Consequences.

The word has never tasted so bitter in my mouth. I grip the edge of the scrying table so hard that the glass creaks under my grip. Even with an unbreakable imbuement, the [Mage] half of my Class churns my mana and empowers my right hand with super-human strength.

No one speaks. Shock renders them mute. Then, all at once, movement breaks out.

Melina swoons, her eyes rolling up, and only quick movement from her sister Avelina saves her from collapsing to the ground. Mikko guides her to a seat next to Lionel’s bedside, and she soon seems to recover her senses, although her eyes have a glassy, far-off look. She’s shaking hard, and I’ve never seen her seem so disturbed. She’s way too hardy for the blood to bother her, so what’s going on? And why aren’t Mikko and Avelina affected when Rakesh looks similarly ashen?

The [Researcher]’s fingers are trembling, and he’s swaying on his feet. Most worrying of all, he’s let go of his notebook, dropping it on the floor. For once, he hardly seems aware that he’s not holding his book. He doesn’t even reach for it despite witnessing an incredible burst of power from testing an artifact he helped create. Something is terribly wrong, and I suspect it has to do with watching the runic arrays as they activated. Did the mana surge damage their minds?

Help comes from an unexpected quarter. “Pull my teacher up here on the bed before he bleeds out,” a feeble voice croaks. As soft as the words are, there’s an inexorable command in the tone that makes my friends listen.

“Lionel!” I scream into the paper bird that Rakesh left behind for me. “You’re awake!”

“Nuri? Where are you?” Lionel asks, looking around in bewilderment. He still seems too weak to sit up, but thankfully Rakesh dropped the bird right next to his pillow, so he can hear me clearly.

“Watching from the Orpheus.”

Lionel’s face falls. “Oh.”

“I wish I could be there, but I got kicked out,” I admit sheepishly.

“And arrested,” Avelina pipes up.

Lionel blinks rapidly. He opens his mouth to ask a question, then turns his full attention toward Mender Uttara as Mikko drags him up onto the hospital bed next to Lionel.

“Seems like I missed a lot. We’ll catch up. Later,” Lionel says. He reaches for his mentor, placing a hand on the Mender’s shoulder, and closes his eyes. Teeth gritted in concentration, he sends healing magic into Mender Uttara, stemming the blood seeping from the Mender’s eyes and nose.

After far too brief a moment, Lionel’s strength gives out. He coughs weakly and slumps back against his sheets, too spent to continue. His eyes flutter closed.

“Lio! Stay with us!” I yell.

He can’t hear me through the link. He doesn’t respond. Panic rises up like bile within me, but my friends are quick to check his pulse and give me a reassuring hand sign.

Melina picks up the paper bird, cupping it in her hand. “Relax, Nuri. His breathing is calm and even, if a bit slow. I’m not seeing any evidence of deterioration. He’s simply worn out after healing Mender Uttara.”

“Hm. Both of our healers are out of commission, just when we need them,” Mikko says, shaking his head.

“No wonder the bodyguards were arguing against the [Headmistress] using the Azure Rod so many times in a row,” I mutter, staring at Mender Uttara with equal measures pity and admiration. He activated an unknown enchantment on the off-chance it would heal his student. That takes courage.

It’s also stupid. I cough at that stray thought. I might be a bad influence, come to think of it. Always charging ahead without concern for the consequences. Look where that got us.

Mikko scoops up Mender Uttara’s still-unconscious form. “We should probably get him to another [Healer]. I’ll go find a Mender who can help.”

Avelina’s eyes go wide. She slides in front of him, barring his way to the door. “We can’t! They’ll wonder how he got like this. We have to keep things secret.”

“Then he dies,” Mikko replies, his voice hoarse with emotion. His simple proclamation makes the rest of the team freeze in place as surely as if they’ve been caught in one of Melina’s temporal bubbles.

“I can’t believe that,” Avelina whispers. She takes a breath, and her mouth opens and closes twice, but no words come out. I wonder if she’s discarding new lines of thought before even giving them voice. Finally, she throws up her hands and steps out of the way.

“I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Mikko smiles sadly. “Believe it. Without further help, he’s going to die. And it will be our fault. We can’t hide from consequences forever.”

