Bradel had to be carried the whole way, but it was no matter to me. The gnome only weighed about fifteen pounds after all. When we stepped out of Fripenlond, Sui stopped to breathe the air which, for a change, wasn’t congested by trees and fungus. Fortunately for him, Bradel was the only one who could sleep while on the journey. Even though I was exhausted and wanting to shout at Sui for not allowing us all to have a decent amount of time to rest, I kept following her, keeping an eye out for any trouble.
The green grass of Shi Shii and the Fripenlond crop fields near the borderline of the kingdom’s jungle were absolutely luscious, more so than our previous visit. As we headed up to the city gates, we met with the common folk: the farmers, the serfs, and the pitiful peasants. They worked to make a living while the rich and the more fortunate got to stay in the city walls to enjoy the casual pleasures the city had to offer, living off of endless riches. They were much less fortunate than the poor in the city, as even they had the Wet Twiggs Inn. As George and I approached the perverted gatekeeper, he remembered our faces.
“You two; what do you think you’re doing back here? You aint welcome here no more, yeh hear! Those guards made off with yeh, and I sure don’t want to have them that close to me again, so shove off!”
“And I thought my mother was ugly,” Bradel said with a scowl, “at least she had all her teeth.”
After everything we had been through, turning back was not an option. Sui knew that she had to do something about this creep, and quickly, before he alerted the guards. She had to get past him without killing him or making him call out like he did after I threw him against the wall. I could not believe that the man had the sudden nerve to look me straight in the eye and demand our departure after how I intimidated him.
“Old man, please let us through,” I said, trying to remain calm, “we have important business to attend to in Shi Shii. I’m sorry about the other day, but my lady and I must enter the city for an airship right now.”
“You can’t fool me, boy! I don’t forgive or forget! You can’t enter the city without having to go through me and the royal guard all over again. This really what you wanna to do? Repeat the past? Go take a raft scum! You aint welcome ‘ere as long as I’m gatekeeper!”
I was holding Bradel in my arms while Sui stepped up to the man and got in his face with an intimidating posture, much like the one I gave him days ago, but without touching him. She was not about to turn back, and neither was I. “Well then,” Sui said, scrunching her nose and pursing her lips, “I guess it’s time you seek out another job because we aren’t leaving!”
Without a care in the world, Sui pushed him against the wall, as I had done before, and demanded he open the gates. Of course, the stubborn man did not yield to her right away, but after a good punch or two in his misshapen face, he wasn’t able to resist. He begged for Sui to let him down in a pitiful tone, so she did, giving him a chance to open the city gates. As soon as the gates were open, we were immediately confronted by guards with their weapons unsheathed. Bradel and I nearly soiled ourselves. Sui seemed to be in the same state.
“Alright, come quietly and there will be no altercations.”
“We’re sorry,” Sui apologized with embarrassment, “but we can’t afford to go to prison now.”
“I was talking to the cur behind you, young lady,” said the captain. “So, Gatekeeper, you have not been fair recently, and it is time for you to pay for your illegal activities.”
Sui and I turned around to face the gate keeper; whom was shaking in fear with a look of hatred and anger on his swollen face.
“Oh no, sir, I haven’t done a pot o’ rocks in my life!” the guard chuckled.
“Who said anything about rocks, knave? You’re as guilty as charged. You’re going away for a long time.” One of the guards unrolled a scroll to check for the gatekeeper’s name, “Gezto Meliphiac.” The guards told us to enter the city as they cuffed the nasty gatekeeper and dragged him to the dungeon in the royal palace. Bradel wiped a bit of sweat from his large brow and chuckled a bit, seeing how afraid I looked.
“You nearly shat yourself, boy. Hahaha!”
“Yeah, well, you too!”
“I was composed.”
“Don’t lie, old man.”
“Don’t ever call me old man again, boy.”
“Okay, only if you stop calling me boy.”
“Fair enough.”
