Looking at the clothing giving to him grim held up a nice but worn brown tunic, a pair of trouser that reminded grim of pajama bottoms with what looked like draw strings but turned out to be just sewn in and used to tie closed the waist. Melencor didn’t sell shoes, but managed to badger Adlen into giving me an extra set of worn shoes. Unhappy with the trade but unable to really but up much of a fuss Grim was shooed out of the shop and was left looking at the at the crowd passing by wondering what next.
He still felt the energy draining slowly from his body and wariness running its long fingers over his face and form. I need to find a hospital, as fucked up as that is. Grim had been shown by Melencor a small pouch inside the waistband of the trousers to hide his coin. Patting it he headed over to a guard, the younger man armored and holding a spear jumped at Grim’s appearance quickly giving directions out of the current section of the town and to a more upscale section.
Evidently Grim had been in the crafters section and the healers as he was told was in the nobles section. Panting and sweating, he got looks from the guards as Grim made his way deeper into the city. Grim figured that it was only because he had gotten better clothing that he wasn’t stopped or asked to leave the area. The building that Grim came to was upscale even for the area he was in the fitted clean white stone and symbol carved around the doorway and windows. Two guards were stationed outside the door looking Grim over shaking his head. “You have coin, right?” He asked in a deep voice, his and the other guard wearing much nicer armor then the local guards. “Yea I have coin, I-”
“HEY” yelled the left guard glaring at Grim, “I didn’t ask what was wrong with you, I ask if you had coin. And its sir to the likes of you,” He rolled his eyes as the left guard sneered at Grim. Biting back a sharp retort, Grim looked at the guard replying. “Yes, I have coin…sir,” Gritting his teeth grim pushed down his anger at being treated like this. But with his strength fading fast and Grim pushed down his anger and broke eye contact with the guard and looked down. Sneering the guard opened the door and stepped aside letting Grim walk in.
Inside was richly ornate, ornate to the point of tacky. Silks hung on the walk with gold trim on all the tables and paintings. A set of padded chairs sat against the wall with a woman sitting behind the desk looking down her nose at Grim as he entered. “I can’t believe Horther and Weither let in a street urchin, it seems I’ll have to have a talk with them.” Shaking her head sarcastically the woman,5’8 reasonable figure looked to be in her early twenties sat behind the finely crafted desk her eyes boring into Grim. “I can hope you weren’t stupid enough to enter Tevrin’s Healers hall with cion right.” Grim didn’t even have to concentrate as he nodded and tapped his waistband causing the coins to clink.
“Right,” The woman nodded hearing the coin as she sighed dramatically. “I guess even a guild as powerful as Tevrin’s has to do charity occasionally. Since its been so dead lately I guess you can go back and see Master Antudi.” She pointed to a doorway that Grim could have sworn wasn’t there before. “Oh, and don’t touch anything, we’ll know if anything’s missing” Trying and almost failing to ignore the woman’s words, Grim entered through the doorway to another room. Looking around it didn’t seem like it could fit into the building he had entered. the room was easily twice the size of the exterior.
Even though it had been warm outside, there was a fireplace going in the corner. An older stood facing away from grim reading from a large tome sitting on a stand near the opposite wall. Two large bookcases framed the man with a wash basin and a stand holding various crystals sparkling in the firelight. Hearing someone enter the old man turned around, salt and pepper hair aquiline nose with thin lips and ramrod thin. Twisting his lips, the man pointed to a chair and turned around looking back at the time. Grateful to finally have a place to rest for a moment, Grim sat back into the chair all but collapsing.
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Turning around after snapping shut the book he was reading the man looking Grim over grimacing at the figure that made himself look opulent. Dealing with the public always made Antudi feel like he was back on his families’ farm, mucking the pigsty. Disgusting, Antudi though. Thankfully my greatness was seen even as a child and I managed to leave that cesspool of a village. The boy’s clothing was barely a step up from what someone would wear living in the slums.
Wobbling as he panted, the child Infront of him seem to be tentatively grasping onto awareness. Frowning Antudi used a skill and scanned the boy only to find rifts and sever strain on his muscles and tendons. As well as cracks forming on his bones, and small masses that almost seemed to be growing visibly. Unlike the other healers who had a light affinity, Antudi had the much more rare and powerful affinity of life. Meaning while his skills and techniques may be inferior to his colleges, he could just push more life-based mana into the subject and it would heal them fine.
Not understanding what was wrong with his patient, Antudi formed a mana connection with the crystal stand near him and just push extra life mana directly into the child’s tissue. This would turn out to be one of the worst things he could have done. As unseen to him covering all of Grim’s soft tissue was millions of tumor cells which greedily drank up the life-based mana converting and spread explosively. Thin withered skin stretched over thin bone ballooned outward as Grim’s skin reddened and distended like it was filled with stones.
Antudi let at as Grim’s eye flicked open looking around wildly, as a he tried to scream only to let out a gurgle, the healer realizing he couldn’t disengage the flow of mana from his crystals. Through the door bust the guards and the receptionist, “By the gods!” looks of shock and horror filled their visage at the thin child they had seen previously, now a withering lumpy mass of tissue. “Stop it, stop it, get it out of here!” Antudi yelled back into a corner of the room. Pulling their weapons, the guards attack the mass stabbing and slicing off chunks of flesh and muscle, only to see every piece grow back sickeningly within moments.
“What did you do Kargas,” Horther yelled as he cut off a forming tendril looking accusingly at Antudi. “Nothing, Nothing, I just healed him like usual the he just exploded!” Panting the two guards got more and more tired, before a bolt of blue flashed over their head and hit the mass of flesh freezing it near solid. Looking back the men noticed the receptionist with a blank face and cold it standing behind them with her arm raised.
Firing again, bolt of freezing energy flashed repeatedly out of her hand striking the oozing meat till it resembled a freezer burnt steak. “Jessica, when did you get and Affinity, a Greater Affinity no less,” Antudi demanded pulling himself back together as he straightened his robe and hair back walking hesitantly around the frozen mass as he got closer to the group.
“Antudi, your power is wasted on the likes of you. A Greater Affinity and still stuck at the beginning of journeyman for life. If only a better servant had gained your gifts... eh very well guards kill him and seize the subject.” Antudi looked shock to hear suck disrespect spoken to him, outrage filled him. Till a sharp pain caused him to gasp, his breath refusing to come. Looking down at a shiny blade poking out of his left chest.
With a slurk it pulls out and stabs through the right side causing what little breath to bubble up bloody through the two holes in his chest as Antudi falls to the ground seeing Weither walk around him with a gore covered dagger. The last thing Antudi saw was Horther wrapping up the frozen thing with Jessica looking on in disgust as Weither grinned widely as he reached down and shoved the blade through Antudi’s heart.