35. Operation (Patreon)

As Lux followed Tercius and Penelope with his eyes, seeing them go down the stairs, and his gaze lingered on the boy. His hand gripped tightly the metal vial in his pocket, his thumb passing over the seal at the top of it multiple times.

In his mind, he remembered what happened when Seliana finished the second portion.

His possibly oldest still living friend swayed on her feet, her body betraying her and Lux was there for her in an instant. She felt as light as a feather, even with all of her equipment on her, and Lux had to wonder how she even managed to go so far. Lux was no stranger to torture, as both the receiver end and the providing one, yet he was still trained to endure it.

Seliana had no such experience, only her sheer willpower to get her through it, and Lux could only imagine what would be of him in her shoes.

Lux remembered the years they spent in his uncle's school, may the Gods place his weary soul close to them, how she annoyed him, then him thinking himself above a common peasant his uncle taught retaliated in a most vicious of manners. His uncle soon explained to him the error of his ways, and to this day he was grateful to the man. Lux never understood how his father and his uncle could be brothers when each stood on their own end of the spectrum.

Regaining a sense of himself, Lux saw that the contents of the potion were safely in the hands of Penelope, who even though wanted to assist her mother, knew what mattered more.

Seliana was already better, Lux could tell. The healer had already placed her hand on Seliana’s neck, and he felt her pain lessen. The fall was just a reaction of the body to the fast expense of Mana in such a small time frame, which while usually only resulted in some minor physical discomfort, for a woman in Seliana’s state it proved too much.

"Let's get you some rest first," Lux said as he picked her up in his arms. The earlier thought about her weight was just hammered down further once he actually lifted her. He saw Tercius coming over with a metal vial over to Penelope and they poured the content into the small vial carefully, afraid to spill a single drop. Even one could prove vital, and they both knew it.

Lux started walking towards the stairs to the second story, and little Penelope joined him the next moment, her voice gently comforting Seliana. It had such a powerful reaction on his friend that Lux felt her relax a bit more as if Penelope's voice alone carried a power as grand as an adept level skill in pain removal. Little Penelope reminded Lux of his own wayward child, and he sent a prayer to her wherever she may be. Be safe.

The second story, although already clean when they first arrived here, was now spotless. The floor probably clean enough to eat off of. His eyes looked at the present healers, assessing them, and compared to those that could be found in the Capital, he found them lacking. Yet in the whole city, his source informed him, these were the best. Most of them were of noble birth, which did not exactly surprise him considering how much it took to train a healer, and all of them seemed surprised that Seliana, the Alchemist Extraordinaire was a mere commoner.

Most of the healers in the Empire as a whole were actually apprentices, people who had some skill and knowledge but not yet formally trained in the art. They had the skills, but no knowledge how to actually use them properly. Right here, in the room, Lux managed to gather four of those who had the yet to become experts, because Lux knew that he had no hope of finding experts in Tripatis. Even in the Capital, it was rare to find an expert in the field of healing. Those few that actually were, were on retainer by the Emperor, and were only allowed leave by his word. Most of those who managed to become experts, and are found out as such by a reliable source, outside of the Capital were given an invitation to an audience with the court. If the skill turned out to be a particularly powerful or useful one, the Emperor would even be present.

Thinking of useful skills brought him back to his nephew. Tercius. The firstborn son of his youngest brother Septimus who was the seventh son of his illustrious father, may he never wake. His mood soured even at the thought of the foul man.

As he laid Seliana on the bed, he returned to his musings, while his eyes observed for any inconsistencies with the healers and the cleaners. It would not be the first time an attack came from an unexpected angle, and even though he vetted everyone to the best of his abilities and skill, it never hurt to be extra careful.

His nephew was a constant font of surprises for him. Over the cycle that Lux knew the boy, he saw many sides to him. In the way he cared for his younger siblings he saw that he could be gentle and kind. He taught Aurelia her letters and numbers with the patience of a wizened man, long in his years, how he played with her with all the excitement she herself had. Those times he stayed for the night he observed how Tercius carried her to bed, tucked her in, and stayed with her in conversation until she fell asleep.

With Leo, he spent countless hours repeating the same disgusting action of training the small boy to call for someone before he soiled himself, or even to do it on his own, on a stone bucket that had two indentures for the little boy's legs. Designed and made by Tercius own hands.

With his grandparents and parents, he was mostly respectful, acting more like a good friend than a child. Joking, talking, and never hesitating to point out a wrong thing on their part, sometimes even leading to having his backside tanned. Yet he never wavered, the pain a mere passing afterthought to him.

In his spars with the boy, Lux first found his style too focused on defense, something Lux was quick to correct. The boy rarely got angry even when Lux humiliated him both physically and verbally, another thing that differed from his peers. Most boys his age would be boiling from some of the things he said and insinuated.

If they actually managed to understand it. he thought with an inward smirk. Yet Tercius most certainly did understand, Lux saw that he did.

The boy had a dose of distance he kept with most people that came his way, not exactly cold and distant like him, but it led to Lux seeing a part of himself in the boy. But then Tercius just blurted out such a secret to him, in such a trusting manner, that he had to rethink all he knew of the boy.

