Sighing as she left the Refuge, paying the expense of the waypoints to avoid the open space around the airship dock in the Arch, Adriwyn made her way down into Rook’s Row in the Reach, tossing bits of food up into the air for the ravens that gathered over her path. Entering the rooming-house, she went up to the second-floor hallway, and knocked on the carved, warded door.

The dark purple Sylvari who answered tried to grab her up in a hug, and she had to duck, yelping a bit. ‘Orchid! Hullo! I’m glad to see you, too, darlin’, but! Broken shoulder – no hugging like that. Gentle hug, all right?’

The Sylvari’s eyes went almost comically wide at the ducking and the news, but her feelings were mollified at the rest of the woman’s words, and she wrapped her up in a softer hug, below her shoulders this time.

Before Orchid could gather her thoughts enough to ask about Adri’s shoulder, the wailing of a cat from inside the room was heard, and, and contralto chuckle, as the tall priestess’s eerie gaze peered out from the relative darkness. ‘You keep coming when you need something, dearie, and I’ll need to start charging you! Get in here before your cat gets loose!’

The sylvari ushered the smaller human in and closed the door, while Adri’s eyes adjusted to the dimness. What she saw reassured her that her timing wasn’t all that bad. Neither of her friends looked tired or sore, and the priestess was cossetting the cat rather happily, before finally letting him down to make a nuisance of himself around the small woman’s ankles, scolding her.

‘What happened, dearie? What do you need fixed?’

‘I… was crossing from the airship dock in Lion’s Arch toward the gate plaza… well, you know how open some of that area still is. As best I can tell it was a target of opportunity, but it sounded like the same two guns. Or same models, anyway. The armour inserts in my dress mostly did their job, but… there’s a crack low on my shoulder blade – I’m not honestly sure just how bad. An… elementalist I know insisted on helping – and I can’t really argue with a countess, even if I’d much wanted to. She didn’t try to do too much about the bone, but the bruising as basically gone.’

The dark-haired priestess moved around the blonde as she spoke, and held her fingers over her back, quickly focussing in on her right side, despite her not having remembered to mention that detail. ‘Well, dearie. Since you do keep showing up when you want something,’ she pretended to ponder while Adriwyn chuckled softly. It was a running joke between them. ‘My poor apprentice likes to look. So, for Orchid’s sake, dearie, your top needs to open up.’

The small blonde giggles, shaking her head with amusement, while the purple glow around the Sylvari intensified a bit. ‘I’ll need some help from one of you with that, then, just as I needed help getting this on. And please be careful – it’s borrowed.’

Orchid had been moving nearer to help, but backed away. She might be Alyssia’s apprentice in magic, but not on tailoring. ‘Not touchin’ that, then!’

With a nod, the priestess undid the bodice and opened it up, letting it drop down, exposing the smaller woman’s chest for the Sylvari to ogle, which she did. Adriwyn just shook her head as her friend worked, amused to watch Orchid’s gaze flick about as the light caught her bars while she breathed.

In the meanwhile, the priestess worked her warding and drawing away of the injury into herself, and then chanted and summoned more bits of life magic to heal what was now her own wound, the cat hissing a bit and hiding behind Orchid for most of the proceeding. When she finished, she leaned on Adriwyn, making the smaller woman support her for a bit. It wasn’t clear whether she really needed it, or if it was just part of teasing her in lieu of real payment.

When the cat ventured toward her again, Adri carefully squatted down, continuing to support Alyssia as she followed suit. She found a treat from her stash of such and comforted her cat, who none the less still scolded her, even while purring and eating his bribe. ‘Ah, Mister Percival, you are such a cat!’

‘Well of course he is, dearie! What did you expect him to be?’

A giggle and a flash of white teeth. ‘A cat, of course! But since he only cares about the attention, and not the words, it doesn’t matter how silly I’m being. Does it, little Percy, hmm?’ She gave the charcoal-grey ball of fur petting and scratches until the priestess finally rose, and really did wobble a little. That broke Orchid out of her ogling, and she steadied her mentor.

‘Uh-oh… you all right, darlin’? Didn’t think it w–’

The priestess cut her off with a shake of her head and a small snort. ‘Nothing to worry about, dearie! I just shouldn’t have squatted like that for so long, and then stood up so fast.’ She smiled with a dry chuckle. ‘But you know the other price, dearie. Bones means calcium, means bone meal and marrow – for both you and me for a few days.’

With a nod, Adri sadly decided that picking up the cat wasn’t a good idea with a borrowed dress open to catch all the fur. She stood and started doing up the bodice again. ‘Ow! Still some swelling, hmm?’ She got its laces tightened and re-tied behind her even so, though not without a few grunts and winces.

With her distractions covered up again, the Sylvari tilted her head, looking the blonde over. ‘That’s a nice dress, Miss Adri! Those colours look good on you!’

‘Thank you, Orchid!’ She flushes a bit as she explained, ‘It’s borrowed from… a friend.’

The Kurzick priestess arched a brow. ‘A friend in your size, loaning out that sort of gown…? You have a new girlfriend, dearie?’

Another flush and a sheepish nod. ‘Aye… and I figure she ought to meet you at some point. If we’d been up early enough this morning… but we weren’t.’ She sighed.

‘Well, Flower, I think that means she’s taken again, so no groping her.’

The Sylvari’s glow increased quite a bit for a moment as she spluttered, then sighed at her mentor’s teasing.

‘Now you’ve embarrassed her horribly, darlin’!’ She gave Orchid a quick kiss on the cheek, then turned to do the same for Alyssia, though that took pulling herself up on the taller woman to manage. ‘Thank you so much! And I’ll be back with food in a few!’

The priestess pat her shoulder, nodding, and Adri let herself out.

Sighing at the necessity, Adri wrote out a letter, slipping it into the “incoming” pile in the offices at the Refuge, once she was there again.

Dear Lady Lux,

I’m afraid I can’t fly patrols or undertake other strenuous duties for a while, as I have an injured shoulder. I don’t yet know how long this will last, as it depends on what sort of healing I can get for the fracture.

Yours,
Adriwyn

(( @luxelen​ ))