Chapter 19: The Last Suitor

Landar

When father and I returned home shortly after noon, we found a small crowd outside our building. Tomas pushed through to find three merchant guards barring the entrance.

“What’s the meaning of this?” he demanded as he loomed over the shorter spear wielding men.

“Who are you citizen?” One guard asked, his voice polite but firm.

“I am Tomas Guadhaus and I live on the top floor of this building. Why are you denying people entrance to their homes?”

“Yeah!” someone shouted from the crowd, and a small chorus of angry voices echoed the sentiment. No doubt emboldened by the giant of a man who had just taken up their cause.

“Settle down!” My father’s voice boomed over the crowd as he used his captain’s voice. “I’ll deal with this.” The crowd calmed and waited patiently for a response from the guard. My father glared at the man, who hesitated. I couldn’t blame him. Tomas was not a small man.

“Sir?” one of the other guards said, getting his superiors’ attention. “I think this is the father.”

“Oh. Oh, you’re Tomas Guardhaus. My apologies, sir. Please enter. Master Tombrith is waiting for your return.’’ He let my father pass, but when I tried to follow, he stood in the way.

The man moved, as my father gently, but firmly, gripped his shoulder and forcibly relocated him. “That is my son, coin chaser. He will come with me.”

A few minutes later we were at our door, and had passed several more guards, one or two stationed at each level of the townhome. When we got to our floor, there was a cleric, roughly the size and stature of my father, standing in the doorway. A merchant guard from the same company did his best to stare the giant down from across the hall, but with little success.

“Your home is under the protection of the gray priesthood.” The cleric said, as he stepped aside. The massive mace on his hip clanked slightly against his heavy armor.

“Thank you.” Tomas whispered as he passed him by. The cleric winked at me, and I stayed close on my father’s heels. When we got inside, the air changed.

***

“As I said, you’re home while modest, is lovely Lady Guadhaus. I am impressed with the eloquence you’ve created with so few resources.” A fat, no fat was being kind. A corpulent man said, from where he sat taking up literally half of the table for himself.

“Oh, your husband is home.” The man tried to stand, but found himself caught on part of the table and fell back into his seat. “Well please excuse me. I can’t seem to get up without moving this table. Which is quite inconvenient.”

My father stepped in, and I followed him. He took the man’s out-stretched hand, and shook it. When he then offered his hand to me, I took it as well and found the blob-man had a grip that could probably have crushed me into dust had he had the will to do it.

Fantasy world, right. I told myself as I took up a spot behind my parents with Tabitha standing by the wall facing the merchant.

“Please let me introduce myself. I am Guildmaster Tombrith, of the gold and silver smith’s guild. We’re a small, but well to do guild that does business both with the wealthier common and merchant folk, and the nobility. We pride ourselves on bridging the gap between the classes.” The man’s smile made my skin crawl, and his teeth were far too bright to not have some kind of magical or chemical treatment done to them.

“It’s good to meet you Guildmaster. I am Tomas Guadhaus. I’m sure my family has introduced me already. Why are you in my house, sir?” My fathers voice was polite, but his tone had an edge to it that meant business.

“Right. Down to business. That’s what I always like about the common classes, see? Much less fussing about with niceties, while still maintaining a quality of social interaction that is at least acceptable. It’s a hard, and fine line to walk but you do so masterfully Captain. I must say. Yes, I am here to see about making match between your daughter Tabitha, and my nephew, Roland.”

“Is Roland here?” Tomas asked and the fat man shook his head.

“I’m afraid not. You see, my nephew has a kind heart. He joined the gray priesthood some time ago and has been a practicing cleric for nearly a year now. Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. Families have many lines, and merchant families have large households. Unfortunately, many of my kin were recently incarcerated. For crimes I hope they did not commit. But if they did, even after their service of repayment is concluded, it would make them ineligible to be my heir, you see.”

“And a cleric can not be a merchant’s heir.” Mother explained when my father gave her a questioning look.

