Sugar and Tar
Thunder rumbled in the Slaughtered Lamb. Three loud claps of it, lighting up the dim interior with muzzle flare. Manon could see through the perpetually-open doorway as she trudged up the well-worn path from the park. Silence and shock fell over the people she passed, and wide eyes turned to the entryway. And nothing happened. There was no screaming from inside. There were no terrified patrons pouring out. And, perhaps most sadly, there was nothing notable about gunfire at the Slaughtered Lamb.
One by one, pairs returned to their conversations. The heavy and uneasy quiet gave way like wood splintering under pressure, and soon the bar’s front lawn was alive with the rumblings of its patrons. A warlock sat properly on the stone ledge, ankles crossed and legs dangling, as she drank wine from a spotty glass. Beside her, a worgen with russet fur double fisted mugs of ale. A draenei held a bright pink cocktail with one hand and twisted his tendrils around the finger of his other, eyes hooded flirtatiously. His partner, a night elf man with matted green hair and no drink to speak of, didn’t seem to notice.
And no one noticed the man that ran from the Lamb. Ebon-haired and thin, trailing blood behind him as he stumbled out of the bar. But Manon did. Namely because, as he ran, he brushed so close to her that she felt the wind that was disturbed in his wake. The sound that came from him was less of a cry, and more a garble of distress, and his feet dragged across the packed grass as he vanished into the alley between the Slaughtered Lamb and the Blue Recluse.
Manon never made the choice to give chase. She only did as her feet commanded. So instinctual was it that she barely realized the action until she’d already skidded to a stop not thirty feet away. He was gone. No blood dotted the lush grass beneath the bridge she passed under. Manon’s eyes scanned the spot behind that tree, she knew the one. Where the bramble at the base was just thick enough to hide a person curled into a ball— or a persnickety black cat whose claws had left blazing trails down her forearms that had only just started to heal. But the area remained undisturbed. There was nothing there.
But there were sobs behind Manon. Throaty and thick and terrified. Her own footprints in the grass were all that were at her back. Until her eyes slowly drifted to the ledge to her left.
There he sat. Wild-eyed and panting. Green eyes flashed desperately at Manon as she looked up at him, and then his head turned to focus on something to his right. The voice of another person lilted softly as Manon trudged back up the path. But the man whimpered. His shirt clung to his chest, soaked through with blood, and he whispered.
“I’m going to die, I’m going to die, I’m going to die.”
When Manon crested the little hilltop, she saw the other responder for what they were. A person with skin like paper pulled near to ripping and hair like raw silver knelt at his side. They rummaged frantically through a bag, comforting the man through murmurs of their own. His gaze was unfocused, staring ahead at the door to the little alchemist’s shop across the catwalk. When Manon followed his gaze, she half expected someone to be in the doorway. There was no one.
So she sunk down onto her knees, crawling toward the fellow with as genuine and reassuring a grin as she could muster. But the smell of blood made her stomach turn, and the sight of it made her legs weak. Maybe she’d gone pale, or maybe she looked queasy, but the poor man doused in his own blood only whimpered at her approach.
The silver glint of a dagger in the moonlight caught Manon’s eye, and her gaze flicked to the person by the man’s side. It was less of a weapon, and more for ceremony. Dull, but ornate, long and generally knife-shaped. Their voice was smooth as glass as they murmured. They spoke not to him, and not to Manon, but to the empty air, narrating each action for the benefit of themselves and the shadows.
“I’ll just use this to pry the round out…”
Manon blinked. She wasn’t a doctor, but she was wary of putting knives into bullet holes. He would bleed, and he’d bled so much already…
“Wait,” Manon told the stranger. She rummaged in her bag for a moment, until her fingers wrapped around a thin glass vial, which had been stored haphazardly but with the hope that she could keep it to show off sometime soon. But her showing off mattered less than this man’s life. And so, Manon wrenched the vial from the bottom of her bag.
The liquid inside was a deep red, like blood from a drowning man. It was syrupy, and smelled so sickly sweet that it was percievable just from the little dribbles that had congealed around the cork from messy pouring. In short, the potion was burnt, and barely worth bragging over unless one considered that Manon hadn’t the equipment to make such things well. Surely it would taste awful, like sugar and tar, but it would work.
Probably.
“Have hi- you need to drink this,” Manon said. At first, she held the vial to the person with the knife, only to decide midway through to give it to the man himself. She popped the cork for him with one thumb as her other hand gently ventured for his. The grip was soothing, she hoped. At least he squeezed her hand like he was clinging to her as an anchor on a ship at port. “I-It’ll help with the bleeding, and you’ll heal faster.”
“What’s in-” he stammered. One trembling hand rose to take it from her grip. “What’s in it?”
“Just take it!” The healer barked. Their gaze had levelled onto their patient and to Manon. Their eyes were such a bright blue that they seemed to glow in the low light, and for a moment Manon could have forgotten about the injured man before her in favor of being bewildered by how one could even have eyes so bright.
But when the man threw her remedy back, and his whole body shivered as he gagged, his hand clenched around hers, and it pulled Manon back to his aid.
Three people knelt by the front door of the little alchemist’s shop. The moon hung high in the sky, and no one was around to help them. But the blood slowed as Manon’s potion took hold. Her hands were soaked in it, but she wasn’t queasy anymore, and he wasn’t crying anymore. It occurred to her, dimly, that it had been her aid to provide him this solace. A fledging skill, something she’d made with her own two hands, had provided such relief.
It was far more important than anything she could have said about the actual potion. It made tears brim in her eyes and her chest swell with emotion. Pride. Fulfillment.
Having done her part, Manon held his hand while the doctor did their work.
And the round clattered to the cobbles.
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