Reward

It was EXHAUSTING; I slept in past dawn the next day. What woke me was turning over on my side and getting a yank on the metal collar around my neck.

"Guk." I said, opening my eyes.

I was chained to the central post of a once-white tent, that color it changes when you haven't washed it in months. The smells were offal, blood, urine, and sage. Okay, still in a hospital. The tent was short and the roof sagged, flopping about in the wind.

"I'm back at Doctor Murgyn's." I said aloud.

"Ah, it stirs." Ligrid said, slamming closed a massive ledger. "How do you feel about making potions today?"

I snorted. "Like all of my mana has been tapped out of my bodily orifices." I said.

"That was theoretical." she informed me. "You're in contact with the topsoil, and sunlight is right there."

"That's not the same as..."