“Alright, are you feeling better now?” Thera asked, trying to gently smile at the child before her as he beamed back brightly.

“I am. Thank you miss healer!”

Hearing that, her smile became less forced as her hand started to reach out, only to pull back in the end. With Ben’s last two levels he’d gotten for his divine enchanting, he’d been able to bring her charm on contact down to three. So low that the chances of anyone coming under her effects were slim, but still not impossible.

Still, it looks like it might not be long now. She thought happily as she finished up with her last patient.

“Just try to take a bit more care when you’re playing, okay? You don’t want another broken arm any time soon.”

“Okay,” He told her with a nod, giving one final wave as his family gave her their thanks and carried him out, leaving her alone in the room of the hospital with only one other healer.

After going around all of the villages near the dryads after her first two weeks there and treating all she could, it left her without much else to do, so to keep getting the practice she wanted she ventured out further, going back to the gate city they’d had to travel through and approached their hospital, asking if she might help after showing her card to prove her value, ending with them all but tripping over themselves to accept. They were having the same issue that could be found in Stonewall or anywhere else after all, the shortage of qualified healers making her arrival a godsend.

“I truly can’t thank you enough for your work miss Thera,” The hospital head, Hovock, told her. “We should all be able to breathe just a little easier now that we’ve gotten a break.”

“Don’t mention it, thank you for letting me get some practice here. It was a good experience.”

It was as she gave a small, grateful bow that she started to leave, having done all she needed to before heading to the door, only for him to try to stop her.

“And if you’re looking for experience we’d be happy to hire you on,” He said hopefully, eager for the chance to recruit an awakened life mage. “I assure you, we could offer a level of pay and benefits that could meet any standard you might have, and there’s always more to treat. Heck, if you’re just looking for more experience then we could import patients through the gate as well.”

It wasn’t an unexpected offer. Many of the towns and villages she’d gone to had put out whatever offers they could as well, each of them wanting to take her in for the scope of her magic in the face of what was to come, but like the rest, she turned him down.

“I’m sorry, but I already have a home and plans for the invasion so I can’t join you. If you’d like however, I can be here again next week for another day. I assume you’ll get some more patients by then so I don’t mind the work.”

“Well, if you’d be willing to do that then we’d be more than happy to accept,” He told her, getting a smile in return. She’d had to interact with enough people who weren’t so willing to accept her rejection, the fact that he had meant he’d gotten a good evaluation in her eyes as a place she’d be willing to go to help again if she was ever passing through.

With that they parted, Thera walking down the halls of the building, receiving thanks for her work from the many staff she passed and letting herself feel good. She’d been using her time productively enough and she couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling that came with people appreciating her work without having any mental baggage associated with her. As much as she did like living in Stonewall, enough people there had enough complicated feelings about her that the process of healing them could be an uncomfortable experience for all parties. Out in any random town or city where they didn’t know her, the gratitude she received wasn’t laced with anything that might taint it.

Since it only took me a couple days to finish up at this one, maybe tomorrow I’ll go through a different gate to offer my services. She thought happily, right up until something that seemed like it was going to be a pain made its way into her view in the form of two people blocking her path.

“Excuse me, would you be miss Thera?” One asked, already knowing the answer.

“Nope.”

She could guess what this was about and didn’t want any part of it, but as she tried to walk around them the other one stepped in her way.

“We’re here to act as representatives of Nethaal, we were just hoping to have a minute of your time to discuss an opportunity with you if you’d let us.”

“Not interested.”

It was the nation she was currently in, and the opportunity was obvious enough. Like any other, they of course had an army to use, and like every other one, they wanted all of the healers they could get. With word about her activities in the city spreading like wildfire they of course wanted to bring her in, assuming she wasn’t aligned with anyone since she was going around doing random work, and she wanted no part in whatever deal they were offering.

She had no intention of working for a different nation, enjoying the level of freedom she had along with the fact that she’d already made her plans for how she’d handle the coming invasion, and she had no interest in wasting her time on listening to them drone on about whatever offer she wouldn’t take, she instead she walked past them, immediately feeling the mistake in that as one grabbed her hand to stop her.

In an instant she turned back, swinging the staff held in her other hand and striking the one who’d grabbed her, the metal rod smashing his face as she activated her magic to bring up the stone beneath them, encasing the two before the one she’d hit could fall to the ground or the other could react.

“What are you-”

“What the fuck are you doing?” She yelled back, cutting him off before he could complain. “What makes you think you have any right to touch me?”

“It was your hand, there’s no way that excuses this level of violence,” He said back, trying to be composed despite his partner seeming to be unconscious beside him.

“Sure, except I don’t know that idiot's dark resistance so I don’t know if he was just charmed,” She told him, fire in her eyes as he understood what happened. “You say you idiots are working for Nethaal? So would you rather I put in a complaint about your behaviour through the adventurers guild for how you’re approaching one of their rank one adventures, or maybe I’ll go to Anailia to complain about the treatment of the queen's daughter? I suppose I really should do both just to make things clear.”

