The smell of rosy incense wafted through the air, eventually making its way into Hadrick’s nose. It was soft to the olfactory, yet it left a lasting residual within the nasal cavity. The lingering smell gradually pushed his mind into a shallow sleep, before his eyelids eventually opened to reveal an unfamiliar environment.

  “Ugh… Where am… I…?”

  His vision was still a little blurry and unstable, like waking up from a very long nap. As that slowly faded away, he finally saw what appeared to be a beautiful white pearl-like lantern hanging above him from an ornamented stone ceiling. It was a bizarre view, looking at all the patterns he had never seen before.

  After his vision recovered, his hearing followed next. It began with a soft foreign melody he heard somewhere nearby, which resonated harmoniously with his soul. Eager to know the source, he tried to lift his head and scan the area, but his neck felt terribly fatigued. He had to do it slowly, tilting his head from left to right until his eyes caught on with anything.

  Indeed, there was a young woman singing, or melodiously praying, at an altar with candles and various sacrilegious objects. Words that came from her mouth flowed gently like a breeze, calling upon spiritual power in an unintelligible sacred language. Her ritual, while gentle and harmless in nature, invoked uncanniness into Hadrick’s mind. The altar and its mystical items emitted an aura of imposing benevolence, the kind that awed the eyes but frightened the heart.

  It reminded him of the Offering Circle in his village’s shrine, where a statue of a Protective Angel was carved holding a golden bowl in both arms and its tail curled forth onto a circle. An offeror, who was usually the chief, would step into the circle and carry fruits and other offering foods to be placed into the bowl, as part of their mass ritual for better harvests, as well as blessings and protections.

  “That altar she prayed to doesn’t look like it's for the Protective Angels”, Hadrick spoke in his heart. “If she’s not praying to Angels, then the only other option would be—”

  “Huh…? You’ve finally awakened…?”, the praying girl softly said as she paused her ritual.

  “Hold on! Did she just sense me thinking?”, Hadrick flabbergasted.

  He closed his eyes and pretended to be unconscious, but it clearly failed to fool her, for she was already stepping to his bedside under that pearly lantern.

  “Mr, you don’t have to play dead in front of me”, she politely spoke with her gentle voice, “You’re not in danger from anyone here. So please, soothe yourself”.

  Hadrick cautiously opened up his eyes and looked up to her, to which she smiled back sincerely without a word. Her apparent kindness won his trust, and Hadrick fully opened up his eyes to see her looks clearly.

  His heart skipped a beat upon witnessing her pristine look. She had a glittering garland over her head, and her long, wavy hair faded from black, deep blue to aurora green, like aurora borealis on a winter night. Meanwhile, her skin was peachy white, and her chromatic irises stood out like a diamond in the rough.

  Never had Hadrick been so mesmerised by a woman’s beauty that he stopped thinking while staring. It wasn’t an immodest gaze that he gave her, as she wore a rather modest yet beautifully ornamented white dress with a knee-length skirt and leggings beneath it; perfectly covered from shoulder to toe. Rather, it was as if he just saw something more divine than the Protective Angels.

  “Excuse me… are you alright, Mr?”, The girl tilted her head, and her droopy bunny-like ears swayed to the side.

  The ears caught Hadrick’s attention immediately, as he originally thought that those dangling bits were part of her hair, with matching hair colour and all. However, he couldn’t let himself get distracted by them, for the girl was getting confused by his demeanour by the minute.

  “Uhm—um, sorry… I was just… shocked to see you”, Hadrick awkwardly said. “You’re unlike anyone I’ve seen in my whole life”.

  “Unlike? In what way?”, she innocently asked.

  He didn’t expect her to continue, but he pushed on: “Your appearance… you almost don’t look human”.

  “Oh, right, you’ve probably never seen a Leperian like me before in Everbloom. Sorry for not realising earlier”, now it’s the girl who was getting embarrassed.

  “A Leperian?”, Hadrick curiously asked.

  “Well, yes, we’re among the many species of enchantlings in Seirion. You could say that we’re the native inhabitants of Seirion Island before humans spread across the world”.

  “Wow… never knew Seirion was so unique”, Hadrick Expressed.