“Ah. I think I understand. Clerics do not take a vow of celibacy.”

“Not in the gray priesthood they do not. One of the few intelligent things that foolish boy did was choosing the gray rather than the blue, or Gods forbid the yellow. Those nitwits would have him off to some monastery somewhere, praying for years on end. He’d have been nearly a hundred by the time I would see him next, if I ever did. Though I must admit to thinking him a fool at the time for not choosing the blue. Far better magical prospects in the blue, you see. Anyway, the guild has enough influence to protect you, dear.” His gaze fell on Tabitha. He had to dab sweat away from his forehead with a handkerchief and it was then I realized my mother had a small fire going in the oven.

She doesn’t like him. I had to fight a smile from finding its way onto my face. She wants him gone as much as the rest of us.

“And I am in charge of the guild. My house seat is anyway. Your first child brought about by the union would be required to take up an apprenticeship with me as soon as they turn 16 years of age. At which point, if one of your other children shows signs of being more suited to the role, they can also take on apprenticeships. But in order to protect my house’s spot as head of the guild, I need an apprentice from my line as soon as possible. I am desperate and in need of your aid, my young lady.”

“We would like to meet this young nephew of yours first, before we agreed to anything.” Tomas said, but it was clear he was intrigued.

“Of course. I was told that his leadership has made him available today and tomorrow, so you may make your decision. Suffice it to say, if you decide in my favor, I would be honored to bless the union with an appropriate bride's price and dowry. Do you have any questions?”

Mother and father had a few, and they went back and forth a few times until they came to a somewhat natural ending. At that point, the guild master thanked everyone and left, heaving himself down the stairs with the help of the poor guard who had been stationed with the Cleric outside.

The cleric popped his head in to check everything was alright, then left. His job concluded.

“So, what do you think?” I asked Tabitha, who shrugged.

“I don’t know, except I’m glad he’s not the suitor.” My father and mother both laughed, but underlying the joke was an edge of tension. “Perhaps we can go visit this man today?” Everyone agreed, and my father stood to escort Tabitha down to the temple.

“Woh, where do you think you’re going?” He asked as he put a hand out to stop me from following him.

“With you? To the temple so I can do my daily studying.”

“Nope. You’re grounded. You’re going to stay here with your mother and help her clean everything. And I mean everything in this house. Do I make myself clear?”

I tried to argue, but it was no use. When the door shut, I turned and picked up the broom. It was going to be a long, long afternoon.

***

When they returned, the sun was down, dinner was made and I was covered in dust.

Things get sooty and dusty on the fifth floor of a five story building where wood-burning stoves are the main heat source at night. Tomas and Tabitha entered, clearly exhausted. Tomas n particular looked like he had just gone three rounds with Mike Tyson with both his arms tied behind his back and Tyson had his gloves off.

“Well?” Elsbeth demanded as they sat down to eat her stew. “How was he?”

They both tried to talk at the same time, before glaring at each other. Tabitha bent to her soup and mumbled, “ask father, he practically scared the guy off.”

Tomas sighed the sigh of a defeated man who had just fought the most arduous battle of his life. “I did not. The boy’s perfectly fine, with all his body parts intact.”

“What happened?” I asked as I sat down. Elsbeth pinched my ear and shewed me away.

“Go clean yourself off. Then you can have some soup. You’re all dusty.” I did as instructed, taking a wet cloth to my face and arms while I listened in on the conversation.

“Father tried to kill him.”

“I did not.” Tomas matched her indignant tone with one of his own. “I merely asked if the kid wanted to have a friendly spar, is all. He uses a mace, much like my club. I thought it’d be good practice and let me get to know the kid a bit better.”

“Yeah, sure. But you nearly took his arm off with that thing!” Tabitha shouted, pointing at the club at my father’s hip.

“Okay, I admit, I probably hit him a bit too hard. But his arm is fine, just a bit bruised. I just got the thing today. You can’t expect me to be an expert in controlling it, can you?”

