Karl had just sat down on his bed to meditate when he felt someone casting a spell to calm them, or possibly to put them all to sleep. He wasn’t sure if it was hospital policy for this time of day, or if they had annoyed someone with their joking around, but he decided to lay down to meditate anyhow.
The mattress was hard and uncomfortable, and Karl frowned as he relaxed onto it.
“Cushy, right?” The blonde asked.
“I’ve been sleeping in spider silk hammocks that stretch to match your body weight distribution. I don’t think that a regular mattress will ever feel right again.” Karl explained slowly as he felt the spell settle over him.
The others were slowly drifting off, and didn’t seem to notice the spell. Either that or they were used to the effect, and it didn’t startle them, but Karl’s mind rebelled against the magic, wanting to force him awake. So, instead of sleeping, he put [Refreshing Lightning] back up and continued to meditate.
For the next six hours, by Karl’s rough estimation, that worked out well, and everyone else in the room slept and recovered while he worked on rebuilding the power focus in the beast spaces. Then the doctors came in to make their rounds, and cast a plethora of healing spells to help rebuild and regrow the lost limbs of the others.
But when they got to Karl, he heard someone cussing, and the sound of a wall being punched.
He focused on Rae’s version of echolocation, which didn’t require him to open his eyes to see, and noticed that someone had tried to give him an IV drip. It appeared that they punched the wall in frustration after they had burned themselves on the [Refreshing Lightning] barrier.
“What the hell are we supposed to do now? The order says IV fluids for the next six hours with an antipsychotic, and then another forty-eight hours of sedation until the head wound heals.” The burned person, an orderly by their outfit, whisper shouted at the others in the room.
“You’re lucky to be alive. Did you even think to check for protective spells before you tried to jab him? That one is a fresh Commander Rank battlefield trauma case, of course he will be paranoid enough to keep up defensive spells while he sleeps.”
Thor giggled to himself as he spread the barrier over the whole group again. Karl hesitated for a moment, as he considered not stopping him. The others would likely appreciate the extra healing spell, but the staff definitely wouldn’t. So, he had to say something.
[Let them rest without the spell until they’re awake again. We don’t need to make life harder on the healers. Healers are our friends.] Karl eventually reminded the Cerro, who was still resting in his pond, where the Holy magic from the stones would heal his leg faster than being outside with healing spells.
The spaces were the perfect space to recover, and with his pond, he would be fine in no time at all if he wasn’t already. Thor had no intention of getting up to find out. It was more relaxing to simply float here and wait for something to do.
“What do we do now? If we can’t administer the medicine, do we just make a note or send someone else in?” The burned person asked.
From outside the door, someone laughed softly. “Or you could simply ask him to take the barrier down. He’s been awake the entire time, you distracted him from his meditation when you tried to stab him with the IV needle.”
It was obvious that his sleeping act was not fooling whoever was outside, so Karl opened his eyes to see the Acolytes in the room with one doctor, while the doctor who had walked Karl’s group in and turned them over to nature priests stood in the hall.
“I thought you weren’t up to this on a Monday?” Karl joked.
“It’s Tuesday now. I just came back on shift and already your group is giving me headaches. The War Priestess is studying instead of sleeping, the Nature Priestess is bored and asking for her imaginary friend, and the Mage girl had to be moved in with the Berserker to keep her from breaking down.” He sighed.
“I should likely go check on her then. Being around others helps, and I’ve got a barrier that will accelerate the recovery process, both mentally and physically. Of course, it also shocks people who take a stab first, ask questions later, approach, but it’s not really harmful.” Karl replied, prepared to get up out of bed.
“You think that you can help more than the doctors?” The old man asked, amused.
“Friendly faces always help. You do the medicine, we do the moral support. But I’m guessing that the problem is that they’re in a women’s ward.” Karl questioned.
“It seems that you do actually understand the issue. It is highly irregular to allow a male patient into a woman’s room during the night. But it looks like your mind is healing smoothly, and there is a minimal risk of a psychotic break.
You should get some real sleep and not just mediation. That’s the whole point of the spell, but it appears that you have some resistance to mind-altering effects.” The doctor replied.
“It seems so. At first, I thought that I was under attack, but nobody else was concerned about it, and they all just settled into bed.”
The doctor nodded. “That’s part of the compulsion of the spell. It tells you to get comfortable and ready for bed, and it suppresses nightmares so that the veterans can sleep more easily. It doesn’t seem that is a problem for you, but many of the others are not so lucky.”
One of the Acolytes gave Karl a curious look. “How do you do it? Accept all that bloodshed? You’ve got to be younger than I am, and yet you’re not even rattled by the thought of being stuck in combat against enormous monsters.”
Karl chuckled. “That’s kind of why they call them Giants. They’re large. They’re ugly too, and that helps. If we were fighting against an enemy that was cute or more relatable, it might be worse.
But the Frost Giants are just ugly and mean, it’s not hard to fight them.”
The older doctor who had entered with the Acolytes nodded. “Some people just have a punchable face.”
The Acolytes looked a little horrified at the notion, but Karl laughed. “You have no idea. There was this fat General with General Orland when we were sent on the mission, an absolutely obnoxious jackass. If Orland hadn’t intervened, I would have happily taken him out behind the woodshed for a lesson.”
The doctor chuckled. “I will make a note of it in your files. But General Orland isn’t likely to apologize for the attitude of the other Generals. It’s a bit of an ongoing issue between the military and civilian Elites lately, and the problem is getting worse.”
Karl shook his head. “That’s inevitable, really. When someone has this level of power, it is always going to go to their head. Like the foreman at the mine lording it over the workers on his shift, the temptation is inevitable.
But a lot of the problem is that there are two types of Elites, and it’s not civilians or military. It’s the ones who embrace their Class, versus the ones who embrace the benefits that their rank grants them.
Here in the hospital, everyone has to play nice, and we all know our roles and our ranking, and things move smoothly. But there, you have Elites who would never have the guts to take on the missions that they are assigning others to do, and those who have done it themselves.
Only one of those two types of Elites gets respect in a war zone, and quite frankly, it would be better if they sent the others home before they got anyone killed.
Orland knows what it is to fight. Most of the Clerics know what it is to be on the front lines with nothing more than regular human soldiers and the grace of their Gods. But when they press bureaucrats to do their time in some front-line camp, they just make a mess of things.”
One of the Nurses laughed. “They’re still Generals, and Commanders. Where else would you have them?”
Karl shrugged. “We could put a fancy uniform on them, and they could guard public buildings in the Capital. It would be a nice show of civic virtue for the citizens.”
The nurse choked trying to stop her laughter, and the doctor shook his head. “We can’t just be asking Ascended and Commander Rank Generals to stand around on honour guard duty because they’re not well suited to the actual battlefield.”
From behind him, one of the hippie Nature Priests laughed. “We ask civilian Ascended and Commander Rank Elites to do security details and honour guard duty at the government buildings. Maybe it would do the officers some good to get back to their roots.”
“What brings you over here?” The first doctor asked suspiciously.
“One of my patients says that if she can’t have the spider, she wants to at least pet the snake. Can I borrow your patient?” The old hippie asked.
