43 - Lethe

Julian wasted no time after respawning, and immediately began casting to open a portal to the Oasis. He waited the twenty seconds in mental agony, because he had no idea how long he had been out this time, and it seemed to him like every time he died, he had to wait an ever longer time before coming back to life, probably due to his higher level. And he had no recall of what happened during the time he was out or if he even was conscious during it. With no way to tell the time, all the anxiety and worry for Cal was crashing down on him all at once.

The portal to the Oasis opened in the middle of the prairie, and Julian disappeared inside its swirling energies. He did not even check if he still had the ring with the Renegade Core on him or if he had lost it to the nuclear explosion, instead immediately running towards the central lake in the Oasis with barely a pause to regain his SP. Cal was nowhere to be found, and with no idea of how much time had passed, a growing suspicion began to assail Julian’s mind. What if it was too late? He looked around, running the whole length of the lake and the surrounding palm tree forest. Then he spotted him, lying unconscious under the shade of a great tree at the edge of the grove.

“Shit!” he ran up to him and checked his pulse. “Okay, you’re still alive. Good. There’s still time.”

He ran an appraisal on Cal. If he could get some information about the strange illness that was eating at him from the inside, then maybe… but no, no information was gained, just as usual.

Of course, it doesn’t work.

He lifted his friend and took him downstairs, to his lab, taking the hidden elevator next to the lake. The platform descended towards the dark abyss, only dimly lit by the faint shine of magic crystals and beeping technology, until it stopped to rest. The electric lights came to light on their own, powered by an unseen reactor feeding off Crystal Cores, the few that were left. Julian ran along the wide corridors with Cal in his arms, breathing erratically. There was a room at the end of the corridor, a wide space that was barely furnished and served as storage for all the assorted loot Julian had still to sort through.

“Wait here, there must be something that can help you in this pile.” Julian told the unconscious Cal after laying him down on the floor with his head propped up. He didn’t have anything to cover him with, but the air was warm enough in here, he hoped.

He had no idea how long Cal had been unconscious, but his condition was not looking good. He was pale, his skin turned to almost complete white by the strange illness that had overtaken him, and right now he looked scarily similar to the creatures they encountered at Mesa village pouring out of the church after he blew it up with the explosives. He didn’t even want to think about the possible implications of such a connection, and instead he rummaged through the mountains of treasure in the middle of the room, searching for anything he could use. He discarded the weapons, the swords and bows of exquisite elven make, the maces and armor sets he looted from the White City, and the mountains of jewels and precious metals. On a side were a great many bottles, potions, and antidotes, but none that he had not already tried to use with no success.

“I just need to appraise them; see which ones I can use.” He mumbled.

He began to appraise them all, downing MP flask after MP flask to replenish his spent magic as he kept going over every single treasure he had that looked like it could help. Soon the flasks, talismans and many amulets all lay in a great discarded pile to one side of the room and none of them offered the kind of help he needed. Then he recalled something about the armor sets and went over them, hoping that at least one of them offered some sort of resistance bonus, or an HP bonus, if worn. Finally, he found one that gave the wearer 30% bonus HP.

He slowly stripped Cal and fitted him with the armor, then moved him back to the surface, and watched him until he too fell asleep with his arms crossed.

“J-Julian?” Cal asked weakly.

Julian’s eyes shot open. “Cal! Cal, how are you feeling?”

Cal groaned, trying to move but without having the strength to do so, especially inside the heavy armor he had been made to wear.

“Weak. Thirsty.”

“Here, drink some water.” Julian said, offering a jug of fresh water from the lake. “You need to eat too.”

Cal shook his head violently. “No. Just the thought of food makes me sick.”

“You’re not well, Cal. I don’t know what to do.” Julian confessed.

Cal looked at him and smiled. “I’ll be fine.”

Julian’s face wore his sorrow without hiding it.

“You won’t. You’re a bad liar, Cal.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” He laughed weakly.

Julian laughed too, but when his friend began to cough, he just watched him with sad, drooping eyes.

“I have tried everything.” He explained. “But I just don’t know what sickness you have. Maybe if we had more time I could go back to Mesa village, to research what happened there, what turned the other Tharlaxians into the creatures that we saw there. But… but…”

He paused. An idea came to him as he thought about stealing more time.

“You think I’m going to become like them?” Cal pulled him out of his thoughts.

“No, no. Of course not. I was just speculating. You’re going to be fine. I just need more time to find a solution, you hear me?”

“Julian,” he coughed again, and dark blood stained the edges of his mouth. “I… I don’t think I have much time. I can feel my life draining from me, my HP fall by the moment.”

“You can’t see the HP bar, can you?” Julian asked.

Cal was confused. “What?”

“Nor the status conditions, right?”

“Julian what are you…”

“Listen, maybe if I can manage to give you the same System I have… we can see what status condition you have, we can appraise it and learn how to dispel it!” he said, speaking fast.

“Julian… it’s not possible. You need to let go.”

He closed his eyes for a moment, and Julian almost died of sorrow when he didn’t open them back immediately. He rushed to his friend, and felt that there was still a weak pulse, that he was holding on, clinging to life even now.