The conversation went quiet for a moment before my mother broke it with a pointed question and glance at me. “And where did you get your new club, darling?” There was a dangerous edge to her voice.

“Landar improved my old one. Hits twice as hard now, this thing is amazing! I’m sure our son can join the magical weapons smith’s guild. Just look at—Oh, you’re not happy. What’s wrong? The young man is fine, he even said he’d love to have Tabitha over for a stroll tomorrow morning.” My mother glared at him and he put the club away. He had taken it out to show her just what his little boy had done.

“He said that while another cleric healed his arm and fixed his armor.” Tabitha said, trying to match our mother’s glare.

When Elsbeth’s gaze landed on me, it was not amused. Behind her back, my father mouthed an ‘I’m sorry’ but that did little to help me.

“You were grounded. I explicitly told you to go, watch with your father, then come home. Did I say anything about being able to make magical weapons?”

“No.”

“How about encouraging your father in his antics?”

“Hey!” Tomas protested, but Elsbeth shot him a withering glare and he shut up quick.

Smart move, old man. “No” was my only response to her.

“To bed. No dinner.”

“Honey, that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?” My father tried to save me but failed.

“I think YOU don’t deserve a supper either!” She took his bowl of soup and tossed it into the cleaning bowl. Tomas’s hand darted out, grabbed the bread roll, and stuffed it down his gullet before she could so much as glance at it.

“I’ll go to bed,” he said through the half chewed roll. “Night, my ducklings, love you.” He got up and followed me to my shameful bedtime punishment.

Once the door was shut, he handed me a piece of jerky and winked at me. Mouthing “don’t tell your mother.”

***

The next day was filled with more punishment duties, starting from when I woke up, until about noon. After I had finished grinding the last of the cornmeal into fine powder for storage over the coming winter, my mother glared at me for a few seconds before snapping her fingers.

“That’s enough. Go get clean. The family is going to meet this young man this afternoon and I won’t have you missing it, or embarrassing us.”

My grin almost hurt as I gave myself a quick cold water shower and got dressed in my finest set of clothes. It wasn’t that hard, as I only had three. Work and street clothes, the clothes my mother made me for seventh days, and of course my itchy but rather rugged clothes I used for practically everything else.

When Tomas and Tabitha returned for lunch, they were much happier than they had been the day before.

“We went on a walk, and it was wonderful.” My sister beamed as we ate the cold bread and jerky my mother had made. It was a hearty meal as today was a workday for all of us, and we needed the energy. But hearty didn’t always mean complicated. “He read me poetry from a book his family owns that’s translated from the western elves. And we chatted for an hour as we sat under the awnings that cover a porch area in the gardens behind the temple building.”

“And where were you, dear?” Elsbeth asked, smiling.

Tabitha smiled. “Ten paces behind, like we agreed. He didn’t say a word.” She hugged our father, who could only sigh in resignation. “Thank you, daddy.”

“That poetry was good.” A smile slowly crept onto his face.

“Poetry is a shadow.” I said, remembering a quote from somewhere but not remembering exactly where. “Asking an echo to dance.”

My family looked at me in silence for a moment as I chewed my jerky and watched them back. A moment later, they continued their conversation as if I hadn’t spoken. I ended up cleaning lunch by myself as my family continued chatting about the young man.

If I’m being honest with myself, I thought as I put away the jerky in a clean cloth into the pantry. He sounds almost perfect. Except he decided to be a priest, so what’s up with that? Maybe he just thought it’d be fun to hit things really hard with a mace for a living while casting healing magic whenever he wanted?

I stopped and pondered that idea. You know, when it’s put like that Cleric doesn’t sound too bad. I began to daydream about wielding a hammer and crushing demons and worse in a single blow, then walking into a village ravaged by plague and healing the sick with a touch.

“Landar. Landar!” My father’s voice shook me from the self image of me standing triumphant in a town square having just saved a child from some evil illness.

“Yes?”

“You’re just standing there. We’re ready to go, are you?”

