One note on the desk immediately caught my attention.

Date: 25/10/1127

Location: Akh’ret’s Mercy Hospital, Ror-Bhyk area

Reporting Officer: Sergeant Drev Gend, 273rd Royal Infantry Division

There was a mutiny among the men and Lieutenant Kishin was executed in his office. I’ve rallied the few loyalists, we took whatever ammo we could find and stashed it in the Nurse’s Station in the Burn Ward. If push comes to shove we can blow them and us up. I’ve lost track of Vaan Lohren. His being the last doctor in this place makes this a major issue. Hafnr says he saw him heading into the west wing when the fighting broke out. We need to break him out of there, both for our sake and his. I’m leaving Corporal Yavir and Privates Hafnr and Qart to keep watch over our stockpile.

On the morale: The hallucinations are getting worse. Some of the men are getting convinced that those aren’t just hallucinations. It’s becoming difficult to maintain morale. More than once, we’ve had to restrain someone who wanted to go to one of the restricted areas. I hope relief comes soon.

I immediately started looking for one with some more updates. There was one report from Private Hafnr.

Date: 26/10/1127

Location: Akh’ret’s Mercy

Reporting Officer: Private Hafnr

Sergeant Gend and his team haven't returned since yesterday. I am starting to think the rebels were right to break the radios. Most of the time the only thing we hear is static. Then… her voice comes.

Relief will never come. If Sarge doesn't come back in a few hours we will try to make a break for it. Gods help us.

She comes.

Into the ledger these went. I had no idea whether those would ever be useful again, but something told me it wouldn't hurt to keep them.

When we started to pack up, Aki asked:

‘Can we take this thing?’ she pointed at the LMG, her tail in a playful question mark position.

‘If you want to carry it, why not?’ I shrugged.

Caei and I were already fully loaded. So was Aki between her swords, pistol and the Storm she ended up carrying.

‘I can summon the disk,’ Caei said. We probably could put all the heavier stuff on it.’

‘That’s a… a good idea, actually,’ I concurred. ‘Won’t mana be a problem though?’

‘It shouldn't be. We’ve found five mana potions - three normal ones and two greaters, so I should be good for a while.’

I nodded. Then something hit me…

‘As much as I adore the idea of us having this thing, I don’t think it will be practical in our situation.’

‘How come?’ Aki asked, a bit apprehensive.

‘Those things are very difficult to handle,’ I explained. ‘I saw you weren't having a good time picking it up.’

She nodded. I approached the gun and picked it up.

‘Oh, sweet Jesus,’ I muttered, feeling its weight.

While I was in much better shape than ever before, carrying a metal object of this size and weight wasn’t easy. I extended the bipod, nearly dropping the gun due to having to hold it in one hand for a moment and set it up on one of the crates.

‘Now do this during combat,’ I panted.

Aki looked absolutely dejected, but she nodded.

Then, I continued.

‘Those things are also incredibly difficult to maintain. Barrels wear out quickly, so you need to replace them quite often. Ammo weighs a fuckton. And well… once you set it up somewhere, you are stuck there with it.’

‘Oh…’ she muttered.

Hating the fact that she looked as if I had just killed her puppy in front of her, I suggested.

‘We can still take it. If we ever have to defend some point, or kill something that is slow or can't move then this thing will be very useful.’

‘THANK YOU.’ Aki shouted and hugged me.

‘You ended up giving her what she wanted,’ Caei whispered as we loaded the thing on her disk.

‘I tempered her expectations,’ I answered quietly. ‘That and I felt like a complete monster for crushing her dreams.’

Caei laughed.

‘Apparently, you are not the only one here who likes big guns.’

‘So you are the odd one out?’

‘I never said I didn't like them, did I?’

She winked at me, which made me feel really tempted to test that shapeshifting ability of mine at some point.

‘You are getting blue again, Lilyth,’ Caei giggled.

Fuck.

Apparently, Sergeant Gend’s team, or whoever killed them, stripped this floor of anything useful. We discovered another exit from the building, though it was barricaded with broken furniture. We didn't feel like dismantling it, especially after we noticed the faint green glow of another sigil behind the barrier. As we moved away from the blocked door, I heard the distant scratching, again. It was fainter than before and seemed to be coming from somewhere towards the West Wing.

‘Hearing things again?’ Aki asked.

‘Maybe,’ I conceded. ‘I have no idea whether this is my hearing, the hallucinations people here were experiencing or just space madness. At any rate, so long as nothing jumps out to eat our faces, I don’t think there is anything to worry about. That being said, the scratches seem to be coming from the direction of the West Wing. You know… the one with the big monster.’

‘I suggest then that we don't investigate this,’ Aki laughed weakly.

‘And I think that's an excellent suggestion,’ Caei seconded her.

I wanted to make a joke about me going there, but I stopped myself. Wouldn't be smart.

Unfortunately, we couldn't explore the other floors of the ward as the staircase had collapsed. By the look of it, someone blew it up for whatever reason. There were also elevators there, but those were non-functional due to lack of power. The list of floors did raise some questions for me though.

