Even though R?gnor promised to cover my patient’s duties, he had reservations—far more than reasonable—about walking out with a Human. Dragging an overfilled cart together helped placate him. Dorian had shot me a questioning look but said nothing more when I gave him a small shake of my head.

  The trip up the hill to the healer’s lodge went quickly with my patient’s help, even if I had to coax him multiple times after he almost lost his nerve. Only my repeated promises to shoulder any blame eased his concern. Even then, he still flinched when I knocked on the healer’s door.

  Who is this woman to evoke such fear in a grizzled veteran?

  The air hummed with energy as she opened the door. “Human,” but she stopped short when she caught sight of my patient. Her eyes narrowed. “There better be a good explanation for this.”

  “He has something—“

  “That wound on his back is beneath my concern.” My patient wilted as soon as she swung her icy gaze to him. “You have no excuse. You know this is no reason to disturb us. If you don’t, I will make sure that your Verndari helps educate you.“

  His deep voice trembled. “I’m sorry, Vísir. I beg your forgiveness. I have brought disre—“

  I cut him off. “He has done nothing of the sort.”

  The complex Marks running from her face down past her neck and shoulders flashed with a brilliant indigo. Her eyes bulged at my audacity. “You dare—“

  Every day, I worked to keep my anger in check, though it had long grown beyond a low roil. With her casual disregard of a sick man, the lid slipped. I was done. Done with the disrespect. Done with the injustices.

  “Yes, I dare.”

  The air went still. The hairs on my arm stood up. My Marks tingled. Then a surge of Energy flooded my body. Pinpricks metastasized into sparks of lightning that tore through my channels. Only the spasming of my muscles kept me upright. My vision narrowed until I could only make out the Vísir’s lips, curled in a cruel smile.

  I had taken the exact wrong tone with this woman and now paid the price. However, I had made a promise, and I would keep it.

  I reached for the only card I had to play—[Quicken Thoughts]. Using it just intensified the agony, but I hadn’t needed much time to understand what had happened. She was flooding my channels—not by a direct infusion of Energy, but by drastically increasing the Aether concentration around my Marks. It far exceeded anything I had experienced when mining. I would have marveled at her skill—if she wasn’t torturing me with it. Still, it left me with an easy solution, one I had gotten plenty of practice with.

  I cycled, shunting excess Energy to other areas. It was still more than my channels wanted to handle, but Energy seemed to dissipate quickly when unused. An unpleasant, patchy heat spread throughout my body. It wasn’t all that different from the start of a fever, but I had succeeded in my goal. I had spread the pain enough that it no longer overwhelmed me. Through gritted teeth, I got out, “Look. At. Him. Right. Lower. Lung. Not. Wound. Something’s wrong.”

  In a blink, the Aether concentration dropped back to normal, and the pressure in my channels vanished. She turned to my patient, indifferent to how he stepped back at her glare. She didn’t reach out, but she did something. Her Marks flickered. Then she hissed.

  “You sensed it?“ I asked.

  She spun to face me. “How?“

  We stared at each other while I debated how much to tell. In the end, I went with the basic truth. “I am not sure. I got lucky, because it seemed to be hiding from my skills. Do you know what it is?”

  The older ?ttar wasn’t much of a conversationalist, leaving me plenty of time to create a differential diagnosis in my head. While I couldn’t keep studying him with [Sense Injury] on my walk over—I didn’t have the focus to walk and push the skill to the extent needed to detect the anomaly, I had enough info to narrow my list to one of three things: infection, cancer, or inflammatory.

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Infection still sat at the top of the list, but this lesion behaved far differently than any infection I had dealt with so far. Nothing had been so virulent—if I could even use [Sense Injury] as a gauge for that. Still, not all bacteria were made the same.

  After infection came some type of lung cancer. Excluding the speed of growth, in many ways, it better fit the clinical scenario. If [Sense Injury] worked by detecting foreign things, then cancer, originating from his own cells, might be harder to detect. Of course, that implied a dark side to potions. If they encouraged cancer’s growth, that, by definition, made them carcinogenic, though that hypothesis had holes.

  Potions weren’t novel. While I would understand choosing between death now versus in five to ten years, nobody showed any reluctance in using them for even minor wounds. People—at least most people—would try to avoid something they knew caused cancer. And if they didn’t, cancer should be rampant…or maybe it was.

