"I didn't think to mention it to you, my lord." Penelope mumbled.
"And why is that?" Kion requested.
"Because…because its completely normal to encounter people of different races in Styria. I thought you wouldn't care much that he was an elf, considering that no one usually does."
Kion slowly began to realise the way Penelope talked, like a mouse trapped in a corner, scared for that its life may be cut short at any instant. It was the same way she had talked to him when he'd first met her, like she was beneath him.
Like she was a slave.
He knew she had been worried, but he didn't know how to respond to her, or to anyone. She must had gone back to her default nature after he gave her the cold shoulder.
"Look, I'm sorry if I came off as harsh." Kion said, causing Penelope's eyes to light up.
"That fight took a lot out of me and, I was just trying to have my own space, to recharge and reflect, you understand?"
Penelope nodded.
"That won't happen again." He promised. "That's my word to you."
Kion's hand rubbed her shoulder, trying to add some action to his reassuring words. All she could feel was the tingling sensation that came from where his calloused fingers met her shoulders.
"I understand, my lord," she said with a gentle, composed tone this time, "I was only concerned for you, that's all."
Kion nodded. "I'm better now, thank you."
"Why don't we go see our guest and what he can do about your situation," she turned to Kai, "moreso your brother's"
The replenish-mancer was the most impish elf Kion had ever seen, even though he had only come across one in his life.
Regardless, Tyril would completely dwarf this person that was supposed to be considered his species. The elf stood at about three haystacks tall, barely higher than Kion's longsword.
He had a face that was stuck between young and old, grey hairs sprouting from his widow's mite. His face was quite mundane, but that was where anyone would have thought him young, with his chubby cheeks and star-like eyes, he looked like a curious child learning about the world for the first time.
"What ya staring at? Never seen an elf cursed with dwarfism before?" The elf said with a strangely high pitched voice.
"I have seen no elves before actually." Kion said.
"Well this would be a hit first impression then." He said in a grumpy tone. He looked Kion head to toe, as if finally noticing the wounds and casts that covered his body.
"What did ya run into, lad? You definitely didn't call me just for a few flesh wounds and broken bones, did you?"
Penelope noticed the rude manner with which the impish elf talked to Kion. Knowing her master's patience usually quickly ran thin, she decided it best to step in.
"Umm. These are no minor wounds, Gartium. The prince sustained this injuries while on a quest to kill a great beast. In fact, these are its remains…" Penelope showed his the bag filled with dry egovore sticks.
Gartium grunted, clearly unimpressed. Kion face-palmed. How was that ever going to convince anyone that he'd slain something precious, something worth the elf's time to heal, since it seemed that he fancied a challenge.
"I'll tak it from here, Pen." Kion said as he turned to Gartium.
"Gartium, what I battled against was an egovore, and not just any kind, an SSS-class dominant mind-eating monster."
The reaction he'd gotten was priceless.
Gartium's eyes widened. Penelope covered her mouth in shock.
"And you survived?" Gartium asked, his voice laced with doubt.
"Of course, although we did take quite the blow." He gestured to his brother, still unconscious.
Gartium walked over to the pile of sticks and sniffed them, almost like he was checking for something. He paused for while after taking in the wood's scent.
Slowly, he turned.
"You're not lying. I don't know if you're stupid, crazy, or both." He said with a new unmistakable hint of awe in his tone.
"Do you think this will be a worthy challenge for your skills?"
"All I see are flesh wounds—" Gartium suddenly stopped, peering at Kion's forehead as if he could see something that others couldn't.
His eyes widened.
"Ahhh, it's spreading," he glanced at Kai, "in him too." You somehow managed to slow it down but it's still finding its way through you."
"Come." He motioned Kion, as well as the soldiers that surrounded Kai's stretcher.
They went a bit further from the caravan, to a spot between two tall trees.
"Sit." Gartium ordered, and Kion did as he was told.
"I find it crazy that you were hit by the pink mist of an SSS class Egovore and weren't immediately killed. You and your brother must have some sort of strong mental resilience." Gartium said as he quickly got to work, unveiling his tools: a healing salve, some fresh bandages, a strange pink potion, and some other enchanted bits and bobs that Kion couldn't make any sense of.
Meanwhile, Gartium's hands moved like magic. Within seconds, he dismantled Kion's arm cast, rubbing on his arm with the salve until it was completely doused. When he was done, he held the arm up in the air, placing his hands on the areas of cracked bone.
"This might hurt a bit."
[Mend]
He pressed, and Kion felt multiple jolts of pain as all the fractured pieces of bone in his arm snapped back into their original positions. It was painful only in that instant, as in the next moment, Kion felt relief.
"That's a handy one." Kion said, as Gartium began to dabble white powered in his wounds and scars.
"Yes it is." Gartium smiled. "Those foolish medics didn't know what they were doing. You were lucky to even have someone like me tend to you."
"Someone like you?" Kion asked.
"A warrior under the body-mancy catergory." Gartium added.
"You talk as if it is that a problem." Kion said.
The elf suddenly stopped what he was doing and took a good look at the prince.
"One of your ancestors banished my people from the kingdom. He considered us too dangerous, too out of control, so he exiled us. The ones who remained were slaughtered, or kept deep in dungeons to rot. Only a handful of us remained, but we went into hiding, myself included.
That was centuries ago, and I've gone under the radar since, but here I am, healing his progeny." Gartium finished with the white powder.
[Mend]
All at once, Kion felt his wounds dry up and close, the flesh knitting itself together like a woven tapestry.
"But you're a replenish-mancer. Why would they ever banish you?" Kion asked, slightly confused.
"Ask your power-hungry ancestor." Gartium clapped back. "At the moment, he had ordered for all the mancers within body-mancy to up and leave his precious kingdom. And he didn't care who that included, whether good or bad."
Kion knew that he must've been speaking about a certain Hanso Everglade. He had read a little of his conquests and stringent rules, how the king ruled with an iron fist and birthed a golden age due to his ruthlessness.
Nevertheless, Kion hadn't expected replenish-mancers to be forced into hiding, given they were the most useful out of all the body-mancers. The other ones, like blood-mancy,were just too dangerous to be left unchecked.
"I'm sorry that had to happen. But I have to ask, what brought you out of hiding?" Kion said.
"Well, times have changed, lad. The laws stil stand, but are less stringent. If they weren't, your soldiers would cut me up the moment they saw me, but they didn't. They knew that I was here to save their prince," Gartium used [Mend] on Kion's ribs without warning, causing him to momentarily lose breath, "in the end, that mattered more than some silly old rule."
"Anyway, I'm sure I'm almost done with you. Now for the real challenge: to expel that mist before it breaks your mind and drives you to madness or kills you."