The Worst Healer
Copyright© 2026 by InSpite
The Battle of the Blushing Maid
The short walk through town felt surreal.
Despite the late hour, we passed a handful of others on the streets as we briskly hustled across town, making only token efforts to hide the blood splattering our clothes.
We’d agreed beforehand that, once we’d started, we couldn’t stop until the job was done.
The Blushing Maid lay just inside the Shitty Quarter, a few streets away from both the Merchant’s and Middle Quarters, so its patrons wouldn’t have to get too much shit on their boots on a nighttime excursion.
While most of Vaston seemed to be cottage industries, the size of the Maid suggested sex, at least, was fully industrialised, with an exterior that looked more like a warehouse than a bordello.
As we approached, Rhian slipped away and the rest of us slowed our pace to a casual stroll. We were to enter as customers, while our Scout would infiltrate through a second-floor window.
Once Rhian had identified Carrion, Sierra would lock her down while Ellie dropped hellfire on Silvertongue. Rhian and I would cover Ellie or help with Carrion, and then we’d be on our way before reinforcements arrived.
It sounded simple, but we all knew to expect complications.
As we drew closer, Ellie and Sierra stopped briefly in the street, calmly trading jibes, insults and laughter as they sold their cover of half-drunken revellers to the guards on the doors and gave Rhian plenty of time to get in position.
While their act was convincing, I couldn’t help but feel I stuck out like a sore thumb, with blood staining my clothes and the war hammer weighing heavily on my back.
I’d worked doors before, back home to make a little money, and there’s no way I’d have let me in anywhere.
To my surprise, however, the Maid had lower standards than anywhere in Camden. The guards were far more interested in checking out Ellie and Sierra than they were in me and waved us through.
Inside the Maid was ... surprisingly nice. I’m not sure what I’d expected, but polished wooden floors and comfortable seating wasn’t it. It was significantly nicer than the Golden Standard.
But where the Standard was small and cosy, the Maid was cavernous and echoing.
A large room, roughly the size of a football pitch, made up the main part of the building. The main hall was full height, while rows of doors along the back wall suggested a series of small rooms, with a balcony providing access to a similar, second level of doors above them.
The late hour meant business was probably winding down, with roughly a hundred people scattered around the large room. A quick glance around suggested about twenty of them were guards, with a similar number of working girls.
Without a word, we spread out.
I moved along the wall closest to the entrance, mostly taken up by a long bar, while Sierra calmly crossed the room and started making her way up the far side.
Ellie took the middle, looking remarkably casual as she glided through the sparse crowd like she belonged here.
I scanned the room.
No Rhian.
No-one who fit Carrion’s description.
I started to wonder if backing out or stalling for time would be our best move.
But Ellie’s eyes were fixed on a tall, grey-haired man, dressed immaculately in a fitted black jacket.
Silvertongue.
He was surrounded by a small group of guards and girls, the centre of attention as he told a story, frequently placing a hand on a shoulder here or a pat on the back there.
Ellie strolled forwards. Sierra, casting a nervous glance in her direction, kept pace, so I followed too.
With Ellie fixated on Silvertongue and Sierra trying to spot Rhian or Carrion, I was the only one who noticed a guard, positioned ahead of me by the bar, look at Ellie, quickly do a double take and start to stand.
Ellie and Sierra spotted him as he took a step forwards. The tiny Witch started her Cypher before his warning cry of “Boss!” punctuated it.
“Hell’s fires, spring forth and scour my enemy: Incinerate.” A flash of flame shot from the Witch’s outstretched hand.
I’m not sure if the guard’s cry or the Cypher warned Silvertongue of the danger, but he broke off his story with a smirk in Ellie’s direction, calmly laying a hand on the back of a striking young woman beside him.
“Shield me,” he requested calmly and, without hesitation, the young woman stepped in front of him, just in time to be struck by a bolt of flame.
The room erupted into motion and cries of panic.
Ellie screamed in rage as customers started running for the exits and a burning corpse dropped silently to the floor.
Silvertongue grabbed two of his girls by the arms, stopping them from leaving as three of his guards took up defensive positions around him. “Stay close, my dears.”
Ellie stood in the middle of the room, looking down at the floor.
She remained motionless, even as the rest of the guards around Silvertongue, the doormen and a scattering of others rushed the Witch.
With a sigh, she waited a moment as they closed in on her.
Then, gaze still fixed on the floor, she started to intone, “White hot flame, dance and grow, expand and devour all before you...”
A white ball of fire appeared at her feet, slowly growing and expanding as she chanted.
Uncomfortably close to the ball, I hunkered down with my back to the bar, ready to duck behind my shield.
