Inari’s Gift

Upon waking up in the morning, Cera took a few moments to enjoy hugging and brushing her tail before putting up her illusion again, grabbing her staff, and heading downstairs.  Now that she could easily afford it, she had some breakfast after paying to keep her room before heading to the healers’ guild.  Things were much the same as the prior day, so she stuck to the more severe cases again.

At the end of the day, she’d earned one copper and eight steel, less than the prior day, and returned to her temporary home.  After some time spent brushing and petting her tail, she went back downstairs for another steak for dinner, having liked the one the night before.

The next morning, she paid for her room again and headed to work.  This time, two of the other healers were absent, so she was free to visit more people.  After earning just short of three copper, she returned to her inn, had some dinner, and went to bed.

Returning to the guild the next day, she found that they were overstaffed for the day already, so she left and spent some time wandering the town, eventually finding a clothing store and picking out another dark blue dress and a set of tunic and pants to add to her other clothing.  After paying six steel for the clothes, she headed back home to put them away.

After her shopping trip, Cera decided to slip out of town for some magic practice, and got dressed in a practical tunic and pants, belted on her sword, grabbed her staff, and headed out.  Since she was running low on mana in her body after several days of heavy usage, she decided to keep her practice relatively mild, sticking with mana constructs she could mostly recover the energy from.

Eventually, she managed to make one that moved the earth, which would have been handy when the bandits had attacked her in the past.  After practicing her new skill a bit, she returned to her room for the evening, picking up dinner along the way, this time having some sandwiches and water for two steel.  She went ahead and paid for her room for the next day as well, then headed to bed.

The following day was similar in that the hospital was fine without her, so she simply went out of town and practiced magic again for most of the day.  Around noon, however, someone came by and asked what she was doing.  Glad that it was someone polite, Cera brought up her practice, and her desire to avoid experimenting in town.

The man who’d stopped by expressed his agreement before continuing on his way.  After a few more hours, she returned to town and had some soup and bread before bed for five iron, as well as spending another five steel for her room.

Upon checking in with the healers’ guild the next day, she saw everyone wearing masks, and upon asking, found that a nasty sickness was going around and they could use her help again.  The masks were hardly as good as in her prior life, but anything was better than nothing.

After a long day of healing dozens of people, she went home with a copper and a half, as each healing was far less intensive than what she’d done the other days.  That did, however, mean she’d been able to save even more mana within herself, preparing for any other emergencies.

The next day saw one person so heavily injured that Cera made an entire copper off them alone, though it wiped out a sizable amount of her mana trying to heal everything.  Apparently, they’d gotten into a fight with some thieves, from what they told her.

For the rest of the patients, the majority were simply still sick, and didn’t bring in much money, though Cera still did her best for them, even while some of the others grumbled about not making much.  In the end, her total for the day was two copper and six steel, counting the heavily injured patient.

A few days later, the sickness finally died down, and Cera decided to upgrade her lodging again, paying one copper per day now for a room with a nice bed, window, closet, and a tiny private bathroom.  By this point, she’d ended up with nineteen copper, twenty-three steel, and five iron, so she figured she could afford it.

She also did some research, finding that the capital paid significantly better, with similar costs for living.  In addition, she learned that the mage’s academy cost a silver per month, but also provided housing and food at the same time.

The next few months proved her ability to afford a better room was true, but she ended up downgrading again so as to save more money.  Even after three months, she still hadn’t managed to earn much more than a single silver, so she still had to work harder if she wanted to reach her goal.

Instead, however, she ended up paying a farmer a steel to bring her back to Greenhallow village, where she visited Falron again, and paid him back, giving him ten copper and finding that she now had considerably more money than he did.

After a month, she took a series of carts to reach the city of Irana, and promptly went to the healers’ guild there to introduce herself and see if there was sufficient work for her.  Fortunately, it seemed quite busy, and she was able to easily find work.

Finding another inn where she could get a private room, she began building up more money, though she did go with the higher-quality room this time, as she was averaging four copper per day in the city, for the first week at least.

Combined with her modest diet, this left her making roughly two to two and a half copper per day beyond her expenses, allowing her to earn a bit over a brass in the first week.  She was quite pleased by this, though she was beginning to feel lonely, as she’d mostly kept herself distant from others this whole time.

Eventually, she realized she was being foolish and began asking around town, finding that there was also a mages’ guild in the city, though towns were mostly too small to have one.  Hearing of this, she took a day off from her work at the healers’ guild and went to see what she’d need to do to join the mages’ guild.

To her surprise, there was a golem at the front desk, with a plaque listing a number of requests it could fulfil.  Even more surprisingly, she could already afford to join, and could pass the requirements listed for the test.  She quickly gave her instructions to the clay construct and waited until a woman entered the room.

Rather than saying anything, the woman immediately began slowly casting a spell, and Cera almost carelessly threw up one of her multi-layer shields.  The woman’s eyes widened, but she continued her spell for a few more seconds before a bolt of mana slammed into the shield, followed by a lightning bolt.

Cera grinned as her shield was barely damaged, the attacks failing to penetrate the second layer.  The woman nodded and pulled out a glowing medallion as she held out her hand.

“That will be five brass, and I already know you’ll make it back soon if you’re willing to share.  That is quite the creation,” she stated calmly as she watched Cera retrieve the coins and hand them over.

As Cera put on the token, letting it join her healers’ guild one, she replied, “I have quite a bit more I can teach as well, both small and large things.  I can write down a quick summary if it would help people decide if they want to pay or not.”

Cera couldn't help but wag her tail in excitement, glad it was hidden with an illusion, and that she’d become better at hiding it.  But now she’d joined a real mages’ guild!  And they didn’t look down on her!  She grinned as she followed the woman into the back, where she saw several bookshelves and two men sitting at a table with books in their hands.

The woman walked over to a desk and pulled out a pen and some paper before gesturing for Cera to sit at a nearby table.  Quickly following the implied instructions, Cera sat and began writing down the basics of her knowledge, making sure not to describe them well enough to immediately figure them out just from reading the note.

After finishing, she brought the paper back and handed it to the woman, who spent a while thinking before giving a price for each bit of knowledge, adding up to quite a bit more than expected, at over a brass per person.  After agreement over the price, she asked Cera to return in a week, explaining that most members only visited a time or two per week normally.  Cera nodded and went to look through the books, after being told there was a fee of a steel per book, or a copper to borrow a copy, with fees for keeping it too long.  Wanting to avoid spending all her money rapidly, she simply looked over the titles, spending nearly an hour doing so.

In the end, she returned home without reading any of the books, but had high hopes for her ability to learn from them, given the titles she’d read.  She had only seen two books about shielding, however, and was eager to make them outdated.  In fact, she considered writing her own book about shielding now that she’d thought about it.

That could wait, however.  She’d become tired from being so excited, and headed to bed without even eating dinner.

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