Elach shouldered his way past a woman with her hair held up in a bun, long lines of grey and white running down her neck and back, and almost impaled himself on two floating curved horns that went from dark and roiling at the tip to white and wispy at the base. They floated a few inches from the woman’s forehead and curved like they were slicked back, like a ram’s horns but almost ethereal.

“What’s the hurry?” She asked in a voice that sounded like whistling wind, pupil-less white and grey eyes that looked like thunderheads trapped in glass spheres with a ball of darker clouds for irises locking on to Elach’s as she grabbed his arm to keep him from toppling over.

“Sorry, don’t have time.” Elach said quickly, wriggling out of her grasp and pushing to the front of the line. Surprisingly, nobody else tried to stop him from cutting the line. And even that woman seemed more concerned than annoyed.

“Sssir, I’m going to have to asssk you to ssstand in line if you want ssservice.” The snake-like Issi beast that looked like a mass of leaves had been stretched and pulled into a long tube at the desk said, disembodied hands of deep green grabbing a pen and dipping it in ink.

“How do I find a doctor around here?” Elach said, his head on a swivel as he studied the room. The lounge was off to the right, and the kitchen was somewhere further than that. “And how much does food cost?”

“Isss sssomething wrong, sssir?” The snake asked, his tone switching from boredom to concern as he took in Elach’s frenetic state.

“My..” Elach was about to say friend, but that wasn’t quite right. Better stick with the cover story. “My fellow apprentice had her... Manifestation? Come in, and it did a number on her. And our patron left to go somewhere, so I don’t know what to do.”

The snake visible relaxed. “Ah, ssso not an emergency. That’sss a relief.” The snake dipped down below the desk, and a hand of chlorophyll offered Elach a small metal rod, like a pen without ink. “What’sss the name on the ressservation?”

“Either Revel or Sechen.” Elach said. “Maybe both.”

“Ah, yesss.” The snake mumbled to himself for a second. “Tenth floor room 12, correct?”

“Yesss.” Elach said, flushing in embarrassment as he realized what he’d just said. Luckily, it seemed the snake hadn't noticed.

“I’ll sssend a medic and a healer up right now. And I’ll inform the chefsss that you will be coming to get your fellow apprentice sssomething to eat.” The snake considered for a moment. “Doesss your colleague have any dietary ressstrictionsss?”

Elach was about to say he didn’t know, but stopped short. There was no way someone wouldn’t know their fellow apprentices’ dietary restrictions, as the snake put it. Sechen probably wouldn’t be too cross if he brought up some meat; she could always not eat it. “No she doesn’t.”

“Asssk for Tharu and Hjeld. They’ll get you everything you need.” The snake said, handing Elach a card. “Have your colleague sssign and return thisss once ssshe feelsss well enough. Have her ussse the ssstylusss I provided you earlier. Isss there anything elssse I can do for you?”

“No.” Elach said, mentally running through the motions he could do to thank this snake at the front desk. He settled for a small bow. “Thank you.”

“It’sss my job.” The snake said, but there was a note of pride in their voice. “If you need sssanitary ssservicesss, there isss a cleaning room at the end of each floor.”

“I will.” Elach said, raising his head. “Tharu and Hjeld, right?”

“Correct. Ssswift windsss carry you home, Elach.” The snake said, shadowed hands gently herding Elach to the side. “Sssorry for the interruption. What can I do for you?” The snake said, moving on to the person Elach had cut off with his emergency.

“Manifestation troubles, huh?” The cloud-horned woman said from the line, causing him to jump and let out a startled squeak. “Well aren’t you the jumpy one.” She laughed, stepping out of the line to Elach’s side. “Anything I can do to help?”

Elach blinked dumbly as he absorbed what the woman had offered, and his mouth outran his brain. “Sechen is really hurt. Can you help me carry food up to her?”

“Sure can.” The woman said, grabbing the back of her neck with her left hand and offering Elach a smile. “So Sechen’s your fellow apprentice?”

“Yup.” Elach said, jogging over to the lounge and shoving one of the frosted glass doors open.

“How long’ve you been bonded to your patron?” The woman asked, staying right on Elach’s heels.

“Not long.”

“Ah.” She said, going quiet for a moment. “Sorry, but I overheard everything back there. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop, I swear.”

Elach shrugged, his eyes locked on the door that said ‘staff only’ next to the window that looked into the kitchen. “You’re forgiven.”

The woman sighed with relief. “Good. I didn’t want to start this off on the wrong foot. My name’s Metea/Irric, by the way.”

