§098 The Other Princess

Silas "The Smiling Man" — Midway

The Smiling Man was in a rented house in Midway, where a second-story window gave his team a good view of their target's backyard. Some of his partners had struck up passing relationships in the neighborhood and the nearby markets to collect more information.

The master and his wolfkin pup had returned from vacation and were back to their usual routines. The wolf was having his morning sparring session, this time with the striped bear spirit, while the Mask watched and shouted encouragement.

His were not the only eyes on that house. They had a Home Priory priest living with them, and Silas thought he recognized one of the boarders from another job. If something had to be done, it would have to be away from the house.

His teammate snapped shut the small communication mirror linking them to their employer. "Cancelled," repeated the Crooked Knife. "That was two weeks wasted. The target wasn't even here for half the time."

"We'll be back," said the Smiling Man. "There are too many people interested in this house. Trust me. Sooner or later, someone will want a job done."

Taylor — Twilight

Taylor barely set foot in Twilight. Newly returned from vacation, he intended to resume his slime training sessions with Premi, with the objective of mastering his swimming. She had a house in Sunglaze Heights, the elevated bank across the river from Sunglaze Basin. Many air and bird spirits made their home there, and Premi's was on the very edge of the bank where she could look down on the river and, when the mood took her, jump from her balcony and spread her wings.

Premi had just asked him how his vacation was when it happened.

You are being summoned.

Summoner: Mariella

Class: [Healer] level 12

Titles: [Imperial Princess]

Mariella calls you to aid her.

Will you accept the call?

Her enticement was entirely different from that other princess.

I'm not my sister, and I don't want to make you fight. 

I think you want to help people, not hurt them. 

You healed a woman from corruption while you were here.

There are more like her, and the healers don't know what to do.

Please help us.

"Are you being summoned right now?" Premi disapproved of the interruption. "Is it that awful princess?"

"It's a princess, but not the same one." He remembered the girl who stepped back when Rebecca started throwing fire at him. "I guess they're sisters, but they don't seem that much alike. This one sounds sane."

"You might as well answer it for the experience. If she starts performing experiments on you, you can always disband yourself."

Accept.

Taylor was in a containment circle, a much smaller one this time, and indoors. This new princess was the same age as the last one, maybe twelve or thirteen, wearing a simple yet expensive skirt and blouse under a healer's stain-resistant white coat. She wore her pale green hair in side braids that tied into a bun at the back of her head, with the remainder in loose curls. She held one of the new summoning wands in her hand, down at her side, unthreatening.

"Thank you for answering. You are a hard spirit to reach. I've been trying for days."

Taylor wobbled, in what he hoped was a friendly way. She was dressed for working rather than impressing, and she was already a level twelve healer. That meant she had probably trained as a healer before she took the class.

"A fine job, Your Highness. Your persistence has paid off." That came from the same magician who wanted to add Taylor to his roster last time. There was also a woman in the room who might be the princess's attendant. "Now, you need to convince it to form a bond. We can't let it out of containment until you do. And, you should name it."

"Well, it's hard to talk to you without some form of address other than 'hey you', so let's begin with the name." She crouched by the circle and peered closely at him. Taylor wobbled slightly, just to let her know he was paying attention. She hadn't made any demands yet or tried to hurt him, so the new princess was already a vast improvement over the last one. He was willing to work with her long enough to learn about the disease they were fighting, so he didn't disband himself just yet.

"I know! Miss Wibbles! That's your name."

Mariella has proposed the name "Miss Wibbles."

Do you … 

Decline. Decline. Decline.

"Are you sure? It suits you so well, I find it difficult to conceive of a better one. For now, I'll call you Miss Wibbles, and you may inform me when you decide on a better one. But please, don't ask for something like 'Grawwr The Devourer'. We have quite enough of those. Brothers. You understand.

"Now to the proposal. I am ignorant of your kind, Miss Wibbles, and since you don't talk, we have no way of knowing what you would like. But everyone likes cake. Help me heal our patients, and I will treat you to fine imperial cakes with tea.

Mariella has proposed a bond of Average quality or lower.

You formed a Weak bond with Mariella.

"That's a very minor bond, Your Highness. At that strength, your summon could misbehave. You should try again."

"The spirit gets to choose, does it not? After the way my sister treated her, Miss Wibbles is wise to be cautious. She's only a monster if treated monstrously. Isn't that right, Miss Wibbles?"

Oh, this princess was good. Flattery, empathy, and expectation-setting all in one mouthful. Taylor wobbled for her obediently, and the containment barrier vanished.

"Thank you for your assistance, Maestro. We can take it from here. Eterine, please bring Miss Wibbles."

Strong hands picked Taylor up from behind and hefted him close to a bodice so stiff it could have been made of steel. The attendant fell in beside the princess and a half-step behind. 

"I hope you will forgive my haste, but my mana pool won't last forever. We will first check on the patient whose life you saved. She is my close companion, and I brought her to my residence to die in comfortable surroundings." Warm gratitude flowed to him across their bond. "Now she's back at the clinic, healing. She'll be able to leave soon, thanks to you."

Taylor did not consider himself an overly proud person, but the combination of being summoned, carried, and ridiculously named was proving too much for him. He went slack and droopy in Eterine's arms.

"Your Highness, I can't hold her! I think there's something wrong!" Taylor landed on the floor with a splot!

Mariella spun on them in alarm and crouched next to where he pooled on the tile floor. She poked a delicate finger in Taylor's slack surface.

"Maybe she doesn't travel well. But she was mobile last time …. 

Taylor pulled himself together and sprang to life as a hard, solid ball and rolled circles around them both.

