I checked the messages on my phone as I headed inside. There were a ton in the group chat with my mates. Mostly just everyone checking in to say they were fine and find out how everyone else was doing. There was one that made me stop walking immediately. I stood in the hallway as I read it again.

It was from Josh. His dad had been taken to hospital! I quickly called him, happy that the blackout hadn’t affected the cell towers.

“Hey, Dean.” He sounded tired.

“Mate. How bad is it?”

“Pretty bad. A bookcase fell across his legs. They checked him over and said he’s not in any danger, but his legs are pretty messed up. They’re going to do some more tests later and tell us just how bad they are. They gave him some stuff, so he’s out of it at the moment. We’re just waiting around at the hospital for them to get back to us.”

“Which hospital are you at?” It was one of the big ones, located right next to the city. “I’ll be right there, mate.” After hanging up, I jumped in the shower and quickly washed off the dried blood and dirt from the fight. Without any power to heat the water, it wasn’t the most comfortable experience. But the cold water did help refresh me and make me feel more alert.

I went back to my room and got dressed in some clean clothes. I hid the Vision Crystal in my bedside table along with the two empty vials. Making sure I took my wallet this time, I left the house and drove into the city.

Most places I went past still had their power on, but there were other areas like ours in darkness. A section of road was closed off because a part of an old building had collapsed, sending bricks tumbling onto the asphalt and blocking one lane. Otherwise, there didn’t seem to be much damage from the quake. It made me wonder how Josh’s old man had been injured.

Once I got to the hospital and parked the car, I messaged Josh and he came out to meet me in front.

I gave him a quick hug and then stepped back. “What do you need, mate?”

He gave me a weak smile. “It’s all good. I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“How did it happen?” I asked him. “I’m pretty sure nothing big fell over at our place.”

He nodded. “It was that dodgy bookcase he built by himself. It was a wobbly mess on a good day. If he hadn’t done such a shitty job putting it together….” He shook his head. “The funny thing is, he rarely reads. Why have a full bookcase next to your bed if you don’t read?”

I gave a little laugh. “What’s that thing called? Osmosis? He was probably hoping it would all go in while he was asleep.”

That made him chuckle. “Dad? Nah, he’s too thick headed for that.”

“Too bad it didn’t fall on his head, then,” I said, laughing.

Josh gave me a horrified look.

I gave him a little grin. “Too soon?”

He punched me in the arm. “Idiot.” I was happy to see a small smile appear on his face. Mission accomplished.

We headed up to his dad’s hospital room. Everyone was so busy that nobody seemed to care about enforcing visiting hours. On the way, Josh looked at me carefully.

“What happened to you?” he asked.

I tried to keep my face neutral and managed a, “Hmm?” Had I missed some blood when I cleaned myself up?!

He continued, “You’re looking pretty good. Much better than the other night. What gives?”

I relaxed. I fed him the same lie I gave Mum. She had believed it even before I had a magical skill backing it up. Now that my Persuasion skill was working in the background to influence Josh, I was confident he would buy it.

He whistled in appreciation. “You have got to hook me up with some of that!”

“I think you’re good, mate. You put on any more muscle and you’ll explode!” I exclaimed. He wasn’t as tall as me, but he was wider and more muscular, even after the changes to my body. He was really into hitting the gym.

“Yeah, I guess there is no reason to mess with perfection,” he said with a straight face. “Still, it would be good to take on my cheat days.”

I was saved from having to say anything more as we arrived at his dad’s room. I walked in quietly, but thanks to the pain medication, Mr. Brown was deep asleep. Josh’s mum was there watching over him. I gave her a long hug.

“They said they’ll take him for some more scans soon to get a better idea of how much damage was done. They seem to be pretty busy tonight,” she told us once I stepped back.

I was sure they were. Mr. Brown definitely wouldn’t be the only person injured by falling items. Even though the structures seemed to have held up alright, people wouldn’t have considered decorating with earthquakes in mind. It just wasn’t something we had to worry about here. Until now, anyway.

I moved over next to the bed. Seeing Josh’s dad lying there hit me hard. It brought up a lot of memories. Not only of my own dad in the hospital, but of many days spent at Josh’s house growing up. His family had always made me feel welcome. I hated to see him like this.

I blinked quickly a few times to clear my eyes, then I used Analyze. His health was down to 32 points and didn’t move while I watched. The doctors were right. He wasn’t in any immediate danger, but if his legs were badly damaged, it would be life-altering for him and his family. I couldn’t stand by and do nothing when I had the ability to fix him. It was risky, but I thought I could get away with it.

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I turned to look at Josh and his mum. “Why don’t you go out for a bit of a break? Stretch your legs and refresh. I saw a coffee machine down the hall and a little lounge area. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on him.”

Mrs. Brown gave me a tired smile. “That would be nice. We won’t be gone long.” She went outside and, after giving me a grateful nod, Josh followed. I moved quickly to the bed.

Now we were alone, I could cast Heal on Mr. Brown without the radiance from the Life energy giving me away. His arm was on top of the blanket. I placed my hand on it and cast the spell. A soft, golden glow enveloped my palm as my affinity for Life energy converted my mana and it rushed from my center into him. I couldn’t see his legs beneath the blanket, but I assumed they had the same gentle light bathing them.

The spell ended and I immediately cast it again. My mana had completely regenerated before coming to the hospital, so I could cast Heal a total of four times.