I looked around, and he was right. My family was all dressed, packed, and ready to go. I on the other hand, was standing, staring into the pantry, daydreaming about being a cleric. “Uh, one second.” I ran into the bedroom and grabbed the small satchel I had made out of the carrying cloth that Oswald had given me.

The stitches weren’t very difficult, but they had taken a few hours before bed to sow the sides together. Elsbeth had helped me this morning put the finishing touches on it before I started my second day of ‘grounding’.

“Ready!” I emerged into the main room.

“Good, now let’s go.” Tomas led the way out and down the stairs, and the rest of us followed.

***

The temple complex was buzzing with some kind of news I was sure didn’t have much to do with us. People mainly in blue and gray robes talked openly and excitedly as clerics and even a few visiting red robed priests conversed among the shade trees that lead towards the maze garden.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The maze, or garden, as the cleric who led us there had called it, was a complex set of hedgerows broken up by large open spaces where parties could take place. Other openings had gardens, or small ponds with fish in them. I could sense that most of the plants grown here were magical, and the powerful scent of flowers was inescapable.

“It’s beautiful,“ Elsbeth said as she gripped Tomas’s arm with both of hers. “I’ve always loved visiting the gardens.”

“We spent most of yesterday here.” Tabitha blushed slightly as we waited for her suitor. “Roland showed me the raised bed where he plants the herbs he uses to brew potions for when he travels with adventurers.”

“For when I will one day.” A familiar redheaded, tall, broad-shouldered cleric said as he walked up to us. His armor was gone, replaced with a well kept set of robes. The freckles on his face were familiar to me.

“Oh, it’s you. Redhead guy.” I said as I stepped in front of him.

He winked at me. “Yup. Can’t say I’ve seen anyone read as fast as you kid. Except maybe Sigvald himself.” Tabitha extended her hand, and he took it gently in one of his. “It’s a pleasure to see you again. And you sir.” He smiled and bowed to my father in a sign of respect.

“Glad I didn’t break anything too badly.” Tomas smirk. I could tell he liked him, even if he didn’t want to admit it to himself just yet.

“And this must be your mother.” Roland let go of Tabitha’s hand and stepped past me. He bowed at the waist, took my mother’s hand in his and kissed the knuckles in a gesture I hadn’t seen in this world yet. “I now know where you get your grace from, Tabitha.”

My sister’s face was a bright red, but my mother glared down at the young man as if looking for something she expected to smell terrible. “Yes. Thank you. I’ll take my hand back now.” Roland released her hand and stepped back a bit. “My husband and I wish to speak to you. Alone.” She shot Tabitha a glare, and my sister could only nod. She was so red I thought steam might leak out of her ears.

The three went off into the maze to find a small alcove to talk. That left Tabitha and me alone. The first time I realized in a while. “He seems nice.” I said, trying to spark up a conversation.

“Yes. He’s gentle, wise, and smart. I’d say almost as smart as you, little brother.” She smiled down at me as the redness retreated. “Mother says that such kindness either means I’ve found someone like father, or I’ve been lured into a pit trap filled with vipers.”

Her smile disappeared, replaced with a concerned frown.

I realized then that my sister had been swept off her feet. I had suspected as much from the way she talked about him, but you never really know how deep into a hole someone is until you see it with your own eyes.

“Mother is wise. Wiser than either of us.” Tabitha made a groaning noise I don’t think I’d ever heard her make before. She was clearly torn, wanting to embrace Roland with everything she had, while simultaneously wanting to listen to our mother’s eminently practical counsel. Tabitha was at her heart, a romantic. But our parents had instilled in her that very sense of raw, bedrock practicality that they lived by as if it were a moral code.

“If he’s not the one,” I said, trying to sound reassuring. “There will be others.” She sighed and released some tension in her shoulders. She had been keeping her shoulders tight since we left the apartment. As if waiting for a blow, or bad news to drop.

“I know. It’s just, with everything going on, I’m worried. I really want this to work out, so mother and father don’t have to worry about me anymore. And so,” she hesitated for a moment, as if she was considering whether to tell me something. “And so I don’t have to worry about it either.”

