She was bored of staying home all day, and this was a chance to see if she could maybe get cell service from somewhere else. Besides, despite his [Villain] status, she wasn’t scared of Aiden. Not yet anyway. Plus he was the only one who could tell her about this world.
So she went out testing her phone to see if she could get anything.
The dreaded ‘no service’ bar persisted, no matter what direction she turned it to on her walk.
The sky was overcast as they strolled the cobblestone walkway, snaking onto paved roads. Aiden told her he enjoyed walking long distances but he could buy her a bike if she wanted. That led to a detailed explanation of the different transportation services on Earth 9 including bikes, hoverbikes, trains, air trains, sea trains, different flavors of cars, and the whimsically named skybirds (which were like...artistic planes?). Aiden said that, while he wasn’t much of a car guy, he was knowledgeable about many things and cars just happened to be one of them. He also apparently enjoyed sharing that knowledge, judging from the satisfaction on his face as he discussed the intricacies of a multi-turbo mana-engine 6th-edition road rocket which, from the sound of it, was a very nice, very fast car. Like her dad’s Camaro.
Aiden also provided, completely unsolicited, Rose’s entire backstory, including the fact that she was once the daughter of a widowed nobleman and a once-famous opera singer. While Orinia was now a district full of semi-independent states ran by separate governments, it was once an Empire and tendrils of that still remained, with old lords and nobles claiming some attachments to the now merely symbolic Orinian royal family. Rose’s father was one such man and, although he was not super wealthy or prominent in any way, he gave his daughter a strict upbringing, including an arranged marriage that went by the typical noble formula.
But then his daughter, Rose, had made the gruesome mistake of hooking up with a man she fell in love with, some ‘scallywag’ (Aiden’s word) who got her pregnant and then disappeared. After her father kicked her out, she had nowhere to go, so she came to Hovelton to start a life with her son. She worked at a bakery and currently lived on the first floor of a retirement complex called Green Fox, where the retirees helped her watch Evan while she worked.
He mentioned a few other people by name too, but Lexie blanked out on their stories because she had no face to attach to the facts.
Eventually, in a rare silent moment, Lexie whipped her phone out of her inventory to check the signal on it again. Still nothing. At least the battery percentage remained the same, which meant...something but she wasn't sure what.
The first time she’d taken out the phone she’d expected Aiden to comment on it, but he had not. She knew they had phones here. There weren’t really used anymore, mostly seen as archaic relics of the past. But she thought he would at least ask where she got it from, in which case, she would tell him the lie she’d prepared about how she’d found it in their backyard or something.
But Aiden had simply smiled sadly when he saw it and looked away.
She didn't know what to make of that. Did he already know about the phone? Did Lexie Sparrowfoot have one? Maybe she would ask at a different time, when he didn’t look so melancholy.
In any case, it didn't look like she was getting a signal anytime soon, so she put the phone back in her inventory. While there, she briefly looked at Aiden's deck of cards that she stored there. Aiden showed her how to upload the physical cards to her system storage, which involved having the card in her hands, visually focusing on it, and just telling the system, “Add Cards to Inventory.” Of course, Aiden also had to approve the transfer, since the system recognized him as the original owner of the cards, but then now they were in her inventory, they were as good as hers.
Aiden allowed her to bring them along, to give her something to do while he was making potions at the hospital. She was curious to try out the cards and wanted to know why the system would make her a [Card User Hero] when the two things seemed counterintuitive. Judging from everything Aiden had said, a card user would undoubtedly make a craptastic [Hero]. And the last thing Lexie wanted was to be craptastic at anything.
You have to be good. The mantra her parents taught her remained resounding in her mind. Better than good. You have to be great.
On the plus side, cards apparently also made learning much easier because she could safely experiment with magic.
Aiden also told her on their walk that the Orinian Department of Card Magic was always searching for more scholars and [Researchers], and being a card mage, in addition to being a scholar, would give her a significant advantage over other applicants.
All she had to do was to gain a scholar class, in addition to her mage one. Aiden said she could nudge the system into giving her that on System Day by simply doing scholarly things, convincing the system that she was well-suited for it.
So, up to this point, her plan was a no-brainer.
Learn more about card magic, study them like hell, make revolutionary discovery, profit, and then go home.
Or learn about card magic, earn enough points to change her pre-affixation to [Researcher], study hard to become a [System Developer], and then go home.
