Chapter 21: Worth Any Price

Rick sat on the couch, staring at the carpet as if it would give him answers. Currently Melissa lay in her room, sleeping soundly after her condition had flared up again. The life-threatening emergencies seemed to come and go, but the ether void within her soul refused to go away. He kept feeding her lucrim in order to keep her at 1000 or more, but it was no true solution.

The bitter part was that he kept getting distracted by trivial details. She had missed school the previous day and the school had called, and to add insult to injury, they refused to believe anything without a doctor's note. Of course, if they could afford a doctor, they wouldn't have this problem. Now his sister's life was at stake and he was being pestered by administrators about school absences.

It was obvious that he couldn't resolve this alone, it was just a question of what he could actually do. After considering all his options and trying to call Uncle Frank, he decided that he had no choice but to beg.

One more time he glanced at her profile:

[Melissa Hunter

Lucrim Generation: 3249

Current Lucrim: 1000

Ether Void: -3]

The void had already gone to -3, even though she'd taken medication so recently. Though it wasn't worsening faster as far as he could tell, the fact that it never subsided completely made this into a nightmare that would eventually take her life.

Padding into the bedroom, Rick checked that his sister had everything she needed. He bent down to lightly touch her hair and her eyes opened immediately. Right now she was doing okay, with no obvious pain or shivering, but he thought she was hiding her discomfort from him.

"I'm going out for a bit, Melissa. I need to talk to a few people about what we might do."

"I'm really sorry about this." She hadn't apologized since the beginning, but now there were tears in her eyes. Rick hastily shook his head and sat down beside her.

"Don't even start. This isn't your fault, and we'll get through this together."

"But you have so many other things you need to worry about..."

"I'd give even more to help you. We're the only family we have, sis. We stick together."

She smiled and nodded. "Then go. I won't push myself, but I'm really feeling pretty good right now. Don't fret about me, just do what you can."

Managing to find a smile for her, Rick headed out. After getting his keys and locking the door behind him, he leapt from the third floor of their apartment and began running.

Though he didn't expect her to collapse the instant he left, he didn't want to be away from her for long and he had a great deal he needed to do. If he could, he would have spent everything he had on a lucrim vehicle to fly him to his destinations, but that required a higher ether score than he possessed to do legally, and he couldn't afford the risk of any of the unofficial options.

In between caring for his sister, Rick had done his best to research more, even though it was mostly going over the same sources they'd read long ago. Researching about her new condition did turn up a few new sites, but they were mostly filled with the desperate and grieving.

Of course there were a few who declared all of modern medicine to be a hoax and that natural medicines could keep the condition at bay. The frustrating thing was that the world was filled with special herbs and ancient remedies, so they could always find a way to justify their position and avoid being seen as complete quacks. But based on how his sister's condition had come and gone, he doubted there was anything more to their remedies than confirmation bias.

His first stop was Granny Whitney's house near the Underground. He didn't want to take that step, but with his sister's life on the line, he couldn't afford to ignore it. Since he had already called ahead to say that he would miss his previous match, she was waiting for him.

"This isn't how this relationship is supposed to work, dearie." Her smile was as grandmotherly as always, yet somehow discomforting. "But since you've been a good lad so far, I decided to hear you out. What's troubling you these days?"

"I haven't mentioned her, but I have a sister with a serious medical condition..." He described the situation briefly, ending with the recent difficulties. Granny Whitney listened quietly and nodded once he was done.

"Yes, ether voids can be very troublesome unless they're taken care of early."

"I know that there are cures for those with enough money," Rick said, "but I haven't been able to find out what that cure actually entails."

"The details are always hidden, and many corporations or sects claim to have special cures, but they all come down to the same thing: removing the core of the patient's lucrima and entirely rebuilding it."

Rick blinked. "That's possible? I mean, you can survive that?"

"Not without assistance." Granny Whitney shook her head. "You see, most of us have a tiny seed of ourselves at the core of our soul. The lucrim equivalent of an aura spark. Lucrim from the natural world stick to that seed, and over the years the lucrim grow by accretion until you have a proper lucrima soul. But not everyone is the same. For example, some seeds are naturally 'sticky', making a person develop sooner, and some are so 'slippery' that the person never develops any strength and dies not long after birth."

"And my sister's seed is wrong somehow? It can't maintain its grip on lucrim?"

"She doesn't have one at all. At the core of her being there isn't the seed of a soul, but... a flame, you might say. It might be able to gather lucrim around it, but the flame eats it away from within. Given extremely expensive surgery, it might have been possible to snuff out that flame and transplant a synthetic seed... when she was younger. Now, the flame has likely grown too intense."

All he could do was stare at her, wishing that someone had told him this earlier, that things could have been different. But what could he have done, other than be born into a wealthy family? "Are you saying there's no hope? No other way to help her?"

"In theory, it might be possible to build a shell of lucrim around the flame, one durable enough that it isn't drawn in. If she trained enough, she could maintain that shell herself." Granny Whitney shrugged. "But the arts for that are rare and the process would be expensive. There's likely nothing that can be done."