  Only after speaking to the girl and calming down did he realise that there was a bigger question at hand:

  “Hold on a second, am I in Seirion now?”

  The leperian girl answered: “Yes, you’re now in the capital of the Arcane Order itself: Trismagista. You’ve been in a coma for 2 weeks since our soldier found you semi-buried in the ground back in Everbloom”

  It was quite the revelation to Hadrick.

  “Semi-buried…? What was I—”

  Suddenly, the last memories from Everbloom flashed back upon him. He remembered that he was confronting the thief from Rustbed with Yuna and Lorian late at night, before he was shot in his thigh while fighting him. Then, remembered the chaos that unfolded later, when Seirionian and Tachyonian forces began fighting where they were at.

  The final memory was traumatic and jumbled, but his brain insisted on trying to remember. It gave him a shock headache, like a bunch of nails being hammered through his skull.

  “ARGH!!!”, Hadrick yelled in agony, placing his hand over his head.

  “Ah! Mr, what just happened?!”, the leperian girl watched in shock.

  Seeing that Hadrick was unable to answer, she quickly grasped her hands together and read out a prayer, making them glow in blue before she cast the blessings on Hadrick's head by pointing her palm towards him.

  Hadrick’s severe headache ebbed away completely and put him at ease, leaving him breathing heavily with sweat droplets over his forehead. He then looked over to the Leperian girl, who calmly put her hands away as the blessings dissipated from her palm.

  “Thank… thank you, miss…”, he sincerely said to her.

  She smiled and replied: “No problem. It’s my duty as a—”

  A few moments after hearing Hadrick’s yell from the outside, a man in a green robe quickly barged through the door to check on his patient’s condition. That man with a short beard called out to the girl as he was running to Hadrick’s side:

  “Priscenna! What’s happening!”

  “Oh, Healer Aremur! Don’t worry, I’ve taken care of the issue”, Priscenna said.

  Healer Aremur stood by Hadrick’s left and ran a quick checkup by hovering his palm over him with eyes closed, concentrating on Hadrick’s vital flow. Finding nothing abnormal or worrisome, he let out a relieved sigh and gently put his hand aside before Priscenna spoke to him.

  “After the patient woke up, there was a huge miasmic upsurge towards his mind, which caused him a great headache just now; Fortunately, a small amount of Heric Pneuma was able to restabilise it”, Priscenna reported to Healer Aremur, as Hadrick listened in to them using vitalist terms unknown to him.

  “Praise be the illuminaries for having you here”, he gratefully spoke.

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  He then diverted his attention to Hadrick and said: “Anyway… Good afternoon, Mr Hadrick Stonewell. I’m Healer Aremur, and I’m your leading healer for your recovery here at Sedesia Hospital, Trismagista. How are you doing now?”

  “I’m… doing much better now, thanks to Miss Priscenna”, he answered.

  “Good, good...”, Healer Aremur nodded slowly as he wrote something on a scroll.

  He continued: “Since you’ve finally awakened, we can now start scheduling checkups with specialist thaumaturges starting tomorrow morning. As for today, you should rest up and let your body get used to itself again after being dormant for so long”.

  “So, do you still need me to continue performing the 11 Hexis Charming for him?”, Priscenna asked the healer.

  “Hmm… based on the patient’s conditions, I’d say it’s better for you to continue, just to be safe”, said healer Aremur as he checked the scroll. “However, if you think he’s stable enough, you could reduce the frequency down to once per day, depending on how his condition develops”.

  “Got it, healer Aremur. You shall entrust my judgment”, Priscenna affirmed.

  “Alright, I’ll be leaving now”, Healer Aremur said. “If anything, please, don’t hesitate to call the attendants, Mr Stonewell. You can call them over by ringing the bell next to your bed”.

  He added: “And Priscenna, try not to burden yourself to become his sole attendant. If you need rest, just go and have it. He shall have the attendants to help him”.

  “Erm… understood, healer Aremur”, Priscenna responded shyly.

  Healer Aremur left and closed off the door behind him, leaving Priscenna and Hadrick in the room by themselves.

  “So… Miss Priscenna, if that’s my healer and there are already attendants outside, then what’s your role exactly?”, Hadrick broke the silence with a question.

