Date: January 1, 2018 | Time: 12:05 PM
Location: High-Street Medical Ward – Sylvaris
Perspective: Eve
My lungs are burning. Every breath feels like I'm swallowing needles, and my arms are shaking so violently I'm terrified I'll drop her. Lily feels so light—like she's made of feathers and glass.
The blood on my scarf and dress has gone from warm to a sticky, cloying cold.
Move, Eve. Don't you dare stop. Your legs hurt? Who cares. Your heart is racing? Let it. If you stumble now, that little girl's life is on you.
You're always so worried about being 'proper' and 'quiet,' but right now, you need to be a wall that death can't climb over. Faster. Please, just a little faster.
I burst through the heavy double doors of a clinic, the chime of the bell sounding like a death knell. The air inside is sharp with the scent of crushed herbs and medicinal alcohol.
"Please! Ah—um, help! It's an emergency!" I cry out, my voice cracking.
A woman in a clean white tunic rushes forward, her eyes widening as she sees the blood staining my pink hair and the child in my arms. She doesn't ask questions.
She takes us into a small ward, and I lay Lily down on a crisp, white sheet that is instantly ruined by the red.
Finn is right there, hovering over the bed, his face a mask of snot and tears. He grabs Lily's limp hand, his voice a broken whisper.
"Lily? Lily, I'm sorry... I shouldn't have been so mean about the game. I won't talk back to the big men again, I promise. Just... just wake up. Don't be mad. Please don't stay asleep."
The healer's hands begin to glow with a soft, pale green light.
I stand back, my hands clasped so tightly over my mouth that my knuckles are white. I watch as the gash on Lily's head slowly knits together. The bleeding stops. The skin closes.
Thank the gods. It's working. She's going to be okay. I'll give her my cake when she wakes up. I'll buy Finn a new toy. Everything is going to be—
The healer pulls her hands away, her face pale. She looks at me, and my heart drops into the pit of my stomach.
"The head wound is closed," she says, her voice strained.
"But I... I can't help her anymore."
"What do you mean?" I gasp, stepping forward. "You're a healer! You have to save her life! She's just a little girl! Look at her, she's still so pale!"
"My name is Elara," she says, her voice trembling slightly.
"I'm a C-ranked healer, miss. I can mend skin and knit bone, but her internal organs... they're ruptured. The bleeding is inside where my mana can't reach. That's something only B or A-rank healers can manage. It's... it's out of my limits."
Limits? How can a life have limits? She's dying right in front of us because of a 'rank'? It's not fair. It's so cruel. I'm standing in a room full of medicine and magic, and it's all useless because of a letter in a book.
"What can we do?" I ask, my voice sounding small and hollow.
"There has to be someone."
Elara bites her lip. "I can call for a higher-ranked specialist from the inner circle. But... it's a private request. It will be very pricey. He'll charge at least 20 silvers just to step foot in this ward."
20 silvers.
I feel like I've been punched in the stomach myself. I only have a few silvers left. 20 silvers is a fortune for someone like me—it's a mountain.
Just then, the door bursts open again. The other three children rush in, followed by a man and a woman. The man is wearing a heavy, stained leather vest—a construction worker, his hands calloused and covered in grey dust. The woman is already wailing, her hands reaching out for the bed.
"Lily! My baby!" she screams, collapsing at the bedside.
The father stands there, his shoulders slumped, his eyes fixed on his daughter's pale face. He looks like a man who has worked his entire life just to keep a roof over their heads, and now he's watching the only thing that matters slip away.
He looks so... so poor. So helpless.
Look at them. They don't have 20 silvers. They probably don't even have 20 coppers after paying for those patched shoes. If I don't do something, they're going to lose her. They'll go home to a house that's empty, and it'll be because I was too 'shy' to step out early.
I look down at my hand. The ring—the only thing I have left of my past, my only ticket to the Asura Empire—shimmers in the dim light.
Stop being a coward, Eve. A piece of metal isn't worth a mother's tears.
I stand by the wall, watching the light from the healer's hands fade away. Lily is still so pale, her small chest rising and falling in shallow, desperate hitches.
Elara, the healer, turns to the parents. Her expression is a jagged knife of pity.
