Prologue IV

"Nina, how is he doing?" The old man asked his daughter.

She shook her head, "Not good, his arms and legs are full of bruises. Luckily his ribs seem fine."

"Any chance he will wake up soon?"

"Doubt it, not with how malnourished he seems. Two days is my guess. If we reached that point and he failed to wake up, will have to force food down his throat with a tube." She sat on the chair with a thud. Staring at the flames in the fire pit, she smiled.

"But, to his credit. What little muscle he has are damn hard, I bet he can pack a punch." She waved with her hand.

"Were you treating or playing with him?" Her father glared at her.

"Come on father, I do my job as I'm supposed to. How am I going to know my patience endurance if I don't inspect them? They could die if I don't do that." She gave him a smug smile.

"I said we should buy the appraisal rune, which would solve it." Her father gave her a dubious look.

"And I told that a cost I don't intend to pay, a whole ten gold coins for it? Is the church kidding? I won't pay more than one, even if it's the last rune on the island." She growled.

"You know the church doesn't like us, since the expedition." He said with a sore face.

"They can go do it themselves, who want to get to the lower ground. It's riddled with monsters and death. On top of that, they enlisted every fine man in the village." She growled, her face red and about to burst.

"I know. No one returns from expeditions and if we sent all our men, we would die of starvation in the winter." He said with a sad face, "But since we refused to comply, they started ignoring us since."

"How long was it now? Twenty years? We won't have survived if not for the old man up the hill." She said, "But he somewhat gave me the creep, could never feel comfortable around him."

"Don't talk about Galmond the hero like that. You said it yourself, he is our saver. If not for him working hard, the chains would have snapped and the whole island would have been on the ground." Her father stood growling, he then stared at her, "Some mages have that weird feeling around them. Galmond is a good guy."

Nina stood up, "I will go to sleep. It's already late. See you tomorrow." Yawning, she waved to her father and went up the wooden stairs.

…

The next morning quickly came, Nina woke up way before her father as she needed to tend to the young man.

As her father woke up and walked down the stairs, he saw her sitting at the breakfast table with food ready.

"You had time?" He asked. Usually, when they have a patient, she tends to them while he takes care of cooking and cleaning.

"Already cleaned and checked his condition, he is recovering faster than I expected." She said sipping her drink.

"How fast are we talking?" She rarely complimented a patient like that, most of the time she call them weak despite their appearance.

"Like a lot, his bruises have reduced by half, I don't feel his cracked bones and his breathing is stable. Never seen such a person before, as if he was used to harsh conditions. Talking about it, his hands were damn hard, even my knife couldn't cut his palm." She smiled.

"You tried to cut his hand?" Her father yelled.

"Don't worry, don't worry. I know what I'm doing, even if I can't do miracles. IGNITE!" She pointed her finger at the aromatic green drink she was having. A small burst of flames, akin to a candle flame emerged from the tip of her finger.

The drink started to bubble after a few moments, "This is all I can do, nothing impressive but it saves us a few copper coins."

"So you think he has an ability?" Her father asked with a worried face.

"Most likely, people with powerful abilities tend to recover faster than normal. And judging by how fast he recovered, I would say he has a powerful one." She smiled, "This is my chance, and if he is somewhat related to that old man, I'm set if I got my hands on him."

"You said that with each patient, I'm not letting you get married on a whim like this. You need to think it over carefully." Her father sat at the table.

"You're right, but I don't care. See you in the evening." She stood up and carried her bag.

"Don't overwork yourself," He said watching her leave.

After eating his breakfast, he stood up. "Time I got back to the field," He grabbed the hoe from the door side and headed out.

…

Nina was walking down the dirt road heading to the village center yawning.

"Hey Nina, can I get a reservation today?" A woman that was washing a pile of dirty clothes by the riverside called her.

"How should I know? Haven't reached the clinic yet." She said giving her an exhausted look.

"But I'm really in pain, can't you make it possible?" The woman said with a smile.

"You don't seem in pain. People who need urgent care come to the clinic without reservation." Nina replied, "What is your problem anyway?"

"Smashed my finger with the hammer when I was hammering the olive to salt it. My fingernail seems to be peeling off." The woman lifted her hand from the water. Her thumb was completely blue.

"Hold up!" Nina leaped immediately toward her, "You old hag, do you want me to cut off? Come right now to the clinic!" She yelled.

"But I need to wash the clothes first…" The woman said looking at the pile beside her.

"James! Come drag your mother to my clinic right now!" Nina yelled staring at the woman's house.

"Who's it, Nina? But…" A young man started from the window, a rock immediately smacked him in the head.

Nina grabbed another stone and threw it at him, "Get out you lazy bastard, Bring your mother to my clinic right now!"

"I will rush ahead and get everything ready, come as quickly as you can. Otherwise, say goodbye to your finger." Nina waved to her and rushed toward the village.

"Hey, Nina…"

"Later!" She didn't even stop to greet anyone else, work was awaiting.

At the end of the day, "Here's your payment," James handed Nina thirty copper coins for fixing his mother's finger.

"Thank you, take care of your mother." She accepted the money with a smile, and then BAN! Smacked him in the face with the broom beside her desk.

"Why did you hit me?" He cried.

"Told you to bring her as fast as possible. Why the hell didn't you two show up until noon?" She growled at him, "I could barely fix it, you know? Even the church will charge a gold coin for a healing miracle."

"But we…" Before he could finish, Nina kicked him out the door.

"Don't care, next time bring her immediately!" She yelled.

…

After a few minutes and when she was getting ready to go home, she heard a knocking at the door.

When she opened it up, a priest was standing there with a smile.