She didn’t know which one would take longer, but she would try both simultaneously. She was also open to other possibilities being a better way out of here. It was just hard to know because of how restrictive the Net was about such things.
She would of course take time to do her own research about other magic disciplines and whether those would be easier to earn points with. She’d chosen card magic because it was the easiest to learn with, and the system seemed to want her to use that medium so she didn’t want to fight it on that. She wanted to focus all her energy on changing the [Hero] part of the equation.
So for now, her plan seemed like the way to go.
She’d also been tempted to ask Aiden about the ISTS and all but she hesitated. She didn’t know how much she was allowed to reveal and she didn’t want to unknowingly tip Aiden off that she wasn’t his daughter. Did normal ten-year-olds know about the ISTS? Could Lexie pass it off as something she’d heard in school or something?
She didn’t know. There was so much she still didn’t know about this world and she didn’t want to inadvertently say anything that would get her in trouble. Aiden was technically a [Villain] after all and even though he seemed like a nice guy so far, she didn’t actually know him. He was only nice to her because she was his daughter. If he suspected she wasn’t…well, she didn’t know what he would do.
I wish I’d paid more attention to Logan when he talked about this damn game.
Of course, she also needed to research more about cards and card magic to figure out what she wanted to focus her research on.
But it still bothered her that the system hadn’t made things easier for her, by making her a [Researcher] instead of a [Hero]. If they really evaluated her past life, like it said it did, then they should have known that what she did for Tate was probably the single heroic thing she’d ever done in her entire life. But she studied every single day, aced every single test. Her entire history and being was better suited toward scholarly pursuits. So why not make her a [Researcher]?
Could it be that it had no faith in her research capabilities? Were the people here so advanced and evolved that they were leagues in intelligence ahead of anyone on Earth 2? The thought bothered Lexie more than she wanted to admit.
She hated to think about it but she did anyway: Were there much smarter people than her in this world? Probably, considering they had magic and better technology than anything she’d ever seen on her earth. The system probably thought it would be too much for Lexie to catch up.
Regardless, it should have given her a chance.
She sighed. There were no answers to be had now. Only more questions.
Aiden and Lexie were now on another cobblestone pathway behind a row of old buildings in various states of disrepair. They looked like apartment complexes with broken windows, layers of cracked red brick stacked upon each other, walls bleeding muck and mold, and the scent of dirt and decay staining the air. The houses were packed so close together that there was barely space for two bodies to pass through at a time and even just staring at the tiny matchbox windows made Lexie feel claustrophobic.
“What are these?” Lexie asked.
Aiden’s response was once again quick. “These are the miner flats. Lower-income housing, mostly used by miners.”
“Miners mine what exactly?”
“Dungeons. Remember how I said dungeons spawned randomly, stable and unstable?”
She nodded.
“The stable dungeons are usually raided by parties of either [Heroes] or [Mercenaries] like Max. They clear it out and get loot, gems, and occasionally magical items and slay whatever creature might be there. Solve whatever puzzle they find that could make the dungeon dangerous for the layman. And when they're done making sure it’s safe, miners are sent in. They go and mine the ground for more gems and magic stones. Once they meet their quota, it’s sent to the local government and they’re paid a fee for it. Dungeon mining is hard, back-breaking labor and it’s also dangerous because you’d have to get out of the dungeon before the open time elapses and the dungeon disappears.”
“Wait, dungeons do that? Just disappear?”
“Of course. Dungeons don’t stay open forever. They spawn, stay for several hours to days, sometimes weeks or months, and then they resolve.”
“And they can disappear with people still inside?”
“Yes, although the system tries its hardest not to let that happen. When the resolution time is imminent, and it detects people still in the dungeons, it will alert any [Heroes], dungeoneers, delvers and local law enforcement nearby. Then the system will attempt to interfere with the resealing of the dungeon to give the person more time to get out. But if all that fails then yes, the dungeon will be sealed off and it will disappear with whoever or whatever is still inside.”
“And then what happens? Do they die?”
“We don’t know.” He stared off in the distance. “We don’t know where the dungeons go when they disappear. There are many theories, but no one is sure.”
“I see,” Lexie said.
The more she heard about the mundanes, the more she felt bad for them. It seemed they were forced to do all the crappy labor, and were completely reliant on the ranked individuals for their survival. It was a somewhat symbiotic relationship but the system certainly gave them the shorter end of the stick. All for what? The sin of not being born ‘right’?
