Chapter Twelve

Memories of a Phoenix– Part Three.

Aelius dreamed of all sorts of things when he was deeply asleep. It felt like he hadn’t been able to rest this well in years.

Eventually, his slumber was disturbed by a familiar voice fading in, along with gentle nudging on his shoulder.

“Hey, wake up, warrior. Time to get up. Cuckoo, cuckoo– Goddess, I can’t believe I’m making chicken noises. What an insult to my clan. Hey, wake up, warrior. Wakey wakey, time to bakey.”

“Mmm…” Aelius groaned as he stirred, until his eyes slowly pried open.

“There you are!” The girl grinned to him through her white teeth, and then quickly shuffled away before returning with a worn and peeling wooden bowl. “Breakfast. You need to eat up to have strength for recovery.”

She quite forcefully deposited the bowl in his hands and before Aelius could protest, she dashed away again.

“Uh…” Aelius looked down at the bowl of only green. “You… vegetarian?” he asked. She quickly returned with her own bowl and then sat down opposite him expectantly.

Outside, the white blinding sun was barely encroaching on the interior of the cave.

“You really expect me to be able to find meat for you in this environment?” She gestured outside at the boundless snow.

“Fair point. Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She began to eat away, and so did he, his face twisting at the bitterness of the herbs.

They continued in silence for some time until he finished, and watched her eat carefreely.

“Well, thanks for doing emergency treatment on me, but I should probably get going–”

“Don’t move! You’ll open your wound up again. I haven’t stitched it with anything.”

“I’ll be fine, I’ve survived worse–” Upon seeing he wasn’t heeding her warning, the purple haired girl pushed him down by the shoulders.

“Okay, okay, just hear me out.”

Aelius’ initial reaction was to resist and throw her off with a violent shake of his shoulders but she remained steadfast, and with a groan, he laid back down.

“Hear you out?” he asked.

“I don’t think you’ve survived worse,” she told him very firmly, giving him a serious gaze. Her unflinching eyes held his attention with a strange hold. “I really wouldn’t recommend leaving right now. The poison in your Mana Core has been stimulated strongly by all the Magic spells you cast. If it wasn’t for me suppressing it, you would’ve stayed unconscious until you died.”

Aelius froze. She knew of the poison in his Mana Core? There’s no way– he’s visited countless doctors around the world with the most advanced of Magic Medical Technology and they could not detect it.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But some random girl isolated in the harshest environment of the continent could tell?

He pursed his lips, narrowing his gaze at her.

“I’ll treat it for you!” she blurted.

Aelius raised a brow. “You’ll what?”

“I’ll cure you of it.”

“…You can do such a thing?” he asked.

“Hohoho!” She puffed her chest out with a hearty laugh. “There’s no poison in the world I can’t cure.”

Aelius raised a brow, realising this girl was eccentric in all sorts of ways. But even so, there’s no way she’d do such a thing for free, assuming it was possible in the first place.

“What do you want from me?”

“Ah, smooth negotiator. Perfect! I like jumping straight to the point too.” Her eyes lit up as she leaned in uncomfortably close, and Aelius caught both a glimpse of her chest through the dress, and a floral scent from her pale skin.

Embarrassedly and feeling his face heat up, he turned away with a cough.

“I want meat!” He turned back, blinking blankly, while she smiled at him and nodded. “Meat. Meat. I want meat. You know, the thing you were complaining about just earlier.”

“I wasn’t complaining– okay, never mind. You just want meat? You’ll cure an entire curse that no one else can, and all you want is… meat?” he asked.

Her face twisted into a pout as she sat back with her arms crossed. “Heyyyy, what’s with the judgemental-ness? I’m entitled to ask for whatever I want.”

“You just want meat though? You can ask for more.”

“You got here for one night and you already started wanting meat for your first meal. I’ve been here for 9 months without meat. I’m gonna go crazyyyyy!”

“9 months?” Aelius sighed. “In this place?” He snuck a glance out the cave, at the boundless snowy mountain peaks. “Alright… I can agree to that. How much meat are we talking? Cause there’s not much wildlife around these parts.”

“Mmm… it doesn’t have to be everyday. It can be once every two or three days. And if the going gets tough, we can skip a few nights. I’ll still treat your poison regardless, how about that?”

Aelius sat and pondered the deal for a long moment. “Well, I can’t refuse a deal like that. Okay, every few days it is, then,” he sighed. “You must really like meat.”

“Mmm…. that’s true. I just love succulent, tender meat,” she nodded with seriousness. “Yayyy! I look forward to working with you!” she gave him a high five and a beaming smile. “You won’t regret this, I’ll make it so that Mana control has never felt so smooth in your life!”

“I’m looking forward to that,” Aelius found himself smiling softly. “If you can really cure this problem, I’ll repay it a hundred fold.”

“No need, just the food and the company will be…” he detected a hint of sadness in her tone. “Better than I could ever ask for.” She gazed out into the snow with melancholy.

They sat for sometime with silence between them.

“So you're a doctor then,” he reasoned.

“I am.”

“What’s a presumably very talented doctor doing in a place like this? And for 9 months at that.”

“Isn’t it the same for everybody?” she sombrely answered. “You’re either running after something or running away from something.”

“…Yeah,” Aelius pursed his lips. “That’s true, who else would want to come out here.” Beyond the cave, it was a merciless land of white death.

“I’m Violet, by the way.” The girl gave him a warm smile, holding out her hand. “Looking forward to your dinner delivery service.”

Aelius wryly chuckled more genuinely than he thought he could. “I’m Aelius.”