Chapter 51 - 48: Recovery.

“Several weeks passed after the patient’s operation. Her recovery went at a normal pace but still showed signs of difficulty to move or operating the newly implanted prosthesis. Without difficulty breathing or sleep, the progress was still great for someone who had her nervous system attached to machines. Albeit there are several people who had gone through this similar operation, Grace Myers is the very first reported elf to receive a bionic arm and leg as a prosthesis for her missing limbs.” –A doctor recorded while passing through Gree’s bedroom to check on her.

“Are you done with your detective-ish monologue? I wanted to ask when I’m going to be free, the food here tastes quite yucky and don’t give me that ‘it’s the meds’ talk because I know very well how some of these taste already.” –Gree complained while pointing at the doctor with her implanted arm with the same freedom she had with her real one.

“I’m afraid we can’t let you go just yet Miss Myers, your condition could take a turn for the worse if we allow you to go out of the facility, it could damage you irreparably. So to avoid getting me fired and you dead, how about you take your time and relax a bit?” –The doctor tried to reason with Gree who crossed her arms and laid back down frowning. The doctor then walked closer to the window of the room and looked up with a worried expression to check if the floating island was still on top of Casamira.

“Is it still there? Honestly, it is creepy but if they wanted us dead then maybe we would be already.” –Gree tried to reason with the doctor.

“That doesn’t mean it has any good intentions, no?” –The doctor countered before leaving the room as Gree frowned again in silence.

Right after the doctor left the room; Elvira knocked on the door before entering and noticed Gree checking her prosthesis with curiosity. “Hey, I got you some real food, as you asked me to, but I don’t know if this could make you feel bad.” –Elvira mentioned while Gree extended her new bionic arm to her and motioned it to make Elvira give the bag with the food. With a small sigh, Elvira handed the bag and sat on a chair next to the bed. “What do you plan on doing? Chronos is also fully recovered, but the doctors won’t allow him to go until there are orders from the capital.” –Elvira asked while leaning back on the chair.

“I want to pay a visit to Ivan’s workshop and study for a bit. You can help me while Chronos goes around doing what he does, he will find something to do.” –Gree answered in a dismissive tone while eating the meal Elvira brought for her.

While Elvira was with Gree, Chronos wandered around in the facility, noticing how the exits were guarded by soldiers. Are the soldiers here to protect us? But from what?... –Chronos thought while the soldiers stood in silence, holding their rifles while staring at Chronos.

“It’s because they are not here to protect, they are here to retain you.” –The silhouette of Pandora slowly passed behind the soldiers, sliding her hands over the rifles. “You are too important for them now and they won’t let you go until you help with what they need.” –Pandora continued while taking a step out of Chronos’ field of vision and suddenly hugging him from behind, lunging her arms over his shoulders. “This reminds me, a certain Dragon left something for you before it died, and maybe it is related to this condition everyone is making a fuss about.” –Pandora whispered before vanishing on thin air as Chronos remained silent, clenching his fists as he remembered the moment DD passed away.

I don’t understand the reasons behind the behavior of Pandora, but she made a point I can’t ignore…How am I the only case? And how is Sinns not able to create to be a possible cure as well? Maybe I could find out something if I talk with Gree about it. –Chronos thought while leaving the main lobby of the facility to walk towards Gree’s room. As he made his way to look for Gree, Chronos tried to summarize all the events that happened throughout the time since the first contact with other humans back in Argos. The memories brought back some crucial moments on which he grew into what he is now, starting from the death of DD, and continuing with his predestined meeting with Archival, following with the unfortunate invasion of Pandora. Chronos sighed as this last significant event because much more of a problem to him.

Upon reaching the door to enter Gree’s room, a doctor walked by, looking at Chronos in disdain while holding onto the document Chronos decided to not sign while talking with Elvira about it. Chronos’ stomach twisted slightly after not understanding the reason behind that look in the eyes of the doctor. After a couple of seconds of looking at the doctor walk away, Chronos entered Gree’s room.

“You did take your sweet time to come and visit me, I thought you would escape again to god knows where.” –Gree sighed while trying to get used to the leg prosthesis by walking in her room. “But I bet you are not here to just visit and pat my back.” –Gree continued while sitting on the bed.

“I want to know if you can tell me of what I actually am.” –Chronos requested while standing next to a chair.

“Buddy, I don’t even know what I am anymore. However, I found out there are some funny things called Absolute commands. According to the old ass books I read, the beginning of all magic and stuff started with the gifts of a god who helped its creation to survive, granting humanity the ability to rule over certain laws of the world to be able to fight the plague they created.” –Gree explained while doing her best to summarize everything she read. “It is stated that the rulers seized the power of said gifts and managed to rise to the top of our societies. But, here comes the funny part, these gifts were not only given to humanity.” –She mentioned.

