Yvonne's eyes flickered down, first to the little tube placed in her hand and then the thermos. She made no other movement as she replied, completely deadpan. "Well I'd love to help but I literally cant move a finger right now." It's not apparent with the hauberk and gambeson and undershirt on the way, but she's got more bruise than not. Come to think of it, taking off the damn thing will be such a pain with her broken shoulder, dead gods. The next few days gonna suck so bad.

"Left shoulder's busted, broke some ribs too. But the rest should heal in a week or two." She plainly stated to the fox, downplaying it maybe a bit. "I should regain some mobility tonight. Tomorrow morning at the latest. Be in your care until then, yeah?"

@A5G @Randomness @wierdw

The knight was oblivious now tired of the antics of the two men, “Silence!” She growled at the two before turning her head towards Reinhold. Walking over towards him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. Easily lifting him off the chair and dangling him in the air. “Wake up Reinhold, You are going to lead me to your brother’s killer. But I need this person alive, I need information on the person I am trying to find.”

Her head turned towards the door, being glad to hear a familiar voice, “Open the door.” What Cedar and Solomon saw was quite strange. But Matilda would obviously tell them about the context, of why she was holding this man in the air by his collar. “Have you found anything useful concerning our investigations?”

"Plentiful of medical stuffs I found on the office." Chounan placed on the spot where the party resting, he managedly moved the most the things he found from the office. Chounan gave Jazdia a roll of bandage.

"Do you guys have a plan on that blind girl? It seems like she known more of her late master than that unconscious soldier but still we need this unfortunate man to know about Sir Delving's doing.

Back to the blind girl, I remembered something similar to this during my quest mission back then but this girl quite lucky than those abducted women from goblin nesting place. I believed that she having a possible feelings on her master overtime.

If you guys want to keep her, I will try to supress her casting with Kijtsu. Suppressing her by hand strokes on meridian. Also a sharp like kunai will make it longer if needed." He continue. During his talk, he unfastened his glove and pulled his arm part of the kimono to revealed the stab wound. Cleaned it with rectified spirit. His emotions surpressed and he kept talking while cleaning and bandaging his arm. The bandage was a cut from the bandage roll that he gave to Jazdia.

Done tending his stabbed arm. Chounan approached and open the metal thermos for them.

"Well I'd love to help but I literally cant move a finger right now. "Left shoulder's busted, broke some ribs too. But the rest should heal in a week or two.""

Jazdia took that thermos again, looking dejected not only upon hearing the damage report but also at the unopened thermos as well. Giving up, she handed it to Kaito.

The group's attention suddenly shifted to arriving Chonan and the coughing soldier near the pillar. It looked like he was regaining his consciousness. Jazdia wondered who spared him.

"What! Who goes there!" He slapped his nape, then searched his waist. Seemed disappointed to find himself unarmed, he murmured."Where is my sword? You! You are the... criminal."

He studied them before rubbing his temple. "Wa-what do you want? Why did you let me... live?"

"Oh hey, is that a potion? Gimme one and I should be back on my feet within the hour." The bottle was a bit different than what Yvonne's used to but the color was familiar. Come to think of it, she left hers with the medkit in the other inn. What a blunder. Hopefully she got the time to swing by to pick up her luggage soon. Nothing too important in there, but she'd rather not go grocery shopping to replace everything because she's been missing for too long and they toss out the bag.

"...who let that guy live?" At the rousing of the soldier, Yvonne glanced annoyedly at the group. Not particularly threatened though - any one of them should be able to deal with him easily. "You're lucky I cant move right now. Go to the corner and pretend you're a rock or something."

"You're lucky I cant move right now. Go to the corner and pretend you're a rock or something."

Yvonne quickly grabbed one of the red bottles and drank it. Even in the first sip, the healing and invigorating effect of that potion could be felt. The pain lessened, and the bruises were starting to fade. And at that moment, her word to that surviving soldier was no longer an empty threat anymore.

