"Here." the Chief Healer handed me another mug of hot chocolate and sat back down on the couch across from me. "Like I said, lass. I have to try first, look more thoroughly and even if it were to be...well, there are still options. So don't drop your ears."

"There are?" I asked in a whisper, wiped my tears away, and sipped from the mug. It worked wonders and even drove away hunger a little bit.

'He didn't mean adoption, did he?' Not that there was anything wrong with that. Having someone like Ria as part of my family would be amazing. It just... when I thought those bastards had nothing left to take from me but my humanity and my life, they found a way to rob me of that and more.

"What are you thinking about, Marcus?" Captain Rayden inquired, deep in thought herself. "Janine?"

"Yes, her. She...don't worry, that's my wife, lass. A healer like me. No less impressive."

'In other words, she had as much chance of helping me as he did.'

A little too bitter? So what? I had every right to be.

"Oh, don't give me that devastated look. Sometimes, all it takes is for someone else to take a glance at the issue, and it goes away, right San?"

"That's without question." Taking a hint from Marcus - er, Chief Healer Ardaivel'cas to go on, she continued. "I mean, I have people that I trust and talk to about things I have trouble deciding on my own. The general I served under in the Wars consulted with others before making judgments, and even the Emperor himself has his advisors. So..."

"I get it." A bit brash, but I stopped her. Even though it might not have looked like it, I was well aware of what they were trying to say. Even the doctors back on Earth were constantly consulting my mom's results with their colleagues. "There's still hope, huh?"

That was what they used to say.

"Yes, there is, lass. And if the two of us fail to find a way to fix you, there's always our mentor. Actually, I believe we should contact him anyway. What do you think, San?"

"Not just him. That core..." Captain Rayden paused, nodding towards my lap. "...sure is going to make a lot of people itchy when the word gets out."

"I...I haven't told anyone."

"It would be foolish if you did, and I'm sure the mind mages won't make that mistake either. In fact, I think they're going to do everything in their power to keep it under wraps for as long as they can."

"Do you think they'll go that far?" Marcus asked, a bit skeptical.

"Actually, even further, they've already shown us how valuable she is to them," Rayden pointed out, tapping the note with my description on it, the Hunting Call, as they called it. She then leaned closer, elbows propped on her knees. "Look, Grey. The way I see it, you have two choices. Three if you count getting caught, and they'll get you, trust me. It might be tomorrow, or it might be a month from now, but eventually, there will be someone like the four yesterday, only successful. You'll have to watch your back all the time, trusting no one - and like I said, it can drive one crazy."

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Given my cellar experience, where every step on the stairs made me shiver in the corner and pray it wasn't my turn, it wasn't hard to imagine.

"You ...you f-forgot to mention that I'd end up a pet for life, ma'am."

"Oh, you wish. They wouldn't go this far just for some pet. No, you'd end up back in the hands of Frederic Dungreen if he's still alive."

My ears perked up.

"Y-you think he isn't - ma'am?"

"Mind mages don't take failure too well. But given what he has accomplished with you, I'd say they put a tight leash on him. That man aside, though, no doubt they'll want to make more of you. You know what that means, don't you, Grey?”

They would want to find out what makes me so special, why I survived so many concoctions, and eventually accepted the beast core. And even if that deranged asshole was really dead, they had other alchemists who could make my life a living hell - that mind-bitch said as much.

"Y-yeah, I do," I whispered, sipping from my mug.

"Good. That brings us to the second option, which is to send you to the man Marcus mentioned, his and his wife's mentor, Lord Wigram."

'L-Lord? A noble man?'

"Why him?" I blurted out, a bit confused. "He's a healer, right?" If he was their mentor, he had to be.

"Not just any healer." Marcus, I mean Chief Healer Ardaivel'cas grinned at me, a touch of pride in his voice. "He’s a healer at the Imperial Court. In fact, he holds one of the highest positions there, the Imperial Chief Healer."

"Oh, s-sorry." That truly sounded like something to be proud of. Actually, it sounded like a position that could only be held by the best healer in the Empire. "Wait! You want to send me to the imperial court? I..."

Rayden held up a hand to stop me. "I know what you're thinking, Grey, that I might as well send you into the hands of mind mages. And while there are people in the court who wouldn't shy away from using similar heinous ways just to find out your secrets, the Imperial Chief Healer is a position on the level of a duke. Only the Emperor and the Empress have the power to order him around."

"So if they ordered him...you know, you said having a core was in the Empire's interest."

"No, I said it was in the Empire's interest not to let the mind mages have their way - have you. Look, Grey, I understand your worry. But the Imperial Chief Healer is a wise man with a heart in the right place. I sincerely believe that being under his wing in Imperial City is the safest place for you to be right now."

"O-okay?" There was no hint of deceit in her voice, no falsehood. Rayden truly believed what she said.

'Still...'

What difference did it make to fear every shadow here or to live in dread of the moment when the Imperial Chief Healer would no longer be able to stand up to the Emperor's decision?

"B-but?" There was a but. I mean, Rayden had talked about three options.

"Well, here's the thing. None of that solves the main issue, does it?"

'True.'

Sure, I would either end up in the clutches of mind mages with no will of my own, or be forced to hide from them for the rest of my life - neither an option that sat well with me. Both sounded in their own way, like having a collar put back on my neck.

But unlike stupid little me, Marcus seemed to have figured out where Rayden was going with this. He sat up on the sofa, more serious than I'd ever seen him before.

"Hang on, San. Are you thinking what I think you're thinking? You want her to be a bait?"

'Huh? Wait, what? Me a bait? No! No, no, no, that can’t be right!'

Rayden's serious look, however, dashed all my hopes.

"Basically, yes."