She wouldn’t normally throw her connections around like that, but they’d just done the one thing that was certain to ruin her mood as the conscious man’s eyes changed from a look of understanding to fear. From how she’d wielded earth magic as well as life, it wasn’t impossible that she had it as an awakened skill, meaning if she really was associated with the adventurers guild there was the potential for it to be a huge issue. As a global organization, they considered their awakened skill holders as valuable as any nation would, meaning that if Thera wanted to force the issue she’d have their weight behind them, but worse was what she’d said about Anailia. When the two had been sent to approach her, they hadn’t had time to look into her background, but if she did have charm she was certainly a succubus, and given her appearance it wasn’t hard to guess what the other half of her heritage might be, adding all the more weight to what she’d just said.

Both facts immediately left things far above his pay grade, with the added problem that he and his partner may have just caused an international incident clear on his mind. Anailia was the world’s foremost supplier of magic materials, and rumours about the current queen's whimful personality weren’t uncommon. It was entirely possible that Pelenia would stop selling to them if her daughter made a complaint, which had the potential to devastate the land in a time when the metals needed to go to all of the weapons and armour they could.

Before he could get a word out though as he desperately tried to figure out what to say to calm things down, she held up her staff again, aiming it at the exposed head of his unconscious partner.

“Wait, don”t-”

“I’m just healing him enough that he doesn’t die from that,” She told him firmly, still looking furious. “He can find another healer to deal with the non-fatal damage when he wakes up. Anyway, you both can wait here and figure out if you want to make any sort of complaint about what happened, I’d love to see the outcome of it if you do.”

“We won’t!” He was quick to say. “We take full responsibility for this, we apologize for offending you and have no wish to press the issue.”

I guess that means I can still come back here in a week like I said I would. Stupid, I should have just said I was affiliated with Anailia to begin with to brush them off. I should probably just say that when I go anywhere from now on to save me the trouble.

“Alright,” She told him as she turned around to leave. “Make sure you let the guy with you know what not to do when he wakes up and I sincerely hope I never meet either of you again.”

“Um, before you go-”

“I’m sure someone will come to help you before you know it,” She said, not looking back. She didn’t actually intend to make a big deal of it from either group like she’d threatened, but they’d managed to ruin what had felt like a very nice day for her, so they could wait for some other earth mage to free them of the stone she’d encased them in as she made her way back to the dryad village.

The sun was still up as she made her way back to the village, her flying speed being higher than normal in the face of her emotions that wouldn’t go away as she tried to force on a happier look before entering Fontesh’s home, finding her sitting down as still as she could while Delair stared at her mother in as much concentration as a child could manage, holding a pen tight in her hand as she tried her best to draw her with Ben by her side, giving pointers and encouragement.

“It looks great! Now for the shading just try and give it a lighter touch. Pen and ink isn’t the best for this sort of thing but it can be done, it just takes a bit more care and can be a little harder to fix. Try and look at how the shadows are falling on her face as you do.”

“Mhm.”

Cute.

Coming into the scene, her mood managed to actually improve a bit beyond the fake smile she was hiding behind as she watched it all, trying not to be a distraction. They’d come specifically to let Ben train, but it seemed more and more his efforts were going to helping Delair with her own goals, and Thera could help but find the bits she would see endearing. No matter how he argued it, she couldn’t help but think it matched the image in her head of a father trying to make his daughter happy perfectly as she felt her smile become a little more real. All the more so as Delair spoke up as she finished her drawing.

“My crafting leveled up!”

“Hey, that's fantastic!” Ben told her, picking the girl up and spinning her around as she laughed. “Looks like we’ll be making an excellent one of you before you know it.”

“Honestly. Thank you so much for spending all of this time with her while you’re here,” Fontesh told him, getting up to look at the picture her daughter made and loving it. “But since you helped her with her enchanting and crafting, maybe she should give you a little break now.”

“He doesn’t need a break!” Delair told her, looking to Ben in the hopes he would take her side as Thera went to make her presence known.

“He’s much happier when he’s working himself to death so I’m sure this much is fine for him.”

“I’ve never worked myself to death, I always do exactly what I can,” He told her, giving her a warm look just from having her back. “And this really is fine, don’t worry. The fact that my skill didn’t awaken after the first day is sign enough it’s probably not happening, but there’s always the chance it can be pushed to the high form of it if I just keep at it so training her while I’m working on that isn’t a problem.”

Delair gave silent cheer as Thera walked over to her, comfortably rubbing the girl's head as she enjoyed the moment, with a good atmosphere making all of the difference in the world to her.

“So you want to talk about it?” Ben asked later as they were laying in bed, seeing through her as he so often did.

“Mmh, just had a not-so-great encounter at the hospital, but I’m fine now,” She told him as she rested her head against his chest. “Seeing you act like a happy father with Delair manages to be cute enough to fix any mood.”

“Again, I’m not that much older than her. The vibe is definitely happy older brother.”

“Ha, sure, keep telling yourself that,” She told him, feeling her lips curl as she laid there, her thoughts drifting as she let herself begin to nod off.

It was a nice feeling to love someone. Nicer than she would have ever expected, and it did sort out the topic that had been on her thoughts for weeks. She intended to fully enjoy however much time they had together and whatever new experiences that might entail.

Which means I might need to ask mom for help. Ugh, already dreading that conversation. I guess I’ll stop by when we’re at craftsman’s tower so I have a couple weeks to figure out how to broach the topic with her. And Ben too I guess.

There was already enough to worry about for the future so she did her best to ignore what was sure to be a couple awkward bits as she instead focused on things to look forward to instead.