The next morning, Mallea woke up to a heavy arm. The room only had one bed, since that’s all that had been available, so they’d been forced to share. It was big enough that they could stay spread apart on their separate sides. Yet somehow overnight, both had scooted their way to the middle, and now Phon was fully nestled into Mallea’s side, resting her head on the butler’s arm.
Mallea hoped that she could pull away before the child noticed, but the slightest tug sent the baby stirring, and she was up and awake a moment later, wiping the sleep from her eyes. The two of them shared a look after that, but neither of them overreacted, since that would be admitting a loss as if the situation were a big deal.
They didn’t say a word to each other for a while as they got dressed for the day, but thankfully, the breakfast they were served that morning gave them an excuse to change the subject. It was horrible, so how could they not discuss it?
Drome Coli’s official title was the Hub City of Health and Wellness. What this actually translated to was the city of Sports and Medicine. The idea for the city was to have everything that centered around a healthy lifestyle—being active, eating well, and receiving any medical treatment that one needed.
While the intent had been pure, things hadn’t quite followed those guidelines when it came to actual development. Rather than the old method before the war of each major city or country having their own sports team that competed, they all now resided in Drome Coli.
There were dozens of arenas and even more training facilities for the players. Not every team stayed in the city year round, returning home in the off season, but it was just easier for them to reside in Drome Coli when there were matches to be played.
What this meant was that a vast majority of the city’s tourists came to watch the matches and would then return to their daily lives. Fans spending a bunch of money to come and sit on their asses, watch a match, and gorge on some of the unhealthiest food imaginable wasn’t exactly the dream the city planners had aspired to.
However, it was loosely stated that it was still in the spirit of the concept since watching athletes perform at the peak of physical condition would inspire others to improve. What’s more, it somehow worked. The city was flooded with health nuts and businesses looking to capitalize on that aspect. There were countless nutritionists, weight loss centers, gyms with specialized trainers, health food peddlers, and so many more—all ready to make someone the best they could be, if they had the money to afford it.
Of course, there were hotels that matched this healthy mentality to help support those on their journey of better health. One such hotel is where Mallea and Phon had found themselves, and thus the breakfast served was all healthy garbage. For the most part it was flavorless, and what did have flavor, they wished it didn’t. To make matters worse, since both girls had actually extensively studied nutrition, what was touted as extremely healthy was questionable at best.
If they had been able to stay at a hotel meant for sports fans, their morning spread would have probably been pretty good. But it was the weekend, and there were several matches scheduled, so finding a vacancy at one of those hotels would have been impossible, and they hadn’t even tried.
Now, Mallea was regretting not going with her backup plan if they hadn’t found a room to stay in. The other proponent of Drome Coli was the medical aspect. Most patients would stay in the facilities themselves, but there were somewhat cheaper accommodations for accompanying family.
They were essentially dorm rooms or hostels with minimal privacy, but at least the food would have been better. Since they were still run by the medical facilities, the food probably would have been on par with what was served in a hospital, but it could at least be called food unlike the questionable substances they’d been eating. At least it gave the women an excuse to break through their morning awkwardness.
The medical half of Drome Coli, which was entirely removed from all things sports, was fully funded by the Central Peace. These medical institutions were state-of-the-art and the best in the world. Some were solely for treating unique patients, those with rare diseases or odd issues that a standard hospital would struggle with. Others were all for studying drugs or new treatments to further the medical field as a whole.
While it was all under the CP umbrella, that didn’t mean there wasn’t competition. Funding wasn’t equal. There was a minimum amount, of course, to make sure that the facilities were able to run at standard procedure, but if they wanted additional incentive, they needed to produce results.
That would explain why every institution was boasting their own miracle doctor. The funny thing was, regardless of where someone went, they’d receive the best treatment possible. To the patients, each facility probably did have their own version of a miracle doctor, but that wasn’t what the two girls were looking for.
Being the peak of human medicine didn’t help them. They needed someone who could treat a Fiend. What’s weirder was that a Fiend shouldn’t be sick to begin with, so this was something serious. Ahvra’s Curse hadn’t changed everyone’s age. It simply didn’t have the reach or power. It had most likely been an airborne illness that Ahvra had made accidentally, so they needed a doctor who could combat something created by the supernatural.
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They could rule out anyone performing cosmetic surgery, which Drome Coli was filled with. If someone wanted literally any aspect of their body altered, there was a doctor here that could do it. While the Fiend bodies had been physically changed, it didn’t seem like that line of medicine would be particularly helpful. But since they didn’t really understand this time related disease, they couldn’t rule out much else.
Unfortunately, this didn’t leave them much to go on, but since this kind of issue likely fell under standard medical practice, they decided to start with the various hospitals in the city. If that didn’t work, they planned to find an information broker. Every city had one, along with its fair dose of sketchy back alleys, whether the government or its people acknowledged it or not.