Ignoring the confused soldier to be somebody else's problem, Jazdia approached the wounded girl and stared at her deviant eyes before kneeling and opening her medkit. Her expression was cold, and she was actually hesitant, but something deep inside moved her. Compassion, yeah it had to be that. At this moment, she remembered her late aunt, Flenaline. Be a healer, she said. The world will be a better place with more people capable of healing instead of fighting, she said. But she died before she could see one more healer taking her oath.

The girl tried to shove her away with her trembling hand, but barely a push can be felt. Frowning only slightly, Jazdia gripped her hand tightly and swiftly administered sedative morphine from a squeezable syrette. The girl let out a choked protest and Jazdia braced herself. It would take another two minutes for the drug to take effect and alleviate her suffering-- or remaining rage, come to think of it.

Yes, her hand was starting to bleed again after wrangling the girl to not jolting her body left and right.
"Samurai!" she shouted. "Bring one of those medicines here and have her drink it!"

Just grasping the vial shot a jolt of agony up her arm, but Yvonne gritted her teeth and bear the pain. Cant use her left arm, but she just brought it to her mouth and bit the cork off before draining the content. Then she let the arm return to neutral position, the simple motion made grueling by the all-encompassing pain throughout her very being.

It worked quickly. Felt like the liquid elixir started melting in even before she swallowed, tasting as foul as she remembered. Her condition... improved. Moving was definitely on the table now, though if she forced it right away she'll collapse in ten steps and be worse than where she started. Muscles need resting after usage, whether working out or active fighting. The potion dramatically cut down the initial period, but she still shouldn't move much for a while.

"Not the best time to be compassionate here, Sparky." Kindness to an enemy was cruelty to one's allies. "Hope you know what you're doing. Even if Edgy here can block spellcasting, she's one of the strongest mage I've ever seen."

"Morning, little fox. Having a nightmare?"

”Sort of I guess. I must have blacked out from mana depletion or something but the last thing I remember was you laying on the floor with a stab wound in the chest and that girl aiming her blast magic at you. I can’t recall how it all ended. I’m just glad that you.. that we all are still alive.”

The fox paused a bit as Chounan returned with several items and Jazdia handed over a little tube to Yvonne. However the mercenary was in no shape to administer any form of healthcare to anyone. She kinda stated her wounds but Kaito figured she was still downplaying it a bit. Somehow his female companions all had this thing for acting tough.

”Just sit down and rest, ok? I’ll handle the situation. Make sure i’ll patch anyone up and we can get the fuck out of this damn sewer as quickly as possible before more misfortune comes our way.”

Quickly Kaito opened the metal thermos that Jazdia gave him but much time to think about it he didn’t have as the soldier the fox had knocked out earlier regained his consciousness and started talking. Something Yvonne seemed to find rather annoying.

”Guilty as charged.” responded to the Kitsune as the mercenary more or less inquired about who had left the soldier alive. For a moment he looked at the confused soldier who asked why he was still alive and where his sword was. ”Why you are still alive? Why not? Not everyone around here likes to kill people. Your sword is there by the way.” said the fox as he pointed to the canal. ”If you want it back you gonna need to take a swim. You’re gonna be private poopface for the rest of your career though. So why don't you sit tight for now so that we can have a conversation later?”.

Kaito paused as Jazdia walked towards the girl on the ground who apparently was still alive somehow. A part of him was kind of disappointed that the girl was still breathing. But could she be really held accountable for her actions after a life of abuse and manipulation by Gerald? That man had probably broken her mind to the very core and manipulated her into loving him. A story of a rather toxic relationship that sounded rather familiar to the fox. Somehow this encounter felt like looking into a mirror.

The ktisune let out a sigh and immediately felt the pain of his bruised ribs but grabbed the bottle of spirit and bandages that Chounan had brought nonetheless as he walked over the girl and the elf. he took a quick look at the girl and Jazdia before more or less commanding the elf to get out of the way.”You can’t give her a potion before taking out the arrow. That will lead to infections later. Your hands are in no condition to take it out. I’ll do it.”

