[Success, Irritatingly]

  We are standing outside the patient’s room, I’ve never seen a person cough up a chunk of flesh before. I hope that was a bad chunk of flesh, not something that the woman needs to survive. She definitely acted as if she was cured. I’d read stories about Earth’s faith healers where people are ‘cured' on stage in front of an audience. Only to later relapse, the patient isn’t faking, they actually believe they’ve been healed. Their brain powers them through with this belief, but once that initial surge in brain activity calms down, the emotions level out, the lame are still lame, the sick are still sick.

  The sooner I boosted Opal’s magic and taught her to gather ambient magic so that she could refill, the better. She’s really been pushing herself, since she’d healed Draco of devastating injuries. Sparky’s on board with her pursuing healing magic, but her enthusiasm for healing she’s pushing herself too hard. She’s letting her magic drain too deep.

  “Sweetie, I’m going to teach you how to gather magic, just like I do. That way you’ll be able to refill your magic even if I’m not there. But you have to promise that you will not drain your magic below thirty percent even if I’m there to help you refill. I don’t want to scare you but if you drain your magic too low you might pass out from the strain. If you are unconscious you won’t have any way to refill. Even if I create a vast pool of magic I can’t force it into your body, do you understand? It’s really important to help people when you can but if you push yourself too much, you’ll wind up on your back, unable to even help yourself.”

  “Yes Rose.”

  Lottie came out of the exam room.

  “Great job Opal, Rose can you still author a lab for me in England, or Canada?”

  “Sure Lottie. Would you like to come?”

  “Yes that would be ideal, will it have lab tech’s and everything or will it just be the building and the equipment?”

  “Whatever you prefer, Lottie.”

  “It would be better if it had real lab techs. I haven’t done any real lab work in years, I could do it but I’d be much slower and probably not as accurate. What happens to the building and the people when I’m not there?”

  “They can just do lab work for other local doctors or hospitals, that will keep your lab techs sharp with a constant flow of work, they’ll be experienced and professional. Your lab will also be paying their Tech’s higher than the going rate of pay, so you’ll have the best and low turnover. While it’s busy, they also have a strict limit of cases that way your Techs remain sharp without getting burnt out. When you arrive, the clinic is yours and the staff yours to command. Plus when I can get Mossbeard here, we will install a portal direct to your private office at the lab. That way you won’t need to find someone to jump you every time you need something tested.”

  “Rose, that sounds amazing but who pays the techs and orders the supplies?”

  “We can set up a business office, that’ll handle all the billing to doctors and hospitals, they’ll handle the pricing, making just enough money to pay for supplies and staff with a tiny buffer. We don’t want to make a profit, we just want to be the very best lab.”

  “That sounds perfect.”

  We jumped to Toronto and I authored Lottie a phone so she could show me a picture of the type of lab she wanted. She browsed for a few minutes, found one that met her specifications and I authored it. We entered the building and the woman at the reception desk greeted Dr Li.

  We went to Lottie’s office and she pressed her call button and her assistant appeared.

  “Yes, Dr Li.”

  “I’d like to get this tumor biopsied, stat.”

  “Right away Dr Li.”

  “Lottie do you want a computer that works on a battery, that way you can bring it home and as long as it’s within a magical field the battery won’t die. You were complaining about paperwork the last time I was at the clinic and I recently learned that magical fields keep batteries charged, or I should say Maz learned and told me.”

  “Rose that would be amazing, I type so much faster than I write, it’ll be perfect for patient notes.”

  So while we were waiting she browsed to a laptop that she liked on her phone and I authored her two, one for use here in the lab and one for her office back at the clinic. They each share information, whatever is typed on one is also available on the other.

  “Lottie I also have a favor to ask you.”

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “You just built me a lab and two computers, I’ll have to say yes.”

  “No, I don’t want you to do that. If you have time I’d like you to serve on the board for the Non Profit Estate Foundation. I already have Elma, Mossbeard, Bimble, James Davies, Eldara, and Ruby signed up and I still need to ask Nim, Paula and Lily. The foundation is designed to get affordable housing built in place of the four estates, once the vineyard is up and running and making a profit it’ll pay for future infrastructure maintenance and upgrades while also helping poorer families pay their taxes. The aim is for the town to expand and include the five estates within its borders, making the land taxable. Each estate will have a portal so living on the estates the residents will have easy access to the town, market, clinic, guard. Mossbeard will be managing it day to day, so the board just has to make the decisions, Mossbeard is on the board so whatever is decided he’ll make happen.”

  “That’s quite a diverse selection you’ve made for the board, was that your aim?”

