As Tearle wearily blinked his bleary eyes, there was a moment where his memories must have flooded back into him. Without a word, his hand snapped to his hip, where a familiar weapon would usually be held, and his eyes snapped open in alert as he scanned his surroundings. As he didn’t find his weapon, he paused as he looked at everyone surrounding him.

When spotting Em, he never moved his eyes away.

Lee knelt down towards him with his hands held up. Hopefully, the placating gesture would earn him some trust. “Tearle? You’re alright now. I’m a healer. I healed you. You’re in my…” He paused. He probably should have asked if ‘hospital’ was a familiar term. Back in Neldam, their hospital was called a clinic. “...Clinic.”

Without breaking away from his staring contest with Em, who had really taken this as a staring contest, judging by her feral grin and wide eyes, Tearle began his questioning.

“Where am I?”

Lee could tell that there were going to be a host of questions, as he himself had been teleported to an unfamiliar location once upon a time. So, he answered with haste and wasted no time responding to each and every question.

“My new clinic in Felispar. A northern city in the Kingdom of Thexis. It’s on the continent of Dionaris.”

He didn’t react to the information and never broke his gaze from Em. “How did I get here?”

“You were teleported to me by the gods. It’s a deal I have made with them. If you look around, you can find that you’re in my temple.”

Tearle didn’t look around.

“I must return to where I was. How do I get back?”

Lee flicked his eyes to the portal, wondering if it was going to work both ways or not. “I don’t know. Perhaps the portal will send you back. You’re the very first to be sent to me since I made the deal… When you arrived, you were not in good shape, Tearle. Barely having 7% of your HP remaining, and would have probably died in moments. You still have mana sickness... I didn’t know how to heal that.”

Tearle’s brown mustache twitched upon hearing the news. “This Arachne, is it tamed?”

Lee held back his scowl as Em’s grin vanished, turning into a blank look of hidden hatred. “Em, the Arachne you’re staring at impolitely, is a fellow healer and good friend of mine. She’s a person, not a monster. As thanks for saving your life, please treat her as such.”

With hesitancy, Tearle tore his gaze away from Em and looked at Lee. They both flinched when looking into one another's eyes. Tearle, because of Lee’s swirling rainbows. And Lee because of Tearle’s glowing green eyes. He was god-blessed.

After a moment of awkward silence, Lee asked some questions of his own. “So, Tearle the Paladin. God-blessed. What in the world were you doing to get injured so badly that the gods themselves needed to teleport you to me and grant me such an exciting start to my morning?”

Tearle looked around him, finding his empty scabbard and copious amounts of blood. His breath hitched when he tried to fully stand, as his armor was so horribly dented that his flexibility was hindered. “I was vanquishing evil.”

Lee raised a brow. “What kind of evil?”

Tearle flicked his eyes around the room, finally taking in that he was indeed in a temple before responding. “The evil that exists everywhere—Monsters. Did you confiscate my weapon?”

Lee shook his head and pointed at the empty scabbard. “When I got here, everything was as you’ve seen. Your weapon must have been left behind. If you don’t mind me asking, what god are you blessed by? I am an anointed of Arcani, as you can probably tell from my eyes.”

Finished with his inspection of the temple, and seeing as he wasn’t in any immediate danger, Tearle finally loosened up as he began removing his armor. “Burstina.”

Lee looked back to Gerald, who was nodding sagely and holding his hands out in front of him to prevent spreading blood onto more of his clothes, and figured that Burstina was the name of one god he had never met before.

Looking down at himself, Lee noticed a splash or two of blood got onto him, sullying his Robes of the Genesis—for the time being. Probably from kneeling, as he never physically touched Tearle. On a whim, he thought of a new spell to create. Blood was going to be a problem. Obviously, stains were one of the main issues, but showing up to visit another patient with blood splashed here and there? No. That would not fly.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Blood was about half water. If he remembered correctly, that is. Nearly half of blood was plasma, which in itself comprised ninety percent water. So, with either water, life, or maybe even perhaps death, Lee should have a way to manipulate blood. He doubted that he’d be able to control the blood within another, but that would be a delightful addition to his combat repertoire.

Subtlety, he tried to create the spell then and there, but it failed. Regina’s eyes flicked toward him, catching him in the act, but she didn’t make any fuss.

After deciding that creating a spell in this situation might be a little untoward, he turned back to Tearle, who had finally finished removing his heavy metal armor. Lee frowned as he inspected the man in his thirties.

He was shredded. Well, he was shredded before, but that was in a bad way. Underneath his dented armor, Tearle was wearing a white, skintight, spandex-esque material that hugged his body closely, revealing his well-defined muscles. The man legitimately had an eight-pack of abs, which Lee didn’t even think was possible, and judging by how red Gina’s face turned, she didn’t think so either.

