[Flashback] A Healer's Work is never done, Part 1

[Veldrys]

Summer 15, 509 AV „They need a healer“, the guard informed Veldrys and gestured towards the two surrogates that were standing behind him, in the entrance to the Place of Purging. The healer approached them and studied them. They were both human and in their early twenties. The first one, a redhead with blue eyes and a face full of freckles was in the advanced stages of pregnancy, her belly bulging under the silken tunic that she wore. She had a black eye, and her nose was bleeding. The other one, slightly shorter and with brown hair, was hardly showing any signs of pregnancy so far. She looked quite angry, but there were no outward signs of injury apart from a slightly swollen lip which made Veldrys wonder why they had brought her here. Did they want to waste his time? „What happened?“ he wanted to know. The question had been directed at the surrogates, but the guard answered instead, „They had a fight. At first I didn’t want to come here, but then the redhead complained that she couldn’t breathe properly, and the bleeding wouldn’t stop. I always say, it doesn’t matter as long as the child isn’t harmed, but the other one refused to eat. She claimed her mouth hurt too much. It seems as if one of her teeth is broken. The parents were worried that the child would be harmed if the surrogate didn’t eat properly“ Veldrys raised a hand to signal the man to stop. „I was talking to them“, he reminded the guard. „It’s quite obvious that they had a fight“, he added somewhat dryly. The guard stared at him, irritated. Why did he want to talk to them? „She called me an idiot“, the redhead complained before the guard could speak up. Her Symenos was heavily accented, and her voice sounded a bit strange due to the fact that she couldn’t breathe through her nose at the moment. She blew her nose, wiped the blood away with her sleeve and continued, „She said that you just bred us and that we would die after the children are born and never be allowed to leave again!“ „I’m surprised that you haven't figured it out on your own yet“, the other woman spat and looked at her opponent’s belly appraisingly. „You’ve been here how long? Seven months? Eight? You are the biggest idiot I’ve ever seen! I hate to tell you, but the child‘s going to poison you, and then you are going to die! There’s no alternative! We are both going to die! Get used to it!“ The redhead clenched her fists. Her eyes were practially ablaze. For a moment it seemed as if she would just jump at the other woman and beat her up – again, by the look of things. Veldrys decided that it would be best to go between them so that they couldn’t reach each other. The redhead looked as if she were trying to find a way around him, but as Veldrys glared at her, she stood still, sighed and lowered her head. The other woman crossed her arms over her chest and continued to stare at him and the guard. Denial wasn’t an uncommon reaction in such a situation as Veldrys had learned since he had begun to work at the Place of Purging. While some of the women enjoyed the relatively luxurious life they would lead until the birth, others become violent and nearly uncontrollable. Yet others despaired and resigned themselves to their fate, and a few, a few pretended that it wasn’t true, that they would somehow be saved. They clung to the vague hope that they would survive the birth. There was after all the rare Symenestra woman that survived, so why shouldn’t a surrogate survive as well? „You should have watched them better and tried to prevent this“, Veldrys reprimanded the guard who had hardly done anything to calm the women down so far. He’d left it all to him. „The surrogates shouldn’t fight, especially this late into the pregnancy. It might hurt the baby. You should have separated them or taken them away so that somebody else takes care of them if you can’t control them. That was careless of you.“ The guard just shrugged. He didn’t like being criticized by a man who was several years his junior and had a reputation for being too soft for his own good and avoiding the Harvest whenever he could. This Veldrys treated them almost as if they were people and even allowed them to talk! What was the world coming to? „I’m quite aware of that“, he replied curtly and looked directly into the younger man’s eyes, almost as if he wanted to challenge him. He didn’t like it at all that he had to justify himself in front of the young healer. „There was an emergency, and we weren’t able to watch them for a moment, so we just locked them into a room. How was I supposed to know that they’d start fighting? They‘ve always behaved before.“ „Help me get them to the surrogate wing“, Veldrys interrupted him, pretending that he didn’t notice the looks the man gave him. It was best to ignore such things. He didn’t really want to get into an argument with him right now. „I’d rather not treat them where everybody is watching, but go to a separate room. They belong to the same family, yes?“ The man nodded reluctantly and ushered the women down the hallway, towards the examination room. „They belong to two brothers. They wanted their children to grow up together. They were quite lucky to find such good surrogates only a few months apart.“

[Veldrys]

