They returned not too long after that. Some idle talk was exchanged, mostly about how Quinn’s injuries were and about the herd of reindeer, before they arrived at the two story clinic.
Ada led the way, as she had most of the day. They passed by Quinn’s room and walked up the stairs. Each step caused the wood to creak under foot. At the top of the stairs was a short hallway. Only a few doors were along the hallway with the last at the end of the hall. The last door was wide open, revealing what looked to be a small library. The library was where they were headed to.
The library, as it turns out, was quite big. Several shelves filled the room smothered in books. Piles of ancient books were stacked up, scrolls tossesd on them haphazarouly. A couple of the shelves didn’t even have books on them. Instead they were covered with all kinds of bottles and plants. At the back of the room sat a desk covered in various papers. Alwin himself sat behind it, reading a book as he muttered to himself.
Ada lightly tapped on the doorframe. “I brought Quinn up, pa.”
He sat his book down. She couldn’t see what the letters were due to her half blind vision, but they didn’t look like her normal language. “Thank you, dear. Would you leave the two of us alone for a time?”
“I’ll go brew some tea.” Ada vanished into one of the side rooms, leaving Quinn standing at the door frame. She felt quite awkward as she looked at the old healer.
“Please, come sit.” Alwin pointed at a chair across the desk. “I promise I won’t bite.”
Quinn chuckled, though it was more out of pity than actual humur, and sat down. The chair was suprisingly comfy. Unlike the other furniture she had the great… pleasure of using, the chair actually had a cushion. “Thank you, sir.”
“No problem. Do you rem- no, we should probably talk about pay first. Most people only feel comfortable after knowing what they owe…” He rifled around his desk, moving books and papers out of the way as he looked for something.
“Yes, sir.” Quinn tensed slightly in her chair as she waited to hear how much debt she was in.
“Please, just Alwin.” He found what he was looking for and picked up a piece of paper covered in numbers. “Let’s see here. Three silver for all of the broken bones. Food and housing along with the clothes would add another silver ontop for a total of four silver.”
It sounded like a lot, but Quinn wasn’t sure quite how much. How much was a silver coin worth, exactly? Ada said that a reindeer’s pelt was worth several silver by itself, so surely it couldn’t be too much… right?
“Um, si- Alwin, I don’t have any money.” Quinn decided to just outright say that she wasn’t able to pay. It was better than telling an obvious lie to the elder.
The older man nodded. “I suspected as much since you didn’t have anything of value when you first appeared. What skills do you have then? If you can’t pay with coin, then some other kind of service will do. If nothing else, Weildenbach is always in need of more farmers.”
Quinn thought back to her conversation with Ada. “I can hunt. I don’t have a bow or anything, but if I did I could try to bring back some local wildlife.”
Alwin tapped on the table much like how his daughter did. “I suppose I could get Eric to give you some gear. Can’t exactly expect you to produce anything without putting you in a position to do just that. You’ll have to stay in town for a while, if that’s fine?”
Quinn got the feeling that he wasn’t really asking. “No problem.”
“Then let’s talk about how you ended up so injured near Aftersafen…”
The conversation went eerily similar to how it did with Alwin’s daughter. It wasn’t until Ada returned with a tray of tea that the mood shifted from soft interrogation. She passed around cups and poured tea into them.
“So, Quinn, what are your plans from now on?” Ada asked as she sipped her cup.
She hadn’t really thought of it. She hadn’t had any time to think by herself yet. “Pay off my debt, then… I don’t really know? I would like to return to my family, but chances of that are slim…”
Alwin had returned to looking through papers at some point. “Right, amnesia. I suspected you might have a bad case of it, but wasn’t sure how bad… Not even being able to remember where you’re from… It's too bad that I can only heal physical injuries, not mental ones.”
“Thank you nontheless. I can remember how bad of a shape I was in.” Quinn almost shuddered as a hint of the memory feathered the back of her consciousness.
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“That’s what we’re here for.” Ada smiled brightly. “There are few better causes then to heal the injured and sickly.”
Alwin drained the last bit of tea. “Right then, it’s about time I head to bed. These old bones need their sleep. As for accommodations… I guess you can have the room you stayed in while injured. I’ll let you stay here for a month to get back up on your feet. That is, unless I get a sudden influx of injured. Oh, and Ada will take care of food if you help her around the clinic in your free time.”
Quinn hadn’t even done anything to repay them and yet they were being so kind to her. Her heart was touched. They could have just as easily been unreasonable and demand she pay up or be sent to a debtor’s jail. “Thank you, sir.”
