It turned out that in the short time I spent building a friendship with Ferzan, the doctor finally opened his door, allowing us to step inside.

The office wasn’t at all what I expected. I had assumed it would resemble a doctor’s office back on Earth.

Instead, there was a narrow corridor leading to a door, behind which a person waited.

Now, we were in the doctor’s room, sitting on a bench as he asked us questions.

“And the bread you found was from a table outside the Balash temple?” he asked, sitting on his red chair, tablet in hand, writing on the screen.

To spare the boring details, I explained everything about the bread and the situation surrounding it.

He asked if I had eaten the bread. I lied and said no.

I didn’t want him poking around my biology, trying to figure out why I wasn’t “affected.”

Huh. Now that I think about it, it’s strange that I wasn’t affected.

I had stomach pains, but once I applied my healing aura, it stopped almost immediately.

That doesn’t make sense. I had gotten Perstu before—a disease spread by sharkcrow feces. My body healed each time, but the condition worsened quickly until my immune system could kill off the disease.

So, it’s odd that my healing aura negated the mutation effect of the bread.

Maybe it was the reaction caused by the ether in the healing aura or the properties of the bread itself.

Or maybe I just didn’t get one of the bad batches.

Once the questioning ended, the doctor flicked his finger, summoning a monster—a giant brain the size of a rhino, with a single red “eye” in the center, likely non-functional due to its placement.

He said it was to analyze our bodies.

The doctor sat there, taking notes every few minutes. Sometimes, he would go a full ten minutes without writing anything down.

It took me a moment to realize what was going on.

Shared senses. He was seeing or sensing whatever the monster perceived from us.

He placed the tablet on the table, his face grim. “All of their cells are corrupted. The mutation is slow in their bodies, but not in their brains. I’ll do my best to maintain some sense of their former selves.”

“So, they can’t be fixed?” I asked.

“They will never be the same,” he replied.

My gut felt empty, like a sudden black hole had opened inside me, and a chill ran down my spine.

I crossed my fingers and asked, “But he’ll survive? The child?”

He raised an eyebrow, his confusion apparent. “Yes... your brother will survive.”

Natasha, who hadn’t shown any emotion, asked, “And how much will that cost?”

“To stop the mutation for twenty-four hours? Two silvers. I’m offering a fifty percent discount.”

We didn’t have enough for that.

Outside, Natasha and I stood in silence.

I asked her, “How is it going to be paid?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

Don’t worry about it?

Then she asked, “How would you feel if they died?”

“What?”

“Never mind. Ignore the question.”

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

“No. You can’t just ask that out of nowhere and say never mind. What do you mean by that? Why would you even ask that?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Oh for... Is the idea to just give up? That Punchio guy said he would help us. Sure, it’s embarrassing as hell to ask strangers for money, but he offered.”

“I don’t want to be in debt—”

“We can worry about that later.”

“Child... you’re getting too close to them.”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

She gestured to my left hand. “You know what I mean. I want you to not hate them, but I don’t want you getting too friendly with them.”

“You were okay with me interacting with Jer-kel and the others?”

“Is your memory short? You know why I agreed to that. The fact that you did it got us a lot of help.”

I stared at her. “I’m careful. Always.”

“No, you’re not always.”

“Forget that. What did you mean by your question? You went from wanting to save them, especially Caren, to now—” I threw my hands up in defeat. “That sucks. Too bad?”

“Of course not. I just wanted to know... how you would feel. That’s all. Asking it now was bad timing on my part. Sorry.”

“Well, how do you think I’d feel?”

“Very hurt.”

I took a few steps back while facing her. “Yeah. So I’m going to get in contact with Lu’jul. You’re welcome.”

Natasha turned away and walked back into the office.

What the hell is going on in that woman’s head?

Whatever.

Now to contact Lu’jul...

But there’s the issue of me not having a manual on all the system features.

'Contact Lu’jul.'

I wasn’t sure how I would be alerted that it worked.

'Can you hear me?'

One second. Two seconds. Three…

Lu’jul is not awake

Oh. You’ve got to be kidding me...

