Luckily I didn't wake up in the same death grip as I had done the previous day, still a death grip but this one was more manageable with her legs wrapped around my chest instead. What concerned me though was the curvature of her spine as she hung over me… It would have been disturbing if her face was capable of bringing me anything other than joy.
"Eve, you best wake up, I'm going to need to stretch your back out before we head down." She then proved my earlier sentiment wrong as her eyes flickered open.
As she stirred and became aware of her own discomfort, her face twisted into something else entirely. I don't know if you can imagine the horror of waking up completely trapped by someone dear to you, their face hanging over you like a slumbering goddess, then immediately contorting as their bones crack and the thrumming of their pained vocalisations vibrate through you, their legs constrict you even tighter and their mouth swings ajar like the maw of a wrathful dragon, but it remains to this day one of the most terrifying moments of my existence.
"Oww! Ow! Ow! Ow!" She cried as I gently pushed her backward and unwrapped the legs wrapped around me by the ankles.
I conjured a massage table and carefully transplanted her over as she struggled to turn over. "This is mostly my fault, so face in the hole and I'll fix it, just expose your back for me real quick first."
She eyeballed me suspiciously, but did as instructed whilst I lit some scented candles to help her relax. Her suspicion quickly vanished when I started however and despite the horrendous noises each adjustment created, the relief was almost immediate in her.
When I heard the soft tapping of Fala knocking on the door I told her to enter then explained what I was doing. "This is both a very good and very dangerous healing method, if you make a mistake you can cause the patient incredible pain and in worst case even paralyze." I tried to explain.
"I don't care if you paralyze me, after this I don't need to feel anything ever again." Eve moaned, ears turning red as she clearly hadn't even realised Fala had entered.
Sensing that continuing might not be exactly age appropriate, I gently moved Fala back as I responded. "Ahem! I was explaining to Fala not you dear, please don't interrupt the lesson."
Then chaos unfolded, as Eve flew to an upright position and lost balance, leaving me barely enough time to settle the table and catch the woman who was acting like a cat newly drenched in ice cold water out of a bucket.
"Maybe you should go get everyone seated for breakfast, little lady." I said through the restrained laughter as I stood with one leg raised to keep the table from flipping and a wrist each in both my hands to balance Eve who was effectively standing upright on the corner of the opposite side.
"Ok, but don't be long, you have lots of patients to see this morning." She spoke with the confidence of someone who knew they had just aced the test they had just taken, then left and pattered down the stairs.
I only heard the door click however, after that, Eve launched herself at me and pinned me down. "That was very unfair of you, taking advantage of a lady's discomfort to… to…" She turned bright red, then leaned in and kissed me, only stopping after what felt like eternity as my brain kicked into high gear to savor every fraction of a second.
"Now we're even, you took my first time being touched in such a way and I took your first kiss. Now, go get dressed, I'll compose myself and be down momentarily." She concluded, pulling me up and ejecting me from the room with all haste after.
I was stuck on autopilot for a while, plodding to my room, getting dressed, plodding downstairs, barely managing to twitch a finger in everybody's general direction as a greeting.
"Err, every-" Leeson tried to ask if everything was ok, but as he snapped me from my stupor I returned full force.
"What the f- in the holy hell was that!?" I shouted, barely managing to keep a word out of Fala's vocabulary, as I slammed down the canister I was holding, shaking everyone to their cores, their very very confused cores.
"Yep, he's definitely engaged, that's exactly what I was like a couple of days after proposing to Fala's mother." Rein noted, nodding his head in solidarity. "You were making breakfast… A lot of it and probably something special for Eve, sweet." He continued after a brief pause.
After turning to give him a nod in recognition of the sage advice, I did as instructed and Eve was absolutely thrilled which earned him another nod.
Then, Eve pressed one of the red berries to her lips before eating it and paused, everyone noticed but simply turned their attention back to their own meal, all except one, whose adorable little face began to glow.
"Did you two kiss after he touched you!?" Time sat still for a fraction of a second, then almost simultaneously everyone else pushed their plates forward and let their heads hit the table.
I on the other hand covered my face with both hands and threw my head back hard enough to make my chair fall back, didn't even try to stop it, just let it happen.
Eve stammered for a minute, trying to find words to explain the situation, but was clearly being bullied by a particular dirty minded voice in her head evidenced by the deep burgundy of her face which I thought might have actually contained every drop of blood in her body.
The final nail in the coffin of breakfast however was when Ever's mockery finally received a response that was far more external than their usual conversations. "We were not all Mwah! Mwah! Mwah! It was a single kiss and a woman is perfectly entitled to kiss the man to whom she will be wed!"
I was quickly learning that when Eve adopted the haughty tone and vocabulary of nobility she was at her wit's end and rose to bring an end to the fiasco as I ushered everyone out to leave her to argue with her unruly guest.