The threat of kidnapping, and forced marriage, what amounted to sex slavery in my estimation, had clearly worn on her.

“Why not join the gray priesthood now, then? They don’t require you to go without a husband, right?”

She shook her head. “That’s just the clerics. The normal clergy take the vow as one of the first things they do. I want kids one day, to be like mom and raise a family. I don’t want to be stuck in some dusty room sweeping dirt out of a library, or cleaning chamber pots for some stuffy diplomat my whole life.”

I wouldn’t want that either, I thought as I considered her options. “You know, you could always learn to defend yourself.”

She gave me an incredulous look. “Really? How’s that? I’m less than half the size of any of the men in the guard, and you heard the high priests. I’m not smart enough to learn magic.”

I shook my head. “They didn’t say that. They said you weren’t a genius, so no one would pay your way or give you a slot in the academy. No one said you couldn’t learn it on your own. In fact, Sigvald hinted you might consider doing just that.”

“And can you teach me?” She asked, without a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “I know you’re smart, brother, but do you really think you can teach me magic?”

I considered her question. It was a legitimate concern. “No. Not as much as you probably need. Not now anyway. I’m still learning it myself, but I can get you started. And I can teach you some of the self-defense techniques father taught me.”

More like the United States Army, I thought, but I stopped myself from saying it. It’d only earn me strange looks. She looked conflicted. It was obvious to me she liked Roland. He wasn’t a bad kid either by my estimation, but they were being rushed into the engagement. Something of a politically convenient wedding, and it bothered her. Just like it bothered me.

“You can always ask for a longer engagement. Say, six months or so? You’d still be under the church’s and the guild’s protection. His uncle can hold off the scavengers after his family’s seat, and in the meantime you can learn to protect yourself. Heck, I’m sure lover boy over there would jump at the chance to teach you some of his. . . self-defense techniques.”

I grinned as she blushed and smiled. “I’m sure he would be willing to do just that.” She suddenly got a look of stoic concern across her face. “But I can’t be the one to ask him this. Can you please? You’re my brother, it’d be proper for you to ask.”

“Hmm . . . I’ll speak to him. If mom and dad don’t hate his guts, and they think he’s being truthful about everything important, then I’ll try to get a minute alone with him. Sound good?” My sister beamed, ducked down, and scooped me into a bear hug.

I wasn’t that much shorter than she was by now. Only about a foot and a half shorter. Integrating the core had given me a couple of inches more of growth, and I could feel I was close to improving my physical foundation again.

I also felt my bones starting to ache from the strain of my growth, and I was sure I was about to hit the dreaded growing pain phase of childhood. I remembered my first time, it was a living hell. Bone deep, hot as coals burning, combined with an itch that just never went away on the inside under the skin.

It had been . . . a very bad time in my previous life.

“Lets see how this goes. But I’ll always enjoy spending time with you, Landar. I’ll ask mother about taking time off in the mornings to go with you on your scavenging.” Tabitha squeezed me again, before letting go and standing straight. Before I could respond, our parents came back.

“Alright,” Tomas said, as the trio stopped in front of us. “Lets go to lunch.”

***

Lunch was simple, but quality. Fresh bread rolls, and reheated slices of jerky with a healthy amount of jam and butter. Before I came to this world, I never really ate lunch, usually preferring to work right through the meal. It was usually a small cup of black coffee and off to work resolving the next crisis.

Of course, that was in civilian life. In the army, I ate literally every chance I got, and I was still starving. All the damn time.

The meal was good, and Roland was good company. He told us about the art on the walls, where they had come from, and the history of the dining hall as we sat there. He seemed to love the stories of the place; it was something he was quite passionate about.

When he got up to go use one of the outhouses just outside the dining hall, I waited a few seconds and followed suit.

I caught him on his way back. “Hey Roland,” the tall cleric paused, reaching for the door headed back inside.