„Would you please stand next to the door?“ Veldrys asked the guard. He tried to be polite regardless of what he thought of the man. „I need a bit of room if I am to examine the surrogates properly. I doubt that they’ll be able to hurt me.“ The brown haired woman glared at him. She certainly looked as if she was at least willing to give it a try. The young healer didn’t look like much in her opinion. He was pale, thin and fragile, and if it weren’t for the guard she’d hurt him, even if she probably wouldn’t be able to escape the Purging. The guard didn’t look too happy about the fact that Veldrys didn’t want him nearby. Veldrys‘ criticism hadn’t exactly made him more inclined to like the healer and listen to him. But in the end he did what he had been told and watched the surrogate next to him while Veldrys turned to his first patient. He could understand why Veldrys didn’t want him near him when he was examining the first surrogate. He’d probably get in his way, and the child’s parents would be mad if the healer couldn’t treat the woman properly. „Sit down here“, Veldrys told the redhead and pointed at a chair. The woman obeyed reluctantly, blowing her nose and cleaning it with her sleeve again as she did so. She looked fairly miserable, and her expensive tunic was already covered with red spots in multiple places. Veldrys gently shook his head as he noticed what she was doing. „If you blow your nose, you’ll just make it worse“, he gently reprimanded her. „Sit completely straight and press your nasal wings together like this!“ He touched his own nose with his thumb and index finger before he took a closer look at her face. Fortunately the other woman had not managed to break her nose. It was just a bit swollen which would probably pass on ist own. „You need to do this for at least five minutes! Here, that will help as well.“ A wet handkerchief was put in the woman’s neck. She shivered a bit because it was so cold. The surrogate watched him warily as he walked over to a niche in the wall and started rummaging through it until he had found a small container with a salve. „I’m not going to die, am I?“ she whispered as he smeared the salve around her eye. Veldrys hesitated before he answered. „Some women survive if the baby is cut out before its due date.“ The young woman looked at him, suddenly hopeful. „You are going to cut it out then, aren’t you?“ „I might, if the child’s parents give me permission“, he replied. It was a lie. To most Symenestra the surrogates were animals, valuable animals that were allowed to live in luxury, but still animals that were cast aside and left to die as soon as the child was born. Nobody cared about their fate. Besides, he didn't even have the training to conduct such an operation. He saw no reason to tell the woman that though. It was kinder to leave her to her delusions, if it made her imprisonment in Kalinor easier to bear. He saw no need to destroy her hope, but decided to pretend that he was the one Symenestra that was unlike the rest of his race – even if it wasn’t the truth. „Until then you must think about the baby and take care of yourself. Eat enough, get enough sleep, and try to get along with the other surrogate. If she wants to be rude, let her. Can you promise me that I won’t have to treat your wounds again?“ She nodded hesitantly. „I’ll do my best“, she replied. „Good“, Veldrys remarked and gestured for the guard to bring the second surrogate to him.

[Veldrys]

„Open your mouth“, he asked the woman, remembering that the guard had claimed she had a broken tooth. She did so, although she rather looked as if she seriously considered biting his fingers off for a moment. As he looked into her mouth the healer noticed that, indeed, one of her teeth was broken, and another one was loose. He glanced at the redhead who looked back at him with a mixture of hope and utter despair. She didn’t look that strong. „I’ll have to extract the teeth“, he informed the woman who was in front of him now. „The teeth are at the side of your mouth, so it won’t be immediately noticeable that they are missing“, he tried to comfort her. The surrogate shrugged indifferently. „Would you like something against the pain?“ he asked her. „There are certain herbs that will make it easier to bear.“ The surrogate laughed at him. „Don’t be so damn nice and hypocritical! You are a Symenestra, your kind abduct my kind, and a couple of months from now I’ll die a painful death because the bastard that is growing inside of me is going to poison me. I don’t need anything for the pain. I might as well use this as preparation for my death.“ „As you wish“, Veldrys replied. He had better things to do than to argue with a surrogate that insisted on suffering more than necessary. It was unlikely that he’d be able to change her mind. He simply gestured for her to lean back. He was by no means a dentist. He knew about herbs, he could stitch wounds and even take care of broken bones, but teeth were a bit of a foreign territory for him. All he could do were simple extractions. Fortunately this seemed to be the case here, and he wouldn’t have to call for one of the other healers. He gestured for the guard to come over and hold her, and then he began. One of the molars on the left side of her mouth was already quite loose. He simply grasped the crown above the gum line with a plier and then moved it from side to side. One second, two seconds, and then the tooth was gone. The second tooth was a little harder, but still, he managed to loosen it comparatively quickly, and then he stilled the bleeding. „I'm done“, he informed the guard and stepped away from his patient. „You can take them back home now. Please make sure that they don’t hurt each other anymore. If you don’t care about them, think about the babies they are carrying.“ The man nodded curtly. Once the guard and the two surrogates were gone, Veldrys sat down in a chair leaned back. Surrogates had never been his favourite patients. He was rather ambivalent towards them. In his opinion it wasn’t right to abduct women from the surface and force them to bear Symenestra children. To some extent he sympathized with the Esterians who believed that the Symenestra should bear their own children and that they would become immune to their poison in time – even though he hated himself for causing his mother’s death and wished she would have survived or decided to use a surrogate herself.

[Arlecchino]

XP: Interrogation 1, Medicine 1, Subterfuge 1, Dentistry 1 Lore: Calming Surrogates, Putting Others in their Place, Examining Humans (Partial), Treating Nose Bleeding, Tooth Extractions Additional Notes: Very well written thread with nicely handled NPCs. I especially like the conflict between his wish to help others and yet working at the Place of Purging. Looking forward to the other chapters Wished I could have given you more XP for your work though. For future reference, try to make your thread a little longer. How often you use a skill and how detailed you describe your char using it, the more XP you will get. Please let me know if you have questions on how this thread was graded or when you think I missed something