Chapter 8 - You are filled with DETERMINATION

Vi was in front of me, mouth distorted by pain.

It’s way worse than what we thought. A hint of despair could be felt in Psaï’s voice.

It is no poison. It’s a virus. FUCK!

Keep calm and think.

Yes, need to think. I can use my own immune system to slow it down, if needed.

I can adapt her, but I’ll need to map the virus DNA. If possible, I should also map the DNA of the beast that attacked her.

I looked around in the room, and my eyes fell on a bloodied piece of cloth, in a corner of the room.

There. Her left hand.

I hope there’ll be enough genetic material around the wound.

All of that happened in a handful of seconds, and we sprang into action, determined to save my sister

Creating the bridge.

Copy.

It was one of those time where having two minds working at the same time proved useful.

On one side, I flew to Vivianne, moving the blanket covering her, revealing her naked body. I landed on her and covered us both with the blanket.

Then, as gently as possible, I opened her carotid with a scalpel made out of compressed air.

Keeping her blood from spilling everywhere with a surface made the same way as the scalpel, I covered the wound with my arm and opened my right brachial. I created a biological membrane over and, finally, I fused my arm with Vivianne’s neck.

Once done, I started pumping leukocyte in her system like crazy, overclocking my own bone marrow to produce more of them.

A chance we have the same blood type.

The membrane I had created earlier made me able to choose what could and couldn’t pass from my blood to hers and, in particular, to avoid the virus infecting me too.

On her side, Psaï wasn’t left behind. She had isolated a sole instance of the virus and was already analysing it. At the same time, she had taken the cut hand and was now running an analysis to try and find genetic materials from the damned monster that attacked my cute sister.

And all this time, my Conduit was providing the mana needed, the ordeal made harder by the weak mana density.

Seconds became minutes, minutes became hours. I entered an exhausted trance, focusing solely on my spell, nothing else.

I have it. Psaï voice was even strange to hear. How much time had passed? Five hours. But it fell like five years.

What? I asked in a tired voice.

Both DNA sequences. And I’ve designed the adjustment needed to Vivianne’s DNA.

We’re in luck, the beast is the type which lives with its virus in its own blood. Which means that we can reproduce the chemical signal it uses to contain the virus when it’s in its own body.

However, I warn you: it will not be pretty. The chances are that there will be quite the amount of secondary effects, as my resources are limited and I could do nothing but butcher the work a bit.

I can’t cure death, but as long as she’s alive, I can change her back. She’ll need to live with those effects for some time, but it’s better than the alternative.

True. Let’s start.

Tired as I was, the mind meld felt like a dream, with Psaï making most choices over the structure of this new spell.

Ready when you are, mother.

Let’s go.

And we started building the spell. However, I could already feel my soul burning. I was at my limit.

Mom-

No. We keep going.

Bu-

We. Keep. Going.

...Yes.

I could feel the mana in my Conduit grinding it, trying to destroy it, along with my soul.

But I kept going. What’s the point of living if those you love are dead? It wasn’t the first time that I totally disregarded my own life. If I had, I wouldn’t have died during operation Evercore, saving the world in the process.

Suddenly, I heard my very soul shatter as I was forcing it to sustain and support an amount of mana way to big.

No.

It was not my soul shattering, but something else.

Something like a… a wall, around my soul. I felt my Conduit expanding, letting more mana pass. I felt my soul hardening, able to withstand more mana, more punishment.

I had, somehow, taken a step toward my old power, as if my mad resolve had pushed this juvenile soul of mine to remember what it once was, how glorious it shone, how powerful it burnt.

I passed out.

***

I heard footsteps all over the house.

Urgh. Hungry.

I was cradled in Vivianne’s arm, the child enclosing me with her whole body in her fetal position, her head against mine.

My arm was no longer fused with her throat, but a scar could be seen where I had made the cut, both on mine and her body.

In a strange way, I felt like I shared a deeper bond with her now.

A door opened.

“What’s happening?” Asked Meredith.

“Elayna disappeared!” Exclaimed Mary, totally panicked.

Too hungry. And that was the exact time my body couldn’t hold back anymore. The pain from the hunger was too much, and I started crying.

The blanket that covered both my sister and I was taken away, and I was greeted by Meredith’s and Mary’s round surprised eyes.

“What? How did you land here?” Asked Meredith in disbelief, trying to take me in her arms.

Trying, because Vivianne wasn’t letting me go.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes, looking me right in the eyes.

I stopped crying out of surprise.

Her green eyes were still beautiful, maybe more beautiful than before, but now in a strange way.

There was now a circle some distance away from her iris. Over this circle, at a fixed interval, three more pupils and irises were present, creating the points of an imaginary equilateral triagle. Each of those three eyes bulged slightly forward from the main eye, as if they were three tiny eyeballs in their own right, embedded in the bigger main eye as if it was their eye socket, each one of them moving individual from the others.

Well, for the time being, all eight of her eyes were looking fixedly at me.

“Gah? Gah!” I’m hungry! I couldn’t think of something else.

Surprisingly, she seemed to have understood me, and let me go, closing her eyes again and soon fall asleep.

Now in Meredith’s arms, I looked at her.

“Gah!”

“Is something bothering you?” Of course, since she didn’t know how to interpret my gahs, she started by checking my diaper, empty of course, before she took me to mom, assuming that I was hungry since I did not need a change of diaper.

As we were exiting the living room, one could have heard Mary whispering something to herself.

“Well, you look better today, Vi.” She put the blanket back on Vivianne, relief oozing from her voice.

