Kaine Ashford's Arc

Chapter 3 of 7

The inspector didn't acknowledge Kaine's approach. He unfolded the sealed document with care, breaking the bloodstained wax. His eyes moved across the page, then back to the boarding house door. Kaine stopped three paces away and waited. The second inspector remained at the carved post, watching. The inspector turned the document toward Kaine without speaking. The page showed an application for nursing licensure, signed and dated three months prior. The name at the top read Jane Cross, half-elf, petitioning for legal authority to practice healing. Below it, a field review station notation described an unlicensed clinic operating from a wooden hut at the forest edge, treating patients turned away by sanctioned healers. The inspector's finger tapped the status line at the bottom. Denied. Unauthorized practice subject to seizure of premises and materials. Kaine's chest tightened. Jane had been running a clinic just like the one he'd been fighting to build. She'd already done what he was still trying to start, and they'd shut her down for it. The inspector folded the document and pulled a worn leather satchel from his bag, the kind licensed healers carried to prove their credentials. He set it on the ground between them. "This belonged to the applicant. Found at the hut after the closure. You know where she is?" Kaine met the inspector's eyes and made his choice. "She's inside the boarding house. Wounded. She needs care, and I'm claiming this building to give it to her." The inspector's expression didn't change, but he glanced at the carved post, then back at Kaine. "Building's under review. No claims processed until the investigation closes." He picked up the satchel and walked toward the boarding house door. Kaine followed, knowing he'd just tied his clinic's future to a woman the elven authority had already tried to stop. If the boarding house claim failed, they'd both lose everything. But if it held, they'd have something neither of them could build alone.