I tried again, but the response was the same. I waited five minutes, then tried again, repeating this for the next hour. The result never changed.

Fucking hell, Lu’jul, did you drink yourself to sleep after everything that happened today?

My fist tightened, and my toes curled and uncured with tension. I was so angry, I cussed under my breath, my mouth clenched shut.

Something my father used to do… I must’ve inherited it.

Tch. If Lu’jul isn’t available, I guess I’ll have to use other options. I just met Ferzan, so I don’t want to ask him for money. But if my first choice doesn’t work out, well, I’ll have to swallow my pride and ask someone I barely know for help.

I ran my fingers through my brown hair and exhaled sharply.

Bahmos.

He was on a call earlier, talking about a Vlandos quitting. Hopefully, he hadn't found a replacement yet.

But that means I need to reveal my identity—and worse, my seal. He’ll definitely want proof, and my seal’s not the usual white ‘M’. Mine’s a black spider.

I thought through the challenges:

Finding Bahmos.

Proving myself, without exposing the black spider.

Hmm… Maybe I don’t have to show the seal. There are other ways to prove I’m a Vlandos—superhuman.

I began moving, looking for him, but I had no idea where he might be. The city was so vast, covering all the ground would be impossible in a day or two.

I asked random people if they’d seen him, describing his appearance. Every time, I got a no.

Where would someone like him go? I wondered. I’d guess shady business, but with the deaths of those three, he’s probably shaken up. He might not head straight for his usual goal.

So, where would someone go if they were stressed about the deaths of those close to them?

To family, maybe? Or to a house of relief. But being in a city meant there were a lot of houses of relief.

Fuck.

I ended up just walking around, scanning every man’s face, asking if they had seen him.

Eventually, I stumbled upon a house of relief—a long, yellow building with double doors wide open for anyone to walk in or out. And there, standing in front of it, was Bahmos. He was lost in thought, like he was waiting for a long-lost daughter to suddenly appear.

I walked up beside him and said, “You’re not going in?”

Inside, it looked like a church with benches, but that didn’t seem to matter to him.

He looked at me, unbothered. “What are you doing here?”

“Something important. I want to discuss it with you in private.”

“You lost?”

“No. It’s about your job. You need a Vlandos. I know one.”

“Who told you that?”

“I heard you on the phone.”

“When?”

“When we were traveling on your lizard.”

“Oh.” He barely reacted.

“Don’t you need a Vlandos?”

“What’s that got to do with you? Why do you care?”

“You helped my family a lot. If it weren’t for you, my brother and father would be dead.” I worked hard to sound emotional but not too much. Too much would be suspicious.

“That’s something else.”

I wanted to pressure him into moving faster, but that would be insensitive. I didn’t care about him, but I was the one asking for something. He didn’t know that yet.

I said nothing and just stood there, my impatience eating away at me, though I kept a calm exterior.

People came and went.

Bahmos broke the silence and randomly asked, “How are you holding up?”

“Um… Okay, mostly.”

“You’re tough. Tougher than me.”

“I’m sure my family will survive, so I’m not too worried.”

Obviously, that’s a lie.

“I was thinking about what you saw back at that village.”

“Oh?”

“When I first saw something like that, I couldn’t sleep by myself for days. Didn’t leave my brother’s side until he forced me to come here.”

“Why didn’t you just get your memory wiped?”

“Bad experiences desensitize you to future bad ones.”

“And someone like you needs to be very desensitized.”

“Got that right.”

“So, are you going to go inside or not?”

“I don’t think I have time. This Vlandos—take me to them.”

----------------------------------------

“… Is this some joke?” Bahmos asked me.

We were behind a cheap restaurant.

I had told him I was the Vlandos, and as you can imagine, he didn’t take it well, thinking I was joking.

He shook his head, angry, then turned to walk away.

I grabbed his hand. “I’m not lying.”

He tried to jerk his hand away, but it didn’t budge.

He was confused and tried again.

“What the hell…” he muttered.

I asked, “Do you still think I’m just a regular child?”