"I've stabilized the head trauma, but her internal organs... the impact was too much. If a B-rank healer doesn't arrive within the hour to perform a deep-mending, she won't make it to sunset."
"No... no, please!" Lily's mother collapses onto the bed, her fingers clutching her daughter's limp hand. Her voice is a raw, jagged sound that tears through my heart.
"She's only 9! She's just a baby! You can't tell me she's going to die because of some... some rank!"
The father, his face covered in the grey dust of the construction site, looks like he's aged twenty years in seconds. He grabs Elara's sleeve, his voice thick with a terrifying desperation.
"I'll pay. I swear on my life, I'll pay! I've got work at the new cathedral spire. The month just started—I'll give you every silver from my paycheck. I'll work nights! I'll do anything! Just call him."
"Call the high healer!"
"I need 20 silvers upfront," Elara whispers, her eyes downcast. "The specialists... they won't even leave the inner circle without the deposit. It's the law of the guild."
"20 silvers?" The father's hand drops. His voice breaks. "That's... that's more than I make in few months. How can it cost a year of work to save a child's life?"
"Sister Elara! Please!" Finn cries out, his small hands diving into his pockets. He pulls out a handful of battered, dull bronze coins and slams them onto the wooden table.
"I have these! Take them! I-I won't buy bread for a week! Just save Lily!"
The other children scramble forward, their eyes red and puffy. "I have two coppers!" one girl sobs, dumping her meager treasure next to Finn's.
"We'll go home! We'll ask our neighbors! We'll bring every copper we find!"
Lily's mother frantically fumbles with her wrists, pulling off two thin, tarnished brass bangles.
"These... they aren't much, but maybe... maybe a merchant would give a silver for them? Please, take them!"
I look at the table. A pile of copper and bronze. It's the entire world to these children, but I know the math. It's a drop of water in a desert. 2,000 coppers make 20 silvers. They don't even have 50. My chest aches so much I can barely stand.
This world is so heartless. If you aren't strong, if you don't have the gold, you just... you just lose everything you love. Is this why people become adventurers? Is this why people become monsters? Just to avoid being this helpless?
I can't watch them beg anymore. I can't watch that little girl fade away while they count coppers.
I step forward, my hand trembling as I reach into my pouch. I pull out my last 2 silver coins and place them on top of the pile of bronze. The bright, clean ring of the silver against the wood makes everyone go silent.
"I'll manage the rest," I say, my voice surprising me with its sudden steadiness.
"I have 2 here. I just need 18 more. I'll go out. I'll ask... I'll find a way."
The father looks at me, his eyes wide with shock. "Miss... why? You don't even know us. Why would a stranger give up her last silvers for our Lily?"
I look at Lily, her face so similar to the memories I try to keep buried. "I may not know her," I whisper, a tear finally escaping and rolling down my cheek.
"But every child has the right to live. I'm already guilty of taking too long to stand up... I won't be late again."
The father wipes his eyes with a soot-stained sleeve, a new spark of hope in his gaze. "I'm coming with you. I'll ask my foreman, I'll beg the mages at the site... we can't let her go."
I turn to Elara, my expression pleading. "Please, keep her stable. I'll be quick. I promise, I'll bring the money back."
Stop being a crybaby, Eve. You have 18 silvers to find in an hour. If you don't do this, you're no better than the men who laughed while she bled.
I turn and run out the door, the cold air hitting my face as I race toward the only place where a girl like me can get money fast: the Under-Spire.
I'm running—no, I'm stumbling through the crowds, my voice coming out in ragged, humiliating gasps.
I've never asked anyone for anything. I've always tried to be the one who gives, the one who fades into the background so I don't bother anyone. But today, I have to be a nuisance.
I have to be a beggar.
"Ah—um, excuse me! Please, sir!" I grab the sleeve of a passing merchant, my hands still stained with Lily's blood.
"I-I need silvers. Just for a moment! A little girl is dying... she needs a healer! I'll pay you back, I swear on my life, I'll find you and—"
He sneers, jerking his arm away as if my touch were a plague. "Get away from me, girl. Go beg at the temple if you're that desperate."
It's been 40 minutes. 40 minutes of 'no.' Every second I waste here is a second Lily's heart beats a little slower. I want to hide. I want to crawl into a corner and cry until I disappear, but her mother's face... I can't let that be the last thing I remember.
