A Knife is Sharper Than Wits

[Draconian]

@Cinnabar

Knife right into the gut.

Reinier grunted, palm pressed to the wound. As powerful as his magic's were he'd always been unable to grasp the healing branch of it. If magic were a grand tree, that would be the withered part of it. The leaves would be rotted and the branches dry and naught but kindling. Reinier closed his eyes against the wave of dizziness and cursed this fool mortal body. Why had he wanted one so badly again?

The blood soaked his hand and sleeve and he finally found the door.

Mostly he followed the aura.

The aura that spoke of the rotten part of his tree was in full bloom.

Of course, the tree was all a metaphor.

Reinier slammed his stupid fleshy Not Immortal fist against the door again.

"Open up," He called to the door, snarling with anger, "I am in need of your skills as a healer," He leaned heavily against the door, pressing against his gut. He was growing weak and cold and Reinier decided that, perhaps, he shouldn't try to fight someone with a knife with wits because clearly, the mans knight had been sharper.

[Bunbun]

Typically, when Juliana healed someone, she went to them. It was somewhat rare for them to come to her, and not too many people even knew where she lived. It would take a particularly grievous injury to make a person determined enough to track her down.

Yet here he was, banging on her door and shouting like a complete lunatic.

Juliana let the person on the other side of the door keep knocking for a few seconds as she debated whether or not to open it. Being at home essentially meant that she was taking a break- she wasn't exactly in the mood to be healing anyone, let alone the guy who apparently didn't think it was a good idea to be polite to someone who could potentially save his life. Then again, though, he really was making a racket. The sooner she could get him to shut up, the better. Preferably before he put a hole through the door.

Finally, the door began to creak open, moving quickly at first due to having so much weight leaning against it but then abruptly coming to a stop as Juliana held it still. She said nothing at first, instead opting to take a few mental notes about her visitor's condition before deciding whether to let him inside. Immediately, her eyes were drawn to the blood, as well as the hand stained with it. Presumably, the wound was located under where his hand was placed- if that was true, then she had a problem on her hands. In her experience, injuries to the gut were rarely the result of accidents, especially not when they were as serious as this. The whole thing reeked of foul play.

"Wow. You look like you pissed off someone you shouldn't have," She eventually responded, her voice almost devoid of empathy. This guy- whoever he was- obviously screwed up pretty badly in order to be left in a state like this. Briefly, Juliana considered closing the door back up and leaving the man to his fate; she didn't want any part of the situation that led to someone getting stabbed. However, leaving him out there was potentially an even worse idea. She really didn't want to end up trying to explain to the guards why there was a dead body on her doorstep.

"...Alright. Come in, but don't try anything stupid. You do that, and that cut will be the least of your worries."

She allowed the door to open some more and stepped to the side, motioning with her head for the man to enter her home. She waited a few seconds afterwards, glancing around the surrounding area and only relaxing when she was convinced no one else was out there. Only then would she shut the door, turning to walk further into her home.

"Oh yeah, don't bleed on anything either. Bloodstains are a huge pain in the ass to clean."

[Draconian]

The least of his worries.

Reinier was flabbergasted.

Did she just threaten him? Him? A wave of dizziness struck him and he gasped softly, leaning against the door for a moment before walking into her home. He just needed to be patched up. That was it. His odd coloured eyes slowly rolled back and he let his head fall forward, waking up from almost waiting.

"I can't exactly control where my blood goes," He snarled at her, wondering if ripping out her spine would be a good idea before or after she healed him. After. A jolt of pain from his gut, absolutely after. Reinier's hand balled into a fist against the wall and he took a glance at his pale shaky hand. His breath got caught in his throat and he closed his eyes in an attempt to calm himself.

It would be fine.

This creature would heal him.

Maybe he could borrow her. Calculating eyes were on the woman as he followed her, taking careful steps. "Well?" He finally growled out, wisps of hair stuck to his forehead, having broke out in a cold sweat. "Are you going to heal me? If it doesn't happen soon the blood is going to soak through my pants and leave a trail," He indicated that, indeed the blood had dripped down his pants and the fabric shined in what light her home had to offer.

[Bunbun]

While she couldn't say she particularly appreciated the tone he'd decided to take with her, Juliana had to admit that he kind of had a point- the longer she took to get the wound healed up, the more of a mess it was going to make. And, well, if having a corpse lying outside wasn't a problem, then having one inside certainly was. She would heal him, yes, but she wasn't going to be any more pleasant than she had to. After all, despite how displeased he might be, the guy did have a pretty serious injury to worry about. She sincerely doubted he was capable of doing any serious harm to her.

Probably.

Normally, the first order of business when healing a cut was to clean the area up so the wound was easier to see, but in this case, the blood was flowing out rapidly enough that trying to get it out of the way was nearly impossible. Before anything else, she'd have to at least get the cut closed first, then check if anything else needed to be tended to afterwards. Giving a slight nod, Juliana carefully knelt down in order to bring the wound closer to her eye level. She reached out with one hand, gently brushing the man's arm out of the way; she was going to need at least some idea of what the cut looked like. Thankfully, she wouldn't have to ask him to get his shirt out of the way, as the knife responsible for the injury had also left a convenient little opening in the fabric that she could work with. Her fingers fiddled around with it for a few seconds, before they finally settled on maintaining a hole for her to see through. The wound looked simple enough to heal, but it would require plenty of energy to do so, and the process would likely be... less than pleasant.

"Mmmm. I'm not gonna lie, this is probably going to hurt. Like, a lot. Unless you want it to leave a huge scar, though, I suggest you stay as still- and quiet- as you can. I'll need all the concentration I can get."

