Orrin started laughing. The absurdity of the situation was too much.

Amir stepped closer and put his hands together. “Please, take me as your student. I’ll leave the Hospital. I’ll place my points however you recommend. I want to help people like you do.”

Orrin felt the wall hit his back. He hadn’t noticed backing away from the young man as he pressed closer.

“Listen man, I’m sorry to tell you but I have no idea what I’d even teach you. I’ve just got a lot of mana. You’re already in the Hospital. Just let them teach you.” Orrin looked over his shoulder. “And maybe find some better friends.”

Amir’s shoulders slumped and his head hung low. “Thank you for stopping them. I think the Teachers will suspend me soon and the protections I had will be gone.”

Orrin wanted to walk away, but he’d seen that look before...on himself. “Hey, why would they suspend you? You’re an acolyte right?”

Amir shrugged. “I was a [Healer Acolyte] but I was demoted for helping before I was given clearance.”

Orrin scanned Amir and saw his class had changed to [Healer Initiate].

“Wait, what? They can change your class?” Orrin had never heard of that. “I thought the Hospital just helped you gain the class. How do they do that?”

Amir crossed his arms and rubbed them. Orrin realized it was chilly out and Amir’s dirtied and ripped white robe had lost a sleeve. He pulled a blanket out of his [Dimension Hole] and handed it over.

Amir pulled it over his shoulders and thanked him. “After the invisible healer...you...healed all those people, my teacher was angry. The Principal was angry. I had already broken one of the tenets set by the Hospital, so I was punished.”

Amir raised a hand to his neck. “I was shown True Pain for two days for my failure to follow orders. I thought that would be it but then the city began whispering about you and what you did. They came a week ago and took my healing away.”

Orrin was pissed. He’d already had a pretty bad image of the Hospital from the research he and Daniel had done. This was something darker. Amir was describing torture and holding people back from actually helping.

“How do they take away your healing?”

Amir frowned. “What do you mean? They took away my amulet.”

It was Orrin’s turn to frown. “What amulet?”

Amir’s face moved from confusion, to surprise, to elation. “You’re not from another healer group, are you? You’re a natural [Healer]! There are rumors, but I’ve never met one.”

Orrin realized they were still standing in the middle of an alley a few hundred yards from the Hospital. “I’m not...whatever that is but we shouldn’t keep talking out here. Those idiots might come back.”

Amir nodded his head and pointed down the street. “We can go to my da’s café. It’s only a short walk.”

Orrin perked up. “Café? Like with coffee?”

Amir lit up. “Do you like coffee?”

Amir’s father had located a small shop at the end of a street that Amir described as full of lawyers, officials, and bureaucrats. “The type of people who always need a good pick-me-up.”

The shop itself had two small tables outside and a window to order from. Amir used a key to open the side door and practically pushed Orrin into a chair inside.

The interior was as tiny as it looked from the outside. Behind the small closed window was an elaborate contraption of silvered pipes and large glass jars of different sized coffee beans. A small tray sat next to the window. “For pastries.”

The rest of the small room was filled with bags of different beans and sugar. A single chair rested behind the door, which Orrin was currently sitting in.

Amir came alive as he twisted nobs and filled hoppers. He explained to an interested Orrin what each pipe did and even pointed out the different types of coffee.

“This one is from a tiny village in Odrana that all other beans are said to originate from. This one is from the Elven forest, which nobody knows how they actually grow. The climate there is all wrong. We’ve got a variety from Odrana and a few from Veskar. The difference is really in the notes you get. Odrana coffee is usually more nutty and fruity. Veskarian coffee has more citrus and floral notes.”

Orrin let the man work his nervous energy off. He’d been accosted, saved, and found himself face to face with the legendary invisible healer! What a shitty superhero name.

Amir turned knobs and water fell from one pipe into a metal container. He placed it on a small stove device. While the flames licked the metal and heated the water, he put a handful of beans into a mortar.

“This is Odrana coffee but it’s actually a newer bean. It isn’t as strong as some of the others but has a beautiful smoothness. It’s my favorite and my da always keeps some on hand in case I’m having a rough week.”

He used a small filter in an inverted triangle holder and poured the ground-up beans, then the water on top. Orrin watched the barista work in silence.

A few minutes later, Amir handed Orrin a small, plain cup. “Cream? Sugar?”

Orrin shook his head and sipped.

Orrin had a lot of amazing moments since landing in Asmea. He’d learned magic, fought monsters, and met some cool people.

“Mmm.”

The coffee was hot and smooth, just as Amir had said. The flavor had some spice and nutty undertones but kicked in a little chocolate towards the end. Every moment so far paled in comparison to the first cup of coffee made by someone who didn’t mangle the process.

“You like?” A hopeful Amir rolled forward and backward on the balls of his feet.

“Amir. If I had anything to teach you, I would just for this cup of coffee.”

Amir grinned. “I’m glad you enjoy it.”

Orrin slurped up some more. “Ok. So now that we’re not standing outside the stronghold of the crazies who tried to beat you up...Tell me about the amulet?”

Amir leaned against the wall, planting one foot and resting the other behind him. Casually cool.

