Hera and Helena walked back to Hera's flat. The explorer made some coffee and set up the food on her small table.
"Here, I forgot to get milk, sorry," Hera gave a cup to Helena.
"Don't worry. I like it black."
Hera chuckled, "Really? With all the sweetie, I thought you liked more sugary things."
Helena smiled, "Not on my coffee. But if you have some cake, I won't say no."
"Crap, I forgot the cake," Hera sighed.
"Don't worry. You got more than what we needed. Sit down, let's talk."
Hera sat down on her bed. She only had a single chair, and Helena was using it. The mage had a serious expression. She took a deep breath and looked back at Hera.
"What happened, Lena? Why couldn't you help Amanda back there?" Hera asked.
"Ok... I'm sorry for taking so long to talk to you about this. Here is what happened in the Qeeroni Wilds. I got hit by one of those wendigos, but it was an odd version. They managed to hunt it and figured out that the monster ate a curse mage with a bug on its stomach. By that, I mean, she was sick. She had a tapeworm, but it was in the early stages. The only reason why they found out about that was due to the wendigo eating her bracelet. Anyway, the tapeworm made the monster change too. Its claws became coated in a weird slime that was filled with eggs from the new version of the parasite the wendigo had created."
Helena raised her shirt, showing a large black scar on the side of her body contrasting with her dark skin, "The monster got me good. I was close to dying for a while there. They did their best to heal me and increase my natural recovery, but no one expected the parasites. They changed, and like the wendigos, they can become stronger the more they eat."
"Shit, Lena. Are you going to die?" Hera asked.
"No, not yet anyway," Helena shook her head and looked at Hera, "Sorry, I didn't mean like I have six months to live or something, I mean that we are all dying someday."
"Oh, ok. Just be more careful, please, I was almost crying already," Hera said, taking a bite of her sandwich.
"Sorry, sweetie. I'll try to be less dramatic."
"No, I didn't mean it like that. I'm just worried. Please, you can talk to me without worrying," Hera grabbed Helena's hand.
"Ok, I will then," Helena took a bite of her apple, "Continuing, the mage focused on leech spells. Spells that drain the target's mana and life sending it back to the user, it's a bit finicky, but it is a powerful type of spell. That affected both the wendigos and the parasites. When I reached the hospital, a part of them was eating my life away. The other part was eating at my mana, but no one noticed because mana parasites are not a thing. Well... were not a thing."
"So whatever happened is the guild's fault?" Hera asked.
"What? No, of course not. It's no one's fault, really. I took a risk and got hurt because of it. Think of it . Is the person who discovered cancer to blame for finding it?" Helena did her best to keep a calm expression, but Hera could see her hands shaking slightly.
"No, they are not, but the patient still had to deal with that disease," Hera replied.
"Ok, let me summarize the rest. The mana parasites turned too strong after eating all the healing and magic that they poured into me. Now, every time I recover some mana, the parasites eat it up. The doctors say that the creatures are now embedded in me. The only options they had to take them away would give me, at most, a 5% chance of surviving. With those odds, no one is willing to try the treatment. Not even me, to be honest."
Hera held Helen's hand tighter, "So what does that mean?"
"I can't use magic. Since my level is so low compared to the wendigos, my mana regenerates slower than the parasites eat it. If my level was higher, the treatment would have a better chance of working without killing me. But as I am right now, they have no idea how to fix me," A tear came down Helena's face.
"Lena. You are not broken, far from it. You are still here, and we will figure this out. Somehow," even Hera wasn't very confident in her words. She cleaned her throat, "What now?"
Helena brushed the tears away from her face, "Now, in order to not make the parasites grow too much, I'm wearing mana suppression equipment that reduces the amount of mana that I recover to 1 point every hour. I also have weekly checkups in the guild. The guild is also supporting me in whatever I'm doing. They will subsidize my lab and give me some money every month as compensation. I can basically retire or go back to work at the guild. If they ever find a way to cure me, they will let me know. Honestly, I'm not sure I even want to keep my research now. I mean, what's the point? Maybe I should just go live by the beach or something."
Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.
"But you love magic so much. Are you really going to let it go?" Hera asked.
"Do I have other options? Or should I just wait for a miracle?" Helena replied.
Hera looked away. She knew the mage wasn't mad at her, but she wanted to help. This woman had saved her from her rock bottom. All that Hera wanted was to help. Her eyes glanced at her bag, the one with the mana stone inside.
"Do you have any poison spells? Or spells that use poison mana?" Hera asked.