“What’s wrong with Rose’s son, Evan?” Lexie asked next. She saw the rash on his neck, but she had a feeling it was something more serious than that. Why else would Rose be panicking like she was?
“He has what they call, loiter sickness. It’s an infection that can be caught from sick animals or sometimes from eating enough sick plants, although that’s rarer. When bit by a sick animal, the rash is the beginning. Then the smell. Then we move onto general hydrophobia and sensitivity to sound. Then the individual slowly grows rabid and in the final stage, they lose their sanity. Once they're past that, they'll have to be put down.”
Like Rabies, Lexie thought but she still asked, “And there’s no cure?”
“There are potions that can help symptoms. But only a healer will be able to cure him, and it’s recommended for them to do it before the final stage. If not, it’s harder.”
“So? Why not call a healer to come heal him now?”
“We did.” Annoyance glinted in his eyes. “Several times.”
“But they haven’t come yet? Why? Because most of the town is mundane?”
He glanced at her. “I see Max’s prejudice is wearing off on you.”
“It’s not Max’s prejudice. Rose implied as much too. And to my own observation, you’re telling me a little boy is going to die from a curable illness because a healer can’t be bothered to show up here?”
“It’s not that simple. There are too few healers circulating in the country and they’re needed in so many places. So many of them are stretched thin.”
Lexie wasn’t convinced. “Tell me this. If instead of Evan, it was a mage or a pre-awakened person like me who had contracted loiter sickness, would a healer already be here or not? What if it was the mayor, someone who was rich and could offer them financial incentives? Would they come then?”
Aiden didn’t answer the question. And that was answer enough.
Lexie faced forward, her lips pressing tight. This is just a video game, she tried to remind herself. It’s not Aiden’s fault. He’s simply abiding by the rules of the game.
But that mantra didn’t make her feel any better.
Because why is it like this? Even in a game that was made up of fantastical creatures and magic systems, where the game designer could probably at least had everyone start out at the same rank and leveled the playing field, given a meritocracy, they still decided to make some kind of arbitrary separation that existed in every facet of the normal world. Why not just give everyone powers? Or at least make sure there were enough healers to go around? If the system could force her to become a specific ultra-lame niche of [Hero] why didn’t it pre-affix enough healers?
With each second, the thought made Lexie angrier until she was practically fuming. Internally, she knew that she was probably extra sensitive about this topic because of her Grandpa. His medical condition was a huge strain on her parents, not just mental but financial as well. Although they did okay in their respective careers, Lexie’s parents were not quite upper middle class, and they spent so much on Lexie’s education and tutoring already. They also had to sacrifice a lot to keep up with his care. Sometimes, Lexie thought that Grandpa chose to die earlier than he was supposed to, just to save them the effort. He always said it was pointless that they kept seeking treatment even though none of it could cure him. And when her mother found something that maybe could work, it was too expensive to try and insurance refused to cover it.
And there would be no one to blame because that was simply how the system worked.
No one cared. Until money and power were involved.
“I’m sorry,” Aiden said. For some reason, his apology only made her angrier.
“Don’t apologize. It’s not your fault.”
“But I'm part of the order that makes things the way they are.” He tucked his hands into his pockets, uplifting his face toward the sky. “For so long I was blind to the unfairness of the system…no not blind. That would be giving me too much credit. Rather I was willing to ignore the unfairness, ignore how it benefited me while disenfranchising others. I felt like everything I had was because I earned it, not just because I was fortunate enough to be born as a double S-Rank.” He looked down at Lexie. “It took a lot to get me to see what you see so easily.”
She released a breath. She didn’t want to take her anger out on Aiden. He was already dealing with enough.
“So there’s really nothing that can be done for Evan?” she asked quietly. “The potions Rose mentioned? Why aren’t they working?”
“Potions are arguably a category of very mild bound magic. Though they don’t need the user of the potion to have any internal mana, the creator should be some kind of mage. That’s because the end step of creating every potion requires magic bonding, or the potion can be ineffective at best, and defective at worst.”
“So…you created those potions without magic and that’s why they are not working?”