***

Yum. Yum~ yum~. I was happily drinking mom’s milk. She looked tired, but happy that I hadn’t disappeared too far. Noa was holding one of my hand, as if he feared that I would not be there anymore if he were to let it go. He had been quite shocked that I wasn’t in his grasp anymore, when he woke up, and was now making it up by clinging to me like hell.

We were in Mom and Dad’s room, with dad lying on the bed. He hadn’t slept the whole night, and was now taking a well-deserved nap.

Mom too hadn’t closed the eye, compounding like crazy to try and create a cure for Vivianne. She failed. A chance that I had intervened.

Someone entered the room. I couldn’t see who, since my eyes were focused on mom’s bosom.

“So?” Asked mom anxiously.

“Vivianne is stable. More than stable, she looks healthy. Be it her heart, her breath or her skin, she looks like she was never sick to begin with. And her stump is completely healed.”

“Ah?” Mom was surprised, of course.

“Look. Neither you nor I have done something that could have created this effect. Last night, she was dying. Today, she’s completely healed, minus her lost left hand. I wouldn’t want to draw hasty conclusions, but the only difference between today and yesterday, it’s that yesterday Elayna was here, and today she was in Vi’s arms.”

“You think Elayna did something to Vi?”

“Well. Ayna has always been strange, right? In a good way, I mean. No crying, no temper, always calm, always focused. Nicklass may not have found anything, but I sincerely believe that your lass isn’t normal. I believed it for quite some time already. And today, Vivianne’s life was miraculously saved, and the only strange thing was that Elayna was with Vi when I woke up. So yes, I think that Elayna may have done something to Vi.”

We overdid it.

And I would do it again, if I had the choice.

...True. I would have, too.

“...I see what you mean. But, well, Elayna is two months old. Even if she’s special, it’s not like we can do anything about it.”

“I’m just telling you. Keep an eye on her. Maybe nothing will happen. Maybe something will. I’m quite optimistic since only good things have happened so far. Who knows, maybe your lass has a gift for healing, or something? Anyway, I’m not needed here anymore. I’ll let Mary keep an eye on Vi, but I’ve other people waiting for me.”

“Thanks for everything Meredith. Take care.”

“You too Ela, you too.”

Mom’s gaze went down till our eyes crossed. She started caressing my head, a smile on her tired face.

“You’re a strange little fairy, aren’t you? If you’re the one that healed Vi, thank you.”

In the meantime, Noa had fallen asleep, his head on mom’s lap. I could feel him breathe slowly.

***

Vivianne was curled-up in one of the sofas of the living room.

“How is she doing?”

“She’s still sleeping. Last night must have been really exhausting.” Mary answered dad’s question.

Everyone was now in the living room, expectant gaze on Vivianne’s tiny sleeping frame.

“We’ll let her-”

“Gah?” I said, calling Vivianne and accidentally cutting mom’s sentence.

Suddenly, Viviane moved. She sat and stretched, as if she had had a good night and overslept a bit. Then, she opened her eyes.

“Ah?”

“What?”

“Eh?”

Everyone reacted more or less in the same way. Surprised.

Taking advantage of their surprise, Vi’s height eyes locked on me and, swiftly, she took me from mom’s arms, holding me with a powerful grasp, going back on the couch.

She then put my right arm against her throat and, finally, I felt her relax a bit.

Seems like we had more effect than we thought.

It seems, indeed.

“Vi? …Vivianne, are you okay?” Asked mom with her soft voice, the one she used when she wasn’t sure about the state of her children.

Six of Vivianne’s eyes turned toward mom, but two of them, the two main eyes in fact, stayed on me.

“I… I don’t… know?”

“Okay sweety, no problems. Are you hungry?”

“...Yes? I… I am hungry. Very hungry.” She started nodding, slowly, then faster and faster, as if she was checking her state and becoming aware of how hungry she was.

“Okay. We have some leftover of yesterday, or we have bread and honey.”

“...Huuu. Can I have… a bit of both?”

Mom looked at Dad, who shrugged.

“Of course sweety.” Dad went to take the food, while mom stayed here.

“Why did you snatch Elayne from me?”

This time, all her eyes turned toward mom.

“I. I don’t really know.”

“Hm.” Mom looked at Vi, hiding her restlessness behind a pensive look.

“Now that you have Ayna in your arms, what do you feel? You wanted her there, right?”

“I… I think, yes? It’s… it’s soothing to have sis’ in my arms.” Her eyes brightened.

“A bit like when you hug me. It’s the same feeling!”

Mom came closer and looked at my arm and Vi’s throat.

“And why the arm?”

Vivianne tilted her head.

“The what?”

“Why do you put her arm on your throat?”

Vi did not understand directly. It’s only when she touched her throat that she realised it.

“I don’t know. It feels right.”

Mom took my arm and looked at Vi’s throat, then at my arm. I’m sure she saw the scars, but she said nothing and, feeling Vi becoming restless, put my arm back on her throat.

“That’s unfair sis’! I want to cuddle with Ayna too!”

And that’s how I ended up being sandwiched between my two cute siblings.

Noa had looked only once at Vivianne’s left hand but he seemed to not care that much as long as he could cuddle with me and Vi.

Mom, on the other hand (no pun intended), was clearly troubled. By her daughter’s missing hand or new eyes, I couldn’t say. Though if I had to bet, I would have placed my money on the eyes.

Dad came back in no time and soon our awkward family gathering turned into an improvised breakfast in the living room.