The week that followed was somewhat hectic, especially for Faye. In fact, she had to inform all the professors of the courses she was following of her absence for the near future and she had to prepare an adequate justification for skipping the mid-term exams. The excuse turned out to be that, since I would soon end up in the hands of the Sloans, she wanted us to spend the remaining days together. Fortunately, no professor objected to her request. It was probably thanks in part to her admirable academic performance, which made the mid-term exams more of a formality than anything else.

But the real difficulty was accumulating all the material she needed for the surgery and finding the right location where to perform it. While she took care of "borrowing" all the necessary tools from the local hospital, I dedicated myself to identifying the place in which to carry out the operation. With Marnie's help, I was able to find a simple chalet lost in the mountains. It was an old residence built to house the eventual lookouts stationed there to watch the border, but it had been abandoned for a long time due to the arrival of the Sloan Household, which took over these types of duty. I chose this location because it was a secluded building away from prying eyes and because it was also positioned near the last peak of the portion of the mountain range contained within the Perimeter, near one of the obsidian towers delimiting it.

A Forming's operation necessarily required Faye to use mana, so a frontier location was a necessity, as the local density of mana would have been higher.

Exactly a week later, we were ready to go. In the plaza, a small crowd had gathered to say their goodbyes to Faye, while for me no one showed up except Erik and the dark-haired girl. We just exchanged a glance and a small sign of the hand. It was their way of saying goodbye.

After the greetings, we headed to where Marnie was waiting for us. In fact, she had offered to accompany us via car. We loaded the vehicle with suitcases of clothes and sacks full of provisions. After all, we would be staying in the chalet for about a month. The journey was long and boring. We skirted the base of the mountain range for its entire length, having on one side the greys of the mountains overlooking us and on the other side the greens and yellows of the fields. The monotonous vision accompanied us throughout the journey, until we reached the last peak.

“See you guys in a month. I'll be here, waiting for you” Marnie said with a distraught tone and with a lowered gaze.

Without another word, I loaded myself with all the suitcases and sacks of provisions and together with Faye we set off up the winding path climbing the mountain. The higher we went, the lower the temperature, but the cold didn't bother me. After a march lasting more or less half a day, we reached our destination: we expected a chalet but instead we found a shack. It was a log cabin with small dirty windows and a damaged stone chimney protruding from the roof. Close to it, there was a cubicle which served as a toilet and a stream from which it was possible to draw water.

We opened the door and went inside. It was even more in disarray than the outside. In the first room we entered there was a chipped table and a couple of wooden chairs that looked like they were about to fall apart. The fireplace in the corner contained a cauldron, the only available cooking tool. Fortunately a good amount of firewood was included in the supplies I had brought up the mountain, so we would be able to warm up if the nights proved particularly cold. There were only two other rooms, which served as bedrooms and were empty, except for the presence of wooden and metal cots on which we would have to sleep using a sleeping bag. A thick layer of dust covered the floor and every other surface.

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“Couldn't you have chosen a nicer place?” Faye asked me while looking at me with narrowed eyes.

“I didn’t expect it to be in such a state” I answered without energy.

She sighed.

“Put everything down and let's eat something. I'm starving”

Following her directives, I freed myself of all the luggage and immediately felt lighter. Just to be safe, we had brought with us much more than what we would probably need.

Since we were both tired, we just consumed some of the foods which didn’t need cooking. As the sun went down over the horizon, the temperature dropped even further. Following Faye's directions and through the traditional method of using a stick, I managed to light a fire to warm us up. Since the rooms were both too distant from the only source of heat in the house, we moved a pair of cots into the living room and went to bed in our sleeping bags.

I woke up the next morning having recovered my energy. The fire in the fireplace had gone out during the night: to save resources, I had used only a small fraction of the firewood we had. Before Faye woke up, I took the cauldron to collect water from the stream to allow her to wash and went out into the fresh air. The morning sun shone brightly, emphasising the desolation of the mountain. No life forms were present, not even a blade of grass. It reminded me of the first time I woke up in this world.

This reminded me how far I had come: from a half naked person lost in the middle of nowhere, I had become a true resident of this world. But now someone was trying to snatch this life I was slowly building for myself from my hands.

“Bring it on! I will not back down from any challenge!” I shouted with all the breath I had, in order to give myself courage and reaffirm my resolution.

Once I had collected the water in the cauldron, I went back indoors. After waking up Faye and eating breakfast together, I handed it to her. Her eyes lit up and without too many pleasantries she quickly took it from my hands and retired to one of the rooms. She emerged after some time, with a change of clothes on. We spent the rest of the day, and the days of the week after it, following a simple routine, relaxing and trying to prepare ourselves psychologically for what awaited us. Faye in addition worked out in her head the final details of the surgery.

I woke up one morning with Faye standing in front of me. She was wearing a white coat, with a mask covering her mouth and a pair of thick glasses covering her eyes. The time had finally come.

“Are you ready?” she asked me with a voice full of apprehension.

“Yes ma’am!” I replied electrified.

Even if nothing was going exactly according to the plan, it was still the moment I had been waiting for.

We moved into the room Faye had just used for changing. I took off every item of clothing except my underwear and laid down on one of the free cots. She retrieved from the other room the material she had "borrowed" from the hospital, plus a series of metal chains that she had recovered from I didn't know where.

“I have to make sure you stay still during the process. They probably won't do much, but it’s still better than nothing “ she tried to justify herself.

I just nodded and helped her chain me to the bed.

“Ok, let’s begin”

Her face hardened. There was no turning back.