Drome Coli in particular was very keen on spouting that everything was legitimate and backed scientifically. No pseudoscience treatments or sham products were found anywhere in the city, or at least that was the promise. Drome Coli didn’t even have any form of official gambling, but that didn’t mean that there wasn’t unofficial bets if someone knew where to look. That, or someone could easily make a call to a bookie in Shindig if they really wanted to bet on an upcoming match.
Coincidentally enough, on their walk over to the first hospital on their list, the two girls already picked up on some gossip of a miracle doctor as they walked by. The group in question was a few middle-aged women sitting at an outdoor table with drinks and a pile of shopping bags. One glance at the bags made it obvious what they were: bored wives who were waiting for their spouses to finish shopping for sports paraphernalia.
“Pardon me ladies, could I ask more about those doctors you were mentioning?” Mallea boldly walked over to them. They were each mentioning a famous doctor they’d heard of. Word of mouth was often better than official sources for this kind of thing, so it didn’t hurt to ask and may give them a few leads.
“Yes, we have a few questions,” Phon followed up.
“Woah, a butler and a baby?” One of the women questioned.
“Oh, are you a street performer?” the next asked. “You know… what was it? A ventriloquist?” It wasn’t the oddest leap in logic. Given how they were dressed and how Phon was perched on Mallea’s shoulder, it certainly wasn’t natural. Phon being a doll probably made more sense in their minds, especially with her shiny hair and eyes.
“Such a pretty doll!” The third didn’t even wait for confirmation. “She looks so real. Can you make her sing?”
Well, since they had grasped their attention at least, instead of being shunned immediately, Mallea figured she may as well indulge them. Perhaps a few cheap tricks could lead to looser lips. Singing was of course one of the talents that Mallea had picked up. Changing it to match more of a childlike tone was a bit more of a struggle, but Mallea was able to grasp and then perfect it after a few hums.
Surprisingly, Phon’s mouth matched the movements of Mallea’s melody rather well, but it was purely unintentional. She had just been baffled that Mallea was entertaining their whims at all and was at a loss for words. But, Phon didn’t go along with the bit for much longer. Fed up with the embarrassment and confusion, Phon punched Mallea straight in the side of her face to get her to stop.
While Phon was currently a toddler with insignificant toddler strength, she was still a Fiend. That weak force was multiplied to the point that Mallea felt like she’d been punched by roughly twenty toddlers at once. It wasn’t enough to knock her over, but it still sent her reeling. Phon had to grasp on for dear life to keep from being knocked off.
But the women didn’t mind the bit of domestic abuse. No, it just made them applaud even more, thinking it was part of the act. In fact, they even tried to tip Mallea for the show, but Mallea refused, instead asking for her questions to be answered as payment.
The confusion of Phon being a doll never did get cleared up, but at least they got some decent information. Two of the women’s answers were useless, but the third had heard tell of just the kind of doctor they were looking for.
They didn’t receive a name or even where they worked, but allegedly working in one of the Drome Coli hospitals was a doctor who specializes in unsolvable cases. He’d only see patients with issues he deemed worthy of his attention. And unimportantly, but not only mentioned, but heavily stressed as well, was that he was supposed to be breathtakingly handsome and charming.
Ultimately, this knowledge didn’t change their course, but it gave them new hope of finding someone. Phon refined a search on her phone along the way using the new information given. While there was still no specific details, several accounts backed up that woman’s claims.
“Oh Cosmos, what’s happened to your child?” Mallea and Phon were anxiously greeted by the nurse manning the front station when they entered the first hospital. It hadn’t been the reaction they were expecting, but now were surprised no one had mentioned it up to this point. Maybe the new world of Fiends had made people more used to seeing oddly colored hair, but in the medical world, hair devoid of all color would certainly be cause for panic and intrigue.
This actually became a good barometer to test if a miracle doctor was actually present at the facility. If they had someone confident enough to investigate and treat such an obscure illness, that’d be someone worth looking into. That hospital ended up being a bust, with a quick examination bewildering all the staff present.
At each subsequent hospital, Mallea played up the unconsolable mother role a little more. She found that the more erratic she acted, they’d receive assistance that much quicker. On the other end, Phon grew more discontent with each visit. She didn’t have to act in order to fulfill the role of the frustrated and severely embarrassed child.
“Quick, someone bring Dr. Graf!” the front attendant called out to the waiting room. The other patients sitting around gave confused glances at the declaration, but the ears perked up of every staff member.
“I’ll get him!” a nurse answered and almost sprinted out of the room. She didn’t make it very far, falling flat on her face after tripping over an inconveniently placed mop.
The nearby janitor didn’t even attempt to help the fallen nurse, instead they shouted “No, I’ll get him!” and dashed away. He wasn’t the last, as nearly a dozen other staff rushed out of the room to try and be the one to reach the doctor first. Mallea and Phon shared a slightly perturbed look at this behavior, but hopefully it meant that they had a winner.