Born From A Divine Gamble

The gates were closed but a group of eight pregnant women were relaxing in the garden with a bunch of small kids.

Galana ran to the gate ahead of him and nervously rang the bell hanging on its right side. One of the women got up from her seat and went to the gate were Galana hurriedly explained something to her.

The woman nodded and called one of the kids who ran inside the house. She then opened the gate for them and led them inside as well.

The room at the entrance was large but almost empty with the exception of many sets of chairs. The walls had interesting patterns sculpted into them and the whole place was well lit. There were three sets of doors and two flight of stairs leading to this room, excluding the one that led to the ouside. A man"s voice called from the room on the left behind some tall double doors and the pregnant woman led them there.

That other room was much more furnished than the entrance room. Every wall was covered by shelves staking up all the way to the high ceiling. They were filled with jars and small items of all sorts that he could not recognize. In the middle of the room stood a large and solid looking wooden table and five chairs almost all positioned on Emp"s side of the table.

On the other side, a man alone sat in the last, most comfortable looking chair. With so many chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, he was easy to see even with the absence of windows.

The man was wearing a white gown with red and gold fringes. (1) He was tall but thin, had a large jawbone and long sideburns. He had friendly look to him and kept his hair tied behind his head.

He gestured them to come sit in front of him and the pregnant woman went to stand by his side, seemingly interested in what would happen. Galana spoke to him in the other language for a short moment.

"I could just speak in the n.o.ble tongue then." The man suddenly said. "Would that be easier for you?"

"You can speak it?" Said Galana.

"That is great!" Said Emp. "I am so glad to meet someone I can speak to again."

"Good, so, let me see who I am speaking to."

Emp showed him his hunting card like he wanted and the man seemed really pleased from what he saw. Emp also noticed that there were now humans twice on the card with the woodland horror.

"A Muracier under my roof, what an honor for me to be able to help you." The man extended a hand as he presented himself. "My name is Bernard Forcore, mostly known for my talent in healing, what can I do for you."

Emp shook the man"s hand with a smile.

He had a.s.sumed he would immediately talk about his arm since he was bleeding all over his desk but since he was asking, Emp went straight to what was bothering him the most.

"You see, my leg hurts."

"For the love of all the G.o.ds and the spirits too! Are you really doing this to me right now? Could you not start with your arm that"s bleeding everywhere first!" Galana screamed from the side with a bunch of angry gestures.

"But it is not really that bad. It is not even a knuckle deep."

"I was about to say the same!" The mage said as if he had known Emp for a long time. "You just need a bandage and some ointment for this."

That guy definitely knew what he was talking about.

"Just fix it! We"ll talk about the leg after! All right?"

"Let"s do something about your arm then since your wife is so agitated and won"t stop nagging us about it."

Wife?

"She is not my wife, she is just my guide."

"Good for you, it would have been a pity."

"What"s that supposed to mean!" She said with an angry pout.

Emp just shrugged since he did not know either and left his arm in the care of the man. Said man cleared his throat and went over to one of the shelves while the women left the room again. It seemed he knew exactly what he was looking for and immediately found it, fetching a sealed jar containing some sort of organ.

"Eww, what is that?" Asked Galana when he got it out from it.

"That"s the heart of a blood-spitter, kept sealed and as fresh as possible. No need to worry, there"s no blood left in it."

He brought it above Emp"s arm and put down his other hand on the wound. Then, he moved the heart seemingly at random as he said in quick succession a number of words that were impossible to understand.

Bernard reached a crescendo and rose the heart high before he slapped it on Emp"s chest. The heart beat once on its own and Emp felt his own quicken. The mage moved the heart back on top of his other hand that was still on the wound and Emp felt all his blood rush to his arm in order to follow the heart.

It gushed strongly between the fingers of Bernard and Galana gasped of fright but right afterwards, he squeezed the wound and slid his hand across the length of his arm. Emp felt a displeasing tingle wherever his hand pa.s.sed and felt a little feeble, not unlike when he used the hammer. But, what was left behind the pa.s.sage of his hand had no trace of having ever been cut.

Once it was done, he put the heart back in the jar and washed his hand in a bowl of water the pregnant woman had brought back while he worked. Emp was impressed that the cut had completely disappeared.

Galana made a long relieved sigh and thanked Bernard who answered happily.

"No problem, that was really easy to do. But, I used a lot of your blood to fix it so you will have to eat a lot to fill back your veins and you may feel a bit dizzy for a couple of days."

Emp nodded in understanding and Bernard went on to talk about his leg.

"So, now that this is done, what were you saying about your leg? Show it to me."