We all walked to the clinic in silence, Fala was tense, not knowing why we all left food on the table which was a mortal sin under my roof.
When we got to the clinic I conjured a sandwich for Fala since I couldn't let her start work only half-full, then sat everyone down in the rest room. I knew they were happy and curious, it was only natural, they loved us and wanted to know how we were going. But, I also knew that after that Eve would not be in an intimate details kind of mood, which meant it fell on me to do so.
"So, to explain Fala's comment, as I am sure you all know, it wasn't how Fala made it sound… Fala, don't ask questions, you'll know when you know." I declared, quickly adding the last bit as the curious child opened her mouth to inevitably ask what it sounded like.
"Look, we know it wasn't like that, you wouldn't have let Fala in the room if it were. We just want to know what happened, we love coming round in the morning, but if we're stepping on toes just say." That statement led to a deafening silence as I glared at every single one of them (except Fala) and remembered telling them to not come uninvited.
"Look, she fell asleep sitting up and ruined her back, I was giving her a massage slash realignment…" I then gave Fala some completely soundproof earplugs, which she put in like the angel she is. "It works to decompress the joints and skeletal structure, it also relieves muscle tension and is a valid medical technique that I will teach Fala for use on female patients since they often have trouble with back and shoulder pain…"
Suddenly I was interrupted by the women present, truth be told I had barely acknowledged Karla so having her shout suddenly startled me more than it should have. After their immediately demanding I refocus my priorities in her training, Valo continued. "Anyway, as great as that sounds enough with the medical babble."
I let out a deep sigh, unsure what I was safe to tell. "Nerves in the lower back are incredibly sensitive, and are part of a massive nerve substructure. In short, one wrong move, for example while you're distracted talking your apprentice through the practice and potential dangers and that move can be felt across most of the lower body… Which causes certain feelings to become… suddenly exasperated." I stopped talking, only long enough to realise I hadn't done much in the way of taking blame.
When I had thought of how to continue, I resumed, hoping that it would be enough to satisfy them. "Obviously, this all happened as a result of me touching the wrong nerve, but yes after I told Fala to let you all in, she kissed me, then kicked me out of the room. She now has an incredibly dirty-minded god mocking her inside her own head, so I would recommend avoiding the subject."
I sat with my hands steepled, staring at the point where the tips of my index fingers met. Not knowing if I had just made a colossal mistake.
"For what it's worth, I really didn't care, pretty sure it was just Karla and Valo that would have asked her, but thanks for letting me know it's going to be awkward back at HQ for a while." Kriel evaluated honestly, one which judging by the men's nodding heads was completely accurate and meant I had just told five times more people than necessary.
We all sat in silence until Eve arrived, at which point she took a deep breath before speaking for herself. "I don't need to know what he said, to know he took the blame. As Ever told me after she stopped joking, Adam is not well versed in this particular field. His treatment of my back was thrilling, and I got carried away. I love him and what I did was only natural and there is nothing wrong with it…"
She gestured for Fala to take out the earplugs when she noticed them. "Fala, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have made such a scene, please don't feel bad, I should have been more mature."
Fala ran over to give her a hug, then apologised. "I'm just happy you and uncle Adam are happy. Ever needs to stop being mean though, I could hear her teasing you…" The words hung in the air, for a moment then Fala gasped. "Uncle Adam, Ever said a bad word!"
No one could respond, I could only look to Eve for confirmation and she nodded with wide-eyes.
I immediately stood and erected every kind of tracking magic I knew, even directly willing the mana to reveal any link between Ever and Fala, but nothing. It was a mystery, no matter what I tried, did, or asked, Fala seemed to have developed the inexplicable ability to hear the voice of my old charge and nothing we did could break it or even muffle it.
When the first patient came in, I had no choice but to cease my study and get to work, but not before warning Ever. "Until we figure this out, you need to watch what you say. I won't let you drag the girl into the gutter with you and if you force me to stop letting Fala near Eve, I will be less than happy."
It then led to Eve saluting me under orders. "Sorry, I don't know if she's being sarcastic or not." Eve admitted after doing it.
I groaned at having to deal with that level of weirdness first thing in the morning before responding. "It was definitely sarcastic, but Ever has yet to disobey me after making that ridiculous gesture, think of it like a final hurrah before she falls into obedience." I groaned and kissed Eve on the cheek before heading downstairs, only remembering when I hit the bottom that everyone bar Kadri, Valo and Fala were still up there.
In the end, I had no choice but to pretend it didn't happen, the clinic was packed with people who needed assessing and Fala was eager to see how she did.
Three hours later, the last patient had been double-checked and I turned to Fala. "You did very well… However, there were several who weren't cleaning their wounds. Did you give them the solution?"
