The Stargazing Witch & The Dungeon Planet
Chapter 22: Visit

Chapter 22: Visit 

“Do you want to visit with us?” I asked.

“No… Not right now,” Tyell replied, looking down into the cup of water in his hand. “I… require a little more time.”

This was the conversation I had with my brother just before leaving the house to go to the hospital. Mella had finally stabilised and we could go visit her.

A part of me wanted to bring him along but I also knew he still needed time to himself. But I was only giving him a week, he needed to see Mella eventually.

It wasn’t a long trip to the hospital, the city’s authorities and infrastructure made sure there was no issue in the movement of traffic after the emergency. 

We entered the busy hospital and after scanning our entry on our phones, we moved to the waiting room. The hospital was very packed, mostly filled with survivors of the incident and now as well their families who came to visit. We sat in the waiting room for thirty minutes but for Tella who was fidgeting the entire time probably felt like it was hours. 

Ding

A notification appeared on our phones informing us it was time to visit. It gave us directions to her room.

As we neared the entrance to the room, a nurse walked towards us “Hello you must be Mella’s family… right?” A little nervous in her speech and actions she seemed to be a relatively new worker. 

“Yes we are.” Mother spoke. We already came to an agreement that she would deal with most of the interactions that came our way… I may have still been a little nervous about getting spotted.

“Okay then, feel free to enter… oh and you may enter anytime in the future as well.” The nurse spoke, half forgetting what she was supposed to say.

We entered the room and saw two beds on the right side of the room with patients resting, but near the entrance on the left side was one bed with my sister in it.

“Mum… Sis?” Mella asked, tired and out of breath, she looked deathly pale. Mella's clothes were changed into a black patient gown. She tried crawling up the bed to get a better view of Mum, and me–who was hiding my face with the hoodie.

Mother ran right up next to the bed and held Mella’s remaining hand. “My sweet child! Thank the spirits that you are alive…” Mother began to tear up as Mella could only weakly watch.

An oozy sludge of pain swelled around in my gut, as I continued to examine Mella’s wounds. There was a medically clean stub just below her left shoulder and above where her left kneecap should be. Burn marks littered her body, but they were mostly centralised and spread from her right extremities, thankfully most of them should heal and disappear within the week with proper treatment.

Looking over the burns, I remembered the ones on my arms that were currently covered by my jumper, just glad Mella would be able to get treatment quickly and wouldn’t have to deal with the recurring pains.

However looking over Mella, something didn’t feel right. An itch in ooze in my subconscious gut was telling me so, something wasn’t exactly right with what I was looking at. So I used my soul pressure in alternate form, keeping the pressure part light I scanned over her soul. If there was something wrong with her body it would be up to the doctors to find that.

What’s wrong with her…

This wasn’t the first time I felt this feeling. On a few rare occasions on Espoiramissa I noticed this feeling when I faced certain monsters and once when I encountered the soul mirror… 

Why can’t I find anything?

Not finding anything should’ve made me happy, however the one common trait amongst all the creatures that gave me this sickly feeling was that their souls were damaged or disfigured. 

No damages… and it's still in its regular shape.

Soul pressure couldn’t truly damage other souls–even if it could hurt them–but using it correctly did allow the user to determine the shape of or find other souls, which was great for tracking. 

“Doctors said…” Mella's voice went quiet, then she spoke again trying really hard to speak louder “DOCtors said I will be all better in a weeK! And I will be able to come hommeee real soon… JusT need decided on replac–” As she spoke Mella’s eyes slowly closed and her mouth rested open, no longer speaking.

“Mella?” My Mum asked, proceeding to move closer when no response was heard, while I just stayed there stuck within my own thoughts.

“Mella, you okay? Mella!” She started to panic.

The newbie doctor walked from the back of the room and asked Tella to calm down, “Please stop worrying, everything will be okay.” 

Tella breathed a sigh of relief, only to continue panicking when Mella started to shake.

Mother yelled, “You said she has stabilised?!” 

“And she has… but she has been in a constant state of going in and out of consciousness…” The newbie doctor started to run her mouth.

I wasn’t visibly panicking but I also wasn’t saying anything, just staring at my sleeping sister. I only had one other individual to ask for information in this situation.

Espr do you know what the problem is?

