Without further ado he was escorted straight out of the Middle Kingdom and 
into the streets of the Coastal Republic, which had never been more than a 
stone's throw away from him during all of these proceedings, but which might as 
well have been a thousand miles and a thousand years distant. He made his way 
straight to a public matter compiler, moving in a broad-based gait, with tiny 
steps, bent over somewhat, and compiled some first-aid 
supplies—painkillers and some hæmocules that supposedly helped to 
knit wounds together.