The next few hours passed quietly.

The Nightmare Wraith didn’t seem to want to move, and neither did Serenity. He hadn’t felt sore like this since the beginning of the Tutorial. It didn’t seem to be getting better, either, so he decided to take a look at what had happened.

He tugged on his Essence and Mana affinities, figuring they would probably be the best way to see inside himself now that he was whatever he was, without a Life affinity or any tie to Life. After a short spike of pain he was able to see his essence and mana networks overlaid on his physical condition. His networks looked a little singed, but there were no major tears. He’d seen that before; it would recover in time. Perhaps not overnight, but the recovery timeframe was days, not weeks.

His physical condition was harder to diagnose. His entire body ached, with the area along his spine the most painful, but he couldn’t immediately tell why. He had to look closely at the crystal lines woven around his spine to see that they looked like they had bubbled and blistered as if they’d been exposed to too much heat. The flesh they rubbed against was being damaged; it healed almost immediately, but that was still enough to send periodic pain signals.

Serenity checked the rest of the crystal in his body, and found that both the seed in his abdomen and the core in his head were fine; if they’d overheated, it hadn’t been by enough to cause actual damage.

That didn’t explain the pain in the rest of his body until he looked closer and realized that there was a fine network of crystal threads spread throughout his body, many of which were broken in places. The pain came when the damaged area was close enough to the skin; he couldn’t even feel a lot of the damage.

It was worse than he’d expected, and it wasn’t healing - at least, not as quickly as he’d gotten used to. It probably would heal with time, or he could try to do something about it. If he could just keep it from harming his flesh while it healed, that would be enough. He didn’t know what the crystal network did, so hopefully having it intact wasn’t too big a problem, and the lines down his spine seemed to still be working well enough.

Serenity sighed to himself and tried to do something he was honestly very bad at: Heal.

The first thing he found out was that he only needed his Essence affinity.

The second thing he found out was that it was much easier to heal with the correct affinity than when you were trying to develop an affinity. He’d known that to some extent; he’d healed himself as an undead with his Death affinity, after all, and that had been much easier than healing his living self with Life or - worse yet - trying to gain the Healing affinity. He'd never succeeded at that one.

The third thing he found out was that he was still terrible at healing, even with the right affinity. That wasn’t news either, unfortunately. It took hours to simply smooth the majority of the damaged parts so that he was no longer injuring himself further. He’d have to come back and check it frequently - probably every night - for a while, but eventually he’d done enough to move on to the smaller broken pieces. Many of them were simply reabsorbed as Essence. It was easier than trying to repair them; the work was too fine for his meager healing skill.

He’d finished his first pass through his body and was starting on a second when a knock on his door startled him out of his near-trance. “Serenity! Dinner!”

Serenity suddenly felt just how hungry he was. He’d burned a lot of his healing that afternoon, and it all hit him at once. There was a lingering scent of something delicious, too, which only made him hungrier.

He was halfway to the door before he remembered the Nightmare Wraith. “Can you hide here and make sure no one sees you?”

“I shall endeavor to be unseen.”

The Nightmare Wraith seemed to shimmer in Serenity’s vision and become less substantial. He could only hope that was enough for those with a more normal sort of vision.

Serenity closed the door behind himself only to be greeted with a shocked silence. He turned towards his friends, not understanding their shock until he heard Raz’s words. “What happened to you? You’re covered in blood!”

Serenity looked down at himself. He couldn’t see anything, which wasn’t surprising. He did feel a bit itchy, now that Raz mentioned it. He’d assumed that was from the damage and continual healing, which he supposed was correct in a way. “I am? I hadn’t realized. I was trying out a new skill where it’s safe, to see where I could use it. It’s definitely not combat-ready.”

He wasn’t sure what he’d do with the Nightmare Wraith, either. As spirits formed from the remnant emotions of the dead went, this one was remarkably chill, but that didn’t mean it could be safely left in a city long term.

“You don’t need healing?” Katya had her hands on her hips as she looked at him.

“Ah, no? I think I’ve got it about as healed as possible for now.” Serenity wasn’t sure what good a healer would do. It wasn’t exactly normal damage.

“Fine. We’re going to the bathhouse, then.” Katya reached out and grabbed one of Serenity's arms, moving him a little, mostly because he wasn’t expecting it. “Argh. Freaking frontliners built like wagons, come on!”

Serenity took a step after her as he protested. “But … food!”

“Fine.” Katya let go of Serenity. “Raz, get him food. Bring it to the bathhouse, let the kitchen know that’s where you’re taking it and they’ll pack stuff that’ll be allowed in. Hale, go talk to Hollis. I want a second opinion. Serenity could be dying and he’d think he didn’t need healing. As for you, come with me. You’ll get food but we need to get your clothes clean before the blood sets. We didn’t get you more clothes today!”