I collapse near the Great Fountain, my knees hitting the stone. A group of adventurers is resting there, checking their gear. A man with a kind face and a worn leather breastplate looks up at me.
"Hey, Miss. You alright? You're covered in... is that blood?"
"P-please," I sob, crawling toward him. I tell them everything—the men in the square, the little girl with the patched shoes, the internal bleeding, the 20 silvers. My words are a messy, desperate tumble.
"I have two... I just need 18 more. Please, I'll do anything. I'll work for your party, I'll—"
The man, Ren, exchanges a look with his companions. He sighs, reaching into a small leather pouch at his belt.
"We're just a copper-rank party, miss. We barely made enough for a room tonight. But... damn it. No kid should die for lack of a few coins." He presses 3 shimmering silvers into my palm.
"It's all we can spare. Take it."
"Thank you! Oh, gods, thank you, Ren!" I bow so low my forehead scrapes the stone. "I'll pay you back! I promise! I'll find you!"
5 silvers. I have 5. 15 to go. The hour is almost up. My legs feel like they're made of lead, and my vision is starting to blur. Why is the world so big? Why is everyone so far away?
I ask dozens more. I beg until my throat is raw and my voice is nothing but a whisper.
No. No. Get lost. Not my problem.
Then, I see him. Near the entrance to the Lower District. A man with a notched sword and scar that look like they've never seen a day of sunlight.
Jax.
"Please, sir... ah, um... I'm looking for silvers. I need 15 more. I-I'll do anything! Please, a girl is—"
Jax stops, a slow, greasy smirk spreading across his face.
"Anything, huh? You're a pretty little thing to be down here in the mud. But silvers aren't cheap, sweetheart." He starts to walk away, but I grab his hand, my fingers trembling.
"Please! I'm begging you!"
Jax pauses, his eyes dropping to my hand. The Sea of the Heart ring catches the afternoon light, glowing with that deep, pulsing cobalt and soft pink. His eyes widen.
"That's a nice gemstone. Real nice. Tell you what... give me that ring, and I'll give you the 10 silvers right now."
My heart stops. I look down at the ring, and a wave of pure, physical nausea hits me. I reach for it with my other hand, my fingers brushing the cool, dark metal.
The moment I try to pull it even a millimeter past my knuckle, it feels like my chest is being hollowed out with a hot iron. I can't breathe. It's not just a ring—it feels like it's holding my soul inside my body.
If I take this off... will there be anything left of me? It hurts... it hurts so much more than the running.
"N-no," I gasp, pulling my hand back. "I can't. I can't sell this. It's... it's all I have. Please, sir, anything else!"
"Then the kid dies," Jax shrugs, turning his back. "Simple as that."
"Wait!" The scream tears out of me. I look toward the cathedral spires, then back at Jax. I think of Lily's pale face and her mother's bangles.
"Wait... please..."
My hands are shaking so hard I can barely control them. I grip the ring again. This time, I pull. The pain is blinding. A sharp, rhythmic throb starts in my chest, echoing the pulse of the ring. I feel empty. I feel like I'm dying. Tears are streaming down my face, hot and thick.
Why does it hurt like this? It's just metal. It's just a stone. But I feel like I'm tearing my own heart out of my ribs. Goodbye... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep you.
"P-please," I whisper, my voice breaking as the ring finally slides off. I feel a coldness wash over me that I've never known before—a hollowness that makes me want to scream.
"Don't sell it. Please."
Jax snatches it from my palm, his eyes gleaming with greed. "Tell you what, little flower. I'm a nice guy. We'll call it a loan. You bring me 25 silvers by tonight—interest, you see—and I'll give it back. Our shop is in the Lower District. The Black Ledger. Ask for Jax or the Boss, Malakor. You have until tonight. After that... it's gone."
He tosses a heavy pouch of silvers at my feet. I don't even look at it. I just grab it and run. I run until my heart feels like it's going to burst, the phantom weight of the ring still haunting my empty finger.
Internal Monologue: I'm coming, Lily. I'm coming. Please stay alive. I gave it away... I gave it all away for you. Please just be alive.