The buildings of the city sparkled twice as beautifully that day. Many rich and treated people looked at us questioningly, with our scrapes, cuts, and bruises. Bradel was scarcely hidden under the hood of his robe, appearing as a well-dressed child. Our expressions back to the Shimbians were blank, as it was none of their business. Sui was stopped by a man with dark hair and fair skin who was wearing a bright blue suit, and golden boots. He was a sort of hustler that never seemed to have any flaws in his words with women. But as he was about to find out, Sui was not the average woman.
“Hello, ma’am, may I interest you in a bottle of sweet rose champagne? I can offer it to you for a mere seventy shii. That is, unless, if you’d rather pay in another way, after sharing it with me?”
Despite my initial guess to how she would respond, I was surprised when Sui slapped the stud in his handsome face, leaving a horrible brown bruise to grow on his sharpened cheek. Bradel and I stared at each other in shock.
“I’m not interested in sleeping with you, sir, I’m spoken for, you freshly groomed rat!”
Unable to hold back a smile, I took her by the hand and continued down the roads of Shi Shii, admiring the classic city sites by her side, as I held Bradel in my right arm.
There was a brief silence that overcame the city when we reached the halfway point to the aero-docks. Bradel noticed us getting dizzy and told me to set him down. His words were drawn out and echoed in my head, but I did exactly as he said and gently lowered him to the ground. There was no sign of any disturbance that would have caused it, and no one on the streets was truly looking in any particular direction. I had a feeling that something or someone was manipulating the atmosphere to try and get to our attention. Sui looked at me, and I at her; we both began to lose our sight, as every detail around her bright and dazzling face began to sink into the abyss. The next thing I knew, I was asleep without dreams. The last thing I remember seeing was Bradel’s silhouette beneath the bright sun, standing over us.
It is a very strange thing, lying in a bed next to each other in close, but separate beds. The room was white like a laboratory, having crystal-powered machines and many types of phials and alchemy tables. It was upon seeing the entirety of the room that I realized we were in a doctor’s care. We had been taken to a hospital due to our collapse, I assumed. Something had happened to us, and it was not a simple faint. The jauish brand had something to do with it. I was the first one to wake up; the nurses came to me and began to ask me questions about how I was feeling. I answered that I had been in a great deal of pain and felt dreary. I saw that they had healed the gash in my arm, and the brand was as visible as Sui’s over the stitches; an identical twin, to be exact. I did not mention what it was upon my arm. I just hoped they thought it was some type of stylish tattoo and nothing more.
The main doctor, who was dressed in all white, silently stood over me after the nurses and lesser doctors left with their report. He stared at me behind dark bifocals, which were foreign to this land. He cleared his throat with a deep cough and spoke to me in a bass, monotone voice, “George Goodwill, can you stand?” I took a longer look at him and found a blunt scar in the middle of his forehead, which disappeared before I could focus on it. I blinked twice, believing that I was hallucinating things, and then answered in a lagging tone, “I think.” He put his white-gloved hand on my shoulder to support me, and sure enough, I was able to stand on my own, still wearing the torn leather armor that Sui’s father had gifted me.
“This is good,” said
the doctor, “now, I wish to take some tests to ensure that you are fully healthy enough to leave the facility. That wouldn’t be a problem, now would it?”
“No, sir,” I stated respectfully, “but I can’t leave without Sui.”
“Yes, I understand your love. She is the chosen one, I know, and you are her guardian. Take care of each other and make certain that no harm comes to either of you.”
“How do you know this?”
“Bradel informed me all about your circumstance, including those marks on your arms. Don’t say a word about this, but,” the doctor leaned close to me and whispered, “I know how to get rid of the jauish curse. I had it once before. You have to let me join your quest if you want to hear more details.”
I was surprised to hear that we were not alone. But the question remained: why and how did this doctor receive this curse if the jaqae were only just arriving in the Fancore?