"You guys better to stay away when she regain back her strength. The potion will revitalize her and regain stamina.

With Ki and Jitsu, I will seal her will to fight in both physical and magical by hand striking her meridian." Chounan warned the two, he was concerned the two's condition and their combant effectiveness are low. He waited kaito to do his job and later he will give the blind girl the vial to sip it slowly after the fox's medical attention.

"Not the best time to be compassionate here, Sparky." Kindness to an enemy was cruelty to one's allies. "Hope you know what you're doing. Even if Edgy here can block spellcasting, she's one of the strongest mage I've ever seen."

Jazdia heard her loud and clear, but she remained determined. "I will deal with her myself if she tries anything." she answered, as clearly as she could. The girl's red eyes glared at her with rekindled anger, but Jazdia looked back unbothered.

"Listen... you. I have registered 15 milligrams of morphine into your bloodstream, you will remain calm until I am done patching your wound. You will die if I let you." Jazdia touched her cheek, a gesture of reassurance, but her deadpan expression said otherwise. "I want to help."

She heard someone sighing behind her, it was Kaito, who immediately squatted next to her. The sudden movement down caused him to grimace in pain.
”You can’t give her a potion before taking out the arrow. That will lead to infections later. Your hands are in no condition to take it out. I’ll do it.”

"If you pull the arrow now, she will bleed to death in minutes. That health potion does wonder to staunch the bleeding, but it takes time to be absorbed and take effect." Jazdia shook her head and continued in a grim tone. "She has lost so much blood, and we can't afford to spill more. She will get the potion first, then we will take it out when the potion has started to take effect. At least we will have some insurance. How is that sound?"

@Eviledd1984@A5G

Cedar opened the door a bit, then popped his head inside while hunching over. Looking around the room, he saw Matilda holding one of the gentlemen he had come to politely ask questions from up by the collar like he was a misbehaving puppy. While he could certainly do the same thing himself-- He was more than strong enough-- it was just not something you were supposed to do with PEOPLE. At least, not fully grown ones, like that one. (Ornery, misbehaving kids-- like his baby brother and sisters, were an exception if you wanted to avoid having teeth in your shins, or getting bowled over.)

"uhm.. Miss Matilda, why ya got that fellar up in th' air like at? We's came ta ask 'ese fellars some questions, not scare em tills the' wets 'semselves... Put the fellar down.. ---You allright up there fella?" he drawled, trying to take in the situation and salvage it with as much polite decorum as he could muster.

He turned his attention to the other terrified man in the room.

"How 'bout you fellar-- Ya knows anythung about an ugly bald fellar wit' a big nose an' a jaw out ta here?"

He made almost comical gesticulations with his paws near is own head, as he made the description.

"Mebbe a silver headed fella wit' a smirk an' a cleft chin? Got one eye, like muh pappy?"

He paused a moment, as if trying to process something he might have missed.

"We's lookin' fer some fellars named Gerhard, Reinhold, Ingmar, and Bertolf--This *IS* a right place right? I mean, If' it ain't, I DOES apologize-- but the nice fellar down at th' farm as a said 'is was da place ta find em-- Don't worry none, I ain't gunna bite-cha."

"I believe that's an Opium,

Better to be quick. Life is at stake and we need to hurry."

Chounan get closer to the blind girl. Transferring his energy to her senses with a friendly approach. He uncapped the potion and let her sips slowly until she empty the vial."Pull." He give Jazdia the signal when the ki senses her life energy got revitalized. He then prepared a clean bandage roll for stopping the bleeding and to wrap it on punctured wound.

Of Course the elf disagreed with him. Jazdia always had a strong mind and equally strong opinion. It was one of the qualities he admired in her. For a moment he contemplated her points. It was true that the girl had lost a lot of blood but it was hard to tell how much she did and how much more she could afford to lose. Giving the potion first would likely result in less bleeding but you’d run the risk of tearing things that have closed open again if you waited too long. The fox wanted to argue about it some more but before he could open his mouth the samurai started to administer the potion.

