“Now, let us wish the bride and groom a happy night,” my father said loudly as everyone toasted to the couple. There were cheers as some of the guests had gotten quite drunk on the expensive wine from my father’s wine cellar.
The bride and groom stood up and waved to cheers, before retiring for the night. “Now I think some of our younger guests shall be getting to sleep as well,” my father said while looking towards me with a smile. There was quite a bit of laughter at that.
My father sat back down, and I got up. I said goodnight before leaving with the guards assigned to shadow me, making my way back to the mansion. As we approached one of the entrances, I felt an immense amount of danger and froze up.
The three guards around me were instantly decapitated. I felt a knife cut into my neck and then come to a halt. “Not today,” I saw Legend Quick Draw Yorren standing in front of me with his knives extended out into a cloaked attacker, I couldn’t get a good view of. Blood rushed out of my neck as my attacker was knocked back.
“Healer!” Legend Quick Draw Yorren shouted as he rushed at the cloaked figure. I felt weak. I collapsed to my knees as I reached up towards my neck. Blood spilled out between my fingers as I tried to put pressure on the wound.
“Out of the way!” I heard Healer Castelle shout as I collapsed to the ground. I checked on my healing points and they had already bottomed out. “Greater Cure! Dammit, poison. Greater Purify. Greater Cure. Stabilize Soul.”
I felt someone pull my hands away from my neck and a potion shoved into my mouth. “How is he?!” I heard my father shout. There was a distant explosion.
“Alive. A few seconds later and he would have bled out,” Healer Castelle said.
“Stay with him, no matter what. No matter what,” my father repeated.
“I understand,” Healer Castelle replied. I checked my healing points again, but my head went fuzzy.
“Don’t check your status in any way. That poison was nasty stuff. I got rid of the worst of it, but the effects are going to linger. You two, get a stretcher, we need to get him inside and to his bed,” Healer Castelle yelled. It was hard to focus, and I had closed my eyes. I felt a slap on the cheek and quickly opened them.
“No falling asleep right now, or you might not wake up. That knife had a potent mix. Eternal Sleep, Corrosive Status, and probably Bodily Collapse if I had to guess. Assassins like to use that triple combination. No sleeping right now.”
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“No speaking either. We can worry about skills once you aren’t about to die on me. One problem at a time,” Healer Castelle said. “Keep your eyes open and looking my face. If you close them, you get a slap.”
I didn’t say anything as several guards brought over a stretcher. “Carefully, don’t shake him too much,” Healer Castelle told them. They carefully moved me over. He followed them into the mansion and into my temporary room in my mother’s apartment.
“Move the sheets on the bed and then lay him down. Get water and a cloth.” My eyes closed as I felt like drifting off.
“Ah,” I let out a small shout as I was slapped again.
“No drifting off, no speaking. Don’t fall asleep on me just yet.” He began to cut off my clothing and clean me while inspecting the wound. After I had been cleaned and changed into sleeping clothes, my father showed up.
“Stable. Awake, which is good. Did you get the knife?” he asked.
“Assassin killed himself and destroyed all his equipment, nothing left behind.”
“A professional like I suspected. The knife was poisoned, but I have dealt with the worst of it. We just have to wait the night and by morning we should know. As for skill gain, unfortunately, Poison Resistance is most likely.”
“We have a High Priest here, maybe he could help?”
“His soul is too unstable. We yank a skill out, that would kill him for sure. I covered this with his mother. He refuses to get a level and put stats into Mind. His mother is even more stubborn. If he lives the night, he will live. If he doesn’t, well he doesn’t,” Healer Castelle explained.
“Then stay with him no matter what. If anything changes, have a servant get me,” my father said and then came over to my side. He brushed my hair a couple of times.
“I am sorry my son. But you will be okay, don’t worry. Healer Castelle is one of the best,” he said, and I gave a small nod.
“Don’t move. Just lay there with your eyes open, so I can be sure you aren’t falling asleep. Count numbers in your head up to a million,” Healer Castelle ordered. I began to count silently in my mind. My father brushed my hair once more, before leaving my bedside.
I was finally allowed to fall asleep sometime during the night, completely exhausted.
When I woke up, my head hurt, and Healer Castelle was sitting on a chair next to my bedside. “Congratulations. You aren’t dead,” he said. “You can talk and move. You are out of danger now.”
“Thank you. What time is it?” I asked.
“Late afternoon. Most people have started running away as quickly as possible in case your mother shows up. At least the assassin had the courtesy to wait until the end of the wedding,” he explained.
“And my health? The poison?” I asked.
“Stable, you can check your reserves.” I did so and my healing points were 197 out of 210. “Your healing points won’t go back to full for a while. Probably a month. Traces of the poison lingering in your body that they are dealing with. A strong mix, but you managed to survive due to Legend Quick Draw Yorren stopping the knife before it cut through your spine.”
“That…wow. Um, I should thank him,” I said.
“Don’t worry, your father did with a huge pile of money. And he will also give a personal letter from the Legend to your mother. “One could even say he was saving everyone at that wedding from your mother’s wraith if you had died. It is not an exaggeration to say that human civilization might have collapsed after she was done decapitating a large portion of its leadership.” That was quite a dark thought. “Now lay there and rest. I will have food and water brought to you.”