By Zephyria 
Holding Michael, I went to see Asdel.
The child couldn’t hide his sorrow and anxiety. He refused to let go of my embrace. In the middle, Father tried to scold Michael, but I stopped him with a raised hand. His face buried in my shoulder, mumbling, he seemed to cling to a forced belief that everything would be resolved if his brother arrived.
When I asked how he had been, the corridor was too open. Servants with somber faces bowed whenever they saw us. Among them, a maidservant who looked like she cried the most stopped her hurried steps at the end of the fourth-floor corridor.
My mother, who was guiding me, stopped the woman and asked,
“How many times has he woken today?”
“Twice at dawn. He briefly opened his eyes, but he is sleeping now.”
“Seizures?”
“…Both times…”
“…I see. Thank you. You should go rest now.”
I understood without a subject being named. Asdel had woken up from seizures more than once.
I counted the seconds in my head. After counting past five, the maidservant who had finished her report walked down two floors. Only after the family was left alone in the corridor could I speak in a full voice.
“Since when has it been like this?”
“He first started feeling ill… about half a year ago.”
Fearing Michael might be upset, I tried to cover the child’s ears. Michael, however, shook his head and pushed my hand away. The child’s ragged breaths still brushed against my neck. Instead of looking at his tear-stained face, I simply ruffled his hair.
Michael, who was already close to Geomancy, was no different from an adult. While I was away, Michael must have taken on the role of heir to this family. He must have heard it several times already. Still, it couldn’t have dulled the pain…
Unlike Michael, who held new hope in my return, my parents seemed to believe that I, a knight, would be of no help with the child’s illness.
Perhaps that was why. She spoke only what was necessary, her eyes cast down, like a wind-up toy that moved forward when wound.
“It was just a normal day. We set up camp in an area with relatively abundant Mana, with a private tutor by his side, and he was practicing magic… During the Circle’s deployment, he suddenly had a seizure and writhed. The tutor at the time immediately stopped Asdel’s Circle rotation and called for a doctor, but it was no use.”
“…”
“They said it wasn’t damage from Mana… They said so. Without much delay, I asked my brother to bring in Wizards from the Fourth Magic Tower and requested Imperial doctors from the Palace. Yet, the cause couldn’t be identified… Some even spoke of curses. They wondered if something was wrong.”
“…”
I quietly pondered their deep brotherly affection. Recalling the little ones who used to cling to me, asking me to take their side, it felt as if someone was reaching into my body and squeezing my insides. I stood still for a moment to regain my breath.
Father pulled Michael, who was clinging to my chest, away and urged,
“Now that the chill has left your clothes, let’s just greet Asdel and leave. You need to rest too.”
Michael didn’t protest further.
Standing before Asdel’s door, I quietly opened it. The woman sitting by the child’s bed, with the window behind her, greeted the family with a slight bow and moved aside. I glimpsed a few medical Artifacts and a pen attached to her chest, as family physicians often did.
Warm autumn sunlight filled the quiet room.
The small, faint breaths continued from the swollen bed, as if about to extinguish. I sat down where the doctor had moved. Asdel, who always chattered with a face full of rosy cheeks, laughter, and petulance, was no longer there. His pale cheeks were sunken and gaunt, and his once beautiful hair had lost its luster, dry and brittle.
Where could such a small body have so many places to hurt?
“May I… examine him for a moment?”
“…Please do.”
Carefully, I shifted the child’s bedding and took out one of his wrists. Asdel did not wake. He was so thin that his wrist, resting on my large hand, felt like a dry reed leaf. I felt for his pulse with utmost caution, fearing I might break it.
None of his family tried to stop me.
Perhaps they had all done the same. Every time the child fell ill, they listened to his breathing, felt his forehead for fever, held him and cried, called doctors, administered medicine, and so eventually became numb. So they were giving me that chance too. A chance to slowly forget the child.
But I did not want to give up on this small child.
Though I had never been a physician, I knew how to observe my own body. Simply circulating Qi along the Eight Extraordinary Meridians could restore vitality and energy throughout the body. Having gained much strength, I intended to awaken the child’s Innate True Energy through True Energy cultivation or Acupressure and Blood Manipulation.
What if there were no Spiritual Medicine? My body was already a Spiritual Medicine; I would just need to break it down and feed it to him. If expending my energy wasn’t enough, I would cut off a piece of my thigh and feed it to him, just as Kai Zuchu did for his king, to save this child. That was my resolve.
I slowly scanned Asdel’s faint Qi and blood.
As with most patients, his Qi circulation was not smooth. While the Ren and Du Meridians might be blocked since the child was only ten years old and had never practiced internal energy, the line connecting the Tiantou acupoint (acupoint between the collarbones) to the Zhongzheng acupoint (acupoint near the sternum) was severely narrowed.
