Chapter 15: Fixing things

Edwin and Hadrian went from apartment building to apartment building. From house to house. And they healed everyone they could. There were only one hundred blood roots in the herbal shop, it appeared that the healer had bought the entire stock on the cheap and had horded them as his fellow town's people died around him.

That made both Edwin and Hadrian fume with rage. The healer had left town, though. If it hadn't been for this morning's delivery, there wouldn't have been any blood root for the people of Orc's Rest Town.

But it wasn't just the coughing sickness that took victims in the town. Dysentery too ran rampant. There were ready-made pills for that, but the problem was that the people who had dysentery couldn't afford them.

So, Edwin and Hadrian had used the prize money for the blood root cure and had gotten pills for as many as they could. Fever reducers and mana filters for the sick.

Dysentery usually got better on its own in 3 to 7 days, treatment not needed in all but the worst cases. But the sick were drinking dirty water and their condition hadn't improved.

Edwin had mistaken the first case of dysentery he had encountered in the town for the coughing sickness, and so treated it accordingly. Until, the patient's wife had asked him if it was ok for her husband to have bloody diarrhea.

Then the patient admitted to having belly cramps as well, and Edwin had rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He should have asked if the man coughed before treating him for something, he was not sick of.

At least he had realized his mistake before he had given the man the blood root sludge. Vomiting would have worsened the dysentery, not that it wasn't a part of the sickness already. But he had to avoid inducing it, if at all possible.

Then there was another unrelated accident to the sickness. A builder had broken his arm in three places. Edwin had nothing for a cast, so, after he had used Hadrian's mana to put the fractures on the mend, he had made the man a sling out of cloth.

Just as Edwin was beginning to relax, a child had an asthma attack right in front of him. Which made Edwin panic. He was not good with something that had a small-time frame to be fixed.

Then Hadrian, seeing as Edwin just stared at the child, pale as a sheet, slapped both of Edwin's cheeks and pointed at the boy.

"You have studied for this. Now, do something, Eddy!" Hadrian had said urgently.

Right, thought Edwin as he snapped out of it, asthma attack. What did he know of it? The airways become smaller and, darn it all, he was not doing a test in the academy. He needed to act. He looked at Hadrian and pointed at the boy.

"Ok, start pouring mana in him, I will expand his airways. But first, we need him to stand straight," Edwin said, and he righted the boy, so he was sitting mostly straight, even though he was hunched over slightly and whizzing.

Hadrian placed his hand over the boy's chest and Edwin began to move the mana around the airways, gently expanding them. A minute passed, then another, and the boy's breathing calmed.

The child's parents rushed to hug him and pull him back. The boy smiled at Edwin and spoke.

"Thank you for saving me, sir."

"You are welcome. Stay away from things you are allergic to. Take your medication daily. Where is your inhalator?" Edwin asked, his tone scolding at the end.

"Ran out. We were going to the herbal store for a new one, but then I fell," the boy said, his smile not leaving his face.

Well, then it wasn't the boy's or his parents' fault, Edwin supposed. The father of the child approached Edwin and handed him a coin.

"Accept this, healer. It will bring you luck," and then the family of three were off to the herbal store before Edwin could protest.

Hadrian looked at the coin and whistled.

"A wish coin, eh? What are you going to wish for, Eddy?"

Edwin looked down at the coin. Those were powerful magical artifacts, but they were good for small things. A coin was good for one wish.

"I wish for faster blood root deliveries to all the herbal stores in the country," Edwin said, and the coin disappeared.

"Right, next patient."

Then he heard a wet splash and saw a pregnant woman hold her stomach, her face twisted in pain.

"Oh, shit," Edwin said as the woman glared at him. Healers were not allowed to deliver babies while they were in the academy. They practiced on golems and dolls. Edwin had never had luck with those. Either the cord would strangle the child, or it would come feet first and suffocate in the womb.

"You have to deliver my baby," the woman said, as she fell on one knee, the contractions too painful for her to remain standing. "The town's healer ran off."

"Are there no midwives in town?" Edwin tried. He had never done this before with any success. If he botched this up, he could lose two lives. And the woman's hips were so narrow. Come to think of it, she didn't look like a woman at all.

"How old are you, miss?" asked Edwin. The woman, no, girl, answered him and dread pooled in his stomach.

"Fifteen."

"Well, shit. Bloody armadillo in a barn fire. That sounds like an operation. The golems died with the dolls after an operation. What am I…?"

Hadrian sighed and shook Edwin violently.

"What are you?" asked the vampire. For a moment, Edwin thought that Hadrian was the only being in the wide street. Everyone else was a blur. What had Professor Nari said about panic attacks? Deep breaths, count to ten, deep breaths.

"A hedge healer," Edwin said after his breathing evened out.

"And what is the difference between hedge healers and healers?" asked Hadrian slowly.

"We heal everyone. I will have to cut her open, Hadrian. Her hips are too narrow," Edwin forced his breathing to calm again. The girl looked at him with something akin to fear now. It wasn't professional for a healer to panic in front of a patient. What if the birth quickened because of him making the expecting mother fearful?

"You will cut her open and I will be there to assist you, Eddy. We are going to deliver a healthy baby, and it will make us deaf with its crying. And mama will be fine too. I trust in you," Hadrian said with a calming smile on his face.

Hadrian should have become a politician instead of a thief, Edwin thought as his breathing finally became effortless. Not that there was much of a difference in the two occupations.

With his effortless ability to calm anyone, he would have led the masses by the nose. Now, to find a clean place to act as a birthing chamber. And to begin doing the most complicated thing Edwin has ever tried.

The bringing of a new life in the world.