Yet right now, as Lux directed the cleaners to go and clean the ground floor, he only felt grateful to the boy.

In his own mind, Lux had to admit that he quite liked the boy from the very first day they met. That first lame attempt of intimidation, which ended up more like a poorly executed joke was probably the first crack through which the boy got in.

The boy's extraordinary capability bringing paternal pride to him, the second crack. Lux could only imagine how Septimus felt.

The boy's unbending attitude, even in the face of repercussions, the third.

His ability to still see reason and think clever strategy, when under pressure, the fourth.

The almost unconditional show of trust, something that was particularly difficult for Lux to understand and actually do, the fifth and final.

And now that Lux knew that Tercius risked his secrets leaking out, and something in Lux pointed straight at himself as the main reason for that.

Yet Tercius still did it anyway.

An hour after Seliana was placed in bed by him, the healers said that it was time to start. After the other woman helped her get undressed, he helped her by carrying her over, unable to say a word to his friend. Lux feared that it would sound too much like a goodbye.

Lux knew that this operation was the right move, yet he still feared that he may have robbed little Penelope of who knows how many days, weeks, or months Seliana still had left.

But this is the right decision. he repeated once more. Somehow even the brave little girl wanted her old mother back and not this pain-ridden woman she became. Like mother, like daughter. The way the little girl convinced her mother, reminded Lux of the young Seliana, and her burning conviction.

Penelope and Seliana said their goodbyes, and Lux prayed it not be their last one. Lux went over to get the sobbing girl away and escorted her next to Tercius.

His nephew extended a hand, and Lux took it, feeling the cool smooth surface of the vial, and Lux knew what that meant. The boy's experiment worked, now it was up to him to see if it would actually do anything.

If the situation actually requires it.

Seliana told them immediately after she started the second potion that it was not likely to work in such a short time window after the first one, so they had little hope for it. But Tercius then gave him the signal to turn on the sound blocking enchantment, and he complied. The cloak was already on his back and he merely had to think it, for the enchantment to work.

"I have an idea, but I don’t know if it will work. I will need some time alone with that second potion if we decide to go through with it. Should I risk it?" his nephew asked Lux.

Lux thought for a moment of Seliana's words, then what he knew of his nephew's skill and Lux nodded his head. "Do it."

Both of them returned to watching Seliana do her work, and Tercius asked for the most proper way of administering the potion. Something that completely slipped by Lux, as he heard Seliana say that the best way was to drip it on the place you wish to regrow.

If his nephew did not ask that, Lux would have probably poured it down her mouth. The mere thought that a mistake like that could have ended Seliana’s life...

The procedure itself was a matter of moments, the healers assured him.

So he watched the healers make the initial incision along the middle of the naked torso of his friend, and he kept a firm grip on the small vial. If the first potion Seliana brewed fail to be enough, Lux prayed that whatever Tercius tried to do to the second succeeded.

One healer kept Seliana from feeling any pain and asleep during the procedure. Four others would do the actual surgery.

The blood did not spray as Lux was conditioned to expect, as a skill from the old healer kept the blood in her upper chest area from flowing. Another skill was used by a second man as he plunged his hand into the incision and the bones moved back with his hand. He did the same on the other side, and then a third plunged his hands, a Mana blade in one hand, and Lux heard the sound of it parting flesh, the healer bringing out the pink and black mass that was Seliana’s lung and tumor. The old man flicked his hand, and some blood floated out from the incision, deposited in a bucket with the lung.

"You may proceed, I can’t find any tumor remaining." the old healer informed his colleagues. "But pour the potion slowly, ad if I tell you to stop, stop immediately and make sure to cut off the part I say, then resume with the potion."

The silence was such that Lux heard Seliana’s heartbeat from where he stood, 5 meters away.

The fourth poured the potion slowly into the hole, focused around the heart and all four leaned in to observe. Lux himself wanted to lean in and observe, but his feet proved too cold and heavy to move.

"What’s going on?" Lux asked, not able to endure anymore.

The one that was near him turned his head and said: "It’s growing. Slowly, but it’s growing."

Lux saw that the healers had sweat on their brow, and how could they not?

The old man was the worst, his face drenched and red, and Lux remembered that the skills that took control over such a thing as someone's blood, any part of the body, in fact, had a tremendous cost in Mana. The body fought such intrusions of foreign skills and Mana, so it spoke to the old man's skill that he managed to last so long.

Closing his eyes, he said prayer after prayer. How much time passed, Lux did not know, he focused on hearing her heartbeat. Then even it was gone.

"Her heart has stopped."

A sentence that thundered in his skull, piercing his spine. For a moment his mind was an endless field of white where he saw a young Seliana laugh and run, her hair swaying with the wind...

"Let me." said the one who poured the potion as his hand went into Seliana.

A second.

Two.

Three.

...

Ten.

...

Twenty.

Like the strike of the grand bell on the Temple of the Storm God as the thunder and lightning raged in the heavens above, the hand of the healer was pulled out and Lux heard the words he feared: "She’s gone."

