Luckily, no more attacks came on their way home.

Lexie called her dad while they were in the van to let him know what happened and also to let him know that she was okay.

He seemed to have a hard time believing that last part.

"Dad, I'm fine," Lexie said for what felt like the umpteenth time.

"How can you be fine?" His voice was tense, angry. "You almost got kidnapped and got shot at!"

"Yeah, but I didn't get hurt. Mide and Nathan took good care of me." Both of the bodyguards acknowledged Lexie with a single glance while busy on their separate calls. "More importantly, Tate's here and he's seriously sick. I was wondering if you could come to the Firebringer infirmary to see him."

"Of course. I was coming anyway after what you told me. I need to see you myself to make sure that you're unharmed."

Lexie smiled. "I really am fine, Dad, but I'm glad you're coming. I thought you'd have some work this evening, though, don't you?"

"I do. You wouldn't believe the mountains of papers and practicals I have to grade, and at least three of my students require extra tutoring. But that's neither here nor there. You're more important than my job."

Lexie blushed. "Okay then. I'll see you soon. Bye."

After she hung up, she tuned into the bodyguard's conversations. Mide was on the phone with Mane, telling him what happened, and also mobilizing security back at the mansion, just in case they got followed home.

On the other hand, Nathan was routinely coordinating with Tamsin's convoy, ensuring they weren't being followed. So far, it had been smooth sailing for them, but he was still on edge.

"Alright. I'll check back in a few," Mide said as she hung up.

When she did, she glanced at Nathan, who was rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"What is it? You only make that face during your rare moments of deep thought."

Nathan didn't smile at the joke, too distracted. "This is weird."

"What is?"

"The situation. I mean, if this were an attack against a Firebringer, you would think they would be more likely to go after Ralph and Aoife rather than us, you know? Because Tamsin's with them."

"We were easier targets, because we're driving this crappy security van, not a fully decked out Road Rocket."

"Yeah, but still. To not even make an attempt on them is weird."

Guilt slowly trickled in as a light bulb went off in Lexie's head.

"I think I know why," she said. "I think maybe they were after me instead."

Mide glanced back. "What would they be after you for?"

"I don't know. I just know that someone wants me dead, and he's been trying for a while."

Mide's eyes widened, which made Lexie wonder how much exactly her dad had told Stella about the situation, and how much Stella herself had told the bodyguards.

"Do you know this person who's trying to kill you?"

Lexie shook her head. "Nope."

"It's not a villain your dad pissed off?"

"I don't think so because my dad doesn't know him either. I've only seen him once or twice, but then I lost my memory and don't remember exactly why he hates me. I do know he's dangerous."

"And clearly well-connected. I caught a glance at some of the guys we just blasted, and they were from Roman Atsky's gang."

"Who's Roman Atsky?"

"Real nasty fella. They deal with a lot of black market potions and such. Roman himself has contacts high up in government, which is how he evades arrest."

"Oh." That was good to know. Maybe Lexie and her dad could start looking into Roman and his link to the Pirate.

Lexie still felt guilty about causing all this, so she added, "Sorry for the trouble."

"Don't sweat it." Nathan waved. "It was nice to get some exercise for a change, right Mide?"

Mide shot him a withering look before shaking her head and taking another call, presumably from Stella.

As they drove, Lexie kept her attention on Tate.

She tried not to think about him potentially dying en route, trying to stay positive.

Hr mind clung to productivity as a distraction, so she imagined what she could have done to help him if she had the right card for it. Like a card that kept the oxygen moving in his lungs, or kept his heart beating, or something. There were so many possibilities, and now that she knew that body cards were viable, all she had left to do was to figure out how to make them for mundanes, too.

And also, how to give them healing skills.

Tate would be meeting a healer today. Perhaps Lexie could survey his pathways while he worked on Tate.

Her thoughts kept her occupied for the most part, even though she still had moments where her chest clenched with dread.