However, I could not push my internal energy into the child’s body.
Now I understood why other Wizards had not noticed the cold energy circulating within Asdel’s acupoints. I opened my eyes, which I had closed for contemplation, with a flash. With no one to send on an errand, I looked at Michael. I immediately commanded the sniffling child.
“Michael. Bring the oldest woman among my companions and the man with glasses. If you say I called them, they should come.”
“Huh? …Now?”
“Yes. They might… know Asdel’s illness.”
Without a sound, the child opened the door and ran out. He didn’t even seem to have time to get permission from his parents. My parents, who had been watching me listlessly, looked back at his retreating figure in shock, then back at me. Unmistakable hope crept into my mother’s voice.
“Who are they…? Or, is it possible you know why Asdel is sick right now…?”
“In my opinion, this child might have somehow swallowed a god.”
“…What?”
It was like how I had swallowed the Ninth God’s energy.
The energy I felt from Asdel’s chest was undoubtedly the energy of the Oasis.
❖ ❖ ❖
My guess was correct.
After dismissing everyone, only my parents and I remained to witness what the gods would do.
Gano Paquin made the child open his mouth and pushed his hand deep up to his elbow. His arm vanished like smoke, fitting perfectly into the child’s small mouth. My parents were horrified, but I was satisfied that I could retrieve the shard without cutting open the child’s chest.
After about ten minutes of effort, the shard I finally retrieved had a bluish hue, almost silver. It was indeed a Shard of the Oasis. It was good that I hadn’t touched it. If I had injected another god’s energy into a child already struggling from swallowing a god’s shard, it would have been poison, not medicine.
Gano Paquin rolled the blue shard in his hand and pushed it into an Ebony Wood statue. Immediately, a small disturbance arose within it. Small shards scattered, trying to escape the newly arrived shard, making rustling sounds.
“What’s happening?”
“…I don’t know. Since when has this child been like this?”
“It was March 7th of this year. While training my Circle near the upper reaches of the Saras River.”
“That can’t be…”
I was so preoccupied that I hadn’t revealed the identities of the two standing before me, yet both my parents maintained a respectful attitude. After all, a child who was dying and now recovered would be treated as a noble, even if the other party were a fiend.
Does the Shard of the Oasis need to be scattered this far, having gone into the Magic Territory to find the First Goddess? Gano Paquin said he couldn’t quite understand why it was found here.
I quietly counted the dates.
I heard that the Oasis had let out a death cry and disappeared in early March of this year. I couldn’t recall if that was seven days before or after. The one who was about to say more closed his mouth, mindful of my parents.
“…For now, the child will slowly regain his strength in about three days.”
“Three days?”
Couldn’t a god use healing? I looked at Spiritus. She, who had been watching with her arms crossed leisurely, snorted.
“It’s a wound where the soul has been burned by divine power, not something else. There is no other way but natural healing. Fortunately, the shard is small, and since it’s from the Oasis and not some other entity, the prognosis won’t be bad, so just bear with it.”
“…Does it make a difference if it’s from the Oasis?”
“If it were the Ninth God’s, he would have died instantly upon swallowing it. The Oasis harmonizes well with its surroundings, so he managed to hold on this much… I don’t think this little one is the only one.”
My father answered that question.
“Since that day, we’ve searched for patients with the same symptoms in the Duchy of Valentia, but no other such patients have been found. Children with magical talent usually go to the Magic Tower from a young age.”
“Is that so?”
Spiritus’s voice sharpened. It was understandable. Not knowing what was happening with the Oasis, I stood between my parents and her, blocking their line of sight, rather than pointing it out.
I opened the door to see the guests out. Michael, who had been waiting anxiously outside, peeked in and first checked on Asdel. Feeling sorry for the child, I stroked his head, and he quietly swallowed his tears again.
“Standing by the patient like this won’t be helpful. I’ll gather with my companions to talk separately, so please call me if the child wakes up.”
“Yes, we will.”
My mother gently squeezed my hand.
What mother could be completely at ease in such a situation? It would be natural to find it hard to believe or accept. Yet, she caressed the back of my hand with a face full of trust. Looking at me with pity, she gazed at my face for a long time.
“But don’t push yourself too hard, Mika. I want you to take care of yourself first.”
“…Yes.”
Michael, standing beside me, hugged my waist tightly and whispered.
“I thought you, brother, would be able to heal Asdel. I kept, kept believing that.”
“…”
“Thank you, brother. For coming before it was too late.”
I couldn’t utter a single syllable. My chest tickled with my warm breath.
I knew that by fulfilling the gods’ requests, the gods had also readily granted mine.
Gently stroking Michael’s head, I looked at my parents. Even after meeting them across so many years, their shining affection and trust were clear.
Once again, gratitude for a new life and the desire to protect this life hardened my heart.