With that, she pressed her other hand against his gut, apparently not disturbed in the slightest by getting his blood on her hands. She held it there, putting a fair amount of pressure on it, before allowing her healing magic to begin flowing away from her body. Slowly but surely, the damaged skin would begin to sow itself back together.

[Draconian]

It was a strange sensation.

Reinier had gone through great lengths to not get wounded and here he was, a strange woman's hand on his chest. Still, he went about unbuttoning his shirt anyway, finding it more irritating than helpful for her to just use the hole in his shirt. A frown down at her and ... She ignored it. Alright.

When the healing began he felt it weave into him. The body was mortal but the soul. He tilted his head back and groaned. It felt like heat. It hurt, but it hurt so good and he let out a hot pant of breath before he pushed a hand through his hair and looked down at the woman. He moved one hand to pet at her head for a short moment before he let his hands drop to his sides. Sweat beaded on his forehead with the effort not to bark out at the pain.

It was different kind of magic. He could feel it weaving into him and every fibre of his being was wanting to push it out. How dare such non-destructive magic try to make it's home in him. There was another round of pounding at the door, angrier. Heavier. A curious look over his shoulder and he looked down at the girl. Breath short from holding is breath. "You have more guests," He panted.

Maybe it was the people from before.

Reinier hadn't wanted to kill them - it seemed inappropriate - but this woman had made attempts to heal him - or was and had succeeded. "Do you wish for me to dispose of them?" His voice was husky and he wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, breath still short.

[Bunbun]

It didn't take her very long for Juliana to realize there was something off about this guy's body- It seemed to resist her healing, as if its very existence defied the nature of life magic. The magic usually didn't need too much influence in order to work properly, as it tended to automatically seek out what was broken, but this time it felt like she had to force it. It just felt wrong, and it was taking more out of her than she had originally anticipated. The longer she spent closing up the wound, the more energy began to drain from her.

The angry dude wasn't exactly making it any easier for her, either. Of course, she couldn't really blame him for letting out the occasional groan of pain, but something about the way he made them told her that he was enjoying this more than he probably should be. Still, though, she did whatever she could to block the noises out and focus on the task at hand; the sooner she was finished with the healing, the less time she would have to spend with... whoever this was.

It wasn't until he actually touched her that she finally snapped out of her focus, severing the stream of magic seeping from her hand. She could deal with the weird noises if she had to, but she sure as hell wasn't going to let him touch her. He'd definitely seemed a little off before, but now he was just being downright creepy.

Her eyes shot upwards with a gaze full of daggers, and her mouth opened in preparation for what probably would have been a very long and explosive rant if it weren't interrupted by a sudden banging at her door. More pissed off people, no doubt.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. That was just what she needed, more freaks trying to bust her goddamn door down.

Well, if they were in any way related to the man she was in the middle of healing, then it probably wasn't a good idea to ignore them. There was no way she was going to open the door herself, though. Maybe the people outside would leave her alone if they got what they were really after.

Gingerly standing back up, Juliana took a few seconds to survey the wound- or rather, what used to be a wound. She'd managed to close it up well enough, though it could possibly re-open if it was agitated too much. At any rate, the man should be well enough to at least open a door, so she figured she'd let him handle the situation.

"Yeah. Get them to go away. This better not cause me any more trouble, though."

She spoke in a strained tone, but her words were as stern as ever. This guy was enough of a handful without bringing along a bunch of people who wanted him dead.

[Draconian]

"No promises,"

Reinier frowned at her before he turned around, tugging the door open to see the still-bloodied dagger. Hmm. Apparently his little move only knocked them out. Pity. He looked at his hand, still mostly unfamiliar, he reached forward with it. Felt the bite of the blade sink into his forearm and he also felt his hand on the strangers head. A moments pause and the sound of a soft crunch.

Now his hand was in the strangers head, and Reinier glared at the knife in his arm.

He then pushed the body away, soupy-face frightening the others who just stared in horror before Reinier closed the door, removed the dagger and tucked it into one of his jacket pockets.

"I'll reward you handsomely if you fix this as well," He said simply, shrugging out of his jacket and rolling up his sleeve, wincing ever so slightly when it passed the wound from the dagger, "I'll pay you even more if you can manage to teach me."

It was a simple enough request and he'd learned that people enjoyed money.

[Bunbun]

What the hell.

Okay, that wasn't good. That wasn't good at all. Not only did she now have a corpse to deal with at some point, which was what she had been trying to avoid, but she was also stuck in a room with the man responsible for said corpse. Who now had a dagger. Not that he really needed one, apparently.

At least she could be fairly certain that the idiots at her door were going to leave her alone now, but to tell the truth, she probably would have been better off dealing with those guys than this... thing. Gods, she never should've opened that door.

Juliana stared at him, wide-eyed, as she tried to figure out just what the hell she was supposed to do in a situation like this. He wanted her to heal him again, and was apparently still willing to pay for it; earning money was nice, sure, but it didn't rank quite as high on her list of priorities as, say, not having her head crushed like a grape. Yeah, maybe it was for the best to just do what the crazy guy wanted.

Carefully, she took hold of his injured arm, surveying the damage caused by the dagger. This wound looked less severe than the previous one, which thankfully made it a lot easier to heal. She gingerly placed her other hand against it, being remarkably more gentle with him than she'd been before. A few minutes passed as she once again let the magic do its thing, weaving through his body in a manner that would be surprisingly more pleasant than last time.

She took a few seconds afterwards to make sure it was fully healed, running her thumb along where the cut used to be before looking up to meet his eyes.

"Well, that should do it, but really don't know if I can teach you. It's... not something that just anybody can do, even if they tried. You'd need something to practice on, too."

That was mostly true, but even if he was capable of learning how to heal, she really didn't want to be the one to teach him. For several reasons.