“There might be another way,” Melina says. She paces in the narrow confines of the room with one hand clasped on her notebook. She and Rakesh no longer seem to be shaking, although her eyes look bloodshot and haunted. She definitely saw something strange.

“What are you thinking, Mel?” I ask, trying to project my voice through the paper bird so that the entire team can hear me.

She flips the pages of her book with her free hand, looking for a specific entry. “Ah! Here. Our notes on how mundane medical care stabilized Lionel. If it worked for his grievous wounds, then why not for Mender Uttara? We’re so caught up in magical artifacts and runes lately that we haven’t been paying attention to simple solutions.”

Avelina brightens a bit now that there’s a task at hand. “Oh, yeah! There’s gauze and ointment in the cupboard underneath the desk. I helped change a few of Lionel’s bandages, so I’ll start wrapping up the worst of the injuries.”

Mikko relents, laying Mender Uttara down at the foot of the bed. He helps Avelina with a folded package of clean linens and bandages that she produces from the cabinet, and together they bind up his wounds.

“Will that be enough?” I ask.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Not likely. I’ll also give him some medicinal tea,” Avelina offers. “One of the assistant Menders showed me how to prepare the herbs the other day. It improves blood circulation and promotes mana regeneration. That should help accelerate his natural healing.”

I nod, then remember they can’t see me. I clear my throat. “It’s a good start, but I’m not sure it’s fast enough. Do you think you can use the rod to heal him? I don’t want anyone else to take the hit.”

“Maybe. We’ll still need another [Healer] to activate the rod,” Melina points out.

Avelina snorts. “Let’s make [Lady] Saphora do it. Only fair she fixes her problems.”

Her sister looks eminently unamused, but I catch Mikko mirroring the smirk on my own face. Humor helps in the middle of tense situations.

“What if you only use some of the runes, without the full activation?” I suggest.

“Nuri, you’re the one with the most practice. I’m a [Researcher]. Theory is my area of expertise,” Rakesh says, grimacing as he admits his drawbacks.

“You know the most,” I agree. “But Melina is my choice for this one. She has the best mana control of the group.”

“You flatter me,” Melina mutters, but I don’t miss the way the tips of her ears take on a pink tinge. She’s clearly pleased with my compliment.

“You got this, Mel. Feed a little mana into the runes related to vitality and we should be able to restore him to good health.”

Mikko claps his hands together, interrupting our conversation and sending a concussive wave of sound through the transmission. I wince at the sudden spike in volume, but focus on what my brother says. “Not a chance I’m letting anyone else activate those runes without more understanding of what we’re doing. That’s reckless, Nuri!”

Anger wells up at his rebuke. Who does my brother think he is? I’m not a child! I take a breath, about to lash out, but the red-hot surge of emotion abruptly bleeds away as I realize he’s right. Didn’t I come to the same conclusion that I’m too hasty just moments earlier? My mouth snaps shut before I say anything I regret, and I slump forward, leaning on the table-like surface of the scrying golem.

When I’m calmer, I remind myself to speak in measured tones. “You’re right, Mikko. We need to take things more slowly. I’m sorry. I got carried away.”

“I forgive you, bro,” Mikko says gently. “Just remember we’re all on the same side. We all want to fix things.”

“I know,” I whisper.

Mikko rubs the back of his neck. “I, uh, I think I might have an idea to try next.”

“Oh? Share!”

Mikko clasps his hands together behind him, rocking on his ankles as he shyly explains his epiphany. “Remember the bodyguards were concerned for the [Headmistress] because she was healing at the cost of her own vitality? What if we spread out the cost so we’re all paying part of it instead of one person nearly dying?”

“That’s brilliant,” Rakesh says, smiling for the first time since Mender Uttara activated the enchantments and nearly killed himself.

“Told you he’s the smarter brother,” Avelina puts in. She pats Mikko on the arm. A soft, dreamy smile slowly spreads across her face.

“I have the most strength,” Mikko says with a grim set to his face. “I’ll take the brunt of it.”

“What happened to not shouldering the entire load?” Avelina says, flicking his forehead.

“Obviously, we’ll share,” he sputters. “I just don’t think we need to share equally!”

“Wait!” I call into the paired paper bird on my side as new avenues of thought open up before me. I want to intervene before they get into an argument. “I’ve got an idea.”