  What did I know about this world? I hadn’t examined that many people. It also sure would explain the general aura of sickness here. Would that be one more thing that damned my class?

  I just couldn’t shake that worry, and it consumed enough of my attention that I had run out of time to flesh out inflammatory causes. Still, a tried and true diagnosis stood ready for addition to any differential: sarcoidosis. What could it not cause?

  Of course, now I could get the actual answer.

  “How did you sense this?”

  Or maybe not. “A skill,” adding, “[Sense Injury],” after an expectant and vaguely menacing look.

  “At your level?”

  “As I said, I got lucky that it was right next to his wound.”

  She glared at me, somehow packing in more malevolence than before, but my answer placated her. “You were right to bring him here. I will need some time. You can return to your mine. You can let your Verndari know that I will send him back when I am done.”

  “But what is it, though?”

  She paused, but finally said, “Something the miners here seem to get. Potions fail, but at least this is early. It will not take too much of me to cure it.“ She motioned to my patient. “Come.“

  “Wait,” I said.

  Both looked at me in surprise. “I have excess Energy that you can use.“

  “Do you now?”

  I could only glare at her feigned ignorance. The stores had diminished, but enough still coursed through me to leave an uncomfortable itching sensation. “Yes.”

  “And you are offering it?” I nodded. “Then let me see if it is adequate.”

  Her Marks blazed, and a force pushed down on my mind. I shivered as it flowed down my body through my channels. Somehow, she had connected with me. It had to be a skill, one I could resist with far more ease than when she flooded my channels. However, I detected no malevolence. Something just wanted to know more.

  Did [Sense Injury] feel like that when I used it on people?

  However, as quickly as it came, it vanished. Her Marks dimmed to their neutral state. She tsked at me. “What you have should suffice, but a piece of advice: you should also avoid purposely poisoning yourself. It isn’t good for your Marks.”

  This time the lid didn’t pop off, but I couldn’t hold back all the snark. “I try my best, but I seem to keep finding myself in situations with high Aether densities.”

  Her lip twitched, but she replied with only a touch of condescension, “Then you are a fool.” She gestured to my charge, and at least this time, he didn’t shrink back. “Come. Both of you.”

  She entered the building, the grizzled veteran following close behind. It took me a bit longer to collect myself, but I did manage to enter the dim room with a semblance of civility.

  My eyes adjusted quickly to the dim light. The room was unchanged: sparse, save a few chairs, and an organized table near the wall. The door to the back room was shut.

  She pointed to rough-hewn chairs. ”Both of you sit.”

  We settled in, and instead of facing my patient, she walked to stand in front of me. I looked up at her. “He is the one who is sick.”

  “Yes, but I don’t need to touch him to heal him.” She put her hands on my forehead, and my skin under her fingertips tingled and then vibrated. I squeezed my eyes shut as the pressure in my head increased. “I can respect what you did for one of my kin; even more, your willingness to put yourself at my mercy to help. Know that you have earned some lenience.” My eye widened, and I tried to pull away, but those long, green fingers had none of the weakness their frailness implied. ”But know that I don’t tolerate any disrespect.”

  The world went white, and I screamed—or at least I thought I did. I couldn’t have been out for too long based on my patient’s worried question.

  “Honored one, what did you do to him?”

  “Nothing more than extracting the Energy needed for your healing and a price for his insolence.”

  I shook my head and regretted it. I had traded one headache for another, but I didn’t want to look weak in front of either of them. “I am fine.” I looked to the Vísir. “Is he good?”

  “Yes. Now begone. I have suffered your presence long enough for one day, Human.”

  He hurried out the door, only pausing to stabilize me as I got out of the chair. My vision swam, and every muscle burned with use. I took pride in getting to the exit without staggering. I, however, stopped at the doorway. I still had one thing I needed to do here, and I would once again tempt the Vísir’s wrath to do it. However, I had delayed my reconciliation with Esper long enough. So, I steeled myself and, once more, poked the beast.

  “Is your apprentice here?”

  This time, the death stare lasted for only three seconds. “My apprentice is out collecting herbs and reagents.”

  The air went still, but this time, a low hum filled the room. I had pushed my luck enough. I bolted.

  ***