Thankfully, the rest of the town hall went by much smoother after that. Nathan had been anticipating more combatative questions, but most of the people there had truly come to have their concerns attended to.


    Still, by the end of it, Nathan was feeling exhausted. It didn’t hurt that his arm had continued to twitch and freak out the whole time. He was feeling odd phantom sensations up and down his bones. Pain periodically spiked and nearly knocked him out like a light, flashes of black blurring his vision.


    He’d immediately gone to Vee after the Town Hall. He was taken to a laboratory of some sort, all clean tiles and test tubes and fluorescent lights (magic lights, she’d said. Nathan had just shrugged and gone along with it.)


    Vee sighed and pulled away the metal tool she’d been using to inspect his arm. On his arm’s side, the half-black, half-white chimera flower bloomed, its petals spread out gracefully.


    “Well, you’re not in danger,” Vee said. “Not right now, anyway.”


    “That’s not unnerving in the slightest.”


    Vee reached up and scratched the back of her mushroom cap head.


    “Basically,” she said. “It has to do with how your little flower friend got into your body in the first place.”


    “What do you mean?”


    She pulled out some papers from a counter to her side.


    “When Speciman Five… emerged, for lack of a better term, it used a pretty nasty method. From my best guess, it took advantage of some cracks in what is best described as your core, or soul—though I hate the term.”


    “That sounds… really bad. How did I get cracks in my ‘core’?”


    “The cracks came from the Pandora. When you absorbed it, your core rebuilt itself from the ground up to be more powerful. Your body, too. There were a bunch of defects left over in the reforming process.” She looked up toward the ceiling. “Sounds kind of interesting. And painful.”


    Nathan thought back to the experience of having every part of his skin on fire.


    “Trust me, it was.” He shook his head. “But going back to the whole ‘cracks in my core’ thing?”


    “It’s actually not that bad—at least, not normally,” Vee said. “Yeah, you aren’t operating at full capacity, you haven’t gotten to enjoy the enhanced stats associated with rank up, for example, but besides that, you haven’t dealt with anything too bad. And anyway, the soul’s a pretty sturdy thing. Given time and healing, it probably would’ve mended itself back together.” She clicked her tongue. “But there are two things getting in the way.”


    “The plant stuff, right?”


    “Yeah, and you seem to have some preexisting damage, as well.”


    “Huh? How?”


    Vee’s eyes stared at a wall. A few seconds ticked by.


    “There’s some evidence that severe mental illness can lead to fractures in a core,” she said.


    Nathan frowned. “How does that make any sense?”


    “Hell if I know.” She shrugged. “I’m just a scientist. Maybe Papim’s right and there’s some weird metaphysical soul bullcrap going on. But I’m sure that none of this applies to you, right? You seem pretty well adjusted.”


    Nathan was quiet.


    “Yeah,” he said.


    There was a beat of silence.


    “Anyway,” Vee said. “The bigger issue is the flower. Just like it did with this town, it’s spreading its roots inside of you, Nathan. Not just on a physical level, but on that ‘inner being’ level as well. All those tremors and pains you described? All of that was your core trying to heal, and this thing getting in the way.”


    “What are my options?”


    “The best choice would be to rip it out,” she said. “It’s still early enough that we might be able to pull it off. You’d be out of commission for a week or two, but it would be worth it.”


    Nathan glanced over at his arm. “What would that do to the plant?”


    “It would die. It expended an enormous amount of resources to attach to you, and it’s own core seems to be located on the flower petals. There’s a chance that it survives, but that’s pretty low.”


    Nathan was silent for a few seconds.


    “Could I just wait it out?” he asked.


    Vee turned, knocked over a glass beaker, and it crashed into the ground. She stared at Nathan.


    “What?” she said. “Why would you do that?”


    “Just answer the question.”


    She shook her head.


    “I guess there’s a small chance that your body and core adapt to the roots, but that’s really low. It’s not worth the risk. Why would you do that?”


    “Because I’m about fifty percent sure it’s sapient, and I’m not sure about killing something like that in cold blood.”


    Vee sucked in a breath. “Oh, shit.”


    “It’s been playful, curious, it’s clearly capable of higher thought. Besides that, it protected me from harm. I would have to be the biggest scumbag in the world to turn around and slaughter something that helped me out like that.”


    Vee sat in a chair and sighed.


    “Well,” she said. “I guess you’d better pray that it’s smart enough to know what it’s doing. Otherwise, you’re boned, buddy.”


    Before Nathan could think on this wonderful statement, he heard a loud knock at the door and nearly jumped out of his seat.


    “Hello, Nathan?” Zayen shouted. “I think I’m ready to go home!”


    Nathan stood up. He looked at Vee and gave her a quick nod.


    “Thanks,” he said. “I appreciate it.”


    “No problem. Just be sure to look out for us scientists in the new administration, okay?”


    Nathan nodded, then turned around and stepped outside.


    <hr>


    Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    We totally forgot to inform the guards where we were going. And weren’t we supposed to be in a palanquin, earlier?


    And then I''ll finally be finished with this side quest!


    desert tilapia.


    <hr>


    Nathan walked into the shimmering haze of the cursed desert, the dry air pulling at his skin like claws. The lake loomed ahead, a pool of unnatural stillness in the endless expanse of sand. Its surface shimmered with a pale, eerie light, casting reflections that seemed to ripple and shift even without wind.


    The silence was oppressive. Each step Nathan took was swallowed by the stillness, his boots crunching against the sand, sounding hollow and faint. The closer he got, the more the air seemed to hum with an inaudible vibration.


    When he reached the edge, the lake’s water was clearer than anything he’d seen in the desert, but there was something wrong. Beneath the surface, shadows swirled, forming shapes that dissolved as quickly as they appeared. Nathan knelt, his hand hesitating above the water. The unnatural glow seemed to reach for him, tugging at his senses, drawing him closer.


    A flicker of movement caught his eye. A shape darted through the water, quick and fluid. Nathan froze, every muscle taut. The shadow passed again, closer this time, and he caught a glimpse of silver scales glinting in the dim light.


    Then it rose. Slowly, deliberately, a massive fish broke the surface, its scales shimmering with an iridescent, cursed glow. Its eyes were hollow, glowing orbs that seemed to pierce through Nathan. The tilapia’s gills flared unnaturally, releasing a mist that hung in the air like a suffocating fog.


    Nathan’s muscles tensed.


    This is going to be difficult, but not impossible. I’ve done this type of thing before.


    And then he caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. Someone, lying face up on the water.


    An orc, wearing a red sash with the symbol of Bjorn’s squad.


    Before he had any time to think about this, the monster let out a roar and Nathan was thrown to the ground from the shockwave.