“Elach.” Elach said with a nod, grabbing the handle to the staff entrance and giving it a tentative turn. It was luckily unlocked, but when Elach pushed the door nothing happened.

“Try pulling?” Metea/Irric offered, but Elach was already in the process of doing just that. “Nevermind, you got it.”

The smell of supper smacked Elach in the face, but he ignored every delicious fragrance that assaulted him. “Are Tharu and Hjeld here?” He called out, and two people with matching hot-coal hair and molten orange lips turned to look at him.

“We got it right here.” The woman said, motioning at a wooden box wrapped with twine.

“And this is slightly enchanted water.” The man shoved a pitcher at Elach.

“Thank you so much.” Elach said, moving to grab the box.

Metea/Irric hefted the thing under her right arm, carrying it like a stack of lumber. “I’m probably stronger than you, so I’ll get it. N-not that I’m saying that you’re weak or anything, just that I’m pretty strong! I’m sure you’ll be strong… sometime… soon.”

“Stupid, stupid.” Metea/Irric muttered under her breath as Elach turned to leave the kitchen. He didn’t care what she said; she was right. He was weak. And he was going to change that.

“C’mon. Gotta get this stuff to Sechen.” Elach said, looking over his shoulder.

“Right. Coming!” Metea/Irric said, shaking her head and crossing the distance Elach had covered in two long strides. “Are we taking the elevator?”

Elach tried to consider Metea/Irric’s suggestion, but the image of the elevator at Resthollow’s trial wormed itself into his mind. He shuddered involuntarily. “The stairs are faster.”

Metea/Irric nodded. “Stairs it is.”

Elach shouldered the door to the stairwell open and held it for Metea/Irric, who nodded in thanks as she did a little spin to avoid hitting the box on the doorframe. He looked upwards and started creating an anchor when he felt a hand grip him by his waist. Elach looked down to see Metea/Irric’s free hand pull him in close to her. “What are you..”

And then in a burst of white and grey, Elach found himself standing on the tenth floor. Metea/Irric let go of him and pushed the door open with her back, holding it for him to go through. “Room twelve?”

“You overheard right.” Elach said, nodding thanks as he walked into the hallway. “It’s the one with the broken door.”

Elach and Metea/Irric jogged down the hallway to Sechen’s room where they were greeted by two women. One of them was obviously a patron of some kind, her coat having four holes cut out of it for four long green vines that poked and prodded at Sechen with the subtlety of a surgeon. The other woman held a heavily tattooed left hand to Sechen’s forehead as she stared down into the palm of her other tattoo-less hand, reading off numbers to her colleague who replied with a simple yes or no.

“Ah, you must be Elach.” The woman reading from her hand said, and the other one turned to look. “And that must be the food for this poor girl. You can just hand it to her, we’ll make sure Sechen gets all the nutrients she needs.”

Vines presented themselves in front of Elach and Metea/Irric, curling in on themselves to form a platter for them to place the food and water. “Um, ok.” Elach set the water down, and Metea/Irric did the same with the food. “Any idea when she’s going to be okay?”

“Can’t say yet. We’ll need to talk to your patron to get an idea of what kind of treatment she can endure.” The vine woman said.

“Can you guess?” Elach asked.

“In my professional opinion, she'll take two days at minimum, and two weeks for the worst case scenario.” The vine woman carefully diagnosed. “But that’s just to get her walking and talking comfortably. For her to fully get used to her new manifestation...” She shrugged. “It could be a single day, or it could take a year. It could also never come naturally to her. That’s all up to her.”

“And at a time like this too.” The woman with the heavily tattooed left hand said sadly. “People push themselves far too hard for the trials of worth.”

“Hopefully this is the last one for today.” The vine woman agreed, carefully picking apart the twine that held the box closed.

The women turned their attention back to Sechen, and Elach just stood there dumbly. Was he supposed to stay here for Sechen? Or should he go look for Revel? He must have had a look on his face, because Metea/Irric put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile.

“Don’t worry; she’ll be fine. Speaking from experience, it always looks way worse than it is.” Metea/Irric assured Elach. “I know it’s hard to see your friend like this, but I’m sure she’ll be back on her feet in no time.”

“I hope so.” Elach said worriedly.

“Come on, let’s leave them to it. There’s a nice cafe down the road where we can get a drink.” Metea/Irric said, gently pushing Elach away from the room and towards the stairs. He took one last look at the two doctors tending to Sechen, and let himself be dragged away.