“Yes. Ideally, we would use already-made potions from official potion makers but we’ve run out of those and the town budget isn’t enough to buy more. The Governor also isn’t giving us more money, even though the population of the town has more than doubled in the past three years.” His annoyance leaked into his tone. “In the meantime, I’ve been helping Emma, the head caretaker at the Healing House, to make potions while Luke, our Mayor, appeals for more funding. Emma and I have been using forest-grown mana-infused herbs to try to supplement that final magical step but it’s not even remotely as effective. As such, the potions we make have very low healing properties and can only treat the simplest of symptoms. We’ve been experimenting with a potion that delays advancement of a disease and it seems to have been helping a few patients like Evan. But it’s not a hundred percent sure.”
When he finished, Lexie’s mind worked fast and then she ventured, “That card you had me use yesterday. You said it was the only one of its kind.”
“Yes,” he said.
“And mundane people could use it too.”
“Yes. By nature of its construction, it doesn’t require any internal mana from its user, only external.”
Lexie stored that piece of information about internal versus external mana for later, and then finally voiced out her question.
“Is there a way to make more of those then? If each card had some kind of healing magic, or could at least treat the symptoms, we could give that to all the mundanes in Hovelton. That way they wouldn't need to keep buying potions and they could heal themselves as regularly as they want. They could even share it.”
“It’s difficult for a card to do that,” Aiden said. “First off, like I mentioned earlier, cards are limited in time, power, and they’re immensely difficult to make. It requires perfect control of mana pathways, in-depth knowledge of the etymology and origin of whatever ability you're trying to imbue, and enough mana to power the creation. Most people can never even create the most basic of cards, much less a card like that.”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“If people aren't creating them, then where do cards come from?”
“Usually? The system. They’re made by [System Developers] working with medium to large groups of mages and scholars. A party of about a dozen of them is usually assigned to research and create a single card with a little help from a Fae overseer.”
“Fae?” Her eyes widened.
“Yes. Extraterrestrial species that we share an interplanetary alliance with. I’ll tell you more about them later. But for now, just know that it is incredibly difficult to make cards.”
“Okay, then we can tell the system to make more of those mundane-friendly cards.”
“They won’t.”
“They did before.”
“No, they didn’t. The system didn't make that
Lexie gaped at him. He smirked.
“I made it a long time ago, back in my Academy days. I was about four years older than you are now, and going through a…let’s say, less-than-ideal time in my life.” He looked to the sky again. “I was the only mage in my small town of fighters and mundanes, and this nobleman’s son had had it out for me since I was a scrawny child. It only got worse on System day when my supposed best friend announced that I awakened as a high-rank mage. It made my tormentor jealous and vengeful.” She could see the tension and annoyance still in his face as he remembered. Then he released a loud breath. “I couldn't use magic against him because that would get me kicked out of the Hero Academy. And I wasn’t strong enough to fight back physically. So during my second year at the academy, right before summer break, I tried to create something that would make me invisible so I could hide from him. I started out with potions and when that didn’t work, I moved to artifacts and eventually cards. They were the cheapest to work with and I didn’t know how to use spells or unbound magic that well at that time. Anyway, I worked on it day and night every waking hour and after many failed attempts, I finally got that
"Wow." For the first time, she wondered just how powerful Aiden Sparrowfoot was. He just admitted that he created something that typically took a team of mages to do, and even worse, he did it as a teenager. And he said it like it was a casual Tuesday activity.
She could see a younger Aiden ticking it off his to-do list one by one: Homework. Check. Bake banana bread. Check. Create a magical item that takes others years and entire teams to master. Check.
“So you’re the only one who’s ever made a card?”
“Well, maybe not the only one, but there’s certainly not many of us.” He stuck his nose up a little higher. “You know they used to call me a generational genius? They didn’t do that for no reason now.”
Lexie fought the urge to smile but she was too impressed to roll her eyes. And Aiden clearly enjoyed impressing her, strutting with an extra pep in his step and giving off a very 'look-I’m-a-cool-dad' energy. It took her a while to remember the main point of her question.
“So if you could make that as a teen,” Lexie said. “Then, maybe another, older, more trained, card mage could make a healing card, right? I mean that would work as well as a potion but it can be used over and over again. Surely the government would love to give funding for that because it would solve the healer shortage problem."
Aiden’s light dimmed a little as he shook his head.
“That won’t work,” he said. “Even if the government funded it, healing magic is one of the hardest types of magic to master, and creating a card like that would require more mana than I think anyone has. The card I created was pretty weak in comparison and I experienced the worst burnout after creating it. So creating a healing card might actually kill them.”