Rakesh startles at my shout, glancing over at the bird on the bed. He smacks his elbow on the bed frame in the process of turning, eliciting a growl of pain and irritation. “This better be good, Nuri.”

Words pour out in a jumble as I try to capture the concepts coalescing in my mind. “I have an idea to fix the rod. Or, at least, part of it. A way to reinforce it, at least. Ugh! We should have done it together from the beginning. I shouldn’t have been in such a rush. This is my fault for not accepting Ava’s help. I keep trying to do everything myself—just like the [Headmistress], ironically—and it keeps backfiring on me.”

“You’re rambling, bro.”

I cough. My face flushes with heat, and I’m once again glad that the image transmission is only one way so that they can’t see my embarrassment. “Got me there, Mikko.”

He chuckles. “Still listening, Nuri.”

“Ava can help me prepare an upgraded version of the healing artifact. We’ll fix this.”

“What can I do?” Avelina asks. “I don’t know runes like my sister does.”

“No, but you’re the best flameworker we have, and you’ve got an eye for beauty,” I say. “My thought is that we create multiple layers to the rod. We’ll make it hollow, initially, to leave room for smaller versions on the inside. Each one can be attuned to a different member of the team, so we can share the load like Mikko suggested. Amplifiers throughout should help with efficiency, too. I need your delicate glass skills to connect the layers. Oh, and [Strong as Stone], since they’ll be so thin and fragile otherwise.”

“That might work,” Avelina says, grinning as she realizes that I genuinely want her input to create the next iteration of the rod. “Prepare a batch of glass for me, Nuri. I’m on my way!”

“Hang on. I approve of your enthusiasm, but I’m not sure if we have to share the load at all,” Rakesh says. He’s fiddling with the cover of his notebook as he speaks, without actually reading the contents, which is usually a sign that he’s not as confident as he may sound.

Melina looks up from her own notebook. “Oh? You have an alternative?”

Rakesh gives a curt nod in reply. “The rod is a massive amplifier, but it could be modified to pull from a non-living entity. What if we used a healing potion as the fuel? Then no one has to bear the burden at all.”

“Healing will kill Lio!” I protest.

“But not Utarra,” Melina fairly yells, her volume rising in tandem with her sudden burst of excitement as she catches the vision. “He has no restrictions on healing Skills. We don’t have to worry about the drawbacks. We can modify the rod, heal Uttara, and then fix the runic arrays to share between all of us.”

“Clever as always,” Mikko says, giving Rakesh a gesture of approval.

He beams at the praise, puffing out his chest and practically strutting across the room as he continues speaking. “Healing potions aren’t common, but they’re still more readily accessible than the miracle potions. Although they’re less potent, we ought to be able to use a lower-cost option instead of beggaring ourselves for the miracle variety. I’ll see how many I can requisition.”

Hope surges through everyone like a bolt of lightning leaping between earth and heaven. I feel terrible crushing their dreams, but I clear my throat and speak up before anyone gets too carried away. “Don’t forget that their use is limited, even among the Menders. They’re going to wonder why we need one if we ask. We’re better off sourcing what we need from the Orpheus.”

“Too bad you can’t bring us any. Getting in trouble and losing access to the Menders is a pain, even if your plan worked out in general,” Mikko grumbles.

“An unfortunate side effect,” I say wryly. “Ava is coming over anyway. She can get them.”

“I’ll go, too,” Melina volunteers. “I’ll need to review the runes anyway if you expect me to use the modified rod as an amplifier for healing. Drawing from the healing potions might work, but it will take some adjusting to get it right. Ask Ozana to get us a few healing potions while I look over the runes and Ava helps with the rod.”

“I’m afraid we don’t have time to fiddle around with runes,” Rakesh says. His eyes gain a far-off look that makes me nervous. What is he thinking?

He’s scowling in fierce concentration, but he sits on the edge of the bed between the two comatose patients, leaning against the closest cream-colored wall for support. “This calls for drastic measures. Go on ahead. I’ll figure out the runes while you walk. Mikko, catch me if I fall, will you?”

Without waiting for confirmation, Rakesh sends out the rest of his birds, double-sealing off the sound from the room. He must be anxious about eavesdroppers. A moment later I realize why as he closes his eyes and speaks quietly, activating his greatest Skill.

“I’ll find the answer. [Eidolon Construct: Mind of The Index].”