As I stood in front of the door, the cold caress of a northern wind brought welcome relief from several days of searing heat. Despite that, waiting for the wife to open the door was agonizing, especially now that with my senses open I was so intimately aware of everything happening in this village.

Two squirrels chased each other across the street, chittering at each other. An oriole flitted overhead. A creak sounded, the back door of the house to the right of me opened, then a man exited through it, thankfully far enough away from me that he wouldn’t be able to spot me.

All of it was far too idyllic, from the carefree animals, over the gentle murmur of conversation accentuating the sawing and chopping happening near the river, to the occasional spot of childish laughter far to the right from me.

The texture, the aroma, everything in this town had such an air of normalcy now, as if the ahuizotl and the vampire and the nearly dead man in the house in front of me weren’t things that had happened barely two days ago. It was all so peaceful that when the wife opened the door it startled me. No one noticed. I was in control, hiding all emotion and reaction behind a perfectly acted layer of polite passivity. Pickled-dried-leaves, the wife, sort of… looked at me? A million new what-ifs I hadn’t thought of until now haunted my thoughts.

What if she realized how indifferent I had been yesterday?

What if Reya told her?

What if Uncle Tare is already dead?

What if Reya is in there right now?

Subconsciously I knew the answer to all of these irrational thoughts, yet I couldn’t help wondering anyway. Two familiar heartbeats sang to me from inside the house, one inside the bed, the other standing right here in front of me. Uncle Tare wasn’t dead. Reya wasn’t in there. The Pickled-dried-leaves radiated surprise though, as if my presence here was the last thing she expected.

Suri. Not pickled-dried-leaves.

People have names. Use them, Vale.

“You requested I do another check-up in the morning?” I offered when Suri did not speak up, more to still my spiraling thoughts than anything. “It is um…” I hesitated. I was going to say morning, but it was actually way past morning by now. “I am… not a morning person?”

Yes, I was still every bit as bad at conversation as I had always been. Awkward. Embarrassing. And I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I might be walking straight into a trap. Regardless, I was doing this. No backing down. I would prove that I was a decent human being.

Um… decent monster?

At first, there was no reaction. Then Suri gave me a quiet “…oh?”.

She really had not expected me. There was surprise and curiosity, a small frustrated huff of exhaled air, but no fear or judgment. Reya hadn’t told her anything then. Her not instantly dragging me inside was different though. Perhaps a clear indication that her husband was fine and did not need me checking up on him.

“I… um… Reya already checked up on him, did she not?” I bit my lip and looked down at Suri’s feet.

“Ah…” she mumbled, hesitated for another second, then followed it up with her usual avalanche of words. “No, No no. It’s just… you looked like you were having an argument yesterday and then you both stormed of and only Reya came back and I thought that, well, you know, and… and… I’m poking my nose in and it’s totally not my business but I’m just so grateful you know, without the ­both­–”

Suri broke off mid-sentence, did something with her face I couldn’t see because of the sun, then looked down.

“I’m rambling again,” the embarrassed wife admonished herself, then continued. “No, Reya’s checked the bandages yesterday, and popped in real quick this morning. It… it wouldn’t hurt for you to check again, would it?”

Yes, Reya checking up on him every morning and evening told me that I wasn’t really needed. Yet Suri’s sudden shift in tone at the end, from demure to hopeful, kept me from finding a way to leave. It told me that she still worried, despite the frequent checks by Reya.

I reassured the worried woman with a gentle smile. “Never hurts to be too careful.”

With the strained banalities out of the way, I was once again led into the couple’s bedroom. Uncle Tare was asleep, and obviously in pain. I tasted the air and glanced around the room, wondering if Reya was giving him something to keep the pain under control, something that left him drowsy like this.

Kneeling down next to the bed I tried to figure out how I was going to go about this. My actual medical knowledge probably paled in comparison to Reya’s. I was fairly certain I was ahead of her in terms of emergency field medicine. Beyond that though, I compensated by using my senses as a crutch and brute-forcing things with magic.

I knew how to amputate, I knew how to keep people alive, I knew far too many creative ways to kill people. Knowing how to properly monitor someone, check if their condition improved or worsened, day to day, hour to hour, all I could do with that was wing it by using my nose. Or brute force it with magic.

Something leaking out of my ear.

I was not looking forward to the magic route, so I started by focusing my senses on the man. With how little attention I had paid yesterday evening I wasn’t certain if he was doing better or worse. I feared I had to lean towards worse though. It was more a general feeling that told me this, than any particular symptom.

Maybe it was just my own worries leaking through into my early diagnosis. To be certain I only had one option. Magic. Wincing involuntarily I turned my senses inwards, towards my core. It was startlingly empty, a stark reminder of just how overboard I’d gone on magic. It would be enough for some basic casting, a quick sensory weave, maybe even some minor healing, but not much more.

A sensory weave would be far less taxing on me than the healing magic I’d performed two nights ago. I probably wouldn’t start leaking all over the place, but it would still hurt to the point where I wouldn’t be able to keep the pain from showing on my face.

I glanced up at Suri intent on warning her. She looked at me wide-eyed and was already wringing her hands. Even just thinking about casting magic I hadn’t been able to keep my expression neutral.

What’s with me and this town that I can’t keep my face under control?

I wiped the worried grimace from my face and hastened to reassure her. “He’s fine. He’s fine.”

Lying again.

“There is something I need to look into though, so I am going to cast some magic to check,” I hastily amended. “Reya may have told you this is a bit painful for me, so um… don’t worry if I start making these weird faces, okay? I will be fine.”

“He’s really fine, right?” Suri prompted me, leaning over the bed and grabbing hold of her husband’s hand.

I bit back another “he’s fine” before it could slip out. “Merely making sure I am not missing anything.”

The smile I gave her was acted, not lied. Not waiting for another reaction from Suri I placed my gloved hands on his chest, reached inside, weaved, layered, pulled the weave out, and spread it over the injured man’s body. My casting could probably have been more efficient with direct skin contact, but far too many people in this town had seen my claws as it was. I was keeping my gloves on.

I used the time I spent recovering from the burning pain of the Tonaltus use to go over what I’d learned about the blacksmith’s condition. There was something wrong with Uncle Tare all right, somewhere near the stump. I wasn’t certain yet what it was, but it would probably need treatment.

If only I could remember exactly what I’d done after the amputation.

I studied the man’s legs, then glanced up at Suri, careful to keep the apprehension I felt from showing on my face. This was not something I felt up to handling alone. I would need to talk to Reya again, much sooner than I had intended to.