This is still a story of the Becoming Monsters series, by Ai Loves, setting used with permission. All canonical and mechanical errors are my own. The yarrb is the creation of FelisRandomis, used with permission.
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Chapter 11: Bargains and Prices
In the end, she showed up almost exactly twelve minutes later. No idea how Nurse Johnson could locate us that quickly from the unbelievably brief description I had given, but I'd take it. She spotted my waving hand and came to examine those who really needed it. As she closed in, she dropped the pretense of her human form, sprouting fur and her three tails now that her concentration would be needed elsewhere.
Whitney was in the most serious trouble here. "Get her next to a tree with a low branch, now!" I jumped to it, picking her up to carefully move her injured form as we rapidly exchanged information about her. Spotting someone she thought was avian and being corrected that she was demonic threw Emily for a loop, but to give her credit she adapted.
"Whitney is a Karackt Demon, full on Wrath Hunger. She is a Berserker with Regenerate, fueled by food, but is critically low on usable resources. She was struck by acid claws and didn't tell me she was approaching collapse until she hit the floor."
"Food fuel? Why did you call me at home for something that can be solved by a loaded baked potato? Never mind, let's get her stable." She quickly hung an IV bag from the low branch, got her saline lock and stick, wrapped and secured. Afterwards, she pulled something that almost looked like a bottle of soy sauce out of her bag, then used a syringe to inject it into a side port on the IV. "Nutrient mix. Not a long-term deal, but we use it to stabilize starvation victims until we can get them to eat real food."
"Sounds about right, here. Can't chow down on turkey when the fastest you can consume things is individual lemonade droplets on the lip."
"Ah, so you
have
done this before. That'll save some time. And what is up with her arm?"
"She was arm wrestling an Ogre who insulted her honor." The nurse facepalmed. "What? We weren't expecting to fight a greater demon."
"Not helping. Okay, who needs help next?" I pointed at the Hispanic girl. "Alright, need the info."
"She got downed by the same thing I came to help you with at the Curse Annex. Demon as well, Babau Race, but I don't know her Hunger type. She's middling on her stores there, should be fine for today. Has not been conscious to give information."
"Alright, there's a lot to unpack. She's obviously malnourished as well, we can get her started on the same solution. Going to empty my stock pretty fast if we have to keep it up." She was good, almost before she finished the sentence she was done getting another IV hung and inserted. "Once we have the rest checked out, get the scan done?"
"We aren't in the hospital, Nurse Johnson. I need consent or an emergency."
She sighed. "Fine. She's done, what about the others?" Her gaze landed on my Enchanter and our familiar.
"Sarah and Nibbles..."
She laughed at that. "Sorry, but I would not have guessed in a million years that you'd have a yarrb named NIBBLES."
"... anyway, Nibbles got hit by a similar curse, and I had to apply a Status-based sleep effect to keep him from attacking. Sarah got caught in the blast radius, both went out like a light about 20 minutes ago and show no sign of waking yet. I might have overdone it a bit."
"20 minutes is nothing as long as both are breathing, and they are. If they are still snoozing tomorrow morning, we can check for anything more serious. What about you?"
It took me a second to catch up. "Uh... what about me?"
"You also participated in the fight, and I can see that you took some hits on your shield and mail. Take that stuff off and let me give you a check."
Oddly determined. "I..."
"Save it," she interrupted. "You're about to try to tell me you're fine, when I can plainly see otherwise. Now strip."
I complied, starting with my mail shirt and the cloth underneath. I stopped there, until she raised one eyebrow at me. Off went my boots and reinforced pants, until I was in my underwear and nothing else. "Better?"
She smirked. "Much. Now, I last saw you a bit over a week ago. At least, last saw you
professionally
then. How much trouble have you been in since then?"
"Uh... you have a note pad and some popcorn?"
The eyebrow raised again. "We have time to kill while we wait for them to recover and your wife to get back. Try me."
So I did. The scorpion. The Karackt. The skeletons. The Gaaku. The abduction. The training match. The duel. The Babau. I knew I was forgetting some of it, but it was easy to lose track.
She stopped writing before I was halfway through detailing my scraps and injuries. "How are you even alive? I didn't hear any major healing in there."
