“In times of chaos, some people would display their best side, which might even be unknown to themselves and would only appear during such strenuous times. Most people, however, would succumb to their base desires and act little better than animals, completely showcasing the very worst that they could be.” - Jacobini Sudraig, historian and sociologist from Levain, circa 392 FP.

Technically, Kino and Eilonwy’s purpose in the former Wasir Shahdom had been accomplished already, as they had met with their contact and gotten the information they came for. They were staying for a different reason, however. Their local contact had asked them if they happened to have any skills that might help alleviate the suffering of the people who were still recovering from the conflict, and if they could lend a hand, if possible.

While neither Kino nor Eilonwy had such skills, both of them looked at Aideen and she gave her agreement to help out. They had quickly hashed out a cover story, in this case the three of them being outside help hired by their local contact to help out with the recovery efforts. In that way, they also had the name of their local contact as backing as they did their business in the nation.

Since the rest of the nation’s land was taken over quickly by the rebellion, by this point people who might have needed help had already gotten it or perished. Instead, Aideen brought the rest to head straight for the capital city, where the scars of the war were far fresher, and there was still a multitude of people who she could lend a hand to.

Once they arrived at the capital city, Aideen quickly rented an unused building and turned it into a clinic. While Kino and Eilonwy had no convenient way to use their magic in healing people, they were still trained in more mundane healing methods in case it would be needed, so they got to play the part of her assistants. The light injuries and other such cases were left to them while Aideen herself tackled the more serious ones.

Unlike how she normally went about things, Aideen pretended to be a normal healer, and mostly used mundane techniques to help the people she encountered. That said, she still helped those who had worse injuries, albeit more subtly. Rather than instantly heal them, she set their bodies up so that they could regenerate naturally with some time, with them likely being healed completely by the time she was long gone from the city.

Keeping such a low profile – though Aideen made neither her mortality affinity nor the fact that she was a mage secret, merely toned down what she showed to people – helped them avoid some undesirable attention, and with their contact’s backing, the authorities similarly gave them no troubles. While some were skeptical at first, the promise of free healing was a very attractive thing to many in the capital.

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After a few people nervously went to the clinic and came out in a much better condition, the three of them were swamped with work from dawn till dusk every day thereafter, as the capital was not short of people who had suffered during or after the siege. Some were hurt by the soldiers of the old regime, some by the occupiers. Aideen paid no heed to the difference while she worked, however.

Around a couple weeks after she arrived however, she found a couple of soldiers making a ruckus – Kino and Eilonwy were trying to hold them back without hurting them, which was honestly far easier said than done given that their training was mostly to kill – in the clinic. The soldiers were dead drunk and throwing lewd glances everywhere, one of them not even wearing any pants whatsoever.

Aideen had the thought of just breaking their legs and throwing them out when she saw them making a mess, but before she could act on the thought, another, larger group of soldiers stormed in. The larger group did not cause any trouble, however, as they instead apprehended the three drunks on the spot. Neither were they particularly gentle at handling the drunks as they dragged them out of the clinic.

“Our deepest apologies for the… unpleasant interruption,” said a young man who seemed to be in charge of the larger group of soldiers with a deep bow to everyone present in the clinic. Aideen was mollified that the man would apologize not just to her – which was expected – but also to the commoners who were in the clinic at the time. “I hope nobody got hurt before we came?”

“Does mental damage from having to look at that drunk’s ugly dangling prick and shriveled ballsack count?” countered Eilonwy with her own question, which elicited some chuckles from the people who had come to the clinic for healing, now that the crisis had passed. “Because if it does, there’s definitely quite a few victims here.”

“I think it even touched my pants, ew,” added Kino with a frown. “Going to have to burn it later.”

“Understandable, and my apologies once more,” said the young commander with a slight smile on his face. “If you have any damages to claim, please list them and send the list to the nearest guard station. Tell them it’s for Faizal,” he added. “In the meantime, I will bid you ladies and gentlemen a good night, and hopefully no such unpleasantness will grace your eyes ever again.”

The young commander left after he gave them another bow and quietly closed the door behind him, at which point Aideen and the rest went back to work on the patients that were still there with them.

“Guess there’s still some decent people in command, at least,” noted Aideen as she returned to work on a middle-aged woman who had a broken arm that had set incorrectly. “That’s a good sign for this place’s future… as long as the ones above them aren’t as bad or worse than the very people they rebelled against. I guess we won’t find out till another decade or two.”