Arc 1 Epilogue: Bittersweet Hope

John’s eyes fluttered open to an unfamiliar room. It was brightly lit and everything seemed to be washed in either white or a pale green. A nurse hummed a small tune beside John as she checked something on a clipboard, and when he shifted his arm, he noticed a needle taped to it, filtering a glowing blue liquid into his bloodstream by way of a thin tube connected to an IV bag. Mana was John’s immediate guess.

“Oh look, the nerd’s finally awake,” a familiar voice snorted, though her tone was unmistakably uplifted.

John couldn’t help but let his face break out into a small smile as he turned to face his faery friend who sat on a relieved Red’s lap by the bedside. Beside them both sat Moira, who seemed equally relieved and regarded him with warm green eyes.

Saccha on the other hand tried her best to keep her expression neutral but ultimately gave up and leapt onto the bed to give him a peck on the lips. “You sure kept us waiting while you napped, you big idiot!” You could hardly tell the fae had nearly died, save that her two left wings had been sliced in half. John prayed that such an injury could be mended, else the fae might never fly again.

“I’ll go get the head doctor,” the nurse said quickly, sensing now was not the time for her presence.

“Thank you,” Moira smiled at the nurse as she hurried out.

John waited until she’d left before turning to face his companions again. “How long have I been out?”

“Three days,” Red answered quietly, her tone flat. “You collapsed not long after Pa died.”

John frowned, knowing that, despite everything, Vulpis’ **** must have been hard on her. “Are you okay?” he asked as he sat up in the hospital bed.

“I should be asking you that,” Red replied wryly.

He looked her straight in the eye. “I was being serious.”

“...I don’t know,” she sighed. “But I guess I will be eventually. For now, I’m just glad you’re okay. The Doctor said your body wasn’t generating any mana, but even when it was directly poured into you, you didn’t recover for about a day-”

“Red nearly bit the Doctor’s head off when he said it was just exhaustion,” Saccha chimed in.

“We were all worried,” Moira added.

“Sorry…” John rubbed his head sheepishly, not really knowing what else to say. “Neurotic Discharge shattered my mana bar temporarily. But,” he said as he removed the needle from his arm, “it’s fixed now…” The image of the wounded after the Discharge stuck with him as he reflected on that frankly shitty night’s proceedings. “Did I kill anyone?” he asked suddenly, his conscience simultaneously dying to know the answer and dreading it all the same.

Moira shook her head with a faint smile of relief. “Thankfully, nobody was hurt irreparably from that attack,” she replied, her words liberating an oppressive weight from John’s chest.

“You never told me about that ability,” Red’s brow furrowed. “Neurotic Discharge was it?”

“I only unlocked it during the fight with Vulpis,” John replied, deliberately skirting around important details. That mysterious woman’s power, which resided in him now, was the same which corrupted Vulpis, John was sure of that much at least. Did that mean he was destined to become like the warg? He didn’t know. But a part of him felt like the power itself wasn’t inherently malicious. It was more like a hammer: how it is used depends on the wielder. But something told him nobody else would see it that way. Hell, maybe for that exact reason he ought to tell them. With the Order’s resources, they probably could purge him of the corruption and finally put this whole mess behind them… yeah right. Something told John that one way or another that mysterious woman was going to involve herself in his life. He opened his most recently acquired quest to see if anything stood out.

Divine Quest: The Power of my Enemy
[Split objectives]
Find a way to cure the corruption.
or
Find a way to deepen the corruption.
Current corruption status: Seed [1/4]
Rewards:
10 000 EXP and a Skill Evolution Point
10 000 EXP and a Divine Patron Slot

Nothing really specific in those objectives, leaving the matter of ‘how’ to meet either end up in the air. What did stand out, however, was the Divine Patron Slot.

Divine Patron Slot
Allows a deity (or other exceptionally powerful individual), to bestow a portion of their power upon the Gamer, granting unique perks in return for a portion of the Gamer’s EXP gain (5% max).
Current Patrons:
Gaia: Granting - Gamer’s Body, Gamer’s Spirit

‘I see,’ John hummed, so it functions as a perk system. It certainly made the corruption route a compelling one if only he had more information about who his potential benefactor was and what exactly she planned to do.

“John?” Red voiced, pulling him from his thoughts. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

“Half of me is just a whirlwind of guilt and anxiety. The other is just going over the rewards for defeating Vulpis,” he sighed as he pulled the newly acquired Token of Wrath from his inventory.

