"That's fine," he says amicably.  "Should I lie down for this, like we do with local healing?"

"That shouldn't be necessary, but you may if you prefer."

He considers this, then shrugs.  "Nah."  The sleeping quarters are too tight-packed and dark to let everyone watch, the cave is messy, and he'd rather not lie on the ground out here.

Whenever Wen Qing examines them it is done through the wrist - something about meridians he isn't knowledgeable enough about cultivation to really understand - so that's what he offers for the contact. 

That's an acceptable starting point!

Efol's healing senses have varying characteristics, so while he will be able to get a good idea of the problem areas, as well as a very good look at this particular wrist, from just one touch, proper practice demands he do more. He narrows his focus, his eyes closing as he allows his hands to be guided by his healing senses to the joints suffering the affliction, peering into them on an esoteric level, seeing the inner machinery of life splay out before him into expansive vistas dense with information.

It requires as great care and training to traverse this living landscape as it does to travel through any strange and alien environment, great care and training which Efol possesses. He will find his way to the unwellness he identified before, and marshaling his healing power now, begin to bend, break, and mend the life around him, carefully orchestrating its reformation from its current state into the shape he sees echoing through it, of how it should be, how it must be to be healthy and whole once again.

From the unintroduced Wen's perspective, Efol simply gently holds his hands against various joints one after the other, leaving a little numb for two or three seconds, and then moving on, leaving the joint entirely healthy again.

Wen Qing looks on with concern, not that there's anything concerning that she can sense.  Wei Wuxian has decided he's excited and is bouncing slightly to show it. 

The one being healed stays perfectly still, careful not to move the joints in case it messes something about the process up.  He cracks one of his eyes open and watches as Efol continues, noticing that he is moving from joint to joint.  A familiarity with local healing makes him hesitant to interrupt, but is there a point where Efol is finished with one hand where they can stop and test the difference in mobility between the two?

Yes, there certainly is! Efol is working his way steadily around the man's body, starting with the fingers of the offered wrist's hand and working up through the palm, wrist, and arm, which seems like a perfectly reasonably place to break for the man to experience the difference Efol's healing has made.

He compares the hands, bending them each as far as is comfortable.  "You know, I never really noticed when I stopped being able to do that."

"I've been told that the symptoms of aging often sneak up on non-healers like that," Efol replies, mostly without thinking, as he continues the operation.

He makes an affirmative noise, then goes back to sitting still for it.

Assuming all this goes well and Efol doesn't encounter any unexpected and urgent health issues within his subject, it should be about three minutes of touching his arms, legs, back, neck, and ears before Efol completes his work. When he's done, every joint in the man's body feels as comfortable, both solid and flexible, as the first hand did.

There's nothing surprising.  This little community of refugees does have one of the best local magical healers living in it.

Speaking of which, Wen Qing has been patient and careful to avoid being rude, but is also absolutely going to be examining her relative now.  She walks over as subtly as possible and gets a wrist to examine to make sure nothing is amiss.  Also she wants to see if she can tell how Efol did it by looking at the results.

While she does this, Wei Wuxian is going to bounce enthusiastically around and be a distraction.

"Ah, where are our manners?  It's not proper tea, but there are some nice-tasting herbs that we've taken to drinking around here instead.  Grow all over the place in the purified areas," he says, then calls out- "Fourth Uncle, could you get the water started?  Since you all seem to hate it when I prepare anything."

He turns back to Efol and false-whispers.  "I am a perfectly good cook, I really am!  But every time I try to make something they yell at me.  It's downright unfair."

"Thank you." Efol continues to smile, though the warmth of it fades as his work is complete, reduced to a mere politeness.

To Wen Qing's observation, the man's joints are entirely whole again, without even a hint of the inflammation or even the deeper, underlying causes of the inflammation. These are a young man's joints, now, and will take as long to become arthritic as they did the first time, if not even longer. There are also subtle ripples traveling through his meridians as if they'd just recovered from a minor disruption.

