There Shall Be Great Rejoicing - Part 9

Mai woke the next day with a dreadful pounding in her left jaw joint. Reaching up, she found an adhesive patch on her skin, giving her an hourly dose of medication for swelling and pain.

Across from her bed, she saw a cot with a neatly folded blanket on the end. Had it not hurt so, she would have smiled. Deliss was being assiduous as usual.

Moving her head caused a surge of dizziness making the bile rise in her throat. Retching and gagging, she fell back onto her pillows. An attendant was at her side immediately, bringing a basin. Mai wiped her forehead with one hand, finding another patch near her left temple. She grunted as the attendant, a pretty blonde Sylph, cleaned her up and changed her bedding, chattering happily. Mai held up a hand to restrain the constant barrage of words. The Sylph smiled.

"I'm sorry, I tend to babble. Perhaps that is because of my name," she chortled, showing Mai her name tag. Mai's eyes refused to focus. The Sylph noticed and looked sympathetic. "Brooke," she said softly. "My name is Brooke."

"Niceameecha," Mai mumbled.

Brooke grinned. "Nice to meet you too. Don't try to talk, Dr. Stalely says not to."

Mai raised a questioning eye brow. No guild physician? Stalely was a private doctor, very expensive. Come to think of it, this was not guild medical, which was stark but familiar. This place was luxurious, comfortable, more like a home.

Brooke saw the question in her eyes. "Lady Bramble thought it best to bring you here for treatment," Brooke fluffed the pillows unnecessarily. "You saved a great deal of time and money
when you fought Linos for her. Not to mention, she won a lot of fame tokens on your match."

"No wonder she was so generous to me," Mai thought ruefully.

She had risen to Tenth Rank, and wondered just how much fame the Centaur had gained.

She leaned over Mai's bed, her face showing lines of disquietude.

"They found the person who cleared that logost he hit you with. Dr. Stalely said it could not have been a normal one, it did too much damage. So they investigated," she dropped her voice in a conspiratorial manner. "However, you did just as much damage to him without the weights," she admitted happily.