A tavern wasn't exactly the place Myronel would've thought as ideal for holding wounded people. Sure, some did have rooms for people to sleep in - among other things - but most he'd seen were little more than a main room and a kitchen. That he, Nela, and Jylania were standing outside one now said everything about how desperate things were. About a fourth of Lasfont, stuck in a space spanning only a few streets across.

  It had been a surprise they'd been given a room to themselves. Admittedly, it was an upstairs room over what had been some kind of store, and the lower floor itself was being used by a family of survivors, but at least they would have some privacy. Just had to remember to keep their voices low when discussing certain matters. Not that Myronel thought those people were the type to listen in, but with the weight of their secrets...they couldn't be too careful.

  "I hope they cleaned this place up first," Nela commented. Myronel had to agree. They'd seen a few filthy taverns before, places where he wasn't sure he trusted the mugs and dishes to not be dirty. Nela was the healer, not him, but he'd been around her enough to figure out a few things. One of those things was that you had to keep wounds clean.

  "Captain had a couple of people work on it," the guard with them said. He was young, around their age, with reddened skin that suggested a little more time out in the sun than the guard was used to. Myronel could remember being like that, shortly after he first started training with a sword.

  "Good," Nela said, breaking into a stride towards the doorway. The entrance had a faded colorful curtain hanging in place of a door, red with yellow stripes. Myronel stepped forward, a bit too slow for his own liking, as Nela pushed the curtain aside.

  Entering after her, it struck Myronel again how cool the stonework made the buildings in Lasfont. The tables that had once filled the room had been pushed to either side, along with some of the chairs. It was quiet, a lack of sound that unsettled him at first. He'd been expecting the bustle of a tavern, Myronel realized.

  "So, where's the wounded?" Nela was standing in the middle of the room, looking around. Myronel was tempted to remark they weren't about to come out to greet her, but he held his tongue.

  "The back?" Jylania said, pointing to another doorway with another hanging curtain across the room.

  "Yes, this place has, uh, private rooms." The embarrassed look on the guard's face gave Myronel a good idea what those rooms had been for.

  "And they're probably even less clean," Nela said with a shake of her head. "Just...never mind. How many are there back there again?"

  "I think it's two per room, and there's a hex rooms total. Though I think one room is empty." So between one and two hex here. Not a high number, but that just as easily could mean that few managed to escape the creatures as it did that few had suffered injuries from them. While what Captain Takhat has said indicated the latter, Myronel wasn't about to rule out the other.

  Nela started for the back, only to be interrupted by a stout Remuati woman emerging from the doorway they'd been headed for. "Stupid little man, stupid little..." She trailed off on seeing them, staring for a long minute. "What are you doing here?"

  "Healer came from the south," the guard said, indicating Nela with a gesture.

  "Her?" the woman said with a snort, "I've had enough trouble getting that fool Jisry to be cooperative. You really think he'll listen to her?"

  "He better," Nela said. "If he doesn't, I have some words to share with him." Myronel didn't doubt that one bit.

  It had him wondering just what this healer was acting like to frustrate so many people. He would've thought that a healer would understand not to be difficult when under the care of someone else. Well, Myron could say the same about many people they'd met, people who ought to know better than they did.

  "You can try, but I've seen rocks that follow orders better." The woman was still fuming. "And at least if they don't, the rocks won't insult you. How he wasn't run out of town by now, I don't know."

  Nela glanced over at Jylania for a second. Myronel could understand the concern here, although he thought Jylania was tougher then her age and appearance indicated. They now knew the truth of the girl's childhood, and it was as ugly as it could get.

  "Good luck. You'll need it." The woman marched partway to the door outside, but then stopped. "Oh, and most of the others are asleep. Try not to wake them."

  "Right, right," Nela set distractedly. Myronel sighed, figuring he'd have to make sure they weren't too loud.

  The woman stomped out. The guard stared at the doorway, a look of concern on his face. "Didn't realize it had gotten that bad," he said quietly, "Captain's not going to be happy."

  "She already isn't," Nela pointed out.

  "I think that's the third or fourth person Captain Takhat asked to take care of the wounded. The earlier ones both gave up after a few days, and both said it was because they couldn't handle Jisry any more. From the sound of it, we were, or are, about to have another quit too."

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  Nela shook her head. "Should've told us that before we came over here. Whatever. Let's just go see...shit, she didn't tell us which room the healer was in, did she?"

  "We'll figure it out," Myronel reassured her. It wouldn't be too hard to peek into each of the rooms and see who was there.

  "I'll leave you to it," the guard said, "Come get me if you need something. I'll be standing watch outside." He hurried outside, leaving Myronel wondering if the man was trying to avoid getting conscripted into dealing with the healer as well.

  Nela rolled her eyes, and with a beckoning gesture to Jylania, headed for the back of the tavern. Myronel quietly followed, preparing for the worst. Not that he was entirely sure what the worst outcome here was, but still, better to be ready.

  As they'd been told, the hallway beyond had three doorways on each side, each again with curtains. Going down the doorways on the right side, Nela looked past the curtain on each one, only to move on to the next. At the third one, she nodded back to them after her glance in, then entered.