"I possess a Regeneration class ability similar to Whitney's." I didn't mention why it was so similar. She did not need to know. "Recent acquisition since I hit Level eight, been getting some serious work on grinding its ranks."
"I... see. Before we go any further, we need to talk price."
My mouth dried. "Price? Nurse Johnson..."
"Emily, please. I'm not at the hospital, am I?"
"Emily. We are not precisely rich people, and I know what this would normally cost." I was rapidly going through our recent deposits and assets in my head, what we could offer as a service.
"You are thinking the wrong way. Reject my deal, and I'll skip seeing to you then demand money. I want something more valuable than gold and paper."
I should have known. Favors were not a hard currency. For some, satisfying some curiosity was enough. For others, especially among the Demonics, extracting obscure worth could be a matter of life and death. Whatever she had in mind, it was about to be extraordinarily significant in some way. I swallowed, hard. "What are you thinking of?"
"I see what you have built, here. I have been watching you, Jeremiah Kithkin."
"You have
no idea
how often I've heard that the past few days."
"These ladies all love you, after their own fashion. Even your pet. I think you love them, too. Not like your wife, but it goes well beyond a mere Guild oath." Her three tails were thrashing, the tan fur at their tips glowing with power. "My price is this: I want in. Bring me into your Guild, into this life you have made. I want to share in that joy, that devotion, that love."
I stared at her, jaw grimly set. "We need to talk about what you are asking for, because there is no possible way you know exactly what your request entails."
"You are not the only demon with baggage here. I know the life will not be an easy one. I can see your scars, the bullets to your wing and shoulder, the blunt trauma to your head, the stress fractures in your shin, the broken and mending ribs and arm. I am no coward. That will not deter me."
"I cannot declare that unilaterally. All I can promise is a chance. This is my offer to you, should you accept it. I will present you to my guild for approval. I will ask my wife for her permission. You will need to earn your licenses, and work with us. If and only if you can do all of this will I be able to give you what you ask, but if you do then I will swear unto you that, as a member of my Guild, you will be integral and valued as both a person and a Delver. I can't conjure love for you. You have to earn that. Will that be good enough to uphold my end of this bargain?"
She stood and stared at me as she thought through what I said. Her tails still thrashed, with a speed that turned them nearly to a blur, the glowing tips drawing intricate patterns in the air behind her. My heart was pounding at a million miles an hour. My words had been chosen with obsessive care, so as not to accidentally accept outright. I could only hope they were enough.
"Even as you are, standing nearly nude in front of a shapeshifter, a deal-making demon, with the possibility of lives at stake, you can come through with that. It is this that I want, Jeremiah Kithkin. This devotion. This power. All this on top of being the best lover I've ever had. I accept your terms." Her tails stopped their motion, but the lines behind them remained. A complex sigil of woven light hung there. The three lines flowed together into a knot, making it impossible to track any one of them individually. It faded fast. My heart rate did not lower that quickly. Whatever had just happened, it was reinforced magically.
I shivered, only partially because I was in my underwear in the crisp breeze.
She strode over and laid me on my back, going wound by wound. Her hands did something I could not easily see, but where they passed my injuries felt lessened. Like they had the time I so desperately needed. As each faded this way, others came into sharper focus. The sheer background noise of it all had been paradoxically making everything feel like it was hurting less. As it went, I saw the look on Emily's face grow more and more strained.
"What are you doing?"
"I am not just a Kitsune. My class is Hengeyokai, and we have some very specific abilities. While I cannot rid you of your injuries, I can move them. I can borrow the pain, bear a part of the burden while your body catches up." She focused a bit, the glow returning to her tails. Her breathing eased. "My command of healing magics mostly work on myself. Tips the scales bit by bit."
"Seems useful." The sudden reduction of pain was as shocking and frankly exhausting as receiving the injuries originally had been. She seemed done with me, moving back to Whitney and the victim. I got dressed again, no sense shivering.
In the end, it was Whitney who woke first, disoriented and with a growling belly, about a half hour after that. "What... okay, why am I laying under a tree with an IV bag in, and why do I feel so freaking hungry?"
