Gabrio looked at the soldier whose eyes had already rolled.

  "Please find another patient for me," Gabrio said dully to Wiles. He looked to his side and saw that there were still many of them wounded. It has been forty-eight hours since the battle started. He was locked in the clinic and was running from bottom to lower deck.

  Useless.

  Pathetic.

  Such words were invading his mind.

  "Be rational, Gabrio," he told himself. "Death is natural to those who fight. You are not a Blinder. You do what you can do for the people."

  The fight on the surface was beyond his level. To step into their affair and the battle would just be a burden to those tasked to protect him. He had no clue what was going on. There was a battle that sunk some of the ships.

  Most of those ships were thick and well-reinforced but still fell when the enemy fought back. It was clear to Gabrio how awful the situation was when the Blinder of Light was said to have been taken to Arkshelled Island to be healed after suffering injuries.

  Clambering on the deck of the Grand-Galleon, he also noticed the sea-kin that laid dead on the deck. The injured ones were immediately patched up by the field medics. While the ones with major and grievous injuries were taken to his clinic to be patched up by him.

  Zyra had stayed in the Grand-Galleon, so she was busy suturing the wounds of the grievously injured.

  Gabrio had to operate the rest, using alcohol and a mixture of salted water to clean up their wounds. His hands were moving. But his mind was somewhere else. "We could have died without knowing anything," Gabrio thought. "The enemies are ferocious, and they are relentless. If the Blinder and the Lady didn't stop the enemies as they said, then we would have been unable to go further."

  Gabrio shivered at the thought of dying without knowing the cause. The injured crowding his clinic made his thoughts wary and slow. He thought to himself once more that the seas were volatile and the enemy far too dangerous.

  "So what if I have a treeheart? Death comes naturally to everyone," he stared at one of the soldiers he treated once. Some of these lads were just bothering him days ago, and now they were corpses without movement. Their hearts had stopped beating. "I'm so lucky to be alive. I really am... but will our luck continue? We are far from the homeland, and we manage to escape because of the strength of cannons and the ferocity of our ships... what if it isn't enough in the long run?"

  Such awful thoughts polluted his mind.

  Gabrio tried to rid such awful thoughts, but the smell of blood mixed with the medicine he was applying made his thoughts stick. Empathy was a double-edged sword that helpful or dangerous. He wouldn't dare to say that he needed to harden his heart so that he could shrug off death like this. Just because he was used to tragedy doesn't mean he would be heartless.

  "And yet I felt nothing when dealing with the refugees."

  It was easy to ignore the plight of strangers.

  It hurt Gabrio that he wasn't acting like a true healer. The hypocritical voice in his head told him that those who were killed in the Icean Spine were not their allies. Therefore they did not deserve mercy.

  But seeing the soldiers of the crew injured like this. He thought to himself that he was feeling pity.

  "Calm yourself, don't mess up the suture, yes, focus on the salient aspects of the wound, save them, think later."

  He repeated such thoughts, but Gabrio found no peace. His thoughts were jumbled. And all the training that he had done in his life somewhat made him continue.

  How long has it been since he started sewing bodies? How long has it been since he remained this focus?

  The past days other than the young master of the Greyhawk Clan. He didn't have such an awful time like this. His eyes were heavy. His head was hard as a rock. His vision faltered, but he remained steadfast, hoping to move on.

  In some way, he was thankful that Zyra was around this time. He knew that she knew something, but he didn't want to spend time thinking of what the hell happened that made things this bad.

  "Work, come on, keep your fingers steady, don't lose the lad. Come on, you can do it, bastard, don't you dare lose this one as well."

  "Shit!" Gabrio cursed as the soldier started having a seizure. "Wiles! Give me the sedative now!"

  Wiles hurried the cabinets and delivered the sedative to Gabrio. Gabrio took out his needle, injected it on the soldier, and calmed him down. "Keep your eyes open, lad! Come on, you can do this... damn it!"

  Gabrio swore as he saw the soldier's head limp to the side. His eyes bore a hole at Gabrio.

  "Wiles, let's check another one," Gabrio lifted his tired, lagging fingers, closing the eyes of the soldier. He moved the blanket and covered the soldier with it.

  Wiles remained silent. He led Gabrio to another soldier. He inspected the wounds, cleaned them, and started suturing until it was close. The soldier was thankfully only had minor injuries. After that soldier, he moved to the next bed, where he once more assessed the wounds. Seeing that it was still salvageable, Gabrio ordered Wiles to grab him a fresh cloth, wipe the injuries with the salinated water.

  He managed, but he noticed that some of the wounds were poisoned by whatever weapons were used by the enemy. He didn't have the antidote, and he had to open up someone to develop one.

  "There are still so many, but if I abandon them now, then it means that it won't be long until they succumb to their wounds. No choice this time, huh."

  Gabrio bit his lower lip so hard that it bled. He checked the rest of the wounded, noted down those who got poisoned by the enemy and added them to the list of the people he needed to dissect to figure it out.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  He approached Zyra, who was ordering Robert to put away the person that had been dealt with. Noticing him, she leaned on the operating table and looked at her with the same heavy eyes.

  "Robert give us space," Gabrio ordered and then looked at Wiles. Wiles took a hint and slid the partition curtain to a close.

  "Some of them are poisoned, I'll bring some who are lost, and we'll open them up."

