Book 2: Chapter 16: The Healer (3)

Book 2: Chapter 16: The Healer (3)

Sen did know the next day. While Luo Ping’s leg hadn’t healed completely, nor had Sen expected it to, it was substantially better. Most of the inflammation was gone and Luo Ping herself reported that it felt markedly better. Whatever hesitation the woman had felt about him had also disappeared. Now, he caught her staring at him with an expression that he found uncomfortably close to reverence. So, rather than deal with that discomfort, he excused himself and went outside. There was another uncomfortable subject that he needed to address, and he’d struck on a thought that might make it easier for everyone involved.

He found Luo Min gathering up the sparse number of eggs that the chickens had laid overnight. He waited for her to notice him. When she did, she straightened up too fast and lost her grip on the basket holding the precious handful of eggs that she had found. Sen covered the distance fast enough to snatch up the basket before it struck the ground. He just handed it back to her without comment, while feigning interest in something off in the distance. When he finally turned back to her, there was still a faint tinge of pink in her cheeks. Otherwise, she seemed to have collected herself.

“Cultivator Lu,” she said, offering him a bow. “Can I help you with something?”

He offered her a smile. The mistake only became apparent when red rushed back into her cheeks. Sen didn’t sigh or let his smile slip, which he thought were true victories for his self-control. He nodded at her.

“There is. I need some things from the village, but I’m not comfortable leaving your mother unattended just yet. I need to be here in case she takes a turn. Would you be willing to go to the village and get them for me?”

The young woman only hesitated for a second or two before she nodded. “Of course, Cultivator Lu.”

“My thanks to you, Luo Min,” said Sen.

He handed her a list, which she examined with a frown. “This is mostly food.”

Sen nodded agreeably. “I’ve been eating travel rations. They’re adequate, but now I can set aside time to cook.”

The young woman gave him a steady look. “This is a lot of food for one person, Cultivator Lu.”

Sen maintained a perfectly innocent expression. “Is it? Well, I am a cultivator. Our appetites can be formidable.”

“Can they?”

There wasn’t a specific change in Luo Min that he could identify, but Sen somehow knew that the conversation had abruptly become about something else. Sen shrugged, but that was somehow the wrong thing to do. Luo Min’s expression became, he wasn’t quite sure what the expression was. Speculative, maybe? Sen was very certain he wanted to bring that conversation to a close as fast as possible. He held out some coins for her. It might be too much for what he asked her to buy. He really didn’t know. Sen made a mental note to spend some time getting familiar with the prices of things. Luo Min eyed the coins for a moment, clearly amused by something, but she took them. She handed him the basket of eggs. He took it but raised an eyebrow at her.Witness the genesis of this narrative, streaming from Nøv€lß¡n★

“If I’m going to town for supplies, I’ll need to take the cart. Those need to go inside.”

The older woman lifted an eyebrow at that. “You said you were a humble student of alchemy. Not a master alchemist.”

“I am but a humble student of alchemy. My knowledge is a shallow thing compared to the one who taught me. She is a true master alchemist.”

“I suppose you’re too young to understand what a frightening thing it is that you just said.”

Sen just blinked at her a few times. What was frightening about saying his teacher was a far more skilled alchemist?

Luo Ping nodded to herself. “I have to ask. Why have you done all of this? Do you mean to take Min as payment?”

“Take Min as payment,” repeated Sen.

He couldn’t make sense of the statement. The very idea of taking a person as payment was just absurd to him. Even if something like that were common practice somewhere, Sen would have no part in it. Sen felt himself getting angry. He glared at the older woman who shrank back from him.

Doing his best not to clench his teeth, he said, “No, I don’t intend to take your child as payment.”

While the woman was clearly frightened by Sen’s anger, she persisted.

“Then, why do all of this? Why go through all of this trouble for strangers?”

Sen almost let his anger answer again, but the woman wasn’t being unreasonable. When he looked at it from her point of view, he must have seemed like some kind of madman. A largely benevolent madman, perhaps, but a madman all the same. Who would go through all of that trouble for strangers? There had to be a reason. Like it or not, he was also a guest in her home. That it was a humble home didn’t change anything. She was the mistress here. If she wanted to understand his motives, he owed her some kind of explanation.

“I was led here, by power, by karma, by the heavens, I don’t truly know. I was brought here to learn something.”

“Learn what?”

He offered her a bemused smile. “I don’t know. When I do, I expect that’s the day I’ll leave.”