Isadora was already moving as Kavisha addressed her.

  She dropped her sword where she stood and sprinted down the tunnel, boots splashing through foul water, breath tearing in and out of her chest.

  The world had narrowed to a single point as she turned her focus to Eleonora laying crumpled against the cracked sewer wall, still unmoving.

  “Eleonora!” she shouted, the name breaking in her throat.

  She slid the last few feet on her knees, hands already reaching.

  The helmet was dented inward grotesquely, the steel warped so badly it looked like it had been molded by a giant’s fist. For one terrible heartbeat she feared Eleonora was already dead and her skull had been crushed like a watermelon.

  However, steeling her resolve she turned to Lucien and called out to him.

  “Help me,” she snapped at Lucien as she began trying to remove the badly dented helm.

  Lucien staggered to her side despite the tremor in his limbs.

  Together they managed to work the ruined helmet free even though the helm resisted their attempt. Its bent edges catching in the padded coif and Eleonora's hair.

  Yet even still Isadora and Lucien forced it loose. As soon as it was off Isadora immediately slipped it into her storage ring so it wouldn’t be in the way.

  Eleonora’s face was horribly pale and ashen beneath the streaks of blood and grime that ran down her face.

  While a thin trail of blood and drool dribbled from the corner of her mouth.

  The poor girls beautiful face was a mishappen mess of bruises and contusions. Unknown to Isadora she had several fractures along her left cheek. Also, her nose was completely smashed.

  Isadora pressed trembling fingers to the side of the girl’s neck as she desperately felt for a pulse.

  For one endless second, she felt nothing.

  Then finally she felt it a pulse.

  However it was weak and irregular, yet it was still there.

  Eleonoras chest hitched as air rushed back into her lungs now that she was free of her ruined helm and could take air in though her mouth. “She’s breathing,” Isadora whispered hoarsely.

  She bowed her head for half a heartbeat. “Lord above… Saints preserve her,” she more of a statement than a proper prayer.

  But Isadora was sure god would forgive her.

  Afterall there was no time for more prayer.

  Isadora reached into her storage ring again and pulled free a folded stretcher.

  It was lightweight but reinforced with alchemically treated wood and canvas meant for the legion's medical regiments. She snapped it open and laid it flat as possible on the slick stone.

  “On three,” she said, her voice already steadying into command.

  Lucien nodded, jaw clenched against pain he still felt from the mana poisoning and now over drawing his mana.

  They rolled Eleonora as carefully as they could manage.

  Even the smallest movement drew a wet, broken sound from the girl’s throat as the girl's eyes fluttered from the pain.

  Isadora could feel the instability in the girls back beneath Eleonora's armor.

  She swallowed back the bile building up at the sight of her poor wards condition.

  "Alright on three, Lucien", she said.

  “One. Two. Three.”

  Then they lifted Eleonora onto the stretcher.

  Lucien nearly stumbled under the combined weight of the armor and the unconscious girl, but he gritted his teeth and held fast as they pulled her on to the stretcher.

  Isadora took the forward end of the stretcher, guiding their path through the tunnel while Kavisha ranged ahead, blades still drawn, eyes sharp for any further threats.

  They moved as quickly as they dared not wanting to further aggravate Eleonora's wounds.

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Every jostle made Isadora flinch as every shallow breath Eleonora took sounded like it might be her last. Isadora felt so helpless as they ran down the tunnel. If only she had told Eleonora to help Kavisha instead of doing it herself.

  When they reached the sewer entrance gate, they found it wasn't open and that Kavisha was arguing with sergeant Doferty through a tube set in the wall. "Ugh", Kavisha had enough of the guard's bullshit.

  " Look my friend who is injured is the daughter of a powerful noble and if you don't let us back in and she dies you're going to be toast", she said practically screaming into the tube. That seem to finally do it and the gate slid open with groan.

  By the time Isadora and Lucien emerged into the guard post basement, they found Kavisha squared off against the same sergeant from earlier that morning.

  “I told you, "Sergeant Doferty was saying, “the guard post isn’t a bloody infirm...”

  Isadora didn’t even slow.

  “Move,” she ordered.

  The sergeant turned, ready to snap back however when he saw the broken girl on the stretcher he froze for a fraction of a second as hesitation flickered briefly.

  But it still wasn't enough and before he could say anything more Isadora decided to dispense with playing nice.