On the sections that were uncovered, Lee spotted several long lacerating scars. Idly, he wondered why his healing didn’t heal those. Lee would have had a few nasty scars of his own if not for his healing magic, so why didn’t it work for Tearle?

“Well, Tearle. My name is Lee Barnes. You’re welcome to stay here for as long as you need… Once you’re ready to go, you can try out the portal behind you. If that doesn’t work… I’m sorry to say that you’ll have to find your own way back. Regina here will help you if you have questions, isn’t that right?” Lee said as he gave a significant look toward Regina, who bristled in unhappiness.

“Wait.” Tearle said as Lee sneaked away. He had a busy day ahead of him, and talking to a mystery god-blessed paladin who came through a magical god-made portal sent off an exorbitant amount of alarms in his head. It sounded like trouble, and he already had enough of that.

“Yes?” Lee asked hesitantly.

“Thank you for your timely help. How much for the healing?” Tearle asked as he fiddled with a small leather pouch attached to his hip.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m just glad I could help.” Lee turned and started walking off toward the exit.

“No. Healing is not free, and I owe you a debt. Tell me, how much?” Tearle said with confidence.

Lee begrudgingly turned back around and stared at Tearle. He didn’t know why, but he wasn’t a fan of the man.

Is this some honorbound thing? Paladin of virtue sounds like it would have honor as a core principle. Nobody else would normally not accept free healing.

“A silver. I didn’t use much mana and it’ll regenerate before my first pat—second patient of the day.”

Tearle shook his head. “I appreciate your willingness to spare me coin, but I insist upon the standard fee. I am not impoverished.”

Before Lee could explain the unique pricing scenario of his hospital, Regina spoke first. “That is the standard pay for this house of healing. Lee is revolutionizing healing, and he wants it to be affordable for all. The price is fair.”

She waved for him to follow, then walked off toward the exit. “Bring your things, I’ll show you to a blacksmith to fix your armor and find yourself a new weapon. I’m sure you’re eager to return, but return ready and prepared.”

Tearle nodded, grabbed his gear, and then strode forth with confident steps to follow Regina.

Lee stood there as he watched them leave. That was very uncharacteristic of Regina… Leaving him alone. Em scuttle up and stood beside him. Her eyes locked onto Tearle’s departing figure.

“Are all paladins like that? Rude to those unfamiliar? Not very virtuous, I dare say.”

Lee snorted as he turned to clean up the temple. “Not sure. What I know of paladins is probably very different from what everyone else knows. To me, they’re knights of a religious sort—bringing down flames of holy wrath in the name of their deity. They swear oaths and stuff.”

Gerald coughed, his hands still held outward awkwardly. Lee cleaned him off with Create Water, soaking the floor during the process.

“Mostly, you are correct.” Gerald started. “Paladins are typically knights linked to religion, but you can be a paladin for many different causes. You can be a paladin of an individual, which is common for the religious sorts. A paladin of an idea or concept, such as strength or valor. Or maybe even a paladin of a specific item. Like a paladin of shields, paladin of swords, or even something you may deem silly such as a paladin of flowers.”

Lee nodded along as he transferred his spraying water to the bloodstains coating the temple floor. “I assume you don’t need a class to be considered a paladin?”

Gerald smiled softly as he began mopping the floor. “That’s correct. Very astute, Mr Barnes.”

Em stood around, assuming a managerial position in the cleaning process judging by her upturned nose and haughty appearance as the two men worked diligently. “I would like to be a paladin. How does one become one?”

Lee listened carefully as Gerald explained, feeling the powerful urge to facepalm rise from within as Em’s smile grew and grew as he went on.

“In the end, it’s an oath. You swear a personal oath to an individual, cause, items, anything really. By having it witnessed by someone in a position of authority, you can attain the status of a paladin. At least, for our kingdom that is.”

Em swiveled her head toward Lee, her grin suggesting trouble was a-brewing. She scuttled over with grace and then dipped forward with her ridiculous flexibility, bringing her face mere inches from Lee’s. She brought her lips up to his ear and whispered. “Paladin of metal… Thoughts?”

Lee stared straight ahead, doing his best to pretend that she didn’t exist. The last time she had fixated on something, it was the other type of metal—music. Now, suggesting she be a paladin? She was going to brainstorm for the next two weeks and pester him with ideas until he eventually caved into one—just like he did with her entrance theme.

But!!! This time, Lee wasn’t going to break. He wouldn’t cave in. He would rise stalwart and victorious! He would not acknowledge her flights of fancies! He would—

“Oh?! How about a Paladin of Lee? Let’s do that.”

“Absolutely not!!!”