Kristoff and the unknown girl wandered around for a while before finally stopping at the entrance to an extremely secluded alley in southwest Leyndell.
The alley was so narrow that it could barely fit two people carrying the Misbegotten side by side. There was no exit at the far end; a closed door stood straight ahead, with another on either side. Several tin chimneys of varying heights jutted from the rooftops, trailing wisps of blue smoke that filled the entire alley with a faint medicinal fragrance.
"Is it some kind of small apothecary?" Lucia asked, puzzled, from a distance behind them.
He soon got his answer. The three houses and the little courtyard behind them weren't a workshop at all, but a place much like a hospital.
The two houses on either side served as a pharmacy and a ward. When the girl opened the ward's door to air it out, Lucia saw nearly ten Demi-humans and Misbegotten with injuries of varying severity lying in the beds inside. On the bed farthest in, there was even an Omen Boy with severe external injuries.
The largest room straight ahead was more like an operating room. A dozen tables were scattered around it, piled with crucibles, scissors, needles and thread, and glass instruments that had clearly been sterilized. In the middle stood three operating tables draped in white cloth. Kristoff lifted the Misbegotten horizontally and laid him on the middle one.
Once everything was ready, the girl deftly put on a pair of white gloves that had been sterilized by boiling. She removed the blood-soaked bandages from the Misbegotten's severed leg. Faced with the horrific wound, its flesh torn and exposed, she showed not the slightest sign of panic. Calm and composed, she stopped the bleeding, disinfected the wound, applied medicine, and