Token of Wrath [Unique]
Grants +10 Strength and Endurance. Enemies weaker than you also feel intimidated in your presence when worn.
Creator: Ira
Item Set: Tokens of Virtue and Sin [3/14]

It was a pretty damn good item, just like the Tokens of Greed and Humility he owned. Once again, he found himself wondering what he’d get —if anything— for completing the set. ‘Gaia keeps tossing them my way for a reason, right?’ Another question to add to the list that was seemingly endless.

“John,” Red repeated sternly, causing him to let out another sigh.

He knew what she was going to say, having realised himself he was just inventorying his quest rewards to avoid confronting his failure. “Mom…” he almost choked on the word as it left his mouth. Even now the image of her burning was clear in his mind. But worse had been the sound and the smell, the crackling flames as they licked her skin and the nauseating smell of charred flesh. Tears inadvertently blurred his vision.

“Listen, darling,” Red soothed, taking his hand and squeezing tightly so he’d focus on her. “Your ma… she’s alive-”

What? John’s mind blanked. How? He saw her go up in flames. “Where is she?” he demanded to know before Red could finish, kicking the aquamarine sheets off the bed and swinging to his feet. Any weariness he might have felt was blown away by hope.

Red and Moira exchanged a quiet look. “This way,” Moira gestured to follow her while Red picked up Saccharine.

He followed Moira into a curved hallway, with a large glass window facing a central courtyard. Judging by the oddly shaped trees of just about every colour in a rainbow present in the garden, they were in an Abyssal barrier. John shook his head and focused himself, locking his eyes on Moira’s flowing red hair as she led him down the corridor. At some point they passed Cynthia and her family, but John barely paid them any mind except for a quick “hello”. Only one thing mattered right now.

Moira stopped by a door like any other in the corridor. But the grim expression on her face as she turned to face John told him it was the one. A lump formed in John’s throat as he stepped forward and placed his hand on the door handle. What on earth could he say to her to justify the shit she’d been through over the past few days?

Red silently took his hand in hers and waited, a reminder that she’d be there to support him no matter what. John managed a faint smile in response, before sucking in a deep breath and opening the door. He was not met with a warm and brightly lit room, like the one he’d woken up it. There were no chairs, no windows, and no bed to be found either. Instead, the centre of the room was filled with a hulking tank that looked like it’d been ripped straight from a sci-fi film. Two men stood by the tank, grimly observing the contents. The first was the easily recognisable Lord Brighton, with his mane of radiant red hair. The second John didn’t know. He looked to be a doctor in his mid-thirties, with unkempt black hair, eyes like a cloudy sky, and the expression of someone that hadn’t smiled in years. The name tag on his white coat identified him as ‘Doctor Arzt’.

John’s brow furrowed in confusion as he followed their gaze to the bony creature floating inside the tank. Its flesh, if you could even call it that anymore, was a horrendous mass of black and blue blisters. Half a dozen tubes and coils connected to the creature, supplying what John imagined to be air and providing for a few other basic bodily functions.

The moment recognition struck, John collapsed to the floor, heaving. “Alive?!” he spat as if to rid himself of the bitter taste in his mouth. “What a fucking joke. That’s not life! You can barely call that a person! How can that be my mom?!”

A heavy silence fell on those around him, as they struggled to find words of consolation.

“I’m sorry, John,” Moira managed, though her voice was barely a whimper. “I-I did everything within my power as Warden to heal her but…” she trailed off, unable to finish.

John laughed sourly at her words. “She would have been better off dead over… this.”

He hadn’t considered his words when he spoke, but it was clear from the way the Warden’s face paled they hurt her. ‘So what?’ a twisted part of him thought cynically. His own emotions were spiking dangerously close to another outburst of Neurotic Discharge. ‘As if she could understand what he felt. So what did her pain matter right now?’ But before he could voice such thoughts, a sharp pain blossomed on his cheek.

“Don’t you dare start spouting nonsense like that!” Red snarled at him as she withdrew her hand from his cheek. “Moira worked herself to the bone performing a bloody miracle to save your ma! So how dare you just turn your back on the work she’s done! Yeah, she won’t be sipping tea at home tomorrow, but things were never gonna be easy or go back to normal straight away. But Moira’s given us hope — given us a chance to save your ma, and that’s the only way to bloody look at it.”

John was ready to make a snide reply, but as his eyes turned to face the fury in her own, his defiance quelled. He’d never seen Red so genuinely mad at him before. The shock gave him the pause he desperately needed to take a breath and try to calm down. Reluctantly, he turned to look at his mother inside the tank. The sight of her made him feel nauseous, but he didn’t look away.

