During his many, many years of service, he had seen a lot. All kinds of injuries, weapons that caused them and all types of people who had the misfortune of being on the business end of them.
He met headstrong but kind and well meaning (like his wife), annoying but weirdly endearing all things considered (like Stone and Stigandr), absolute and complete pains the ass (like Momiji and Asterion) and many more, from all cultures and religions. There were absolutely no regrets, it was thanks to his job that he met all the people that he could call friends and loved ones… the people that allowed him to break out of that shell that he had built around himself.
As such, he enjoyed his work, he would say. There was a reason why he still decided to stay in his humble apothecary, instead of moving in the castle with Skye after their marriage. She understood how important it was to him that he continued his duties the way he saw fit… not that she was much different, since she still occupied her room in the soldier's barracks. And the members of the Senate were… weirdly okay with it. As long as they fulfilled their duties, even if it took A LOT of convincing for the whole betrothal to even be possible.
His mother left scars behind her that could not be mended easily, even by the best healer among the Legions.
Point is, Corvo was not afraid to meet new people anymore. Sure, patients like Lachlan left their marks for several reasons, but all in all, he could call himself fairly confident in his communication skills, after several years of grueling self imposed training.
That confidence took a very abrupt and fast nosedive when she entered his tent.
Even with all his studies, there really wasn't much written about the Viking's neighbors. The Highlanders were a clan of stoic warriors, reclusive and sometimes outright hostile towards outsiders, kind of like their own Black Prior Order.
Information was scarce about them, is what he was trying to say… which meant that the other ones were even more of an enigma, one that he wasn't sure he wanted to try and solve.
The Shamans. A group of female… augures he wanted to say. Basically, they could be loosely called "oracles". They had close ties with the divine, apparently being able to sense, understand and sometimes even talk to deities.
Even just a couple of months prior, he would have been hard pressed to believe anything regarding "communicating with gods", since their Roman ancestors (or maybe he should say neighbors as well…) firmly believed that deities did not interact with mortals in any way, shape or form ... but his meeting with Lachlan, a man that should have been dead but showed signs of being capable of things beyond human comprehension… put things in perspective.
If a mere mortal was capable of healing from a wound as grievous as his in mere minutes… then perhaps gods actually were willing to interact with their world, in some way? Moreover, Corvo himself had received a blessing from one of them, allegedly. Which one? He had no idea. But now, he wasn't as inclined to dismiss the claim as he once might have been.
His attention was captured by his newest patience, who trusted her face dangerously close to his without warning, sniffing like a dog while he quickly regained his personal space.
"W-What are you…?!"
The Shaman kept on smelling, even now that he was far away, her grin slowly spreading on her lips.
"This… this smell… ehehehe… interesting…"
Was he justified in fearing for his own life now? Corvo believed that he was. But his curiosity was just too big.
"Smell? What are you talking about?"
He bathed once a day, thank you very much.
The comically short woman in front of him stared at the void for a couple of seconds, like she hadn't heard him, before twisting her face towards him.
"Why… the smell of a divine blessing, of course! How intriguing!"
Seeing his frightened expression caused her to laugh. Okay, he was genuinely starting to think that Vikings just freaked him out in general…
"Relax, it's a good thing! It means that you're destined to do great things! Or… more like even more great things, in your case! The smell is extremely strong, it's actually a wonder that nobody noticed!"
Riiiiight… he better do his thing quick, before she further sapped away his sanity and turned his "maybe" into a certainty.
"Are you hurt anywhere, miss? Because if you are not, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to ask you to leave…
"Oh, right! I almost forgot, injuries and whatnot. And none of that 'miss' thingy. My name is Samhain, so use that. As for what you requested, I got these…"
She dropped her pants, showing a nasty, but shallow cut under her left thigh, alongside a bruise on her collarbone.
Corvo hummed, checking both with a critical eye. Not excessively deep, because of an awkward angle he guessed, in combination with a blunt strike…
A Jiang Jun, most likely. She was lucky to be alive, then… as he once read in one of his favorite books, you should not fear the untested young warrior with baby fat on his face… but the one with gray in his hair. More often than not, experience was the deciding factor in a battlefield…
"How did you survive, if you don't mind me asking? If I'm guessing correctly on who your adversary was, I struggle to believe that he simply allowed you to walk away…"
Samhain idly kicked her feet around, looking like the perfect picture of innocence.
"How, you ask? Well, he was bleeding…"
Ah. An opportunistic kill. Makes sense…
"So I jumped on him and ripped open his throat with my teeth. He died while choking on his blood after a couple of minutes. I know because I was watching him. Veeeeery closely".
… Nope. He refused to entertain that thought. Just… hurry up, heal her and kick her out, before she decided that he looked like a snack or something along those lines.
Samhain watched him work, humming all the way.
"So… that's how you Knights do it! I see! Pretty ingenious way to use alcohol, I must say!"
Please don't ask. Corvo pleaded to himself to simply let the matter drop.
"How do you use it then?"
Jupiter, please strike him down with a thunder right now!
"We drink it. A lot. Then we smoke some veeeeery special herbs. When we come back… we're not healed, but it doesn't hurt anymore. So we wait for nature to do its thing! You guys should try it! It would really allow you to connect with the world around you…"
Switch topic! Right now!
"Do you have any idea which god is… watching over me?"
Samhain shook her head at that, looking genuinely sorry, for once.
"Nope. I just know that one of them has taken you under their wing. The details, I'm afraid you'll have to discover on your own".
Of course. Nothing could ever be easy around these parts, huh?
He kept on working, slowly exhausting himself over the Shaman's endless blabbering about… smoking herb and having "out of body experiences". He could easily tell that it wasn't healthy in the slightest, but he wasn't about to poke his nose in any of that mess. The less he interacts with those people, the better he will feel.
It sounded mean, and it likely was, but he was officially out of energy to even attempt to care. He looked forward to closing up, getting a bath, spending some time with his beloved wife and then catching some sleep.
Yeah. That sounded like the perfect plan…
Finally he was done, getting the last bandage around Samhain's wound tight and secure.
"There we go. How do you feel?"
She moved her leg and shoulder a bit, getting a feel for any pain or discomfort and likely finding none, judging from her expression.
"My, this is amazing! I still prefer our normal methods, but this works as well! Man, the others just have to know! I hope that you don't mind if I send them your way, they'll be thrilled to see how this works!"
No… no… NO! PLEASE!
"Buh-bye healer! See you again soon!"
He tried to stop her, but she was already out of his tent, running off into the evening sun.
… He supposed that no one would be bothered if he closed up early, right?
And even if they were, he didn't care. His own sanity came first.
Was it too late to go back to how things used to be?
Hello?! Is this thing on?! It is?! Noice.
Welcome back, dudes and gentleladies, to another episode of AHO, the show where we enjoy watching the MC suffer.
Can I be honest for a second? This chapter was TOUGH. It took me several days to even come up with the theme, and I'm honestly not even sure if I managed to get something of decent quality. I'm not running out of ideas or anything, but Shamans are just… so different from every other hero on the roster when it comes to things like this, that I simply couldn't find one that fit well. In the end, I ended mixing some of the "godly patron" plot along with giving Corvo some headaches on… alternative healing methods, just to make something more light hearted, especially after last chapter.
Next time on A Healer's Oath: Ying, The Tiandi
That's all folks! Ta-ta for now!