"The hands are simple enough. You do not need your pinkies. The teeth you can cope with. You can eat soft foods. The burn scars you did yourself. But the limp..."

She crosses her arms. "It doesn't just hurt, it impairs your function. In a simple, obvious way you cannot ignore. Every time you move you are hobbled. And so you cannot help but recognize that it is a weakness."

Ember stares her down. "What of it?"

Kumi has seen enough girls who've been hit by their clients to make a guess at diagnosis, and if she's right...

"It is a muscle injury, yes? The shape of your leg is right. It does not seem to be broken."

Ember raises an eyebrow. "What does it matter?"

"If it is only a muscle injury, I can rid you of it. Without taking away any of your other - modifications." 

A Restoration should be good enough to heal that kind of injury, and business has been good over the last few weeks. She can afford the small quantity of diamond dust for this.

Ember looks at Kumi. 

"It does not slow me overmuch."

"Liar. If we are to work together as partners I want you fully functional."

That is the kind of brutal logic she is used to, yes?

Ember braces her hands on the head of her cane. Her wrists flex, once.

"Well enough. When?"

"The temple of Shelyn is open right now. We will go together."

She doesn't have the funds physically on her, but if she explains this is the Lady's business the cleric will almost certainly let her do it on credit.

"You let another goddess do your work for you?"

"That is a strength, not a weakness. Come. If you can keep up."

She stalks from the room without a word more.

She has to project power, has to speak this woman's language. If she gives an inch Ember could reconsider and the opportunity will be lost.

Ember exits behind her, a little slower than her even with use of her cane.

"Enough," she calls, once Kumi is three strides in the lead. "You've made your point." 

Kumi slows her pace and comes to walk by Ember's side, lowering her pace. 

"I thought so." 

"You are infuriating."

Ember says it with a smile, those sharpened teeth of hers bared.

"I try to be."

Kumi leads her on.

The temple of Shelyn has a courtyard garden where the priests treat patients. There is a small ornamental stream, flanked by roses and dahlias beneath a shady beech. A small bench rests amid the trickling water. In every direction the view is of pristine blossoms. A gardener's rake and wheelbarrow sit on a small plinth to the side, with a scatter of fallen leaves and petals in it that seems almost artistic in these surroundings.

Ember stops in the middle of the courtyard and looks.

She has never seen flowers deliberately cultivated before. 

It's frippery - 

No, it cannot be. 

She recognizes something. The hand of an intelligent creator who chose to make this look...

She doesn't have the word.

"Beautiful, isn't it?"

Ember frowns. "What does this word mean?"

"It is the difference between your scars and those others have put on their faces. If it causes you pleasure to see it, it is beautiful."

"Pleasure." Ember's tone makes no bones of the contempt she holds for the word.

"Yes. We will have much more to say on that later. For now, we are here for a purpose."

She steps across the square towards a priest of her casual acquiantance. 

"Excuse me," she says. "I am Kumi, cleric of the Lady of Blackberries, and this is Ember. She has a lame leg. I wish to purchase a Restoration for her."

"I was told you might come. I have the spell ready. If Ember will let me lay a hand on her injured leg...?"

Kumi looks over at Ember. "Do what he asks."

Ember has gone completely rigid again. 

She lowers herself slowly to the ground, and presents her lame leg as straight out in front of her as she can.