The Lost Doctor's Soul - Chapter 27 - Check-ins and Check-ups

A familiar electronic beep resounded in the rhythm of a heartbeat. Hearing the pitch raise as the beeping got faster, I tensed up without even realising. I was so used to this sound that I was sick of it. I heard the muffled sounds of dozens of people shuffling about and talking, but I couldn’t make out any words. I heard a tray moved with several metallic clinks as scalpels and tools were disturbed. Someone coughed, someone else groaned, the familiar smell of disinfectant tickled my nose.

As I struggled to open my eyes, becoming aware of a corridor I vaguely recognised, I heard my pager ring. I had enough wherewithal to question how I still had my pager, before I realised that I was back in my hospital, in Frankfurt, on earth! Was I back? Did I just dream the last few days? I had been feeling a bit overworked lately, but I didn’t think it was so bad that I would pass out on shift like that. I made a note to take a day off to recover and get checked up.

I looked down at my pager and didn’t even need to read it, it was an emergency call to one of my assigned rooms. I quickly started walking to the room, I couldn’t be negligent of a patient just because I let my mind wander. I needed to see what the emergency was and at least hand them off properly after… but why was it so empty?

As I walked, the electronic beeps got a little more erratic, the pitch and volume raising, making me start to panic as I tried to walk faster, almost running, wondering where the beeping was even coming from? Why was it following me? Was it from my patient?

I finally saw the room door come into view as the beeps got louder and louder, faster and faster, before suddenly flatlining! What the hell!? How did that progress so fast? What happened to the attending nurses? Running the last few steps, I burst through the slightly ajar door and froze.

I expected to see a distressed patient on a white bed in a clean, plain yet pleasant coloured room. But instead I saw a stained red bed with a dying man desperately struggling to breathe, staring at me with wide, desperate, and resentful eyes. There was a rod impaled in his chest… no, it wasn’t a rod, it was a pike. It was my pike. This struggle must have only lasted a second or two, but it felt like an eternity where I was frozen in time, unable to do anything, before he no longer struggled, falling limp.

I couldn’t believe the scene. I stepped forward to try and help… but there was nothing I could even do. He was stabbed straight through the heart, an instant death. There was nothing left to save. How could this happen? Looking down, I saw the monitoring machines, the IV drip, and even the bed remote all strewn onto the floor. Then I saw my own hands, spotless. Of course I didn’t have blood on my hands, I killed him with a pike, it was a clean kill.

I just slumped to the floor realising what just happened. None of the past few days was a dream, none of it was fake, I went through everything I did, and I killed a man. I took a life for the first time. Was this a dream then? Was this my guilt? If so, why did it go by so fast?

Gorgon Baire, that was his name. A devotee of the temple of justice who was on a mission to retrieve a stolen artifact. Somehow, I knew this information… or maybe I was just making up facts in my mind? It was more plausible that I was having a mental breakdown at this point. No, it would be kinder if I could just have a lapse and just somehow accept all of this… but despite it all, I was incredibly calm. I was too calm. How did this not bother me?

Standing back up from the cold floor, I sighed as I stared at the man, wondering why I had so much autonomy in this awful dream. What was I even supposed to do here? I could see vague images and memories as I looked at him. He has a family in the Border City Ka’el, an adult son and a teenage son and daughter. His wife left him after their last child was born.

Shaking my head, I turned away from the corpse and the loud flatline monitor. I didn’t want any more of these made up stories in my head, and I didn’t have the energy in me to even turn off the monitor as it continued to give off the endless electronic whine.

In the hallway, I scanned the vast corridor. To the side I was going, it seemed to stretch on endlessly, just a simple corridor with no discernable detail or end. To the side I came from, it stretched on nearly as long, but I could see it end in something wooden.

There was only a single other door along this massive corridor, and taking a few steps, this vast distance seemed to quickly pass and I was standing before… my office. I was tempted to go inside, but something felt incredibly wrong.

There weren’t any other patient rooms, not a single soul to be seen, or even another corpse… Milvarr wasn’t here. Did that mean I didn’t feel enough guilt over her death? Did I internally chalk it up as ‘not directly my fault’? I didn’t understand, it can’t have been that, right? Was that truly what I thought on the inside?

I decided to look at the only other thing in the corridor, the ‘end’ of it. As I started walking, I approached that end at a ridiculous pace, it was like the space between me and it was rapidly compressed to make the corridor shorter. And I finally came across it, an old fashioned and intricately detailed mahogany door that took up the entire wall. There were several chains draped against it with a massive padlock holding them together.

