10-21-2015, 11:14 PM
Yajima stared up at the ceiling. The only pain he now felt was a dull ache in the eye which that creature had licked, and which had apparently been bandaged over after those guards had dropped him off here. So far as he could tell, all of his other injuries had been healed. Whatever magic they'd used – and it had to have been magic, he was sure, for given the medieval look of this building, there was no chance in hell that it'd been technology – had even gone so far as to repair and clean his clothing.
He still felt rather tired, despite having apparently slept through almost an entire day – through the long, narrow windows on the opposite side of the room from his bed, the sun was just visible above the Eastern horizon – but even so, he couldn't just allow himself to laze around like this. He'd reached Darkshire, but had lost all hope that he might be able to defend it. At least, not yet. He wouldn't give up on protecting these people, of course, but had to find some way of earning Omnilium that wouldn't get him killed, for the time being; once he was able to summon Apparition then that would change everything.
Oh yes, he was looking forward to that day very much. In the mean time, though; he forced himself upright, and was immediately struck by a spell of dizziness. Damn. He was more worn out than he'd realised. How, though, he wasn't exactly sure, considering how long he must have slept already. Still, he wasn't exhausted, not yet, at least. Just as he was about to slip out of bed, though, a young, dark-haired woman who'd been tending another patient nearby, and who was dressed in what looked to be a pale pink nurse's uniform, glanced over his way.
“Gah!” she cried, and left the other man – who appeared to be fast asleep – to rush over to his bedside. “No, no, please, don't get up!”
She seemed rather frantic, for some reason, but not really having the strength to resist, he allowed her to push him back down and pull up his sheets. She smiled slightly when he didn't struggle, then took note of the fact that the boy was staring at her like she was a crazy person, and blushed a little.
“Er, sorry about that, but you really shouldn't leave. The Archwitch's magic drains your energy, sir, if you try anything remotely strenuous then you'll just collapse. Even walking could be too much for you!” she was rather emotive, this lady; as she spoke she also gestured emphatically, as though waving her hands around could actually make her point any clearer.
“Uh … the 'Archwitch'?” he wasn't sure why she seemed to consider it perfectly alright that some witch was apparently stealing energy from him, but he'd likely have been more concerned about the situation had she seemed more professional. She didn't exactly give the impression of being the cunning minion of some nefarious villain, after all. As it was, the question came out sounding more bemused than anything.
“Oh, yes, of course, you're a visitor!” her eyes widening, she seemed genuinely surprised by this 'revelation'. He was beginning to get the impression that she wasn't exactly the sharpest scalpel in the box. “The Archwitch is the head cleric of this healing house. She's very powerful, but she's also old and tires easily, so once her patients are out of critical condition, she uses her enchantments to pass the burden of the healing magic onto their bodies. That way, she's able to treat multiple people at once, rather than having to focus on one at a time, you see?”
“Hmm, yeah. I guess that's how I managed to sleep through an entire day then, huh?” it was a pity he'd wasted that first day here, but he could hardly blame the old woman for doing things as she did, it only made sense to try and treat as many people as possible, after all. He doubted that his time management was particularly high on her list of priorities. He was thankful, in fact; he hadn't wasted nearly as long as he would have done, had he actually been killed out there.
“Actually, you were admitted here two days ago.”
“Two days?” Gah! It was almost as bad as having died! He groaned. As his first and only fight since being kidnapped by Omni had proven, he was practically helpless here without a machina … and he'd already went and promised that guy from AntiOmni.org that he'd help him fight a dragon at some point. He really needed that robot. Who knew how soon trouble might arise again? On his way to the town, he hadn't even managed to walk for twenty minutes before running into a band of undead; they weren't exactly scarce in the area.
“I have to go. Now.” he struggled to sit, but was again held down by the nurse, and was reminded that he did not have the strength to resist in his current state.
“Nope. No way. Not happening. Your eye hasn't healed yet, and no one's removing that spell until its work is done, so you just lie there and rest. After a couple days you must be pretty hungry, right? So just wait here and I'll go fetch you something to eat, okay?”
“Oh.” now that she brought it up, and he stopped to consider the state of his stomach, Yajima realised that the young woman was correct; he was positively starving. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure!” she exclaimed way-too-enthusiastically, before heading off through the rows of thankfully mostly unoccupied wooden beds. Of course, 'mostly unoccupied' was a rather relative term, he supposed; there were over a hundred beds in this room, so even with most empty, there were still a fair number of patients, and when he took into account that it had only taken that Archwitch a couple days to heal most of his injuries … well, the rate at which these people were being admitted must have been pretty high.