To her relief, they finally arrived at the Firebringer infirmary, a brick bungalow surrounded by miles of grass, and sitting behind the hill, on the other side of which was the Firebringer Estate.

The infirmary was also protected by its separate security forcefield, and as they approached on a lonely, grassy trail, medics in white robes walked out, surrounding a man in a black robe.

Nathan parked the van in front of the forcefield and got out to carry Tate in.

"We'll all have to walk through one by one," Mide told Lexie as they too climbed out of the car. "We'll get scanned for communicable diseases."

Lexie nodded.

Nathan went first with Tate through the forcefield. It bent inwards slightly, like a bubble right before it burst, and offered some resistance to Nathan, but within a couple of seconds, they popped through.

"Whatever he has isn't contagious," Mide said, with relief reflected in her tone. "You were right."

She went through next, and Lexie followed, both of them popping through the bubble with little hassle.

As the healer and three medics focused on wheeling Tate inside on a gurney, one of the medics took Lexie aside and asked for access to her system screen.

Lexie gave access, and he ascertained that nothing was wrong with her. Then Lexie was free to follow Tate and the medics into the building.

As they walked through the lobby, Lexie surveyed the walls, which were painted in black and white stripes with splashes of red, here and there that resembled blood. The furniture and medical tools were also painted in the same shade of blood red, with black accents everywhere.

This place didn't look like a medical center, certainly not like Emma's Healing house with pristine white walls and sterile metal tools.

If anything, it looked like a morgue, combined with a haunted house.

"This is a healing center?" Lexie asked Mide as they walked.

She smirked. "Yes, but it's also Saint John's playhouse, so he gets to decorate it however he wants."

"Who's Saint John?"

"That would be me," The healer in black called as he shouldered open a door leading into a hospital room and motioned for them to transfer Tate onto the bed.

"He's not a real Saint," Nathan said, hands in pocket. "He just likes to call himself that."

"I would have been a Saint," St. John said. "If my educational priests weren't so damn close-minded. But just because I'm a little unorthodox and wouldn't let them shove their hand in my ass and use me like a puppet, suddenly I don't have what it takes to be a Saint anymore."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I mean, language like that probably didn't help," Mide quipped. "Not to mention the fact that you didn't pass the 'essential goodness of heart' portion of your Saint tests."

"Hey, I'm a good person. I'm just not a stupidly good person. But whatever. That chapter of my life is closed. I just kept the title anyway because 'Saint John' has a nice ring to it, and sounds better than just 'John'." He spread his arms theatrically, closing his eyes and lifting his head to the sky. "Now, let me focus."

He inhaled deeply, then gradually lowered his hand and carefully hovered it over Tate's body, a glow appearing in his hands.

Lexie closed her eyes too, shifting surreptitiously closer to the healer so she could more properly visualize his pathways in his hands.

It took her a few seconds, nearly a minute to do so, and when she did… the image she got was shocking.

The pathways in his hands were shifting erratically, more quickly than she could follow.

They were twisting around dramatically, as though they completely lacked the defined structure that most other pathways did. It adopted drastically different shapes.

Lexie didn't know if it was happening automatically or if the healer was controlling it, but she knew the way healing worked in theory was that the pathway in the hand was trying to figure out the best way to remove the disease from Tate's body and bring it into theirs where their magic could then conjure up a cure for it, that it would then push back into Tate.

Perhaps the shifting pathways were trying to mirror Tate's damaged pathways in order to figure out exactly what was wrong.

However, after about two minutes of doing this, the shifting stopped as the hand dropped.

Lexie opened her eyes in time to see Saint John look at her. "This is a friend of yours?"

"Yeah?" Lexie said. "Why?"

"His pathways are damaged. Badly. I'm not sure what he did to them, but many of them are atrophied and twisted in the wrong orientation, or just plain old DBR. Damaged beyond repair."

Lexie's hands wrapped together, gripping to keep them from shaking as sudden fear flooded her. "So what does that mean?"

