Lunafreya’s pilgrimage through Galahd had only just begun when her first patient came to find her. Their boat had been delayed by inclement weather, so she’d only arrived at the port around sunset. It would be easier to find those with the Scourge in the morning, by announcing her presence in the square to a larger crowd of people, so she’d found herself a motel to rest in for the night. Just as she pulled the covers back and began to slip beneath them, there was a frantic knock at the door, hard enough to rattle the landscape paintings hanging on the walls. Flustered, she’d stumbled back out of bed and begun to reach for her discarded day clothes; much to her surprise, however, the door opened while she was still scraping them off the floor. She turned her head to find that Gentiana had materialized to open the door; just over her shoulder, Luna could make out the face of a Galahdan man, perhaps a bit older than her, face flushed with exertion. “You’re the healer?” the man blurted out in a breathless rush, eschewing introductions. “I mean—the, uh, Princess? You can heal Scourge?” “Who speaks?” Gentiana asked, not unkindly. The man made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. “Libertus. Libertus Ostium. Can you—I mean—” He bobbed a belated bow. “Your Highness, can you heal Scourge, or not?” The sheer desperation in his voice crushed Luna’s heart. Against her better judgment, she let her ceremonial garb slip back through her fingers and approached the door in her nightgown, only her self-conscious arms folded over her chest protecting her modesty. “I can,” she said, and Mr. Ostium’s head snapped towards her. The relief she saw there only solidified her resolve. “Do you—?” “Please,” he interrupted, and he dropped into another, deeper bow. Only then did Lunafreya see the handful of Galahdan currency he was holding out before him in offering. “My sister—it’s bad. Real bad.”
#WIPWednesday i guarantee 100% that no one can guess how this fic ends from this opening lmao