Ellie looked up as the rushing guards reached her, her hand still pointed at the tightly wound ball at her feet as blades closed in from all sides.
“Inferno.”
“Blink,” she rushed out the moment she’d finished her spell.
I managed to raise my shield a moment before the wall of heat struck me, pressing me into the bar with an uncomfortable force, the heat searing my skin even through my armour and the padding beneath it.
When I dared to risk a glance over my shield, I saw Sierra emerging from a room she’d ducked into and Ellie strolling along the bar twenty paces ahead of me, ignoring the flames lapping at the floor and walls in a wide circle behind her.
I hauled myself to my feet and surveyed the destruction Ellie’s bait-and-switch spell combo had caused before hustling to catch up with her.
At least a dozen bodies burned where they’d fallen close to where she’d stood. Most of them, I had to presume, were guards.
Most of the customers and other girls were well on the way to fleeing, but a few figures emerged from doors and back rooms with a look that said they were here to join the fight.
A heavily armoured figure with a large shield was taking up position in front of Silvertongue and his human shields. More worryingly, a man in blue robes was moving from a side booth to join them, while another in white had emerged from another room.
“Twisting flames, seek out my enemy and scorch them to the bone: Fire Bolt.” Ellie unleashed a ball of fire that twisted through the air towards the armoured figure.
“Barrier,” was the calm response from the white-robed man as the ball exploded against an invisible wall a few feet from its target.
On the far side of the room, Sierra cut down a knife-wielding man as he emerged from a back room and continued slowly making her way forwards.
“Red Briar,” Silvertongue chuckled, peering past the shield of his protector, “I think you’ve underestimated us.”
“Ellie. Finish it,” Sierra shouted across the room as two more foot-soldiers entered at the far end of the room.
With a sigh and a quick glance at the two girls standing in front of Silvertongue, Ellie started her Cypher, “White hot flame, dance and grow, expand and dev...”
“Counterspell,” the blue-robed man announced. The glowing ball of fire growing in front of Silvertongue dissipated in a moment.
“Fuck. Dammit.” Ellie shouted in frustration before throwing up a barrier to block a shard of ice from the white-robed man.
For a moment, everything was almost calm in the burning building.
Ellie, Sierra and I glanced between ourselves while Silvertongue and his group did the same, both sides working the odds over in their heads.
A quiet voice disrupted the calculations.
“Piercing Shot,” Rhian intoned from the balcony above.
The barrier in front of Silvertongue shattered and the white-robed man slumped to the floor with an arrow protruding from his chest.
With the calm dispelled, Sierra charged forward in the chaos that followed, making a play for Silvertongue. Two of his henchmen ran at Ellie, her attempts to burn them thwarted by the blue-robed man’s Counterspells.
With a loud clang, Rhian’s arrow shattered against the shield of the armoured man, proving it could stand up to her Piercing Shot.
I moved to intercept as the two fighters closed on Ellie, one falling with an arrow in their back while I cut the other off before he made it to the Witch.
As soon as we faced off, he chanted, “Cleave,” making my blood run cold for a heartbeat before I caught the impact on my shield with a grunt – a sorry strike compared to the hobgoblin’s forest-destroying version.
I spun the war hammer around in my hand before driving it pick-side down into his shield. It bit deep and, with a wrench, I hauled him forwards by his shield directly into a gauntleted fist.
As his legs crumpled and he fell face-down, I looked up, surveying the fight.
Sierra and Rhian were culling their numbers while the blue-robed man held back, prioritising neutralising Ellie over launching his own attack. Rhian fired a shot in his direction, but he was too close to the lumbering shield bearer who stepped in front of the arrow.
Cutting down the last of the men attacking her, Sierra focused her attention on Silvertongue’s group for a final charge, closing the distance in a rush.
For a moment, I could see our path to victory, and then...
“Stop.”
A glint of silver on his hand matched the glow in his eyes as Silvertongue held up a hand to Sierra and barked the command.
The Fencer immediately came to a skidding halt ten paces away from her target.
“Good girl. Now come over here ... and throw yourself in front of any arrows or spells that come my way,” Silvertongue said, almost purring with satisfaction.
“Ellie,” I called out as Sierra obediently took up position in front of Silvertongue, “you said he had to touch to use his powers.”
“Fuuuck.” Ellie’s response didn’t fill me with confidence.
“I guess he got Range Extend from an item ... Pricey, but ... we have a bigger problem.” The Witch shot back, “It takes less mana to counter a spell than to cast one. Blue dickhead over there is fighting like a fucking coward.”
“So, we take him down and get you back in the fight...” I sighed. “Alright, I’ll try to draw their attention and hope Rhian can...”
A bang from the second floor drew everyone’s attention.