Before those words even registered in his mind, he was next to her body the metal vial open, it’s contents spilling right on her still heart. The vial went flying from his hand as he pushed someone away.

There were protests, but he did not care.

"Fuck off!"

Lux had eyes only for her sleeping form, her beautiful face, his hand gently petting her hair.

What he did not see as he was focused on Seliana's serene face was that all the healers had a particular facial expression. All of them had their mouths mildly open, their eyes looking at the rapidly stitching flesh. The lung was already completed from the first potion, but sadly the heart gave way. All of them knew that such a risk was possible.

When the crazy man proposed to pay them what they earned in a year for just a few hours of work even the healers from the noble families came. The amount of money offered was nothing to scoff at, even for them.

Now he shoved them away, then poured another potion of regeneration inside, in a desperate bid for it to work. All of them knew that the man only threw the precious potion away. All of them mourned for that potion like they would for a child of their own. The potions of regeneration were very delicate and were to be used as soon as possible after brewing. To an aged man or woman, it might have brought a few more years of autonomy, where the pains were kept at bay. To someone who lost an arm, it could have brought it back. Any kind of physical injury or disability was possible to be repaired.

Alas, it was wasted on the corpse. that was what they all thought inside, as they saw what the man did.

Yet their thought did not last long.

A mere second after the content of the potion was poured, the torso of the sleeping woman was moving, her bones snapping back into place audibly, with loud crunches and cracks. Her flesh stitching itself with such a speed, they found it visibly disconcerting.

As the sound of bones snapping registered in his mind, Lux swept his gaze down Seliana's body and saw a line, where the wound was supposed to be, closing as if someone was drawing a pen across a piece of paper, and then even the pen's trail went missing, rapidly thinning into oblivion.

Then, all of a sudden, as Lux held his breath, he once more heard the sound of those bells in his ears. With a swing to the left, a clear deep ring that was heard in his bones rang out.

Slowly Seliana’s chest started rising and falling, and only when he saw that did he release his own breath.

Lux was the one who was now shoved away, almost falling as his feet tripped over one another. The healers fussed over the prone woman as Lux in a daze, step after step, went down the stairs, one hand on the brick wall keeping him vertical.

Lux had a task to do.

The door opened, and he saw Penelope and Tercius standing there, their eyes wide open.

"She’s alive."

***

Tercius watched through the window the dawn of their last day in Tripatis arrive. From what the captain told them, Zephyr was to depart in some 6 hours, and they needed around an hour from here to the docks. If they meant to take their new clothes and stuff they left at the inn, then one more on top of that.

Turning his eyes to the room, he saw his uncle sleeping on the floor in the corner of the room, a few blankets spread out underneath him, and another covering him from above, as he used his backpack as a pillow.

Penelope and Seliana were on the bed, the smaller Penelope hugging the older woman in a death grip around her chest as she slept. Seliana was also asleep, the woman not waking the whole day after her surgery, even though the healers said that everything was alright with her physically.

That was the reason for their last companion in the room. One of the healers stayed at his uncle's request, to monitor Seliana. The woman periodically went to the bed and checked on her condition, then sat on the nearby chair and returned to her book.

Amber was on the table, near the cages of the salamander and the vrasta, all three of the creatures fast asleep.

Tercius was not even sure if they were going to leave this day if he was honest. His uncle looked ready to stay, and he did not want to force the man to go. They were on time with their schedule regarding their travel, and he figured that a stay for up to a week would not compromise his plan of entering the academy in any way.

Hell, the admission lasts the whole first month, so if I really push it, we can stay a whole month. he thought as he looked at the sleeping Lux.

It lead to him thinking back to the events after his uncle took the nearly fainted Seliana upstairs.

As he took the small metallic vial that contained the second potion of regeneration, he watched as everyone left after Seliana, and Tercius knew that was the best opportunity to do what he intended.

Capping the small vial with his palm, he flipped it over, so that the contents of the vial touched his bare palm. Then slowly, he brought Energy in small increments, ejecting it from his hand right below the potion. Tercius felt the thing grew warm, but only for a moment. When it settled he did it once more, and then again, until he had to stop because of the cleaners who came down.

But by that point Tercius had already poured almost all of the Energy he had, and the last part small part he had, Tercius sent in it’s weaved state.

And from what he saw, it had worked. The woman once more had a healthy set of lung, and a working body. In fact it seemed to Tercius that the potion even shaved off a few years off of her age counter.

Maybe I can get Lux to smuggle a few back to Nurium. he mused. If we find more of the ingredients.

Tercius did not know how much his uncle spent on all of this, but he saw Lux take out a bag of kvartas, which Tercius did not see him return.

Now if only Seliana would wake up.

***

AN: Two things: I have been thinking, prompted by a really constructive comment I read on RR, to do a bit of light editing and contents of chapter 31 move either after this one or the next one. What do you all think?

And I did some light editing to 33 and 34, nothing major just replaced the word tube with vial, an unintentional error I noticed when I reread it. Thought to let you know.