“Are you a part of Lux Invicta or something like that, doctor?”
“I used to be. Now I reside with The Sorcery Allegiance, and no, I am not a teacher. I am a student in the college section of the Shimbian School which is hidden underground. If you’d like, I can bring you and-”
“Sui.” I reminded.
“Yes, Sui,” he redirected himself, “I can bring you there to see what it’s like.”
“Thank you, doctor. Um, you said you know the cure?”
“Oh, it’s not a cure,” the doctor said franticly, “it’s a bloody mess to find the damned artifact! But giving your social status, I measure you and your girl will do an excellent job following my instructions, now won’t you?”
With a nod, I curled my lip and listened to what he was about to say.
“I will return in three hours; I need you to wait for Sui to awaken. She should be awake in two and a half hours, but if she isn’t, that isn’t a good sign. You’ll need to call for the nurses right away and let them handle it no matter how much white magick, alchemy, and medical techniques you know. Are you with me so far?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m heading over to the Sorcery Allegiance lodge to grab a few things for our journey. We’re going to faraway places, so we’re going to have to go by airship to reach the Ingoggidonian space station in the high north. I would use a teleportation matt, but they’ve been confiscated by the government recently for some reason. A shuttle is our only option now.”
I had to stop him, “A space station? What the hell are you talking about?” He looked at me with a regretful and sympathetic look. He forgot that we knew very little about the outside of Rïdoranna and Shimbia, since we were kept in these lands for all our lives. To me it seemed as though this doctor had been through a lot of trauma and stress throughout his life. He dragged out his words as if carrying a ball and chain in his teeth.
A tragic event haunted his past, that was certain. Especially since he had been a victim to the jauish curse once before. The journey alone, for the antidote from this artifact he was speaking of must have been a tiring adventure to embark on. Quite earnestly, the man answered my curiosity about this space station, which I never heard the likes of before.
“A space station is like the aero-docks, only it sends travelers to other worlds through the dark depths of space, beyond the planet’s sky, in ships attached to rockets. You’ll see more when we get there. I’ll be back in a few hours. Follow the rules I set and we won’t have a problem, understood?”
“Yes, doctor.”
After he turned away, I walked back to Sui’s side to watch her until she awoke. She was actually livelier in her sleep than she had been in the jungle. She mumbled in her sleep a few words that I could not comprehend. But they seemed to be the same three words. With no indication or clue as to what she was saying, I had to just sit with her, and keep listening until she said something I could recognize.
An hour passed, and the sun was dimming through the windows with each passing minute. Sui was still asleep and the doctor told me not to do anything except call the nurses after two and a half hours. Soon enough before the dark of night, on the second hour, I fell asleep in the chair next to Sui and slept through that half hour. As equally comfortable as her, I felt replenished by the rest I had received. But it all came to an abrupt end when the doctor returned with a different outfit underneath his white coat. The cold shiver of failure ran through my body as I realized that I didn’t do as I was instructed. He took a look at Sui, listing a report aloud as he wrote it down. Two female nurses drew pictures of her wounds inside the depiction of a female body, illustrated on a sheet of paper. The nurses were excused soon after the doctor finished writing his report, and then he spoke to me again.
“Why didn’t you call the nurses?”
“I fell asleep,” I admitted, regrettably.
“No matter. There’s something you can do for me. Since she still isn’t awake, you can be my assistant. This might as well be my last procedure in this hospital. Hand me that orchid over there. It’s a magicked orchid; it should help with her pain.”
I went to his tool desk and got the purple flower for him as he asked and right when he was about to wipe it across Sui’s wounds, he stripped her naked so that he could get a better look at what was going on with her entire body.
“It’s as I feared,” the doctor said with grief, “her skin is becoming more and more colorless from low-temperature blood. It’s a side effect that can prove fatal if untreated. I almost died from it.” I couldn’t help but claw my head in panic before the doctor calmly gave me directions. “We need to give her a heating blanket. It should bring her normal skin tone back, and quite possibly wake her. Go get one; they’re in the cupboard over there.”
