Judging by the position of the sun, not that I possessed any other manner keeping time, there were a few hours yet before Ross and Troy got back to the village. In the meantime I would wait around to see if Tagalong Girl could slip away from the crowd. Leaning against the back of the shack where Ria slept, I ran over the vast array of facts Theodore had taught me.

I had managed to memorize over half of what had been presented, and roughly recalled a third, with only snippets of information on the remaining materials and directions. Considering the vast quantity of knowledge, it really was an impressive feat; good job me. Still, I didn't have the same amount of practical experience as my mentor did, and while I couldn't remember the totally forgotten, the organization and patterns were still being synthesized. Keeping the actual fantasy ingredients from seeping into my database and corrupting data was the main task at hand.

Mental actions like this aren't quite exciting, so I'll just say I meditated on my thoughts for a bit over half an hour.

“And whose footsteps do I hear approaching in the grass?”

I smiled and looked over to the side of the hut as Tagalong girl rounded the corner. She seemed excessively relieved when she caught sight of me this time, letting out a long sigh.

“It’s good to see you returned.”

“Well the whole reason I left was to find a cure for Ria; it would be quite hard to help her if I didn't.”

“I just had the feeling that...you wouldn't come back.”

“Aww, it’s nice of you to worry.” Getting up, I patted her head a bit before she shirked away, but not too far. I guess she’d rather travel with me than Rion. Well, I wasn't going to leave at the moment, and Ria needed better treatment. Down to business. “Tell me, how do those eyes of yours work? How much can you see?”

“They let me see mana. Do you not have them, even though you're a wizard?”

“I can only see strong forces and...sense its position within me. How do you see mana within other people? To what degree can you tell how much mana potential someone has?”

“It's nothing great, I can just see strands of light where lots of mana passes through.” Tagalong Girl’s speech was starting to become a bit unsteady under the questioning. Right, she probably didn't have the drive or opportunity to advance her abilities. I’m sorry for stressing you out little one.

“I see, I see. I'd like you to take a look at Ria a bit. There’s something about the affliction that is magical in nature. Your eyes would be helpful in discovering more about it.”

The girl just stood there in response, looking pensive. Odd, that didn't seem like too grand a request to me. Unable to read minds, I waited a bit longer for her decision.

…

…

Okay, now you're just wasting time.

“Hey *Tagalong Girl*, what’s up? You're just kind of standing there. I'd really rather you just accept so we can get on with it.” Putting a hand on her back, I started herding her towards Ria, but encountered resistance. “Hmm, so you're not totally in the clouds?”

“Are you sure it’s safe to go near her?”

“Sure-sure. It’s not infectious.”

“No, I mean is it safe to go near her?” Tagalong Girl reiterated her concerns. Then it was my turn to think for a few moments, though naturally I was much swifter in my mental processing. Yes, my intelligence far exceeded that of a small child, go me. In retrospect my thoughts really must have been idling to self-praise in such a manner.

“Could it be that you actually think that Ria’s begun transforming into a demon?” The question was rhetorical, but a pause was left for her anyway. “Come now, have faith in my evaluation. If you plan on traveling with me, you should at least trust me this much, right?”

“If you say so, but be on your guard more than usual. There is little that I can do in the case of trouble.”

“Good girl! *Aniki* will keep you safe, no worries. Just listen to what I say and all will be just fine.” It seemed a bit of superstition built up, but at her core she seemed rather logical. A strange amalgam of childishness and logic; in the future I really would have to watch over her, lest she start doing something strange.

Pot calling the kettle black? Hush you, I at least have the ability to know where my strange actions will lead. They are on purpose, and that makes a great deal of difference!

“Eergh,” An uneasy noise crawled out the back of Tagalong Girl’s throat. “This smell is as bad as fish innards.”

“Oh, I have a rather poor sense of smell. Here, .” With a wave of my hand, Tagalong Girl’s nose unwrinkled a bit. I hadn’t actually realized the hut smelled so malodorous. That was probably due to my long absence and lack of daily s. Really, using straw for a mattress is such a poor idea. Sleeping on rocks is a perfectly comfortable alternative, and far less prone to becoming filthy.

“Right, so the procedure I’m about to undertake can’t be done in short order, so you’ll need to pay close attention. There’s also the chance it won’t work at all since I haven’t gotten the time in between right just yet, but never mind that. Can you give me an evaluation of the patient before we begin?”

“What am I looking for?” She asked from behind me, practically outside the building. Considering the small size of the shack, it wasn’t as if she was really all that far back. I could really only try and be patient with her, as she cautiously eyed Ria. It was a bit of sad sight for her to look so suspiciously on an incapacitated girl. Those horns and bright red skin looked pretty nice, they really shouldn’t elicit any feelings of revulsion.

