《Healer for Hire》


 Chapter 1 - The Job Agency

    ¡°Mister Killian Ubel?¡±


    Hearing my name I attempted to push away the veil of sleep and glance around the waiting room I am in only to be met with empty chairs. Hours earlier, it had been full of people waiting around; worried, nervous, excited, hungry and above all else impatient.


    Raising my gaze to meet the receptionist I give her a grin.


    ¡°Guess that must be me, huh¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know¡­ that annoying fly over there looks a lot like it could be a Killian¡± she retorts looking towards one flying perilously close to the brazier keeping the room bri-


    Oh. Maybe not. I guess it didn¡¯t feel close enough.


    ¡°What¡¯s the deal with the wait though Nadine?¡± looking out the window next to me, I notice the last rays of the sun¡¯s light, turning the clouds orange in the distance. ¡°I must have been here for a couple of hours. Where is everyone else?¡±


    ¡°Well technically, you should have been in to see Hank earlier but you were already asleep so we let others in first. All of them. We all know how little you sleep Killian, you need the rest¡± She said looking at me with concern. ¡°And it was really busy as well¡± was quietly added under her breath.


    ¡°I guess it was the most sleep I¡¯ve had all week¡± I grumbled in agreement. Honestly speaking the 6 hours I must have slept since I came in at lunch, might very well challenge for longest actual sleep this year.


    ¡°I swear; if you¡¯re not in here looking for a job, you¡¯re out there doing one. I swear you are going to work yourself to the grave one of these days¡± she said, chuckling. How nice it must be to find amusement in others pain I thought to myself.


    ¡°How do you plan to repay me if I can¡¯t find a job?¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry there¡¯s not many holy men other than you down here looking for work. They¡¯re all in the temples saying prayers, slaying demons and singing hymns whilst you¡¯re out here having to find work through the Guild. Can¡¯t your deity give you a job or something? Surely it¡¯s not that difficult for such a powerful being to do. Maybe you can finally be like the other Priests and sit in a temple on your ass all day.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ve told you once and I¡¯ll tell you again. Romni has no temples and more importantly, unless my sermon to that fishmonger worked, I am his only follower! And on second thoughts, I probably shouldn¡¯t be so proud of that¡­ But my point is if I sat in a temple all day, who would little miss Nadine and the oh so great Hank talk to?¡±


    ¡°Shut up and get your ass in there already¡± she chuckled ¡°We are closing up soon¡±


    As she made her way back behind her desk, I glanced at her butt tail. I guess that was kind of rude but the short cat girl was mesmerising from behind. Because of the tail of course, what sort of Priest do you take me for?


    Opening a door labelled ¡®Hank Pendril ¨C Job Support Worker¡¯ I walked up to a desk piled high with papers with a man in his 20s with thick rimmed glasses and messy brown hair scribbling on a paper with ferocious rage, his eyes screaming fury as a dark aura started to surround him. Ignoring the aura of wrath surrounding him, I took a seat in the leather chair in front of the desk which appeared to wake him from his frenzy. Pushing his glasses up his nose he placed his quill and ink to the side along with the document that he¡¯d been bullying.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Offering his hand to me a rather amiable voice came out ¡°Hello there Killian! Sorry for the wait, I had heard you were having a rather nice rest and felt wrong to wake a fellow worker from their well deserved slumber¡±


    Shaking his hand I replied ¡°You look like you could do with some rest yourself old friend, the bags under your eyes would make a merchant jealous!¡±


    For a moment he just stared at me processing my words. Then we both started to laugh.


    ¡°Oh Killian, you always make my day!¡±


    ¡°And I¡¯m hoping like usual, you¡¯ll make mine¡± I said the laughter dying off.


    ¡°Indeed I shall!¡± He announced moving from his chair to one of the many filing cabinets strewn about his office and started looking through one of the drawers. ¡°Now where did I put it..? Aha!¡± Pulling out a red folder with my name on it he brought it to the desk and after a bit of searching pulled out a sheet of paper handing it to me.


    As I began reading Hank explained to me. ¡°So earlier this morning a farmer came in to make a request of you specifically, said he¡¯d heard about you and decided you were the only one who could do this job for him.¡±


    ¡°Really? I¡¯m sure there would be someone from one of the temples willing to help him out¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what I thought, and they¡¯d be better too, no offence. But he was adamant it had to be you. Anyway, that¡¯s the job request form. He lives in a ranch north of Banth, wants you to meet him tomorrow. He¡¯s willing to pay quite a bit so I¡¯d say the jobs probably worth it but he¡¯s not defined what the job is so the Job Agency can¡¯t insure you for your health but we can ensure you¡¯ll get the money if you complete his task. Just sign at the bottom with your stamp and we can confirm that you have agreed to do the job¡±


    As soon as I see the payment on the request form I reach into my shirt and pull out the ring attached to my necklace. It was perhaps the only thing I owned of value but looking again at that paycheque to be, not for long. I place the sigil, an image of a hand ablaze, upon the contract and push my will onto the ring. For a moment runic circles appeared in an ethereal white glow, one after the other. Floating in the air above the ring and from nowhere a hand formed from embers came into being slamming downwards into the runes. As the embers made contact with each ring of runes they lit up then turned to a pale smoke until the flaming hand touched the last runes vanishing along with it.