It was the only thing that seemed different, like it wasn’t supposed to be a part of this world, but I didn’t expect a dream to be very cohesive in the first place. I reached out and touched the padlock, surprised at how cold and heavy it felt. I wondered if I could break the lock by just pulling it since it was a dream, but I didn’t even get the chance as it unlocked in my hand before disintegrating into bright purple flakes. The chains followed soon after.

Looking at the now unguarded door, I reached a hand out before pausing. I looked back for a moment, wondering what any of this nonsense was supposed to mean, before placing a hand against the oddly warm wood. In my mind, I could see a dim, warm library, a place with an endless number of books and shelves. All the furniture was coloured brown, purple or pink, and there was still no sign of Milvarr. There was someone else there, I caught a glimpse of long purple hair from someone who had their back to me.

That glimpse was the last thing I saw before the world shifted around me and I found myself falling. I heard something that sounded like a voice as everything turned black, but I couldn’t make out the words.

The next moment, I was awake, sitting in the chair in the underground shelter, the purple eyes of Starlight staring into mine, squinting at me. “What are you doing?” I asked, groaning a bit as I pushed against the chair to stand up, expecting my body to ache after all the punishment it had taken, but oddly, I felt perfectly fine. My body had a very good healing factor, but it wasn’t this ridiculously fast?

“How long have I been sleeping?” I asked, thinking that maybe it had been a whole night instead of a short nap, wondering why I was still on a chair and not a bed. “About ten minutes…” came the answer from the purple haired devil who slowly circled me. I fully healed in ten minutes? Maybe I was on painkillers, that would make more sense? “Did you give me painkillers then? They’re quite effective, thanks.” I said, looking to the beds where Arashi was laid out. Kanako and Nisha sat to a side, silent, and Vildost was nowhere to be seen, of course. “I didn’t give you anything.” Starlight’s words made me pause.

No painkillers? Magic wasn’t possible around me, at least so far, so did that mean this was just my natural healing now? It seemed something worth looking into later, at the moment, I put my attention on the three in front of me, wishing I had any modern medical tools.

I did have a medical kit from the ruins, but it wasn’t sterilised… “Starlight, can you get me some water and boil it?” I asked, expecting some pushback or at least complaints, but she just squinted at me silently for a few seconds before taking a step away and waving her hand. A pot with a strangely thick base materialised, the water appeared out of nowhere and filled into it. The pot then lit up slightly, and I assumed it to be some kind of magical kettle.

Leaving the sterilisation for later, I properly examined Kanako and Nisha first, looking for any and all injuries. Nisha only had the injury to his arm, which just needed bandaging, a splint, and possibly painkillers if needed. Kanako was stabbed in her shoulder, and was otherwise mostly just bruised. Her injury was serious, but she had thankfully compressed the wound.

For her, I brought out the healing potion. From what I read, it was the best answer to her injuries, and this wound would otherwise need surgery and several days to heal. Stepping back, I asked her to apply the potion to herself. Only when the whole bottle was emptied did it have a reasonable effect, quickly closing the wound and leaving only a small scar in its place. It would still need some time to recover, but the efficacy of healing potions was immense! I resolved to learn how to make more.

Lastly, Arashi… She was asleep, no doubt exhausted after what she went through. While she was asleep, I did what I could to examine her, starting with getting her rather heavy armour off her and checking for any injuries that needed urgent care. She had several cuts and bruises, but that was all I could see externally. More worryingly was her temperature. She had a fairly high fever and that needed attention.

From the power she showed in the hallway, I was worried that she might have strained her muscles, or even ripped some, but there was no way to know that with her being unconscious, not without any modern tools. I was also worried about possible poisoning from her ability, remembering the black fluids she coughed up when she collapsed.

All in all, aside from first aid, Arashi’s fever was my highest priority. I was thankful that my party was made of fairly sturdy people, as I spent the night tending to their condition with the resources I had on hand. Thankfully, whenever I needed something simple like scissors, clean cloth, or common medicine, Starlight seemed to have an ample supply that she kept pulling out of thin air. That magic looked like such a convenient thing to have, I wished I could do something like it. It would make my job easier at least.

-

The night passed with little incident. I made sure to wipe down Arashi’s body and swap the wet cloth on her forehead whenever it ran dry. The other two were properly tended to as well, and I spent the spare time I was waiting for Arashi to wake up reading through the alchemy book I had. It was a fascinating little read and made me remember it was another world… Well, maybe I didn’t read the book as much as I pretended to.

Everytime I stared at the pages of the book, I couldn’t help but recall the man I killed with my own two hands, and the one who stared into my eyes as he died from his throat being slashed. It took everything I had to not throw up as my shaky hands desperately held onto the book. And why wasn’t Milvarr in that horrid dream of mine? I couldn’t shake the feeling of dread at all.

