Chapter 84: Baron Charles Hummer
Back at The Respite, the evening debrief was more somber.
"Master Riku," Elder Borin reported, his face etched with worry, "We have to do something. The demand is... overwhelming."
"What happened, Elder Borin?" RIku asked, curious.
"Today, when Thrain and I visited the Weaver’s Quarter, we helped one family. Within minutes, their neighbors heard. Then their neighbors. We were surrounded. People were begging, offering their last coppers. It was... difficult to leave. We only had two talismans with us at that time."
Durnik nodded grimly. "Same in the Dock Ward. We had to almost fight our way out. They weren’t hostile, just... desperate. It felt like we were dangling a single drop of water before a parched crowd."
Elara, who had been out with one of the human volunteers, added, "They started following us, asking when we would return, if we could stay longer. It’s becoming hard to manage, and we’re attracting more attention than we intended."
Riku listened, his earlier satisfaction dimming. They were helping, yes. But their current method was becoming a victim of its own limited success. The door-to-door approach, meant for discretion, was now creating bottlenecks and drawing unwanted notice.
"You’re right," Riku said, sighing. "Our method is becoming too slow, too cumbersome. We’re barely scratching the surface, and in doing so, we’re creating scenes not unlike the ones outside the Church – queues of desperate people, limited resources. We need to scale up, but discreetly."
He looked at his goodwill points – just over a thousand. Enough for more spells, but still, it would take a lot of time if he were to go and heal everyone one by one.