Lexie deflated like a punctured air balloon. Disappointment and frustration curdled in her belly. She thought her idea had promise but it got shut down so easily.
Still, she would keep trying. Maybe that was her purpose here. After all, if she was going by video game logic, this would be the point where they introduced a problem that the main player needed to solve. What did they call that in literature? The inciting incident?
“But Lex, I’m happy you're thinking this way,” Aiden interrupted her thoughts, laying a hand on her shoulder. She thought she detected a kind of pride in his eyes. “It’s how your mother used to think too.”
His face contorted. He swallowed. “Despite never being an official [Hero], Lara was more of a hero than anyone I know.”
And even though it pained him to talk about her, Aiden Sparrowfoot couldn’t seem to help mentioning his wife any chance he got.
And in doing so, he finally pulled Lexie’s attention back to reality. Aiden wasn’t her father and Lara wasn’t her mother.
She had to constantly remind herself of that, so she didn’t lose track of who she was.
And maybe she shouldn’t be so concerned about Rosa’s son and healers in Hovelton. This wasn’t a real place after all. It was a video game that she was somehow transported into and rather than getting involved, she needed to find a way to get home.
“I think I’ve decided to be a [Researcher],” she started. “With cards as my field of focus.”
Aiden seemed hesitant to answer. “It’s a valid field of research. A little underfunded at the moment but that also means there’s little competition. But bumblebee, are you sure about this [Researcher] thing?”
“Why are you so against it?” Lexie asked, a tad defensively. “You want me to be something else? A [Hero]?”
“Of course not.” His reaction was so genuinely taken aback that Lexie believed him. “I’ve never wanted to push you to be a [Hero] just because I was one. In fact, I thought I went out of my way to make it clear that you didn’t have to do anything you didn’t want to, particularly not following in my footsteps.”
He looked so distraught that she would think such a thing, that Lexie felt bad for assuming. It was just that, for a second there, it felt very much like how her real parents had steered her entire life. Picking which school she went to, which classes and extracurriculars she would take, not to mention extra classes and such. They turned down anything that didn’t feel ‘useful’ to Lexie’s future, like art and dance. Even Lexie’s free-time was carefully rationed and if her grades slipped even a little, they would sometimes go through her phone to make sure that she wasn’t getting too much screen time.
She’d already gone through that in her past life. She wasn’t about to do it again.
“Sorry,” she said. “It’s just that you’re very adamant that I don't choose research.”
“Yes. For all the reasons I said. With your personality, I don’t think you would enjoy it. It’s a very isolating experience.”
“You sound like you’re speaking from personal experience.”
“Well, I do have some personal experience. My class is often heavily encouraged to become researchers and I tried it out for a little bit, before discovering it was not for me at all."
“I thought you were a mage.”
The corner of his lip quirked. “Yes, and a scholar.”
Oh. She forgot about that.
“I have two classes, one mana-based, one mental-based. Double S-Ranked.” He had that air of pride again which warned Lexie he was about to start bragging. “There are less than 0.1 percent of people who have such high ranking in two classes. It’s technically possible to find someone with a ranking on all three–mana, mental, and physical. But those people are extremely rare and you'll probably want to stay away from them. They tend to be awfully arrogant with terrible personalities. Unlike your father who is the picture of humility, despite being a world famous mage at one point.”
Right. Lexie thought with some amusement. Picture of humility indeed.
A new question then occurred to her. “Is it possible to affix both [Researcher] and [Hero]?” Maybe instead of replacing one with the other, she could just do both.
“No," Aiden said definitively. "The system avoids giving one person two roles because it's very overwhelming. Roles are important because, once affixed, they get special system-quests and the logistics get complicated when one person carries multiple roles. They could get different quests regarding both roles at the same time and not be able to accomplish one or the other. Not ideal.”
“Oh.” Well, that was out of the list of solutions.
Aiden released her shoulder and took her hand, as they crossed the street. Though the roads were strangely empty, Lexie caught sight of a hovering car in the distance, on the winding mountain road.
“Besides," Aiden continued. "Even with multiple classes, the system tries to make you prioritize one over the other so you don’t get too overwhelmed with both. For example, I’m– or was –a level 9 mage, but only a level 7 scholar. And I started out as a Level 5 so I only went up two scholarly points, which is below scholarly average growth. Of course, it didn’t help that I didn’t specialize in any scholarly discipline but the point remains that you’ll eventually have to prioritize one of the classes over the other. It can be tedious to develop both equally, even for geniuses like you and me.”
