A medical emergency

[fadingworld]

A deep navy cloak hides his features and the more ornate tunic the courtesan usually wears to greet his clients. Mal hunches his shoulders and slides through the crowds hoping to avoid notice. He keeps his head down until he reaches the home of the doctor and wraps smartly on the door. "Open up," he calls in a voice that expects to be listened to.

How much time did he have? He could not have a client bleeding out. Not this one. Not one who had come to him for help, to be treated privately.

Comments

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I dont suppose the common cold or a bout of the stomch flu would be nowhere near romantic enough," Regis says with some display of humor. Tales of snot and mucus, or vomit and excrement would not help a courtesan's reputation, he wagers. "If it is something to be cured in no more than a few days, then perhaps some minor injury, some tension to the neck that has caused you insufferable headaches."

[fadingworld]

"Hardly," Mal says with a laugh. "But tension in the neck does sound appealing." He could easily play around with that, and allow clients to feel some sympathy for him.

He looks up inquistively. "How often do you get secretive call outs like this one?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

"Secretive like this? Not often. More often I am called out for some reason other than the true one. Fevers are often the common excuse." That could mean anything from a pregnant maid servant to some veneral disease.

"I can bring you some liniment or other ointment if you wish to reinforce your excuse."

[fadingworld]

"If you have some to spare, I will take it." Mal smiles, "And if you will show me the best way to use it, I can keep in store in case of legitimate use."

He knocks on the wood of the stool, "So far, I've kept myself in excellent health and shape."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"I do suppose your profession demands it," Regis comments, then after a brief pause to think he decides to try to satisfy his curiosity.

"Might I ask, why this? Why choose to do this for a living? Or if it wasn't something you chose for yourself, why stay?"

[fadingworld]

Mal looks thoroughly amused, "Ah the age old question." His answer has varied many times depending on his audience. Regis does not look like he will suffer fools lightly. So, what Regis receives is the closet version to the truth he can give without implementing others.

"I was brought into this house when I was ten years old, selected for my beauty. So in some ways this is all I have ever known." He smiles, "No one laid a hand on me until I was older, I was trained in the arts, I served at tables and learned the art of conversation." He reaches for the cup with an exaggeratedly graceful movement. "I learnt to make every movement effortless."


He pauses, "It is a comfortable life in many ways, I am as pampered as any prince." He shrugs his shoulders. "I am content for the moment."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Yes, Mal is beautiful, Regis has no problem admitting this. Every posture, every movement is pleasing to the eye, even the way he speaks is melodious and pleasing to the ear. But even so...

"But it is all illusions, is it not? You weave illusions." There is no blame in Regis' tone, no faulting Mal. Just calm pondering. "Do you never wish for something else, with more substance than smoke?"

[fadingworld]

Mal smiles, he can weave illusions in more way than one. "Why are you offering?" he teases, deflecting the question for the moment while he thinks.

"Do you think a courtesan is capable of sustaining anything real? Or will people always wonder if they are weaving another illusion?"

[mandragoraspiritus]

The teasing is met with no more than calm. Mal is beautiful, yes, but in Regis his charms will not find easy targets. "No, I am not," he simply replies, then moves on in the topic.

"People judge from what they know. But people also change. It would depend much, I think, on how firmly the courtesan would hold on to being a courtesan."

[fadingworld]

Good, Mal could never respect a man who fell for his charms and offered to sweep him off his feet. That type only made for very good clients.

He might just make a friend of Regis

"I don't think any courtesan would hold on to the profession..." He pauses and shakes his head. "Actually, I know many who would not leave unless they could be kept in the luxury they are accustomed to."

He looks frankly at Regis. "I must be a romantic at heart because I would leave if the real love came along."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis tilts his head to one side, studying the younger man. "Is that what you are waiting for, then?" A small smile on closed lips. "Something more than smoke to take place of the illusions?"

[fadingworld]

"Something real and solid that I can feel," Mal says honestly. "Or," he smile wryly, "If I am to age gracefully into a spinster alone, a way to support myself. I feel that I might not last a day away from my golden cage without learning a new profession."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis is glad to hear these thoughts. It speaks of reason and a rational mind to spend some thought to the future. Beauty would always fade in time, and what then without skills to fall back on?

"Then what profession would you chose for youself to come after this?"

[fadingworld]

Mal gestures to the empty sachets by the bed. "I would love to learn some of your profession. I am able to soothe problems of the mind to some extent and I enjoy that, but I cannot ease their physical aches and pains."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"You would wish to be a doctor?" The smile widens, not from mirth but from approval, though remaining as close-lippes as before. "It is a rewarding profession, that I will say. But it also takes a long time to learn."

[fadingworld]

"I've spent half a life time learning how to be a courtesan, it seems fitting to spend the next half on another. Even if I have not the aptitude to take it far, I could hope to help nurse, or be an assistant."


He laughs softly, "I've got hours in which I can study if I find someone willing to start me off someday."

[mandragoraspiritus]

An extended moment then, where Regis quietly studies the young man with an evaluating look. They can speak freely, he feels; between the drugs and fever the duke is too far gone to remember anything even if he was able to hear.

"That I could perhaps offer," he says, though not without some reservation. "If you are indeed sincere about wanting to learn."

[fadingworld]

There is a flicker of hope in Mal’s eyes but it’s quickly concealed. “What would you want in exchange for teaching me?” In his experience no jewel, no offer came without some strings attached. And there are lines he could not cross, confidences he will not break no matter how tempting the offer.

[mandragoraspiritus]

That is indeed a question with another moment of consideration. "Nothing, I should think. That is, nothing more than the satisfaction of perhaps managing to put some more good into the world." Unknown to Mal, or to anyone else in this city, the humble barber-surgeon has much to make up for.

[fadingworld]

The look that Mal gives Regis is highly sceptical. "Until you need something and you can call in a favour." He shakes his head, "No....I must be able to offer something in return to make it a proper contract."

He smiles wryly, "I sound like a jaded courtesan but I've learned by experience."

[mandragoraspiritus]

"If applying such reason, you do not think this would be cause for me to call in a favor is I were to come to need one?" He gestures to the unconscious man on the bed. "Though to be fair, I do expect my normal rate of payment for services rendered here."

He shakes his head slightly. "You do as you please. In the meantime, I could always lend you a book to get you started."

[fadingworld]

"And I expect to pay for these services with a little extra to keep you quiet." He smirks, "And if there are issues you will be dealing with the Duke." Mal doesn't say it as a threat just a statement of fact.

"A book would be delightful until we can come to sort of agreement." There are no books on display in the room but Mal gestures to a long draping on a wall. "I keep my books behind there."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis looks over to where Mal indicates. "Might have have a look what books you have?" It is simple curiosity, nothing more that that, of what a courtesan might have on hand to read.

[fadingworld]

"Go ahead," Mal says graciously. He is well read and there are a wide selection of topics. The nost thumbed though books are two on herbs, the history of the old ruling families.

"One or two of the books may make you blush."

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis goes to brush the drapes aside, looking over the selection hidden there.

"Ah, yes," he chuckles as he spots one of the books that he thinks Mal could mean that could cause a blush; a collection of rather erotic poems. He actually knows it quite well. Taking it out the thumbs through the pages, but as if he's looking for something rather than just doing it at random.

Then having found what he was looking for he reads the poem out loud and what would you know, the grizzled-looking physician's voice actually lends itself quite well to reciting poetry.