Irina Jace's Arc

Chapter 3 of 9

She found the man still sitting in the gazebo when she returned to the village. He stood when he saw her, his wrapped hand hanging at his side. Irina stopped at the bottom step. "I can treat your burn in four days," she said. "The remedy works. But I need to know what you were carrying." He looked at her for a long moment. "Why?" "Because if I don't know what caused it, I can't tell you if it will happen again." He sat back down and stared at the blue roses growing thick around the railing. "I was moving alchemical compounds for someone. Guild stuff. The container broke." Irina thought about the color-shifting cloth, the way the hues had pooled dark where the burn was worst. "The guild knows you took it?" He shook his head. "They know it's missing. They don't know it was me." She could walk away. Let him find someone else, someone who wouldn't ask questions. But she'd already committed to treating him, and she'd already proven the remedy worked. She pulled out her journal and flipped to a blank page. "Show me your hand again. I'm going to draw it." He unwrapped the cloth slowly, and she sketched the damage, marking the depth and spread. When she finished, she looked up. "Four days. Come to Maren's house at the north edge of the village. If you're late, I'm not waiting." He nodded and wrapped his hand again. As she turned to leave, he said, "If you help me, I'll tell people you're better than the guild herbalists." Irina stopped on the bottom step. That was exactly what she wanted—word spreading that she could handle cases the guild couldn't. But the weight of it settled wrong. She turned back. "Don't tell anyone where you got treated. Not until your hand is healed." The man's face changed. "You're worried they'll track me here." Irina looked at the black gazebo across the square, its purple roses thick enough to hide someone watching. The guild controlled the compounds he'd stolen. If they found out she was treating guild-related burns, they'd come asking questions. But if she turned him away now, she'd lose the chance to prove her remedies worked on the hardest cases. She met his eyes. "I'm worried you'll bring them to my door before I'm ready." He stood slowly, cradling his burned hand. "I'll keep quiet. But when this heals, I'm telling everyone." She nodded once and walked away, knowing she'd just traded safety for reputation. The traveling shop felt closer now—and so did the guild's attention. Back at Maren's house, she spread the color-shifting cloth on the workbench and opened her journal to the page where she'd drawn the man's burn. The pattern matched perfectly. Maren looked over her shoulder. "You're taking a risk with that one." Irina drew the cloth in detail, marking where the colors shifted from yellow to deep red. "If I can heal guild-caused burns, I can heal anything. That's worth the risk." Maren was quiet for a moment, then tapped the journal page. "Just remember—the three herbalists on that memorial thought they could handle anything too." Irina closed the journal and looked at the cloth again. She wasn't working alone anymore. She had Maren as her second witness, and she'd proven the birch bark remedy twice. But she'd also just agreed to treat a man who'd stolen from the guild, and when his hand healed, word would spread. The traveling shop would have customers before she even built it. The question was whether the guild would find her first.