Chapter 11.2: The Infirmary

As promised, a pair of guards came to their tent shortly after the sun reached its apex. Helping the group with their belongings, they led the four travelers down the ramp and northward across the lower deck. It was a long walk along much of the fortress’ length, but it finally brought them to a shaded door pressed into a corner between a tower and the very face of the mountains. They followed a staircase that spiraled downward into the heart of the keep, finally making a turn through a doorway a few floors down. It was there, behind the first door on the right of a lengthy hall, that Penny and Minkus were presented with their room for the stay: the civilian dormitory.

The guards stepped back out into the hall and began leading Ventyr and Jindel back toward the staircase. Minkus looked at everyone, disappointment brushed broadly across his expressive face; it was all but impossible for the asura to hide his feelings. “We aren’t staying together?” Minkus asked.

One of the guards leaned back to eye him curiously around the doorframe.

“No,” Ventyr said. “These are the civilian quarters, intended for guests of Vigil Keep. Officers and soldiers stay on levels farther down.”

Penny, for all her time with him, was still often surprised at how simple it seemed Minkus could be. She shook her head but patted his shoulder just the same. Then she looked up at Ventyr in the doorway. “You’re still planning to keep us in the loop?”

“Yes,” he affirmed. “Get some rest, and we’ll be back when we’re able.” She nodded, and the small group continued on toward the stairwell.

Penny stepped away from Minkus’ side to collect her things and take account of the room, which was fairly large. Holding three rows of twelve beds a piece, the room was deeper than it was wide and clearly prepared to receive many more visitors than just the two of them, though it looked at present like they were it. Walled, floored, and ceilinged with the same smooth limestone that made up almost all of the fortress, it was a lifeless, cavelike space, no matter how many torches there were, or how many light-shafts had been built into the ceiling to fend off the darkness. Still, Penny had to acknowledge it was warmer than that canvas tent staked to a landing somewhere far above them.

As she took in the space, Penny strode away from the asura to lay claim to a bed at the near end of the row farthest from the door. “Better grab a bed there, Biggie,” she said in monotone. “Don’t want the good ones to get snatched up.”

He turned from the door to look silently around the room, his arms stationary at his side as he tilted his head. “Snatched up?” he questioned. “But Penny, there’s no one else—“

She stared back at him, disbelieving the naivety, and his thoughts suddenly clicked together. “Oh, right,” he said, smiling abashedly as he gestured around the room. “All these people might snatch the good ones.” He winked.

Penny shook her head as she turned to continue toward her bed. She still had no desire to be there, but even that couldn’t keep her from chuckling. The asura had a strange effect on her sometimes.

As it turned out, Ventyr was right. After all their travel, and one too many unforeseen complications, a day of rest was much more needed than Penny wanted to believe. After situating herself in the civilian dormitory, she lay down for what she said would only be a moment, but some two hours later she awoke with a groan to the sound of shuffling bags and clothing.

“Oh,” Minkus gasped, hands to his mouth. “I woke you. I’m so sorry. I was trying to be quiet!”

Penny rolled onto her side and found Minkus on the bed to her left, his feet dangling off the side with one boot on and the other toppled over on the ground beside his pack. The memory of where they were crept back in out of her post-nap haze. “How long—“ She paused frowning at the taste of afternoon morning-breath. “How long have I been out?”

Minkus shrugged. “I don’t know. I fell asleep too.” He dropped down from the bed, one foot hitting stone with the gentle tap of hardened leather and the other one slapping it with bare flesh. He reached down to grab the other boot.

“Have you heard from Vent yet?” Penny asked with a glazed expression. She still wasn’t sitting up, but instead laying on her side with one arm under her head.

“No,” Minkus replied. “No one has come by since I woke up.”

Penny stretched before pushing herself up and sliding her legs beneath her into a cross-legged sitting position. “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yes,” he said, giving one last stiff tug to his boot and looking up at her contently. “I wanted to go see Skixx in the infirmary. He’s been alone with the healers for most of the day now.” Minkus shrugged without lifting his hands. “I thought he’d like a visitor. Do you want to come?”

