161 Downtime 1

Remian opened his eyes to see an unfamiliar darkwood ceiling. He felt movement; the bed he was in, in fact, the entire room and the floor, was moving…

"An airship?" Remian guessed.

Squeaks sounded. There were two lynxmice in his room. One of them sent out a message. [He is awake!]

"Where am I?" he asked.

The other lynxmouse approached and scratched itself behind one ear. [I don't know. Here?]

"Where is here…?" Remian shook his head and changed his question. "Are we in an airship?"

[Yes! We're in the new airship! Uh… the old one. The new old one!] the lynxmouse struggled to explain.

"This is the new second-hand Sky Galleon Mindy bought?" Remian guessed.

"Mikii!" [Yes, yes!!]

"Which means… we went from Fal'herim to Ashdale, and then left Ashdale… have we taken Iron Legion trainees on board?"

[Not yet.]

"Fresh out of Ashdale, then, and en route to Itarim." Remian figured. "So… what am I doing here?"

"You're here because I asked Mindy to get you out of Fal'herim." Phoebe entered the room.

"Ah. That explains it." Remian grunted, sitting up in bed. "Hello, Phoebe."

Phoebe went over to him and checked his pulse, looked at his eyes and under his eyelids, had him open his mouth and checked his throat with a light spell, then started pressing his tummy and tapping his back as if listening for sounds…

Remian started coughing uncontrollably. Then weird sounds started coming from his stomach and he started dry-retching.

"Bucket!" Phoebe yelled.

[Wha…?] the lynxmice blinked at her, blur.

"Air net!" Phoebe stretched out her hand and her mana, seizing a little bucket by the side with magic. She hauled it over that way just in time.

Remian grabbed the bucket and threw up some bitter liquid that burned in his mouth. "What… what is…"

"Over-hunger, I'd guess. You haven't eaten for three days. It seems your stomach acids have been building up."

"Is that… supposed to… happen?" Remian asked, in between hurling.

"Let's just say your current condition isn't quite awesome." Phoebe turned to the lynxmice. "He needs food."

[On it!] the lynxmice scurried away.

They returned with bits of cheese that looked a bit mouldy.

Remian looked at the two mice offering their cheese and actually felt a bit touched.

"Not THAT!" Phoebe rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Call in the ship's cook! Whoever is on kitchen duty!"

Mindy popped in before the ship's cook could. "Remian! Are you all right? Phoebe? Is he all right?"

Phoebe snorted. "No, and you knew that, or you wouldn't be asking."

"What can we do?"

"He just needs lots of rest. That should be the best thing for now. Once we reach Itarim, we can take him to a hospital for some tests…"

"No tests!" Remian barked, then coughed and threw up some more. "No… hospi… bleurgh!"

"So he says." Phoebe sighed.

Mindy lowered her voice, but Remian still heard her say one word. "George."

Phoebe, in return, only nodded.

George? What did George have to do with anything?

"First things first, get him some food." Phoebe advised. "Then make sure he gets lots of rest."

***

The next thing Remian knew, he was in a shared hospital ward, and his roommate was George.

"Where… what… why…?" Remian trailed off.

"Welcome to the new Kara-Goth hospital. What do you think of the place?" Mindy asked, with a gracious sweeping gesture.

"Uh… it looks… comfy." Remian said, glancing about.

It really kind of did. The room was not very large, but the beds were soft, the blankets were clean, the walls were hung with warm brown furs and yellow-light glowlamps, although at the moment sunlight streamed in from a lot of narrow windows.

"Still. I do have a room back at the Guild." Remian pointed out.

"It's not a good place to rest at the moment. Too much going-on. The construction around this part of Kara-Goth is already finished, and most of the work is concentrated in the other hill, so right now, this area is quieter." Mindy shrugged. "Besides, this way, I get to take care of both you and George in one fell swoop!"

"What happened to George?" Remian asked, eyeing his unconscious roommate.

"Same thing that happened to you. Collapsed from overwork." Mindy said. "The guy was literally running around trying to take care of everybody every day."

Soft knocks sounded on the door. A low voice sounded from the other side. "Lunch."

"Come in." Mindy invited, in a normal speaking tone.

The door opened and in walked Talia with a tray of food.

"Talia is a nurse, now?" Remian was confused. "What happened to all the airships and the trade route?"

"We're taking a break." Mindy said. "While waiting for the new industrial district to get their act together. Once they're up to speed, we'll be hauling raw ores to Fal'herim and buying smelted bars from there. Meanwhile, we've more or less already emptied out Kara-Goth's trading stock."

"Well, I better get back to Fal'herim, then…"

"No, you don't. Leave it to Izhan and Izak."

"Izhan and Izak?"

"They're the ones I left with Aren. I hear they're working very hard under him, especially Izak."

"Izak? Why…" Remian saw the blush on Talia's face and figured it out easily enough. Working under your prospective father-in-law had to be rough. "Oh."

Lunch looked rather like re-heated breakfast, sausage, some juicy fruit, hot tea…

"What sort of tea is this?" Remian sipped it, feeling it warm him from head to toes. It left a tingly, vibrant feeling inside him as he drank.

"Herbal tea." Mindy supplied.

"What sort of herbs?"

"I'm actually not too sure. You'll have to ask Phoebe."

"It's good. I didn't know our hospital here could do this sort of thing."

"Like it? The food is all farm-fresh. Even the sausages came from our farm chickens."

"Chickens? Our farm has chickens? Since when?"

"Since last week. The farm district's grown very big. There are feed farms, egg farms, butchers and everything. There's even a cattle ranch, and the beef is good, though I can't speak highly of the milk supply. Goodness knows we're going to need it with the influx of people."

Right. All those freed slaves meant a whole lot more mouths to feed. That explained why the farm had become a whole farming district. "Exactly how big is the farming district, right now?"

"Huge. Bigger than Fort Spoas, Kara-Goth, and Fal'herim put together, and then some."

"Can we even protect that much territory?"

"Right now, there are mercenary groups patrolling the perimeter and draining George's bank account, but we actually have thousands of new Adventurers, and it won't be long until they're skilled enough to do the job without mercenaries."