“Sir, you are healed. Thank you for your donations to the temple.” Urberer takes a step back from the man and offers a well practiced bow.

“No thank you good monk,” the man adorned in simple, yet expensive clothes and jewerely responds. He simply pats Urberer on the shoulder and says. “Make sure you drop by my estate later on. We’d love to have a member of temple visit us. We’d much prefer to do our confessions at home, after a good meal.”

“I’m sure I can request one of the senior members to do so for you sir,” Urberer says as he raises to a full stand.

The man comes closer, hand still on Urberer’s shoulder, and in a whisper “I do love they privacy of my home. And with my children coming to adult age, I’m sure they’ve had their sins on their nights sneaking out. I don’t need to know what they’ve done. But I do need their sins forgiven and for them to remain pious. You understand, blemishes wouldn’t do well on many family’s name.”

Urberer nods and attempts to move away but the man doesn’t let him step back.

“So,” the voice a bit forceful despite still being a whisper “we will see you soon.” The man then slides a coin pouch in Urberer’s free hand. The well dressed man finally takes a step back and advises loudly “Thank you for agreeing to come see us. We always value the temple and adrent’s servants of the faith.“ The man pats Urberer heavily on the shoulder and walks past.

The line in front of Urberer mixed with nobles and members of upper mid-towns, had seen this action, turned to each other and began to whisper amongst themselves. They knew, just like Urberer did, that this man had played the game a bit heavy handed, but well. He was healed, as all the others in line were waiting for. But he used the moment to barter for private time with a member of the temple and did it in front of other nobles and merchant families. Another chance to be redeemed, to be pious, to be forgiven, and to have the temple in their pocket.

I must remember not to go to his estate.

Urberer looked at the lines in front of him. Despite the bell having rang four times almost thirty minutes ago, he was still here in the temple, healing people, if you’d call that healing. It was if the line had not budged. More likely, people simply kept coming in to see him. He kept a smile plasatered on his face as, waiting for the next person to step forward.

No. I can’t not go. It is my job. And if they want pay more to keep their secretes and feel redeem, I can’t say no. In fact it’s the only thing I got going for me. He thought to himself.

“Please lords, ladies, and esteemed commoners. Let us continue on as faithful servants and use this time well to heal our bodies and our hearts. I am still here to heal you,” Urberer said. His words were true but felt false to himself; like the sensation of biting into a fancy chocolate to find it filled with lemon tart. It’s still delicious, but at its core, a sour deception.

A group of young ladies take the initiative to walk to Urberer.

Urberer looks between them. They were young beauties who’d catch the eye of any man; sparkling eyes, clear skin, bright smiles, full figures, and young enough to be talked into doing the wrong things, but old enough that they’d enjoy every part of the rebellion. Their clothes while modest to match the setting, hinted both at wealth and physical bloom. They were ripe for the taking.

“My ladies. As a humble monk it is my job give blessings to members of the faith. Yet can I say, I am the one blessed today. It is not often that I get to see art take on human form, and yet here you are. What might I, be able to do for you?” He gives a more exaggerated bow to the trio.

The girls look back at each other, faces turning red and being to mumbles among themselves. Urberer continues to watch them, the sense of eating a tart chocolate not leaving him. The thirst for a strong beverage perhaps the only thing that will remove this taste. His quiet yearning taking a back seat as one of the young ladies begin to speak to him.

After a proper curtesy “Good monk, may peace be an ever blessing on you.”

“And onto you and the lovelies with you. How can this humble monk be of a services.”

“Good monk, my friends and I are suffering from a terrible infliction.”

“Oh?” He quirks an eyebrow.

“Yes,” she covers her mouth and whispers, he head slightly tuck in an attempt to quiet her voice. “It’s our skin.”

Urberer ducks his head down and cups the side of his mouth “what is wrong with your skin m’lady.”

