"Tonight on Crabemax... See the sordid conclusion to the Confession trilogy..."

"I have the expenditure reports right here ma'am."

"Well why don't you place it in my... inbox..."

"I think I will... tonight. Oh no, I seem to have misplaced the report. It might be in my... ring. Let me just dump the contents to look for it."

"Is that a seashell in your spatial ring, or are you just happy to see me?"

"Always happy to see you ma'am. You should be able to tell with how... hard... my shell is."

...

"I can see that."

--Crab Confessions, Crabemax After Dark. AC 1750.

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

"I'm sorry dear, I'll need you to explain that part in more detail."

I pause, momentarily off put by the request. I try to tell her, but every time I try to place what happened into words, I'm momentarily side tracked. My mind seems to be scuttling away from the experience. I take a deep breathe of water and order my thoughts. Finally, I manage to give her the bare bones of the situation.

Nurse Joy looks at me over her clipboard. Her kind eyes seem to sympathize as I finish my story. She reaches over and gently pats my claw with a flipper. She says,

"There, there dear. I know that must have been hard for you. Both then and now. Just lie there and relax while I perform some diagnostic skills okay? Don't move, and don't worry, they won't hurt."

She moves her flippers in the water and her black eyes glow with a small light. She looks at me for long moments before apparently trying another skill, her eyes flashing to another hue. Slowly, then with increasing speed, her eyes flash to different colors. She seems to frown a bit as she says,

"It seems there's nothing physically wrong with you. I'm going to recommend you to a specialist."

She looks down at her clipboard and a stylus appears floating in the water. The stylus makes changes on the board as I lie there. I'm starting to feel much better now, almost fully recovered in fact and I say,

"Can I just get back to training ma'am? I don't want to be away too long."

The manatee looks up from her clipboard and says, "Oh no! We couldn't have that. The kind of pain and debilitation you experienced is something that needs to be treated properly. No, I'm sending you to one of the best practictioners of underwater medicine we have. He's an expert on sea creatures and he should be able to fix you right up!"

I nod, trying to remain hopefully optimistic. Nurse Joy seems to pause for a moment, considering, before saying,

"With your experiences, I feel I should warn you. His appearance is a bit... unusual. And he may seem... off putting to some. That being said, he really is one of the best. He's been working for us for almost five hundred years. An impressive feat for someone originally from Lenoria."

The last part of her sentence grabs my attention. I try to straighten up, only for the shooting pain to return. I lay back down and say, "He's... from Lenoria?"

She waves a flipper, a frown crossing her face at my pained motion. "Continue lying down." She then continues, "And yes, he is... he was once... well you'll see. Like I said, he's an expert."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

I let her vague commentary pass as she moved out of the room. A brief pulse of mana and my stretcher follows her, out into the hall. I let my worries and thoughts subside, just focusing on recovering. I want to be at my best when I meet this guy, I need to get back to training.

Minutes pass and we stop in front of another door. Nurse Joy slaps a buzzer with her flipper and then opens the door. As I follow her in the manatee calls out, "Doctor Benselsik? I have a new patient for you! Are you here?"

I struggle to sit up as someone swims in.

My mind instantly struggles to reconcile what I see before me. It didn't have the inherent wrongness that a corrupted does, but it certainly isn't right either. He must have been a human once, as I could see some small resemblance. But now? Now, his arms and legs end in tentacles, writhing slowly in the water. On his back, I glimpse a long swordfish fin running down his spine. It appears to be designed to cut through the water.

He was bald, completely shaved, and his eyes were multifaceted, glimmering with a crazed air. He smiles at me, opening his mouth and I see rows of shark teeth. On the sides of his neck, gills pump water into whatever served as his lungs. He was almost an abomination, and whatever else he was...

He scared the Wisdom out of me.

"Hi! I'm Doctor Benselsik! Just give me a moment and I'll be right with you!"

He confers with Nurse Joy in the corner, glancing over her clipboard as she goes over my case. She seems to be halfway through the telling when he suddenly jerks up, his eyes literally glowing in the water. Suddenly he speaks, his voice gurgling in the water with a deep tone. He yells, "I HAVE AN IDEA!!"

