“Good morning, Mrs. Bobbins!” Rezin entered the elderly woman’s room.
Drim followed him inside and closed the door behind them. He immediately activated his Curse and took a look at the energy around her. The level of her fire was shocking. Drim had examined practically everyone on their way, all the staff working at the facility; none had been even remotely this low.
There was still a flame burning steadily, but it didn’t look like it would last for too much longer. Days, months, years? Drim really didn't know yet. He didn’t have enough frame of reference. It was sad to see, but likely an inevitability, this was all the fire that remained for someone near the end of their life.
“Oh, Rezzy, you’re here, and you brought a friend!” Mrs. Bobbins greeted him gleefully—as happy to see him as if he was her own grandson.
“Yes, this is Drim, he has powers like me,” Rezin got to it.
“Oh, is he going to show me something wonderful too?!” Mrs. Bobbins started getting excited.
“Not quite, ma’am,” Drim had to unfortunately dash her hopes. “But I believe that my power may help you feel better—help you feel a bit more active and energetic. That’s only if you want to try it of course. I won’t ask you to do it if you’re not comfortable with it.”
“Yup, we can just sit here and play something if you like,” Rezin reassured her. “I brought the board game you wanted to play!” He picked it up and showed it off happily.
“I don’t mind one bit,” Mrs. Bobbins stared at them. “If he’s a friend of yours, Rezzy, then I trust him completely. What do I need to do?”
“Just hold out your hand, please,” Drim asked of her.
She complied, holding it up from her body as much as her meek strength would allow. “Oh my,” she teased a bit when Drim gripped her hand and moved her other to her face as if she was blushing.
Not to startle her, Drim sent a plume of fire into her hand directly from underneath so that she couldn’t actually see what was happening. But Drim could see the results clearly. Her small flame had changed to a roaring inferno.
Mrs. Bobbins’ disposition changed immediately, like she had just woken for the first time in a long time. Her posture changed from hunched over slightly to sitting up straight. The next moment, she sprang to her feet.
“Woooweee,” even her voice had changed slightly. “I don’t know what you just gave me, sonny, but I feel alive again.”
“That’s great, Mrs. Bobbins,” Rezin was genuinely happy for her. “Did you still want to play the game?!”
“Forget the game, Rezin! I can’t waste this energy on something like that. We’re going rollerbearing!” Mrs. Bobbins grabbed her coat and rushed out the door.
The two boys followed her as she power-walked straight out of the facility and to a roller rink down the street. Before they could even begin to try and talk her out of it, Mrs. Bobbins had paid for her time and was putting on the loaned shoes. She heard nothing of their objections and rushed into the rink.
Rezin decided to join her while Drim continued to observe from the sidelines. To her credit, Mrs. Bobbins rolled around like a pro, showing up those decades younger than her. If it wasn’t for her outward appearance, one would think her in the prime of her youth with her level of skill and dexterity.
Rollerbearing was an interesting activity. It involved wearing shoes with several ball bearings embedded into the sole. This let someone glide around with great speed and finesse, as long as they were on a properly flat and treated floor anyways. A few other sports had all their players in rollerbearings, but it was pretty popular to just wear and glide around at rinks like these.
After about a half an hour, Mrs. Bobbins finally called it quits. “Maybe because it’s been so long, but that sure took a lot out of me!” Drim had been watching her energy levels the entire time. Unlike those around her, actively engaging in the strenuous activity caused her flame to deplete more than if she was just standing idle.
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But it was still depleting, regardless of what she did. She’d already used up a good amount, and it showed no sign of bellowing back to the peak when Drim first gave her the energy. He had a good idea of what would happen now. Once Mrs. Bobbins burned through the excess, she’d be back to normal.
It would probably last a few more days, maybe a week if she wasn’t as physically active, but then the rush of life would wear off. This was important for Drim to know. It meant he couldn’t give someone an energy boost permanently, always dwindling back to normal.
The boys accompanied Mrs. Bobbins to get some fast-food before she was content enough to head back to the facility. After saying their farewells, Drim was about to head out, thinking he’d seen all he was going to see. Rezin was going to stay a while longer and spend time with some of the other patients, but he still decided to walk Drim out—lest anyone get weirded out by the darkly dressed and cloaked boy wandering the walls. He might be confused for an omen of death.