“I’m not a genius.” Lexie pointed out. She didn't want him to get his hopes up. “I’m just above average and good at studying.” Lexie had learned that about herself when she was younger. Even though her parents touted her as some kind of prodigy, she really wasn’t. She just studied a lot, practically every waking moment. She had to work twice as hard as some of the other people in her AP classes just to stay ahead. And she wasn’t great with numbers which was why she’d needed so many math tutors in the past.
“Right,” Aiden snorted like he didn’t believe her. “You know that’s similar to what I used to tell the press back in the day so they would write articles about how humble I was. The public ate it up.” He flourished his hand, and spoke in a very deep, reporter voice. "‘Breaking News: We’ve received word that the Incredibly Talented and Heroic Generational Genius Archmage Aiden Sparrowfoot, is also super laid-back. Hear him in today’s interview, how he downplays his own genius. Now, look at him in this photo, out and about drinking a hot beverage in a totally down-to-earth way. He’s just like us! He even tells us he occasionally reads tabloids, like this very one. Buy this issue so you can learn more about how great and handsome Aiden Sparrowfoot is, although he does not realize this himself.'”
“Ok, I get it. You can stop.” Lexie cringed at the elaborate headline as Aiden laughed. “Yes, but I actually mean what I said. I don’t think I’m a genius, so I don’t want you to expect that from me.”
She may have to act as Aiden’s daughter for the time being but she wasn’t about to waste her time trying to impress him like she did with her real dad. Aiden was a stranger. She may have buckled to her parents expectations, sacrificing her own happiness to meet the standards they set for her, but she didn’t feel as obliged to do that for someone she just met.
Also, it felt surprisingly empowering to lay down the boundaries now after not having it in most of her real life. And since Aiden wasn’t her real dad, she wasn’t too worried about offending or disappointing him.
But he didn’t look disappointed. Instead, he looked impressed.
“That,” he said, “was perfect. You should say it exactly like that if you’re ever asked to give an interview. ‘I’m not a genius so don’t expect it from me’. Cindy Burley on Channel 9 would go crazy with that soundbite.”
“I’m serious,” Lexie finally broke and smiled. “I’m no generational genius archmage. I’m just a normal girl.”
“Oh, the press would love you. You’re very good at this fake humility thing. If you weren’t my daughter, I’d almost be convinced.”
The healing house turned out to be a tall dull-gray building sitting on top of a shallow hill. Below it was a sprinkle of smaller cottage, and behind the hill sat the sun.
At the porch entrance, a woman with warm chocolate skin and grey eyes stood, talking to another shorter plumper woman. They were both wearing white long robes and Lexie immediately figured that those worked the same as scrubs in this world.
The minute the first woman spotted Aiden she abandoned her talk with the nurse and she approached him quickly. “Thank the system, you’re here.”
“What’s wrong?” Aiden frowned.
Instead of answering, her eyes flickered to me and a smile crossed her face. She bent over, with her hands on her knees.
“Hey, Lexie." She spoke in a gentle tone that felt like a warm hug. "I’m so glad to see you feeling better.”
“Thank you,” Lexie responded politely, wondering who the woman was.
Aiden answered immediately. “This is Emma Cole. She’s a nurse who runs the Healing House.” To Emma, he added, “Lexie can’t remember anything ever since she woke up.”
“I know, the poor thing. Max told me yesterday.”
“You saw Max?”
“Yes. He showed up in the middle of the night with a nasty gash on his side that wasn’t healing fast enough."
Aiden’s eyes flared. “I didn’t even notice he was hurt."
“No one ever does right up until that one-eyed jerk drops dead.” Emma’s tone was annoyed and affectionate all at once. “The only reason he came to me to stitch him up is because he had a hot date, and didn't want to get blood on his cashmere.” She rolled her eyes and then straightened, before smiling at Lexie again. “Anyway, to reintroduce myself, I’m Emma. You call me Aunt Emma most of the time and I sometimes sneak you candy when your father’s not looking.’
“You do?” Aiden frowned his disapproval. “That’s foul, Emma. You know Lexie can’t have too many sweets, they’ll hamper her growth and she’s already small enough as is.”