B1: Generator Room

GF: Burn Ward

F1: Cardiology

F2: Pulmonology

F3: Gastrology

‘Sooo… Caei…,’ I began as we started heading back to the main building. ‘Explain something to me. There is healing magic. There are healing potions. Why did a hospital need to exist?’

I would need to recheck Vaan Lohren’s ledger, but those were rarely used.

‘There are a lot of factors,’ she answered. ‘For one, you haven't seen a lot of Dwynveia, so your perspective may be skewed, but let me assure you - actual mages are rare. Most people who use magic do so by using abilities, and believe me not a lot of people get access to these. Then you get people like you or Aki - those who learned some spells by chance. That's even a more select group. Of those, only a few dedicate themselves to the full pursuit of magic.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

‘Ah,’ I simply said, understanding dawning on me. ‘And let me guess - Life Arcana is not exactly popular?’

Caei nodded sadly.

‘I imagine in the days of the Vandarian Empire they did have a magical academy or two that would teach it. But those days as you can see are long gone.’

‘Can’t people learn healing magic from runes?’ Aki asked.

Caei laughed bitterly.

‘Yes. But that costs perk points. And healing spells are very hard to use right. Even the simple one I have needed me to reach level thirty in Life Arcana to use.’

Thirty.

Aki was looking at her wide-eyed.

‘It’s pretty advanced magic. Far more advanced than the Fist of Wind that the stormhair over there keeps throwing around. What’s your level in Air Arcana anyway?’

‘Almost five,’ I said, realising I was probably walking in a trap.

Caeileera furrowed her brow.

‘And that's after your latest bullshit…’

I could see gears turning in Caeileera's head.

‘How the fuck were you able to use it as much as you did? You can't be at the required level for it.’

I checked.

Spell: Fist of Wind

Type: Elemental - Air - Attack

Level: 3 (51% progress to level 11)

Description: Imbues caster’s chosen fist with the elemental power of Wind. Striking a target with it unleashes a devastating torrent of wind. Causes knockback.

Casting time: 2 seconds

Note 1: Insufficient knowledge of Air Arcana

Note 2: Currently unavailable

I was, in fact, not at a high enough level. And that “Currently unavailable” hurt more than I expected it did. I liked that spell. I really did.

‘Makes sense,’ Caei said after I shared the spell with her. ‘It looks to be at least a level ten if not twenty spell. View Arcana levels as “how good your connection with the source of magic is and how well-versed you are in using it”.’

Finally! An explanation!

‘Then the goddess of Air being my patron and me being well…’

I pointed at my hair and eyes.

‘Right. Probably makes up for the difference. Anyway, learning healing magic is a difficult path. And if situations you can… you need to know what you have to fix. Healing Potions are good for wounds. They will not heal a disease. And likewise, if someone's issue is caused by internal damage, but has symptoms like a disease, using anti-sickness spells will not work.’

‘Makes sense. If someone has a helicobacter pylori infection, healing the ulcer only solves a small part of the problem.’

‘A what?’ Aki asked.

‘Ulcers are caused by a disease?’ Caei added.

Well… fuck.

We got back to the Doctors' offices. It was finally time for me to go over through the documents there. Caei and Aki fully accepted that. They realised that we needed as much information as we could get given the general fuckery going on around. That and we at this stage were curious about what the fuck happened here. My first destination was the dead thrall from Vaan Lohren’s office. There was some sort of an ID on it, but it was most illegible. The letters that were visible though didn’t seem to match “Hakon Vaan Lohren”. I had Aki and Caei check to ensure the translator wasn’t borking out again. It wasn’t. So Vaan Lohren’s corpse was possibly somewhere in the West Wing. I did find something interesting though. Apparently, Vaan Lohren started using one of the hospital paper pads as a diary.

Staff Notice - 15/10/1137

From: Hakon Vaan Lohren

Administrator Zi Lind has been acting more erratically lately. Just yesterday, she was looking for Brind, despite the fact Cel died three weeks ago when the field hospital he was delegated to was hit by a mortar. Lieutenant Kishin has issued a standing order to all personnel that all orders from the administrator need to be run by him first.

Staff Notice - 22/10/1137

From: Hakon Vaan Lohren

The Administrator was not seen in a few days. Her office is locked. Sergeant Gend tried to break in to ensure nothing bad had happened, but the door seemed impregnable to damage. Even bullets and bolts from The Storm did nothing. Kishin said he can only spare one man to guard the door “just in case”.

The reports of hallucinations have been getting worse since Teliar went missing. I am getting worried. And something keeps calling me to the West Wing.

This told us we could probably skip going through Brind’s office. The office opposite Vaan Lohren’s belonged to Doctor Kaifa. And hey… for once I thought we found the owner. What was left of them, anyhow. There was a humanoid-shaped patch of liquid rot on the floor before the desk. The figure was badly contorted, as if it was in great pain before it died, and was short, maybe a metre and a half tall, and stocky.