Even with their mayor's own undead battalion on their side, it was clear that the people of Darkshire were by no means safe in this accursed Verse.
There were a few other nurses around, though none were dressed as had been the one he'd spoken to. One was in some sort of dully coloured Victorian gown, whilst the other three wore what looked to him like medieval peasant's dresses … not that Yajima could say for sure; he wasn't exactly much of an expert on the subject of ancient Western fashions, after all.
Rather than staring vacantly out at them and their roomful of mostly comatose patients – it seemed that he was far from being the only one whom the Archwitch had decided to allow to heal their own wounds – Yajima decided he might as well check out the Dataverse now, whilst he was waiting on that nurse to return.
He cringed. Crap. He'd forgotten. He'd been soaked to the bone that night, and still had no idea whether or not his Dataverse device was waterproof. Pulling the small tablet out from his jacket, he pushed down the power button and waited with baited breath for a couple seconds or so, before giving a relieved sigh as it began its start-up process.
He relaxed. It was alright. Good. To have wasted all that Omnilium when he'd had such a small amount to begin with would have been practically tragic. He'd never save up all that he needed if he had to keep spending it on every little thing.
Hmm … now that he thought about it, though, he no longer had any idea what he was planning on doing next. Originally, he'd simply wanted to help out the Secondaries against their aggressors however he could, and had decided that the Moors was as good a place as any to do so; even a better place than most, perhaps, given how much danger Darkshire always seemed to be in.
Now that he knew he was no match for any remotely large group of undead, though, simply roaming the area, slaughtering zombies wherever he found them and extracting Omnilium from their remains was clearly no longer an option. He'd need to think up some other way of getting money. Obviously theft was out of the question, so that really left only two options. His last resort – to leave Darkshire, seek out a less dangerous Verse, and hopefully return here after having completed Apparition – and the choice of finding a job.
He didn't want to give up on the Moors and leave these people behind if he could possibly help it, so as he surfed the Dataverse – checking up on OmniTwitter and AntiOmni.org, amongst other things – he opened a second tab, and began his search for employment...
He still felt rather tired, despite having apparently slept through almost an entire day – through the long, narrow windows on the opposite side of the room from his bed, the sun was just visible above the Eastern horizon – but even so, he couldn't just allow himself to laze around like this. He'd reached Darkshire, but had lost all hope that he might be able to defend it. At least, not yet. He wouldn't give up on protecting these people, of course, but had to find some way of earning Omnilium that wouldn't get him killed, for the time being; once he was able to summon Apparition then that would change everything.
Oh yes, he was looking forward to that day very much. In the mean time, though; he forced himself upright, and was immediately struck by a spell of dizziness. Damn. He was more worn out than he'd realised. How, though, he wasn't exactly sure, considering how long he must have slept already. Still, he wasn't exhausted, not yet, at least. Just as he was about to slip out of bed, though, a young, dark-haired woman who'd been tending another patient nearby, and who was dressed in what looked to be a pale pink nurse's uniform, glanced over his way.
“Gah!” she cried, and left the other man – who appeared to be fast asleep – to rush over to his bedside. “No, no, please, don't get up!”
She seemed rather frantic, for some reason, but not really having the strength to resist, he allowed her to push him back down and pull up his sheets. She smiled slightly when he didn't struggle, then took note of the fact that the boy was staring at her like she was a crazy person, and blushed a little.
“Er, sorry about that, but you really shouldn't leave. The Archwitch's magic drains your energy, sir, if you try anything remotely strenuous then you'll just collapse. Even walking could be too much for you!” she was rather emotive, this lady; as she spoke she also gestured emphatically, as though waving her hands around could actually make her point any clearer.
“Uh … the 'Archwitch'?” he wasn't sure why she seemed to consider it perfectly alright that some witch was apparently stealing energy from him, but he'd likely have been more concerned about the situation had she seemed more professional. She didn't exactly give the impression of being the cunning minion of some nefarious villain, after all. As it was, the question came out sounding more bemused than anything.
