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

[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.

[fadingworld]

Mal cocks his head on one side and listens with pleasure with his eyes half closed. Towards the end of the poem he lends his voice to eat, helping to bring to crescendo the sense of the two lovers' desires.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Of course courtesan would know these poems by heart, Regis thinks to himself, again chuckling lightly. "There are quite the few lovely works in this collection if my memory serves me right," he muses as he puts the book back in its place and then turning his attention to the herbologies, pulling those from their shelf.

"This one is rather good," he says, coming back over to his previous seat, and then with a small frown indicating the book in his right hand. "This one, however, I would not put much stock to. It has some inaccuracies that, under certain circumstances, could turn to be quite detrimental, or even outright dangerous."

[fadingworld]

"I would not mind hearing you recite a few more poems you enjoy when you return for the Duke," Mal owns. "You have a voice that would make many a courtesan envious."

He draws a knee up to his chin, watching Regis sort through the books. He looks disappointed that one of his books is of no use. "If I give you gold could you find me a more suitable replacement?" He smiles, "I could use it to correct this book with my own annotations."

[mandragoraspiritus]

He chuckles a bit at the praise. "I have often been told that I talk too much, and that I must love the sound of my own voice." He does have a love of words, this is true, and of teaching, of imparting the knowledge that he has gathered over several centuries.

"I will bring you one of my own when I next come," he promises, "and if you would let me bring this one with me I can make some notes to show where it fails. But for now, I think it is time for me to take my leave." He leans down to check the duke's pulse, as well as to lift his eyelids for a moment. All looks well. "If he rouses at all while I am gone - unlikely - give him some water if you can. Otherwise just let him sleep."

[fadingworld]

"That would be lovely," Mal says. There would be plenty of time to catch up on his reading over the next few days. He stands up and stretches out his limbs.

"When should I summon you for my first dehabilitating headache?" he inquires. It would allow Regis to come on legitimate business.

[mandragoraspiritus]

Regis purses his lips, considering. "The duke will need observing. In no more than three hours I would say, sooner if you see any sign that he is deteriorating; signs that his fever is rising, if his breathing becomes labored, such things."

[fadingworld]

Mal inclines his head. "Then it shall be done. The ice I called for, shall have been for ice packs for my neck should anyone trouble to enquire."

He glances to the Duke's cloak thoughtfully. Someone needed to wear it out. No, Regis would not do, Enzo would have to cover that one.

"I will keep a close eye on him, don't worry, I don't want a corpse on my hands."