“It is common knowledge, so I’m not breaking any rules. When you join the Hospital, you join as an Initiate. You run errands and take classes. You learn the rules and how to follow orders. You are taught about the theories of healing and how to not overdraw or do more harm than good. You following so far?”

Orrin tilted his cup up as he drained the last bit of nectar. “Yep.”

“Becoming an Acolyte is a great honor. One I worked three years to achieve. I was given an amulet that let me use the [Healer] spell [Cure Small Wounds].”

“Yeah, that’s the one I’ve got.”

Amir’s eyes flashed with desire and a tint of jealousy. “You just have it? You didn’t have to use an amulet for years?”

Orrin shook his head.

“The Hospital loans an Acolyte an amulet until we understand the spell enough to buy it ourselves. When it appears in our system store, we become full members of the Hospital. Our lives and class are tied to them.”

Orrin set the empty mug on the counter for pastries. “So that’s why healers never leave the Hospital. Your class is connected to the entire group. Interesting.”

Amir scowled. “That’s one word for it. I want to become a [Healer] to actually help people. I can’t stand them, charging so much and healing so little. Their reasons may have started off meaning well, but it’s all politics inside the walls of the Hospital.”

Orrin watched Amir get worked up. The man had been so calm but talking about the corruption he’d seen fired him up in a way that reminded Orrin of his own dad.

Before he’d left, he’d been an activist outside of work. He organized, marched, and protested in anything he thought unfair or unjust. He’d even brought Orrin along for a few before...

Orrin realized Amir was nearly crying. “-mom died, I swore I would never let something like that happen again.”

Orrin stood up and clapped the dirty man on his shoulder. “Hey, I have no idea how to teach you or what I could offer but if you need a friend, you’ve got one.”

The weight of the day, or probably weeks, hit Amir and the man hugged Orrin and started to cry in earnest. Orrin awkwardly patted his back and waited for him to stop crying.

Amir pulled back and wiped his face with his one remaining sleeve. “Sorry. It’s just been a lot.”

Orrin smiled kindly. “Yeah. I get it. My life has been so crazy the last few weeks, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Amir noticed the empty cup and pointed. “You want another?”

Orrin grinned stupidly. “Friends forever.”

The two stayed talking for a few hours. Orrin could tell Amir was nervous to go back to the Hospital dorms where he lived. He let him tell his life story. His parents had traveled to Dey as merchants from Odrana and found themselves having a baby along the way. His mom and dad had started the coffee shop after finding no real competitors around. With the family connections back home, they had a steady supply of product. His mom had gotten sick and the costs of continued healings had grown too much. She’d hide how bad she really was and died five years ago. Amir had joined the Hospital shortly after, in an attempt to never let the same happen to anyone else.

What had started as a quiet and timid boy turned out to be a deeply kind and intelligent man. Amir had done well in his classes and risen quickly, but he hadn’t noticed that by doing so, he’d ruffled some feathers. He wasn’t adept at the politics and movement needed within the Hospital and all his smarts had been wasted.

“Teacher Dou enjoys punishing me. His son was passed over for promotion for a year because I was elevated to Acolyte. Of course, I only found this out after I was assigned to him. He rarely lets me do actual healing and keeps track...kept track of how much I did do. Now it’ll be years before I can heal again, if ever. You’re sure you don’t know how you learned [Heal Small Wounds]?”

Orrin shook his head again. He’d told Amir that he had gotten the spell with his class. A rare class only possible to people from his small village. Amir had just accepted the excuse and moved on.

Orrin put down his third cup of coffee. “I better get going soon. It’s late.”

Amir looked out the small window. “Yep, it’s past midnight. Sorry for talking your ear off. My da listens, but he’s family and that’s different, you know?”

Orrin nodded but didn’t say that he didn’t know. He hadn’t had a real conversation with his family in years. After his dad left, his mom had tried for a while but Orrin had pulled back. Once she started working more and he was ready to talk, she wasn’t around.

The anger from his past and disgust at all the secrets and plotting Amir had described for the past hour filled Orrin’s chest and he felt like punching something. The excessive amount of caffeine wasn’t helping.

I hate this. This guy should be doing what he wants and helping people. If more of the healers had tried to help like he did, maybe more would have survived.

Orrin clenched his fists until his knuckles popped. Tony said Administrators could do all sorts of stuff. I should be able to give Amir a new class or maybe a healing spell.

In a caffeine-fueled daze, Orrin concentrated hard, staring at Amir. He felt the room around him shaking and waited for the ding of a blue box.

“Umm, Orrin? Are you okay?”

Orrin stopped. “What?”

Amir was looking at him with concern. “You said you’ve had coffee before right? You look a little hyped up. You were looking at me really weird.”

“Sorry,” Orrin said and forced a laugh. “I was just thinking how much shit you’ve gone through and got lost for a minute.”

Amir put a hand to his chest. “Thank you. That means a lot.” He grabbed a small bag of beans off the counter. “Here, take this and visit. I’ll probably be working here again soon.”

Orrin thanked Amir and tried to pay. Amir’s frown told him to not push it. He started walking back to the Catanzano’s. The smell of coffee beans under his nose and his thoughts on questions to ask Tony about Administrator Access. He really wanted to help Amir.

Orrin was so engrossed in his own thoughts, he missed the two people shadowing him.