Nurse Joy frantically waves her flippers, trying to get his attention. She said, "Doctor, no! No ideas! He's new!"

He glides past her, seeming to ignore her protests on his way to me. He arrives next to my stretcher and we stare at each other for a moment. Looking down at me with his glowing eyes, his smile is frozen into an almost permanent grin. I shudder. He leans forward, in almost a whisper asking me,

"Would you like to have hydra blood?"

Whatever I thought he was going to say, I certainly didn't expect him to say that. I don't even know how to respond. Would I like hydra blood? What would that even do? Behind him, I see Nurse Joy frantically crossing her flippers in an X over and over again. She seems nice so far, but she also said he was an expert. I cautiously ask him,

"What... what would that do?"

Doctor Benselsik stands up from his leaning position and says, "Hydra blood would almost triple your natural regeneration. I think I can keep you alive long enough to make the transition without having to take any extreme measures."

I nod along with his first sentence, until I parse the meaning of the second. I say,

"Alive... long enough?"

He glances at me and continues, "I estimate with your crustacean physiology and low level, you have a ten percent survival chance. Excellent odds I might add!" He leans once more over the bed, whispering to me,

"Believe me, I've beaten worse odds myself. When I replaced my internal digestion with a sea cucumbers, some people asked me, "Why would you want to eat by vomiting your intestines?" and I merely laughed at them. Who wouldn't want a lifetime faster digestion increase of five percent? It was a worthwhile trade. Want to see?"

Not waiting for my response, he opens his mouth wider, and I see his jaw unhinge like a snake. I can see down his throat as a white squirmy mass emerges from his stomach, writhing in the back of his mouth. It was getting closer until Nurse Joy swam over and whacks him upside the head with her flipper. His jaw snaps closed and he looks at her in annoyance. Nurse Joy says,

"No experimenting on the new recruits! It's in the regulations!"

Rubbing the back of his head with a tentacle, I hear him muttering,

"Regulations this... recruits that..." He warily eyes the manatee before continuing to read my chart. He continues muttering, "How am I expected to get any SCIENCE done with all these restrictions?"

Apparently Nurse Joy heard that one because she butted in, "By getting informed consent! That's how!"

I nod, sparing a thankful glance towards the nurse. Informed consent sounds good. The Doctor finishes reading my tablet before saying,

"From what you've said, and what the Nurse has described, it looks like you incurred a soul injury somehow." He seems to slowly grow disinterested, as the glow fades from his eyes. With almost a near monotone he says, "I'm going to refer him to an expert. I don't deal with those."

Whew, I think I dodged one there. I look at Nurse Joy and she's almost frozen in the water. She asks the doctor in a quiet voice, "You're sending him to... her?"

He nods, already moving out of the room. The Doctor tells the nurse, "Advise him of proper precautions, I have experiments to run." As he's leaving he pauses, then turns back to the two of us. He seems to struggle with something, as if figuring out the words to say. He finally ends with, "Good Luck crab," and leaves.

I gulp.

If the crazy doctor is nervous, then what am I getting myself in for?

Nurse joy leaves once more, pulling me along. Soon, we're in the corridor and we're moving through the complex. She says, "now remember, I can't follow you in there. You have to deal with her yourself."

By this time we're in a stairwell, descending further down. We pass ten flights of stairs and we're still going lower. Nurse Joy continues,

"She's under contract with the Army, but still incredibly dangerous. Above all, there's only one thing to remember..."

We finally reach the bottom of the stairs. I idly note that it's been almost fifteen floors and we're now at the very bottom. Light from above barely makes it down here and I shiver, cooled by a sudden current. A flipper touches my claw and I look to see the manatee looking at me with a worried expression. She says,

"Pay attention, there's only one thing to remember... Don't make any deals."

I nod, confused at what she's said. Taking my motion as assent that I understand, she opens the door in front of me. The dim light ends at the doorway, and I'm staring into a black room, almost completely blind. The nurse whispers, "good luck," and pushes me through the entrance.