“You little fucker.”

***

Cal’s eyes tried to focus on the source of the voice, but it was far away, like in a hazy dream. “Don’t you dare die on me.” Julian told him in his dreams. No, he tried to reply, but his mouth didn’t move. He thought he’d seen Julian come and go a great many times, each time looking older, different, changed. Wearing desert clothes, returning from Mesa village, Julian told him about his findings with increasing despair in his voice. Cal struggled to wake up. He looked at the face of his lover with a sweetness he could never have thought he’d feel.

“I was happy when I was with you.” He said, struggling to speak.

“What?” Julian rushed back to him, and lifted a pane of something like foggy glass, revealing the rest of the lab and the equipment. “What did you say?”

Cal’s hand caressed his face. “The beard looks nice on you.” He said. “How long have I been out?”

Julian clicked his tongue, sucking on his teeth. “Oh, just a couple of days. Don’t mind my beard. But… listen, I need you to hang on. I think I’m close. Go back to sleep, you hear me?”

But he wasn’t close, Cal knew.

The glass, foggy like with frozen dew, closed with a hiss, encapsulating the sleeping Cal in his tomb of steel and technology. Julian’s eyes lingered on the many bright blue tubes that fed into the stasis chamber, then he watched the display. It showed Cal’s heartbeat, at a rate of less than a beat per minute, very faint but clinging desperately to life. In the last year that single line, ever so slightly moving up and down in weak pulses, had been the only thing keeping Julian going. And as the line moved ever more faintly, he worked ever harder. For twenty days he had not slept, downing potion after potion, wearing treasures that offset the need for rest and sleep, and worked.

Mesa village was a fiasco, but there was still hope. A machine had been built, something that could cure everything and anything if it worked. Finally, the day came when he couldn’t wait any longer.

“Cal?”

Cal only moaned, stirring awake with tiny, barely perceptible movements.

“Cal! I think I got it. I can save you! Are you happy? It’s all going to be fine.” Julian said, and blinked the tears from his eyes.

He took Cal in a princess carry and brought him to the machine at the other end of the room. The hulking device occupied the whole space, almost looking like a gigantic reactor with the many crystals and tubes and liquids feeding into it. He put the withered body down in the cradle and inhaled.

“Well”, he began, “time to—”

“Julian.”

His head snapped back. “Cal? You’re awake. Good. That’s… good.”

“Julian, where am I?”

“You’re in a… machine. Don’t worry, I built it. You’re safe. Its going to heal you, you see. You’re going to be fine.”

Cal extended a shaky hand towards Julian. He took it, feeling the cold shriveled skin and bones try to squeeze his hand.

“Julian, please, listen to me. I want to tell you this before I die. I haven’t told you earlier because, well…” he paused to catch his breath. “I was scared, you know? Scared of finally allowing myself to be happy. But… now… Julian, I—”

“Stop it right there, silly goose. You don’t get to make a sentimental last speech, you understand? You don’t get to make it unless you are about to die, and nobody’s dying here, got it?” Julian was crying now.

Cal struggled to lift himself up from the cradle. “Julian… listen, please. Let me—”

“No!” Julian snapped at him. “You tell me once you get out, you hear me?” Julian yelled, blinking through the tears.

Cal just sank back into the cradle, and the machine slowly hissed awake as the heavy steel doors closed around Cal as if in a cocoon. Julian threw himself on the chair and wheeled towards the console, punching in the code to start the process. Inside the machine, in the blaring blue light of the magiconduits, Cal exhaled weakly.

“I love you.” He said, and his head fell back on the soft pillows of the cradle.

Outside, Julian finalized the starting sequence. He punched the last key and pressed enter.

WARNING. NO LIFE SIGNS DETECTED IN THE CRADLE. Screamed the screen.

Julian’s eyes went wide in shock. “No. No no no! Do it! Override! Start the process now!”

OVERRIDE CONFIRMED

The light was blinding, bleeding through the welded plates of the gargantuan machine, drawing in the power from the facility’s reactor and burning through all of the crystals that Julian had left to power it.

PROCESS FAILURE

A bead of sweat appeared on his cheek as his heart began to pound uncontrollably.

“Again.”

PROCESS FAILURE

“Again!”

PROCESS FAILURE

In the lab, the lights were dying one after the other, their power drawn to the machine.

PROCESS FAILURE

“Cal! Cal! Listen here you little shit! You need to survive, you hear me?”

PROCESS F-F-F-F---

Then every light left in the lab died, as did the machines, plunging the underground facility into total darkness. Julian took out a torch and rushed to the machine, trying to pry it open with his bare hands and struggling against the strong alloy of the thing, bleeding on the bare metal until it finally snapped open. What he then saw made him almost lose his mind.

A charred, desiccated body. Lifeless. Unmoving.

He stared at the remains of his friend, his lover, in utter silence. He had killed him, taking away from him even those last words he wanted to say before he died. He stared and breathed. The lab was silent, dark. The torch died, but Julian didn’t move.