Lexie frowned, objecting to that last comment. She didn’t think she was that small. She was about the same height she’d been at the start of middle school (4’6) and a doctor then had told her she was in the 35th percentile of kids her age. That meant she was only slightly below average, and he'd assured her it was fairly normal and that she could even still have a major growth spurt in high school that would put her at a solid five-six. Of course, it hadn't happened by sixteen, by which point she’d only gained four inches and was still the shortest person in her class, but that didn’t mean it would never happen. She’d heard of people having growth spurts in college too. Maybe that would happen to her. Power of positive thinking and all that. Hopefully with that, she just might some day reach the appropriate height for an adult.
“Sweets don’t hamper growth Aiden,” Emma said, nudging him with her elbow. “I should know I’m a nurse. Plus I think her size is fine.”
Exactly. Lexie nodded, liking what the woman had to say until Emma added, “Besides when Lexie eats jawbreakers, her cheeks puff out like a widdle baby squirrel.”
Lexie went right back to frowning but it didn’t deter Emma.
“Yes!” she said, poking and pinching Lexie’s cheek. “Just like that. Aren’t they cute?”
“Leave my daughter’s cheeks alone,” Aiden said sternly and apparently he wasn’t ready to let the earlier argument die, so he added. “And no more sweets. You’re going to create bad habits.”
“Every child deserves a few bad habits,” she said and then turned around, gesturing for them to follow her. Aiden firmly grasped Lexie’s hand and Lexie hurried to keep up with their longer steps.
The inside of the building looked very much like a hospital, with white walls and a waiting room in the entryway, next to a welcome desk. Each chair in the room was occupied, and white-robed people rushed up and down talking amongst themselves. Someone in the waiting room coughed so hard, they hacked a loogie onto the guy in the chair beside them. The victim stared at the cougher like he wanted to beat him to death, but Aiden and Emma barely noticed as they walked past the welcome desk, through swinging doors leading to a thin hallway with a staircase at the side.
At a point, Aiden saw that her tiny steps would never be a match for his and Emma's so he stopped, leaned down and scooped her up. Lexie blushed. It was even more uncomfortable and undignified than it was last night, especially now they were in public, but she couldn’t say anything as Aiden had turned his attention back to Emma.
“Since last night we’ve had a steady influx of new patients, most of them with infection," Emma started. "A dozen of them seem like they’re from animal bites, but quite a few are waterborne. Also, Mrs. Frazer had a bad fall. She’s stable now, but she’s crankier than the time she went swimming in Clear Valley and a jellyfish stung her in the–”
“Emma,” Aiden warned and his stubble scratched Lexie’s cheek as he spoke.
“Oh I wasn’t going to say it,” Emma said but met Lexie's gaze conspiratorially over her shoulder. “And don’t pretend to have your panties in a twist now, since you were the one who told me the story.”
“Yes, in strict confidence.”
Emma tutted, turning away. “Should have been stricter.”
Aiden sighed and shook his head. “No, you’re right. I should have known you would gossip.”
“Takes one to know one, sweetie.” Emma threw him a smirk. “Anyway, my point is, we’ve got more people here than usual. Like a lot more.”
"And their health bars aren't refreshing?"
“Some of them are, just slower than normal. And there are more random cases that don’t make sense. Mr. Foster has blood in his urine and we’re running tests on that. Chase Thornton has a weird sensation in his chest that isn’t pain. Isobel Wynan says she feels unusually sad, and broke up with her eighty year old ‘boyfriend’ over some bad fishcakes.”
“Rose says Old Man Lochlan’s crops died.” Aiden rubbed his chin. “But I don’t understand why this is happening. It was a ghoul that escaped from the dungeon. A ghoul wouldn't cause all this."
“Max said the same thing.” They finally turned into another hallway where there was only a row of doors with three art deco seats at the end of the hall. Seated in one of them was a tall girl who looked about Lexie's age, with warm tawny skin and long black hair that shielded most of her face. She was staring down at a large tablet, with a video projected onto the screen.
As they approached her, Aiden called out, “Hello, Xena.”
The girl ignored him. Aiden didn’t act surprised or offended.
“Still not talking much, is she?” he asked Emma.
“Nope. Except for when she’s making a concerted effort to be a pain in my ass.”
“I can hear you,” the little girl warned.
“I know,” Emma responded in a saccharine tone. She shifted her attention to me. “I don’t think you’ve met Xena yet, have you, Lexie?”