‘A dwarf?’ I asked.

‘Most likely,’ Aki said with a slightly shaky voice.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes opened in the rough area where they should be on the figure's head and looked at us and we heard a weak female voice say:

‘H-help me…’

Then its voice got stronger and distorted and shouted:

‘She is here! She is here!’

The woman broke out in a mad laughter.

We looked at each other, slowly backed out of the room, and closed the door behind us.

‘This never happened,’ I said, to my companions’ eager approval.

There were six more offices on the floor. Only the one belonging to a doctor named Zi Jaler contained something useful - their journal.

12/10/1137

Today, when I was doing my rounds in the Mental Ward, one of the patients started shouting something about a woman standing at his bed at night. I’ve spoken to the nurses having their shift there - none of them had to visit his room that night. When asked what the woman looked like, the man stated only that she was wearing robes with a cowl concealing her face.

I’ve prescribed him a higher dose of sleeping meds and asked Gerrick to run another psych eval on the patient to ensure his issues didn’t get worse.

13/10/1137

We’ve received news today that Laenjin… that is Doctor Caiver has died today after the truck carrying him came under enemy fire. Teliar said we would have a memorial for him tomorrow. She hasn’t been herself lately too, I’ve heard her laugh and cry at random. I think the stress of the war and losing so many of our colleagues might be getting to her.

The impact of the news and the story from yesterday must have impacted my imagination as I could swear I heard footsteps coming from an empty corridor.

14/10/1137

Gerrick is dead. The man who experienced the hallucinations attacked him and broke his neck. One of Kishin’s brutes then shot the patient “in the interest of security”.

Brunvar’s husband also died today. He stepped on a landmine. She has locked herself in her office and just keeps crying. Hakon is delivering her meals as his office is opposite hers.

Teliar was seen wandering naked around the East Wing. When Sergeant Gend intercepted her she broke out of some daze and remembered nothing.

I keep hearing distant footsteps. But when I investigate them, there is nothing there. Others keep reporting the same thing. Sometimes they also mention scratching sounds, or a woman whispering.

Let this nightmare be over.

16/10/1137

There was a woman standing over me when I was trying to get some sleep at night. I can swear it.

17/10/1137

Brunvar has stopped accepting her meals. Hakon is getting worried but keeps leaving them in front of her door. The whispers are getting worse.

19/10/1137

I haven’t seen a meal plate in front of Brunvar’s office today. When I asked Hakon about it, he seemed to have forgotten who she was. He suddenly recalled it when I pointed the door to him, but she immediately faded from his memory the moment his gaze left the door. I find myself forgetting about her too. It’s only thanks to this journal that I am able to keep my thoughts about her straight.

The next few entries focused on more and more people experiencing the hallucinations and Zi Jaler’s increasing memory problems. The journal ended with:

23/10/1137

She is here. She is standing behind me.

There was a streak of something black beneath that entry.

With serious trepidation, we’ve decided it was time to visit the office of the Administrator. Well… it was that or the morgue. And the latter option was even LESS appealing. We ascended the steps feeling we were headed to our deaths.

‘Maybe the door will still be locked?’ Aki said with hope in her voice.

‘I don’t think we are this lucky,’ Caei laughed bitterly.

Whatever could be said about Teliar Zi Lind, and we didn’t know much about her other than her catching a mild case of “bonkers”, the woman definitely liked luxury. The waiting room in front of her office was exquisite. Well… at least in the past. Marble floors, columns, a plush couch and some armchairs - all heavily damaged and partially rotten. I had no idea how that was possible with fucking marble, but we made sure not to step on those particular spots. We also got a good look at the administrator as a portrait of an elven woman was hanging on one of the walls, and the armchairs were positioned in such a way you had to look at it.

‘She wasn’t a vain bitch, wasn’t she?’ Caei asked absentmindedly.

Assuming this wasn’t artistic licence, Administrator Zi Lind was quite a looker. Short brown hair, peach-coloured skin, large green eyes, a straight nose, dimples and an exquisite pair of pointy ears.

Alas, Caei was right. We weren’t lucky. The wooden double doors leading to the administrator’s office were slightly ajar.

Fuck.

Readying our weapons we approached it and I nudged them open with the barrel of my shotgun. Once again the administrator’s taste has shown itself here: a dark marble desk, a golden chandelier, a row of dark wooden bookshelves filled with books on one of the side walls, the other just covered in trophies, awards and diplomas and a large window behind the desk. The floor was covered in something that once was an expensive-looking red carpet, in the middle of which was a large circle of rot with five sickle-like spiral arms extending from out of it. I want to say I didn’t expect something like this to be here, but it would be a fucking lie. What DID come as a surprise was a pair of long black semi-liquid skeletal arms that shot out of the centre of that floor ornament the moment we entered the room. They grabbed the edges of the spiral and out of the puddle came a large quadrupedal skeletal creature. Its hind limbs were digitigrade and its head looked disturbingly hominid.

Oh, fucking hell.