What could possibly be wrong with all of their skin? Some disease contracted while traveling to the mainland or abroad?? Their hands are gloved I see. Perhaps they burned them while practing a fireball? That could be somewhat serious and harder to heal. He thinks a quickly, awaiting a response.

She continues to whisper “we have bumps on our faces. They keep coming back.”

Urbererer takes moment to look at each of the women, a bit of confusion on his face.

I don’t see any bumps ... wait if I look real close- oh, no. I know what this is.

“If I may,” he asks the young woman. She nods. Urberer reaches out to her and she begins to look uncomfortable but remains still. He provides the most gentle of touch to the woman’s face. He notes that her skin is paler than it should be with flicks of gold.

Skin warm, a bit dry, and pale. I’ll check the others.

“May I ladies?” He gestures for the rest of them to stand next to the first young woman. THey complied and he touched each of their faces, noticing similar charactersitics. Each woman squirms a little bit underneath his touch. He turns their face this way and that, looking at them carefully. They all stare at him in the eyes. As he looks at the last girl, he notes that her skin has silver flecks instead of gold. He pushes a litte harder with his thumb where her jawline and neck meet. She let’s out a “meep” sound as he takers a step back. He rubs his forefingers together.

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“Ladies I have bad news.”

They all gasps. Their unison of worry shocked him enough that he could not help but to offer a smile. He would be kind in relaying his message.

“And good news. You ladies are blessed with delicate figures and constitutions. And of such you must be mindful in your actions. These bumps, which were hard for me to see are a response to your skin not being able to breathe.”

The woman he touched piped in “Wh-what do you mean good monk.”

He rubs his forefingers again and look at them. “Your cosmetics my dear.”

The first woman responds “I don’t understand.”

He moves in closer and whispers loud enough for them all to hear. “Do you see how all of your necks are red.”

They all look, their eyes getting big.

He continues “I imagine you all feel heat on your faces.”

“You’re exactly right monk!” THe third young lady responded, surprised at his accuracy., The rest nod in agreement. Urbererer barely holds back a laugh.

“It’s called blushing. And it should be visible on all of your faces. But it’s not. You all are as pale as white mithril. When I first looked I couldn’t see your bumps. It’s because they’re hidden. Your make-up is causing your skin to break out. So the good news is its fixable”.

All the ladies relax at his words.

“But what’s the problem?” The middle woman asked.

“You’ll have to stop wearing your makeup for awhile.”

They all visibly frown.

Urberer places a single hand on the cheek of the first woman to talk and says “Oh, please ladies. Don’t respond that way. There is always a blessing in every moment. Your blessing is that you are as beautiful of living art. How can you perfect the perfection of the maker? These cosmetics are nice for women such as yourselves” he says, looking each of the other two women in the eyes intensely first before looking back at the first woman who’s face he still had in his hands “but unnecessary. Let your beauty shine in its purest, natural form.”

The ladies looked at him without word now. He knew his words had charmed them. What they needed was encouragement. And what many of them craved at their age, the appreciative touch of someone not friend or family; something that could have a little extra meaning to it. But for him, that was as far as it would go. He took a step back and bowed with a simple and formal “May you go in peace. Thank you for your donations to the temple.”

The first woman he had talked took a step closer. Urberer took an equal, reactionary step backwards keeping distance. She did a small step again and he did so in such a way that it’d be hard for others to notice him keeping his distance. SLightly bemused by his movements, she decides to speak in a hushed tone “perhaps we can speak more about how to let my beauty shine in its natural form. I’m sure there are many confessions I could make.”

Wow. She definitely chose to omit “pure” from her words. At least she’s honest. Honest and audacious. She tried to get my tied up like that guy did. These nobles and merchants... give them an inch and they’ll take a mile. And I don’t have time for this.

