9 – Meeting The Healer

The sun was still out when Alexandra stepped past the first house of Lanterne. She would have preferred darkness.

Outside the house, a woman was hanging laundry. Alexandra saw her reaction. She couldn’t blame her. Covered in blood, and not just her own, she reminded herself that she too would be concerned about a bloodied stranger walking past her home.

She ignored the stares and walked—stumbled, really—toward her hosts’ house. Her legs were shaking. She needed a break.

People were looking at her. She could hear them whispering to one another. None came forward to help her.

Yet, more came to see her. The murmurs grew in number and volume. There were one, then two, then three groups of villagers gossiping as they spotted her.

She stopped.

A man was blocking her path. Not that tall, but wider than her, his wool coat further reinforced his bulking figure.

He stared at her.

She met his gaze.

“Who are you? And what are you doin’ here?”

Alexandra was too tired to deal with this. She was tempted to cast Inflict Weakness on him, but she held herself back. Getting into a fight with the villagers would do her no good. Furthermore, she was still concerned about showing off Warlock abilities.

They were wary of her as it was, no need to make it worse.

“I’m Alexandra,” she said, her voice less steady than she’d like. “I was hunting goblins.”

The man looked her up and down. “Huntin’ goblins? How could goblins rough you up that much?”

Alexandra winced. She’d assumed goblins were a real threat to Lanterne. Why else hadn’t they dealt with them? But now, having fought them herself, she wasn’t so sure. Goblins were weak. The villagers would know that. Training fodder, maybe, or just not worth the effort to clear out.

“I’m not a good fighter,” Alexandra answered.

The man grunted. “Right. As if.”

She was about to argue when Lara came to her rescue. “John! Don’t bully my guest.” Lara stepped next to Alexandra, and put a hand on her arm. “You look like shit.”

“Thanks.”

Lara frowned as she inspected her wounds closer. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

“Lara, that woman is suspicious,” John started, “you cannot—”

Lara cut him off. “We’ll talk about that after she’s healed.”

John snorted, but left it at that. Lara pulled Alexandra to her house. “Not making the best impression, here, Alex.”

She chuckled. “Not my forte.”

Lara sighed. “That’s not a laughing matter.” She shook her head, taking stock of her injuries once more. “But not the most pressing either.” Outside the house, she spotted her husband crouched in their field of Aetherveil. A new patch of the blue flowers had bloomed, and he was hard at work harvesting them. “Therion,” she called, “go get Bamir.”

Therion looked up, blue dye smearing his face, and grimaced. He said nothing, nodded, and ran off.

Inside the house, Lara helped Alexandra to sit, removed her vest, and used a wet rag to clean the dirt and grime around the lighter scratches she received on her legs and arms. They were only lighter in comparison to what had happened to her face. “I’m not a healer. But don’t worry, Bamir will be here soon.”

Alexandra nodded in silence, a small lump forming in her throat. There was no avoiding it, she had to meet the priest. On the bright side, a priest of the god of life probably wasn’t the worst. Right? She didn’t know what sort of gods were worshipped in this world, but it could have been worse.

At least, Bamir would be able to do something about her wounds.

“So, was it a success?”

Alexandra blinked. “What?”

“Your quest.”

“Ah. Yes. I killed three goblins.”

Lara sighed. “You’re really not a great fighter. I assume you’re in your late twenties, like me. At that age, our attributes alone should be enough to deal with goblins.”

Alexandra answered with a shrug. “I guess. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

“No combat skill?”

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Exactly. Though I got a quest for Sickle Mastery just now.”

Lara frowned. “If you’re going to fight on the regular, you should look to acquire a real weapon.”

“I know. But that’s all I have for now.”

Lara put her rag down. “We should wait for Bamir. I don’t want to make things worse.”

It didn’t take long for the man to arrive following behind Therion. The priest stepped into the room dressed in ample white robes that reached down to his ankles. His gaze rested on Alexandra for a moment too long, his eyes briefly widening before he reined in his expression.

He coughed. “I assume you are the patient?”

“She is,” Therion said. “Sorry to bother you.”

“Don’t sweat it. Fanon wishes so.”

Therion bowed slightly, before going back outside to continue his work.

Bamir turned back to Alexandra. “Nasty wounds you got there.” He stepped closer, a frown etching itself on his face as he got a better look. “Goblins?”

Alexandra rolled her eyes. “I know. I suck. Can you fix me?”