He pointed to a cupboard decorated on the interior, with all sorts of medical equipment and tools racked upon the doors. I grabbed a heating blanket and ran back to him. He finished rubbing her skin with the orchid, so he covered her with the blanket and tucked it tightly under her. I watched as Sui’s face slowly darkened back to her natural and alluring pigmentation. Over time she eventually started to wake up, her eyes slowly opening and closing, probably trying her best to fight unconsciousness.
It took ten minutes for her to awaken, and when she finally did, she was unaware of where she was or what had happened before she passed out. To find out she was wrapped in a warm blanket, naked and smelling of orchids, was enough to make anyone utterly confused. But she knew exactly where she was when she got a chance to scan her surroundings.
“How long have I been out?” she asked politely, covering her breasts with the blanket.
“Sui Ozborn,” said the doctor, “you’ve been unconscious for nearly half a day. I suggest you get yourself dressed immediately; you and George are coming with me to Ingoggidon.”
“Ingoggidon, what’s at Ingoggidon?”
“I’ll explain later, Sui,” I assured her, putting my hand on her warm, bare, soft shoulder. “For now, let us depart from this facility. This doctor, well, he’s not just a doctor, he’s more than that.”
Sui nodded, got her equipment back on in a matter of minutes, and walked toward the doctor, who was rummaging through the drawers for his personal belongings. Sui approached with a mouth full of questions, “How are we going to get there? Airship perhaps? Where are my weapons? Is Bradel alright? Did he tell you anything about those jaqae? Oh,” she stopped and cuffed her mouth, “I said too much.”
With a shake of my head and a palm to my own face, I called Sui back over to my side to look at the corneas of her eyes. She was high as a kite in the mountain villages of D’Guños. Some sort of odd chemical side effect of the orchids had intoxicated her.
“Um, doctor,” I said with a chuckle, “I think she needs a moment.”
“Don’t you understand, boy; there’s no time! We have to make it to the aero-docks before the sun rises! We only have five, six, seven; we have eight hours before the ne
xt ship takes off for the tundra, and I don’t care to miss it, do you?”
“Well no, I-”
“Then hurry up and get ready to leave!”
I could tell by his drastic change in tone that this man despised being a doctor. In fact, I could feel the heat of his longing to forsake this job because of the excitement he was experiencing now that he was finally about to leave it all behind. And though I never asked or received his name, I found that I could trust him to be a reliable asset on our journey, just for his accusation of having the jauish brand before and knowing what it was. Äbaka and my family were going to have to wait for a long while, yet. There was so much that Sui and I had to do for ourselves before we continued our search for the lost wizard and my folks. If we were rendered insane from this curse’s final effects, then how would we ever do anything other than writhe in torment for the remainder of our meaningless lives? We were forced to forsake our previous mission for this new one.
I got all my things ready, and Sui got her belongings back in the ruff sack that I had to carry for so long, and then we departed, after signing out of the hospital. We followed the doctor to the waiting room where we found Bradel sitting in a lounge chair with a cheerful face to see that we were alright and well healed. He got up on his casted leg rather quickly and limped over to give us both a hug around our legs. As we were a bit rushed, I picked Bradel up off of the ground and followed the doctor out of the hospital.
Sui had a difficult time keeping balance, but she managed to keep up the pace in order to reach the aero-docks in time for the flight to Ingoggidon. As we jogged along the sidewalk, the streets appeared to be busier in the night than they were during the day, especially since it was a Friday night, when all the nightclubs were open for raves that young partygoers around the city enjoyed so much. Two dozen chariots raced around the block to entertain the local people who had nowhere else to go but the streets. We had to be careful not to be robbed, or ran over by a chariot. They had a habit of crashing into the crowd from making too sharp of turns.
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