(“ Well. What do you understand about trauma? ”)

Espr answered and my brain went into overdrive thinking about the problem. ‘When did trauma affect one's soul, how is it affecting Mella’s, how did the doctors not find the problem, the accident is affecting her soul but in what way…?’

So I asked. How is trauma causing Mella’s current condition? Millions have had trauma before but doctors said this is the first time they’ve had a case like this.

(“ That’s the tricky thing about it, strong trauma can be a great boon or curse for whomever it touches. For some trauma can help them visualise a phenomenon or item better, requiring less mana and concertation to use a skill ”)

…

(“ On the other side of the spectrum, it can make it harder to use skills or learn abilities related to what caused the trauma, as the soul instinctively tries to push away against those skills from forming ”)

I spent a few moments processing the information just told to me while Espr just kept on speaking, as its deep male voice shifted to a female sounding tone.

(“ To be honest this particular case has excited me. Not once on my surface has this happened and I’ve never heard about it happening either through my connections ”)

My hand lifted over my mouth as I realised what was happening. The fear of fire is making a negative reaction with her fire based skill that was forming.

Quickly I started to blame myself. Maybe if I didn’t use fire she wouldn’t have chosen a Vocation that had it or if I didn’t try to sway her opinion. If I just got to her faster…

I lightly shook my head. Clearing away those useless negative thoughts. I needed to focus, Mella needed me.

How bad is it currently? I asked.

(“ I wouldn’t recommend letting her see fire ”)

Fuck…

Mum kept trying to get more information out of the doctor but it was going as well as slamming one's head against a mana reinforced metal wall. The doctor kept rambling about all the other issues Mella was experiencing and how they had no idea of the cause, but they expected her to recover real soon.

Espr, is there anything I can do to help?

(“ Nope ”)

Espoiramissa replied with an answer I expected.

(“ But there is something I can do. I can soothe out her soul and complete the skill’s formation, there will still be the issue of her learning any additional fire skills ”)

…

Only to then give a response I was slightly expecting and dreading.

I didn’t respond for a while, just standing next to Mella, my small unconscious little sister.

Will you do it?

(“ For a price of course, 30 levels added to [Primal Guardian Lord] ”)

…I… need to think about it.

After my answer Espr didn’t respond back and left me to my own devices.

I stayed by Mum and Mella’s side for a while longer, regretting not saying ‘Hello’ at least when I had the chance. But after two hours had passed I needed some room to think, “I’ll be back later tonight Mum.”

“!” Mother turned in shock, she asked concerned “You okay?”.

“Yes… I just need to think about a few things.”

“Okay, just be safe.”

“‘Course…”

I left the hospital and checked my phone, where I saw multiple new messages from Ketty and Mern. Mostly about the incident and a worry for my safety.

I’ll visit them later.

Once I reached home, before I made my way to my secondary room–the backyard–I took a fast glance into Tyell’s room to check he was okay.

Sleeping, good… I softly smiled and walked outside to think.

Multiple hours had passed and Mum wasn’t home and I hadn’t come to a decision yet about Espr’s deal. Thirty levels was a lot and with that [Primal Guardian Lord] level would have doubled since returning to Metous.

If I did accept the deal I would need to double down on my stance on not using either skills for now on. However, I didn’t know what the future entailed, so anything could happen which would require me to use either skill. I did have some plans though about what I could do to avoid using those skills. Getting some actual good equipment for one, the encounter with Hood made me remember humans developed tools for a reason and there was no reason to die just because I was too cocky in the strength of my own body. 

Being more strategic and being the one to attack Dominous Hood instead of the other way around would help. How well would any of these plans actually plan out? Wasn’t sure. But I needed to find good information on where Dominous Hood base of operation was and some allies to track them…

“Fuck, it’s probally time to contact Beatrice…” Thinking about allies made me think about my friend from long ago.

Pulling out my phone I didn’t message and just went straight to calling, I’m not sure why I did that. I stood off the ground and sat on the chair left in the yard.

Beep Beep

Beep Beep Ding

Beep Ding Ding

Finally the phone answered and after a brief moment of silence, “...Elly?” a mature quiet voice came from the phone, almost pleading in its delivery. 

I calmly replied, “It’s been a long time, Beatrice.”

“It’s... reall-yyou?” Crying, no, a loud sobbing began pouring out. While I just stood there in silence.

A prompt popped up on the phone, a request for visuals.

… haa okay, let’s do it.

Pressing confirmation, I readied myself.