"Fascinating.  It really is like the joints have been returned to a fully healthy state.  The meridians get disturbed in the process, but are able to reconnect themselves to the repaired tissue as naturally as before.  Or are you re-connecting them manually?  Do you need to go faster or slower when healing a more vital location?  How many such healings can be done in a day?"  She bows as she says it, not sure if it was rude to ask so many questions but unable to stop herself.  The healed man behind her bows deeply - all the way to the floor - and seems elated that he can so easily now.

Efol processes the context which his interface provides for 'meridians' and considers his words for a passing moment. "At the level I work on, the distinction between what is natural to the patient and what is borne by my intent is blurred. I have not had the opportunity to study the meridians of your people, but the senses of my healing power furnish me with a great deal of information regarding not only the patient's current state, but their history, as well as what possibilities they contain and what states are whole and right by them."

He makes a placating gesture in response to their bows, and a glimmer of happiness returns to his smile when he sees his patient satisfied with his work. "The speed of my work is primarily determined by the volume of living tissue which I must operate on. In the midst of a crisis or other emergency in which a life or lives are at stake, the strictures of my people afford me a limited degree of discretionary warping, which I can employ to hasten the speed of my work, among other things, so long as I leave nothing human which was once inhuman, and nothing inhuman which was once human. As for how much work of this sort I can do, as long as I'm not interrupted and am fed and hydrated to at least the minimum degree necessary for me to maintain the focus required to heal, I can continue indefinitely."

"Do the people where you come from have very different meridians?  It's unlikely to cause problems, though for safety it might be worth taking a closer look before healing a cultivator.  The amount of spiritual energy in a normal person is small enough to have negligible effects.  The amount of energy running through the meridians of cultivators is much higher and could cause problems if the disruption causes it to discharge."

"Hopefully our soup will be sufficient."  Or they can send Wei Wuxian out hunting and hope he doesn't find another night hunt to interfere with and draw more attention to them.  Again.  They also have the herbal tea, a pot of which is now ready.  It's something in the mint family though not a particularly mint-like one, pleasantly fragrant.

"Considerably different, yes. I was actually hoping to make some observations of Wei Wuxian and Wen Qionglin, to address this lack of knowledge, though I nonetheless understand their reticence given my lack of reputation."

When given the tea, he will thank whoever provides it, and will drink. Latherns have excellent senses, but Efol has not refined his for the purpose of aesthetic appreciation, and so even though he is deeply aware of the tea's chemical composition and of how his body processes its content, he can only agree that it is pleasantly fragrant.

"If I've proven myself worthy of the trust, I can continue to heal those afflicted with arthritis? I should note that that if I determine any of my future patients are suffering from an urgently life-threatening condition I may need to take immediate action to remedy it."

Wen Qing doubts it's his lack of reputation that is going to lead to Wei Wuxian avoiding any examinations, but doesn't think it's especially wise to call attention to it.  "I'm a cultivator and can make an adequate subject for examination."

The other Wen are a bit bolder now that he's proven himself friendly, but are still cautious of being seen as demanding in any way.  Even still, they decide amongst themselves an order to present themselves in (mostly oldest to youngest, though based on family generation rather than strictly age), looking hopeful and excited.  Medical cultivation can't do much more than identify problems and manage symptoms in the mundane, though it does both of those reasonably well.  Efol will be politely asked for treatment for a number of different problems.

"I would appreciate it. Perhaps after this business is concluded?" He will answer as he begins working his way through the queue. Each patient will take around the same as the first, though physically larger or smaller ones will take proportionally longer or shorter, and patients who mention additional conditions aside from arthritis will take a few seconds (perhaps as much as another minute at worst) more than others as Efol directs his attention to whatever other ailments are afflicting them.

What sort of issues plague these people? Collectively, do they paint a picture of what troubles they face?

Wen Qing nods.