TIME: 1:50 PM
The doors of the ward swung open with a violent bang as I threw my weight against them. I clutched the heavy pouch of silvers against my stomach—the weight of my heart, sold and bartered away.
"I-I have it! I have the silvers!" I cried out, my voice cracking and raw.
But the room wasn't filled with the frantic energy of a dying child. It was quiet. A soft, rhythmic hum of high-level mana vibrated in the air, a deep crimson light pulsing gently around Lily's bed.
A man I hadn't seen before stood there, his hands hovering over her small frame.
Elara looked up, her eyes red-rimmed but soft. "You're back... ah, um, you're just in time. He's almost finished."
"How?" I whispered, my legs finally giving out. I sank to my knees, the pouch of coins hitting the floor with a dull thud.
"I... I thought you needed the payment first."
"I-I'm human too, Eve," Elara said, her voice trembling.
"I couldn't just watch a child die. I spent the few silvers I had saved for my own tuition to send a priority bird to the inner district. I told them I'd cover the rest if I had to."
She did that? For a stranger? I look at my hand—my bare, shaking hand. The skin where my ring used to be is pale and indented, a ghostly circle of what I used to be. It's so cold. My finger feels like it's been amputated. I feel so hollow... so empty.
"Mommy...?"
The word was tiny, a fragile thread of sound, but it shattered the silence like a thunderclap.
"Lily! Oh, gods, my baby!" Her mother collapsed over her, sobbing into the white sheets. "You're okay... you're okay, mommy's here... I've got you."
Finn was shaking, his face buried in his sleeves as he let out loud, messy sobs.
"H-hic... Lily... I'm sorry... I'm so sorry..." The other children crowded around, their small hands reaching out to touch her blanket, all of them crying in a chorus of relief and heartbreak.
She's awake. She's going to live. I should be happy. I am happy, I-I really am... but why does it hurt so much? My heart feels like it's bleeding into the space where the ring was. I feel like I've lost a limb. I've saved a life, but I think I've lost my own in the process.
I feel so... alone.
The mysterious healer pulled his hands back, the crimson light fading. He was tall, with a calm, sharp face and a cloak that bore a crest I didn't recognize. I stood up, wiping my eyes with my stained sleeve, and followed him as he stepped toward the door.
"Wait! Sir!" I fumbled for the pouch on the floor, holding it out to him with trembling hands.
"I-I have the payment. 15 silvers... plus the 5 we already had. Please, take it. You're a hero for doing this."
The man stopped, a small, tired smile playing on his lips.
"I'm not from the inner circle, Miss."
"W-what?" I blinked, confused. "But Elara said—"
"My name is Isen," he said, his voice deep and steady.
"I'm from the Crimson Eclipse guild. I was nearby on business and heard the call. We're not monsters, regardless of what the inner circle mages tell people. I just wanted to save a life today."
I tried to press the coins into his hand, my tears starting all over again. "Please... you have to take it. It's for the healing."
Isen gently pushed my hands back.
"I only healed her organs. I'm only a B-rank; I'm not the best. She's stable, but she's still weak. She'll need expensive medication and perhaps a follow-up from an A-rank healer in a few days. Those are very costly. Use those silvers for her. Use them to make sure she stays healthy. I don't need anything from you."
"But... but you did so much..."
"Go talk to her," Isen said, turning toward the exit. "Our guildmaster, Navina, is coming to Sylvaris soon. I have to go prepare as instructed. You should be with your friend now."
I nodded, watching him walk away until he disappeared into the bright afternoon light. I turned back to the bed.
Lily's father had finally arrived, his face a mask of sweat and terror. He froze at the door, seeing his daughter sitting up, and let out a broken, strangled cry.
"If it wasn't for Elara... and for Isen..." the mother sobbed, looking at me with eyes full of a debt she could never repay.
"And you... oh, dear girl, we would have been too late. You saved our Lily."
Finn looked up at me, his eyes shining through his tears. "You're the best, sister... you're so kind. I-I want to be just like you when I grow up."
I try to smile. I really do. I tell them it's okay, that I'm just glad she's safe.
But as I look down at my empty ring finger, the hollowness in my chest grows until I feel like I'm going to disappear. I have to get it back. I have to find those men tonight.
