RFC-Mini Arc: The Temple-Part 11 (Patreon)

The mender arrives surprisingly quickly. Mostly due to his horse. He jumps off the creature and vaults the Ring smoothly, impressive for a man of his advanced age, and hurries over to me. He carries a small wooden box that he sets beside him as he begins his examination. I launched my deactivator spell the moment I hear his mount’s pounding hooves so the beast is back to struggling, emitting a constant whine.

“Please continue to hold it,” he mutters to me while laying his hands on the creature’s side. His eyes light up as he works a spell.

“How is he?” Cloud asks, hobbling over to us. Her wounds still haven’t quite closed but she only has eyes for her precious monster.

“It is not an infestation.” I don’t know if I voice my confusion but the mender briefly looks toward me. “There are creatures, too small to see. Despite their size, they are deadly. They live inside other creatures, destroying them from the inside out. Worse, they spread. An infestation must be found and eradicated quickly.” He turns back to the monster. “Luckily, we are not dealing with that but…something is wrong.”

“Can you fix it?” surprised by his worried frown. When I think of healers, I think of physical casters. I think of my wife and Geneva. Ailments are nothing before them. A wave of their hands and they can practically raise the dead. It’s a little shocking seeing normal healers.

“Child of the moon, you ask too much from this old man.” He chuckles self-depreciatingly. “This one has never achieved more than a journeyman rank amongst the menders. Purging the illness is beyond my abilities.” He opens his box, taking out a wooden bowl, a few herbs, a mortar, and a small container of water.

With deft hands, he places the herbs in the bowl and grinds them to paste before adding water. “However, this will cleanse the blood. Separate its jaws.”

“You want me to stick my hand in this thing’s mouth?” Disgusting.

“Lou.”

I look over to Cloud. She doesn’t say the word please but her eyes say enough.

“Dammit.” Grimacing at the drool coating my fingers, I pry open its mouth, ignoring the way its fangs dig into my fingers. The mender wastes no time in pouring in his concoction. It struggles but is forced to swallow. I force its mouth closed and wrap it in another hold. “What now?”

“With the pain eased, our brother will calm. Then will come the matter of finding the culprit behind his pain.”

“Before every communion, a mender observes both participants, ensuring they are of peak health.” Her pretty features twist into a scowl. “Someone has done this to him.”

I immediately think of the tender. Bell was right. “Has anyone seen the other tender?” I ask, glancing around. This’ll show me to doubt a succubus. There isn’t much light with only the standing torches. I don’t see him and something tells me that it’s not because he’s hidden by the crowd gathered along the Ring.

Cloud is also looking for him, her scowl deepening. “Faithless pest,” she hisses. She takes a heavy step as if she means to chase him down, but immediately hunches over with pain.

“You need to sit down,” I say sharply. “Tell me why he would do something like this.”

“This one has heard of tension between the Temple and the Breeders,” the mender says, taking out more herbs from his box. “The wind whispers of change, though Cloud should be able to say more than me.”

She winces. “Yes. Father has mentioned his annoyance with the Breeders. They forget what the Sanctuary is for and so we must remind them.”

“I heard something about this. You’re going for the grand tamer position.”

She looks at me with surprise as she nods. “You have good ears. The seat of the grand tamer is a farce. The Temple is the heart of the Sanctuary. So it is. So it shall be.”

“So it shall be,” the old mender echoed.

“Ha…what does, er, poisoning?” I get a nod from the mender. “Right. What does poisoning this guy have to do with your election?”

“The Temple’s priority is the children of the earth. Perhaps…they mean to simulate an infestation. Such would take many resources to quell. We would hardly care about making a point with the whole of the Sanctuary threatened.”

“Or perhaps it is a threat,” the mender adds. “One only those who take the earth’s treasures for granted could use.”

“If we can’t play with the toy, we’ll break it?” I muse aloud. “Sounds like this can get out of hand if we don’t take care of it quickly.”

“I don’t remember his face,” Cloud mutters.

“Here.” The mender lifts his bowl. "This will send him faster into slumber. Then we find the schemer. It is not too late to track him.”

“We don’t have time to find hounds that can track his scent and wandering aimlessly at night is dangerous.”

“What happened to being the apex predators?” I ask teasingly as I once again crack open the monster’s jaws. The mender hurriedly pours his new concoction down its throat. Its struggles, which already began to lag, drastically slow. I lay the monster down and it lets out a pathetic groan. Its eyes that shined with madness earlier are droopy with exhaustion.

“I’m injured.” If Cloud weren’t trying so hard to keep that tranquil façade, I feel she would be rolling her eyes.

“That you are. Well, I’ve helped this much, might as well help to the end.” I push to my feet, frowning in distaste the way my clothes, wet with blood, cling to me. I impatiently pull my shirt off, tossing it aside. Not shameless enough to ditch my pants unfortunately so I have to endure.

Cloud looks me up and down. “Impressive.”

I stand a little taller under her admiring gaze. “Yeah, well, I wrestle monsters too.” Hehe. “I’ll go see if I can find him. Don’t go anywhere.”

“Wait, Lou!”