  Lucien and isadora gently lowered Eleonora to the ground. So that Isadora could reach into her ring once more. What she withdrew was a small, heavy signet tablet engraved with the unmistakable crest of House Duanna.

  She stepped directly into the sergeant’s personal space with a murderous look.

  “Sergeant,” she yelled, her voice like drawn steel, “in the name of the Duanna family, I am commandeering you and your men.”

  She held the seal up between them, purposely shoving it in the man's face.

  As recognition dawned the color drained from his face and he suddenly grew very scared. He snapped to attention as Isadora began barking orders.

  “You will take this girl to the first floor of the guard post immediately,” Isadora continued. “Clear the entire floor. No civilians and no interference. Anyone who argues answers to me.”

  “Yes, my maam,” the sergeant said at once.

  “You..” she pointed to one of the guards. “Run to the palace. Inform Maximinous Duanna that his sister is gravely injured. Tell him its serious and that we are going to take her to the church hospital.”

  The guard blanched but saluted and ran as if he was being chased by a dragon.

  “You,” she said to another, “secure a cart with the fastest horse you have. We need to move her to the church hospital.”

  The man sprinted off without another word also looking harried.

  Within moments, the guard post was in controlled chaos as men cleared the first floor and dragged out a table to serve as a temporary operating space.

  Meanwhile, they carried Eleonora inside and laid her gently on the table still in the stretcher.

  The light was better here upstairs, and Isadora could now see the extent of the damage.

  Eleonora's breastplate was crushed inward. One pauldron had almost been ripped off. While blood seeped steadily from beneath the armor’s seams.

  Isadora knew that even though she couldn't see it miasma still clung to Eleonora's skin. a sickly, invisible residue containing corrupted mana saturating the sewers.

  Isadora didn’t hesitate as she knew what she needed to do as the broken armor was pulled off, she pulled four thick glass bottles from her ring. They were high grade spirits that were strong enough to sting the nose from several feet away.

  The liquid was prized not just for sterilization, but because properly distilled alcohol helped disperse lingering miasma that carried corrupted mana.

  “Help me,” she said to Lucian.

  As she began working quickly to cut the straps and peel the broken armor away piece by piece.

  Every section revealed more bruising already blooming deep purple and black. Several ribs were clearly broken. One side of her chest rose unevenly.

  Her back... It was not a good idea to focus on that there was little Isadora could do as her hands tightened in frustration.

  However she managed force herself to breathe steadily.

  They then stripped the ruined cuirass and padding free at last.

  With Eleonora now naked, save for her under garments, she uncorked the first bottle and poured it on Eleonora making sure to coat all of the girl's now bare skin and to rub it into any cuts or open wounds she saw.

  She did this, 3 more times, till her ward smelled like a drunk vagrant.

  The alcohol though was super expensive; with those 4 bottles costing a full pound. The sharp scent of said alcohol filled the room, overpowering even the smell of blood.

  “Gods,” Lucien muttered weakly as he saw more of the damage that had been done to Eleonora.

  Isadora ignored him as she focused on her ward.

  Now that she cleansed away the miasma she could begin basic stabilization of her ward. As Isadora did what she could without causing further damage, she made sure to not touch Eleonora's spine beyond stabilizing her neck.

  She did not reach for a healing potion.

  One of the guards noticed. “Why not…?” he started to ask.

  “Because if there is lingering miasma in her wounds,” Isadora said sharply, “the potion will seal it inside her, disrupting her humors.”

  Healing potions accelerated natural processes, however, for unknown reasons they did not cleanse the miasma from wounds and instead trapped the corrupted mana inside of people.

  If the corrupted mana remained in her flesh and they sealed it in, it could disrupt her 4 humors and possibly kill the poor girl.

  “We wait for a skilled physician,” Isadora finished.

  As she said that she saw Eleonora’s breathing hitch again as the girl let out a wet and shallow cough before falling asleep again.

  Isadora knelt beside her ward, one hand resting lightly against the girl’s uninjured shoulder.

  “You do not get to die,” she whispered fiercely in Eleonora's ear. “Not after this. Not after proving them all wrong,” she said as tears welled up in her eyes.

  Outside, hooves thundered as the cart arrived.

  does exist in this world. However, since people can’t see microorganisms, they arrived at something similar to germ theory through an incorrect line of reasoning.