  “Yeah, the people living on the Evans estate will be living right next door to a gnome colony. If we had only gnomes on the board, they wouldn’t understand any issues that humans might have with any decisions they’ve made and vice versa and the sentient trees are intelligent new additions to town. Their insights might be invaluable especially for their deep knowledge of the ecology of the land; they might be able to point out the problem of a proposed idea before it becomes an issue for the residents. That’s my main reason for including you. If someone proposed an idea that was inherently unhealthy, you could explain why that was a bad idea. James Davies has been living on the estates his whole life and when he and his wife pass, their mansion will become town property. So just because the very nature of the estates are changing, I thought he could point out when change for just change's sake might be a bad idea. He’s also offered the foundation space in his home for meetings and an office for the estate manager, Mossbeard. Finally the foundation will dissolve when the town expands to include the estates within its borders.”

  “Wow Rose that’s quite thought out, will you be the chairperson?”

  “No, not at all. Once hopefully I get Nim, Lily and Paula onboard, I’m done. Sparky specifically told me not to get involved in any civic projects while he was away on his research trip. So to say that he was a little upset with me when he returned would be an understatement. I’m still just an apprentice and I have to do the things that Sparky tells me to do, because I know that he’s telling me these things for my own good. The only reason my plan is thought out is because every time I pitch the idea to a prospective board member, I think of something new, or they do and it gets added to the plan. One of the first issues you’ll all have to address was brought up by Elma, she wants the wording changed and the word ‘Board’ replaced.”

  “So you are saying that this diversity also brings its own unique problems.”

  “Yes but better that the problems are addressed collegially and amicably by the board then to wait for the same issues to develop unaddressed on the estates where they might lead to conflict or blows. One of the first things that the board should address is how to change a board member who is not a good fit for whatever reason with the rest of the board. I have an idea how that might be done without losing diversity or good will. Let’s say ‘Lily’ was problematic to the majority of the board.”

  Lottie laughed at the idea of the most pleasant, nicest woman in town ever being labeled problematic. Also because I’d chosen her girlfriend and one of my closest friends as an example.

  “So you vote out the problematic Lily and you go to the Burgomaster to appoint her replacement, if it’s Mossbeard you’d go to Elder Glimmerdus or Woody for Elma. You can’t be accused of racism or prejudice because you are throwing the problem back on a community leader to solve.”

  Then there was a knock at the door. A lab tech came in with the results and we jumped back to the clinic. We found Laura and Opal waiting for us, apparently they’d be having a deep discussion about the merits of the Hobbit versus Harry Potter as a first fantasy novel. Laura pointed out to Opal that the author had some views about real life issues that fans so vehemently disagreed with they boycotted her books.

  Opal asked, “Are the views reflected in the series?”

  “No, but the fans don’t want to give her money, to make her richer than she already is.”

  “Well, that’s alright, we don’t pay for her books, we get our books from Doug.”

  “But Doug must pay for them.”

  “No, Doug says that information wants to be free, copyrights are just corporations trying to keep making money on long dead authors. That’s why Doug always gives us signed first editions. I love the ones the professor signed, it’s like he made up his very own font just to sign books. Someday I want to go to Quintessence to meet him.”

  “I’m sorry Opal, but he died over fifty years ago.”

  “Yeah on Earth, but Oberon brought him here and he became the High Mage of the realm, he keeps Oberon and Titania in check, he’s supposed to be the most famous human to come to Emain Ablach since Shakespeare.”

  Lottie announced, “I hate to interrupt this literary discussion but I just confirmed that the tumor you healed out of Ms Wilson was cancer. When you stopped healing Opal was it because she was completely healed or did you run out of magic.”

  “She was healed, Dr Li.”

  “Good I’ll have her come back next week and you can try healing her again, if she doesn’t need healing, we’ll repeat again in a month, then three months then a year. A lot of times on Earth cancer comes back. I don’t know if that is because all of the cancer wasn’t found and removed or if some people are just more prone to developing recurring cancers. Usually on Earth if you remain cancer free for seven years they consider you cured and unlikely that you’ll get the disease again."

  “I know I’m new here and not a doctor but shouldn’t you bring her to Earth to run tests.”

  “Laura, that's a perfectly logical idea but since I’ve started working with Arjun and Opal, I haven’t once found either to be in error when they proclaimed someone healed. If she requires healing again, for something non obvious then I’ll have to try and figure a way to get her into a facility, for x-rays, MRI and cat scans. But I certainly don’t want to put her through that if she is completely healed. It would scare her unnecessarily.”