“I-is there a way to help her to recover?” he asked aloud.

The doctor Moira’s father had been conversing with nodded in response. “There is a way, but we are incapable of performing it,” he replied frankly. John’s teeth clenched at Doctor Arzt’s reply, but he could at least appreciate his honesty. “As I was explaining to Lord Brighton, the process for healing severe burns is child’s play for us, but this is a rare and unique kind of burn — a powerful curse, really — caused by a wraith fire. We’re not equipped to treat it until the curse itself is lifted, but we can keep her stable.”

“So who can lift the curse?”

“Nobody in the Apothecaries,” Arzt massaged the nape of his neck with a deadpan expression and spoke as if he needed a drink. “We’re scientists and healers, not curse breakers or exorcists. That being said, I have heard of Witch Doctors undertaking consultancy work with us on occasion. I’ll reach out, but you should now that this kind of complication is expensive.”

“Thank you, Doctor Arzt, but Mr. Newman works for us; finances will be of no concern,” Lord Brighton replied.

“Alright then, it’s too crowded in this room, so if we’re done, I’ll give you all some privacy with the patient,” the doctor smoothed his white coat and made for the door, leaving the rest to digest the information he’d provided.

Lord Brighton soon after made his own need for departure known. “I must finish dealing with the police and fire departments — smoothing things over has proved tedious. It seems that your residence was broken into, Mr. Newman. Thankfully nothing was left behind but a mess and dried blood, but you and your mother’s apparent disappearance has led to concerns of a possible homicide. We have contacts in the departments and can buy the silence of other individuals to control the outcome of any investigation, but you will likely be interviewed in the near future. We will, of course, provide you with a lawyer and our highest priority will be ensuring that you can resume your regular life once the situation is resolved.”

John was only half listening to the Brighton patriarch, his mind too busy trying to make sense of the torrent of mixed emotions waging war inside of him.

“Thank you,” Red answered for John. Whether Lord Brighton was offended by John’s lack of response or not, he did not show it.

Lord Brighton nodded once and began walking towards the door. “Oh, and Mr. Newman,” he paused again and placed a firm hand on his shoulder, his touch wresting John’s attention from the tank and to his somber green eyes. “Believe me when I say my family is all too familiar with the hellish horrors pyromancers inflict, take solace in that your mother survived — and that there is hope for her recovery. Rest assured we will support you provided your own does not waver.”

“Um… thank you,” John managed half-heartedly.

The Brighton Patriarch nodded at him once again before departing, leaving John alone with his three closest friends… and the grotesque thing inside the tank. John could hardly wrap his head around it being his mother. Or more like he did not want to accept it.

“Darling, we’ll get her back,” Red said firmly, as if reading his thoughts.

John recalled her saying something similar when Brenda had first been **** by Vulpis — yet here they stood now. He knew he ought to think positively about it, the doctor had said that once a Witch Doctor lifted the curse they could heal her, after all. And that thought filled him with hope; truly, it did. But a far more pessimistic outlook barred him from feeling anything close to happy. ‘It’s barely been one week…’ the very thought seemed to jeer and laugh at him. ‘Is this what my life will be from now on?’

“Come what may, we’re here for you, John,” Moira added with a grimly determined expression.

“Damn straight,” Saccha agreed with a cocky smile out of place in their somber circumstances.

It was almost infectious, and so, despite it all, the ghost of a smile flickered on John’s face.

Author Note: Hey everyone. Thanks for baring with me during this arc! As a first time writer it means a lot to me to have had so much support. In an effort to understand what the strengths/weaknesses of the arc were I have made a feedback form and it would be great if you could fill it out. It shouldn't take any longer than 5 minutes and the results will be discussed in an authors note released next week.
You can find the feedback form here: https://goo.gl/forms/ZIRFH6gTT7DMcbPn1

As I mentioned in the last chapter, I'm opening a Q&A. The way this will work is I will be selecting 10 questions from the comments of this chapter to make up the reader portion, while $1+ patrons get a guaranteed two questions and $3+ patrons get a guaranteed 3 questions.
You can ask a question to any character in the branch (but not everyone at once), including me so long as the question relates to the story.
Please format the questions like so:

ApplePieQ&A
For [character(s)]:
[question]

for example

ApplePieQ&A
For John & Red:
What is your favourite colour?

The deadline for both the feedback form and Q&A questions will be Friday 30th at 12:00 pm AEDT (I suggest you convert that to whatever your timezone is so you don't miss the deadline). Otherwise, thanks again for putting up with me while I learn how to write :D

-Pie