"I see," said the gently smiling princess. "She says she is not a baby and can walk on her own."

That was … not a terrible interpretation. Taylor wobbled at her one time, and their journey resumed. The room where he was summoned was down the hall and one floor below their destination: a small room with a single patient in a single bed, with a few comfortable furnishings. The patient looked remarkably improved since the last time Taylor saw her. Her hair had started growing back, and she had been eating well. She looked thirty years younger. She was sitting up, looking out the window, and not doing much else. Her face lit up when Princess Mariella entered.

Eterine, the steel-corsetted attendant, scooped him up without asking and placed him in the patient's lap.

"Miss Wibbles, this is Ruzanna. Thanks to you, she's been moved here to recuperate. Ruzanna, meet Miss Wibbles, your healer."

Taylor wobbled.

"She's adorable!" The patient hugged him. "And warm! And so smooth."

Since she was already touching him, Taylor peeked into her and found the imperial healers were doing a fine job. They had her on a low regeneration spell and were feeding her well. That, plus a quiet room and plenty of rest, were what she needed most. Taylor wobbled his satisfaction.

"Allow me to show you the ward," Mariella said with little apparent enthusiasm. They climbed another set of stairs to a hallway that tasted strongly of antiseptic against Taylor's slime skin, to an entire ward full of patients. Few of them were as serious as Ruzanna had been when Taylor found her, but there were so many.

He shot a question, "How?" at Mariella, but she didn't respond. Hopelessness filled their narrow bond.

"Princess Mariella, why is that strange monster with you?" An older healer accosted her, a tall rabbit-kin man in a white jacket with a blue insignia that might have indicated his seniority.

"She's not a monster. She's Miss Wibbles, and she's here to help."

Taylor wobbled in his most responsible manner and went to work without further prompting. There were twenty beds in the ward, all occupied. He went from bed to bed, touching each patient with an extruded appendage and moving on. They gawked and laughed at him, but nobody gave him a rough time. Most of the cases could be handled with a focused dose of purification magic followed by a convalescent period. A few were more difficult.

"What is it doing?"

"Triage, I believe. Do you remember two weeks ago, when I promised to introduce you to the healer response for Ruzanna? I present to you, Miss Wibbles!"

"That healed her? How?"

"I didn't witness the full event, but there is little doubt in my mind."

"Perhaps the monster would like to demonstrate on the patient in bed five."

Taylor pushed futility across their bond. The woman's organs were failing, and she didn't have the strength to support healing or regeneration. Her body had been so strained by their attempts to keep her alive thus far that she could no longer properly heal. It was regrettable, but it happened. He focused on the people he could save.

"She says the patient is beyond her. She's beyond all of us."

Taylor's biggest uncertainty was how much time he had, and he couldn't ask through their weak bond. He could write, but he wasn't ready to reveal he was a literate slime. So he chose one patient who had to be helped now or else they would die within the next few days, plus several he could heal completely in short order.

He started with the man who had an enormous, corrupted tumor in his stomach. From there, ribbons of liquifying tissue meandered along his digestive tract. Taylor could cure the rest of him easily enough, but the tumor had to come out. If he destroyed it in place, that much dead tissue would overwhelm the man's compromised body.

He badly needed to communicate with his summoner, so he proposed upgrading their bond to Minor. 

Your bond with Mariella has been upgraded to Minor. Summoning is more efficient, and you can exchange primitive ideas.

He cleaned himself with magic. Then, he pushed a pair of ideas at Mariella.

"Miss Wibbles wants to operate. Do you consent?"

"The healers here can't do anything," spoke the weary man, "and I've seen what it did for Ruzanna. It's do nothing and die, or try something. So if there's a chance, I'll take it."

Taylor didn't need more permission than that, and he ignored the stuttering disbelief of the local healer and his several protestations against the impropriety of Miss Wibbles's existence. Taylor hit the patient with Painless Sleep, the standard anesthetic spell. Then, he lined a thin appendage with an edge of pure force and made a two-inch incision. He extruded a thin appendage to reach in and feel around the tumor. The slime sense of touch was excellent, and he was able to cut around the tumor.

Mariella must have assisted in many operations before, because she knew just what to do. She helped remove blood, had instruments ready in case he needed them, and when Taylor lifted out the tumor, which was far larger than should have fit through the tiny incision, she caught the terrible thing in a steel bowl. It throbbed in the bowl, and corroded the steel it touched.

Taylor healed the incision, then spread himself over the patient's torso in a thin layer, purifying everything that remained of the corruption. When he was satisfied, he moved quickly on. Time was limited.

He did four more patients, none of whom required surgery, before Mariella called a halt. She was tiring fast and couldn't keep him for very much longer. The local healer was full of questions, but Mariella put him off with a wave of her hand. Later.

She led him to a staff room and asked Eterine to put him on her lap. She stroked the slime's smooth surface. "Thank you, Miss Wibbles. You have given us hope. I regret I am unable to make good on my promise right away. I thought we had more time, but you are a challenge to keep around."

The princess had hit her depletion threshold. For most people, that was half of their mana pool, unless they trained to push themselves further.

"I could learn so much from you, and I have so little to give in return. Even my jewels are not truly mine. Not that I think you care about such things. And yet, I must ask. Will you return tomorrow?"

No. He sent. Tomorrow would not work for him, because there was too much to do. 

The princess tried to keep her disappointment in check, and failed. "I understand. I don't blame you."

Taylor gave her a summoning timer for three days.

Mariella instantly cheered up. "Eterine! She set a timer! I've read about those. Check my calendar!"

After a quick adjustment of a few hours to accommodate the princess's schedule, Taylor disbanded himself to Twilight.