  Zyra gave Gabrio the dullest look she could muster. "Is that your assessment of them?"

  Gabrio raised a hand. "One thing is that we asked if the other ships have an antidote. I am betting that the Arkshelled Island has healers, but considering that there is still cannon fire going, I doubt we'd make it in time. We have the medicine here, but the rest just won't make it. The wounds are in their internal organs. We just don't have the right tools. That is if you can do it?"

  "No, I can't," Zyra said. "I am lacking, and you're right that the poison in their bodies have been afflicted that I'll recommend it as well."

  "Then should we?"

  "Let us."

  Gabrio called for Robert, who was far more understanding than Wiles. He told Robert how they needed time to dissect the corpses to concoct an antidote while asking him to bring those who have succumbed to the poison to them immediately so they could be tested.

  Robert gave an awful stare at them before nodding heavily. The first corpse tested some of their known concoctions and realized there was no reaction, and the poison didn't dissolve.

  Zyra was knowledgeable in identifying poison, so she concocted the medicine while Gabrio would sometimes leave the surgery area and tend to the ones who needed tending.

  As hours passed, the sleepless Gabrio and Zyra had finally gotten something out of their desecration of the dead.

  But that alone wasn't enough to save those who had been poisoned too long. The tissues of their wounds had become necrotic. Not to mention that their lack of resources and wiser personnel made their work clumsy. By the time they were done, only four out of eleven patients had survived. Those who felt that they were sickened went to the clinic, got themselves treated with the awful concoction that they made.

  The rest of the injured soldiers had to sit on the floor. While the officers of the decks had to open up the areas around the barracks as a temporary hospital.

  Gabrio stayed awake for seventy-two hours, and when Zyra got her rest. He followed by resting on the clinic with a thin blanket covering him. When he let go of his mind, sleepiness took over. In his dreams, he sat on a table with those who he failed in saving.

  When Gabrio woke up, he was greeted by the sight of Zyra sitting on a stool with a pipe of smoke. "You want some?"

  "Anything awful happened?"

  "Where did you want to start?" she handed him a piece of hard bread. Gabrio saw Millie giving the loaves of bread to the soldiers whose heads were down, nibbling.

  "You told her work?"

  "She wanted to. She only handles the meal."

  "How long I was out?"

  "Eight hours. Most of the ones are stable. We'll be disposing of the bodies of the soldiers later to free some room."

  "I see."

  "You should clean up."

  Gabrio took a bite of the bread, then went to his cabin, scooped up a bucket of water, went back to the clinic, washed himself up, and dressed up.

  "So, how is the situation on top?"

  "It's clear waters right now. No one's allowed on the top until they clean it up. We manage to get away from the Ebony Fleet of the Baron of the Interstice."

  "Baron?"

  "Oh, the one chasing after us."

  "I see. So who is this Baron?"

  "Someone who is chosen by the Moonlight. Terin is Sunlight, while he is the Moonlight."

  Gabrio frowned. "I'm guessing that they want to kill us or at least Terin, right?"

  "That he is. It's to save his people, after all."

  "They are non-human?"

  "They are far closer to the elven-kin, but there is a difference in their biology and the likes."

  "What about Lady Eletha?"

  "She has a gaping wound on her chest. She's good now after the elven-kin healed her."

  "That's good. I hate not knowing what is happening. It makes me wish that sometimes I have some all-seeing eye."

  "I do understand the frustration. Usually, I should be in the front, but dealing with a being equal to the Blinder is problematic. So all you can do is wait and hope that he wins."

  Gabrio nodded slowly. "Makes you helpless. This shit is."

  "You okay?"

  "I am. Annoyed maybe. But what I can do. I don't have complex powers as the elven-kin. You know failures in this profession aren't something new to me. Just hate it when I fail them."

  "You lost five, right?"

  "Seven, actually. I think I don't see the last one I operated."

  "It's going to be troublesome than ever. If this is the welcome of the Greater Seas to us, then who knows what we might face. Not to mention that the Ebony Fleets seems eager to kill the Blinder. We obviously can't wait around and ambush them. We have a long way to go until we reach another island..."

  "Hey, Zy, tell me, truthfully. Are there really no charts we can use?"

  "Sorry... we are sailing blindly now. I would tell you, but I don't think that hiding it would matter as well."

  "It's night?"

  "Yeah, most of the soldiers are sleeping now."

  "That's good."

  "Mind if I sleep for now?"

  "Go ahead, good night."

  Zyra took the side of the clinic and started sleeping.

  Gabrio watched her for a while before he stared at his palms. "Teacher, I'm still not enough...still isn't enough," Gabrio lamented as he then stood up and went to check his patients.

  Gabrio, the Doctor of the Milostiv, thought to himself how many months it would take for them to see land again. How many would be alive by then?

  "We must continue on..."

  The Doctor said to himself, urging his battered spirit to take the next step.

  ...

  ..

  .

    On the 26th day of the Sixth Cycle of the Year 1501, of the Ghealach calendar.

    The Milostiv has left for the Greater Seas alongside the Reconnoiter Company.

    They have lost some of their ships in the process of doing so and was now being hunted down by the Ebony Fleet led by the Baron Reazem, the Baron of the Interstice, and the one chosen by the Moonlight.

-Book 1 Epilogue-