"I think-" She started before hesitating
"You are very talented and I'm very proud, but you cannot think, you must know. When we leave on our journey, you will be in charge, do what you need to do to change possibilities to certainties. Would it help if we pre-packed some cleaning kits and instructions? How about if we add a box to the check sheet?"
"Then we'll do both. Valo, I'm going to go make some instruction sheets, please call if a patient comes in." With that the incredible young healer trotted back up the stairs, once again leaving me speechless and bewildered.
"Valo, watch her. She will do amazing things or terrible things, don't let it be the latter." I finally said, staring up the empty stairway after her.
"Why do you sound like you're leaving for good and not just a night?" She asked in a conspiratorial manner, voice scarcely above a whisper.
"Because, I am not today, but I fear long before that path is set in stone. My original time had a saying "Talent, genius and madness are but a step away from each other". If Sil ever comes by, get Fala as far away as possible, with Sil targeting what I cherish; she is second on her list of targets, maybe even first if she isn't caught up on me and Eve."
"If Sil gets anywhere close to her, I will evacuate her to somewhere even you wouldn't want to go unprepared…" She held up a small token. "It's a free pass to the origin wyrms, Byurik gave it to me after the Askel incident. Speaking of which you two may as well get started on your getaway."
I was satisfied with that answer, what they call origin wyrms were seriously no joke, my information was limited on them but for all intents and purposes they were gargantuan, living, massive intelligent antithesis blades. How they came to be is a mystery I'd love to investigate, but I would never be permitted in their domain, they would consider my existence a declaration of war and whilst I had no doubt I could be two or three at once, there were ten and they stayed together in one place as if waiting for a fight that would need their combined strength.
Valo then called Eve down to get us on our way, suggesting we leave quietly so Fala doesn't get distracted whilst working, which was a fair point.
We paid a quick visit to all the freeloaders, I mean regulars at our table to make our absence known and ask if anything needed delivering to the mine on our way and we were told to stop by the seamstress which seemed bizarre but we thought maybe she had some aprons for the cooks there or something.
On our way, we bumped into the engineer Tyrland left behind to install the teleportation platform, who promised us it should be ready in about nine days, then we entered the dress shop to meet the seamstress.
"Hello there, come to order another cute nurse outfit for the little healer?" She spoke in a very motherly tone, Fala had become her favourite dress-up doll whilst we were getting them ordered and made the poor girl far too nervous to go back.
"No, we're actually here for a parcel meant for the mine. What is it by the way? Didn't expect this to be the supplier when we asked, figured it would be provisions or the like." I replied casually, not wanting to engage her and indirectly sign Fala up as a model for her latest creations.
"Sorry, can't say! Sworn to secrecy and all that." Her high energy way of speaking quickly turned into a whisper louder than my usual indoor voice at the mention of secrecy, then quickly cranked up the decibels again as she continued. "Beside! A nobleman like yourself should know better than to enquire about a woman's delicates!"
"Ok, I'm out, Eve I'll be outside." With that I grabbed the box, casually tossing it into my magic storage space, leaving with what little dignity I had intact.
Eve wasn't talking long, I imagine just outlining a few points of the wedding dress she wanted. A starting point to get some designs drawn up, I know, "Surely this isn't enough time for a wedding dress. Surely this smalltown seamstress isn't skilled enough to handmake a wedding dress fit for the ex-high priestess, not to mention the future queen." I would have thought the same before Fala's uniforms.
In just one week, one week, there were forty-eight, forty-eight, different nurse uniform designs for Fala, and that includes not only functional proto-types but also made out of materials she had never seen before and had never existed in this time until I made them. Whilst her personality was not a good match for mine, I applauded her talent and would consider anyone willing to forgo her skill just to avoid her, a fool.
That said, my record was three minutes and twenty seconds, that was the longest I could stand in her aura that was like every stimulant known across the world's entire history being forcibly injected into your system, well mine rejected it and I ended up drinking with Dusk at noon, then walking through the streets singing at midnight.
"Shall we?" Eve's words were simple, but her joy was profound. I could see in every line of tension how she struggled to contain her excitement, the only thing keeping her from telling me every detail was the desire all women share to see their fiancé completely disarmed upon seeing them in that dress, shattering expectations where ignorance had allowed none to even exist.
"One last thing before we go." Unwilling to leave the town undefended and unwilling to leave Halsan without making his life difficult. I summoned another divine beast to stand guard in my stead.
One again the fabric of reality bulged, the edges of which began to crack and spider-web out from the epicentre, then it broke through. A beast like none I'd ever seen, though to call it a beast would be inaccurate it was a hauntingly beautiful living shadow, the living silhouette of the stereotypical angel.
"My lord, I have long awaited your summons." As the nine-foot tall, stunning figure, that seemed to be a gap in reality itself, kneeled before me and spoke, I realised I messed up