The interior of the castle is a lot like the other fancy schmucks Esstrey has known, overly decorated and pushing the banner in the face of all visitors. Apparently things get cluttered rather quickly whe-great-great grandpa's lost tooth just had to be added to the colle of item's passed down in the family, and these kinds of things are so much easier to add than to remove. Of course, the interior decorators probably ment the tragic addition of poor dental hygiene, and decide to prevent the castle from being turned into a museum by adding more banners. In Russia, there is a great emphasis on respeg your elders, but the history books really don't do the pride of a bunch of old codgers' justice. Watg the sheer amount of 'valuable heirlooms' being hidden in pin sight by adding more bao the entrance area as a whole really reinforces Esstrey's opinion that the whole feudal system was built on pandering to the useless sensibilities of a few undeserving tubs of rd.

  Oher cw, the carpet does feel very nider her tail.

  There are some moving decorations as well, minor nobles who sidering the matg emblems with the banners are vassals of the duchess. They seemed to be very worried, sidering the rate of their beatis, but the relief is visible upon their faces when they see the duchess. That relief quickly morphs into a short look of terror when they notice that the shadow behind the duchess is actually a massive mermaid, and they shortly shift back to worry, before finally calming their rampaions.

  "Lady Malencia! We are so gd to see you have returned successfully with the wi- the doctor! I trust that she will heal the young master?" The man is sweating bullets, yet the reason for his panic very much isn't tered arourey.

  "Yes baron Hatzeir, I am fident we will make progress, the good doctor has showraordinary solutions to medical problems that will certainly be of aid to the healer team. Lady Esstrey, up the stairs 3rd door on your left is the patient, I will catch up in a moment." Esstrey makes her way to the stairs, and notices an odd trio standing at the base of the stairs, snickering to each other.

  One of them is a man wearing a red robe with yellow lightning on it, another is a woman who seems to be wearing a dress made out of bck ribbons, and the st one looks like a cemetery attendant in a suit, smells like ooo. They notice Esstrey make eye tact, and collectively turn to face her.

  "She hasn't got a clue, does she?" The robed man points at the duchess as he directs the question at Esstrey, who simply smiles back.

  "Do you?" The question actually catches the robed man off-guard, if Esstrey has learned anything from whack jobs It's that you have to outdo them to get favorable results.

  "I like her already." The woman with ribbons for clothes ents, and the trio have switches to a stance which clearly indicates they are waiting for Esstrey to make a move without further ent.

  Esstrey obliges... by crushing the wooden stairs as she asds them. The stairs were most likely an ht on the part of the duchess, and she could theoretically scale them without leaving a trail, but if she did that she wouldn't properly show her dissatisfa with the area not being wheelchair accessible. The duchess looks on impassively and with a slight disapproving look, while her vassals look horrified at the mermaid wreg one side of the stairs rather thhly in her ast.

  "I hope you know what you are doing mi'dy... the doctor doesn't look like the geype." The baron only gets a quick side-gnce from the duchess, and a toothy grin from Esstrey.

  Esstrey goes through the hallway aers the room iion, it isn't an exceptionally rge room for a noble, but it certainly isn't g in the decoratioment with the various medieval ons scattered about. A rge group of healers surrounds a sickly boy on the bed, so enraptured iask that only an old butler watg notices Esstrey ehe man gives Esstrey a quice, befesturioward the boy.

  "What's his medical record?" Esstrey decides not to waste any time, sidering the boy looks like he's one foot in the grave already.

  "Sixteen, male, Faerunian Human. Has only gotten sick thri his life, once a cold, ohe flu, and oetanus]. al health issues, no allergies and has only beeed for [Tetanus]. Currently suspected to have a rather hefty curse." One of the healers responds to Esstrey with practiced ease.

  Esstrey shoves some of the healers out of the way, while brining her cw up to the kid's forehead to pretend to take his temperature, with her other cw she quickly draws a drop of blood for a preliminary analysis. She does some more useless as to keep the healers distracted, who are now slowly beginning to realize that a giant mermaid is cheg up on their patierey might not be a doctor, but she has dabbled in keeping people alive, both magically and mundane. Some basic biology lessons begin to t themselves into her mind, even if it's only the raw information. She 't even remember if it was held at a school or not.

  The results she got from the drop of blood are... bad. The blood cells are showing severe degradation, and the symptoms he has line up with quite a rge assortment of diseases. There are also traultiple aggressive anisms of different kinds attag the blood cells.

  sidering all this from just looking at the patient and a drop of blood, it's probably harder to t the diseases he doesn't have than ting the ones he does. As Esstrey is p how to go about it, Eliaers.

  "Well, 'doctor', how does it look?" Eliana's tone is somewhere iween insulting exhausted and hopeful, an impressive bination no doubt achieved through rigorous tea parties where she was forced to smile out of courtesy to people she would rather have thrown down an oubliette.

  "Frankly, I'm pretty sure I have seen people that were run over by high-speed traffi a better dition. His ans are absolutely fucked, and most of your popution probably 't even t high enough to t all the diseases the kid has. It's a testament to your resources that he stayed alive for as long as he did, but I estimate that the current path will mean his demise within the week without any ge." Esstrey begins looking around the room for various resources, and also gets a little handsy with the now very nervous healers.

  "And you believe you cure my son?" Eliana ighe antics of the giant mermaid rather expertly, the life of her son is worth more than the pride of some healers and a stairway.

  "Yes, but I'll need some stuff. Equipment to make potions, a lot of water, Sofia here as my assistant... and a few people who don't mind being in a a for a while." The healers all look at the mermaid with their mouths agape, especially at the st request. Is she going to sacrifice the lifespan of others? Some kind of deal with the devil? The elderly steward merely watches with passive indifference, and the duchess actually looks... relieved?

  "I won't stand by as you it heretical rituals fiend!" One of the healers speaks up, and almost immediately regrets it as the room looks at her.

  "You are right, you won't. Lady Eliana, I will also need you to get all these people to take a hike. If someone barges in here off visiting hours, I will kill them." Esstrey says it with the same professionalism as a doctor would talk about a surgery, and she means it too. Her blood magi't something she wants to be revealed, g knowledge about it saved her life once already, after all.

  Prickly