“I’ll do my best, but I can’t guarantee anything,” Aida said dubiously before Levi interjected.

  “No, I’m sorry, she cannot. Can she please get her badge back?”

  “Please, it’s not a major favor,” the old man pleaded. “Especially not for a promising, esteemed practitioner such as her.”

  Aida knew it was mere empty flattery, especially from someone who was clearly living in poverty, but that didn’t mean it didn’t work on her.

  “Maybe I can just hear him out?” Aida asked Levi. She turned back to the old man apologetically. “I really can’t guarantee I can help, but I’ll do my best.”

  Levi sighed in frustration, running his hand through the locks of his evergreen hair. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Please come this way,” the old man hobbled with shocking speed through the crowd, Aida’s badge clutched in his hands.

  “Sorry for derailing your itinerary today, but at least we can do a good deed,” Aida said brightly to Levi as they followed the old man.

  “Don’t get your hopes up,” Levi gritted. “Let’s just hear him out and get your badge back. And let me do the talking.”

  “Aye aye, cap’n,” Aida said seriously, throwing him a salute as he looked at her with vexation.

  “Don’t say anything, and don’t do anything either; just stand still,” Levi commanded. “I won’t be able to explain away any of these odd habits of yours.”

  “Yessir.” Aida mimed zipping her lips shut and marched stiffly, her arms and legs completely straight like an automaton.

  “Stop it,” Levi hissed as he yanked Aida upright, as if she were a child.

  Aida did a good job at keeping herself composed and innocent, passing as a Wyndian, she thought, though Levi seemed to believe otherwise; he wouldn’t stop throwing her warning looks even though all she did was follow him docilely.

  Although she was forced to admit to herself that she could do a better job of paying attention to where they were going when Levi was forced to backtrack and rescue her for the third time when she got lost at an alley corner.

  “I’m just trying to plan our escape route,” she insisted stubbornly. She spun in a circle, casting a critical eye on their surroundings and committing to memory every crack spidering through the walls. “We don’t trust this old man, right?”

  “Please, just be quiet and get through this visit,” Levi begged quietly. “Let me worry about the escape route.”

  Aida looked at his anguished expression for a thoughtful moment before she nodded gravely and linked her arm through his, much to his relief. “I trust you.”

  The old man finally stopped at a completely secluded corner before he turned back towards them, rubbing his hands anxiously.

  “Ah, here you go,” he said, handing the graduation badge sheepishly back to Aida. “I’m sorry I was so aggressive—I was desperate, and wasn’t thinking clearly. I didn’t know how else to get you to listen sincerely, and for that, I’m sorry.”

  “What were you so desperate to talk to us for?” Levi asked ruthlessly, completely ignoring the old man’s rambling. Aida was interested to observe that he had positioned himself slightly in front of her, despite the old man seeming quite frail.

  He seemed genuinely apologetic.

  “I was hoping you would be able to help—I don’t have enough baen to go to a clinic, and no one else I’ve talked to has any other suggestion on what to do.” The old man blinked at them anxiously, seeming to speak more to Aida than to Levi, though he was careful to keep from crossing Levi’s invisible boundary. “Anything can help. Whether any of your insight, or if you know someone who is willing to help. Anything.”

  “What do you need help with?” Aida asked as Levi scoffed, clearly thinking it was a waste of time.

  “My wife—she went to sleep one star cycle ago, and then hasn’t woken up even once.” Tears welled in the old man’s eyes, but he continued gazing at Aida hopefully. “I got a Healer to come check on her, but he just prescribed rest, and hasn’t been willing to come to my home after the first visit.”

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  “She’s been asleep for a whole star cycle? She’s still breathing?” Something interesting started happening at this point; Aida felt as if her spirit, which previously had been in an exotic state of bliss, had suddenly gotten shackled back to her body, like a disobedient dog being jerked back on its leash.

  The old man nodded vigorously, his voice wavering. “She is absolutely still breathing. One of the young girls who works in a clinic as a caretaker has been very kind and provided me with some nutrition packs here and there, but—“ he choked back a sob as his voice cracked “—I worry that her body will fail soon.”

  Aida’s heart squeezed tightly, throwing off the rest of the cheerful haze the Tranquilwort had settled over her senses.

  “I don’t know how we can help,” Aida said hesitantly. “If she’s in a deep sleep…”

  Like Ezra? Her mind started humming, piquing her interest.