“Oh, it’s you, the smart kid. Tabitha’s brother. What’s going on? Is there a problem?” He asked, looking around as if he were expecting to find someone harassing me.

“No, I’m okay. I just wanted to ask you a few questions. You know, brother to suitor. Alone.”

He smiled and sat on the grass next to me. “Yeah? What do you want to know?”

“What do you think of your uncle?”

By the expression on his face, I could tell my question had taken him by surprise. Interesting, I thought as I waited for his response.

“Huh. Well, I don’t know him very well. He and my father didn’t get along. I know that much. My father was a criminal, but I don’t know what that means about my uncle. It could say he’s an honest man who hated my father for who and what he was. But it could also mean he didn’t like the competition.”

He was being extremely candid, something I hadn’t exactly expected. “What did your parents do?”

“They sold slaves outside the kingdom.” My eyebrows shot up.

Selling slaves internally was a perfectly legal thing to do. Buying slaves from outside the kingdom was also legal, but they would come with an automatic one year slave contract and at the end of which they would be free. It limited the practice and abuses of slavery, without eliminating it entirely.

It was a compromise between the idealists, and those who sought ruthless practicality in all things. Such compromises rarely lasted.

But to sell slaves from inside the kingdom to foreigners was a capital offense. One of the few things a merchant could do to earn the hangman’s noose. Slavery was a punishment, it wasn’t meant to be a life sentence except for the most heinous of crimes. Even then, hereditary slavery was seen as an evil by all the clergy.

Freedom, and the chance to start over, were the rewards for good and noble service as a slave. Not a life of hellish abuse without hope. At least in theory.

“Yeah, I know. My entire house was caught up in it except for my uncle and me. They’re still trying to determine exactly what everyone knew, and what they did and when. But until then, everyone but me and him are in prison. Including two of my younger sisters and my older brother.” His voice was soft and sad as he spoke.

“You didn’t get along with them then?” I asked, trying to find a thread to take the conversation in a direction that would lead to results.

“Not particularly. My father, well, practically my entire immediate family, was obsessed with money. Not earning it, but making sure they had more than other members of the family. That their position was higher than theirs, because they had the largest chest of gold.” He spat on the ground a few feet away. “That kind of greed, where you’d take a hit if it meant the other guy lost more than you did, was something I always thought was disgusting. Even when I was a kid.”

“So why join the gray, then? Why not do something else? I’m sure you had options.”

He nodded. “Yup, lots of options. Women wanted to marry me, men wanted to be my friend. I was the second oldest child in a successful merchant family. Of course, I had options. I could have even bought a spot in the duke’s academy if I really wanted to.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “Didn’t seem like something I’d be good at. Taking orders, marching around, being a landless hedge knight if I was lucky, or an adventurer? Facing down monsters, or the enemies of the kingdom, fighting for political reasons? None of that sounds good to me. None of it sounded right.”

“And the gray did?”

“The gray priesthood is the only institution that gives a rat’s butt about anyone but themselves in this miserable city. Hells, in the entire kingdom, really. From the king on down, everyone is out for something self serving. The Blue is out to be the home of the smartest mages, to do the most research and get recognized for their accomplishments. To make a name for themselves. I can respect that at least. The red and yellow both have their own thing that they lust after too. Be it power or wisdom. It’s still something they seek without concern for anyone else. That same naked greed that my family suffered from.”

His face turned a light shade of red when he realized he was talking to a twelve-year-old. “Sorry, that’s a pretty heavy thing to put at the feet of a kid.”

I sorted and waved it off. “Kinda figured all that out just by looking around and seeing what everyone was doing. Don’t worry about me. What about the adventurers’ guild?”

His face screwed up as if I had just asked the stupidest question in the whole world. “Kid, do you know what clerics do? I mean, besides guarding kids reading in libraries.”

I thought about it for a moment, then shook my head. I didn’t really know on a practical level. “Fight evil I guess?”

