After washing myself thoroughly in the bath I started going to sleep as I leaned back against the tub, I closed my eyes. I was awoken in what felt like only moments but must have been sometime later judging by the water having gone cold, by a knock at the door and Lubus saying something in a questioning tone. I rose out of the bath, she probably wanted to wash too, and found a towel to wipe off most of the water. I yelled back to Lubus through the door, so she would know that I was alright and on my way. By the time I was done drying off I was shivering from sitting in the cold water for too long. Naga didn’t do well in such conditions if I didn’t find a way to warm up soon I would be in big trouble.

I discarded the now wet towel on the floor and made my way to the door. Forgetting that I was naked, I pushed the door open clumsily to find Lubus standing on the other side with a shocked expression on her face. She blushed furiously and started to turn away from me, but when she saw the way I was shivering and hugging myself, she got a worried expression on her face. She moved closer and laid a hand against my forehead, her frown deepened further, and she took my hand and led me towards the bed. She wrapped me up entirely in one of the blankets and then rushed me over to sit in front of what looked like a little indoor campfire, I wondered where all the smoke would be going and got my answer as Lubus muttered some words in her stuttering way and the wooden logs caught fire. The smoke disappeared out up the brick chimney that was built against the wall, I had seen them sticking out of rooftops and now had an answer for what they must be for. Indoor fires seemed like a bad idea here where most buildings were made of wood, but the fire burned on merrily, and they must have thought of this before me. I would be stuttering now too if I spoke judging by the way I’m shaking I thought and chuckled to myself.

Once I had stopped shaking Lubus gestured for me to get up and into bed, I obeyed readily. I felt strangely tired and weak, even though I had stopped shaking I still felt cold. As I lay down in bed, Lubus put another blanket over me, and I smiled at her in thanks. I was a bit confused, I had been exposed to cold before, but nothing like this had ever happened to me. I became cold and started shivering sure, and I knew of Naga who had died from becoming too cold. Once you got warm again though things were always back to normal. I had never felt something like this terrible weakness or feeling like I was burning up inside. I knew for a fact that none of the others had felt like this, or they would have said something. This must be something of the mainland. Hopefully, Lubus knew what to do, I would be in her hands now I thought as I drifted off to sleep.

Eshanai fell asleep shortly after laying down in the bed. She likely had a fever, her skin was practically burning when I touched her forehead. I had been lost in daydreams and planning for my potential future freedom before I knew it an hour had passed and Eshanai still hadn’t come out of her bath. At first, I had been worried she had slipped and hit her head or something. But no, she must not have noticed that the water was getting cold and sat in it too long and become sick. I had heard of it happening before, but we were in the middle of summer, and the people he knew had only developed mild colds and maybe a small fever. Eshanai’s skin was boiling hot, perhaps snake people had weak constitutions or something? He didn’t know, and he couldn’t even ask her about it.

If she didn’t get healthy by the end of the week in five days, they would both be in big trouble. Judge Lyle had agreed to Lubus proposal of trial by combat. He could even enter the arena with her, on the condition that it be held during the summer festival, during the beginning of next week. Lyle had seemed quite excited about it. He had even given Lubus some money to prepare for the upcoming fight. The judge had even paid for this room in a high-end inn out of his own pocket when the lady at the desk had started arguing. Lyle didn’t want to announce that it was a trial, but as more of a challenge for Eshanai and me. The spectators would be charged for entrance, but the judge thought that people would pay a lot to see an exotic creature like Eshanai fight in the arena, and I had to agree with him. He would bring peoples attention to the event using town criers and posters plastered all around the city.

So if Eshanai didn’t get better until that time, we would probably be ceased and delivered to the mages guild. If we managed to win, the guards of Yhester would ignore my warrant, and I would be free to live and work in the city as I pleased, I would have to help Eshanai get better first though. I could bring a doctor or healer in here to try and cure her, but she was supposed to be a spirit that I had summoned and spirits didn’t get sick. The cost to bribe whoever he brought up here to silence would probably make a significant dent in their budget. He had planned to use the money to buy weapons and maybe some armor for Eshanai, and if I could find a spell shop, I wanted to see if they had some sort of healing spell I could buy. Magic would probably be my best bet if I wanted to keep the fact that Eshanai wasn’t a spirit secret, maybe it would be okay, and people would accept her but judging by my first reaction to seeing her I somehow doubted that. I had been in the middle of the woods while being chased. If she were introduced more civilly, maybe people would react differently towards her.

