lee said to Regina as he began heading back toward their Inn. Regina followed along silently in his wake.
Throughout the day, he went around Asper to offer his healing services. Like in Breye, most of the populace was wary or straight-up distrusting of his claims of cheap healing. It was really putting the actions of the Healer’s Sanctum into perspective.
The destitute and sickly took a leap of faith in trusting him to do what he claimed, and after hearing about others with class quests similar to his own, he felt sorry for those who had assumed that the end was either through their illness or with him. If a healer with bad intentions came around with a class quest similar to his own, these people were naught but experience waiting to be farmed, and that was something unacceptable.
The middle class was completely disinterested in his services. Many of them went so far as to claim they weren’t injured or sick once he started a conversation. It didn’t help their case when he could see with Medical Attention that they were lying, but he never pushed the issue. All of them had very minor scrapes, the onset of a cold, or age-related issues—like arthritis. While he could force the issue, it wasn’t his responsibility. He could only help those who wanted help.
Now, if someone with cancer had passed by… he might have been a hypocrite.
Once back at the Inn, Lee swerved off the path to go check on Em. Ever since she had taken the wagon and horses back to what he assumed to be some stables, he hadn’t seen or heard word of her.
She had to have been feeling bad about how people perceived her, but there wasn’t much he could do other than stand up for her and showcase his willingness to be by her side. He could listen to her and support her as a friend, but again, that only went so far. She had a rough exterior, but like anyone in this world, everyone bottled their emotions to a certain degree.
When he finally found the wagon, he was surprised to find a whole other structure designed to hold wagons and their horses separately. Seeing his confusion, Regina spoke up. “It’s a livery yard.”
Lee spared her a glance, and it must have said more than he could, as Regina’s eyes died of what little emotion she had managed to scrooge up. “Really…?”
Lee shrugged. “We didn’t have these.” He waved a hand at the whole operation in front of him.
Workers roamed about, leading animals around to stalls and toward troughs filled with food. Off in a corner, a minor blacksmithing setup was arranged, and an older, gruff-looking woman was hammering some metal set up upon a tiny anvil. Wagons were being stored and secluded into rooms with large barn-like doors that swung freely—attached to the top of the building by what looked to be sophisticated pulleys. Everywhere he looked, there was some work taking place, and he was quite surprised by how efficient the whole operation looked.
But, Em wasn’t anywhere he could see. He didn’t think she would want to be around these people, but he could have been wrong. If he had to guess where he found the more nervous workers, he would find Em.
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After asking around, he was directed toward the blacksmith with tense smiles and reassuring words. That wasn’t a good sign…
The woman was focused on her work when he walked up to wait for her to notice him. He didn’t want to interrupt her work, and time wasn’t currently an issue. As he waited, he watched her work. The woman's large arms rained down a hammer upon a lump of metal, dealing ear-ringing blows that looked like they would shatter the tiny anvil. She wore a simple leather apron and simple dirty work clothes.
Once she finished crafting her item, which looked like a horseshoe, she wiped the sweat and grime from her glistening brow, revealing dark olive skin. She inspected her work for a second or two, nodded, then turned to face him fully. “Can I help you?” She asked. Tone brokering no-nonsense.
Lee cleared his throat. “Yes, I’m looking for a friend. She’s quite hard to miss. Large, metallic, and an Arachne.”
The woman grunted as she turned back to her small forge set-up and began heating another ingot of metal. “Closest door over there.” She flicked her head toward the section where Lee saw people leading wagons to and fro. “Tell it I need my anvil back in thirty minutes.”
Lee frowned. “I’ll let her know. Thank you for your time. If you need any healing, feel free to let me know.”
The woman’s hammer froze for naught but a second in surprise before continuing to rain heavy blows onto a newly heated ingot.
Lee walked off toward the indicated door as Regina spoke from his side. “Do not hold her views against her. She has been alive for longer than you, raised knowing a particular way of life, and you showing up randomly claiming her views are wrong is an unwinnable battle. You handled that well, all things considered.”
Lee didn’t give a reply as he swung open the barn doors, revealing the interior. The ground was coated in a fine layer of straw, and Em stood off in the corner of the room. A faint clanging of metal echoed about the open and spacious room, but the only light source was the nearly set sun off on the horizon.
“Hey, whatcha working on?” Lee said as he kicked over piles of straw on his way to her side.
“Hands.” Em mumbled, sounding dejected.
Lee nearly missed a step after a rather fearsome kick. “Hands? You’re working on hands?”
Em turned around and held one of her hands outward like she was showing off after a manicure. Lee didn’t know why, but he had incorrectly assumed that underneath Em’s metallic-covered exterior lay a normal one. Instead, underneath was a bundle of skinless muscles with metallic cords intertwined. She had… peeled her gauntlet off her hand and was in the process of refining the interior of her body.
Off on the anvil she had taken from the blacksmith, her outer coating, her metallic gauntlet, was in the process of getting a tune-up. The silvery metal had been worked on to give it a more menacing appearance. Sharp, jagged, angular ridges formed over the fingers and knuckles, and the ends of the fingertips, where fingernails would be, were now sharpened to points like individual daggers.
Lee looked back and forth between the ghastly scene of her hands and the savage-looking gauntlet. Then, he looked across her metallic body. Em caught his look and nodded in regard to his silent question. “It’s all the same. Only my face is untouched.”
Lee stammered as he registered the intense amount of body modification that had taken place. Without thinking, he asked a simple question. “Why?”
Em was quiet as she turned back to continue working on her hands and gauntlet. After not getting an answer, he was about to ask again, but Regina clasped his shoulder. She leaned in and whispered in his ear. What he didn’t expect was the sharp tone. “Do not question her choices. Some people are unhappy with how they are.”
Lee looked over his shoulder and saw Regina wearing a face bordering on contempt—toward him. Lamely, he nodded and changed the subject.
“You want me to cast a spell that removes pain? Also, the blacksmith wants her anvil back, and I can drop your cushions off before I go and grab us some dinner.”
“Yes, please, and anywhere is fine for my bed. I’ll eat whatever you bring.” Em said, focused on her modification and not really into the conversation. Lee nodded and cast Anestheliosurge. He was unsure about everything unfolding before him, but he went off to a separate corner and unloaded Em’s bedding anyway. Then, after giving her a final silent look, he left to gather some food for them.
It was an awkward walk through the livery with Regina in tow, and eventually, she spoke to dispel the heavy atmosphere surrounding them. “I’m sorry for my outburst, but stand by what I said. It’s a personal stance.”
Lee waved it off. “Apology accepted. You probably saved me from looking like an ass anyways… “ They both continued for a few seconds, the sound of their shoes and boots hitting the cobblestone path and the town's nightlife their only company. “You wanna talk about it…?”
“No.” She said, and that was that.