Fall, Day 10, 514AV
"Dammit Jillene, I'm dying here. Can't you just...throw me a bone, for once? It fucking hurts."
The proprietress of Sunset Quarters and matron of its neighboring orphanage remained unmoved in the dimly lit hallway, feet planted firmly apart and arms crossed in visible annoyance across her chest. Her colorless eyes were somehow trained on Noven's hunched over, bleeding figure with unnerving accuracy, and even though her hair was mussed and her five foot frame covered in nothing but a bath robe, neither did diddly squat to diminish the absolute authority with which she spoke.
"Bones aren't thrown around here, they're earned," she intoned, her voice cold as stone. "And you're not dying."
Nov wanted to argue. He really, really did. It just didn't seem doable at the moment, what with the room starting to spin woozily before his eyes, which were growing harder to keep open by the tick, and the steady drip drip dripping of his blood onto the old floorboards setting off every alarm still functioning in his body. The knife wound wasn't too deep and stretched about a handspan across his abdomen, but he'd been losing blood for quite some time now, on top of sporting several cuts and bruises from both fighting Errol and his sister's goons. The adrenaline, mixed with his cockiness from winning both fights, had kept him from noticing just how much blood he'd lost.
Until now, that is. The half-inch deep cut had turned into a proper concern, given how he'd failed to clean it and stop the bleeding for almost a full bell.
"Please, Jillene..."
"Tell me why you ended up this way. Then maybe, just maybe, I might consider divulging to you where this healer lives."
He watched Jillene's tiny foot as it tapped impatiently on the ground. Didn't she get splinters walking around like that? Or was her skin as hard as her head right now? Either way, it wasn't much of a choice. He had to tell her, or risk bleeding out here in the middle of the hallway.
"I was..." Nov finally conceded, wincing as he shifted to confess his story. Blood seeped through his clothes and fingers in thin, crimson rivulets. He wasn't entirely sure how much longer he had before he lost consciousness. "...at Tall Johnny's. "
The deepening of her frown gave away Jillene's disapproval long before her scathing words. "So you did go back there. Again. Knowing what you risk every time you start a fight outside these walls, sanctioned or not. Just because Calyn is dead, it doesn't mean your follies can't still cut her. Her legacy, her charges. Do you ever think of anyone but yourself? Or are you still just a trouble making child, waiting for the day someone else you care is wiped permanently from this world because of your stupid, juvenile actions? Do you?! Answer me!"
Noven stared at her in shock. He'd never, ever heard her speak that way. What was the woman going on about anyways? Sanctioned fights, juvenile actions? Bloody, sodding hell. How many times had she paid him to go off some fiend or other for her? It didn't even make sense. She'd never had issues with him and violence before. Not to mention those bits about Calyn and allusions to Nona's death, they just plain petching hurt.
"I just...wanted a clean fight, for once. To see if I'd gotten stronger. That's all," he tried to explain, as confused as he was irritated and, well, dying. "I didn't mean to...to bring any trouble...through your doors. I swear it...fuck..."
Nov slid down the wall, hand still gripped tightly against his wound, and just sat there for half a chime, trying to remember how to breathe. "If I don't make it, " he wheezed, unsure of whether he could even get back up at this point, "tell Mira...she can have Nona's crock pot..."
The Isur cursed up and down seven different shades of wrath before she stomped off, muttering something about men and their severe lack of intellect. For a while, Nov was sure she had left him to die. But moments later he heard a knock, some muffled exchanges, then the return of Jillene's bare feet slapping against rotting wood. It had to say something about his condition that the merc didn't even fight when two strong, mismatched arms hooked under his armpits and started dragging him across the hallway, leaving a grisly trail of red in his wake.
It did, however, hurt like radiant hell. Nov clamped his teeth shut, but groans of pains still made their way past his throat.
At some point the pain lessened as Jillene released him to lie like some pitiful corpse on the ground. "He's all yours, healer," she announced, breath hardly even labored from dragging someone twice her size through who knew how many halls. "And don't worry about the coin. He'll pay more than enough. Isn't that right, dearest cook?"
"You're..."
"Welcome?"
"...fucking crazy--ahh," Noven chortled and grimaced at the same time. Mental note to self: don't laugh when cut on stomach.
"Do your best," Jillene seethed, presumably to this fabled healer she had mysteriously summoned, "but if he grows too irritating, just cut him into little pieces and toss them out your window. He'll make good food for the dogs."
Then she spun on a single, bare heel and left.
"Krysus..." Noven panted. Then he shifted--very, very slowly--to wobble back onto his feet and look around him for the person who was supposed to save his life. Or turn him into dog food. Whichever came first. He wasn't in as bad a way as he'd led Jillene to believe, knowing if he mentioned the crock pot she would finally take him seriously. But he was getting there fast.