"Well, plain and simple, his body is dysfunctional now. Pathways aren't just there to support mana usage; they support life and all our life functions. So the pathways in his muscles atrophying mean that his muscles start to act dysfunctionally. Random twitches. Headaches. It can and will eventually lead to paralysis and then atrophy of the muscles. More worrying than that is the pathways around his organs, his heart, and so on. Those are deteriorating too, though not quite as fast."

"No." Lexie shook her head in pure denial. "That can't be. He just told me he was sick."

"He's more than just sick. He's dying."

Air rushed out of Lexie's lungs. She didn't want to believe it.

It was so much worse than she had thought.

Somehow, when Tate had told her that he was dying, she hadn't taken it as seriously as she probably should have. If anything, she'd thought maybe he was exaggerating, or maybe he just didn't have enough money to see a good healer. That was what he'd implied anyway, that he needed money for a cure.

She'd also suspected that maybe he was just plain old lying.

But now...

St. John was a good healer. He was almost a Saint, and only the best healers got to be Saints. That meant that his words carried a much heavier weight.

If he thought Tate was dying, then Tate was most definitely dying.

What was more worrying was the steady look in his eyes. The fact that he wasn't hurrying to fix it.

"So what can we do?" Lexie demanded. "How much would it cost to fix his pathways?"

Saint John glanced at Mide, then at Nathan. They all had that same look on their faces, each one waiting for someone else to break the news.

Lexie had asked the questions, but a sinking feeling told her she knew what his answer would be, even before he shook his head.

"I'm not sure there's much that we can do," he said. "The damage has already been done, and it will get much worse with time. It will put a strain on more of his organs, and eventually, the pathways will all fail completely. His organs will begin to shut down, one by one. There's no cure for him. The only thing we can do is make the process a little more comfortable."

"Oh, please. Please don't say that." Lexie's despair grew rapidly, making her voice sound panicky. "He said there was a cure. I thought healers were supposed to be able to heal everything."

"Almost everything," he said quietly. "But whatever caused this is beyond my skills. I'm sorry."

Lexie's breath hitched, and she felt her eyes water. She didn't want to cry in front of the healer and the medics and the bodyguards, all giving her pitying looks.

She didn't want to lose it right now.

She tried to swallow it back, and a wave of devastation hit her so hard that it almost washed her away.

"There has to be something you can do," she choked out, trying to breathe and not succumb to the panic driving her. "We can get a second opinion. Maybe it's just you."

It was pretty insulting to say that in hindsight, but Lexie wasn't in the presence of mind to care right now, and to his credit, the healer didn't look offended.

Saint John sighed. "Right now, what I can do is heal his bruises and give him some IV fluids. He hasn't been eating, and he's weak. I can also give him options to manage his pain levels and help him live comfortably for a year or so. That's about how long he has left."

Lexie didn't want to believe it. She was still shaking her head. Still in denial.

Her desperation grew, engaging the dark side of her. Human and Eldritch twisted together to form an indescribable emotion, hot like wrath but heavy like misery, so strong that she wanted to level the building.

Lexie took a step back and drew in deep breaths. The tips of her fingers tingled. Eldritch thoughts whispered.

She couldn't lose it. Not right now.

She still had hope. Her dad was coming.

Lexie sat with Tate until her father arrived. The medics left, and the bodyguards were standing out in the hallway, keeping watch.

After about thirty minutes, the door opened, and Lexie shot to her feet, even before Aiden burst through the doors of the hospital room.

"Dad," Lexie said.

"Honey bee."

Aiden first looked over Lexie, ensuring she had no injuries, before he turned to Tate.

With great gloom, Lexie told him everything the healer had told her, hoping to hear her father interject that there was some hope for Tate.

But his face was remarkably somber when she was done.

"Dad?" she requested softly.

He shook his head, understanding what she was asking without her saying it. "I'm not sure I can, bumble bee."

Lexie bit her lip, her emotions threatening to soar out of control. She tamped it down again. "Please? Not even with…you know…" There was no one around them, but Lexie still didn't want to risk saying it, just in case.

