Two more weeks passed before I started to get suspicious. The source of it all came from a rather unexpected place.
“My parents were saying last month that rent prices around the city were getting cheaper recently,” said Anise. She stuffed another forkful of cake into her mouth, and grinned. “With my shop open, and rent prices decreasing, I've been thinking about changing where I live. Do you think the three of us could get an apartment for ourselves? It might be fun to live together for a while. Well, maybe including Felix is a bad idea. This society’s a bit strict about men and women mingling before marriageable age… but still. I could line the walls with those alchemical papers you and Felix make for me, and I wouldn’t need to hide any of my activities anymore. I could also live a bit closer to my shop. What do you think?” asked Anise.
“I’m not opposed to it, but… you said rent prices decreased last month?” I said, frowning.
When my mother had claimed that the rent for our apartment had been raised, I hadn’t thought much about it. If the price got outrageous, we would move, but I wasn’t that hung up over a small rent hike. But now, Anise was saying that rent prices had decreased in most of the city last month? That didn’t make sense.
"Yeah, rent prices started dropping across the town. Some alchemist invented a new invention called alchemist's greenwall. I have no idea how it works, but it makes constructing new houses a lot easier. So a bunch of new houses are probably going to be built soon, and the prices for existing ones dropped a bit." Anise shrugged. "Or something like that. I don't know much about the market, but that's what Old Mo told me when I asked him to explain."
"I see..." I said. A horrible suspicion started to rise in my heart.
"Sorry Anise - we can talk about this later, but I just realized something."
"Is it an emergency? Can I help?"
"Not this time. It's personal, and unlikely to lead to violence," I said.
Anise nodded, and I excused myself. I abandoned the uneaten half of my cake, and started running to Old Mo's bakery.
“Old Mo!” I said as I ran into the shop.
“Yes, Miria?” he asked. He frowned when he saw me. “You don’t look so good. Is everything all right?”
“Last month! Did the rent increase for our apartment last month?”
“No, it didn’t.” said Old Mo, as he gave me a baffled look. “Rent prices for our building remained the same. But I expect it to drop next month. I expect that rent for residents in our building will also decrease in a month or two. Why do you ask?”
“Sorry, I have to go,” I said, shivering. "It's... Sorry." Old Mo raised a hand towards me, before he lowered it.
"Good luck," he said, as I exited the shop. My thoughts started to swirl around in my head.
My mother had claimed that rent prices increased last month… but they hadn't. What was going on? I made my way back to my home to ask about it, but realized nobody was home.
My mother usually stayed at home on Saturdays, but today, it looked like she had gone out for some reason. I felt a bizarre mixture of relief and disappointment, when I realized that I didn’t have to confront her yet. But the horrible suspicion gnawing at my thoughts didn’t go away. I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should just wait for her to return. But I couldn't help myself.
I started searching through the house. I checked beneath the sofa cushions. I opened up pillow cases. I looked underneath everything. I used my spatial sight to check inside of little crannies I usually ignored.
And after half an hour of searching, I found it.
There was a small packet hidden in the mattress lining of my mother’s bed. I fished it out… and realized exactly what was wrong.
Sitting in my hand was a packet of Fizz.
The exact same Fizz that had nearly killed my mother, and that she had promised me she was staying away from.
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I felt the world start to spin.
I had spent years curing my mother. I had helped cut the embedded crystals of Fizz out of my mother’s brain with Dr. Trish. She had… she had seemed receptive to treatment. I hadn’t managed to remove the deeper Fizz crystals in her brain, but she had been able to function. She had lost a bit of motor skills, but she had been fine. She had survived something that should have killed her. She was getting better.
And less than two months after I started going to university, she had started taking Fizz again. The moment I left the house, she started her habit anew. All of that hard work, gone. All of my desperate attempts to save her. Gone.
Every hope of a better life as a family.
Gone.
My hands started shaking as I looked at the packet of drugs, and I felt tears start to trickle down my cheeks.
I wiped them away, and tried to think positively.
Maybe my mother was… was studying how to cure fizz addiction. She had almost died from it, after all. If she was... researching fizz addiction, maybe that was why she had Fizz. I didn't think my mother knew anything about research, but maybe she had learned behind my back.
Or… or maybe Fizz was useful for other things besides getting high. That was… that was risky, considering my mother’s past, but it was plausible, right?
Right?
I knew I was grasping at straws. But I kept hoping that one of them was correct. That something would make sense.
I felt myself start to shake harder, as my thoughts warred with each other.
Sallia paused. I sat down and stared at the little package of drugs.
But it didn’t help the pounding in my head or the roaring in my ears. My mother was taking Fizz again.
"But she'll die!" I yelled. It took me a moment to realize I hadn’t just sent that message to Sallia. I had screamed it out loud. Part of me knew that I was starting to lose my rationality. That I should stop and take a deep breath. But I just couldn't seem to control myself.
I closed my eyes, and felt a few more tears spill out as I thought over Sallia’s words.
Before I had time to think of a response, I heard the front door open. My mother was home.