Emp rolled up the leg of his pants and showed his wound to the mage. When Galana saw it, she turned as pale as her grandmother the day before.

"That one is much worse indeed. Good thing you came to see me."

"????! What is that? How can you even walk on that!" Screamed Galana as she turned around to not have to look.

"Well, I told you my leg hurt."

"That"s crazy, you"re the dumbest idiot I"ve ever seen! You should have went to fix that immediately!"

"Speaking of which." Interrupted Bernard. "This is an old wound, when did you get it?"

"I am not sure, a little more than a week ago. I only reached Red-water yesterday so I did not have the time to do anything about it yet."

"Young man, you really need to learn how to take care of a wound better than this. Not only is your wound ugly but it"s also infected."

"Will he lose his leg?" Asked Galana after a gasp.

Why would he lose his leg? It was just a gash.

"No, not if I heal it but it"s going to cost you a good sum."

"I do not mind paying for that."

"All right then, lay down on the table and I will fix it."

While Emp did as he was asked again and lied face down on the table, Bernard looked all over the shelves in order to find a small blue flower and a foul looking black liquid in a clay pot.

"You"ve been walking with this for a whole week and you haven"t done anything about it, really?" Asked Galana, still looking away.

"I did, I stopped it from bleeding too much."

"That"s nowhere near enough idiot! The thing is infected now, if you had not gone to the mage, it would have eaten your leg and the rest of you too!"

Emp felt she was exaggerating. His leg did hurt a lot but there was no way a gash would ever eat him. It was just ugly.

Bernard came back and poured part of the liquid over the cut on his leg. He felt like he had put his leg on fire but aside from a reflexive jerk of his leg, he tried to stay still for the mage.

"It"s going to hurt a lot more in a moment so I"ll have my second wife hold down your leg for me alright?"

"Yes this is fine." Answered Emp.

"Do you need me to do something too?" Asked Galana.

"I need you to not disturb me and not faint."

Galana did not answer and Emp felt a pair of hands clasp around his ankle and hold it down. He hoped the pregnant woman was stronger than she looked. Bernard started chanting a spell made of words Emp did not understand once again. Then, still while he was saying nonsense, he planted the flower into his wound, just were the cut begun.

Bernard then slapped his leg, smas.h.i.+ng the flower into the wound. Emp knew it wasn"t as painful as when s.p.a.ce gave him the anchor but the only thing his mind could grasp at this moment was pain. He screamed and the women barely managed to keep his leg in place. Meanwhile, the mage continued his spell and Emp felt as if a thousand worms crawled in his wound and the rest of his leg.

It lasted for a long while until only a buzzing sensation remained.

"And it"s done." Said Bernard in a sigh.

Emp twisted himself to take a look at his leg and saw that there was now a carpet of small blue flowers growing on it, no, "in" it, linked together by a jumble of small roots digging through his skin. It reminded him greatly of the dead squirrel.

"Don"t worry about it, that flower will feed off of the infection and keep your wound closed at the same time. It will fall off on its own when you are fully healed so don"t remove it. If you do, you"re just going to make more trouble for yourself. It will leave a scar but if it really annoys you, another spell should be able to remove it then."

Emp had no idea how to answer other than "Thank you."

"Will it really be alright with just that?" Inquired Galana.

"How dare you say just that! I will have you know this is one of the hardest spells I know how to cast and it used up all my reserve of corruption drinking elixir and a blue fairy-bell too. A good physician would have told you to cut off his leg before he lost the rest too."

What? Cut off his leg? That would have been terrible, he still needed it after all. Could he really have lost his leg to a simple cut?

"Yes, of course, I"m sorry, that"s not what I meant to say." Fumbled Galana. "I just meant to ask if this spell was enough on its own or if he needed something else as well."

"No, he doesn"t need anything else. The corruption drinking elixir gathered all the infection in itself and will feed the fairy-bell with it. The spell will stop the flower from growing out of control and when there is nothing left for it to drink, it will fall off. The flower also has healing properties of its own and will help his body heal itself."

"This is incredible."

"I know." Said the mage proudly. "You can get back up now."

After Emp stood back up, he felt much better than before. He was tired, hungry and his leg was buzzing, but, it wasn"t painful anymore. He thanked the mage again, paid him what he asked and left with Galana.

"It"s a pleasure to work for a Muracier, come back anytime." Bernard said as he accompanied them to the entrance gate.

Even though he liked the man, Emp felt it would be a bad thing if he had to come back.

(1) It"s a cla.s.sic healer getup I know but white and red are after all the main colors a.s.sociated with healing across the world. I just thought I didn"t have to change that.