By morning, the room door slammed open and a certain soaked cowboy stood at the entrance with a big smile. “Hey there, how’re you all holdinggg up~” he asked, wobbling as he walked in, certainly drunk. Or at least acting like he was drunk. “Where were you!” Kanako suddenly yelled, jumping to her feet and rushing up to him. “You just ran off like that, I thought you were dead!” she complained, grabbing his wet raincoat and shaking him, splashing water on the floor. I didn’t think she was that attached to him.

Vildost, that snake in snakeskin boots just laughed as he was shaken about. He ignored the cloaked girl and looked to me instead, giving me a hearty smile. “Hey good news, I found the lady.” he said as he gave me a thumbs up. “And what’s the bad news?” I asked, not entirely surprised. I guess I had more faith in his abilities than I thought. “Oh, it’s on allll the way on the other side of town, and she’s got like… a bunch of people there?” he replied, having attempted to count on his fingers, but just giving a helpful shrug instead after he gave up on it.

Heaving out a sigh, I told the snakeman to take off the wet raincoat and let me check up on him. He had a bunch of cuts beforehand, but he had been out in the rain all night as well, so he needed to be looked at. We already lost the sword, there wasn’t much we could do now.

As I stepped closer to him, Kanako let out a gasp, making me turn to look at her. “Y-you’re a dragon guy?” she asked, eyes wide. “... you got me. The truth is… I’mm a dragon guy~” he replied, clearly bullshitting as he struggled to not laugh as the girl seemed dumbfounded. I wasn’t in the mood for jokes, I didn’t know how these guys could joke around like that after we nearly died, and three people did.

“We already killed three people.” I muttered as I treated this guy’s wounds, using his alcohol for something useful. “I don’t think we need to kill any more for this stupid sword.” I said, my words tasting bitter. “I already told you, we absolutely need that sword and you need to retrieve it, or else.” Starlight sternly cut in, glaring at me. “Well let's say we can! We go there, murder more people and get the sword back, what about that inexcusable crime!? At least here, it was self-defence, but if we attack them what the hell justification do we have!?” I snapped at her, unable to hold back all the disgust I had been mired in through the night.

She and I glared at each other, and neither of us wanted to back down on our points. As the weaker party, that meant she’d either force me to comply, or maybe I’d end up dying to her after everything? Jesus, why did I have to end up in a situation like this? I’m a doctor, not a killer! Or… I guess I am a killer at this point.

“Right, so… we could just steallll it, you know?” Vildost chimed in. I didn’t think that would be possible if they were in a shelter like ours, but Vildost had done a truly wonderful job of scouting.

After much discussion, many questions, and trying to wrangle answers from a ‘drunk’, I learnt that the shelter the priest had fled to was a major shelter and not a smaller one like this. There were serious plans to expand this village into a fully fledged town, so instead of a hundred people like this local shelter, it was meant to hold about a thousand, with multiple entrances. A good amount of it would be empty because there wasn’t enough population to fill it, so getting into the shelter unnoticed wouldn’t be an issue.

Vildost determined that the priest was in a specific section, but couldn’t get closer because the corridors were too narrow to sneak past the guards and they isolated a substantial part of the shelter for themselves.

With her magic, Starlight would be able to sneak any of the party into that isolated section except me, but then came the problem of escaping. Starlight can’t carry the sword of Truth, which explains why she didn’t just whisk it away at any point. This was a fairly large confluence that would last another day, and the priest and her people wouldn’t be able to leave till it was over.

With all of this information, I decided to put off any further talks till Vildost got some rest and Arashi woke up. As much as I wanted to make decisions, no one picked me as a leader, and this wasn’t a cohesive team with a common goal. Arashi’s condition was getting better too, so I decided to do a last check up on everyone’s conditions before taking a short nap myself.

Nisha was doing fine with signs of his pain subsiding a bit even without painkillers. I was fairly certain that he had only sustained a bone bruise and not a fracture, which was impressive, considering the force he took on. Kanako was healing well and had no signs of infection, so I just changed her dressings. Her shoulder wasn’t fully healed yet, and I wasn’t sure if that was normal, or if the potion wasn’t as potent as it should have been. There was too much I didn’t know about this world.

Arashi’s temperature dropped a bit, but was still in a fever range. I felt like there was something odd about her, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was just a feeling I’ve been having throughout the night, but I could almost swear that I felt an ominous energy from her… I can’t feel magic, so that was impossible of course.

||I’ve been wondering.|| I telepathically spoke, not wanting to wake everyone up, since they were resting after being on edge for the past few hours. ||You mentioned that if you use any powerful magic, ‘those annoying mutts’ will start sniffing around. What did you mean by that?|| I asked, remembering her words from not that long ago.

