Gaius Accipiter walked up to the man who was hoeing a patch of vegetables.
"I hear you have some animals for sale?"
"I'm sorry, gov'ner, but I already sold them to a gentlemen earlier this morning."
Accipter looked around and asked
"Why did you sell them, though, it seems you could do with an animal ar two to help you run the farm"
The farmer told Gaius the same story he'd told Radko.
"Hmmm, I could do with a doctor. Where does this man live?"
The farmer patiently explained his visitor where the doctor could be found, then added.
"He's charging a fortune, though, gov'ner."
"We'll see about that. Thank you, my friend."
Accipter turned about to leave, then bent over, pushed away some dirt and said:
"Seems like something's burried here, my friend."
The farmer got down on his knees and started digging as Accipiter walked off. Moments later he'd uncovered a small ancient looking jar. He shook it and it rattled, with a strangely metallic sound. With some effort he broke the seal on the jar and upended it. Shiny coins in different sizes rolled on his lap.
"Gold..." he mumbled.
Gaius Accipter meanwhile had found the doctor's office. As he passed the doorstep he seemed to change, his shadow darkened and his skin shaded more pale than any had seen. He knew he was not supposed to 'meddle' as his father always told him, but sometimes he had to follow his heart rather than the rules. Sure, someday he was going to pay for it, but he was willing to accept that.
The next door opened on a breeze that wasn't there. A small pinched looking man was sitting behind a desk counting coins, each stacked neatly with others of it's kind. He looked up as the room plunged into sudden darkness and an pale light appeared in the door opening.
A shape dressed in shadows, white, alabaster flesh peering through the wrappings, the eyes startlit holes in the deathmask that formed the face. Black hair streamed down it's face.
Luculles Miseris pushed back his chair as the smell of a long buried tomb assaulted his nose. The table toppled scattering a waterfall of coins.
"Luculles..." a voice caressed his ears.
"I died because of you, Luculles...
I died because you withheld your medicine...
I died because you value money more than lives...
Tartarus awaits you, false doctor, and I will be revenged...
REVENGED!"
The voice, which had steadily risen in volume and sharpness, now screamed in Luculles ears.
Luculles was cowering in the corner by now, the smell of fear on him was thick upon him.
The voice dropped to a whisper.
"..you might mend your ways and escape the depths or Tartaros, Luculles. Behave like a doctor and not as a money-grubbing fool and you might escape your fate..."
The apparation disappeared in a golden glow, leaving Luculles alone with his money. The small man shivered, mend my ways, he thought, mend my ways...
He got up, and forgetting all about his coins got his tools, his glass and walked out of his house in to the town.
No where was that farmer...
Gaius Accipter walked back to the harbour, nibbling on a pomegranate. His face was passive, while his mind rushed down familiar paths. Why wouldn't people listen to their hearts? Why could some people only be happy if they held power over others? In his own way he loved the human race, but on occasions like this he was sick and tired of it.
Then he smiled, at least there were good ones, with souls as great as any god could wish for and he was travelling with some of them.