She thought about it a moment, briefly looking past the asura at the far end of the vast and dreary room, then she nodded and slid herself off the bed. “Anything’s better than this place.”

The two traversed what seemed like half the complex before they managed to find the infirmary. It wasn’t that there was no one to help them; the Vigil Keep was simply that large of a place. Each time they encountered a Vigil member, he or she was more than willing to point them in the right direction, but within a few steps of the right direction, they were once again in the wrong direction. First they simply took the wrong door into the interior of the fortress; four times they exited a stairwell on the wrong level; and more times than they could count, they simply turned the wrong way. Finally, though, the two found themselves entering the healing chambers.

“Doesn’t anyone know their way around this place?” Penny complained, gritting her teeth as they passed through the doorway to their destination. “I feel like a drunk gopher in a tunnel.”

“At least we found it,” Minkus replied, looking around the room before him. It was probably the length of their sleeping quarters, but three times as wide, making it nearly square. It held three times the number of beds, as well as side tables for each; plenty of tapestries to brighten the walls; a front desk manned by a smallish female charr; and what looked like several curtained closets in the back. Unlike their room, however, this one was naturally lit. Large, barred windows looked out on similar walls and windows opposite them and what seemed to be a waterfall off in the distance. There were torches on the walls of course, but half the room was still illuminated by sunbeams lighting the linens and revealing glittering motes of dust. Minkus went on, “Now we just need to find—“

“Can I help you?” a gravelly voice asked. It wasn’t in kindness.

Both the human and the asura returned their attention to the charr at the desk to their left, whom they’d forgotten as they were taking in the rest of the room. Caught off guard, Minkus lost his words.

“Yeah,” Penny responded. “We’re looking for a little asura who was brought here last night.”

“I’m sure you are,” the charr replied with a deep inhale. She stood out of her oversized chair, scooting it squeakily away from the desk, and started toward them. She was only a little taller than Penny—very small for a charr—but she walked like she meant business in everything she did, and right now, she clearly meant business with them. “You two certainly don’t look Vigil, and I’ve received no word about civilians coming to visit a patient, especially not an unnamed ‘little asura.’ Stop wasting my time and get out of my infir—“

“His name is Skixx,” Minkus interrupted, looking right up into scowling feline eyes as big as his own. Both the charr and the woman looked down at him in very different types of shock.

“Excuse me, mouse?” the charr growled.

Minkus, who’d been taken aback by the Vigil healer at first, now looked her straight in the eye and smiled, not a trace of nervousness in him—Penny couldn’t tell if it was courage or stupidity that empowered him.

“Skixx,” Minkus replied. “Our friend’s name is Skixx. We met him on the way here with Sergeant Ventyr. Your people came and got him to finish the healing I started yesterday.”

A small voice piped up from halfway across the room. “Skixx? Did someone say Skixx?”

“Ooh, that’s him! I hear him,” Minkus declared, rising to his toes to try and see further across the room.

The charr crossed her arms and leaned her shoulders back a little, drawing her tail beneath her to counterbalance. “You say you came in with the group last night? What are your names?”

“Yes, we did,” Penny broke in, sliding herself in front of Minkus before he could speak again. “Penny Arkayd and Minkus.”

“Minkus the Large,” the asura interjected, leaning out from behind his friend.

Penny rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that.”

The charr continued to stand with her arms crossed. She remained mildly distrusting, but her shoulders lowered a tad. “You’re lucky. I was one of the ones who came to get him last night, so I was informed who he traveled with. You two can see him this time, but don’t come into my infirmary without proper papers again. You understand?”

Both nodded. The charr rotated ninety degrees, allowing them to pass by her and make their way into the room.

