Inari’s Gift

The following morning, Cera didn’t bother to renew her reservation for a room, intending to get a better one since she wasn’t so worried about her funds.  She quickly put on her other dress, headed to the guild, and found Kelly waiting at the front desk once again.

Upon spotting Cera, the woman gestured for her to come forward and stated, “I was informed you would be coming and have paid the fee to join.  However, you never proved you can heal, which the head forgot to bring up, apparently.  I’ll need to see proof you can heal before I give you your token.”

Kelly then pulled out a knife from under the desk and held it out to Cera, who simply shook her head before setting down her bag of clothes and condensing moisture from the air into a scalpel.  Wincing slightly, she dragged it along her other arm, leaving a fair-sized cut, then focused on the wound and quickly sealed it once again.

“I see, not needing to borrow a knife is unexpected, but that proves you can join,” she remarked as she handed over a necklace with a brass token marked by a colored drop of blood.

Cera nodded in thanks before draping the necklace around her neck and picking up her bag again, then asked, “How should I go about helping today now that I’m approved to heal?”

With a sigh, Kelly replied, “If you are confident in treating broken bones and internal damage, we’ve got several people who need assistance with those, but otherwise, we have enough people capable of healing for the moment, unless we get a rush of people soon.  There is also taking care of the bandages again if you can’t do anything else.”

She paused for a moment to take a breath before adding, “Payment is determined at the end of the day, and is based on how much you’ve been able to help, with more paid to people who can heal, and less to those like myself who are supporting everyone else.”

“I see, thank you.  I’m not the best with bones and internal injuries, but if nothing else, I have a fair bit of mana I can throw into generic regeneration.  Do I just get to work, or do I need to do anything else first?” Cera inquired.

Kelly answered, “All you need to do is mark down that you’ve helped someone after working on them, and someone will come along to verify that you’ve done what you claim to have done.  Just, unless it is an emergency, don’t work on someone whose last entry on the sheet hasn’t been checked off yet.  If someone is at risk of dying, just get to work, and we’ll figure things out later.  Any other questions?”

Cera nodded at the rules, then asked, “Do you have anywhere I can leave my staff and bag?  I currently don’t have anywhere safe to leave my bag, and have had to bring it with me.”

“Sure, just to the right of the entry to the hospital area is a storage room for personal belongings,” Kelly replied with a gesture toward the door.

Cera thanked the woman before following the directions, then set her bag on the ground and leaned her staff over the top.  She then proceeded back into the hospital and began looking around, noticing multiple people with small-scale injuries or mild sickness.  Keeping in mind what she’d been told, she ignored them and continued onward, looking for those with more severe issues.

In short order, she found someone whose paperwork said had been crushed by a falling beam in a construction accident, and had multiple broken ribs.  Nodding at having found someone who fit the instructions she’d been given, she entered the closed-off area around their bed and informed them that she’d be helping as best as she could.

She spent around half an hour focusing on mending the bones, managing to heal them most of the way, but not entirely, as she didn’t want to use up too much of their body’s resources all at once.  After marking down her progress on the sheet outside, she moved on, taking a moment to refill her mana from that which was stored in her flesh.

The next person had suffered a stab to the stomach, and had apparently just been brought in, as no one was listed on the sheet yet.  She quickly entered and immediately got to healing, glad that it was a straightforward cut.  She swiftly managed to sterilize the wound, and got to work on the internal damage.  Not long after, she was able to seal the cut, and asked them to remain until someone verified they were ready to leave, along with letting them know they needed an extra-large meal to replenish themselves.

After marking down that she’d healed them fully, she moved on.  In the end, she managed to work on five people, two of whom had their arms splinted, and another whose cut was sewn shut, showing that ordinary doctors were also at work.

At the end of the day, she was presented with two copper and three steel, far less than she could have made if she’d worked on her own, but she had a steady supply of patients here.

She checked her coins and found she had fourteen steel and five copper.  Making a note to herself that she could afford to have a good meal and room tonight, she then let Kelly direct her to where six other mages were waiting.

Fortunately, it didn’t appear that any of them had noticed her illusion, so she took a seat and introduced herself, “Hello, I am Cera, the one who was offering to teach some magic to anyone interested.”

The others introduced themselves as well, and remarked that Kannon had set the price at a copper each.

As she began to describe what she was going to teach, a woman cut her off and stated that they’d already been told the basic idea of what to expect, and that was why they were there.

Nodding, even if she was annoyed at being interrupted, Cera began her lesson, finding that it only took a few minutes for everyone to get the hang of the flame trick.  It took longer for them to understand and manage to form pure ice, but everyone succeeded with that as well.  Two of them struggled with the design for the initial shield, and half of them couldn’t manage the layered shield, though they stated they were confident that practice would solve that.

The description of storing extra mana was met with disbelief, though two of the other mages did immediately attempt to follow her instructions, and eventually convinced the others to at least try it for a week or two.  Her final example of mana constructs that could maintain spells with external energy was met with even more disbelief, despite a working example being in front of them.  Only the woman who had cut her off earlier was able to replicate it, and only barely.

With this proof that it worked, the others swore to try to manage it as well, then paid Cera, though two of them grumbled about the amount.  She didn’t get all copper coins, instead ending up with twenty steel and four copper, giving her a total of thirty-four steel and nine copper.

Surprised at how rapidly she’d regained her money, Cera thanked them for their time before picking up her belongings and searching for a better quality inn than before.  After nearly an hour of wandering and asking questions, she found her destination.

Surprisingly, it appeared that her last inn was giving a much better deal than expected, as this one only gave permission to sleep in the main room downstairs for the same price as the other’s tiny rooms.  She did get what she was looking for, however, renting a small room for five steel and picking up a steak for two more, plus some more water for two iron.

She wouldn’t be able to make nearly as much money on a regular basis, so this was about what she expected to be able to afford normally, and she didn’t want to get used to better than she could afford.  Her room had a reasonable bed, a window outside, a small dresser, and a locking door, which she was thankful for.  She was also allowed access to mostly-clean water to wash her clothing, though she didn’t trust that she could leave her clothes on the clothesline outside.

Instead of risking theft, Cera used a combination of her foxfire and some air magic to quickly dry her clothing, then put them away in her room.  After cleaning her clothes, she found herself quite exhausted and settled in to sleep, this time feeling safe enough to stop her illusion and sleep hugging her tail again, making her feel much better.

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