Chapter 166 – Healing a Maid

"My Lady, you know I had to add time just in case Lady Isda needed you to get dressed in your own room," Aurora explains as we wait in the bloody garden again.

"Why would she say no? Even if she did, we could just change outside of her room, in any of the other rooms, in the changing room, or go into Geta's room," I say.

"That would not be proper. Geta would be getting ready to leave for her trip and should not be disturbed. The other places are not where you get dressed, my Lady," Aurora says.

"The changing room isn't?"

"It is for getting out or into your clothing for a bath."

"That is a stupid definition of a changing room," I say. "Then, if my wife is not willing to let me get dressed in their room, they can handle me never joining them for the night."

"The right thing to do is to ask my Lady," Aurora says.

"The right thing for you to do is let me get dressed where I wish to and plan for it."

"We can talk about this later. Oriphusa should be coming soon, and she does not need to hear us fighting, my Lady. We have the afternoon to show you the little things about the house. Plenty of time to work these things out then," Aurora says. She is likely hoping I forget about the topic so she can keep doing things the 'proper' way.

"This better be the first thing you bring up," I say. Why not force her to remember it? I guess if I forget and she doesn't say anything I won't know to punish her, not that I know how or if I'm allowed to punish maids.

"As you wish, my Lady," Aurora says with a stupid bow. Making us wait the last few minutes in silence. It would've been peaceful if I didn't have the vision of all the monsters lying dead in their own blood still fresh in my mind.

"Hello, Lady Alzi," Oriphusa calls out, Sextia trailing her a bit again. "I know I said the end of the week, but with your performance yesterday, I think we will be good to jump straight to healing Sextia here. There is no need to make a woman wait to get her arm back for no reason."

Aurora motions for me to stand up so I do and walk over to meet the Lamia halfway. "Ok," I say back.

"Thank you, my Lady," Sextia says with a deep bow.

"Now, let's move to the chairs. There is no pleasant way to regrow a limb. It is one of the longest things we do. Obviously, labor will be the longest, as that has little to do with our magic. Poisons and curses can also take a long time," Oriphusa explains. "But anyways, it will take some time and will hurt, so try to have your patients sitting or lying down for it. If doing a leg, I would suggest strapping them down for the procedure. Those can be quite nasty to regrow. Sextia on one side, Alzi on the other. I will be off to the side watching, but I believe you will be able to do it easily."

Oriphusa gets us on either side of the table, the stubbed arm out for me. Sextia's face looks surprisingly relaxed despite knowing this will be the first person I properly heal, and it is regrowing a limb.

"I am ready whenever Lady Alzi and Sextia are ready," Oriphusa says once she is happy with where we are sitting. "Remember, cut back the wound, then grow it forward. Slow is fine; your healing will keep the blood from spooling out. Sextia, you should turn away so it doesn't cause you to faint."

"I know," I mumble, staring at the arm. I let Sextia turn away and then think about cutting the wound back. I start up my mana and see the cut happen, a slice of flesh falling to the table. Aurora or Oriphusa move it to the side, and I start to rebuild the arm. Bone first, then all the fleshy bits around it. Slow and steady.

Just like the rat, the arm is relatively easy to build. But past the wrist, I slow down a lot. Building all the small bones around the wrist is slow work, but the fingers are a lot easier this time around. The last step in the journey is the fingernails.

"Done," I pant out.

"Hmm," is all Oriphusa lets out, looking at the newly made arm. Pocking and prodding about. Sextia still turns away, her face a bit pale. "Can you move the arm around?"

"Yes," Sextia groans outs. Her fingers curl up to form a fist. Then bends at the elbow before spinning the fist around a bit. "It feels fine."

"You are able to move it around correctly, and I am not finding anything to fix. It really seems Lady Alzi is a natural healer," Oriphusa says, her hands feeling around the maids new arm still. "When I finally got enough mana to regrow an arm, it took me half an hour, yet you took just a quarter. Not far off my ten minutes, Lady Alzi. I may bring a few people each day this week to practice before I go into how to handle large groups will little mana and how to stabilize people without mana. Sextia, you are free to go. I'm sure you want to practice with your new arm again."

"Thank you, Lady Oriphusa and Lady Alzi," Sextia says, bowing out of the garden.

"Now I think you have proven you can handle healing Lady Alzi. More than enough for me to recommend you as a healer. But wars are common, and as you may be the next royal healer, you will need to be able to handle large numbers. You have plenty of mana, and I'm sure you'll get more, but on the way, you never have enough," Oriphusa says. "So now I will give a run down of how to make your mana last. Besides the obvious limit what you heal."

...

"Shimmer said I wouldn't be in fights," I say, watching Oriphusa leave the garden.

"Not for a while, my Lady," Aurora says. "That is the plan, but things can change. If a war breaks out, you will be with Princess Elora's army to help her. You will likely be the top healer for the army, with a few others with a life affinity and a number of women handling the non-mana healing. In the current missions, they will be forced to get stabilized and come back home for you to heal completely till we can get you trained on how to react in the field. Sextia's injury was from a mistake like that, and they are not willing to risk you in that manner. But first comes the healing training then some time working as a healer."