It was maybe a quarter full with patients, which seemed sparse, but given the number of beds, it was actually quite a few. Though Penny had the better vantage, it was Minkus who noticed the most about the people they passed, laid up in the beds at roughly his eye-level. Mostly human, with a few norn and a sylvari or two, the patients here were in particularly bad shape. He could tell the healers had already started work on a variety of deep wounds that seemed to be healing well, but each of them was also missing at least a portion of a limb: a hand, an arm, half a leg—and those were the least serious among them. Many things could be healed, but not lost members. His eyes slowly widened.

This, he realized, was where Vigil soldiers went when their vigil was over.

“Balthazar, she was a stiff one,” Penny whispered, interrupting Minkus’ thought.

“Really, you think so?” He murmured, still gazing at the patients as they approached Skixx’s bed. “She seems good at her job.”

Penny was looking askance at her short friend when Skixx joined the conversation from a bed away. “Talking about Captain Neela?” His voice still sounded weak.

“Maybe,” Penny replied. “The big, furry, domineering one back there?”

“You don’t understand the half of it,” Skixx said with a small sneer. “This morning she had one of her assistants escorted out for filling my tub with the wrong temperature of water. She prattled on about precise conditions for optimal healing.” Skixx shook his head. “Her excessive control reminds me of the more undesirable krewe leaders I’ve had the displeasure of working with.”

“At least you’re in good hands,” Minkus said, shifting his attention to his fellow asura with a wan smile. His eyes meandered over Skixx’s body, looking for any signs of remaining injury. It was hard to tell beneath the cream-colored gown they’d dressed him in. “You look like you’re feeling better.”

“I still feel like I’ve been shot,” Skixx replied flatly. “But,” he added with a pained grin, “things would have been worse if not for you two— and the others. Grape?” He held out a small ceramic dish of grapes to Minkus and Penny.

Minkus nodded, reaching out to take one from the dish. He chewed it happily. “Thank you.”

Penny leaned over him slightly to get a glance at his side table. “I don’t suppose you’ve got an ale hiding back there somewhere?”

“Alchemy, no,” Skixx replied. “I wouldn’t imbibe that backwash if my recovery depended on it.”

Penny’s hand went to her hip. “Now, now. Everyone knows you can’t trust a man who won’t drink.”

“Then I suppose you ought not trust me.” He shook his head, as though the mere mention of ale was enough to twist his stomach. “Nothing this side of the Mists could make me want such a revolting beverage.”

Minkus and Penny exchanged confused glances. “Fine,” Penny said, shrugging, “More for us. They’re giving you more to eat than grapes, right?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Skixx said, nodding without enthusiasm. “Most of it is tasteless, though. Some sort of healthy gruel they feed to all the infirmed soldiers here.” He went on, raising a grape in hand and sliding it into his mouth as he spoke. “These grapes have been jarred since autumn, but they’re better than that mucusy paste.” Minkus grimaced at the thought.

Just beside Skixx’s headboard, Penny leaned back against the wall, between the two closest windows. Nodding her head absently, she began popping her knuckles. Minkus was the one who’d wanted to come, not her.

Just then, Captain Neela came up behind them on surprisingly silent hindpaws. She cleared her throat, turning all eyes to her, though her focus was on Minkus. “Mr. Large, you mentioned something about healing Mr. Skixx before we’d gotten him. Was it you who’d done the preliminary work?”

“Yes,” Minkus replied, unsure why she was asking. “I— well, it was mostly me. I think Ventyr helped a little too.”

“I’d like to speak with you a moment,” Neela said, gesturing him away from the bed. “His recovery is unquestionable, but it’s important we know all the healing that’s been done as we continue our work on him through the day.”

Minkus nodded. Though he was unsure what he was going to say that would help her at all, the two strode away toward the front desk.

“Curious fellow, that one,” Skixx observed, slurping another wet grape into his mouth as he watched the other asura leave. “I suppose it’s human kindness that’s made you befriend him?”

“Who, Biggie?” Penny asked, turning back to him.

“Yes, ‘Biggie.’ You call him that because he goes by Large, correct?”

Penny nodded, with an unexpectedly wry grin on her face. “Yeah. Minkus,” she said, suddenly raising the pitch of her voice and floppily shifting her arms in imitation of her friend, “Minkus the Large!” She laughed for a second before continuing. “I don’t know many asura. Do all of you get funny titles like that: Large?”

