“When it comes to couples and lovers, there are generally two kinds of them. One kind only gravitated to each other for some sort of benefit, be it status, wealth, social expectations, so maybe just because the sex was good. These tend to form a fragile bond, one that rarely survived the removal of the benefits that caused it to form in the first place, and are sadly, more often than not the norm.

The other kind, people who truly cared and loved one another, come hell or highwater, are rarer, yet their bonds were much stronger, the sort that stories and bard’s tales sing about. It always warmed me deep inside to see people like these, who could find others who truly completed them.” - Aideen deVreys, the Silver Maiden.

“What is it?” asked a middle-aged man curtly shortly after the small group - just Joshua, Clarissa, Asclepius, and Aideen, with their knights left outside the Ducal manor - reached the main living room of the large manor. Joshua had immediately ordered one of the servants when they arrived, to inform his father about his return and to ask him for a meeting posthaste.

Duke Hass Tovmund was a tall, somewhat gangly middle-aged man, though still possessed of a healthy and powerful physique for someone his age. None of the border nobles neglected physical conditioning, it seemed. Compared to the hale looks of Duke Utghwes, and the current Duchess Nunez, however, Duke Tovmund looked rather… haggard, with his deep wrinkles and whitening hair making him look older than his age of fifty-four.

“Oh, nice of you to visit, little Risa,” said the Duke as his features softened when he noticed Clarissa’s presence, using a shortened nickname for her which to Aideen hinted at a rather close relationship between the families. “Master Asclepius, always a boon to see you in good health. Perchance, might you be here because you have found a breakthrough?”

“Thank you for the kind words, Your Grace. And yes, we are here because we have a potential solution to the Duchess’ condition,” replied Asclepius with a polite bow. He had attempted to help the injured Duchess in the past, but had failed to do more than make slight improvements to her conditions. “But it is not me who came to heal the Duchess today. It is Miss deVreys here.”

“Her?” asked the Duke with obvious surprise and not a little skepticism in his voice. His reaction was honestly warranted, since it was commonly accepted knowledge that older healers are almost always better due to having more experience and learning, and Aideen did not look any older than her twenties regardless of her actual age.

“Pray, let not her youthful guise lead you astray, Your Grace. Miss deVreys here is more than twice over as old as I am, one of the ones blessed with life after death,” said the old healer respectfully, using the local term for unliving. “She had also healed injuries similar to what the Duchess suffered last year in Algenverr. I am witness to that myself, and would swear by it if needed.”

The Duke looked at Clarissa, his gaze a questioning one, in search of confirmation. While they were from different Duchies, the old Duke had considered the girl almost like one of his own children, especially so since she was betrothed to his second son from a young age. Clarissa noticed the unvoiced question in the Duke’s look, met his eyes, and gave him a firm nod in reply.

“I see… Follow me,” said the Duke after a moment, as he brought the small group to a deeper part of the manor. They finally reached their destination, a large, luxurious bedroom where a couple maidservants tended to a middle-aged lady on the bed. The lady looked thin, sorrowful and haggard, the sort of look of someone who had nearly given up on life.

“Dear? What is it?” asked the lady softly from the bed, her eyes slightly sparking with fondness when he saw the Duke enter.

“Little Risa brought a healer, my love,” said the Duke tenderly as he cradled the hand of the lady in the bed and kissed it. “I know you’re sick and tired of all the failures over these years, of all the false promises and dashed hopes, but please let her try, if only to give little Risa some face.”

“All right then, I guess,” said the old lady with a tired sigh as she slowly extended her other arm to Aideen. Aideen understood why the Duchess had looked so depressed when the Duke said there was another healer. The multitude of failures must have gnawed on her mind over the years and further tormented her psyche. After all, it hurt even more when hope was dangled before you only to be yanked away over and over again.

“Please take a deep breath, and relax yourself, Your Grace,” said Aideen as she gently laid a hand on the Duchess’ wrist while supporting her arm with her other hand. Given the poor condition of her patient, she took care to intrude as gently as possible with her mana, and quickly noticed the various issues the woman suffered on top of the old injuries to her spine.

The Duchess was rather malnourished - likely because of a loss of appetite or difficulties keeping her food down, rather than from neglect, Aideen thought - and physically frail, her muscles horribly atrophied from over a decade of being confined to bed. Probably due to stress from her condition, Aideen also noticed ulcers on her stomach, amongst other minor health issues.

She could not regenerate and reinforce the muscles - well, she could, but the process was horribly painful for the subject - but the health issues, she took care of one by one before she turned to the spinal injury. The work was slightly more troublesome than the injuries she handled in Algenverr, because of the age of the injury. The spinal cord had fused once more where it broke, but poorly and in a way what would have caused the Duchess pain when she moved.

Carefully, she worked on the injury, first by re-shaping the bones into proper forms rather than the warped forms they took, which elicited a slight wince of pain from the Duchess. She clearly noticed the improvement to her condition however, and had not uttered a complaint. Instead, she looked at Aideen with some surprise and wonderment.

Finally, Aideen worked on the broken nerve pathways and reconnected them, which was a job which demanded her concentration due to the finicky nature of nerves. The expression on the Duchess’ face instantly changed to disbelief just as she finished, as the middle-aged woman felt her lower extremities again for the first time in over a decade.