The carriage rolled to a stop just inside Oakhaven’s main gate. The place looked even worse up close. Buildings leaned against each other for support, and the few people on the streets moved with a weary haste, their faces pinched with cold and worry.
"End of the line," I said, hopping down from the driver’s seat. I made a show of stretching my back. "We’ll get the carriage squared away. You two should find the town elder or mayor. Best to present yourselves right away."
Vance gave me a slight nod, his eyes conveying understanding. He helped Princess Aurelia down from the carriage. She looked small and out of place amidst the grime, but her chin was held high.
"Thank you again, Sir Lumin," she said, her voice soft but steady.
"Just doing my job, Miss Auera," I replied with a casual wave, addressing her with her other identity. "I am gonna go and check on the town infirmary, see if they need an extra pair of hands. I wish you two good luck."
With that, I turned and melted into the sparse foot traffic, leaving them to their task.
I wandered through the snowy streets, not heading directly anywhere specific. My senses were on high alert, absorbing everything. I listened to snippets of conversation from doorways and market stalls.
"...the western fence was breached again last night..."
"...if the next shipment doesn’t come through, we’ll be on roots by week’s end..."
"...said they saw something big moving in the fog near the old mill..."
I stopped an old woman carrying a bundle of firewood. "Excuse me, ma’am. Could you point me to the healer’s house? The infirmary?"
She eyed me warily before jerking her head down a side street. "Down there. The building with the green door. Not that Old Man Heron can do much besides wrap a bandage these days."
"Things have been that tough?" I asked, keeping my tone sympathetic.
She let out a dry, humorless laugh. "Tough? Boy, when ain’t it tough? But this past month... it’s like the land itself is sick. Monsters get bolder, the cold gets meaner, and the food... well, you’ll see." She shuffled off without another word.
The information lined up with what I knew. The problems were escalating, and the town’s morale was crumbling. I thanked her and moved on, finally reaching the building she’d indicated. The "green door" was a faded, peeling thing. A faint, unpleasant smell of sickness and stale herbs hung in the air.
Pushing the door open, I stepped into the town’s infirmary. It was exactly as bleak as I’d expected.
The inside was a single large room, crowded with cots. Maybe a dozen patients lay in various states of distress.
"Urgh..."
"My stomach~"
"I-It hurts!"
An old man with a stooped back, presumably Old Man Heron, was slowly changing a bandage on a man’s leg, the wound beneath looking angry and infected.
He looked up as I entered, his eyes tired but still sharp. "If you’re sick, find a cot. If you’re hurt, tell me where. If you’re selling something, get out."
’Oh, straight to business, are we?’ Honestly, I liked that.
"I’m a healer," I said, keeping my voice calm and non-threatening. "Name’s Lumin. I’m traveling through. Thought I could lend a hand if you need it."
His bushy eyebrows rose slightly. He finished tying the bandage and shuffled over, looking me up and down, pausing on my ’ears’ for a moment. "A traveling healer, huh? What kind of ’healing’ do you do?"
"Whatever’s needed," I replied, my gaze sweeping over the room. I saw frostbite, broken bones set poorly, deep lacerations, and the telltale lethargy of malnutrition. "I’m handy with herbs, setting bones, and treating infections."
He grunted, a sound that could have meant anything. "We’ve got plenty of all three. Are you any good with corrupted wounds? I got a few stupid hunters who got clawed by things from the blight. The wounds don’t heal properly, and fester with a strange blackness."
’Oh, is this the ’corrupt patients’ I’ve heard about from old man Avir?’ My curiosity was instantly piqued. Although I witnessed them back in the keep during that incident, it was mostly mental corruption.
Thankfully, I learned a bit about them from him during the previous week. And I wanted to check out my new technique.
"Well, corrupted wounds are tricky," I said, nodding. "The hollow aura lingers and fights the body’s natural healing. I’ve dealt with a few similar cases. Let me take a look."
Old Man Heron led me to a corner where three hunters lay on cots, their faces pale and sweating despite the room’s chill.
Peeling back the bandages revealed the corrupted wounds: deep gashes that oozed a thin, black fluid. The skin around the wounds was cold to the touch and tinged with ugly, spiderwebbing veins of gray.
"See?" Heron grumbled. "Nothing I do helps. It just slows the spread a little."
I could feel it now, a faint but persistent chill of that familiar abyssal energy mixed with something else eating away at their vitality.
’Is Hollowlands really connected to the Abyss?’ I couldn’t help but think. And if so, this was more severe than I’d initially expected. Simple herbs wouldn’t cut these wounds either.
"I’ll need my kit from my bag," I said, which was mostly for show. "And some hot water, if you have it."
While he shuffled off, I placed a hand lightly on the nearest hunter’s forehead, closing my eyes.
I reached for the Mender’s Paradox, but instead of directly pushing my aura, I focused on the Exorcist’s Gaze. I let a fraction of that chilling blue flame, the power meant to purge, coalesce in my palm, not as fire, but as a focused wave of nullification.
This was the new technique I developed while experimenting with the Nodes Synergies of my path. It was a dangerous gamble, especially after that affinity clash incident. And I failed. Many times, actually. But with enough practice and tries, and of course a little help from Lady Nisha, I managed to create it. And I ended up being right about them.
Using the two powers in tandem, even subtly, was exactly the kind of "synthesis" the Pathway system had hinted at.
Yeah, it was high risk but high reward.
’Urgh, let’s focus on the task at hand.’ I forced myself to stop having distracting thoughts. Although I succeeded, I was still a beginner at it. Any mistake and things would go-!
"ARGH!"
’Shoot!’