I didn’t want to risk it, if people thought that I had summoned her they would also believe that I was controlling her, that was the best protection I could give her right now. Any old healing spell wouldn’t do though if you tried to heal someone who was sick with say a healing word they would usually get even more sick for whatever reason. I wasn’t an expert on healing magic, but even I knew that. I needed some sort of cure disease spell, and they were usually up there when it came to price.

I managed to wake Eshanai briefly to feed her some chicken soup that I had bought from the kitchen downstairs. The lady grumbled at me all the while and gave me an evil look even as she accepted my coin. Eshanai fell right back to sleep when she had eaten her fill, so I went out of the room and locked the door to find somewhere I could find spells. I knew of some shops that sold magic since I had lived and worked in this city for a while, but I could never find an excuse to enter them without the risk of blowing my cover. It was past noon and turning to evening when I found the first shop, it was a bookstore, and I went up to the man behind the counter and asked.

“D-do you sell s-s-spells?” He looked at me doubtfully, he probably wondered if I could afford something like that. I must have looked pretty bad in my torn clothes, and I hadn’t gotten the chance to have a proper bath. He might think that I was some sort of beggar, but when I jingled my coin purse in his face the look disappeared, and he shrugged.

“Yes we do, what type of spell were you looking for?” He said as professional as can be.

“C-c-c… cure d-d-d…" I started over. "Cure… d-d-dis,” I tried to get it out, but the man interrupted me.

“Cure disease? No, I’m afraid not, and I don’t know of any other shops that do, sorry.” I nodded at him, not wanting to stutter out a reply and turned towards the door to try another shop when he spoke again. “But you might want to try Matilda’s alchemy shop, she sells potions that can cure many illnesses, and it’s cheaper too.” I perked up at this and turned back towards the man. Why hadn't I thought of that? He gave me directions and of I went. It took me some time to find the place, and the sun was almost setting when I made it. It was a small house located between two bigger houses. I had missed it and had to turn back to find it. Matilda was just closing up shop for the night when I caught her outside the door of the store.

“I need c-cure dis-s-sease potion, important,” I manage to pant out from my run here, resting my hands on my knees.

“Sorry lad, come back tomorrow, we’re closed,” the woman said and started to turn away from me.

“How much?” I said to her back while straightening mine. She stopped walking and turned to face me. She probably knew I was desperate, I could see the wheels turning behind her eyes as she smelled an opportunity.

“Five silver,” she said finally.

“One gold, if you s-s-sell it to me n-n-n-n-now,”

“One gold and five silver if I sell it to you now and you can get your money back if the potion doesn’t work,” she said and grinned broadly at me. I didn’t know how I could prove if it didn’t work, but I accepted the offer, being tired of haggling with this woman. I paid her, and she handed me a round glass bottle with a green liquid inside. This had worked out better then I had hoped when I left the inn, now I had some money left that I could spend on equipping Eshanai and me. I had about seven gold left, a cure disease spell would probably have cost me around ten gold. I was hoping to find something with a discount, or that I would be able to haggle the price down a bit. I walked back to the in with a spring in my step sticking to the main roads to not get robbed. I probably looked like an easy target. The sun had fully set when I made it back.

I went up the stairs and into the room I had left Eshanai sleeping in, using the key to unlock the door. I heard her speaking, and at first, I thought she was awake. No, she was still asleep, dreaming, and not a pleasant dream either by the way her lower half thrashed around under the blankets. She kept calling out to someone, but she didn't speak clearly enough for me to make out a name. I made it to the bed and sat down beside her. She was sweating profusely, with her hair plastered to her head. I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her slightly, calling out her name softly I tried to wake her as quietly as possible. She woke up with a start, sitting up in the bed she looked around wildly clutching at my arms painfully. I spoke her name again, and when she met my eyes, she seemed to come back to her senses and calmed herself down.

I offered her the potion and gestured for her to uncork it and drink the whole thing down. She did as I had shown her, swallowing the entire thing in one go. I got up from the bed, planning to sleep on the floor but she grabbed my hand and tugged me into bed with her. She had a determined look on her face. She wrapped her tail around me so that I couldn't get up and out of bed. She apparently wanted me to sleep beside her, so when I nodded my head at her, she loosened her grip around me and smiled gratefully. The floor was uncomfortable anyway I decided, and if she were okay with me sleeping in the bed next to her, I wouldn't complain. My eyes felt heavy, and as I closed them, I quickly fell asleep next to this strange and beautiful woman.