"Of a sort.  I mostly work with developing plants and vaccines, these days."

It wasn't obvious from his kneeling posture and the distance, but as she comes closer it is clear he's well over 7 feet tall.  His features are western Setebran, and the clasp on his right shoulder where the robes are pinned have the symbol of the god of preservation.

He doesn't look exactly like the statues sometimes found in the less-religious hospitals.  Then again, Ara'Vine hasn't ever been known as someone who will sit still for sculptors.

All of these factors come together in her head to suggest- it would be somewhat oddly convenient to discover him on her way if he's decided to leave the monastery now - but then perhaps Diamondeye would have informed him of the bet as well-

"Are you... Ara'Vine?" She asks. 

"I am.  And you're the demigod I was told to find and train?"

She blinks in surprise, the nods, "I am Erin, daughter of Paean," she introduces herself, "I suppose the god of preservation must have been watching while I experimented, then.

"...Are you willing to do so?" 

She hopes he is; surely she would discover how to apply her sorcery to targets other than herself eventually, but time is measured in lives when you could use it to develop medicines and heal. 

"That is why I'm here."  And not at the south pole. 

"I would have waited at Olivine Monastery, but that place is terrible these days and there were some things to the north I wanted to get a look at."

Oh, good, he is going to teach her.

"Thank you," she says, kneeling down next to him carefully - the wings make it hard, "I... don't know how I will repay you for it, but that you are willing to teach me means a great deal to me. I'm sure I could discover this power's full use myself in time, but I do not know how long that time would be, and it burns that I could help so much if I only knew how." 

Hearing him condemn the monastery is strange. She wonders what they did to earn it, but this is more important than her curiosity at the moment. 

"Don't worry about payment.  Using the knowledge to help people will be payment enough."

"What have you figured out so far?  Do you know if your sorcery is an accurate enough copy of my mage-power to have the other things that mages have?  Like creating chargestones..."  He trails off, a bit anxious.  He doesn't much like the idea that someone would know about his Weakness.

She smiles at his first statement; he seems just as good as her favourite teachers had believed. 

As for the second, "The first thing I did to test it was heal myself, those little fixes which were immediately obvious. I have tried some minor changes and applications on myself since, simple things unlikely to go wrong, but..." she looks down, embarassed, "I haven't been able to figure out how to apply my power on anyone else." 

"As for chargestones... I'm not sure how to make them? I do know that I experience the Weakness, I discovered it the next morning. Somewhat irritating, but not something I can't live without." 

She is somewhat sorry that the exactness of her copy suggests they have the same one. His anxiousness is entirely understandable, given how easy it would be to effectively poison them. 

He supposes there's nothing to do about his Weakness being known.  He'll have to consider whether or not it would be worthwhile to start drinking caffeine regularly.  If he does, he can get back to the point where it merely lowers the effectiveness of his powers while it's in his system rather than weakening him physically.  That might be important if the information ever becomes public.  He can consider that later, however.  

"That's reasonable.  This magic was pretty clearly designed to heal and change oneself. I had my power for over a thousand years before it occurred to me to try, and longer to succeed at anything but plants and bacteria."

"Chargestones require a necromancer.  I passed a temple of Enmire in this town and they usually know where to find them.  That will be a faster way to heal others, but at the cost of not getting practice.  Having a few on hand for emergencies would still be smart."

"I suppose that makes sense, you didn't grown up hearing stories about another person with the same power," she agrees wryly. "Using it on someone else was the second thing I tried - my brother, Saman." 

"I'll be sure to carry a few chargestones once I can make them, in that case. To be honest, the first thing I want to learn is how to use it to heal others, but perhaps it would be better to start elsewhere." 

Ara'Vine considers this, looking at the rows of plants.  What would be a good order to learn things in? 

Shapeshifting takes a lot of familiarity with the sense and the body to do anything useful.  That would come eventually, but Erin didn't seem like she wanted to spend decades quietly meditating in the wilderness and not being helpful.  So, they needed something useful she could do while having the sense active.

"The trick to healing others isn't too complicated.  It just takes an unpleasant and difficult mindset to get into.  One that I'd rather not get into out here.  

"I overheard you offer your aid to the hospital.  I have some things to do here, too.  We can meet up again in a few hours."

She nods, "I did agree to help, yes." She stands, carefully, mindful of the plants around them. "Shall we meet here around the time of the evening meal? Or perhaps the town outskirts. I should eat then, and if I am doing so I might as well reassure Saman by sitting with him as I do." 