  “Me? Well, I’m a witch doctor, sent over to this hospital at the request of the Golden Iris to assist you in your recovery”, she answered.

  “Wait, what? I don’t get it”, he found it unclear.

  She clarified: “Okay, so basically, in Seirion, we have the tradition of witch doctor families, who have been practising magical medicine before the Arcane Order was even founded”.

  “Among them is my family: the Asepha family. Like others, we have our own medical practice and principles passed down for generations, which have helped the population deal with various sicknesses”.

  “Even after the Grand Council of the Arcane Order established public hospitals over a century ago, the tradition of witch doctor families had not been abolished. Rather, we coexist and sometimes cooperate in certain cases, like right now, for example”.

  “Oh, fascinating…”, Hadrick commented. “Then what’s special about my case right now?”.

  “Well, for starters… you’re a resolutor… so it's expected that the Golden Iris would want more attention given to you”, Priscenna said.

  “A… Resolutor?”, Hadrick was unaware of what she meant.

  “Wait, you don’t know what a resolutor is? Surely, you’ve at least heard of their tales, right?’, Priscenna asked back, surprised by his ignorance.

  “No, I seriously never heard of them”, Hadrick honestly said.

  “Huh… so what I’ve read was true after all? That the people of Everbloom seldom tell stories about resolutors, as they believe it is a taboo that could lead to people vanishing?”, Priscenna expressed in her heart.

  Given how ignorant he was on the topic due to the environment he grew up in, while he himself had become one, Priscenna felt duty-bound to explain what resolutors and subsequently resolites are to Hadrick. She grabbed a chair to sit and went on to explain them to Hadrick in detail, to which Hadrick nodded alongside as he slowly digested it throughout their conversation.

  “So… what I saw in my final dream actually manifested in real life?”, he was referring to the ‘light heart’ he pulled out from his other self in his dream.

  “Hard to say if it's really one of the same, as not every resolutors received their resolite while dreaming. However, you could see it as your mind giving you the sign of it while you’re unconscious”, she told him.

  “Also, if you’re wondering where your resolite is now, it is under the custody of the Golden Iris. But don’t worry, they’ll let you have it back once you’re better. Then you can see your resolite’s power for yourself”, she added.

  It was difficult for Hadrick to reconcile with the fact that he had become a special individual out of the blue. To him, it felt like it was too good to be true after all the chaos he had faced that night. At some point, he even started to question if he was still dreaming, but Priscenna quickly reaffirmed to him that he was indeed in real life.

  More than half an hour passed, and Priscenna finally realised that she had been chatting to her patient for quite some time when her vision suddenly wandered off to the clock on the wall. Deeply ashamed by it, she expressed:

  “Ah! What have I been doing?! I should’ve let you rest, not drown you in shocking revelations. Sorry!”.

  “Wait, no need to be sorry!”, Hadrick said. “I actually appreciate that you told me all of this. Now, I could at least rest more easily without having too many questions up in my head”.

  “R-Really…?”, Priscenna was surprised, “Then… I’m glad for giving you the help…”.

  Hadrick noticed how she might have blushed a little after saying that, but he pretended not to see it and kept silent. In that moment, they accidently exchanged eye contact with each other, and locked into it without a word spoken. Warm and fuzzy feelings boiled up from within, and the longer they stared, the stranger it felt.

  Priscenna eventually looked away out of shyness, with cheeks redder than before. Knowing that Hadrick had likely seen it, she hastily stood from her chair and turned around, keeping her face away from him.

  “S-sorry, but I have to leave now… I have an urgent matter to handle. I’ll be back later”, she briefly excused herself before immediately leaving the room.

  Hadrick didn’t even get to say any last words to her. Left in isolation on his bed, he stared up and anxiously wondered: “Did I do or say something wrong to her? Perhaps I was being too brash?”.

  Throughout the rest of the evening, Priscenna didn’t come back to his room as she had promised, leaving Hadrick eagerly waiting for nothing. Even as the attendants came into his room to bring him an early dinner, he saw no signs of her, while he was too afraid to ask about her whereabouts to the attendants.

  “Perhaps she’ll come back tomorrow morning?”, he hopefully wondered.

  .

  .

  .

