1628, Earth Season, Fertility Week, Windday
Context
Near Aldu-Chur, in the Healers’ Camp after the battle. Berra is still very drunk. Her friends keep a watchful eye. Follows after Fuddled and Flirty and continues in Still Sozzled.
Post Epic battles lead to epic hangovers (Session Sartar Arc 2).
Events
Once Berra starts her tiny snores, Varanis reaches for Wind Tooth carefully. “It needs cleaning,” she tells Maalira. “I think it got sheathed bloodied.”1Varanis trying to take Berra’s sword… what could possibly go wrong?
Maalira nods. “The medicine I gave her should make sure that when she next wakes it will be with a clearer head, so she probably won’t destroy the tent looking for it.”
“My intention is to put it right back in her reach before then,” Varanis promises. “Neither the sword nor I will be leaving this tent without Berra. And woe betide anyone who tries to move Berra before we’re ready for her to go anywhere.” Something about her expression says that she will have no problems removing hands from anyone who tries to get at the Humakti.
Berra does not seem to notice Wind Tooth being taken. Nobody dies, and there is no screaming.
Varanis lays out the cleaning supplies she brought back with her. Gingerly, she sets the sword in its scabbard in front her. “Listen, Wind Tooth,” she mutters, “I’m not stealing you. I just want to clean you up, ok? Don’t blast me.” She offers a little prayer to Vinga and Orlanth, then places her hand on the hilt. “Not stealing you,” she tells the sword again.
Maalira makes a covert movement at her side. She might be checking her scrip for clean bandages.
“Once you’ve done that, I need to clean your wound again and replace the bandages,” Maalira tells Varanis firmly.
The sword does not blast Varanis. Neither does Berra. Humakt stays silent. Maybe the sword is just a weight of sculpted bronze?
Maalira lets her hand slide so it is resting just slightly in contact with Berra’s hand. It could be a gesture of affection, or it could be to provide early warning of an attack of Humakti-sword-ness…
Of course, in theory at least, Berra has another sword. In practice that is all the way over in the pile with her armour. But then, it’s a small ‘tent’, a sub-divided part of a bigger hospital area, out of the way of the now less chaotic bustle. A short distance away, exhausted healers are beginning to feel their magical energy return; all the better for healing patients. From about now, people lucky enough to have been brought in will be starting to get better, and through the night, teams will be patrolling the battlefield, saving whom they can. Stretcher-bearers will be working hard. Right on cue, as evening overtakes the world, a magical light goes on outside – the Yelmalio Regiment are said to save as many by providing that to the White Ladies as they do by their presence in the battle.2Those who say it may never have experienced the press of melee.
Outside, a woman’s voice asks if Berra Jarangsdottir is available – the guard turns her away.3Cult Lore Chalana Arroy at +25%, or intrigue: Guards on individuals, or on such small individual areas, are very rare. There is a guard outside here for a reason.
“They must be pretty concerned,” Maalira muses, “both to guard her and to send for her.”
A voice rises in song from the hospital, and the song is a magical one, bringing an end to pain – all the minor aches and bruises and cuts of the day cease to hurt. The words are in an ancient language, and the tune is a simple one, meant as a carrier for the magic. Even heartbreak and the misery of knowing one is at war are dulled and lessened, as a side effect of the song, although such things cannot fully be removed even by Chalana Arroy.
Wind Tooth, bringer of death, now gleams in the low light, having been cleaned meticulously. Setting to work on cleaning the scabbard next, Varanis says, “She summoned Harrek and he tore Jar-eel to pieces. She turned the tide of the battle completely. They all want her and I don’t know what she wants yet.”
The scabbard is tricky – Wind Tooth is leaf-shaped, and while that means a wide mouth, it also means that sticky blood got onto the wooden lining lower down, and that is hard to get out. However, at least it’s something to do.
There’s some frustrated muttering and a bit of swearing. “She’s going to need a new scabbard.”4BleysRex: You’re currently under the effects of Comfort Song, so no pain, Varanis!
Varanis: The swearing is about the scabbard. 😉
“You,” Maalira says pointedly, “need new bandages.”
Varanis shrugs. “No point until I can get clean, Maalira. Nothing hurts. Nothing is still bleeding. But I need a bath and clean clothes. My armour needs to be scoured and my padding probably needs burning. My boots… I don’t even want to consider what is squelching between my toes. And none of that is really possible right now. I’m not leaving this tent again until she’s awake and alert and capable of both making her own decisions and protecting herself.”
Maalira’s lips press into a line. “I have warm water, cloths and clean bandages. I’m not having Berra wake up and throttle me because I let your wound go green.”5Varanis: Would Varanis’ wound have been sealed by healers? I sort of assumed it was no longer particularly wound-like.
BleysRex: As I recall, you got First Aid and then Maalira healed you by magic, so it’s entirely possible she left you not fully healed (but bound up) so you could go out and fight and she could heal more people later. I think that’s what happened – she is changing the bandages on the First Aid. Not using all of your magic at once is important in the Field Hospital.