”Chounan! We were discussing…” stated the kitsune as he looked rather annoyed at the samurai but stopped his sentence halfway. ”Well, the deed is done, we’ll have to roll with it now.”

Kaito quickly started to inspect the arrow. The arrow didn’t go all the way through her chest. This meant that the arrowhead could be stuck behind bones or in important tissue. The fox quickly cut open the girl’s shirt to make some room for removing the arrow. Before touching anything he disinfected his hands with the spirit and slightly turned and twirled the arrow to feel how much space he had to work with. Feeling that the arrow wasn’t stuck behind bones the kitsune slowly started to pull it out while keeping a remarkably steady hand to avoid doing additional damage.

As the shaft started to leave the body in a slow pace he could only hope that it had not broken on impact. If that would have happened, that would mean that the arrowhead would be buried somewhere deep in her chest and her chances of survival would be slim.

Slowly but surely the fox pulled the arrow further out of the girl’s chest. Inch by inch it came out till the point that the arrowhead became visible. This girl sure was lucky that Jazdia didn’t use a barbed arrow on her. Such arrows are way more difficult to remove. ”It’s out, in one piece. We can patch her up now.”

[NPC Post]

Reinhold woke with a jolt, struggling wildly as words washed past like fine brush before his brain registered it five seconds later. Then he stopped struggling, though he did glared at Matilda with enough intensity to set dried wood on fire. Thin line between bravery, stupidity, and plain old running out of fucks to give, but it's probably easy to tell which one's taking hold.

"...I fell asleep again, huh?" He clicked his tongue. "Damn it. Put me down."

The two other hunters were cowering even more in the corner when a freaking bear out of all thing came strolling through the door, though the terror quickly was replaced with wondrous bafflement as the bear speak with some thick hick accent. Enough to temporarily form some coherent answer.

"Uh, Gerhard would be the farm owner. e's old as heck, more wrinkle than man." One chirped. "This one's Ingmar. I'm Bertolf. The one the dame holdin' up there is Reinhold."

The girl surprisingly imbibed the potion without much fuss, probably recognizing the bottle and the taste. Not sure if this was a good thing. Could it be that she wanted to recover quickly to continue his payback, who knows?
Her smile seemed to have annoyed the girl, but both exchanged no word.

They waited a bit. The girl was still paralyzed but wide awake. The sedating drug should have reached its onset now, and usually would have knocked a grown man out cold in a single dose.

When Kaito touched the arrow, the girl growled faintly and twitched her body. Her persistence to fend off unconsciousness and showing resistance was laudable, yet also foolish. And her rescuer had no time to entertain her uncooperativeness, Jazdia pinned her wrist with her knee and covered her eyes.

"Chonan, secure her other hand, would you kindly? Kaito, you can do it now."

The girl's body tensed as the arrow pulled out and tossed aside. Quite slower than she had imagined but it was done anyway. Now checking for the wound, it was frothy and blood was still oozing, but not profusely. Kaito attentively sealed the wound with his hand. Good boy!

Biting open something from an aluminum wrapping, Jazdia then laid a special, waxy membrane over her wound and secured it with an occlusive dressing. "How is your breathing?"

Of course, she didn't answer, and even if she wanted to, the girl seemed to suffer deafness too. So Jazdia checked it herself, she breathed alright, but short... any shorter than that and she would have reopened the dressing again. She waited, and all seemed well and nominal.

"She is all yours, Kaito. Apply more dressing on her chest, remove her upper clothing, and apply some on her temple too." she heaved, then turned to Chonan. "And best not cause any unnecessary alteration on her body. She is as helpless as a kitten for six hours to come."

Then she approached Yvonne and smiled wryly. "Anything hurt?" A dorky question indeed, and a bit late too.