“Just Alwin.” He muttered as he led the trio to the door. Once they were out in the hallway, he closed the door and locked it with a key hanging from his neck. “Goodnight, Quinn. Ada.”
The message was received. She quickly headed back to the room she had woken up from. Ada followed along behind her, only leaving once she saw her back to her room. Quinn got the feeling that it was more out of politeness than a guarded attempt to watch her.
As soon as she hit the bed, the mask of calm and rational she had been holding the entire day crashed down. It was as if dozens of overzealous emotions all tackled her at once.
First was the fear she had been suppressing. She began to hyperventilate as the fear of the unknown grabbed at her heart. Not only was she in an entirely new world, but monsters existed! And all she knew how to do was shoot some arrows. What the hell was she going to do if a monster with tough skin ever attacked her? Surely she would die. And she obviously didn’t want to die.
She could still remember how painful just being injured was. The memory of her body folding in on itself, of her legs snapping as they bent too far, of her ribs giving way as her internal organs fell out, of her very eyes turning to liquid returned like a phantom. It haunted her, almost laughing at the agony she felt as it all healed back up.
She was quite confused. She thought back to that gruesome night. How had she survived? Surely anyone would’ve died with their internal organs broken… and she mustn’t have been in the forest for long enough to heal naturally. She never experienced the fog - which was apparently guaranteed death - so she must’ve only been out in the forest for at most a day.
How did she heal? For that matter, eyeballs and organs don’t just naturally regenerate to the extent that hers did. She literally grew new eyeballs. The fear was starting to come back rapidly. Just what happened to her?
That confusion gave way to sorrow. If she were truly to die, then she would never see her family again. She might never see them anyway if she was stuck in this world.
Tears came to her eyes as she thought of her mom… her sister… although her mom turned to alcohol after her father’s death, Quinn still loved her dearly. The moments when she wasn’t drowned in the brown bottle were precious few. And her sister, her cute little sister. Quinn would miss seeing her lively face as she talked about random subjects. Her sister always was so creative. She shared ideas and stories nearly constantly. Would she ever see them again?
She could try to recreate the PM-1, but highly doubted her chances of success. If her hypothesis was correct, the reason the machine went haywire was the crystal they used to boost the range. It was already a rare enough material on her own planet. The chances of Quinn finding another here were slim to none.
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She went through a tirade of emotional upheavals, each worse than the last. After what felt like hours, she finally managed to calm herself down enough to make a plan for the future and set objectives.
The first thing Quinn needed to do was pay back Alwin. Four silver was all it would take, though she felt like she was underestimating the price a tad. If a deer was only worth a couple of silver, then she would have to get busy tracking them down. That shouldn’t be too big of a problem. She learned from Ada on their way back to the clinic that a herd of reindeer had just migrated down from the north. Maybe she would be able to bag one?
Then she needed to find a way home. Sounded easy, but it was actually quite a complex conundrum. Quinn didn’t even know where to start with this one.
She would also have to find a way to protect herself. A bow and some arrows could work against more mundane threats, but she highly doubted their overall effectiveness in a world of magic. What was the point of an arrow if someone could just swat it out of the air with a burst of wind?
Of course, she didn’t know the limits of magic, so a bow and arrow might actually be super effective. If it took ten minutes to gather the mana and cast a spell, then she would have more than enough time with a bow.
That being said, if you can’t beat them, join them. It would probably be best for Quinn to dip her toes into ‘magic’. If she could use it, it would only be beneficial. And it might act as a fuel for her scientific endeavors. Who knows, it might even be the key for her to return home.
Part of her, however, still doubted the existence of magic. The part that was cynical of the world told her that what she saw was just a parlor trick. That ‘magic’ was nothing more than an advanced interaction between two natural elements.
Another part, the little girl who fantasized about heroes, hoped that magic was real. She sincerely hoped that she could obtain the right to use magic and support the community. That she would be able to fight villainy and monsters for the betterment of mankind.
She dreamed of manifesting fire over her hand, setting monsters ablaze. Or of conjuring mythical creatures to fight against her foes. Or even something so simple as a magic that could heal the injured.
That small part of her was quite excited for the future. Not only to be able to use magic, but to see if she could find a way to abuse it. Quinn always loved abusing game systems when she was younger. There was such a thrill in finding a way to enchant things with 7578394874% effectiveness, or finding a way to get infinite hearts. Of course, her chances of that happening were slim to none with a real magic system, but she couldn’t help but wonder about it.
She would just have to wait and see. She could probably ask Ada or Alwin about it. Blame the lack of what was apparently common sense on her amnesia. It would be quite simple.