“Wait, who’s that?” Drim caught a brief glimpse of another patient through their window.
“Oh, uhh, that’s Mr. Issor. He’s uhh—” Rezin started to explain but couldn’t quite get the words out.
“He’s not well,” a nearby nurse overheard them and explained. “Mr. Issor is quite sick. It’s not something normally fatal, but his body no longer has the strength to fight it. Unfortunately, we’ve done everything we can. All that’s left is to make him comfortable. We expect him to pass by tomorrow, maybe within the next few hours.”
That explained what Drim had seen. Even though Mr. Issor looked no older than his late 70s, his life was about to run out. His fire, well it wasn’t a fire—not even an ember—just a dying coal about to burn out its last light.
Drim opened the door and stepped inside. Rezin followed, more confused than anything, but he wasn’t going to leave Drim alone. This was the part where in a normal medical facility, security would be called and they’d be thrown out immediately. Maybe it was because Rezin was so well known, or maybe because they were Fiends, but no one tried to stop them. Instead, more nurses came and grouped up by the door, waiting to see what they’d do.
Mr. Issor really was on the verge of death. It was so much more obvious up close. His breathing was so light that it didn’t even look like he was breathing at all. Drim moved his hand close to the dying flame and ignited his Curse.
Immediately, Drim collapsed to his knees, but managed to regain his footing a moment later. So much energy was being drained from him that it had literally knocked him off his feet. The coal was so greedy that it was lapping up every bit of life fed to it, even suckling it out of Drim on its own.
Even though he’d managed to stay standing for a while now, it was getting harder with each passing second. Drim’s very life was being sucked out of him, and he didn’t know how much more he could spare.
“Hey, take some of mine!” Rezin seemed to notice his struggle and the way to resolve it. His insistence went so far as to grab Drim’s hand and place it on his own chest. Drim had basically lost control at this point, and his own body couldn’t refuse the offer even if his mind wanted to.
Drim immediately felt well again once Rezin’s life was passing through him. But it didn’t linger long, Rezin’s red fire converting to Drim’s green and then back to red as it went into Mr. Issor. It almost seemed like a silly unnecessary step in the transfer, but Drim guessed that was how it had to be.
Eventually, the transfer forcefully stopped itself and both Drim and Rezin stumbled backwards, barely staying upright. Up until now, the pitiful flame in Mr. Issor hadn’t reacted to the energy at all. Instead, the energy just filled up the rest of his body until it was full.
Drim watched the energy swirl around the fire, as if it was a solar system caught in the gravity of a sun. It spun, faster and faster, until it became a blur. All the energy collided inward at once, clashing into the dying fire. The flame erupted, bursting back to life. The degree of the fire fluctuated a bit, waves of energy dispersing and reforming until it finally stabilized.
Mr. Issor’s fire was now close to that of Mrs. Bobbin’s default flame, perhaps even a little stronger. It showed no signs of depleting and the results were immediate. Mr. Issor’s breathing became fuller which was a good sign. However, he started to stir slightly in his sleep, as if he was uncomfortable. It seemed he’d started sweating as well.
Several nurses and a few doctors rushed in and immediately began running tests. They all yelled out a few tidbits of information over the next few minutes. “White blood cell count has jumped.” “Heart rate is increasing.” “Slight fever.”
“Oh, isn’t a fever bad?” Rezin was worried about what they’d done.
“No,” one of the doctors took a moment to answer him. “It means his body is fighting the illness again.”
Drim and Rezin stepped outside, resting while the staff did their jobs. Drim could see their own flames in a reflection of a nearby window, seeing them steadily increase and restabilize to their normal levels.
After a while, a nurse came out to talk with them. “I don’t know what you did, but Mr. Issor is going to make it,” she was smiling beyond a point that some could consider professional. “His body’s immune system has kicked into full gear. He should be rid of his sickness by tomorrow and will then go on to live a healthy rest of his life. We thought he was beyond saving, but you just gave him what could be decades more of life. Thank you.”
The nurse bowed and then walked away, and then both Drim and Rezin prepared to head back to the compound. Even though it was still only early afternoon, it had been an exhausting experience.