The Economics of Healers: Farmers, part 2

[sythyry]

Mirrored from Sythyry.

On the ride into Vheshrame, Ellie herself was putting as brave a face on it as a 12-year-old could be expected to. (And yes, they did ride. It would have been a ridiculous walk for an injured child, and zir parents didn’t think zie could stay on a horse. The mayor, Gorsen, did lend them her own carriage, and no questions asked. Remember that, at least, when you judge Gorsen.)

“We’ll get a healer to make it better,” promised Periwinkle.

“It’s all right, sather. It doesn’t hurt so very much,” said Ellie, and burst into tears.

And, again:

“You mustn’t blame Cayenne,” said a very ashamed Tansy. “He’s far too young to know better. I am the responsible one — I let him slip away from me, and of course I grabbed badly when you fell.”

“I don’t blame you, either, caunt Tansy,” said Ellie. “You were trying to save me. But I do wish you had let go. I don’t want to go around all lopsided and missing an antenna.” She knew what the quintet’s finances were like.

“Oh, poor child,” said Tansy, and burst into tears. This of course set Ellie off again, and that got Cayenne crying as well.

In all ways, it was probably the Worst Carriage Ride Ever, or at least the worst one in which nothing actually went wrong, as well as the Worst Birthday Party Ever.

In the Guild Hall

Estertherio oa Estropomp, the Summoner of the Healer’s Guild and herself a master-healer of the lowest rank, finally deigned to see Ellie as a patient. By “finally” we must admit that Ellie had been waiting for five hours, since mid-afternoon, and that a dozen patients had been seen before her. In Estertherio’s favor we must admit that Estertherio had chosen to see to the eight people injured in a flour explosion, most of whom were actively bleeding — if not actively showing off their private parts. In a way that titillated nobody, since those private parts were intestines, spleens, stomachs, and the like. We must also admit that Estertherio chose to dine before seeing Ellie rather than after, which may seem callous. And arguably she could tell at a glance that Ellie was in no immediate danger. Or arguably it was an act of selfishness, as Ellie and another half-dozen much-belated patients complained.

Estertherio granted Ellie a mere nine minutes of her time. “Well. You got a nasty knock on the head, but someone dumped enough crude healing spells on you so that you don’t really need any further magic for that. Then there’s that missing antenna. Do you have the severed antenna with you?”

“I do,” said Allam.

Estertherio picked it up out of Allam’s basket, and looked at it. “You would have been well-advised to preserve it. A simple meat preservation spell would have sufficed.”

“We’re village Herethroy, doctor,” said Allam. Meaning, of course, that they cannot and do not eat meat, and so unlikely to have meat preservation spells.

“Well. Should this ever happen again, be sure to look up a Cani, or an Orren, or even a Rassimel or Gormoror or Sleeth. If you had put a preservation spell on it even two hours after it was severed, it would be a great bit easier to reattach. As it is, it is a spell of complexity thirty to reattach it, and a second and stronger one to actually get it to work,” said the doctor.

“Can you do it?” asked Allam.

“What, I? Even if I had any cley left after that explosion, I don’t have the spell. It’s not that common. Can you pay for it? You must expect a hundred lozens to reattach it, and, if you are lucky, a thousand or two to restore function.”

“That’s a great deal of money for me,” said Allam. “Are there charities who might help us?”

“There are charities, to be sure, and there are healers who may be sympathetic and undercharge you. In all honesty, I doubt that they will help you,” said Estertherio. “This is little more than a cosmetic injury. Your cosi, having one antenna left, has lost some sensory acuity, and some attractiveness, and some expressiveness, but zie has not lost all. Zir life is hardly in danger, nor is zir ability to take care of herself. Charities and sympathies are largely reserved for more serious cases.”

“My poor cosi! … I suppose we must ask those healers who are capable, and see if any of them will help us,” said Allam.

“I wish you would not. They are our strongest healers, and, in full truth, they have better things to do than cosmetic surgery,” said Estertherio. She did not need to finish the phrase: on a poor and low-class farmer’s cosi. “Still: the healers who can do this are Moika Hastralan, who is on duty in this very hall; Dr. Tarnamme, and Dr. Vesputine, whose whereabouts I do not know but they might still be in their offices around town, and, on the odd chance that zie is around and you are transaffectionate, Dr. Sythyry.”

“We’ll go see Dr. Hastralan, then. Thank you for your time and your candor,” said Allam, rather devastated.

“Well, you certainly have my sympathies,” said Estertherio. “Be grateful that the situation is not too dreadful, and unlikely to get any worse.”

Comments

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

You kinda write her like she was I mean FINE she can't help but telling the parents they oughtn't even ASK anyone else to help that's MEAN.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

I certainly try to write her (and nearly everyone) accurately.

The Summoner's job is triage. The most important thing is to get treatment for the people who sorely need it -- there's not a great deal of debate about this, not within the guild at least. If their time or cley is exhausted by lesser cases, especially cases that will obviously wind up going nowhere because they're not that important and nobody will pay for them, it makes the most important thing so much harder.

The end of the day is a tricky time medically. Healers either have a lot of cley left if it's been a good day, or not much if it's been a typical one. The early part of the day is more straightforward. If they'd come early they would have simply been told to go away. But at the end of a typical-to-bad day, the Summoner thought that surely nobody would have any spare cley. Maybe someone would (hence the Summoner not completely sending them off), but on the whole it's better for everyone to let exhausted healers have a bit of a break at night (hence the discouraging).

Certainly she could have been nicer about it. But Summoner is an exhausting job, worse than general healer, and few Summoners are such elementals as to be any sweeter than necessary by sunout.

[stormydragon.livejournal.com]

Particularly after having dealt with people like the flour explosion victims, I imagine your sympathy level for a complaint that seems rather trivial by comparison would be rather low.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

I bet Trust would've been nicer even if he didn't know the spell it's too bad he doesn't work there.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

If he's a guild healer, I'm sure he'll take his turn as Summoner. I don't think it's anyone's favorite job.

[delight-in.livejournal.com]

He's still a guild member but he's a ship's healer now do all healers take turns at the Healer's Guild even when that's not where they work?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

No -- I generally didn't when I lived in Vheshrame -- but many, perhaps even most, do.