“Thank you Miss Perdu for the delivery, though I was expecting one of your parents and not one of our up-and-coming silvers,” mage Larse thanked Jessica as she started to stow away various bottles inside the storeroom. Jessica had escaped home once Cara and her father started to lay into each other. In the past, their fights were things of town gossip as everyone on the street would hear them when they started to fight.

“It’s okay, I just needed some fresh air,” she lied while mage Larse removed the top tray of a shallow hay-filled box that had various bottles nestled within. The next tray of various little remedies and ointments were exposed of the thirty some odd little trays that were about three feet high in total on a set of four little wheels that were used to help move the fragile contents from the apothecary all the way to the guild.

“And how have your parents been?”

“They’re okay, they went out as well to make some deliveries to the cloth dyers and managed to escape first.”

“Escape?”

“It’s nothing,” Jessica mentioned while picking up a bottle and looking around the shelves to where it would go in confusion, looking to assist mage Larse in putting the products away.

“Over there,” she motioned and Jessica quickly saw an empty section and just placed the little ceramic jar down and turned back to the crate grabbing a few others of the same ointment, and moved to continue restocking the shelf when she felt Violet start to move, waking up from her lethargy from her last feeding.

Jessica had continued to feed Violet a couple of drops of blood every so often as Akira had told her to. She was now seeing that Violet was being a bit greedy for more and would become lethargic after a bit. Thankfully, with her practicing healing, even though it took only a second to heal the small cut on a finger, it would still cost her almost all of her mana in that single instance, whereas healing Cara’s father would only take ninety some odd mana per second for a few dozen seconds.

She had to reread her grimoire to figure out what the issue was and understood then that Cara’s father and everyone else that she met and tested was all the same only having a soul strong enough or mana of a depth of 100. With her own, Cara’s, and Zoe’s mana meaning that trying to do healing on any of them was going to be exceptionally difficult unless she managed to increase the rank of her [Rapid Growth] drastically.

Jessica remembered that time when Zoe’s sound assault had backfired and also damaged them, Akira had managed to spend a singular ember to heal them. While their mana was not as deep as it is now, she still thought it was quite perplexing as to how Akira had managed to repair the damage to their ears with only a singular ember. She had managed to summon enough courage to ask Akira directly and he had told her that he had long since maxed the ‘experiences’ on it. His use of the word seemed odd and she felt that he meant the rank of the skill.

Still, she felt it was odd and asked if she could try healing him, he had not had an opinion and she had felt her mana fizzle away to nothing, as though a drop of water had encountered parched soil. How big the plot of land or soil was, she could not seem to understand, just that if ever there was an issue where Akira was hurt, they’d be salted, if that were the case.

A small gasp was heard behind her as she could hear mage Larse step back and crash into a wall. Turning around she could see the issue, Violet had brought out almost three dozen vines and had them each wrapping and waiving around tinctures, ampoules, and various vials while managing to place them where required. Several trays were being pinched by the vines and held aloft as Violet was making quick work of several hundred items.

Cautiously, mage Larse picked herself up from the back wall that she had fled to and was watching in wonder as Violet went about her work.

“How does your Lasher know where to place everything?” Mage Larse asked, while some of the items were placed backward or askew, they were all finding their proper places in the small storeroom.

Jessica reached out a singular [Mana Tether] to her familiar and posed the question with intent. The answer was not in words but a fuzzy intent back, this form of communication was not as accurate as when she had Akira do the weird translation, but it was sufficient to get general meanings across.

‘Smell smell,’ was the fuzzy intent that she got back over the [Mana Tether].

“Her name is Violet, and I think she’s saying that she’s matching smells together, maybe?” Was what Jessica replied as Violet was now down to the final tray.

“You named a plant? And what do you mean she? And it can talk?” was the ignorant reply Jessica received.

With a small harumph and a crossing of her arms, Violet stilled and the hair on the back of mage Larse’s neck went up as the energy in the room changed.

“Cara’s familiar Akira is able to speak with her kind and it was Violet that told us her name. It is actually Violent Light Shoot Fighting Winters, though we shortened it to just Violet Winters, as calling someone Violent from the start can simply salt the earth and prevent us from making friends in the future.” Jessica was saying in defense of her friend, her normal meekness subdued all of a sudden.

“Violent, right, sorry I Violet, I mean no harm, can she hear me? Does she understand me?” Mage Larse asked while keeping her hands up, palms out, as though to fend off the three dozen still vines that were suspended in the air.

“Yes and no, she picks up on intent or tone in voice, besides when I speak with her via our mana.”

After a long awkward silence, Jessica managed to coax Violet to finish up and to go back to resting, where she instead assumed a small tiara of intricate smaller vines across Jessica’s forehead and some sharp-looking backward-facing horns.

Picking up the remaining crates and restacking them, Jessica started to bid farewell to mage Larse and wheel her four-foot-tall crates out when they could hear the moaning coming towards the Healer’s Hall from outside the doors. With a small burst open, someone Jessica did not recognize was escorted in on a stretcher, while grasping at his leg. The poor appendage was twisted around two full turns and looked horrific. Jessica could not help but stare and stay around due to morbid curiosity.

Mage Larse quickly ushered the pair of mages carrying the stretcher and the patient over to the designated bed and laid him down. Jessica left the crates and slowly snuck forward to overhear what had happened.

Apparently, the sour-faced duo were earth mages with their charge another earth mage all of them bronzers. They had been screwing around and had made a small sand whirlpool and were trying to make each other dizzy. Unfortunately, their friend had been the first to try it out and with the center of the whirlpool spinning faster than the outsides, when both man’s legs were submerged, his left leg was simply spun to the point of shattering and then kept going.

