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By the end of the first 24 hours, Kasner had a whole knee. After the second day, he was only missing his foot. The morning after the third day, Ehlark was looking at his foot very carefully. He poked each toe individually. “Everything is there. It will be… sensitive… for some time.” Ehlark turned to Kantrilla, “Continue practice, and you might learn.” He tapped two fingers on his arm, “Start with scars. You are careful, so you will not make things worse. Maybe better… maybe not.”
Kantrilla nodded with a smile on her face, even though the words weren’t exactly encouraging. Still, Ehlark didn’t seem like the kind to be encouraging in any case.
“Well,” Khyrmin said, “Everything seems to have been resolved. Now we should be heading back.”
Kasner nodded and stepped off the chair, “Ooh. That is sensitive.” He bounced his foot a few times, “But it’s also my foot! Now I don’t have to waste all that effort…”
“That’s right,” Alhorn said, “Now that you won’t have to make a leg for yourself, will you have more mana?”
Kasner shrugged, “Maybe a bit. The mana wasn’t the issue- once I made the leg for the day, it took very little. However, I had to keep concentrating on it… and while it was fairly simple once I’d grown used to it, it certainly made everything else harder.”
“You certainly didn’t make things look harder,” I commented.
“I’m a much better ice mage than lightning mage. Though I’m still pretty good at lightning…” Kasner tapped his legs a few more times. “Thanks for doing this for me, everyone.”
“Of course,” Halette said, “We’re party members.”
“That’s right!” Kantrilla responded enthusiastically, “You came to save me too, remember?”
Socks licked Kasner in the face- though she had to lean down to do that.
Khyrmin nodded, “Let’s move on then. I wish to return to my house.”
All of us mounted up- Kasner on Arrows, Alhorn on Oak, and the rest of us on horses we hadn’t named yet. We probably should have, but then again they didn’t really care.
—–
Finding our way back to Elunore wasn’t actually that difficult, compared to getting to Ehlark. For one thing, we didn’t have to spend days searching around for Ehlark’s cabin. That meant we could travel more quickly, and thus more quickly leave the most dangerous areas.
“We should thank Salinde,” Khyrmin commented as we entered Elunore.
“Of course,” Halette commented, “She didn’t ask for much to direct us to her brother.”
As we returned to the guildhall, we once again got many people looking at us. After all, we were the only group composed of non-elves- discounting Khyrmin and half of Alhorn.
Khyrmin moved directly through the hall without stopping to even say anything to anyone. The guards to the upper level just nodded as she approached, and we went with her. As we neared the guildmistress’s office, we heard yelling. In elven, of course. Khyrmin paused for a moment, then continued forward with a spark in her eye. She looked at us as we neared the door. “Wait out here for a moment.”
Khyrmin swung open the doors and stepped into the room. Inside were guildmistress Salinde and an elven man I didn’t know… though I was willing to bet Khyrmin did. He turned as the door opened, then there was a moment of silence from his yelling. Suddenly, he drew the sword at his side with a shout- and predictably, that sword ended up out of his hand immediately afterwards. Khyrmin flicked her wrist, drawing a line of blood across one of the man’s cheeks- a line that was quite symmetrical with a scar I noticed on the other cheek. Then she kicked him in the chest, knocking him backwards into Salinde’s desk. Her rapier thrust forward towards his heart… but not into it. At least, not deep. From what I could see, Khyrmin was just pressing the sword slightly between his ribs.
He and Khyrmin exchanged some words- at least, he shouted, and Khyrmin talked. Then she pulled back her rapier and stepped forward, striking him with the hilt of her sword, knocking him out… probably. The sound was quite loud, so I wasn’t sure if it wasn’t more than that.
Salinde sighed, looking past Khyrmin to our group, then back to her. “Thank you for not killing him in my office, I suppose.”
Khyrmin grunted, “Yeah. We came to say thanks.”
Kasner gestured to his leg, “It’s all healed!” His pants made it impossible to tell, though I knew his walking was much more fluid with his actual leg- and a proper knee.
“Really?” Salinde raised an eyebrow, “I’m surprised. He doesn’t usually help people.”
“We destroyed a spider dungeon,” Khyrmin mentioned.
“You-” Salinde held a hand up to her forehead, “Dammit, such things are supposed to go through the guild.”
Khyrmin shrugged, “It was a new one. It shouldn’t be a problem. It was out in the wilderness.”
“Except now a bunch of D rank adventurers know that it’s possible…” Salinde shook her head, “So, did you kill a bunch of Lord Liaxalim’s men?” She waved to the man on the floor.
“He was guessing. We were all the way to your brother.”
“So you did kill them?”
“They attacked us.”
Salinde shook her head, “I’ll just tell him they probably died to the denizens of the forest… and if he pushes things, I’ll make him say why there were so deep. It’s not like they had any other excuse to be there.”
“They also shot at Ehlark.”
“Couldn’t have witnesses. That probably saved some of your… students.”
“Ehlark’s vines tore them all out of hiding,” Alhorn remarked. “It would have been quite some trouble otherwise.”
Salinde sighed, “What a waste of good archers.” She waved her hand, “Well, I’ve received your thanks. Please leave and don’t cause me any more headaches. I’ll deal with… that,” she gestured once again to the unconscious elf.
Khyrmin smiled, “Have fun.”
i have been wondering about llyr asking the druid about his problem. didn’t they decide to go to a druid about his negative levels or am i misremembering?
Nah, it’s just for the regenerate. He was working with the sage for the other problem