Yvonne watched the treatment with some interest, a bit disappointed that it actually went well. Oh well, blind girl hated Sparky the most somehow as if she knew who landed the killing blow on that prick Gerralt so if anyone's getting offed first that would be her. Small comfort if the rest of the party would be next, but still. Better than none.

"Think it's faster to list out what doesn't, yeah?" The mercenary quipped with a lopsided grin. "If I got to pick though, left shoulder broke. I think it's the collarbone. Need to get out of this mail and bandage it good." Ribs broke too, but that'll heal by itself just fine. Shoulder break needed proper bandaging or it'll heal wrong.

"If I got to pick though, left shoulder broke. I think it's the collarbone. Need to get out of this mail and bandage it good."
Jazdia activated her eyes but barely managed to see through Yvonne's hauberk. It was all bruises all over her shoulder, and aside from broken bones, there was probably internal bleeding too. It was indeed very concerning.

Jazdia groped through her bag and placed a roll of bandage on Yvonne's lap before retrating her bandaged hand to somewhere out of the noblewoman's line of sight.

"A spare bundle from our samurai friend. I suppose you don't need assistance to dress it?"

"A sling will do in the short term." Setting it up would be a bit complicated with one-hand, but doable. Yvonne set to do just that, slowly rolling the thing around the back of her neck and to the injured arm. "Another pair of hand would be great, but not necessary. Just give me a few minutes."

It's not something that require much focus, really, so she could still chat up and whatnot. Now that she got a closer look on Sparky, the boss was much paler than earlier this morning. Everyone's banged up good, eh?

"So, what's our plan going forward? Aaron will turn the city inside out to find us." A brief glance flickered to the hidden hand. A bit too late for that, Yvonne already got an eyeful during blindy's treatment. "We're not in a good shape for another fight."

---

“I see we are making friends.” said Solomon as he followed Cedar into the cabin. Though there was doubt Cedar would be able to enter the cabin, he managed to do so just fine. True to the sound of the voice, it was Matilda that called them in. It seems the lead she was following had lead her to the same place as them. And furthermore, they were the people Birk had mentioned.

“I’m going to agree with Cedar here. Guard Matilda, from what we’ve learned, I think it would be best to put down the man. By the looks of it, I think these men are willing to answer your questions.” Solomon shimmied around Cedar so that he was better within the room. All three men were introduced, though through a shaky voice. It was understandable given the presence of an orcish woman, a bear shaped druid, and cloaked shadow of a man. Though, that last one probably didn’t really have anything to do with it.

“Speaking of questions, to answer yours. We’ve yet to discover any new information. In fact, we were hoping to by speaking with these gentlemen. Needless to say, you have gotten here before us.” With the names Solomon had gathered, and the faces provided to Cedar by the crows, now was a good time to see if the faces matched the names. Cedar asked his questions about physical descriptions. That must mean the faces the crows saw were not these hunters. That was a little disappointing, since now who the kidnappers were are still not identified. Then again, the hunters didn’t seem like they were capable of such a caper.

“Given that you’ve had sufficient time to jostle our suspects, I do not suppose you found anything, Matilda? Maybe that with the answers they give us now might help further our lead.”

Jazdia helped her, a little bit straightening the clipped bandage and supporting her arm while Yvonne rolled the white dressing over her shoulder. It felt like her version of "extra hand would be great" was a mere expression of exchanging pleasantries.

"So, what's our plan going forward? Aaron will turn the city inside out to find us. We're not in a good shape for another fight."

The plan huh?

Jazdia glanced at the other side of the hall and did not find Aaron. Probably escaped when the chaos unfolded.

Sighed, Jazdia opened the copy of the map to figure out where they are right now. [color=ec008c]"Still in the city apparently, right under the West market. What we perceived as the south tunnel actually leads to the east. I so depended on my eyes I didn't realize the twist and turns we have taken. The good news was, the tunnel has no other entrance, the bad news was beyond the city wall it was still uncharted."[/color
Jazdia flipped the document again, if there was a mention of the secret passage, there has to be a map, but she found nothing of sort. Disappointed but not at wit's end, Jazdia rolled that map and secured it back to her bag. The thermos was no longer tightly sealed thanks to Kaito. Good boy!