Before Lexie could respond, Emma said, “Oh that’s right you wouldn’t know if you have. Lexie, this is my daughter and personal cross to bear, Xena. Xena, this is Lexie.”
“Hey,” Lexie said but Xena ignored her, not looking up from her screen.
“I’m not your daughter,” was all she said.
“Saying it enough times doesn’t make it true,” Emma said offhandedly as she regarded Lexie. "Lexie, can you wait out here with Xena while I talk to your father inside? It’s about private, patient confidentiality stuff.”
"Um..." Lexie didn’t mind waiting but she wasn’t sure about the 'with Xena' part.
She glanced uncertainly at the girl and Emma waved a hand dismissively. “Oh don’t worry about her. She has the charm of a kidney stone, but her bark is much worse than her bite.”
“Um… okay.” Lexie nodded. Aiden lowered her and she went to settle next to Xena making sure to keep a seat between them. Xena stiffened when she approached but otherwise said nothing.
As the two adults walked into one of the rooms and shut the door, Lexie couldn’t resist taking a peek at Xena’s screen. The image projected there was of two men in costumes fighting in what looked to be a colosseum. There were scoreboards and switching perspectives as they charged into each other. A man with announcer-voice said something that sounded fairly technical as one of them dipped to duck a blow and slammed his fists into his opponent's face, sending him flying.
“What are you watching?” Lexie asked, curiosity beating out her social discomfort.
Xena threw her a glare. “Grand Fighters Tournament.”
“Oh.” She saw the other guy, the one who took a blow to his face, extended his hand and something like a forcefield hit the other in the chest. “Are they using magic?”
“No, they’re using balloon animals.” Sarcasm dripped from her tone.
Well, she’s just lovely. At the same time, Xena kind of reminded her of Mickie when they first met. That started as a rocky situation too.
In any case, Lexie wasn’t necessarily scared of the girl's temper but she had nothing else to say, so she just fell silent.
Lexie was wondering if she should take the cards out now, when a familiar little boy bounced around the corner, trailed by his mother.
He paused when he caught sight of her, and then his entire face brightened up.
“Lexie!" He ran to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, burying his face in her belly. “You’re not dying anymore!”
“Uh…yeah.” What a disturbingly accurate statement. Lexie hadn’t realized they were close, but the boy seemed ecstatic to see her. He also genuinely did smell like moldy cheese, but Lexie still helped him climb into her lap, trying not to visibly gag the whole time. “How are you?”
“I’m stinky,” Evan said, arranging himself so his legs could splay entirely over her thighs. Lexie ruffled his hair with a grin.
“Yes, but don’t let that define you.” He was too young to have insecurities.
His mother finally reached them, giving Lexie a warm smile. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Yeah, thanks.” Rose was very pretty and looked like she was in her mid-twenties but stress had aged her somewhat. There were dark circles under her eyes and permanent lines on her forehead. It was easy to see the toll her son’s illness was taking on her.
“Sorry about Evan,” Lexie said to Rose.
“I am Evan,” Evan announced with a hand up sending even more fumes of glory Lexie’s way. Lexie pinched her nose tight, making Evan giggle as his mother shook her head indulgently. .
“Thank you. Hopefully, your dad and Emma can figure something out. Where are they?”
“They’re in there.” Lexie pointed at the door. “Talking about patient confidentiality stuff.”
“Oh. I’ll just knock and tell them I’m here. We had to go back to the apartment because I left the door unlocked, but I told Emma I would return.”
Rose walked to the door and knocked, with Evan hopping out of Lexie’s lap to follow her.
But before he took two steps, he stopped.
And let out a loud and throaty bark.
Rose spun around in alarm as a violent jerk ripped through her son, contorting his body one way and then another.
And then he dropped his knees, foaming at the mouth.
Another loud bark. And then another.
Color washed out of Rose’s face. Horror overtook her expression. Lexie was pretty horrified herself at the rapid change from beaming boy to rabid animal. Veins popped out on his face, eyes reddening. His hand clawed on the floor and his body twitched erratically, trembling in between.
The door opened and Emma and Aiden hustled out, then froze in step. Aiden’s eyebrows rose.
“What’s happening?” Rose rasped, looking like she was trying very hard not to panic.
Aiden’s expression was grave. “It seems Evan’s about to enter the final stage."