(TPOR) Chapter 145: Overprotective and Possessive (Patreon)

In the silence, Shanine looked between all four of them, eyes jumping from one to the other. Zed knew she was searching, looking for something. He knew what it was but left it to her to ask the question. When she did, it surprised no one—except Trevor, it seemed.

“Where’s she, by the way?”

“Who?” he asked. “Mean girl?”

“Mean girl?” Trevor asked, confused.

“Your patient,” Zed explained, then turned his attention to one of the beds. A bed they had paid almost no attention since entering the room. “She’s over there somewhere.”

Chris was lying harmlessly in one of the beds. She looked peaceful now that she wasn’t constantly scowling or saying something less than amiable. She had been placed a few beds removed from Shanine’s, thus, the previous chaos had done nothing to affect her. Someone had dressed her in a hospital gown with openings on both sides. From those openings anyone willing and interested to look could see her skin. Her skin was a patchwork, a hand map of her spar with Zed. Some parts were still burnt, while others seemed to be healing quite nicely.

Shanine moved to get up from her bed now that she knew where Chris was—knew how she was. Zed placed a hand on her shoulder, effectively restricting her. She looked up at him.

“I’m fine,” she told him. “I’m a mage now, remember? I’m stronger than I look.”

Zed’s hand didn’t move. He looked to Trevor, a question in his eyes.

Trevor shrugged. “All she did was awaken, and awakening does reset the body somehow. She should be good as new.”

Only after his statement did Zed release Shanine.

Shanine got down from the bed, offering Zed a soft smile. “I never took you for an overprotective guy. I can’t remember the last time someone treated me that way.”

A thought crossed Zed’s mind and it must have shown on his face because Shanine added: “There’s a difference between being overprotective and possessive. Madam Shaggy was possessive. She thought she owned me. I was property not person.”

Zed nodded.

Shanine walked up to where Chris laid and Zed followed behind her. He, too, was yet to really see Chris. Since they’d brought her to this room, everyone else had been sitting outside, waiting. The Olympian that had carried her had disappeared almost immediately. Daniel hadn’t followed, standing still in the room and staring at Festus as if the man had worked some form of impossible magic in a world without magic.

Standing in front of Chris he could see his handiwork, the effect of their fight. Oliver winced, looked away. Ash’s lips pressed into a thin line. It was not quite a frown but there was displeasure. Trevor stared with the detached attention doctors tend to have around such situations. He must’ve seen a lot, Zed thought.

Despite her dislike for Chris, Shanine was clearly struggling, forcing herself to look. She was trying to prove that she was strong. Why? Zed wondered. Who was she trying to prove it to? Him? Herself? There was no point to it. Even he was disgusted by the sight. He knew the only reason he could stand here without flinching was not by his power. His brain and body believed—even though he knew otherwise—that they had seen worse, lived worse. They had been soldiers, had killed horribly and terribly. In different lives they had done greater evils and stared down greater disgusts.

The very knowledge disgusted him.

The Institute really did a number on me, he thought. How bad is it for Anthony and the others? They’ve had to live in this world for five years.

A part of him worried the friends he had made as a child in the institute would not be the same happy dysfunctional and fun group his mind reminded. Anthony wouldn’t seem so innocent and small, Nurifa would not be the stoic member who still looked out for everyone, and Peter… Well, Peter could do with a little change. Peter had been too daring, too ready to do the things only the rebels would, live the life he wasn’t supposed to.

A fondness Zed couldn’t remember too well stretched his lips in a soft smile as he thought of them. Yeah, Peter could do with a little change.

The thoughts only lasted a moment before he was brought back to the scene before him.

He sighed tiredly. Looking at Chris was serving to dissolve whatever little satisfaction he had gotten from being the only one who’d remained conscious after their fight. Half her face was a mess of burn marks, terrible and red—too red. Her eyes were closed so he couldn’t guess at the state of the one on the burnt half of her face. She’d lost more than half her hair so that she was left with nothing but patches.

“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Trevor said, speaking to no one in particular. “She had far more burn marks when they brought her in.”

He walked up to the bed and began gesturing around her.

“You see this part of her face? Baby smooth now, when she was in a while ago it was horrible. Most of her actually was. Her entire front was just… no. It was bad, I almost thought Daniel had somehow leant a fire rune and used it on her for a moment. From a professional stand point, I would say she’s doing quite well. She should be good as new by the end of the day.”

“But she wasn’t healing before,” Oliver said. “What changed?”

“Well, for one, I started giving her the potions through a drip.”

Ash’s jaw dropped. She stared at the drip bag, then at Trevor. She had the perfect expression of an actress in a horror movie with the job of pulling of the perfect horrified face.

Trevor waved her expression away with a casual gesture.

“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” he assured her.

“I don’t?” she asked, unsure. “I’ve never heard of anyone taking a potion through anything but their mouth.”

Zed shrugged. “Suppository.”

Oliver turned to him. “What?”

“Nothing.” Zed turned to Shanine. “Do you thin—”

“Zed?”

He heard Shanine’s voice but couldn’t bring himself to focus on it. For some reason he could feel the auras around him shift. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought he could feel worry in them. Trevor’s gave off confusion, but it was to be expected. He was confused in most of the conversations. A side-effect of being a stranger in the group.

What held his attention more was the notification in front of him.

New Quest: The Great Houdini

Danger lies around every corner, seeking preys where none may be found. Often times, prey wander onto their path, most times they seek prey out. Rest has taken its toll, wrapped itself about you. Do not fall into a false sense of security. Danger is on its way. You are surrounded.

· Objective: Escape the woods in time: 0/1

· Reward: [Riot shield] (Rune-carved).

· You have 1 unraveled [Pocket memory].

· Would you like to unravel [Pocket memory] (I care?)?

Panic flooded Zed. He tamped it down, instinct that was not truly his coming to play. Despite the wild information he had just received something more pressing stared at him in a new notification as he felt a slight sensation on his fore-arm.

· [Blood mana] required to next [Bloodwrath] activation: 0042/1200.

He raised his arm to stare at it. His fore arm past through the notification of the new quest. The notification distorted but did not dissipate. Zed ignored it, stared at the spot on his hand where he’d felt the slight tingle before the [Bloodwrath] notification. His eyes widened in worry, but not for himself.

He caught himself staring between his forearm where the last remnants of steam were slowly dissipating and a worried Shanine. Whatever expression was on his face made her worry for him. She worried for the wrong person.

There had once been a stain there, a stain he had ignored. It was gone now, absorbed. He wasn’t entirely sure what worried him most in this moment: the fact that the notification had come up even though he had not used magic or the fact that the red stain he’d gotten from getting Shanine out of the awakening cocoon was gone.

Which did he address first? That he had absorbed blood mana without activating his core or that Shanine had awakened in a cocoon of blood mana?