There were a few seconds of silence, before I heard a sigh from her. [You know nothing about this world… I’ll put it as simply as possible. The world is covered by the ‘Weave’, which lets people use magic. Basically all magic that exists in the world is within the weave. Infernals above a certain rank have a ‘true form’ and a ‘vessel’... my true form is outside the weave, what you see here is essentially a high level illusion.]

Suddenly, it made sense why she never attempted to even touch the sword despite being so adamant about owning it. But if she was using magic to appear, then why was she fine in my anti-magic? Could she really not use magic within my anti-magic zone?

||That… doesn’t make sense. I can’t see illusions, so how can I see you? You’re using magic within my anti-magic, so why have you never done anything within it?|| I voiced those questions, turning my eyes to meet her. [I don’t know.] her answer shocked me, making my eyes go wide. [To begin with, this vessel of mine can go into the ethereal plane, which is how I appear and disappear, and it serves as a point where I can cast my magic into the material plane from my true body… I can do neither in your anti-magic, but for some reason it doesn’t destroy this vessel. I don’t know why this is the case, and I need to thoroughly research this.]

||I see… is it possibly because of our connection as patron and warlock?|| I suggested, but she shrugged. [It’s possible, but if that connection was so strong, then I should be able to offer you power like my other warlocks, but there’s no such luck.] she replied, putting yet more on the board of things I needed to learn about. ||So, if I understand right, people like you can only apply your power on the ‘material plane’ through a warlock. And if you try to bypass that, then corrective forces will start looking for you to disconnect you?|| I asked, taking a guess by connecting everything she said. There was a pause, before she just nodded. I could only sigh at that. As powerful as she was, I was her only proper output, but because of my powerful anti-magic, I couldn’t accept or use any of her magic.

It was terribly annoying, but also oddly impressive that my ‘ability’ was so powerful yet it was a constant source of problems for me. I didn’t want to press the subject more, I instead turned my attention to the alchemy book again, wondering about my blood’s anti magic abilities. If I safely draw an ampule of it, wouldn’t I have an effective tool that can disable a mage if they get covered in it? Using a borrowed pen, I made notes in a section of a notebook I received from Starlight, writing down questions about how long it would last, the effective anti-magic range, maintaining freshness, and possible poisoning concerns. It was possible I had several diseases that I didn’t know about because of my anti-magic, or because I was from another world.

With Starlight’s help, I drew two vials of my blood, storing one with a loose cover, and the other in a potion bottle, setting them on the side table of an empty blood. The range of anti-magic from them was only about 15 cm (half a foot) in radius each, but it was plenty.

Noting the time, I asked Starlight to wake me up in an hour and tell me if they ‘expired’ before then. I was thankful that she had become so co-operative lately, even if I was still apprehensive about her being a devil. To a trained professional in the medical field, sleep came and before long I had slipped into a slumber… or at least, that was my intention.

Instead, hearing the muffled, unending electronic whine of the heart rate monitor, I found myself standing in the middle of the hospital corridor again. This dream again?

Or maybe… looking around, I saw the same patient room, and approached it, seeing it exactly as I left it. It was uncomfortable seeing the corpse lying there crumpled in the hospital bed, with a pike sticking out through his chest. Could a dream be so consistent? Stepping into the room again, I picked up the whining heart rate monitor and set it back in its place, turning it off. I felt an odd sadness as the sad electronic whine disappeared and I was left in silence.

Then I turned to the patient. I had only briefly seen his face in life, but it was etched into my memory after seeing him in his deathrows here in this very bed. I closed his eyes and slightly turned him before reaching for the pike. Doing so, I rested my hand on the bloodstained sheet and was surprised it was still wet. He was still bleeding, even though a whole night had passed since I last saw him. Was this an inconsistency because it was a dream, or was there more to this?

Closing my eyes, I grabbed the pike and pulled it out as gently as I could, endlessly thankful it wasn’t a weapon with a hooked blade. I hated the squelching sound as the blade came out of him, making me squeeze my eyes shut tighter. Then, with the weapon extracted, I looked down at it. My hands, so clean when I killed this man, were now drenched in blood after pulling out the weapon. Rather than remorse, panic, or disgust… I found myself actually considering that I should have worn gloves. Why were my emotions so muted here? Was it just my training as a doctor? Or was it this place itself that did this to me?

Either way, I had no use of a weapon here, so I just dropped the bloody pike onto the floor, staring at the ceiling as I let out a sigh. I walked into the bathroom and started the sink, staring down at it absentmindedly as I started washing my hands. It felt cold, it felt real. Looking up, my eyes were met with a very familiar pair of piercing green eyes… my own eyes. I didn’t see the mismatched green and blue eyes, and my hair was my original jet black. This was me, the me from my Earth, but I still looked younger, the same age as Millar. Like I was in my early twenties instead of the thirty-four year old man I was.

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