The next morning, Cera realized she’d been an absolute idiot. While she wasn’t great at it, she was able to heal, and surely that would be a way to make money. She quickly got out of bed, dressed, and headed to the living room, finding Falron was already awake.
“I think I solved the problem of not knowing how to make money. How common are healers? And how much can they typically make for healing people?” Cera began, her tail swaying behind her as she considered that perhaps she could manage things after all.
After a short pause, Falron shook his head and replied, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that either. The majority of mages also know at least a little about healing, so it isn’t incredibly rare, but it is still fairly well sought-after and can bring in a decent amount of money.”
He then paused to think further before continuing, “I’d estimate healing two people a day ought to be able to earn you enough for a reasonable place to stay and decent food. And that reminds me that you wouldn’t know the currency system either.”
He sighed and then began again, “First we have iron and steel coins, then copper, brass, silver, electrum, gold, platinum, and a few above that which I haven’t seen. Ten of each coin equals one of the tier above, and it is rare to see anything above gold. For simple healing, you are likely looking at five iron coins or so for minor healing, with more significant cases rising significantly from there. The key will be getting permission to heal from the healer’s guild, which requires proving you can do what you claim, as well as paying a sizable fee.”
Falron once again paused before resuming, “I believe the fee was one brass last time I checked. I don’t quite have that much that I can spare, so you’ll have to make money first, perhaps here in the village, now that your illusions can handle a reasonable amount of movement. Small villages also don’t tend to have guild presence, so you can do whatever you want in them. But people also don’t have as much money.”
Cera nodded as Falron stopped to catch his breath, adding, “And it would be a bad idea to hoard money in a village since that could collapse the local economy. So I’d have to do it over time. I suppose I’ll have to get started soon. How much are you able to spare for me when I leave?”
“I have a fair amount, but most of it is already planned for. I was originally planning to give you four copper, but I’ll go ahead and double that to help with your plan. Unfortunately, I’m low on funds, myself, after being driven away from the cities and towns. Back when I was younger, I had gold coins…” Falron responded with a sigh.
“Thank you for sparing that much for me, I know you never expected me to show up like I did, so it’s great that you can spare anything at all. So that’ll be two copper to earn, minimum, let’s say three to give a little room for food and shelter. That’d be 300 iron coins then… That sounds like a lot when you mentioned five per healing and lower amounts out here. Damn,” Cera remarked, tail going still as she took in the number.
“So that’d be what, like a hundred minor healings, minimum, spread out while trying not to tie up too much of the local currency… That’s a hell of a lot of work, since I don’t know how much I could keep at any given time. Then again, I suppose there are other options. How likely is it that I could earn money by teaching mages in a town some of the more advanced understanding of things that I have, like the flame, ice, and shield?” she continued, tail beginning to resume its earlier motion as she felt more hopeful with her latest idea.
Falron paused for a moment in thought before replying, “Well, healing can range up to around two copper for more intense wounds like organ damage, so it depends on what happens. And I think that idea has merit, Cera. Your shield is certainly stronger than what I was taught, and that fire was impressive back when you first showed it off. I’m not so sure about the ice, not many people make use of it for anything but preservation, since it is fragile. But you could likely earn several steel coins by teaching other mages, if you can convince them to learn from you.”
Cera nodded before remarking, “I think that’ll have to be my main goal then, trying to find a way to convince mages to pay me in exchange for my knowledge. And since you said most mages know about healing, that should mean I could meet some at the healer’s guild even if I can’t afford the fee.”
After a little more discussion and refining her idea slightly, they had breakfast. Afterward, Cera decided to try going to the village and seeing if anyone could use her assistance. While it was a bit of a walk, she’d been keeping up with a little exercise now and then, so it wasn’t too strenuous, and she made the trip with ease, only to realize she didn’t know anything about the village that would be helpful for her.
As she thought about what to do, a passing woman called out to her, asking what she was doing standing there for. Unable to get away from answering, she shook her head and walked closer to the woman.
“Hello, I’m Falron’s visitor, and I was hoping to earn a bit of money, preferably by healing people, but I don’t know where to start. Do you have any ideas?” Cera replied, tail twitching behind her, but properly hidden by her illusion.
The woman paused for a moment as she thought, then responded, “I think you may want to see the village head, and they might be able to put out an announcement? Otherwise, there are a few tasks people would pay to have done for them, like laundry and woodcutting, though you don’t look the sort for the latter.”
Cera laughed at the woman’s closing remark and nodded, stating, “I’m a mage, not a woodsman. I’ll pass on cutting wood, though I know it’s important. Thank you for the advice; where can I find the leader of the village? This is my first trip here, after all.”
After getting directions, Cera began repeating them over and over in her head, knowing she had relatively poor memory, and began walking. Not too long after, she found herself before the village head’s door and had to restrain herself from grabbing her tail to relax. Instead, she took a deep breath before knocking on the door, her tail faintly twitching with anxiety.
A moment later, the door opened, and an old woman took a single look at her before gesturing for her to come inside. Cera followed the woman inside, and was swiftly guided to a seat near the fireplace, near where an old man also sat, writing something down at a desk.
After waiting for the man to finish writing, Cera explained her goal of making money through healing to him, only to be laughed at before the man explained, “We have nowhere for people to go for healing, nor do people have the time or money to be healed from minor things. You might be able to help people with larger injuries, however, but that isn’t what you had planned on, now, is it?”
The man shook his head before continuing, “If you are serious about trying to heal people, I can put out word about it, and get directions to the homes of anyone willing to pay, but you need to be able to handle serious injuries. Can you do that?”
Cera paused for a moment before hesitantly nodding, then explained how she had healed the man she’d taken down with her spear during the attack. She then added her willingness to come back multiple times to heal someone if needed, adding that she was somewhat of a perfectionist and wouldn’t want to leave things any worse than “well-done” at minimum.
The two then discussed the price she’d charge, agreeing that roughly half what she’d get in a town would be the most she could charge in the village, between one and three steel coins per healing, which would range from deep cuts up to light internal injuries, and even possibly broken bones, though the last was expected to take multiple sessions if she could even manage it.
In the end, Cera felt she’d managed a good deal, even if it wasn’t exactly what she’d intended at first. Feeling good about how things had gone, she carefully made her way back home, having nearly lost focus on her illusion at one point during the discussions.
After returning home, she spent some time filling in Falron about what she’d spoken of with the elder, and he approved, saying, “I wasn’t sure that minor healing would be an option anyway, but this sounds like a good opportunity. And what you were saying earlier about not wanting to tie up too much currency in the village shouldn’t be a problem, I forgot to mention that earlier.”
Later on, the two shared dinner, and Cera went to bed, thinking about the future as she hugged her tail, glad, as usual, that she had the fluffy thing.
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