Cohost writing prompt: @Making-Up-A-Villain — Villain who started studying healing magics for nefarious purposes
"Medicine," the portly little biomancer says genially, smoothing out an oft-mended tunic with the universally acknowledged green-potion-droplet-on-white design of a healer, "is a funny old thing."
"Mmmmph!" says the wide-eyed trussed-up swordsman, around the wadded-up sock jammed in his mouth.
"Oh, yes." The biomancer beams, as though delighted to be asked to elaborate. "People attach such moral weight to it! That's the entire weight of the Drop, isn't it? People see medicine and they go, ooh, that's good, isn't it? Like metaphysically good. And so the person doing it must be too, eh?"
The swordsman eyes the end of the wand the biomancer is carelessly swinging about, in time with talking. "Mmmmph!"
"But do you know," the biomancer says, "what a medicine is? Just a carefully measured poison. And surgery — just precise injury! The epitome of a craft with no inherent moral dimension, I tell you, only a moral bent to one's specific works."
Their rope-wrapped audience flails a bit, ineffectually.
"People will just trust you to do anything if you're a healer," the biomancer finishes, and cocks their head. "Oh, don't get yourself so agitated, it's bad for you. I'm not going to do anything that dreadful. Just, you know, with a bit of magical encouragement the body regrows so many things! And wizards are always after bits, you know? Ooh, my ritual needs sixty-six spleens from left-handed virgins with no family history of asthma! Ooh, I need to ink designs on four square miles of human skin! I don't care what they say, there's just no ethical source of spleens, so if other people are raking in dirty money—" they brandish the wand— "why not me?"
"MMMMMMMMMMMMPH," the swordsman says, trying to roll away.
"You'll be fine, I told you!" the biomancer says, slightly scolding. "I'll regrow everything. Several times, if you're healthy enough! Let you go after a long weekend, you won't feel any worse than if you'd spent it drinking!"
"MMMMPH! MMMMPPH! MMMMMMMMMMPH!"
"Nothing wrong with your lungs, at any rate." The biomancer perks up. "Oh, I wonder if The Insidious Zidun stills needs those?"