Curse of the Crystals

Chapter 8: To The Edge of the Forest - part 1

Ambrose was nervous when he walked into the large meeting room. Prince Frode's servant, Ezer Floros, had told him a lot about the achievements of the other two people. Now that he was going to meet them, he expected them to be pretty impressive. A few days ago, he was also introduced to corporal Hedgefield while he was helping out in nearby hospital, with the request to see if he could also tend to this man's injuries.

To Ambrose's surprise, he was able to cure all of the corporal's injuries, but it had taken a lot of trial and error. There had been multiple times where Ambrose got tired to the point of exhaustion, without the corporal showing any signs of healing, but Ambrose eventually managed to get the hang of things. He soon realised that he could heal wounds for as long as he had some basic understanding of what exactly he was dealing with and that it wasn't merely the treatment itself that was curing people. It was as if there was some sort of external power at play, which made the normal results of his work as a medicine-man pale in comparison.

Questioning Hedgefield about his injuries and focussing on very specific issues made healing the corporal a lot less tiresome and a lot more effective, whilst trying to blindly figure out what was wrong often left Ambrose exhausted without there being any results. Even so, there was a big difference between what injuries he was healing, as some bigger injuries left him considerably more exhausted, regardless of his understanding of them. At some points, he even fainted before he was able to finish a treatment.

Right now, he tried to control his breathing before entering the meeting between key figures, which somehow ended up including him. All things considered, he wasn't even sure if he wanted to be involved in this, but he was too scared and worried to say so. He was the first one to enter the room out of the three invitees, with prince Frode himself already awaiting him. The prince spoke up before Ambrose could. "Good afternoon, please take a seat."

Ambrose gave a short bow, and did what he was asked to do. He was desperately trying to get used to this odd scenario. Being the sole Human in the High Elven royal palace, if not being the sole Human in the entire Capital or Empire altogether, felt really strange. Simply helping a village overcome some trouble didn't seem to warrant such an honour, yet here he was.

Maiara Aina walked in shortly after Ambrose. Ambrose immediately realized that Ezer hadn't exaggerated when he warned Ambrose that she was rather eccentric. She was dressed in all-black, even including gloves and a hat that covered part of her face in a shadow. With how tall she was, even for a High Elf, she stood almost an entire head above Ambrose, despite him being above average in height for a Human. To Ambrose's surprise, she was followed by an Elf a fair bit shorter than her, but it didn't seem to be a Forest Elf. Ambrose figured that he had to be one of the rare Desert Elves living to the south of the Empire. For all Ambrose knew, the only Desert Elves in the Empire were enslaved, but this man was far too well-dressed to be a slave. He looked like a nobleman himself, or maybe a royal secretary, not a poorly treated servant. The only part of his attire that set him apart from the palace's staff was the large curved sword he carried on his hip. Ambrose expected Frode to request for him to leave, but no such request came. Instead, the women and her servant were greeted in the same way as he had been.

The next one to arrive could only be the infamous Itzal Fusun. He wore an odd type of cloak that seemed to be designed to conceal and hold whatever the wearer wanted to carry along, making Ambrose wonder if the palace guards had allowed him to wield his weapons. They had clearly allowed Maiara's servant to keep his blade, after all. Itzal was a bit shorter than Ambrose, and although he wasn't what you'd consider bulky or overtly muscular, he was clearly well-trained. His eyes seemed to pierce through the room in an instant, quickly observing everything and everyone. He was followed by a woman, a Forest Elf like him. She was easily considered beautiful by any standards, but something about her seemed a bit off to Ambrose. Like before, Frode didn't seem to comment on the arrival of yet another uninvited guest.