MISS: She's still sick, DEAL WITH YOUR HANGER-ON

⚁⚁ + 2 = 6, Miss.

Aurelia is doubled over on the floor of her chamber, retching. You're still a little off-balance from Mistress Beeblossom's peremptory teleportation from the scene of your latest failed trial so that you can attend your teacher, mentor, lover, and carrier of your seed.

"What can I do?" you say. Your wild magic has rebounded again, leaving you bare, and leaving Ms. Sterling sick from receiving the rebound amplified via the Principle of Contagion from her magical ties to you.

Try as you might, you can't seem to soothe Ms. Sterling's pains, and she can't seem to muster the concentration to help herself or even communicate clearly what she needs.

"Hold on, let's get you to Miss Wormwood," you say. Fetching Ms. Sterling's flying broom, you throw open the window casement and straddle her broom. It's a little hard on your bare crotch, but needs must. You fly through the air, clothed only with a broom under your bottom and a sick witch in front of you. There are some cries of surprise from the courtyards and windows of Boarbristle Academy as you fly up from Aurelia's window, over the roofs, and down into the back courtyard of Miss Wormwood's domain, the Infirmary.

Use your FAVOR with Miss Wormwood for a +2 with APPEASE YOUR HANGER-ON.

Roll +AMBITION(+0) (-1 AMBITION, -1 HANGER-ON, +2 FAVOR) to APPEASE YOUR HANGER-ON.

⚂⚃ + 0 = 7.

When you APPEASE YOUR HANGER-ON, on a 7-9, they're a distraction, take -1 Forward.

Miss Wormwood is cross to be interrupted during her routine of immunizations, but the pleading look on your face, and the haggard look of Ms. Sterling convince her. Her pale grey, angular face was a fright when you first met her, not to mention the green writhing snakes she has in place of hair. But you now have more cause to fear her power and her caprices than her appearance.

Miss Wormwood gives an impatient sigh. "All right, the rest of you, come back tomorrow."

A first-year witch bent over Miss Wormwood's examination table pulls her robe down over two little red beads of blood on her plump buttocks. All of the Nurse's preventive injections are delivered personally via snakebite. She and the rest of the first-years bustle off toward the exit as Miss Wormwood shoos them away, the green snakes on her head hissing and waving.

Miss Wormwood sits Aurelia down in a chair. A few passes from the Nurse's wand and a few magic words let Aurelia relax and breathe more easily. Miss Wormwood sponges away the cold sweat on Aurelia's brow. Frowning at her patient, she takes a longer look at Ms. Sterling's condition. The Nurse fetches a dram bottle, sniffs it, and holds it to Aurelia's lips until the dose has all gone down her throat. Finally she summons a gentle cleaning storm that swirls about Aurelia, lifting away the sour, bitter remnants of her sweat and nausea.

Then she turns to you. "You are Ms. Sterling's nurse, Eric," she says. "Have Dorothy ready a bath. That will be her best medicine now. Then put her to bed. And none of this broom nonsense." She frowns. "Save that for the brave lackwits. It would have gone ill with you and with the school if you had dropped her on the way."

"Yes, Miss Wormwood," you say, hanging your head. You look at Aurelia. She's looking better. "Are you feeling better, Ms. Sterling?"

"Better, Eric," Aurelia says. Her voice is strained and shaky. "But maybe next time I shouldn't witness your trial."

With a couple of quick gestures of her wand, Miss Wormwood summons a plain white Infirmary robe and drops it over your head. "There," she says. She hands the broom to Ms. Sterling.

Walking side by side, each gripping the shaft of the flying broom which buoys upward to support Ms. Sterling, you walk through the hallways toward Dorothy's cottage, a converted carriage house fitted and furnished to Dorothy's half-giant stature.

Roll +DILIGENCE(+1) (+2 Diligence, -1 Forward) to ENCOUNTER Dorothy the Porter and get her help setting up a bath for Ms. Sterling.