“Alchemy, no,” he said. “Certainly not one like that. I’ve only heard or one or two given titles by the population at large. A few more are arrogant enough to promulgate their own self-congratulatory accolades, but Large? None are absurd enough to revel in their physical size.” He looked down the aisle at Minkus with thinly veiled disgust. “I would have expected one of his kin or krewemates to correct him by this point.”

Penny’s brow furrowed in thought as she swept a lock of hair out of her face and behind her ear. “What do you mean?”

The asura in the bed waved the question away but was cut short by a shot of pain in his arm. Wincing, he reached for it before responding. “Oh, don’t listen to me. Just the rantings of a bedridden battery victim pumped full of sedation elixir. Did your Vigil associates accomplish what they came here for?”

Penny paused.

“Oh,” Skixx said, shrinking back into his pillow. “Is that an inappropriate question?”

She gave him a second glance, thinking over what her position on the matter was. Really, she decided, there was no news, so there was little harm in her stating what she really didn’t know. “I don’t know, actually. Neither does Ven— the sergeant. He’s being held up by his superior, waiting on her for something.”

“I see,” The asura mused, rubbing his small, receded chin gently. “Held up by his superior. And you’re still here? I thought you had dealings in the Shiverpeaks to attend to.”

Penny inhaled deeply as she leaned back against the stones between the windows again. She put a hand to her forehead and let the breath go in a rush of air. “I really wish you had an ale back there. Yeah, I do have business in the Shiverpeaks, and yeah, I am still here. Biggie wanted to stay, and it’s not like another day or two is going to make my news for the buyer any worse; it’s as bad as it can get—” she trailed off, staring briefly at the ceiling. “Dwayna only knows how I’m going to get out of this drake’s nest.”

“A day or two?” He inquired further. “Then you press on with the sergeant?”

Penny’s expression soured slightly. “I don’t know what they’re doing from here, but in two days, I’m finishing my trip, finagling some kind of deal with that grumpy norn and going home: back to the Reach, back to my shop, and out of— this.” She waved her hand at everything around her.

“I see.” Skixx nodded a few times, taking in the information as he laid back into his pillow again. He sat upright against it, propped up by the headboard, and ate another grape.

Minkus returned to the bedside, directly in front of Penny, still leaning against the wall. “I’m sorry,” he said genuinely. “She wanted to know what I’d used to work on you. I told her magic, but she had many other questions.” He scratched the back of his ear. “I didn’t really have all the answers she wanted, and I’ve never used elixirs before, but I think you’re in good hands.”

“Thank you,” he replied, then quickly yawned. “Well, thank you for the visitation, but I’m getting quite tired. The sedation elixir seems to be taking effect. Impressive speed. Tomorrow I hope to be mobile again, so there’s no need for you to visit me. I’ll locate you when I’m released.”

“Oh,” Minkus replied. Polite as he remained, he still couldn’t hide his disappointment. “I— I’m sorry I missed the visit, but yes, you get your rest. We will see you later.”

Penny leaned forward, pushing herself off the wall to follow behind Minkus, pausing briefly to smirk at Skixx. “Enjoy the sponge baths, Moptop.” The two continued down the aisle between the beds and made the turn at the end of the room, into the corridor and out of sight.

Skixx heaved a sigh of relief as they disappeared from his view. “Idiots,” he whispered.

It was only the second day, but the strain of upholding his pleasant facade with these people was already wearing on him, and that was to say nothing of the physical pain he was also experiencing. He rubbed his arm, still scarred and tender from the bullet wound he’d given himself the previous day. Yes, in the care of a team of healers and at least one staff medic with a relatively wide knowledge of elixirs, he knew his wounds wouldn’t remain serious for long, but that didn’t serve to relieve the throbbing at that moment.

“If this doesn’t amount to something substantial,” he whispered through gritted teeth, “I’m going to shoot Kikka in the arm.”