"Please..." He would have gotten down on his knees if he thought it would help, but looking in her eyes, he didn't see any mercy there. "You've helped me get this far... can we take everything you were going to give me and give it to my sister instead?"

Granny Whitney shook her head slowly. "Dear boy, think this through. I'm willing to help you because it benefits my interests in the end. Your sister isn't a part of my plans."

Rick stared at her numbly. He had suspected that she would turn him down, but he still wasn't sure how to deal with her looking him in the eye with that kind smile and telling him that she didn't care about his sister's life. Yet as they maintained eye contact, he knew that it was true.

"I'm sorry that it has to be this way, dearie, I truly am. Ether voids are an awful shame, but since the condition is rather rare, there's been no real need to move beyond the established solutions."

"You aren't sorry." Rick took a deep breath and stood up. "But you've already invested time and money in me for your little contest. You don't want to throw that away."

Her eyes glittered sharply. "Just what are you saying?"

"That if you do nothing and let my sister die, my life won't be worth enough to me for you to blackmail me. I might not be able to threaten you with any real harm, but you can bet that I'll do everything in my power to make your investment worthless."

To his surprise, Granny Whitney chuckled. "You have a strong spine, lad. But as I told you, your sister is likely too old for the replacement operation, and in any case that would require far more wealth than I ever intended to spend on you. I might be willing to cooperate a little... but you'll need to make me a better offer."

"What about the other option, the shell? I imagine you wouldn't simply give us a technique that rare or pay for someone to implement it, but does the process have to be done all at once? Surely even a semi-permanent shell would be an improvement over the current situation."

"It would prolong her life, yes. Perhaps buy enough time for a better solution."

"Then we'll do that. I won't ask you for a single lucrim - but you have to give me the basic knowledge of how the technique can be performed, or we have no hope at all."

"Unfortunately, such techniques are closely guarded secrets that even I haven't uncovered." Just when he was about to object, Granny Whitney leaned forward, a spark in her eyes. "But I have given this problem a little thought myself, and I can show you an alternative. Perhaps one that would even be more suited to your situation..."

She outlined the basics and he committed it all to memory. When she dismissed him, Rick was tempted to thank her, but realized that she probably wouldn't care. So instead he just nodded to her and left, rushing back home on a route that would take him past the liquor store.

The basic concept involved several steps. First, overload Melissa with new lucrim - easy to do with philosopher's elixir. Second, have her solidify that into a core with no other purpose - she'd gotten good marks in Lucrim Education in school, so she should be able to do it. Third, find some way to push her lucrim away from the core flame - that one would be the problem.

If they succeeded in all of those, then Melissa's condition should stabilize for the short term. More importantly, if she could find a way to maintain the sphere of lucrim and turn it into a proper shell, it could become a long term solution. Perhaps not a cure, and maintaining it sounded ludicrously expensive, but it was worth trying.

Inside the liquor store, Travis sat in his glass box, drinking from a plastic cup. The store was empty and the owner seemed vaguely irritated to see a customer, illogical as that seemed. But Rick had no time for such concerns today.

"I need philosopher's elixir, as high quality as you have."

"You can't afford the highest, kid." Travis stared at him for a bit, then grunted and pointed to a grimy sheet of paper with prices listed. "That's what we have. Money on the counter first."

Looking over the list, Rick saw that he was right: there was no way that he could afford the highest quality elixir the store sold. Above 250k, it actually required payments of lucrim in addition to money. But with all the money he had been earning from fights in the Underground, he could just barely afford the 250k option.

"A bottle of 250k, then." He set his money down on the transaction counter, but to his surprise Travis didn't grab it immediately.

"That's strong stuff, kid. I'm not supposed to sell it to somebody like you."

"Are you really going to turn down my money?"

"Ain't that simple. For one, if you get yourself killed or do something stupid, it could come back to me." Travis watched him with a smug look. "And based on your behavior last time, I'm starting to think that you might be prone to irrational behavior."

Gritting his teeth, Rick began to consider his other options. The glass cube was built to withstand people stronger than him, but it wasn't invincible. He knew intellectually that robbing a store would never lead him to a real solution, but he was running out of options...

Something in his eyes must have changed, because Travis switched to a frown. "Tell you what... if you pay me for that bottle you cheated from me last time, and you get down on your knees and beg, maybe I'll sell it to you."

Rick slapped the money down on the counter and dropped to the floor. "Please... I beg you. Someone I love is very sick, and without-"

"Alright, already." Travis shifted back in his seat, staring at him. He tried to laugh mockingly, but it just sounded uncomfortable. "Didn't realize you'd be that shameless. If you're willing to go that far, it's yours. And don't think about testing this one... believe me, it's 250k."

The money had already been collected, so Rick stood up and accepted the bottle. This one glowed brilliantly in his hands, though he still checked as best he could. It definitely felt far more intense than any philosopher's elixir he'd ever handled before, intense enough that he didn't dare try it personally. But hopefully, that meant it would be enough for Melissa.

Travis started to say something else to mock him, but Rick turned around and walked out without listening to a word. He had almost no money left, so if this didn't work...

Better not to think about that. Securing the bottle in his jacket, he headed back as fast as he dared.