"There was no plan. We will improvise. There was no other option for us but to take that tunnel anyway. One thing for sure though, the quickest route back to the civilization was across that river of filth, but I reckon there is a bloody convention on that side."

The tea inside it was stale and cold, but with her current condition now, it was much appreciated. Jazdia could use her eyes again, though the range was still limited.

Gotta put a bit more strain on her, but whatever.

She approached the guard after reaching for another scroll. Squatting to gaze at him equally, the elf began. "Greetings. We are really sorry we had to prolong your suffering and not killed you like some of us did to your friends... or what your captain had unlawfully commanded."

The soldier's eyes squinted. "Unlawful?" But then in front of him was flipped document with His Highness's seal. He looked at Jazdia, dumbfounded for a brief second. It turned into fear when the elf pointed a blade at him.

"Unlawful!" she asserted. "That is why I am intrigued to know what our higher-ups had told you about this operation. Obviously, you were here to ambush and kill us. Why is that? What was the verdict?"
The soldier inched away to give his nose some distance from the blade. "I don't know. I don't have to tell you anything."

"Then you, sir are a dead man. Because only the dead can tell no tales."

"Figures..."

"By your own choice." Jazdia sheathed her long knife, then stood in front of him. "No, let me rephrase my words. I know contracts and fair trades are how you Kindean do your things, so here is the deal: you answer my question and in return, we will offer you a chance to get out of here alive, so you can lay low... and protect your family from the wrath of your own highness because you were taking part in a conspiracy to murder the investigators he hired to investigate the assassination attempt six days ago.

It took some time for the soldiers to process that. It only get faster when Jazdia read some of her procurement contracts.

--Fredericus, by the grace of God. This letter is to confirm that I have personally appointed a group of private inspectors to assist in the investigation of a treacherous crime against the crown--"

Of course, most of it was twisted to protect the confidentiality both she and Fredricus had agreed upon, but Jazdia wanted to scare him more. "You are guilty of treason, and that, sir is punishable by death."

"Treason?" The soldier retorted, it seemed like he was shaking in fear. The word bespoke unspeakable terror it galvanized him in shock and peculiar distress. "but I..."

"You what? Just following orders? Turns out the one who gave you the order was not an honest type. Why do you think he wanted to kill us, and not capture us as a law enforcer should?"

"We... we were told to eliminate foreign spies!"

"Do we look like one?"

The Soldier shot a glance at the rest of the party. "Three of you are foreigners. You are an elf. I'd say you all indeed look like one."

Jazdia laughed and only stopped when she was aware that it was perilously close to hysteria, and made her chest hurt too... "So you were buying it because... ahahaha! I understand."Still, doesn't absolve you from the crime your captain might have committed."

"Might?"

"You never know until we leave this place. But one thing for sure, if he is declared guilty, you too will go down with him

Jazdia didn't stay long to see how the soldier would react to that forewarning, but then his heavy voice called her again to settle the bargain.

"Besides the Constable, the one who briefed us was the Admiral himself."

"Admiral?" Jazdia didn't turn back, but her voice was concerned.

"Admiral Delving, the war hero. There is no reason for me or the boys to not trust him. He too assigned some of his men to assist this operation." The soldier's words were laced with overwhelming pride and seemed to have given him a sense of relief, a reason to keep his faith together. Jazdia did not question him further until he spoke again.

"I will go with you," said he, nodding, not in acknowledgment, but more like someone who had no other option, and for Jazdia that was enough. "Is there anything else you want to ask? If you don't trust me you can have my hands tied, but it seemed you will need an extra hand to carry one of your friends."

He pointed at the sedated slave.

"She is not a friend."