The world didn't meet me halfway. It played with me, made me beg, made me desperate to eventually save her with the same cruelty and 'kindness'.
The kind people existed—but not when I needed them most.
I saved her… but I was the one who paid.
Is that really what being good means?
That you walk away missing pieces of yourself while everyone else gets to keep theirs?
I should feel proud.
So why do I just hate myself for letting go of that ring?
If I don't get it back... I don't think I'll ever be whole again.
Date: January 1, 2018 | Time: 10:37 PM
Location: The Black Ledger – Lower District
Perspective: Kaiser
She stood there, her small frame trembling, her hands empty. The light from the chemical torches flickered against the tears tracks on her cheeks.
"We… we had to call an A-rank healer," Eve whispered, her voice a fragile thread that threatened to snap at any second.
"Isen said she was stable, but her organs… they needed more. Lily's father took a loan from his foreman, and I… I gave them every silver I had from the plaza. The total came to 30 silvers…
"I had nothing left…"
She is too kind… just like Elfie
She looked up at Malakor, her pink eyes wide and pleading, brimming with a fresh wave of tears.
"I-I'm sorry. I lied. I said I'd bring the 25 silvers tonight because I thought I could… I thought if I begged enough people… but I couldn't." She let out a broken sob, dropping to her knees on the grimy floor.
"Please, sir. I'll do anything. I'll clean the floors, I'll work for you every night, I'll serve the shop for as long as it takes… just please, give me back the ring. I don't… I don't feel alive without it."
It's the same selfless, suicidal impulse. She literally gave away her own soul—the only thing she had left—to save a child she didn't even know.
Why… why do you have to be so kind? Putting your safety and your only source of happiness below the needs of others?
You're so… you're just too kind for this world.
I felt a cold, jagged heat rising in my chest. My hand was still resting on the edge of Malakor's heavy desk. Without even realizing it, my fingers curled.
Creeaaaak.
The sound of reinforced steel groaning filled the room. Under the pressure of my grip, the thick metal trim of the desk began to ripple, bending and warping until the wood beneath it started to splinter.
"25 silvers is 25 silvers, sweetheart," Jax said, becoming colder, sharper. He didn't even look at her as a person anymore.
"We don't have the heart to care about your 'cleaning' or your 'service.' We aren't a charity."
Boris stepped closer, his shadow swallowing her. "He's right. A deal is a deal. If the money isn't here, the ring belongs to Malakor." He let out a low, lecherous chuckle that made my skin crawl.
"But hey, Jax mentioned it earlier… there is one way a pretty thing like you can pay off a debt that big. Why don't you come down to the basement with us?"
"You and the boys can have a very… pleasant night together."
"You do that, and maybe we'll consider it even."
"You can start with me." Pip said, stepping closer to Eve.
The sound of the steel desk finally snapping—a sharp, metallic CRACK—echoed through the ward.
Malakor's eyes snapped down to his desk, watching the metal buckle and groan under my hand. He saw the way the steel was actually flowing around my fingers.
He wasn't a fool.
"Jax. Boris. Pip. Shut. Up." Malakor's voice was a whip-crack of authority. He spoke before I could even move, his amber eyes locked onto the mangled corner of his furniture. "Now."
Eve was shaking, her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for the worst. I let go of the desk, the ruined metal bearing the deep, permanent imprint of my hand.
I walked toward her, my footsteps silent.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a clean, silk handkerchief.
Kneeling down in the dirt beside her, I gently cupped her chin with one hand, tilting her face up. With the other, I began to wipe the tears from her cheeks, my touch as light as a feather.
"You're too kind, Eve," I said. My voice was no longer high or shaky; it was a calm.
"I promise you. You will leave here safely with your ring."
Eve's breath hitched. A subtle, warm blush colored her cheeks, blooming through the pale distress of her face. She didn't move away. She stayed there, caught in the gravity of my eyes, her pink eyes searching mine with a look of pure, startled surprise.
"Thank you…" she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of relief and something else—something like awe.
She blinked, staring into my eyes through the slits of the mask.
"But… your eyes… they were blue earlier… why are they so dark now?"
Because the blue was a lie, Eve. The blue was for a world that deserves a smile. But for people like Pip, Boris and Jax? For a world that tries to hurt things as soft as you?
Only the dark remains.