“Then…” –Chronos tried to connect the dots but was interrupted by Gree.

“Exactly, animals, or more likely, intelligent beings able to communicate somehow, also managed to receive such gifts, like the calamity known as the death dragon.” –Gree continued while grabbing a glass with her bionic arm to drink water. “DD by no means could be killed, but it was incarcerated to avoid killing everything on its path. So the prophets suspected it was the work of an absolute command.” –Gree smiled while remembering what she read. “Then the prophets began to question themselves why God would do such thing to humanity. And so that’s how they began to understand that they were not special, that their gifts were able to be passed on to anyone else.” –She ominously explained while looking at her window, placing the cup back down. “So to answer you, what you are, you need to remember, who you were with.” –Gree countered Chronos’ question, expecting to finally know the answer from himself.

“DD… I was originally supposed to be a guardian for her offspring, but the egg was rotten, the same black substance that the hives produce came out of the egg when it was supposed to hatch. It was dead…” –Chronos lowered his head a bit while clenching his fists.

“The funny part is that you were never aware of it. The only thing that kept the death dragon alive was the absolute command gifted to it.” –Gree pointed out while turning to see Chronos. “So besides being able to shoot toothpicks from thin air, you are basically unable to be killed, which is really overpowered and I don’t like that.” –She continued while sighing. “But there is a contradiction, and it is the fact that your bones can still be fractured or your skin is damaged. But this is just a minor question I am overthinking. So to be perfectly accurate as for what are you to this point: you are basically a ruler, except that you can’t rule even in your mind, which is hilariously sad.” –she joked around while walking once again to test the stability and balance with her bionic leg.

While Chronos was talking with Gree, Elvira visited the grave she made for Phil outside of the walls. She silently sat down and meditated. I wonder how Jessie and Elaina are doing; I bet they are messing around with Jasper as always. Poor kid, his sisters always bullying him. I surely hope mom and dad are taking care of everything, but one would never know when it comes to those two little devils. –Elvira chuckled as she thought about her family. “Maybe I should buy some souvenirs for when I go back home, I bet they would love it.” –She muttered while sighing as she stood up from in front of the grave and decided to walk back into Casamira. On her way back, Elvira notice Pascal and Marco struggling to move the vehicle they were driving as it broke down nearby the gate, so she decided to help them by pushing it in.

“Thanks very much miss; you surely are a strong one.” –Pascal praised Elvira as he poked his head out of the window while directing the front wheels.

“Oh it’s nothing; I used to do this kind of thing all the time back when I was at home. My father is a great mechanic but he always needed help to move the cars that broke down nearby the workshop. So I was always helping him with new customers.” –Elvira Joyfully answered as she kept pushing the vehicle effortlessly.

“Oh, that’s quite nice. But where are you from miss?” –Marco popped in the conversation.

“It’s actually a service station nearby the border, not as big but enough to refill a whole caravan.” –Elvira replied while arriving at the workshop and shaking both Pascal’s and Marco’s hands. “Well then, be careful now; you guys better fix it well so this doesn’t happen again.” –Elvira mentioned before leaving to check the town hall.

As she finally entered the renovated Townhall, Elvira immediately made her way to Ivan’s workshop in order to search about the rest of the notes he left for Gree and Lorenz since Lorenz’s allowed her to. Within the inventions, Elvira found a list that named them with some serial numbers for quicker identification. While reading the list, Elvira walked across the cramped place trying to organize it a bit to have a proper working area. So Gree would be able to mess it all up again. –She sighed while thinking of how lazy Gree gets when it comes to cleaning.

Back in the temporary hospital, an uncomfortable silence invaded Gree’s room while Chronos kept pondering about the details behind the command Gree suspected he had. “Okay, this gets quite uncomfortable if you don’t laugh at my jokes, so I’ll be direct. As a human, you are too fragile to hold onto the command that made the deadliest dragon registered to be unkillable.” –Gree stated while kicking on the floor gently to test the reaction of her prosthesis. “Maybe it doesn’t an effect on you or it is dormant, but for whatever reason, there is just so much I can tell you, mainly since the information about it is limited to some few books and forums online of people guesstimating bullshit after reading some copies of said books by themselves.” –Gree ranted while remembering the details of what she read online. “Sadly, since I’m half blind right now, the doctors forbid me to use any devices.” -Gree continued as she pointed to her face.

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