“Just try and get a feel for how the mana is in her body. I want you to watch for possible changes. You can do that right?”

“Yes, it looks a bit like a cloud, but I can tell a bit about how it changes.”

“Alright, try to get as close a look as you can, take as much time as you need to. Tell me when you’re ready.” I stepped to the side as Tagalong Girl slightly approached Ria’s bedside. She didn’t go any further than a step behind me, so I moved forward a bit, but she refused to get within several feet of Ria’s projected reach. Patiently watching, a very serious expression appeared on her face.

“R-ready.”

“Is it tiring? Do you actually have to focus to maintain your magic vision?”

“I can’t use it forever, but mostly it just makes my head hurt if I look too closely at mana for too long. There’s never been a time when it forcibly stopped itself.”

“Haa~, just tell me these sorts of things, okay? Take a few minutes break, then we’ll start.” It seemed that her ability to focus on mana only lasted about three minutes. Though since Ria’s revitalization only lasted about 20 seconds, that was long enough. Still, the girl really should just ask for a break if she’s getting a migraine. I’d like to proceed, but it isn’t that urgent…

“I’m fine now.”

“Good~, let’s begin. Keep your eyes peeled.” Propping up Ria like before, I gave Tagalong Girl some heads up. “It starts when I poke the horns. Do your best to remember the process by which the mana changes, as well as the actual difference in states.” I lightly brushed against one of the horns, and Ria let out the usual ‘Eeep!’ as I kept her from leaping about.

“This is the Doctor, and that over there is my lovely vara, *Tagalong Girl.* We’ll run a few quick tests to see if we can keep you awake, are you feeling uncomfortable?” Speaking rapidly, trying to neither lose words nor time, as usual Ria took a few moments to collect herself.

“Ah, n-no…” Stuttering a little, the statement seemed true enough. No time to wait for her to slowly come to her senses though.

“Good, that’s about all the time we have for today, so before you fall back to sleep I’d like to say that if you can think while sleeping, think of questions you’d like to ask, that will be what I’m looking for next time I wake you up. Goodnight!” I feared the tail end of that may have been lost to her dreamy haze, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Giving her a heads up would probably help her regain her bearings in the future faster as well. “Now, as for you, little vara, what did you notice about the fluctuations in her mana and mana potential?”

“The cloud inside you...condensed into streams and poured into the horns? But the horns...filled up right away, and then spread out to the rest of her?”

“Mmm, I see. So that’s how it is.”

“What do you mean that’s how it is? I find it hard to understand looking at it, do you know what this is?” Tagalong Girl looked at me in shock. True the description she gave had been poor, but it was enough.

“One does not need to know what something is to know what it is.”

“That makes no sense.”

It seemed I needed to work on sounding more profound. The essence of the phrase was true enough. While the other possibilities were still there, if there weren’t any other major details omitted from the report, my best guess was the ‘sickness’ was some sort of transformation. Though probably not originating from humans, the purpose seemed to be to suck up mana and add it to the afflicted and probably wouldn’t result in any harm.

99.999999% sure it wouldn’t cause harm.

Even if I did arbitrarily declare that the sickness wouldn’t be her end, there were still little problems remaining. Such as the fact she would only wake up for a matter of seconds. She might not be cured, but finding a treatment to diminish the symptoms would be sufficient in this case. Who knows, maybe with this affliction’s affinity for magic, she too could become a great mage?

“That will be enough for now, though I would like to do this again a few times. You’d best be going before someone wonders what you’re doing in here.” Making little shooing motions, I ushered Tagalong Girl out. I think she started muttering something, but it wasn’t quite loud enough for my ears to catch.

Waving it off, the mood was too good to spend time wondering about such trivialities. At last, I’d really started taking steps towards understanding this mysterious illness! After so long blindly stumbling forward, the key had been in the village the whole time! A slightly depressing thought that I’d really just been overlooking the right path and failing to make the connection; but success washed that sadness away.

Already possible routes to solving the problem were coalescing in my mind. Alchemical items, magic items, possibly a magic familiar of sorts...I recalled all sorts of things from Underworld of Armok. There was no guarantee such things could be reconstructed, but I was feeling supremely confident once again. Even if they were impossible as I remembered them, mana definitely existed in this world. All I had to do was gain the knowledge to properly utilize it. If necessary, I could travel to Braan, no matter how absurdly large the world was. If worse came to worse, then I would simply learn better control, and accompany Ria to manually provide her with mana!

In this world with magic, who dares say the words it can’t be done?

A/N:AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHwwww....only 0.3% of you listened and upvoted my review. I'm not mad, just disappointed.