[piosenniel]

‘A room?’ she said looking him over thoroughly. Her nose wrinkled in mild disgust at his appearance. ‘You look terrible. Get in with the wrong crowd, my friend?’ She picked up the front of his cloak and examined it more closely. As she thought, it was not just grime from the road, and a few falls in the mud. It was blood.

Pio motioned for Cami to push a chair behind the injured Elf’s knees and she pushed him firmly into it. ‘Get my bag, would you Cami. There. Third shelf down on the left.’ She was used to battle wounds, and this was no more horrific than she’d seen before. She peeled off his cloak and pulled his tunic off unceremoniously. ‘Let us not be shy, Elf’ she spoke gently to him. ‘It is either this, or I cut it from you to take a closer look at that arm. Although, by the looks of it, the shirt is beyond all mending.’

‘What happened here?’’ she asked as she considered the jagged wound. It was deep and the flesh around it was swollen, red and hot. He winced as she sluiced water over it, cleansing out the debris. ‘Hold still now. I’m going to pack some healing salve in it, then bind it for you.’ Her hands were cool and they worked quickly and efficiently to get the task done.

She led him back to her apartment behind the bar with the help of another, and laid him down on the couch. ‘Rest for a while, down here. Then we will take you to a room upstairs.’ She poured him a cup of hot water infused with willow bark, and watched him closely as he drank it.

‘It will help the pain, so you can rest.’ She covered him with a quilt, and went back to the Common Room, saying she would check on him later.