“Oh, yes, of course, you're a visitor!” her eyes widening, she seemed genuinely surprised by this 'revelation'. He was beginning to get the impression that she wasn't exactly the sharpest scalpel in the box. “The Archwitch is the head cleric of this healing house. She's very powerful, but she's also old and tires easily, so once her patients are out of critical condition, she uses her enchantments to pass the burden of the healing magic onto their bodies. That way, she's able to treat multiple people at once, rather than having to focus on one at a time, you see?”
“Hmm, yeah. I guess that's how I managed to sleep through an entire day then, huh?” it was a pity he'd wasted that first day here, but he could hardly blame the old woman for doing things as she did, it only made sense to try and treat as many people as possible, after all. He doubted that his time management was particularly high on her list of priorities. He was thankful, in fact; he hadn't wasted nearly as long as he would have done, had he actually been killed out there.
“Actually, you were admitted here two days ago.”
“Two days?” Gah! It was almost as bad as having died! He groaned. As his first and only fight since being kidnapped by Omni had proven, he was practically helpless here without a machina … and he'd already went and promised that guy from AntiOmni.org that he'd help him fight a dragon at some point. He really needed that robot. Who knew how soon trouble might arise again? On his way to the town, he hadn't even managed to walk for twenty minutes before running into a band of undead; they weren't exactly scarce in the area.
“I have to go. Now.” he struggled to sit, but was again held down by the nurse, and was reminded that he did not have the strength to resist in his current state.
“Nope. No way. Not happening. Your eye hasn't healed yet, and no one's removing that spell until its work is done, so you just lie there and rest. After a couple days you must be pretty hungry, right? So just wait here and I'll go fetch you something to eat, okay?”
“Oh.” now that she brought it up, and he stopped to consider the state of his stomach, Yajima realised that the young woman was correct; he was positively starving. “Thank you.”
“My pleasure!” she exclaimed way-too-enthusiastically, before heading off through the rows of thankfully mostly unoccupied wooden beds. Of course, 'mostly unoccupied' was a rather relative term, he supposed; there were over a hundred beds in this room, so even with most empty, there were still a fair number of patients, and when he took into account that it had only taken that Archwitch a couple days to heal most of his injuries … well, the rate at which these people were being admitted must have been pretty high.
Even with their mayor's own undead battalion on their side, it was clear that the people of Darkshire were by no means safe in this accursed Verse.
There were a few other nurses around, though none were dressed as had been the one he'd spoken to. One was in some sort of dully coloured Victorian gown, whilst the other three wore what looked to him like medieval peasant's dresses … not that Yajima could say for sure; he wasn't exactly much of an expert on the subject of ancient Western fashions, after all.
Rather than staring vacantly out at them and their roomful of mostly comatose patients – it seemed that he was far from being the only one whom the Archwitch had decided to allow to heal their own wounds – Yajima decided he might as well check out the Dataverse now, whilst he was waiting on that nurse to return.
He cringed. Crap. He'd forgotten. He'd been soaked to the bone that night, and still had no idea whether or not his Dataverse device was waterproof. Pulling the small tablet out from his jacket, he pushed down the power button and waited with baited breath for a couple seconds or so, before giving a relieved sigh as it began its start-up process.
He relaxed. It was alright. Good. To have wasted all that Omnilium when he'd had such a small amount to begin with would have been practically tragic. He'd never save up all that he needed if he had to keep spending it on every little thing.
Hmm … now that he thought about it, though, he no longer had any idea what he was planning on doing next. Originally, he'd simply wanted to help out the Secondaries against their aggressors however he could, and had decided that the Moors was as good a place as any to do so; even a better place than most, perhaps, given how much danger Darkshire always seemed to be in.
Now that he knew he was no match for any remotely large group of undead, though, simply roaming the area, slaughtering zombies wherever he found them and extracting Omnilium from their remains was clearly no longer an option. He'd need to think up some other way of getting money. Obviously theft was out of the question, so that really left only two options. His last resort – to leave Darkshire, seek out a less dangerous Verse, and hopefully return here after having completed Apparition – and the choice of finding a job.
He didn't want to give up on the Moors and leave these people behind if he could possibly help it, so as he surfed the Dataverse – checking up on OmniTwitter and AntiOmni.org, amongst other things – he opened a second tab, and began his search for employment...
![[Image: Remote_Sensor_Tower_and_the_Fire_Warriors_2.png]](https://image.ibb.co/jSJjAJ/Remote_Sensor_Tower_and_the_Fire_Warriors_2.png)