"When can I start working?" I ask. I guess I need to count on them to let me live out one dream—two, if I want to count—getting to raise Isda's children. But that dream really is raising children with Mommy, Yuki, and Mai.

Have Mommy get me pregnant, and then the four of us can have babies together. Maybe Mai or Yuki can get me pregnant after Mommy since I take half the time. If I'm stuck with the Princess, I could add having her beat my record for the number of children to the pile of dreams.

I really need to find a better punishment than making them heavily pregnant.

"You can begin once you are done with Oriphusa's lessons, my Lady," Aurora says. Eight kids in her womb as a punishment. How long till she starts to show? How long will she keep working for me? "But for now, lunch, then we can go around, and I will show you how to use the different mana contraptions."

"Ok," I say.

"We can go up to your room for lunch, or you can join your wives for lunch. If we go to your room, my Lady, we will have to walk back down the stairs for many of the things I wish to show you," Aurora says. Bitch tricking me into eating with my wives. Making me decide if I hate the stairs or my wives more. Shimmer and Geta are gone. I guess I can see if I will truly like Inanos or not.

"I guess I can eat with my wives," I finally say.

"I think they will be thrilled to have you join them, my Lady," Aurora says with a smile. She promptly turns and starts back towards the house.

Seems I may be a little late to this lunch.

Aurora moves me quickly through the garden and house. I don't know how it works if I show up after they start eating. Would I be allowed to join them?

I would imagine they would find a way for me to join them even if it breaks some stupid rule they made up a few hundred years ago.

"Here you go, my Lady," Aurora says, opening one of the many doors on the first floor. I really should ask about the immense pile of artwork they must have made.

I walk in and remember the Princess would also be at the dinner. In fact, she, Isda, and Vanya are the only three sitting down when I walk in. The others are still moving to their seats.

The problem is that Inanos is sitting at the far end, and I'm sure the Princess will make me sit by her.

"Oh, Alzi, welcome," the Princess says. "I'm happy you are able to join us. I know yesterday's lesson went a bit late, but Lady Oriphusa is giving you a glowing review. Sextia even came by to say she can join the mission tomorrow, thanks to you. I knew you would take up the healing side of your mana quickly."

"I am a little surprised by the speed," I mutter. Vanya scoots over so I have room to the Princess's left to sit.

"Well, we all believed in you," Isda says. "Now, please sit down. I'm sure Aurora rushed you down here. It would be rude to keep you standing after that."

"Thank you," I mumble. I try to drag my feet, but it feels too strange not picking them up, and Shyla seems to have taken my ask to dress like a whore seriously. Six-inch heels aren't something to play around in.

"Is Shyla starting to get your clothing fitted?" Ioelana asks, her eyes swimming over my form.

Is she slowing down time? Her eyes are practically buzzing in their sockets.

"I think so," I say, taking my seat.

"She has my Lady," Aurora fills in for me. I hope that includes the stupid pants. They weren't too bad at the party, but the tie was silly with my collar. Then the shirt and jackets better leave room for my tits to be in a bra. I'm enjoying not having them being bound.

Of course, my current dress has them jiggling plenty in my cleavage, which more than one woman at the table is staring at. The rest of the top isn't quite a corset, but Shyla has it close. The skirt portion does make it past my knees, likely part of some dress code for lessons, but has no problem showing the shape of my ass.

I'm sure Aurora is mad she has to walk in front of me.

"Is that the style you want?" Isda asks.

"You bought a whore. Sorry for playing the part," I say.

"I did not buy a whore," the Princess states. "I picked up a slave that deserved so much more than she had. A slave that was being abused, raped, and worked to death. I've given that slave a home, a family that loves her, an education, and a promise for even more. A promise the Goddess of Love ensures I complete. Unlike the worthless words, you were given in the brothel. But I am starting to see your view, and I wish to have a pleasant lunch so we won't fight about this. My words are meaningless to you, and I have to accept that and find actions that mean something to you instead. You look beautiful as always, my Love. I just want you to dress in what makes you happy. There will be times when none of us can be happy with what we wear, including me. So please make use of the times you can. But I think we would all love to hear about today's lesson. Yesterday was hard on you. I hope today was better."

"Killing a bunch of monsters is just hard on me?" I ask. The maids start to pass out the food, Aurora even moves the silly napkin to my lap for me. "That will be in my memory forever. Ready to haunt me if this damn collar ever falls off."

"Killing is a hard thing," Vanya says. "We may have pushed you too far yesterday, killing them all in one go. But it is good for you. You need to get used to blood and guts to be a healer. It is a lot easier to handle when the blood is from a monster and not a child dying. But we seem to be walking into another terrible subject for lunch. I'm sure you have a lot of questions for us. Why don't we field those for you?"

"I guess you all have a lot of art," I say, not really sure how I should ask about all the rooms.

"Hmm, I guess we do," the Princess says. "But we need to decorate the house, so it's not really that much if you look at it that way."

"Do you all draw then?" I ask.