  “I’m sorry your wife is in such a condition,” Levi said brusquely. “But we really can’t help much. We aren’t trained in any Healing arts, so we can’t even give any recommendations beyond what you may already have received.”

  The tall young man dug through his bag, withdrawing a handful of coins that he held out to the hunched old man. “This is the most we can do. You can use this to buy more nutrition packs, or put it towards other costs.”

  The old man’s face crumpled at the sight of the currency, though he refused to take it.

  “Please, please come see her at least,” he begged. “I’d rather get an assessment from a real mana practitioner than take your baen. Even if you don’t have any healing knowledge, I just want to know.”

  The elder’s pathetic plea stirred Aida’s sympathy. “Is your place far from here?”

  “It’s not too far of a walk,” he replied, his eyes brightening with hope. He pointed down a nearby street. “We can just head that way and will be there soon.”

  “Please excuse us for a moment,” Levi said courteously as he pulled Aida away. The old man nodded, though he looked after them worriedly, as if expecting the two of them to dash.

  How can we escape, when we already came so far?

  “What are you doing? You’re not even in any condition to reliably use your powers,” Levi hissed.

  “There’s two of us,” Aida whispered back, glancing back at where the grandfatherly figure was standing. He was now pacing nervously, twisting his fingers as he kept peeking over at them. “And besides, I think the effects wore off. It also seems like his wife really does need help…”

  Levi exhaled. “You’re too soft-hearted. You’ll get tricked like this.”

  “But what if it’s true?” Aida argued back. “What if his wife is experiencing what Ezra is going through?”

  Levi wrinkled his nose. “Sounds to me like she would need help on the order of Professor Bruce’s level or another meditation Master, neither of which you are able to help with.”

  Aida bit her lip, looking back at the anxious old man. As much as she wished she could jump right into helping an innocent old woman, Levi had quite firmly dragged her back to reality.

  “What if,” Aida began haltingly. “We just…went to see her? He sounds desperate, like he just wants someone to show they care.”

  Catching Levi’s skepticism, she hurried on. “He already didn’t want your baen, so maybe, even if we can’t meaningfully help his wife, we can give him some comfort?”

  Levi sighed loudly, pinching his nose bridge. “I can see I can’t convince you otherwise. But make sure you keep your guard up—don’t let this guy out of your sight. I’ll watch our backs.”

  Aida nodded in agreement.

  ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

  Aida followed Ernie, as the old man introduced himself, into his low-ceilinged home. The doorway itself was so short that Levi had to duck in order to get in, and once he entered he kept his head ducked, despite being able to stand upright without banging his head into the ceiling.

  “If this place collapses and kills us, you can be certain you will never know peace in your next life,” Levi muttered. Aida giggled nervously in response.

  “Agnes is this way,” Ernie said urgently, not hearing Levi’s words. He hurried into a tiny bedroom just off from the large square of a living room, quickly pulling aside the ratty fabric to allow light in. “I keep the curtains closed when I’m gone, just to make sure the dust doesn’t fly in and settle on her face…”

  Sure enough, a wispy old woman lay on one side of the two-person bed, her crepe-y skin nearly translucent with how bloodless it looked. If it weren’t for the shallow rise and fall of her chest, it would have been easy to mistake the woman as already dead.

  “I haven’t been able to bring myself to sleep next to her,” Ernie said brokenly from beside his wife, where he was now crouching. He brushed her forehead gently with one finger. “I feel so guilty not being with her, but I’m afraid I might roll over her one night and…”

  Aida frowned as she pulled up the Heal overlay of the woman. She wasn’t even close to being as physically healthy as Ezra, as expected from a woman who looked to be in her late sixties or early seventies. Nevertheless, if the overlay hadn’t declared the woman’s body as healthy as it could be with its bright green outlines, Aida would have tried to convince the man to make funeral arrangements instead.

  “I’m sorry, I can’t see anything wrong with her,” Aida said as she shook her head sympathetically. She frowned as she reached for the woman’s wrist. “It’s odd, because even though her body is healthy…”

  She shut her eyes, feeling for any little pulse of life in the woman’s body. She could feel the faint heartbeat of the physical body, but she was struggling to sense any sort of life force in her body.

  Frowning, Aida reached for Ernie’s wrist with her other hand to compare.

  It’s there. It’s faint, but I can feel his mana…

  “What is it?” Levi approached warily, leaning over Aida’s shoulder to see what she was doing.

  I can feel Levi’s mana, too, and it feels normal. So the Tranquilwort’s effects have worn off already…

  “…I can’t feel any of her life force at all.”