“Yup, exactly. And we do that by partnering with members of the adventurers’ guild. Adventurers get paid for hunting down monsters, gathering rare materials, or fulfilling quests issued by the local guild house for paying customers. Us clerics go along to provide healing and cleansing and basic magical support, and our share goes to the priesthood. Which is then used to do things like run the orphanage.”

He gestured vaguely towards one wing of the campus. “Or help sickly kids get better.” He eyed me and I got the point. No way my mother’s efforts would have been able to pay for the services of someone like Mother Margaret on their own. Charity had to be involved at some level.

I broke the awkward silence. “Sooo, why aren’t you out there fighting monsters, then?”

He scoffed. “Kid, do I look like a walking mound of muscle that radiates holy power with every step yet?”

I took him in critically. If I was in my old body from back on Earth, the kid would have been a scrawny, tall teenager with far too many freckles on his face to not have been teased off the football team. He looked more like a gawky track runner than the linebackers that most of the other clerics seemed to emulate. I shook my head, and he smiled.

“Exactly. Emphasis on the yet though. I’ll get there soon. Now, your parents and sister are probably wondering where we ran off to. Ready to get back?” He stood and stretched.

“Wait. There is one more thing I need from you.”

“What is it, kid?”

“I’m going to be teaching my sister the basics of magic over the next few days. Maybe months if we can draw out your engagement that long. She’ll talk to you about that, though.” His eyes went wide, but then he nodded. That was something they had to work out between them. “She needs to learn to protect herself. I was hoping—”

“And you were hoping I would help?” I nodded, then told him my rudimentary plan. A few moments later, he agreed as he looked off towards the southern wall. “Interesting idea, kid. You’ve got a deal.”

Father and mother gave me dagger like glares as we rejoined them, while my sister had only eyes for the nerdy-looking Roland. The kid was alright; I told myself. But he’s no Adonas. Why did she fall so hard for him?

“Now that lunch is over, I have some duties I have to attend to. But I received permission to have you all shadow me if you would like.”

“We would love to see what you do here every day,” Tabitha said as she nearly jumped out of her seat. I caught my parents smiling at each other as we joined them.

The first stop was a long two storied hall that wreaked of illness and blood. “This is the hall of the sick. Us clerics come here to practice our healing skills, both mundane and magical, on the less fortunate of the city.”

“Who do you treat?” my mother asked in a tone that suggested she was about two seconds away from choosing this place as her new passion project. From the sounds of crying injured people, and the smell of sickness, it made sense.

“Mainly those who can’t afford the services of a private healer, or the services of a veteran cleric in the main hall.” He walked to the center of the hall where half a dozen clerics, who looked very similar in their build and gawky size to Roland, received small slates with names written in chalk on them. When he got his, he turned to us and showed us the slate.

“There are five people today. A few more than average. Looks like two drudges who were caught in a cart accident, a man with a stomach illness, and two men who were found drunkenly brawling last night and who were brought here by the guard around midnight.” My mother took the slate from him when he was finished reading it and read it herself.

“These poor people. And you serve them without compensation?” She asked, concern creasing her brow.

“Not entirely. The drudges get paid for by the city council. Usually.” He looked uncomfortable for a moment, then pressed on. “The city’s normal citizenry usually have to pay us back for their services. No more than a day’s pay, but for some it can be difficult. So we allow in-kind payment as well. It’s what we usually use to feed and cloth those in the orphanage. As for drunks and criminals? Well, it’s much like citizens, but their debt is usually doubled as a fine for minor crimes.”

We came to the first of the five alcoves with the ill people inside. “First the drudges.” Roland pulled the small thin curtain sheet aside, revealing both men. They were awake and looked like they had broken legs.

“That’s a compound fracture.” I said. “Do you know what to do with that?” I asked, remembering my first aid training.

“You’re right. We’ll have to force it back into place.” Roland laid his hands down on the leg and started pressing down hard. The man screamed and quickly passed out from the pain. There was a terrible crunching noise and I could tell that the bone hadn’t quite set right. “And then we heal it with a simple spell.”