  Priscenna crossed the street from the hospital to return to her room at the inn, where she had been staying for the past two weeks while aiding the hospital over Hadrick’s recovery. During her walk, her mind kept clouding itself with several thoughts about Hadrick and other issues, which she was desperately trying to resist from distracting her.

  Along the sidewalk, she passed by a rissole stand run by an old man, from whom she regularly brought her meal while she was assigned here. Usually, she would visit or at least greet this man when passing by his stand while going to or from the hospital. However, today, the old man saw her face a little more stressed than usual, which led him to greet her first:

  “Hey, Miss Priscenna, good evening! You left the hospital quite early today, aren’t you?”.

  Keeping up with her usual courtesy, she stopped by the food stand and politely replied: “Good evening, Mr Barmaphos! My work finished early today, so I get to leave sooner than usual”.

  “Really? Then, why do I see you frowning just now?”, Mr Barmaphos perceptively asked.

  “Um… I-it’s nothing, actually. You know how medical work can get stressful from time to time”, she tried to shrug it off.

  “I see… well, I’m just a rissole seller, so I wouldn’t be able to understand your stress”, Mr Barmaphos responded. “However, if you need someone to talk to, this old man is always ready to listen, haha!”.

  “Er… It’s fine. I’ll be able to bear this myself. It’s not too big of a deal”, she kindly refused.

  “Come on… There must be a reason why you get out early while looking all stressed, huh?”, he saw through her.

  “Uh, well… I wanted to ask you something first”, Priscenna spoke.

  “Is it normal for sellers to sometimes… er… form an intimate bond with their customer…?”.

  “Oh… haha! What a question!”, he laughed. “I mean… I met with my wife after she regularly visited my rissole stand 50 years ago”.

  “Oh! Really?”, Priscenna was piqued.

  He continued: “Yeah… back when I had only started my business at Lord Rephil Street, she always came to my stand after her work at the forge there. She said she loved how my rissole tasted, so I always gave her an extra whenever she brought some”.

  “Fast forward to today, my wife and I now live happily with five children, all of whom already have their own children, minus the youngest”.

  “Wow… what an interesting story you got”, she commented.

  “Haha, that’s how life is. Even the small deeds you did could make all the difference”, he told her.

  “By the way, why do you ask about this? Does it have something to do with your work?”, he curiously asked.

  “Uhm… perhaps?”, she shyly answered.

  “Did you… start having a feeling for your patient…?”, he whisperingly guessed.

  Her face turned all red when Mr Bormaphos said it to her face, like having her mind read like a book. She deniably responded: “What?! NO, no! D-Definitely not!”

  Mr Barmaphos said nothing but only smiled at her, already seeing what the young witch doctor was going through.

  In panic to divert their conversation elsewhere, she ordered: “U-uhm… I’ll take one chicken rissole, please!”

  Mr Barmaphos grinned a little as he accepted the order and prepared the food into a bag for her. Upon giving it to Priscenna, she immediately noticed that the paper bag was heavier than it was supposed to be.

  Checking inside, she saw two rissoles, and Mr Barmaphos said: “I know that a rissole street seller and a witch doctor from a renowned family like you are very much different. But, even as we’re busy with our work, we must remember not to let it be a barrier against our natural life”.

  “So, fill it up with small deeds, and let it make all the difference”.

  Listening to the old man’s wise words gave her the confidence to confront her emerging feelings. Looking back in the direction of Sedesia Hospital from where she came, she knew exactly what she should do.

  .

  .

  .

  As Hadrick looked out the window, watching the orange sky turn dark in the evening, someone knocked at his door. He had hoped that it was the witch doctor, but unfortunately, it was just a hospital attendant entering and carrying a paper bag in her hand. She placed it on his table and told him:

  “Mr Stonewell, someone had given this to you. There’s also a note inside for you to read”.

  The attendant left, and Hadrick opened up the bag to see a rissole alongside the note, read:

  “This over here is a Seirionian Rissole, a common snack throughout the Arcane Order. Inside is some chicken filling, and if you’re not feeling like eating it now, you can leave it out in the open for three days without it going bad. (As long as you haven’t taken a bite, of course)”.

  “Sorry for not having the courage to talk to you personally yet, but I hope that this small gift can act as our first friendly gesture”.

  “—Priscenna Asepha”