Laiyu grew up in a broken family.
When she was seven cycles old, her mother had disappeared, and her father said she’d cheated on him and ran away with her lover.
The rumours, as far as they weren’t being suppressed by her father, told an entirely different story.
A story about jealousy, about anger, about violence, and about a corpse buried in the night.
But it was, for all people could prove, exactly that.
Nothing but a story.
Kurra – Laiyu’s father – worked at the lumbermills. He worked long hours, then went to drink the money he earned away into the long nights. Kurra came home drunk a lot, and occasionally he had fits of anger, where he blamed Laiyu for her mother’s betrayal. Those fits, more often than not, were accompanied by heavy beatings.
Early in life, Laiyu learnt to make herself look small, to not draw attention, to not make a wrong move. Doing something the ‘wrong way’ could mean no dinner, while looking at her father in the ‘wrong way’, could mean more beatings.
At nine cycles, Laiyu fled the house, and had taken to roaming the streets, begging for scraps of food, or any spare coin people might throw her way.
Being one of only a few dozen beggars, and by far the youngest, people quickly started paying attention to her.
Some tried to take advantage of her, thinking that such a young child would be easy to persuade to do things for some coins.
After an attempted rape, and several beatings, Laiyu had learned to not trust any of those kind of people.
Others, however, were genuinely trying to be kind to her.
But the damage had already been done.
Between her father beating her up regularly in his drunken stupors, and the attempted rape and assaults, she didn’t trust anyone but herself anymore.
One day, she heard from one of the few friendly beggars around that there was a place to get free food. A kind person, who had shown up here a few weeks ago, and had started feeding a handful of beggars every few days. A miracle, in her eyes, but a suspicious one.
The day before, someone had offered her food, but instead dragged her into an alley and beat her like she was a dog. Not to rape her afterwards, but apparently just for the enjoyment of hurting someone who couldn’t resist.
At this point she hadn’t eaten for days, and she was willing to risk it, hoping the fact that there would be more people would keep her at least a little bit safe. Maybe there would really be food, and no beatings, or worse.
As she approached the house she was told about, the signs looked reasonably safe. It was a small house, at the east-end of the town, on the outskirts, but it was well-lit.
There were other beggars, one of which she recognised as the one who told her about this place.
After a short hesitation, severely shortened by her growling stomach, she took a deep breath, and headed inside.
The inside of the house seemed to be divided into two bits: roughly half the house was turned into a hall, currently in use as a small dining room. The other half was obscured by makeshift walls and curtains.
In the dining room, there was a table, loaded with more food than Laiyu saw in a year’s time. Several of the beggars were seated around the table, stuffing their plates and laughing while they ate.
Everything seemed to be safe, and she slowly made her way to an empty chair at the table.
Hesitantly, she put some food on her plate, waiting for someone to shout at her or to hit her. None of that happened.
In fact, before she noticed, an arm reached past her, and put a large mug of water next to her plate.
Startled, she turned around, and looked straight into the eyes of a smiling, balding, elderly man.
“Don’t worry, child,” he said, “Eat as much as you want, but do keep drinking water. Lack of water is worse for you than lack of food, especially for one so young as yourself.”
With that, he gave her a friendly nod, and moved away, chatting with some of the beggars like they were old friends of his.
Laiyu followed him with her eyes, wearily. What did he want? Why was he giving her food? Why did he bring her water? Surely something was wrong here.
As she looked around, others seemed to have the same kind of mugs of water, with several standing by on a table to the side. Nobody seemed to be suffering ill effects from the food or water, so far.
Then, she noticed the elderly man take one of the beggars – one of the few other women – by the arm, and escort her through a big curtain, letting it fall shut behind them.
Laiyu jumped at this, and was about to run out of the house, when the beggar next to her stopped her.
“Calm down, littl’un. She’ll be safe. He won’t harm her. He hasn’t harmed me either, or any of us.”
She looked at the man expectantly, ready to scratch out his eyes if she had to escape.
“He’s a healer, littl’un. And even though I don’t know why, he helps us and feeds us when he can. That woman just now? She’s got a nasty oozing cut on her arm. He’ll try to help. That’s all.”
Laiyu frowned. In her short and painful experience, nothing was for free, and kindness was the most dangerous thing of all.
“Well,” Laiyu asked, “what does he want? Her body? Her money? Both?”
The beggar chuckled.
“No no, littl’un,” he said with a faint smile, “he actually seems to do this because he cares. That’s all.”
This caught Laiyu by surprise. She nodded, and made her way over to the curtain the old man and the woman had disappeared through.
Then she waited, huddling in a corner, trying to stay out of sight.
A little later, she heard footsteps, and a male voice.
“..Now remember, wash the wound with water from a flowing source, never still water, and apply this at least once a day, preferably twice if you can. Come back to me if you need more ointment, or if it doesn’t start to look better in three to four days.”
The curtain parted, and the old man walked out, with the woman walking next to him as she held a small brown jar of something. Laiyu couldn’t make out what it was, but even from her hiding spot she could tell it smelled sharp, yet at the same time herbal.
The old man stopped, and smiled as he watched the woman walk away.
Emerging from her hiding spot, Laiyu walked up to him. Making eye-contact, she stared directly at him.
“Why!?” she demanded.
“Why do you help her? Why do you feed us? Why!?”
The old man smiled a tired half-smile.
“I doubt you’ll believe me, but it’s because I can. And because I want to.”
Laiyu took a step back, studying him.
“Why? ‘Because’ isn’t an answer. Why should I trust you?”
The old man sighed, and walked to an empty spot at the table, sitting down. When Laiyu didn’t follow, he cocked his head and motioned to an empty spot at the opposite side of the table.
“If you want to know why, sit. You don’t have to eat, you don’t have to sit. But if you want to know why, sit.”
He smiled his tired half-smile again.
“And if you’re going to sit anyway, you might as well have some food.”
Having said this, he ladled some stew onto the plate in front of him, and started eating.
Not taking the bait fully, Laiyu sat down but didn’t take any food, even though her growling stomach might not forgive her for this any time soon.
“You have heard of Pearlmeadow?” the man asked. Laiyu nodded. It was the biggest city in the lands. Even she knew that.
“Well, I used to run a hospital in Pearlmeadow. The largest and best hospital, if I’m allowed to brag a little. My colleagues and I have helped save the lives of thousands, tens of thousands maybe. We’ve treated anything from minor cuts, to crushed limbs, to debilitating diseases. Not always as successful as we would’ve liked, but we did all we could to help people.”
The man looked wistfully.
“Then one day, I just got too old. My hands weren’t as steady as I’d like them to be, so in order to further help my patients, I stepped down from my duties as a healer. Over the many, many years as a healer, I have become fairly wealthy from treating the rich, while not charging the poor. When I went looking for a more quiet piece of the lands, I ended up here.”
He looked around at the people sitting at the table.
“With the wealth I have, and no children to leave it to, I couldn’t help but spend it to help those who were in need. I offer moderate medical attention if I still am capable of it, such as setting bones or tending to minor wounds. I make ointments and prepare bandages, and I talk to those who simply need to be heard.”
He nodded at the table full of food.
“And sometimes all people need, is just a good meal to keep them going.”
Laiyu blinked at this story. It seemed too good to be true. It seemed impossible. Yet at the same time, from what she’s seen here, it seemed to be the truth.