"No, not even with that." His voice was a whisper. "Healing is a very complex discipline, something more intrinsic than learned. Even if one were a master of alchemy, it would take years to perfect that kind of thing."

Lexie's soul fell through the ground.

Ages, he said. Tate didn't have years.

Lexie lifted her hand to her mouth, but her mind still wasn't ready to accept the inevitable conclusion. She fought it, fought the tears even as they slid out anyway.

Her dad drew her into a hug, patting her back.

"I told him you could help him," she whispered, tears making her voice thick.

"I know. I'm sorry." He brushed his hand over her hair, and even as she silently cried, Lexie kept her eyes on Tate.

While her father went out to talk to the healer, Lexie stayed with Tate, holding his hand. It was warmer than before. His bruises had healed, and a steady diet of IV fluids was being fed into his body as well. Some color was returning to his cheeks, and he was groaning in steadier intervals now.

Finally, he opened his eyes.

It was slow. Lexie watched his eyes squint and then flutter open, his glassy gaze on the ceiling.

His eyes were blank for several seconds, and then he gradually turned his head left to where Lexie was.

It took another few seconds for awareness to dawn. "Am I dreaming?"

Lexie shook her head. "No."

"Where am I?"

"You're at an infirmary. At the Firebringer's."

His eyes narrowed, and he immediately tried to jerk up, then groaned in pain, his upper body dropping back to the bed.

"Don't move so suddenly," she said, "You'll hurt yourself even more."

"Why am I here?" He spoke in breaths with his nose flaring to control the pain.

The doctor said you've been bruised and also that your pathways are …" Lexie couldn't finish the sentence, but Tate caught on. He gave her a rare smile.

"So they told you."

Lexie swallowed and nodded. "They told me."

"I was wondering why you look like you've been crying." His gaze dropped to their hands that were still joined, and he murmured thoughtfully, "Don't tell me you're actually crying about little old me?"

"Shut up." Lexie's voice lacked heat. "I wasn't crying."

"Yeah, you were." He scoffed, but a glint of warmth flashed through his jaded countenance. "Now, do you want to tell me why I'm in the home of Torin Firebringer? Never thought the two of you would get along so quickly."

"Our parents get along."

"So you deny that you and Torin are friends?"

"Well, he's my mentor."

He chuckled darkly, still looking at their hands. "Of course."

"Why don't you like Torin?" Lexie asked.

"What makes you think I don't like him?"

"It's in your tone whenever you talk about him. It feels personal. Does it have anything to do with the Chosen stuff? Or the game?"

Tate sighed and closed his eyes.

"The damn game," he whispered.

Lexie waited for him to elaborate, but he seemed like he wasn't about to.

"What's a fate point?"

Tate's eyes flashed open, emeralds darting with shock.

"One of my professors mentioned it," she said. "He knows about the Chosen program and implied that I shouldn't run out of Fate Points." Lexie still didn't want to admit to her dream about Tate, so she used Madswick as her reason. "I was going to find out what it was with Isaac today, but I figured it would be quicker to ask you if you would tell me."

Tate's Adam's apple bobbed as he gulped. Lexie figured he was now thinking of a way out of this, or an excuse that he could use for why he couldn't tell her.

To her surprise, he squeezed her hand and exhaled.

"I guess I should tell you," he said and stared at the ceiling, pursing his lips. "Once, you asked me what the Heroes Online game was about, and who we played as?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm going to turn it back on you. If this were a game, who do you think the main characters are?"

"Well, I already know my Dad's a main villain, right?" she asked.

Tate shrugged. "I guess. And who do you think the hero would be?"

She thought about it. "I'm not sure."

"It's Torin," Tate said in a low tone. "Torin Firebringer is the main character, and Heroes Online is told mostly from his perspective."

Tate seemed to think about his next words deeply, considering the ceiling above him.

"He's also the one who ends up killing your dad."

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