    Lifting up the ring I just sighed, Hank was sighing too. ¡°They add a lot of unnecessary things to the soul stamp don¡¯t they¡± I lamented. The magic ring of parlour tricks had cost me quite a bit but it was a price worth paying. It meant that I could work as many jobs as I liked without the need to buy a stamp ever again. The normal ones required a special concoction, each one unique to an individual, made of it¡¯s owners blood and was only available to acquire form a Job Agency. The trick was that with the countless documents you had to sign to get work through the agency, you would have to keep coming back for more. Fortunately, there were soul stamps like mine which they offered solely to those who came often to the agency for freelance work and there was something similar for organisations which often try recruit workers through the agency as well. The soul stamp didn¡¯t need to be refilled and so it was a worthy investment for all the freelancers offered one.


    And naturally for such an important and useful item, it was flashy for no reason.


    After seeing the performance with the runes and the hand, I had begun to think that the reason they only offered it to members who use the service often is because they enjoyed making little personalised pieces for each of them. For example, the sigil on my ring is actually that I had designed to be used by followers of Romni when I finally find my blessed deity some. At first I was impressed, but overtime it dwelled on me just how much I had spent on this. It would save me money in the long run and meant I could get personal requests but, although I was nearing the time where it will mean I¡¯ve saved money, I can¡¯t help but feel like I was tricked into working for longer than I needed to. Oh well there¡¯s nothing I can do now and I¡¯ve already slept so I might as well make the most of tonight.


    ¡°Any jobs going for tonight Hank?¡±

 Chapter 2 - The Merchant

    I had experienced quite an intensive night waiting on at a restaurant. I was just doing my job and receiving orders from a table when, back in the kitchen, a clumsy kitchen hand tripped up, her fall lead her to knock into a chef just as he was cutting up some meat and he ended up cutting down upon the back of his hand and his wrist. Fortunately he didn¡¯t amputate himself but by the time I had got to the kitchen with the customers orders he had already lost quite a bit of blood and was looking rather pale.


    Thank Romni I had arrived when I did because he had lost consciousness shortly after I began healing him and had stopped the majority of the blood loss. If I had arrived later and he may very well have lost his life.


    A couple of guardsman came in as someone had gone to call for them and some of them had carried the chef away in the direction of the local ¡®Hospital¡¯. It was a building used to for accidents and emergencies like this and was ran by trainee practitioners of the healing arts as well as some more experienced mentors to guide them. The mentors would definitely be able to save the chef if his condition deteriorated any further. These Hospitals had only recently started appearing around the world and some of them charged very steep prices in areas which could barely afford it but they did good work and saved people who might otherwise have died.


    I had actually spent a few weeks at a different one in Banth, thinking I might be able to sleep in one of the patient beds if I was careful. I left soon after upon the discovery that there was no pay as the money donated from the city or the temples as well as the fees for medical care, all went towards keeping the equipment working, medicines in stock and paid for the teaching materials and specialist mentors.


    After cleaning up the mess made and being interviewed by a guardsman the restaurant got back to making delicious food in full force. You might think this is strange considering a man almost died before our eyes but there was an unspoken truth known throughout this industry; food means money and without that food being served no one here was going to get paid.


    When I finished up I got given a meal and thanked Romni for this gracious gift which could only have come from the heavens as I ate it. The young chef who gave it me seemed to blush when I said that and I chose not to explain to her that I hadn¡¯t eaten all day. Who knows, maybe she¡¯d give me free food again someday. Mmm free food~


    I had a few hours before I need to start walking to the ranch and so I decided to go and show my faith to my deity. With that in mind I grab my bag from the restaurants store room, it contained the majority of the personal belongings I didn¡¯t currently have on my person and still had quite a bit of spare room. That is rather depressing I thought to myself, then again, when you have nowhere to call home, it¡¯s always best to pack light. Most of the items in my bag were worth their weight in gold.


    Since I was worried I would be robbed if I kept all the money I had earnt from working on me, I had taken the initiative and gone out buying items which were small and easy to carry but were worth quite a bit of money. I had sewn gems on the insides of clothing, bought items which seemed like garbage to an untrained eye but held true value and I had also had a couple of stashes around the city and the surrounding area so that I wouldn¡¯t lose everything in the event I was mugged. All the items I had bought were also investments as I could sell it for more than I bought it as long as I kept an eye on their market value and made sure not to get cheated by some silver tongued merchant like I had when I first arrived in got my Soul Stamp. But to be fair I had never seen a magic bag similar to the one in my hands right now.