Mage Larse was cursing under her breath and using water magic to help force the writhing man to drink a tonic to help with the pain. Once done with trying to force feed a potion that was really not helping much, mage Larse motioned the two to restrain their friend and from an unknown hole in the base of the wall, they summoned some sand and brought it up and formed shackles around their friend’s wrists, clamping them down to the sides of the bed as mage Larse went to the contorted leg and started to prod it roughly, much to the gurgled protests of her patient.

“By the devourer, you three really did it, several spiral and comminuted breaks. We’re going to need to amputate…” Mage Larse’s prognosis was met with cursing and a pained cry from the man whose leg would be removed, crippling his ability to act within the guild and forever ensuring that he’d be unable to advance beyond bronze and most likely that he’d be abandoned by his two bronze friends.

“Umm, may I?” After the third attempt at being heard, Jessica finally got the attention of the three people as mage Larse was about to tell her to leave when Violet reared up several dozen vines and caused her to stop mid-refutal.

Jessica used the small [Mana Tether] that she was using to communicate with Violet and reached out and touched all four people, feeling that each of their souls only had 100 mana. Making a slight show of it, so as to not scare them, Jessica slowly waved her hand and with the tether touching her patient, she spent 92 mana to turn off his ability to feel pain.

Everyone looked over at the patient as they heard his moaning and screaming abruptly end and he was simply sweating and panting now, relief in his face while mumbling for them to not take his leg, the tonic that mage Larse had force-fed him, starting to take effect and causing his mind to drift.

‘Please turn the leg two and a half times to the left Violet.’ Jessica pushed her intent through another [Mana Tether] for Violet and one of the several dozen threatening vines snaked over and wrapped the mangled leg and started to untwist it. The three mages were about to interfere when Violet twitched and caused them to falter.

“Please do not interfere, I’m just going to fix his leg, do not make me restrain the three of you.” Jessica managed to get out as her confidence started to soar as she focused on her work. Having to create a [Locus of Control] now to subdue the three would simply be a waste of mana and her embers at this point.

With the leg somewhat straightened, Jessica continued to use [Rampant Growth] at a cost of 92 mana a second with the intent to have the bone pieces knit back together and go to where the soul wants them to reside. Having all the pieces there was so much easier than having to regrow a limb from scratch. The minute pieces stitched back together, dozens every second, starting from the knee and working their way down. After only another 1,100 mana, the leg was back, maybe a tiny fraction longer. Focusing on the tonic that was affecting the man and wanting to remove it, thinking of it as poison, had the man’s body heat up and she could feel some of the organs in his abdomen flare and heat up and the call of her mana and intent as she managed to get the body to do something to clear out the contents of the toxin.

The man’s foggy mind roused to pretty quickly as he sat up, still covered in sweat but reaching down to feel his leg. With a final press of 92 mana, Jessica was able to restore the man’s ability to feel pain and he didn’t resume screaming, which Jessica took as a sign of success.

“There, no amputation required, mage Larse, you might want to help him vomit up the remainder of the tonic, or else he’ll go loopy again,” Jessica said as she turned around and fled back to her small set of crates and started to wheel them out again. Violet also calmed down, resuming her earlier appearance and they made their way out of the now shocked silent Healer’s Hall, the only sound, was a couple of squeaky wheels and a gentle hum of a song from a happy girl as Jessica pushed the stacked crates out of the room.

There was a certain confidence that was growing within her. There was previously a feeling of ineptitude when trying to restore Mr. Foregess’ missing arm. That had taken several days and in this case, it was completely different. She was able to help someone, truly help someone. She had seen a terrible injury and was able to turn that person’s fate around. Mage Larse was going to need to amputate the poor man’s leg, but Jessica had been in the right place at the right time and had helped change a person’s fate from the devourer’s maw to the light of day.

Thinking about it, Jessica was slated to simply take over for her parents, and work as a bronzer in her family apothecary. Everything’s changed recently. She’s an honorary silver mage, she has a beautiful protective familiar and she’s able to heal and help people. Thinking about that, there’s a real joy in being able to help others. The nobles are still waging a war and there are stories of mercenaries and dark guilders being used in the devourer’s shadows to do what nobody knows. However, what is known is that farmer’s fields are often razed by both parties and the stories of war orphans were a part of the stories her parents would tell her to try and make sure she behaved.

Thinking about it, she’s always liked kids, a teacher was always something she thought about, but nobody respects plant mages. However, that could change, no, it would change. What if she were to help, not with the war but help as many orphans as she could? She could maybe create and run an orphanage. A place that welcomes all those who’ve lost everything. She could heal the bumps and scrapes that kids get. A refuge for society’s forgotten, much like she was while ‘only’ being a plant mage. She could be the headmistress of the orphanage and Violet could be in charge of discipline. She could just see it now, a dozen misbehaving children being held upside down by Violet as they need to learn their letters.

‘Hey Violet, would you like that?’ She tried to convey her message through her intent to her familiar. Images of wrangling small people and helping small people.

The response that she got back through the tether was a bit of confusion followed by what she could have sworn was a yawn. She was about to scold her little companion for daring to yawn at her, but then Violet started to unwind and a bunch of vines started to flow out in front of her along with Violet’s main body. Wrapping itself up more and more into a ball in front of her.

Jessica stopped and had to reach out and catch Violet, as she retracted all of her vines and formed a giant ball or egg shape. Her supporting vines are all being pulled into the tight ball. Uncertainty and panic start to race through Jessica’s mind as she reaches out to her familiar but gets no response.

Rotating the giant vine egg around, she cannot see what is going on. As more and more uncertainty and worry start to set in, she can only think about rushing over to find Akira and see if he would know anything. Abandoning her little trolley of crates where they are in the guild’s halls, she holds Violet protectively and races home to hopefully find Akira and get some answers as to what is happening to her companion and friend.