"I have a poison resistance spell. Why does that matter?" Helena asked.
"I have a mana stone. Did you try using one?" Hera went to her bag and showed the charged stone to the mage.
"We considered it. But since the parasites eat mana, we were worried that using a mana stone would infect it," Helena explained.
"Ok, so try this. If it gets infected, we just give it to the guild so they can have some more samples to study," Hera held the stone towards Helena.
The mage stared at the mana stone for a while, hesitating to reach for it, "Honestly, Hera, there is another reason I haven't tried that yet. What if it doesn't work? This could be a way to use magic again, but if it fails, this is it. I have no other options. Besides, if I'm contagious, the guild would probably ship me off to a place far away from everything."
Hera sat in front of Helena, "Lena. When we met, I felt like the entire universe was ignoring me. I was afraid of everything and thought I didn't deserve to dream anymore. I'm not going to say I'm 100% right now, but I'm much braver than I was. If this doesn't work, we can still look for something else. You can train a fighting style and become a vanguard or get some arrows and be in the back. We can get your tools and gear made so that you can keep your doing your research. We can even try to find a legacy that allows you to use the mana around you or that lets you change sweat to spells. I don't know those things are weird. I'm sure we can find one that will help you. And if you are contagious, I won't say a word. I mean, we probably need to figure out a way to make it safe to be around you. Maybe some long gloves and a facemask. I honestly think you can rock the goth look."
Helena chuckled, "Thanks, but I don't think I could take wearing black all the time. I always like brighter colors. And you are right. I still have other options to try. I'm not sure how I would keep my research or find the legacy, though."
"Stop saying I, I told you. We can find it. I'm your assistant, and it will take much more than some level 80 parasite to chase me away. Whatever you need, I'm here," Hera said, placing the mana stone on Helena's hand.
"Hera... you don't need to do that."
"You are absolutely right. I don't need to help you. I want to help, and I'm not taking a no for an answer. Besides, without magic, I doubt you could chase me away even if you tried it," Hera scoffed.
"Wow, that was low. Is that how you treat someone injured?" Helena stared at the explorer.
"No, that's how I treat my friends when they refuse to let me help them. Now try to use the mana stone."
Helena smiled at Hera and stared at the stone. It was nice seeing the explorer being so assertive. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and tapped into the mana inside the orange gem. Hera held her breath, watching her friend while she activated the elemental sight. Aside from the dark smoke around the mage, some odd particles were floating around like they were molecules of something. Little by little, a small layer of orange fog covered Helena. Hera looked at the mage's eyes and saw tears rushing down her face.
"It worked, didn't it?" Hera asked with a big smile.
"Yeah, it takes a bit more mana than normal, but it worked," Helena wiped the tears, "And I'm glad you are that sensitive to mana. That can be very useful."
"I've been using the Mana Sight spell. It's a shame it doesn't update the compendium automatically. I forgot to update one a couple of times and had to go after the monster again," Hera said.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I still haven't figured out how to make the system update it automatically. The spell is a work in progress," Helena explained.
"Don't worry about it. Now that you know how to use magic again. What are you going to do?" Hera ate a piece of cheese, already feeling a bit more relaxed.
Helena crossed her arms while she thought, "First, I need to talk to the guild. They did say they would support me to the best of their abilities. Maybe I can get a couple of simple mana stones and someplace to charge it. I think the main issue would be the layer I'm in. High-capacity mana stones are either very big or insanely expensive. But before anything, I need to talk to the guild and confirm the limits of what I can ask."
"I don't see why not. I mean, it's nice to have someone else to bounce ideas off."
"It's also for them to know you are not going to be alone. I'm going to help you with everything that I can," Hera said while staring at Helena.
"Hera, I can't ask you to put your life on hold to help me. You need to do your own thing."
"Lena. Again, you are not asking. What I want to do is get stronger and find more interesting things. Being your assistant will be more than enough for that. Besides, I'll be looking for a way to cure you, so that can get me to some weird places. I'm also counting on you still giving me quests for the order. Those contributions points can get me some pretty nice things."
Helena chuckled, "Fine, I guess you can help me for a while, but when you find something else you want to do, you are free to go. This is not supposed to be a shackle or something."
Hera rolled her eyes, "Yeah, because working with you will be just like a prison sentence."
Helena laughed, "Oh, but you are working for me, not with me. I hope you are ready to do some really long hours."
"Lena, I worked at retail. You can't scare me with that," Hera chuckled.
The two kept talking and agreed to go to the guild after their meal. They would have a lot of things to figure out.