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The Dark Lord whistled in amazement in the silence, “How—how did that happen? That followed none of the rules that govern the shadow art.”

Kayla almost laughed at the Dark Lord, “I think it’s something you’ll never be able to grasp.” The Dark Lord’s unfamiliarity with such a simple human emotion as love baffled her. “Plus, I mean, Derrin has shown he doesn’t need to follow most of the rules set out in anything. Have you ever heard of someone becoming a Hermit in less than a year?” The Dark Lord shook his head after a second, and Kayla continued, “In any case, we need to focus on the matter at hand. He’ll be alright won’t he?”

The Dark Lord nodded again, “Severely exhausted, but otherwise A-Okay, there’ll be no permanent damage. You however, need the attention of a cleric. I can tell just from looking at it that it’s much more serious than you’re letting on. I’d hate to imagine what Derrin would have gone on to do had he known that it nicked your lung.”

Kayla groaned, upset he’d noticed, “I’ll be fine,” she said firmly. Unfortunately as soon as she finished speaking another cough came forth, and with it a small pool of blood in her hand. “Fine, fine,” she said, giving in, “But it can’t take too long: I want to get back to Orbis.”

The Dark Lord nodded, “Of course. Even if the top five are gone, the Hand still has hundreds of assassins and thousands of warriors at its disposal. If it finds out you’re here in Victoria, they might also decide to release a dreaded. A friend of mine lives down the street, we can visit him. If you don’t mind, we’ll stick to the shadows for the. . .”

“Where you sink into a shadow on the wall? Derrin did that this morning on our way here! It’s very. . . disorienting.”

“Yes, that. We’ll stick to the shadows for the short trip to his residence.” With that they were off. The Dark Lord carried Derrin, not without protest from Kayla, and Kayla followed. They stopped at the door to the alley behind the Jazz Bar, and a shadow materialized behind the Dark Lord, encompassing them. Soon afterwards, they were within the shadow and traveling along the street from a wall’s perspective. They moved along rather slowly, and Kayla yearned to be free of the shadow’s hold.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Kayla, they stopped. Slowly, the shadow expanded again until it was a large orb; it then sunk to the ground and returned to its normal form. Kayla breathed in deeply before looking around: she found herself in a quant kitchen, modestly equipped with light shining in from several windows. The Dark Lord took Derrin into a living room with Kayla right behind him, and sat him down in a bright chair. “Wait here,” he said to Kayla before heading up stairs. A few seconds later, knocks could be heard, and then muffled whispering. It wasn’t long until two pairs of feet pounded down the stairs. A small, bald man came into view. His clothes were casual and, white a little dirty, were nicely put together. The pair of men didn’t stop until they reached Kayla.

“This is the girl I was telling you about,” the Dark Lord began. “I can’t give you details, but all you need to know is it’s a dagger wound and seems to have just touched her left lung.”

The doctor gave no reply to the Dark Lord, but instead greeted Kayla, “Dr. Farings, nice to meet you. I don’t need to know your name; it’s probably better that way anyways. I understand you’re in a hurry, so I’m going to do this quickly. Please be as still as possible.” Without laying her down, the doctor’s hands began to glow and the work began. For three continuous minutes Dr. Farings worked: healing the skin and muscle was no problem for him, rather patching up the lung was the tricky part. Even with only a small cut, heal it too tightly, and breathing is difficult, and heal it too softly, and it will soon break. Finally, he stepped back and smiled. “All done, you should be good as new.”

Kayla looked down, and felt the skin where the wound had been. Surprised, she found not even the smallest of scars. “Thank you so much,” she said as she stood up. “Unfortunately, we must leave immediately. I’m sorry for being so rude after your tremendous help, but it’s of the utmost importance.”

The doctor made no reply, and, with a nod, simply handed the Dark Lord a dark orb. Kayla became even more confused when the Dark Lord motioned her over after picking up Derrin and proceeded to smash the orb. A dark mist filled a small radius, and suddenly, they were at the Ellinian port.

Next chapter = Something none of you will expect. I can guarantee it. If you can guess what happens next, I’ll give you a million mesos on any Broan character. Anyways, click the button if you liked it and rate out of ten if you want. (Why do I even bother? It’s all 9.5’s or 10+’s.)