With so many examples acting as evidence the general history of these people becomes clear.  Up until about two or three years ago they lived as preindustrial villagers with unusual access to cultivator medicine: not perfect by any means, but they weren't starving or dying.  Then came a period of extreme stress and outright abuse - most have year-old whip scars and other old injuries and marks from that time.  In the past several months they have been returned to Wen Qing's care and kept safe, but are only barely getting enough to eat.

Many want scars removed.  There are a wide variety of age-related health issues.  No illnesses caused by microbes or parasites, at least.  That is another thing that cultivator medicine is good for.

A notable history. Hopefully if there are any tensions remaining with these people's neighbors, Efol can help relax them. He'll need to see what he can do about finding them more food as well. He hasn't explored enough of the potential to be confident that warping local floral into superior crops falls within the remit of his discretion.

Scars are well within his power to undo, disappearing under his hands almost instantly and seemingly with only a tiny fraction of the effort that the deeper healing requires. More severe age-related complications do, indeed, take more time and more attention, but barring any issues related specifically to the meridians which he has developed a growing but still distinctly incomplete intuition and senses for, nothing will be truly resistant to his direct attention and dedicated care. By the time his work is complete, those who were forthright and complete in their requests to him are, essentially, wholly young again.

"I hope that my work has been satisfactory," he declares to each patient, one after the other, as he releases them to their own power.

They are all very happy about it, and each thank him in turn.  Most wind up peeling away from the group after being healed - there are tasks to attend to in the fields or the buildings.  Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning have wandered off at some point as well. 

None of the people Efol has had the chance to look at have anything particularly wrong with their meridians, though the level of spiritual energy in non-cultivators is low enough to have only negligible effects on the physical body even when disturbed.

When the crowd is as sparse as it's likely to get, Wen Qing approaches.  If Efol doesn't seem tired yet, Wen Qing is ready for her own examination.  It would be better if another trained medical cultivator could watch.  A few of her family members ready to run for Wei Wuxian will have to do.  Wei Wuxian doesn't know the normal methods for treating whatever might come up but will surely cobble together something.

"Do you expect it to be a problem if I'm using my golden core to sense what is happening as you are examining me?"

Efol does seem particularly tired, no. He has considerable stores of calories, like any well-prepared scout, and the work in this case has not demanded enough energy to meaningfully deplete those stores. "I don't believe so. Healers can freely observe one another's work, so if the principles are similar the same should apply. Nonetheless, I will be careful."

Then, if Wen Qing will allow, he will extend his healing senses into her, entering the wrist as he did with the others, before traveling up her arm and into her trunk. He'll be especially on the look out for anything out of the ordinary, whether compared to the physiologies he's accustomed to or those of the ones he just healed, but will also keep watch of her ordinary vital signs and tissues, and if anything dangerous seems to be happening he will retreat immediately.

The spiritual components and structures of a cultivator's body are more pronounced than those of a mundane person, the channels deep and well-shaped like the banks of a river.  Even when not actively using cultivation techniques they are aglow with energy, strengthening the body, but with the meridians shaped such that it's clear they could handle the greater volume used in cultivation as needed.  The most notable difference is the presence of an entirely new construct in the lower torso.  Sun-bright and complex, cradled in the lower dantian, it creates and stores energy as well as allowing for its conscious manipulation.

Wen Qing in particular is chronically under stress in this place, both physical and emotional, though nowhere close to the point of leading to a downward spiral.  She focuses attention to what she can pick up with her cultivation, trying to sense his attention.  It doesn't look like there are any negative effects so far.

"Fascinating..." Efol's attention is shining, similar to Wen Qing's novel pseudo-organ, presumably the golden core she spoke of. It emanates from him in waves, passing through the channels and avenues of her body, even the tiniest ones, and echoes of whatever it encounters reverberate back out of her and return to him.

"Structures like these are certainly unknown to me, though at least their silhouette is understandable at a glance. With the information I've gained from this observation, I believe I could navigate around them successfully, though until I know more about the process of their formation, I would be improvising a great deal if I tried to operate directly on them"