He looked at the ceiling of his room.
He had awoken a couple minutes prior, and he slept little, for the first couple hours he had been plagued with ceaseless thoughts over and over again, even when he managed to drift to sleep his dreams had bordered on nightmares. The events from the last couple of days playing through his head in repeat and the general situation brought his mood down, so here he was, just staring upward in search of answers.
He was surprisingly... calm wasn't the right word, unperturbed sounded cooler. Perhaps it was the part of him that came from that bastard but his general disposition to bad news after the fact was to just shrug and move on.
Still, the other idiot made a habit of contemplating things when he was alone and this was a prime opportunity for it, the lunch was a couple hours away if he didn't misremember and he had no previous arrangements until later, he may as well use the time.
First of all, who was he?
He felt like he was James, he felt everything James felt before the whole blessing incident happened... but if someone were to call him Zigmund it would feel equally natural. Maybe that was the problem, he still was trying to be one while leaving the other by the wayside, not that it was that uncommon he felt, people only showed a facet of who they are after all and frankly, after seeing things from both perspectives there was little push to resume Zigmund usual attitudes, a lot of him had been steadily erased by the Black Sword for a couple of decades by now, all those negative traits of his youth pushed to stupid extremes with his survival only happening thanks to his not so fortunate encounters and opportunities. Zigmund could see that now and it provoked a spot of deep anger inside of him. Fuck Baphomet.
Yeah, on the second topic, fuck Baphomet and that fucking sword of his.
Even after Zigmund death, it continued to haunt him, he wanted to rip the head off the oblivion prince and shove it down his throat, after all it had taken from him death was too quick and not satisfying enough. At the very least the ritual should prove useful after Kass has his conversation with Zell and for that James was thankful. He didn't deserve to have such a great party, even if half of them threatened to give him gray hairs early.
And how could he forget about the last couple of incidents of course?
Zell being overtaken by that Fucking Sword™, Clive dying and coming back to life, Adam's self-recrimination tendencies appearing at the worse of times, and Fenna's sudden decision to take a dip on a motherfucking
Source Well of all things. Only Kass and Mac had proven they weren't troublemakers so far. And even there he was crossing his fingers.
And that went without mentioning the group dynamics, he left HR because he didn't want to be subjected to stuff like that godamn it.
Before long it was finally time for him to go downstairs, his steps were lethargic but little by little he made his way until he found himself sitting at the same table as Fenna and Adam, from the voices he could faintly hear the rest of the party was still on the floor above and by the gods were they loud, whatever they had going on was rambunctious as hell. Shortly after Freddy came to take their orders and he asked for something light, after the last day he had his appetite was in shambles.
It only turned worse when the rest of his party came down.
Clive and Mac? Spotless as he could expect of them and he even returned their greetings, but the other two? Battered and bloody, almost as if they had been, no, not almost, they had been in a brawl, and seeing how unbothered the other two were acting, as well as his last conversation with Kass he could make an educated guess of what had happened.
Silently he started to categorize the injuries on both men, bruises, some lacerations, a slight limp, and winces on certain motions likely from strained muscles, from the looks of it neither was suffering from broken bones or grave internal injuries, oh it would likely hurt like hell once the adrenaline wore off but for now it seemed like neither man was in fatal danger aside from the concussions but really, what was a concussion to someone with brain damage already?
Yeah, Kass was going down the list, no matter how necessary this whole thing may have been.
As a stranger entered The Mended Drum he struggled with a new question.
Should... should he heal them? Common sense told him yes, Kass was an intelligent man and if he decided this was the path he settled on then it must have been for a good reason.
On the other hand the injuries were not life-threatening, and with the natural healing Melee Classes like they possessed, it wouldn't take more than a day or two for them to go back into shape.
'In the current siege that is just a bad idea' said his common sense again and before his pettiness could argue back it continued
'You also don't want to see them hurt'Then as he debated the man himself gave him a nod and signaled to Zell.
...Damn his bleeding heart.
Without a word he moved towards Kass and started treatment, meanwhile, he kept an ear to the conversation, his hands paused as he revised what he had heard, then he resumed his work, another one like them or not there were injured people here. Though it meant he missed his mark to introduce himself.
As he patched him up he remembered Kass's introduction and he couldn't help but murmur under his breath "Normal my ass, you could punch a tank and win" Making sure to bandage the laceration and apply some ointment, which should help dull the pain and soothe the swelling.
As he worked he listened as she talked about herself, finding herself alone must have been rough, Mytheria wildlife is not exactly harmless and the fact that she managed to make her way towards civilization and thrive was something to be lauded.
Finishing he turned towards Zell and started treatment.
None of the injuries he sported merited something like stitches or sutures, despite the bloody show they were pouring. Still, in the great scheme of things he just needed to repeat what he did for Kass.
Then when he was sure the other man was mostly fine he finally took the time for the first time.
"The Guild offers a variety of services such as the mentioned
magical email, as well as rooms, affiliated institutions, and contractual regulations. The ranks are based on the criteria of merit and capability, with some of the aforementioned services tied to specific ranks" He tried to give a grin then settled for a light frown "Sorry to butt in, I was occupied when we were presenting ourselves, my name is James Sirius, from Mexico, and I am the current leader of Second Chance, nice to meet you"