Happy and friendly? This lute-loving buffoon? The one who thought that it was a good idea to threaten a HEALER? The same healer that saved his life, instead of stabbing him in the throat and just looting him for everything he had? And now he was doubting her words as well. Great. This was great. Yes, next time, she'll just heal them up enough that they can live a few days longer and leave them alone. God knows what she was thinking when she patched him up and carried that meatsack around with her for a few days.

Aelitha, understandably, was not pleased. But she wasn't a violent person by nature, other than when she felt like being violent, and so, she closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and eventually managed to push her irritation regarding the whole scenario down inside her mind. It was going to be alright. She can still get paid for this. Maybe the rest of the Shephards won't be this bad. Maybe there will be some justification later on. Maybe, just maybe, there still might be something interesting that'll pop up. Maybe he's just like this because he's cranky, and that lute-hostage-taker is just like this because she's an amoral criminal! With those not-so pleasant thoughts in mind, Aelitha managed to stop herself from doing anything rash.

Then another bitch busted in her room and stated some very nasty threats.

Aelitha took another deep breath and then let it all out in one long sigh. There were three Shephard-related people that she had met. Not a single one of them had a shred of logic, rationality, understanding, or anything else that would make her think that they were worth working with. What a shame. What a pain in the arse. What a waste of time.

And look, now that Talbot person was coughing again, his recently healed ribs heaving in a manner that definitely would not be very helpful at all. And to think that she had just healed him as well. Why does she even bother sometimes? Ah, no, she can't do her job if she's still like this. Healing magic wasn't something that was improved by anger, unlike destructive magic. If she kept on feeling like she should just abandon these lost causes, Aelitha wouldn't be able to do much.

So she walked to her bags, took out her skinning knife, and stabbed the table three times, her face void of expression. Three deep scars appeared on the rough wood, the knife left stuck in it. For good measure, she clenched her spare hand and slammed it against her knee, before letting out an even longer, exaggerated sigh.

[b]“Two things I dislike as a healer,”[/b] she said, not bothering to turn around, [b]“Patients that don't know when to rest, and visitors that don't know how to knock. Please don't make my job any more annoying than it is with all this. Can you all just keep your flirting brief? Preferably fetch some water on the way, to moisten his throat? Make yourself useful? Beheading girl, roll him over to his side, in case he chokes on his spit or something. Make sure he's still lying down though. Spines don't heal quite as well, you see, so it's probably in the late stage of mending. Try not to move upwards too much.”[/b]

Why exactly did she do this job again? In this situation, she couldn't even feel GOOD about doing it.

It was like some stupid puppeteer was directing her decisions towards doing things that she wouldn't do, making her put up with things that she wouldn't put up with, dealing with people that she didn't want to deal with.

Ah, it would be great if she could just pack up and leave, but nope, that mysterious cosmic force kept her in the room, recasting Mend as a pain-numbing agent on this idiotic patient.

It would be so great to just find that bishie rich person who was hiring mercenaries and offer her services, wouldn't it?