“I don’t need healing! I took care of it!”

Hale shook his head at Serenity. “I see what you mean, Katya. Just go get clean.”

Serenity allowed Katya to bully him out of the room. He was going to get food, at least, and the more he thought about it, the more the blood between his skin and his clothing itched.

He gave up on protesting about Hale getting a healer once it was clear Hale wasn’t listening.

‘Getting clean’ took longer than Serenity had imagined. He had bits of blood caked under the edges of his scales and on the inner parts of his feathers. The bathhouse attendants had him soak in a tub of very hot, soapy water after the first round of cleaning so that the second round would be easier. They’d warned him how hot the water was and told him they could cool it down if it was too warm, but Serenity didn’t have any issues.

When they finally let him out into the common area, Serenity headed straight for the hottest pool. He was pretty sure he was sulking, but that didn’t mean he wanted to talk to anyone. He ached from the scrubbing. It wasn’t as bad as the soreness earlier that day, but he still wasn’t happy.

The near-boiling water helped. It didn’t do much for the aches, but it did soothe the muscles he’d been holding tense for the entire scrubbing. He told himself he’d go join the others in cooler water in a bit, after he felt more relaxed.

Serenity was a little depressed when he saw Raz walking over to him moments after he slid into the water. Raz had had time to wash and get food while Serenity was being scrubbed.

On the other hand, there was food.

Raz dipped one foot near the water and then went to sit on the other side of the food, away from the water. “Well, you look better.”

“I’m fine.” Serenity didn’t waste words; there was food to eat, and he was hungry.

He saw Guildmaster Hollis approach from the main entrance with Hale. They were still dressed in street clothes. “I’ll be the judge of that. Let me have a look and make sure you didn’t miss something; self-healing is rarely the best, and self-healing after a skill mishap can miss important things. I owe you more than this; please let me have a look.”

Serenity looked at the Healer, then sighed. The man seemed sincere, and even if Serenity didn’t really feel that Hollis owed him anything - Serenity had just been doing something anyone should have - it would make the old man feel better. “Fine. May I keep eating?”

Hollis chuckled. “Go right ahead.”

As Hollis knelt next to Serenity, Serenity heard the noise level drop to nothing. A privacy ward? That was certainly what it seemed like.

“I was completely serious when I said I owed you,” Hollis stated quietly. “You did more than just save my life and awaken a bloodline. I feel younger than I have in years, and I have a new, higher-Tier Path open for me. I know that wasn’t your intent, but that doesn’t matter. I still owe you.” Hollis’s hand closed on Serenity’s shoulder and he felt the warmth of the Healer’s attention sweep through him.

Serenity didn’t know what to say. All he’d wanted to do was break the curse and save the man’s life. Perhaps the Path was related to surviving a deadly curse? That sort of thing happened occasionally. Serenity kept eating as he thought.

He was even hungrier than he'd realized.

Hollis mused aloud as he examined Serenity. “You’re not half-dragon, are you, even though you look like one. Your body structure is similar, but that’s more outward than inward. Some of your organs are similar, but there are more differences than similarities, really. I see the damage, it’s to … why do you have a lattice of stone, no, crystal running through your body?”

Serenity wasn’t sure how to answer, so he went with something close to the truth. “My heritage is … it’s mixed. I’m part elemental.” That was the only reason he could think of for the crystal. It hadn’t been there before his last evolution, and there was no way it was normal for dhampir. It had to be because of the other additions, and they were both elementals.

“A crystal elemental? Rare. It does explain why you’re not responding to Life affinity, I have to use straight Healing affinity.” Hollis sounded amused, rather than bothered. Serenity decided not to answer. He was terrible at lying; letting other people believe their own stories was much easier.

Well, there was one other thing he could say. “I’m more dragon than anything else. It’s easier to just let people assume I’m a half-dragon. I look it, after all.”

“Your ancestors must have had fun.” Hollis seemed to be done as he took his hand away from Serenity’s shoulder. The timing was good; Serenity had finished most of the food Raz had brought, and finally felt less hungry.

“I should hope so. It’d be sad to think any of us were around without our ancestors having fun.” He winked at Hollis, and Hollis laughed.

For once, a joke had worked on someone other than Rissa. Serenity felt accomplished.

Hollis released the privacy screen, and by the time he and Hale met the others, Serenity had moved to water at a temperature they could all enjoy.

When they walked out, Serenity was told they’d “done the best they could” with his clothes and armor. The lack of reaction from his friends told him it was damaged, but not too badly. It would have to do; some damage to armor was only to be expected, after all.

As they headed back, Raz showed off his new cloak. Serenity had to tell him that he couldn’t tell the difference between the two sides; he could see a faint set of stitches on one side where the Shining Caverns symbol was added, but he had to take time and look for it.

They’d meet Stojan Tasi in the morning to head to the Wailing Woods dungeon.