The moment I saw Old Mo crumpled over the counter, I rushed to his side. My vision started to turn black as terror wormed its way down my spine like tendrils of ice. It took me mere moments to make physical contact with him and pour some water on him, allowing my healing magic to take effect. Moments that I wasn’t sure Old Mo had.
My first wave of healing magic was sloppy and unfocused. I poured far more essence into it than was reasonable. I was barely even thinking about what I was doing - all I knew was that I needed to funnel healing magic into Old Mo’s body.
My heart leapt into my throat as I felt my healing magic start to slip through Old Mo’s body, as if it weren’t there. It was exactly the same as when I had tried to heal a baby that had been born without a soul - it felt like there was nothing to heal. But before despair could rip through me, I felt my healing magic catch on to something.
There was still something to save. I finally snapped out of my haze, and checked the state of Old Mo's soul. Old Mo’s soul wasn’t gone. I could see it drifting about in his brain. It barely looked attached to his body, but it was still there. I used Soul Clamp to grab his soul and keep it from drifting away further. It wouldn't fix the connection between body and soul, but it would stop the situation from getting worse.
I spent the next few minutes throwing healing magic into his body while I tried to figure out what had happened. With the help of my knowledge of medicine, I pieced together a rough picture of why Old Mo was hurt.
The root cause of Old Mo’s condition seemed to have been his heart giving out. It wasn’t particularly shocking - Old Mo was over eighty years old now. The average lifespan in this world was about sixty or so, and Old Mo was getting on in years. My healing magic had kept him healthy, but I couldn't reverse aging yet. I couldn't figure out why Old Mo's heart had acted up - it didn't look like a regular heart attack. His symptoms were baffling. But his heart obviously had problems now. After his heart shut down, the rest of his body had started collapsing. Luckily, I had arrived before his soul departed.
I kept pouring healing magic into Old Mo's body. But after several seconds, I started to realize something disturbing. Even though I was pouring healing magic into his body, Old Mo’s heart wasn’t restarting. I had no idea why. But it was a fact that his heart wasn’t fixing itself. Normally, my healing magic could even regrow lost limbs. Why wasn't Old Mo's heart fixing itself?
I started cycling through my medical knowledge, but came up blank. This world’s medicine wasn’t advanced enough to understand what the issue here was. I felt tears of frustration start to build up in my eyes. Old Mo’s body wasn’t getting better, and I didn’t know why, or how to fix it.
“Miria! What happened?” asked Felix, as he and Anise barged into the room. I had rushed ahead of them mere moments ago, but it felt like hours had passed as I poured healing essence into Old Mo.
“Old Mo’s heart gave out!” I yelled. “His heart isn’t restarting! My healing magic isn't fixing it! He's not getting better!"
Felix immediately strode over to me, and patted my shoulders. It brought me out of my chaotic thoughts for a few seconds.
“Calm down. You can do this. You’ve studied medicine for years, you have magic that doesn’t belong in this world. This situation is unusual, but you've found ways to fix much bigger problems. What do you need to do? What do you need us to do?”
I took a deep breath, and let it out. Meanwhile, my healing magic continued to funnel its way into Old Mo’s body, fixing the symptoms but leaving his heart silent and dead. Every single second that passed, my essence reserves got lower while I tried to think.
For some reason, I couldn’t fix Old Mo’s heart. I didn’t know why, but it was a fact I could not change. Just like when I had tried to heal my mother’s brain, healing magic alone couldn't solve my problems. How else could I fix Old Mo's heart? Transplant?
I paused, as I realized something. In this world, it was entirely possible for metal to replace any limb. Furthermore, these mechanical prosthetics didn't need to be very high quality. It didn’t matter if the creator of a prosthetic limb knew how nerves mapped into each other, or perfectly replicated joints. If someone lost a ‘hand,’ and stuck a tree branch on their stump wrist, they would be able to move the tree branch as if it were a normal hand. The intricacy of the limb just changed the essence cost to use it. Could we do the same thing with the human heart?
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“Got it!” Felix immediately ran over to Old Mo and took his pulse, before he started rooting around in his backpack. “Get me an image of his heart and the surrounding blood vessels. I need to know where his arteries and veins are." I nodded, and started trying to use my spatial sight to map out Old Mo's arteries. It was hard work, but I sent all of the images I could get to Felix via friendship bracelet. As I worked, I turned towards Anise.