“Fine. As long as we do it here.” She sets the scabbard aside, having done what she for the moment. Wind Tooth does not get put back into it though. Instead, she lays the hilt near Berra’s hand, with the blade pointed away from the sleeping warrior. “Stay out of sword range, just in case?”6BleysRex: Maalira, can you do me an INTx3 please?
Amphelise: Oof just passed.
BleysRex: Your Purify spell works on surface dirt, and would clean the scabbard, once you have magic to spare. Of course, Berra might never stop giggling. I’m assuming you’re down to emergency magic points after a long day; tomorrow most people will end up healed enough that they will live, and then there will be some magical wounds and some people crippled, but that’s how a battle goes.
Maalira gives Varanis a crooked grin. “As though I am leaving her side either.” She grabs a jug of warm water and some cloths, and comes to stand beside Varanis. “Where would you like to sit?”
Berra says something in her sleep. Thankfully, it is muffled.
Maalira glances at Berra, eyebrows raised.
She’s asleep. Innocent. It was just coincidence.7Apparently, we really don’t want to know what she said.
Varanis says, “Do I have to move? I like this spot.” She’s cross legged on the grass, placed where she can keep an eye on both Berra and the tent flap. To get to Berra, someone would have to walk within the Vingan’s reach.
The shadows outside are at the wrong angle, with the light created by the Yelmalians shining like a sun from the battlefield. There must be several of them, for the light is diffuse now, and the shadows are multiple.
“No, just there is fine,” Maalira agrees. She sets to work easing off the old bandage, cleaning the wound and re-bandaging it. Her friend and patient is stoic about it, though she fidgets whenever Maalira blocks her line of sight.
Berra sleeps through that, with occasional twitches. However, a middle-aged woman does look in, sees the naked sword next to her, and tsks. “Oh dear…” She sounds not angry but disappointed.
“It stays.” Two words that offer no room for argument. Varanis glares at the intruder.
“It’s sharp, and in a patient’s bed,” the healer explains. Maalira gets ignored, pointedly.
“Have you met Berra? She’ll do more damage if she wakes and can’t find it. I’ll wrap the blade.” That’s as close to a concession as the Vingan is likely to give. Rising smoothly to her feet, she takes some of Maalira’s unused rags and reaches for the sword. “Be nice, Wind Tooth,” she tells it, ignoring both healers. “I’ll put you right back.”
The older woman rolls her eyes, tightens her lips, and leaves without an explosion.
Berra sleeps through it all, and Wind Tooth still kills nobody. “Thank you,” Varanis tells it, wrapping the blade and putting it back on the pallet with Berra. She returns to her vigil.
Berra’s sleeping pattern is: sleep this off now. She looks a little less floppy once she manages to reach for Wind Tooth again, and rolls at least partway onto her side.
Maalira settles herself cross-legged on the grass, avoiding the bit where soup has soaked into it. She drinks a bowl of vegetable broth then picks out the vegetables from the bottom of the bowl with her belt knife, before laying the bowl aside. With her hands on her knees, Maalira goes still. She is gazing at Berra but distantly, as though meditating.
Time passes; people get to go in and out, but finally Maalira is called for. “Dear? You’re needed back on the floor, at least for a bit.”8Translation: get out here and use the magic that’s in you to help people. Berra gets a look from the Arroin healer who glances in.9Insight: He disapproves of the drunkard.
Maalira focuses on the man gradually, then nods and rises. “Please, will you send someone for me when she wakes?” she asks Varanis. Without waiting for a reply, she follows the healer.
Continues in Still Sozzled.
- 1Varanis trying to take Berra’s sword… what could possibly go wrong?
- 2Those who say it may never have experienced the press of melee.
- 3Cult Lore Chalana Arroy at +25%, or intrigue: Guards on individuals, or on such small individual areas, are very rare. There is a guard outside here for a reason.
- 4BleysRex: You’re currently under the effects of Comfort Song, so no pain, Varanis!
Varanis: The swearing is about the scabbard. 😉 - 5Varanis: Would Varanis’ wound have been sealed by healers? I sort of assumed it was no longer particularly wound-like.
BleysRex: As I recall, you got First Aid and then Maalira healed you by magic, so it’s entirely possible she left you not fully healed (but bound up) so you could go out and fight and she could heal more people later. I think that’s what happened – she is changing the bandages on the First Aid. Not using all of your magic at once is important in the Field Hospital. - 6BleysRex: Maalira, can you do me an INTx3 please?
Amphelise: Oof just passed.
BleysRex: Your Purify spell works on surface dirt, and would clean the scabbard, once you have magic to spare. Of course, Berra might never stop giggling. I’m assuming you’re down to emergency magic points after a long day; tomorrow most people will end up healed enough that they will live, and then there will be some magical wounds and some people crippled, but that’s how a battle goes. - 7Apparently, we really don’t want to know what she said.
- 8Translation: get out here and use the magic that’s in you to help people.
- 9Insight: He disapproves of the drunkard.