"We can meet back here, then."  

He also stands, careful to step away to avoid looming too much.

She is used to looming, being short for a human at 5'2". Still, she appreciates the space; there's quite a difference between being loomed at by someone who is an average height for a human, and someone who is over 7'. Even if he isn't doing it purposely. 

She nods, "Alright. I look forward to it." She smiles up at him, bright, and then steps away, turns, and leaves to go about her duty, stopping at the healer to offer a donation in return for the herbs. 

He goes about tasks.  Doing much of the background work while Erin speaks with the patients.  Clarifying some of the information coming down the river from Olivine Monastery.  Taking a quick trip to the temple of Enmire, which reveals they don't know of any local necromancers.  He'd rather not let anyone know about the other method, so they'll just have to try another town later.  

Ara'Vine knows he won't be able to get into the mindset to magically heal strangers in an unfamiliar town, so doesn't try.  The healers are given a few tiny chargestones, and instructions with how to make the most of them.

Erin goes about her own, helping those the local healers direct to her, and reminding those she sees that the river water is dangerous, due to the taint from the disaster at Xeni washing into it, and that they should use the wells. 

 She doesn't know how to cure the sickness that comes from the water. She hates it when that happens. Still, she can offer suggestions on how to reduce the symptoms, and supply some dried herbs that are rarer in this area. 

Around the time of the evening meal, she is waiting in the hospital's garden, curiously examining the succulents along the back wall - not touching them, however, since she isn't entirely sure what they are for. 

The trunk is like a normal cactus and about a foot tall, but the top flares out into thick leaf-like fronds that are darker green than cactus normally get.  Instead of spines, the upper half of the trunk has a ring of small fruit.  There are a few plants each of several different varieties, with different color variegation at the tips of the fronds.  Though the fruit seems to be the main thing harvested, many are missing fronds that have been taken off to produce new plants.

Ara'Vine exits the building and approaches.  "Ready to go?"

She looks up, "Yes! Though - what are these? I don't recognise them," she asks of the cactuses. 

"What I was working on before I left Olivine.  They make medically useful chemicals that we didn't have a good way of creating before.  Estrogen, testosterone, insulin, some new types of antibiotics.

"They're so different from normal plants because I was trying to fix one of the common problems with natural medicinal herbs and some of the older god-created ones - how some batches will have more or less of the effective ingredients than others.  These should be more consistent."

"Oh!" She turns back to them, leaning down to look at the fruit, "So these... amazing," she murmurs. She will be able to do things like this, someday, she realises. It's a very exciting thought. 

"Natural and god-created?" She asks once she straightens again. 

She starts slowly making her way down the path out of the hospital grounds as she speaks, looking back to make sure he's following. 

He follows, since he isn't sure which way out of town they're headed.  

"Most living things evolved naturally, including some plants with medical properties - hypericum for example.  Others were changed or created by the gods, who can do anything any magic can do including our magic.  Sometimes this happened long enough ago that they've changed the same way natural things have - I'm pretty sure sailor's whisker is one.  Others are pretty new, like duskmindh.  The differences can be Sensed if you're looking for them."

She listens carefully to this explanation, nodding when he finishes speaking, "I suppose that does explain some things," she says. There are many herbs that are too unreliable for her to bother with much of the time. If those are natural made, or old god-made herbs, and the more reliable ones are recently made specifically for those properties... yes, that makes a great deal of sense.

They're heading for the north side of the town, where it touches the river. Thinking of this brings to mind, suddenly, the issues being caused by drinking from that same river. She pauses, suddenly very concerned, "Do you know whether swimming in the river is enough to cause sickness as well," she asks. 

"Maybe, but the poison takes years of exposure.  There are still fish.  If he starts to get symptoms, you'll have plenty of time to hand him a chargestone."

She's relieved, "Oh, good. Though, handing him a chargestone might be challenging." 

Saman is perfectly visible from the edge of town. A cottage-sized orange and green turtle, with unusually shaped sockets in his shell. Only his four legs are visible at the moment, the flippers still pulled in. He looks over when they approach, giving the exceptionally tall man a wary look. 

"This is Ara'Vine, Sam," she says as they get near enough that she won't have to yell. She turns back to Ara'Vine, "This is my brother, Saman," she adds to him. 

"Hello."  

Ara'Vine is not used to people taller than himself.  He does his best to ignore his discomfort.

"I'm here to teach Erin about the mage -er sorcery."