A few moments later, I took a dagger and cut under Old Mo’s ribcage, before opening a path to his heart. I also cut through a good chunk of his lungs, but those were still healing fine with my healing magic, so I wasn’t worried about them. Moments later, with Anise’s help, we removed Old Mo’s heart, while my healing magic kept the rest of his body from dying further.
Felix immediately grabbed Old Mo’s heart, and inspected it, before he grabbed a hunk of metal and closed his eyes. Shaping magic poured out of his fingers, slowly molding it into a replica of a human heart.
I had never been as glad that both of us were in the prosthetics team as I was right now. If Felix hadn't had so much practice doing this, it would have cost precious minutes. Minutes where my essence reserves wouldn't have been able to hold out.
Every second felt like an hour as I waited for Felix to finish. But as minutes ticked by, Felix managed to fashion a new metal heart. When he finished, he looked ready to pass out from exhaustion, but he handed it back to me with a grin.
“I got it. Put it in and try it,” he said.
Anise and I put Old Mo’s new heart into his body. Lining it up with his veins and arteries was difficult, but we needed everything to line up properly. I wasn't willing to bet on Binding Essence fixing every single problem for us. Even though I wanted to hurry, Anise and I still took our time lining everything up. Once it was set up, I used my healing magic to start rebuilding the rest of his flesh.
Once everything was rebuilt, I kept pouring healing magic into his body. Now that his new heart was in place, I waited and hoped that my shaky idea would work. I waited for one second. Two seconds. Five. Finally, after ten seconds, Old Mo’s new, artificial heart started to pump.
I laughed in delight, as my healing magic started to take hold of the other parts of his body and repair them. Within about two minutes, most of Old Mo’s body was back online. But I also started to realize that we hadn't solved everything. Most of his organs were working again... but his soul was still hanging by a thread. It didn't seem to be repairing itself, either. I frowned.
I... wasn't sure how to fix this yet. It came back to the same issue I'd had when healing my mother. The way souls and bodies connected was beyond me right now.
"Is he stable?" asked Felix.
"For now," I said. "I don't think I can do anything else right now. He won't die immediately." I checked my essence reserves, and tried not to wince.
During my freakout and healing session, I had burned almost all of my alteration essence. I didn't even have enough to kill a spider with an extinguish anymore. I was tapped out.
"Let's get him to Dr. Trish's clinic," I said, after a few seconds of thought. "I can't do anything else for him, and getting him with medical professionals is the best idea I have." Anise and Felix nodded, and the three of us started carrying him out of the bakery and towards the clinic.
It didn't take long to reach Dr. Trish's clinic, but when we arrived, it seemed empty and cold. There were still a few nurses and doctors buzzing about, but they seemed... harried. Stressed.
I didn't have the time or energy to inquire about what was happening. Old Mo came first. A few of the nurses who recognized me gave Old Mo concerned looks, and then helped me carry Old Mo to one of the rooms near the back of the clinic.
"What happened?" asked one of the nurses.
"His heart gave out. My healing ability didn't fix it," I said. "Felix made him an artificial heart, but... he's not waking up."
The nurse grimaced. "Sorry to hear that, Miria. Hopefully we can take care of him. I know you two are really close..."
I nodded as we finally got Old Mo into a room of his own. The two nurses helped me set him up on one of the beds, and then left to get Dr. Trish.
A minute later, Dr. Trish entered the room. But she looked like a complete mess. Dr. Trish usually took great care with her clothes. She did her best to present the image of a prim, well-mannered doctor. Now, her eyes looked red and weary, as if she hadn't slept in a day. Her shoulders were hunched together. It almost looked like she had been crying recently.
“Dr. Trish?” I asked. I was now suddenly far more worried. “What happened?”
“Miria. And Felix and Anise,” she said, shaking her head and shuddering. “Sorry, I…” she looked straight at me for a few seconds, as if she was thinking carefully about something. Then, she shook her head. “It’s Markus. The fort he mans is part of the front lines now. I'm just really worried about him. We've been getting a lot of soldiers from the front lines flown back here recently, and the clinic is really busy, and I...” She shook her head again. "Sorry. It won't impact anything. I'll make sure Old Mo has the best chance I can give him."
My heart froze, as my mind caught on her first statement. The fort Markus manned was no longer directly on the border. He was situated a few days behind the front lines. The fact that his fort was now under siege meant one thing.
The Worldstriders had breached the front lines of the country. I didn't know exactly how successful Damilius was at slowing down their approach, but one thing was certain. The worldstriders were getting closer. Unless something changed, the Worldstriders would reach us soon.