Inari’s Gift

Since she’d been absent for the most part for quite some time now, Cera decided to go visit the healer’s guild once again after waking up.  Once she arrived, she found several people she didn’t recognize, learning that most of them were doctors rather than mages, which meant she was still going to be useful even with more people present, fortunately.

After checking in with the people who’d been present while she was gone, she learned that the potions she had delivered before had been quite useful, though they still hadn’t used up very many of them.  She was thanked for the smaller ones specifically, as those were useful to help children get over sickness faster.

For the more powerful ones, the hospital had only used a single one, when a rich traveler had come in with a mangled leg after having taken a nasty fall.  Fortunately, the man had companions who were able to bring him back to be healed; otherwise, he’d have had a much darker fate.  Instead, he was back out quite quickly.

Despite the usage of some of the potions, Cera was told that they still didn’t require any more of them.  But they were still quite willing to have additional healers to help out.  As such, Cera began wandering through the building, checking for anyone who needed significant healing, intending to leave the lighter work to others.

She eventually found someone who had been having major issues due to organ damage.  Apparently, the older man had been drinking quite heavily, and doing unknown drugs.  The other healers were having difficulty with helping the man, as simply boosting regeneration wasn’t solving the problem.

Cera may not have had great knowledge of the human body, but she did understand her abilities quite well, and had no problems with studying herself in-depth as an example, which many healers had difficulty with.  As such, she ran her mana through the man, carefully noting down areas that felt improper.  Following that, she paid extremely careful attention to her own body in the same areas, thankful that she was still human in terms of organs, and then began to compare the two.

After around half an hour, she believed she understood what to do, and began drawing on her more recent knowledge of biological manipulation to directly alter the man’s organs.  It was a slow process, as she was dealing with important, functional biology rather than more cosmetic things like her work on herself.

A few hours later, she was able to verify that the organs were mostly whole once more, having found the work to be much quicker than any attempt to work with bone.  To her surprise, the other healers were interested in learning how she was able to help him, and the head of the local guild even came to meet her, paying her directly.

It appeared that the man had been a relative, and they were quite grateful that someone was able to help him.  Cera was shocked at how much she was given for her work, however, gaining a full seven copper for the single healing.  She was also able to arrange a deal regarding teaching the other healers, though she wouldn’t be doing so as directly as with her current class.

Instead of teaching in person, she’d decided on writing a manual with the basic ideas behind what she was doing.  Within, she would explain the basics of healing, then move into basic biomanipulation, as well as how to introduce subconscious efforts into the work more directly.  With that, she should be able to teach more people more easily.  Additionally, she might also earn some money over time as the guild had more people read it.

Once she heard that there was no one else that required such specialized work, Cera eventually decided to not do any more healing for the day, but to instead find a quiet area and get to writing.  For this, there was nothing too terribly groundbreaking, and she could reference other books to make her work easier.

It took quite a bit of work, but she was able to get everything she could think of written by the end of the day, ending up with several pages of instructions and practice exercises.  It was hardly professional-looking at the moment, but she was sure future copies would be made more presentable than a simple pile of paper.

A while later, she’d finished as much of the negotiations as she could, presently.  Unlike the mages’ guild, this one did not have any specific procedures or preparations for those who made contributions beyond simple work.  As such, they would have to contact other branches in other towns and cities to decide what they could offer.

Cera was told, however, that it would likely not be an ongoing payment, but instead a single lump sum, with potential assistance from the guild if needed in the future.  It wasn’t ideal, but it was still a lot better than nothing.  And she was, once again, actually valued for her contributions, something she’d sorely missed in her prior life.

Eventually, she returned home, having a quick meal before heading to bed, planning on returning to the hospital tomorrow.  She’d already made more from the one healing than was typical for an entire day, so she was fairly pleased with her earnings for the day already.

The following day, Cera returned to the healers’ guild once more, as she had planned.  Once there, she spent a short while wandering around checking on various patients, trying to decide what she should focus on.  The doctors were plenty capable of handling a lot of the smaller injuries even without anyone with healing magic assisting; it merely took a little while for the body to finish healing itself after being patched up by them.

On the other hand, many of the more intense injuries were already being tended to by other healers.  There were a few who were in need of more specialized care, but even they were not in need of much help, as some of the healers had the knowledge to handle sickness and infection.  In the end, she went with the fairly simple work of fixing broken bones.