“Wait!” Elsbeth I both said at the same time, and Roland pulled his hands back.

“What’s wrong?”

“How long have you been treating the ill?” Elsbeth asked as she forced her way forward and took a hold of the leg exploring the bone in the wound.

“Only a week now.”

“Well, that explains it. You knew to set the bone, but you didn’t do it right. You can’t just force the leg down or the bone might do what it did here.” She grabbed his hands and ran them along the leg. “Feel that? The bone fragments aren’t aligned. They’re partially off.” He nodded, and his face went paler than normal. “If you had healed it like this, his leg never would have worked properly and pained him for the rest of his life.”

She pulled the injured drudge’s ankle, and the bone realigned itself with a muffled yet audible snap. “Okay. Now heal.” A slight golden light emitted from his hands as he ran them over the slightly bleeding wound.

“There. That should hold long enough for his body to heal.” He turned to Elsbeth and bowed. “Thank you for your help.”

“No matter. How is this one?”

They looked at the next drudge patient together. My mother coaxed Roland along, asking him questions in the right direction rather than giving him the answer. It had something to do with the man’s shoulder, and after a few minutes of probing, Roland popped the arm back into its socket.

The drudge screamed in pain, and sweat ran down his face, but he thanked both my mother and Roland as they moved onto the next patient. More like a victim, I thought as I reeled from the brutality of this ‘treatment.’

Next up was the stomach illness patient. He had been throwing up small amounts of blood, and there was blood in his urine and stool. My mother and Roland tried several things but in the end were stumped, and the man looked like he was getting worse.

“Mom?” Elsbeth turned and looked at me. “It sounds like a stomach ulcer that’s ruptured.”

“A what?”

“Ulcer,’’ I pointed at the man’s stomach. “If he’s throwing up blood, and it’s in his poop and urine, then it’s probably a bleeding ulcer. Which means he’s going to need some serious and targeted healing.”

“I can stop bleeding.” Roland said. “I just need to know where.”

I felt along the guy’s stomach, and when he winced, I grabbed Roland’s hands and placed them there. “Here probably. Though I’m not sure.” He cast a light healing spell. I looked into the man’s eyes. “You’re going to need to drink as much clean water as you can. Boil it before you drink it. You’re also going to need to be on a liquid diet, like soups and gravy, for a week or so. After that, eat small meals. Try to avoid hard breads. For now, drink, and sleep. Once we see that you’re not bleeding anymore, they can send you home.”

The man thanked Roland, and then practically collapsed back into the wooden plank that these people called a hospital bed.

“How did you know that?” Roland eyes watched me, suspicious.

“I read about it. In the library. It was in a book of common stomach illnesses.” Elsbeth praised me, but Roland kept giving me sideways glances, like he felt something strange was going on. The same look I was giving Elsbeth.

There was more to that woman’s past than just considering joining the gray. There had to be.

I had suspected for a long while that my mother was more than she let on. She was, I realized, a leader in our community among the tenements. If someone didn’t know where to turn to for help or advice, they came to see my mom. Despite our own poverty, my mother always found time to help those who sought her out.

The fact she knew how to set a compound fracture was just the latest in a string of odd things, that made me think she knew, and was capable of far more than she should.

The last two were drunks who had gotten into a fight and beaten each other nearly senseless. Roland found a bit of internal bleeding and bruising at the base of one man’s neck and healed it with a light spell. But other than that, he told the men to drink clean water, and rest for a few days. Which would be easy as they were both going to be in jail for a week waiting for a judge.

Never get arrested on a Friday, makes everything take longer.

By the time everything was finished and done, it was growing dark outside. Elsbeth and my sister went for one last walk through the gardens with Roland, while Tomas and I headed home. I was growing tired at that point. I was healthy now, but I was still technically in a kid’s body.

Somewhere along the line, I fell asleep on my father’s shoulders and dreamed dreams of smiting evil and healing the injured.

I have to admit, being a cleric is a pretty cool thing.