  Sitting upright on one of a pair of beds, a blanket covering his legs, was a thin middle-aged Remuati man reading a book. Head and chest both bare, he jumped up slightly with a grunt as they entered the room. "Who in the heavens let you in here?"

  "The curtains in place of doors," Nela remarked, "That, or the captain here. Choose one."

  "A regular jester, I take it." The gaze of Jisry, assuming this was him, was cold and harsh. "You can tell Captain Takhat I am still very much in pain, for all the good it will do."

  "Wait, what?" Nela drew back, a look of surprise on her face.

  "That is why she sent you, is it not?" Jisry's eyes closed. "Trying yet again to convince me to take up the mantle of healer, when my body burns with every step. I told her this to her face, and still she won't believe me."

  This certainly didn't match what Takhat had said. Something else had to be going on here, a deeper dispute than it had first seemed. As for what to do about it...Myronel didn't know. Nela didn't look any less confused than he felt.

  At least this was a problem he could help resolve, unlike healing injuries and wounds. "I can assure you that's not why we're here."

  "Then I'll repeat myself. Why are you here?" Setting his book down, Jisry glared up at them. Not nearly that intimidating, at least to Myronel, but the man remained defiant.

  "You said it yourself. You're not in any condition to work." Nela crossed her arms, drawing herself up to as much height as she could muster. "I, however, am."

  "You, a healer?" Jisry laughed, although by the end it almost sounded like a cough. "And I had thought that nonsense about the goddess of the fountains was the most ridiculous thing I'd hear this month."

  Myronel briefly wondered what he meant by a goddess. Nela, meanwhile, was unamused. "Right, right, too young, elves can't be healers, and so on. I've heard it all before. Not like you can stop me."

  "Stop you from being a fool? If I could, I would." Jisry glanced down at his own hands. "Anyone who clearly doesn't know how the heka works should not be allowed to speak a single word of power, let alone try to use them to heal."

  "Fine, I'll play along. How exactly does this heka of yours work?" Myronel recalled Ugotlas using the same word to describe the energies to fuel spellcraft. It seemed there was a bit more to it to that, although there could be a difference between how sphinxes saw it and how the Remuati did.

  "When a woman carries a child, they divide their personal heka between themselves and the unborn. This heka will never fully regrow, and each child you bear weakens your connection to it." Jisry looked over at Jylania. "That child of yours is proof enough that you've already gone through this."

  "She's not my mother," Jylania pointed out, speaking out for the first time. Myronel had thought that obvious - the two did not look alike at all, even given the difference in their ages. Jylania was quite stout in comparison to Nela's thin body, and once the girl obtained her full growth she would easily be taller than Nela as well.

  "How old do you even think I am?" Nela asked in disbelief.

  "My mistake, then. But if you don't even know half of this matter, you are not fit to be a healer. You probably aren't even a firstborn child. You will accomplish nothing, and I will tell the captain again that she has no choice but to wait on me to recover."

  "Why do you..." Myronel trailed off on seeing Nela hold up a hand in his direction. The meaning was clear: she wanted to handle this.

  "So you won't let me touch you, or even try to help you, because I'll never count as a healer in your view. Is that right?" Nela's tone was all false cheer.

  "Indeed." If Jisry noticed her barely concealed fury, he showed no sign of it.

  "You sure?" Nela was smiling grimly.

  "Yes, I'm sure! You can go pull your trickery for any number of fools like Takhat, but anyone with any sense will see you bring nothing but false hope."

  "Alright, lesson time." Nela turned and faced Jylania. "When you're dealing with multiple sick or injured people all at once, you have to pick who to take care of first. And normally you'd try to pick the one in the worst shape first, the one with the highest chance of dying. Makes sense, right?"

  Jylania nodded. Myronel could tell where this was going, and had to hide a smile. Creative of her, to turn this into a learning opportunity.

  "So if you're dealing with people who have similar injuries, you still have to make a decision. This can be based on what you know, what herbs and resources you have, who the people are...or even how they behave."

  Jisry drew back, a scowl on his face.

  "Since our...friend...here isn't going to be reasonable, this man is now last on the list. Every other person here now, or any person who gets injured or sick in the meantime, will come first. He gets to wait." Nela reached over and took Jylania's hand. "Let's go see if the others are asleep."

  Myronel had turned his back when Jisry spoke again. "So you're not only fooling yourself, you're deluding this girl into thinking she can be a healer as well. This town is going to be ruined, all because there's no good man around to lead it."

  Nela spun and strode back. "I suppose you think you're such," she said, "But let me ask one thing. How exactly is a sleeping man supposed to lead anyone?"

  "What? What in the heavens is that supposed to-"

  Nela extended one hand to touch the man's nose. "Doroneiroi." He slumped back down, with Nela just able to catch him with her other hand. She lowered him down to the bed.

  "Maybe he'll figure out by tomorrow morning that I'm not going to take this shit," Nela grumbled, "What an arse. Come on, let's get out of here before I'm tempted to do worse."

  "I'm sorry," Myronel said quietly.

  "Don't be. You know I've heard worse." Nela rubbed at her eyes, suddenly looking very tired. "Let's get moving then. This took too long."

  "Agreed. The food shouldn't take them too much longer." The three of them exited the room, leaving the unconscious Jisry behind.

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