24

I woke up a little later to an argument going on nearby. “She is incapable of performing the service, and the ebt remains. Either her sister picks up the service, or a volunteer. Or I have my choice of compensation!” I heard Cobb snarl out. “She was attacked on your premises, wounded in your house, and under your so-called protection when the attack occurred. It seems to me that the judge may see that as not fulfilling your end of the agreement, even to the point of deliberately allowing her to be attacked so that you could coerce someone else into accepting the service.” said a familiar voice I recognized as Larry's after a few groggy moments.
“Who's imacabipple of tahrner?” My mouth was obviously not on the same channel as my brain was. It took a few more moments for everything to start working together. “Who's not capable?” I said much more clearly, and the argument outside my room ceased like a light switch being flipped. Larry stepped through the open doorway and walked to the side of the bed. “Hey short stuff, you must be feeling better, I can hear the delicate contrariness in your voice.” He smiled as he talked, and I smiled back, or I think I did.
“Do you remember what happened Fernie?” I went through there myself and couldn't find a trace of anything except your blood starting at the doorway.” I sat up groggily, and despite a pounding headache, told Larry the details of what I remembered, diving through the legs that felt like cobwebs, the flickering of the shadow as the attacker moved around. and the shadow at the doorway after I escaped the library and got back into the main room.
“What I want to know is what the hell it was, and why it attacked me. That doesn't make sense to me at all. What am I digging into that's got somebody so nervous?” I said woozily. It was hard to focus with the headache driving a nail in my skull with every heartbeat. I wanted to go back to sleep, but some stubborn part of me wanted to stay awake just to hear what Cobb was going to say, so I could try and figure out what he was planning next. Even stubbornness though, doesn't trump medications, and I relly don't remember passing back into sleep.
I woke again a few hours later and levered myself back upright in the bed. The room was hexagonal in shape and ornate columns that looked of carved marble stood at each corner. I didn't know any human hospitals that looked like this, so I had to still be in Underhill. There was a small sphere hovering just next to my pillow as I looked to my left. It was silvery and emitted a warming hum as I observed it. When I moved to get out of bed, it rose away from the bed and floated out the archway, and I felt the breeze of it's movement as a brush along my entire body, which is how I came to realize I was completely naked in the bed.
I levered myself off the raised bed and looked for the bathroom. I went in to look for mu clothes or some kind of robe to put on, but I didn't find anything other than a towel, which I quickly wrapped around me. I came back into the bedroom again and found that my sweat suit had been repaired and laid out on the bed for me. No one had come in that I know of. I shrugged and put it down to magick. Underhill is full of it I suppose.
All this time I kept listening for other voices or some kind of activity, but I heard absolutely nothing. I heard my own breathing and my own heart beat. It bothered me that it was so quiet. I walked out into a grayish hall. It was well-lit, but everything had a wispy quality to it, as if the first strong wind would tear it all asunder. My room was at the end of the hallway, so I went down the hall towards what I hoped was the exit.
There was an opaque curtain over the exit , and I brushed it aside and entered.... out of a phone booth and back into Cobb's main hall of booths. Cobb emerged from another phone booth next to the one I had exited and faltered slightly as he recovered from his surprise. “I didn't expect to see you active so soon after being wounded as you were. The human doctor indicated that you would need a lot of rest to heal properly.”