In a professional voice, Urberer repeats himself “May you go in peace. Thank you for your donations to the temple.” He makes sure to look past her and her friends. From the corner of his eye he could see the woman about to say something but one of her friends places a hand on her shoulder. So instead she stops, curtesy and says “You too good monk. May you go in peace.” The ladies with her curtesy just the same. As she walks by, as if unable to help it she says “at least until we meet again.”

Ug. I really should blame my mother and father for this. My mother for my charm and my father for my looks. Well at least mother. Father’s looks are standard at best I suppose. But mother, she’s a charmer. If they only knew the headaches they caused me. Regardless, I need to go.

The line moves forward with all the speed of a snail in heat. Another man hops forward. Also well dressed like everyone else around him, in wealthy clothes and jewelry, except a large ruby on his chest. He gingerly places his foot down once he’s a few paces away from Urberer.

Urberer gives a polite bow and mans responds in kind- but only bowing halfway down and quickly. Then the man flips a few coins to Urberer without ever saying anything. Urberer shifts his weight to one leg, and turns and turns at the shoulder, allowing the coins to simply fall to the ground. The man doesn’t even appear to notice as is busy taking his shoe off.

“Sir, how may I hel-“

“My toe hurts. Fix it.”

Urberer tries not to roll his eyes at the rudeness. He kneels down to look at the foot. The man wiggles his hairy foot. Upon inspection he sees that the toe is angle inward.

“Yes sir. You are blessed! It is a simple toe nail that has grown inward. All one has to do is pull it out.”

“Ok.”

“May you -“

“Get to it.”

“Excuse me sir.”

“Fix it. It’s why you’ve gotten the coin. Hurry now. I have evening arrangements for which to prepare.”

Urberer looks at the coins that are still on the ground. He then looks back up taking a closer look at the man. His clothes weren’t exactly like everyone else’s. He had a mixture of clothes bearing current trends and yet also those from preceding ages. And something was missing from his waist belt.

“Sir thank you for your donations. You are quite generous. Where are you weapons?” Urberer said, maintaining a false sense of friendliness. At the same time he gestured for Caper, elderly balding cleric to come to his side.

The man gets a smug look, placing his hands on his hips. “Har. You mistake me for a noble? No. Nothing’s been handed to me. But my family is one of the wealthiest.”

From somewhere behind the man, low but discernable was uttered“Still a far cry from the Havi family.” The merchant stopped speaking on the spot, his face drained of blood as his pride had taken a critical blow. The line behind becomes louder in their dialogue.

“Like I said. One of the wealthiest.”

And here I was going to make a tounge-and cheek statement about knowing how to speak to people. But seems like I won’t have to. Hopefully, I can shoe him on. Urberer thought.

“Well sir. Thank you for your donations.”

“Aren’t you going to heal my foot? What did I donate for?”

Urberer noted that Caper had arrived at this side. He simply kept speaking to the merchant “Well sir. I am almost out of divine power. Cleric Caper will be able to help you with your toe.”

Caper looks at the man, at the toe, and then at Urberer and rolls his eyes. Urberer whispers to the man “I’ll bring you a flask of Faerie Brew”

Caper looks at then man’s toe again. He puts up three fingers.

Urberer stares at the man. “Three, really?” His voice breaking a whisper.

Caper nods.

The merchant wiggles his toes. “Three? Three what? What are you all talking about?”

Urberer responds to the merchant, “Oh it’ll only take three days for you to feel your foot turned to normal again. This cleric will take good care of you. Just three days, right Cleric Caper?”

Caper nods again, his features inexpressive, except for the twinkle in his eyes.

Urberer whispers to Caper, “ Three? Seriously? You really don’t play fair do you.”

Caper says plainly “alway be mindful of the old man that plays a young man’s game”

Urbererer smirks. He takes a step back from the group and gives one final bow. “I’m sorry. I am a bit drained but I will return tomorrow.” The crowd grumbles and a number people begin to disperse.

High priest isn’t going to be happy I left early. But I’m going to be late as it is getting to the meeting. I need to move.