    It was a Bag of Holding the likes of which I had never seen. Now usually such bags are only realistically available to merchants and nobles, those who had money. But back then I was blind, unaware of the true value of money and it was something I had. I carried my coinage in my pouch, proud to hear each clink of metal upon metal as I walked around, not thinking that so could any experienced pickpocket or merchant (they are basically the same).


    I had just come out of the agency and I had thought that I should wear the soul stamp on my finger because after all, it was a ring and a beautiful one at that! I wasn¡¯t concentrating on my surroundings as I was preoccupied by the glint of the stamp in the sunlight when all of a sudden a man dressed in fine clothes ran up to me a smile on his face and a bag in his hand. He told me how he couldn¡¯t help but notice the soul stamp which adorned my finger. His words were like honey sweet and entrapping, with each breath he made I felt as though I¡¯d known him a year more. He spoke of how every freelancer of my calibre must have a bag of holding. They went hand in hand. Like armour of a knight or the bow of an archer. One never was without the other.If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Fooled by his words I was enticed further into his trap and when he asked me how much money I had and I fucking told him. ¡°78 gold coins exactly kind sir¡± I¡¯d said in such a chipper tone. What an idiot I was.


    He had replied ¡°Oh my friend so noble, that is not enough the value of this item is greater alas¡­ But wait! I know just the thing!¡± And from his own pack he pulled out a bag. But this one was nothing like the bag I had seen before. The first bag and the one he¡¯d pulled this from were bags of the finest silk, vibrant in colour and visibly firm with many pockets and straps to hold extra items. But this. This was a dirty thing. It was essentially a sack with a rope to tie the top. Why had my new friend brought this thing out? It was a dull brown and the material it was made of was worn so much I had struggled to realise it was leather at all.


    ¡°This my friend¡± said that serpent with a smile ¡°Is a bag of holding I obtained this very morning from an auction at the morgue. It used to belong to an adventurer and had served him well but it is such an old thing, it won¡¯t sell for as much as this one¡± he said holding up the comparatively shiny bag before my face before putting it into his own, disappearing forever. ¡°So I¡¯ll sell it to you for 75G and you get to walk away with your very own bag of holding! It¡¯s a great deal! Honestly I¡¯m putting myself at a loss but for you my friend, I don¡¯t mind¡±


    ¡°Really! Thank you so much dear friend! Here take my pouch!¡±


    Yes. That''s right. I gave him it all. Foolish.


    ¡°Oh that''s too much my friend here this is your change¡± he said handing me 1 gold coin. (For those of you who can''t do basic maths that''s less than I should have got back.)


    Pocketing the coin I reached out to shake the man''s hand. ¡°Thank you for everything friend! I will remember this moment for the rest of my life, what is your name dear sir?¡±


    ¡°I''m sure you won''t ever forget it¡± he said smirking. Then as he licked his lips momentarily I saw it. His tongue was quite literally silver. In my surprise I almost missed him speak ¡°-our friendship shall never die! But it is late my friend and I truly must retire to take care of some¡­ business¡± he said awkwardly, swaying from one foot to the other.


    Realising he needed to relieve himself I pulled back my hand and instead waved him away. ¡°So long friend, may we meet again soon!¡±


    Laughing merrily he waved back at me a walked out of the market square I was standing in. It was a place for merchants in Banth to trade and sell their wares and countless stalls were set up to do just so.


    But currently they weren''t.


    No. Every merchant in the nearby vicinity was watching my friend go. A bit embarrassed I felt my face flush. Maybe I had shouted a bit loud to him in the middle of public and caught people''s attention.


    He was after all a Merchant with a silver tongue.


    Then the oddest thing happened. A merchant for a stall selling potions started clapping slowly. Then the one with an assortment of jewellery did to. Then an magical equipment merchant who was crying started to slowly clap.


    One by one all the merchants in the areas began to clap. Customers were looking around confused at the thunderous roar of applause and merchants were looking towards were my friend left and at me!?


    As the clapping died down the magical equipment merchant came over to me, tears still in his eyes.


    ¡°Boy¡± his voice crept out between his sobbing ¡°Do you have any idea what just happened?¡±


    ¡°Umm I made a friend? Why was everyone clapping just now?¡±


    The merchant sighed, his voice turning weary ¡°Ahh¡­ how do I say this¡­ a few minutes ago I asked that ''friend¡¯ of yours how he got his silver tongue and he told me that he¡¯d show me¡±


    I looked at the geezer confused. He sighed once more and explained ¡°a silver tongue is a display of a merchants ability boy. One has to make a huge profit to earn the right to have one. Silver doesn''t move on it''s own after all.¡± He turned towards the direction of his stall and pointed at the bags outside it. ¡°Boy to put this simply those bags there on my shop are bags of holding and a brand new¡± they sure were colourful ¡°They are worth 20G.¡±


    And with that he pat me on the shoulder and walked back to his stall.


    For a second I was confused but then it all clicked together. And I thought solemnly to myself.


    Oh shit.