Her work was fairly simple, mostly just needing raw power.  She did, however, find small ways to improve the speed due to her experience messing around with her bones, as it gave her more understanding of what she was able to do.  Instead of purely assisting natural regeneration, she also began shifting some of the flesh into bone.  It was quite slow, but she could ensure that a broken bone was completely healed rather than needing several days of healing and resting to finish.

Several of the other healers noticed, as people they expected to stay there ended up walking out earlier than expected.  Cera simply remarked to them that she’d put the information on what she was doing into the manual she’d written, which would be distributed soon.  Fortunately, people seemed to be content with that, rather than demanding direct lessons, as she had worried.

She didn’t make nearly as much today as the prior day, only about four copper, but it was still a fair amount of money.  Unfortunately, when she left, it was much too late to head to the bank, so she’d need to do that early tomorrow.

Arriving back at her temporary home, she found that they were actually having a shortage of food due to a supply error.  Apparently their regular delivery hadn’t arrived, and rumor was that they’d been scammed, robbed, or a few other differing stories.  Either way, it meant that she couldn’t eat there.

Quite irritated with the event, Cera muttered curses under her breath as she headed back out into the city and began looking for somewhere else to eat.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to find anywhere cheap, as they were all packed, and ended up spending significantly more than she normally would.  In the end, it cost nearly double what she considered her normal maximum, totaling up to slightly over nine steel for the evening.

Eventually, she headed back to get some sleep, still quietly fuming over how much money she’d had to spend.  Even as she lay down and hugged her tail, she grumbled that maybe she should have just gone without food for the day and tried again in the morning or something.

Upon waking up, Cera was about to return to the hospital before she realized her coins were building up pretty heavily again, and remembered she had meant to go to the bank.  As such, she changed her direction and kept a tight telekinetic hold on the bag, making sure no one could steal from her this time, while also ensuring she stayed on the main roads, not wanting a repeat of when she was nearly attacked.

After depositing most of her money, she was up to five silver, eight brass, and five copper in the bank.  That didn’t leave her with much spending money, but she was going to earn more before the evening, so she didn’t worry too much.

For her work today, she ended up finding out that several people had ended up sick from inhaling mold spores, and many of the other healers were having difficulty trying to resolve the issue.  Cera offered to try, though she cautioned that it may not be pleasant.

Much as she expected, her attempts to remove the mold spores ended up quite unpleasant, and even caused two of the three patients to vomit from the sensation.  She’d had to slowly invade their body with enough of her mana that she could overpower their natural resistance to magic affecting their internal organs, then carefully isolate the foreign particles and pull them out using very finely controlled telekinesis.

In the end, she considered it quite an effective exercise to improve her control, and a successful healing session, as the patients all reported feeling significantly better by the end of the day.  While it was difficult and time-consuming, she didn’t earn terribly much from her work today, unfortunately, as they couldn’t afford to pay much, and she only gained a portion of the money, the rest going to the guild.

Fortunately, she was able to eat without having to go hunt for somewhere else when she got back home.  Paying attention to the others in the common room, she learned that the issue had been a scam, after all.  Apparently the shipment was delayed, and someone had been waiting for such an occurrence, then stepped in saying they were an alternate contact.  They had loaded up crates full of rocks, which had small amounts of food at the top to mask the fact.

Due to this, the inn’s supplier was going around town making sure everyone knew what happened and to be on the lookout for it happening to them too.

Having learned what had happened, Cera headed to bed, curiosity satisfied, preparing for the following day.  She had an unpleasant awakening in the morning, however, hearing shouting in the hall.  She quickly got up and put her illusion up, then poked her head out of the door, finding that a woman was threatening a man, waving a knife in his direction.

Quite irritated, Cera demanded they leave, or she’d blast them with cold for bothering her.  The man quickly fled, while the woman cursed at his back.  She eventually left as well, and Cera headed back to bed for a while longer.

Once she woke up naturally later on, she decided that today she’d stay in and focus on her spirit some more.  It’d been slowly healing on its own, but focused work was always helpful.  The day passed quickly, as she made significant progress on mending even more damaged sections of her soul.  She also took a few breaks to simply relax in bed for a while.

In the evening, she had a small dinner, then headed back to bed once again, considering what she ought to focus on teaching her students the following day.

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