"Paying also works. I can translate."

Over to the platform. "Kaddar!" She beckons him over and gives a short explanation of the situation — Iovetra is not in fact the Graveyard Hag, she's an immortal from somewhere strange, she can't speak the language, she needs to drink some blood from a guard to learn it, she might get other things the donor knows.

"Lady Iovetra! My thanks for the assistance you have provided to my subjects. If you require a donation of blood safely drawn, the blood unspilled for your efforts will more than make up for it."

He's gotten more poetic.

"Are there any requirements more precise than simply being a speaker of the common tongue?"

Her silent translation is only slightly abridged.

Goodness. That is very poetic.

No requirements more precise, just - please make sure the subjects themselves consent, and do not feel pressured into accepting by a higher power. Also if they change their mind right before, or midway through, that is completely fine and I will stop immediately."

Somewhere between her and Daine's expression, Kaddar apparently decides to tone down the poetry somewhat.

"I shall find a willing subject fully informed of your requests." He waves for one of his guards, mutters something, and in not too long two of his men are kneeling before his chair. Daine doesn't bother to translate what he says to them, but it sounds similar to her translation of Iovetra's terms.

They nod. "These two have volunteered, please. Zaimid will heal them afterwards."

.... Okay. I am happy to provide healing instead, but understand if they trust methods they know. (The kneeling makes her uncomfortable.) Then I need a bit to get an anesthetic and some disinfectant. If I'm doing this, I'm doing this right. One moment please.

The little red rat fades away into smoke, reforming in her native form back inside her castle. She notes that she possibly should have warned them before she did that, but she was kind of too nervous, and walking all the way back in the sun seems silly. Oops.

Topical anesthetic is pretty straightforward, she remembers the recipe for it and has everything on hand, and she already had some disinfectant suited for this purpose, for 'Concern for the cave lady' reasons. It's only a few minutes before she emerges from the front door of her castle, carrying a little satchel.

When she gets back, she finds the same two men sitting on the edge of the platform. One of them is holding out his arm, his hand angled down to display his wrist.

Oh, good! She was going to request an arm.

"I actually need a bit further up to avoid hitting anything important," she says, kneeling beside him and tapping a spot on his forearm, below the elbow. Yes? This is fine?

He doesn't seem to understand what she said, but the tapping suffices. He rotates his arm to expose that location more.

Yeah, she didn't expect him to understand it, just. She's talking out loud out of a mixture of nerves, and leftover habits of being on her own, really.

Okay! Then first: topical anesthetic. Second, she holds up a finger marking 'wait,' because it takes a bit for it to get working, even when it's magically enhanced to work faster and deeper than a purely chemical anesthetic would. Then: she'll give a little pinch of the spot she anesthetized. No pain? And he doesn't pull away at all during this process?

He looks strangely at the pinched spot, but no apparent reaction beyond that.

(The healer, hovering nearby, suddenly looks interested.)

Yeah, see, this is why she wants to be able to speak for herself!!! She has topical anesthetic and is perfectly happy to share how to make it with people! ... Admittedly they couldn't do all of the steps that require being a vampire with magic, but, still. Better than none at all.

Anyway, this done: disinfectant. It is going everywhere involved in this process. The spot on his arm first, then her mouth, which tastes terrible, but an infection would be worse. She could fix it, but prevention is the better cure in all cases. Then she carefully lines up her fangs with the spot, and checks before she actually bites down - yes? he still consents?

This mysterious substance is more mysterious than the previous, but he has no objection.

Nod.

Okay. Then, very gently and very carefully, she bites.

Her fangs don't hurt - he can feel that something is happening there, a sort of pulling, maybe - but there is no pain to go with them.

There is a general feeling that - he's being watched. Observed. It is like he is being held in the palm of this strange woman's hand, tiny and insignificant, for all that she is very politely drinking from him while giving him ample room to pull away. She is being very gentle and careful with it, and this is obvious too, but. It's also obvious that she doesn't have to. This almost-gentle, aimed touch, looking for language over anything personal, it could just be aimed at everything. She could just drink the entirety of him, memory and knowledge and all, and kill him, right here, and there is nothing anyone could do to save him.

It's over very quickly, despite that. A cursory affair - walking into the library of his self, finding what she is looking for with ruthless speed and efficiency, and taking it off the shelf and departing. She has not left him with less, except in the sense that he contains a little less blood now.

On the one hand: aaaaaaaa

On the other: he volunteered for this duty because he heard they would be accompanying Veralidaine Sarrasri, the one who the Hag used to tear down the old palace. He was disappointed at the lack of anything like that, and then they heard rumors of the Graveyard Hag herself here. And then he hears that she's actually just someone who looks like the Graveyard Hag and has a relationship with hyenas and rats like the Graveyard Hag and now apparently she can touch souls between life and death like the Graveyard Hag? It's comforting as much as it is terrifying, feeling himself in her hand like this.

And then it's over, and he reels back at the return to his skin and the certainty that death has passed over him once more. The healer rushes in and curls a long-fingered, delicate hand around his arm, closing his eyes to concentrate.

He similarly has a vampire who is carefully and efficiently re-cleaning the bitten spot, and then putting gentle pressure and a bandage over the bite mark to staunch the bleeding. She moves with the same speed as the healer, the same practiced efficiency at dealing with things that are life and death and could just bleed out if handled too poorly.

"Nothing - heavy for at least two days," she orders, in an accented but intelligible version of the local language, as she finishes this work. Integration of the knowledge is taking a bit, she doesn't quite have the feel for how to properly speak this language down, and is missing a lot of vocabulary, besides. "Thank you - are you - okay?"

His life-force restores itself with startling speed! The healer seems quite effective. (She will not be impressed at avoiding infection because there is no infection to avoid, but he could.) By the time the bandage is wrapped, it's almost unnecessary. 

"Yes, Gr— milady."

She nods, then backs off, giving the man space. "Thank you," she repeats. Then she looks at the healer.

"The... no-pain... water," she says, a little awkwardly. She doesn't have the word for potion, and can't quite figure out how to say liquid instead. "Do you want?"

In retrospect, she made kind of a bigger batch than she needed to. It was the nerves. Her nerves, specifically. But she has some words now, and she can use them to communicate her willingness to share resources!!!

"Me? No, no. Pain is a trick of the Gift and no more to banish. The Emperor's hospital project, though... Madame Veralidaine said these were your creations, and perhaps they take immortal magic, but if a minor hedgewitch with enough Gift could make it, there is much which could be done were a few procedures painless. Tooth extractions are necessary and easily healed, but the howling and shrieking is such that a healer who pulls teeth will soon have no willing patients, for that or any other that needs doing."

She did not quite get all of that, but she understood the majority.

"Vampire magic helps with..." she doesn't have the word for potency. "Stronger. Better? But creation from plants and stuff put together. Grow plants, get stuff, put together, no pain. Uh - outer pain, for putting on outside, not for drinking."

Having the ability to speak at all is so great! So, so great!!

"We have some herbs for pain, but nothing strong enough for that. Even a trickle of the Gift can empower them with time. If this holds your magic better than the ingredients, perhaps it will hold ours as well. Or it may prove useless! Many paths do. But the Hag never gave a gift without a throw of dice."

"I wish. Mayhap this is better, but it'd be nice even so." Daine is apparently impressively quiet when she's not trying to get attention.