"Um, Keesha? Are you awake?" a voiced asked. Keesha looked up from her impromptu bed and found Darlene standing there, eyeing the pile of wool with curious interest.
"Yeah, pretty much. Just got comfy. Anything I can help you with?"
"Well, um, I've seen that you have impressive powers, and I was wondering, um, ..."
"Whether I'm a Crony-backer? Why the elders and the town founders didn't tell you about the possibility of finding witches? Whether I'm going to scan your soul? Believe me, Old Lady Hess wouldn't have sent me here if she didn't have a good reason. Your guards and elders definitely would have kicked me out if I wasn't supposed to be here."
Darlene smiled.
"I, um, I know that. I believe you're a witch and that you have a closer connection to our lady than any of us does. I've seen your powers and how you use them. I was just wondering, you know, if you could, I don't know ..."
"Fix something for you? Do you a favor somehow? I've told you, it's why I've been sent here. All you have to do is ask."
"Well, in that case, Keesha, I should tell you something you don't already know. Something my son doesn't even know. I believe Kevin is dying."
"Oh?"
"He's very ill sometimes, although he seemed to be relatively well today. He coughs up blood or lies in bed with weakness and chills. He is often too sick for school, and I don't know how he will make it as a guard or a farmer. I'm worried about him. Every time he gets sick, it's worse, and one day I think it will just kill him. Is there any way that you or Old Lady Hess could help him?"
Keesha thought for a moment. She wasn't a doctor, but she did know at least one other Wanderer who was. The Chronivac could most likely alter Kevin's body to heal him instantly, but sometimes things weren't quite that simple, and besides, scanning him would link his soul account to her user account and seriously complicate any possibility of giving him the Chronivac powers later. Carefully and thoughtfully, she responded to Darlene:
"I can try to help him, but I won't do it directly with my powers. If I give him a blessing, he'll never develop the power himself. But if I do nothing, you might be right that he wouldn't live long enough to develop it anyway. Instead, I will ask Old Lady Hess to turn me into a bat so I can fly out of here in secret this very night. Tomorrow night, someone may arrive in Kevin's room. He will be a genie who can appear and disappear at will. He will bring strong healing magic from the Great Beyond. If anyone can Kevin, it will be the genie."
"Oh, thank you Keesha, I don't know how to repay you!"
"Just don't tell anyone about how I'm planning to do this. I'm really not supposed to leave or bring people in or out. I don't really think I can do this for everyone, exactly, so it's better if only we know. Even the elders don't know I'm doing this, which maybe isn't the best way to go about it. But I can understand how much you want to save your son, and your hospitality has been unparalleled, and I did come here to help people, so..."
"Oh, anything you say! I'll just go back to my room and leave you alone to do ... whatever it is you need to do for this."
"Sleep well, Darlene."
Keesha was already secretly messaging Walter, her doctor friend, to let him know what the plan was. He thought he could probably bring over some medical nanites that wouldn't require a so-called "soul account" in order to work. At the very least, there ought to be something that 23rd century medicine could do for Kevin that the village healers couldn't. Once Darlene left the room, Keesha started turning herself into a bat using her Chronivac implant. It was one of her favorite forms to turn into, really: she loved the sensation of her fingers stretching out while her body shrank, and she enjoyed the greatly enhanced hearing that came with the more sensitive ears. Flying out through a window into the night, she made her way over the forest toward a place where she could retrieve a micro-med-scanner to bring back with her before the family was even awake. With any luck, Walter would no exactly what to bring back with him tomorrow. The Chronivac's invisibility options would no doubt be useful in that regard.