As the second healing spell finished, I was surprised at the lack of movement from Mr. Brown. Did something go wrong? A quick check showed his health was back to full, which for him was only 60 points. The spells had worked, so why hadn’t he woken up?

I didn’t want to slow down Cax’s progress sorting through the information we had retrieved, so I resolved to work this out by myself. Plus, he’d gotten a little irritable before when I interrupted him.

Best to leave him to it. It will be good for me to do this alone, anyway. I don’t want to be dependent on him forever, I thought. I checked the spell’s information again and something caught my eye. The description talked about repairing damage and curing disease. The pain medication he was on to keep him asleep probably wasn’t something this spell could get rid of. Since it was chemical, it probably qualified as a poison.

I was relieved there wasn’t an issue with my magic. Also, a little proud I had worked it out by myself. I vowed to do that more often in the future.

I sat down in one of the chairs and waited for Josh and his mum to return. It was probably better this way, anyway. It would have been suspicious if Mr. Brown woke up perfectly healthy when I was alone with him. This way, I’d be long gone when his miraculous recovery was discovered.

The events of the night and the interrupted sleep were catching up with me. In order to try and stay awake, I considered the differences between the amount of health Mr. Brown and I had. I knew I was in peak condition thanks to what had been done to me. That would mean a health amount of 100 points was around the best a human could have. His smaller amount of health points was probably due to his age and the wear and tear his body had suffered over the years.

The fact that I was now level 2 and had 120 health points got me thinking. I was already beyond the best a regular human could achieve. I wondered just how strong and how tough my body could become if I kept leveling up. My tired mind conjured up fanciful images of me wrestling a bear and stopping a bullet with my hand.

Mrs. Brown and Josh came back into the room, ending my whimsical thoughts. I gratefully took the cup of coffee they handed me, and we sat around chatting for a little bit while we drank. My mind wandered as I looked at the dark liquid and pondered if the caffeine was still capable of affecting me and giving me a jolt of energy. I mentally shrugged and took another sip. Doesn’t matter. Still tastes good. For vending machine coffee, anyway.

I was brought back to the conversation as something they were discussing registered. “Sorry. What did you just say about the earthquake?”

Josh looked at me. “It was on the TV in the lounge. They said it was stronger than the other quake. A 5.1 this time. It was only in Brisbane, but they said it was another strange one. Something about the tremors not spreading out like in a usual quake.”

“That’s right,” his mum said. “They were interviewing a scientist. He said it looked like it had been contained to one area somehow.”

“Did they say why it was like that?” I asked, mind racing. I’d assumed it would have been another global quake like the first time something came through the portal.

They both just shook their heads. I was worried. A lot of attention was going to be focused on Brisbane now, and it was bound to start with the infected forest. Now that I was connected to the area thanks to my encounter with the police, there was probably going to be questions coming my way. I was suddenly glad to have my Persuasion skill. Any qualms I had about messing with people’s minds went out the window if it meant protecting myself.

I couldn’t sit still any longer. Plus, looking at Josh and his mum as they cast worried looks at Mr. Brown was getting to me. I wished I could put their minds at ease, but that was impossible without telling them what I’d done. I took comfort in knowing that their worry would be short-lived. The drugs should wear off soon and then they’d find out he was ok. I didn’t want to sit here and watch them suffer until then.

I finished my drink and said my goodbyes. On the walk to the elevator, I saw more sick people. I still had enough mana to use Heal twice, but I was too scared to. I was afraid that if people found out about me, they would want to study me. At best, I would lose my freedom and independence. At worst… I shuddered as I considered what might be done to me. Also, how could I choose which two people to help out of all the people in need?

I knew I was taking a risk when I healed Mr. Brown, but as far as I was concerned it had never been a choice. He was practically family. I had no regrets and would do it again. I just had to hope my name wasn’t mentioned in connection with it at all.

I figured that his legs being fixed was sure to raise questions, but it could be explained away as simply a mistake. They seemed especially busy tonight, so it would be easy to believe it was simply human error. In fact, what else could it be? No one had any reason to suspect magic.

But if three people were miraculously healed, a lot more attention would be paid to that fact. With my name already connected to what was happening in the forest, I didn’t need the extra scrutiny that would bring.

I put my head down and tried to ignore my surroundings until I got back to the car. On the drive home, I couldn’t help but question my motives. I had the power to heal people, yet I had chosen not to in order to protect myself. What kind of person does that make me? That question stuck in my head the entire drive back.

The sun had risen by the time I arrived home. Mum’s car was parked in the driveway. Going inside, I found her cleaning up some broken glass in the kitchen by the light of her phone.

“Where have you been?! I was worried sick!” she said, putting the broom down and carefully coming over to give me a hug.

I told her about Josh’s dad, and she calmed down.

“What broke?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Just the vase up on the counter,” she said. “The shaking must have knocked it off.”

“Anything else broken?” I asked, picking up the broom and resuming the sweeping. Mum moved the light to give me a better view.

“Not that I could see. We can have a proper look when the sun is fully up or when the power comes back on.” Her face became worried. “If these earthquakes are going to keep coming, we should probably rethink where we have everything. Especially after what happened to Josh’s poor dad.”

“Good idea. But not tonight. I don’t know about you, but I’m beat. I need some sleep.”

We finished cleaning up the broken vase and then I said goodnight. Quickly brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed, I crawled under the covers and fell asleep almost immediately.