Ariolus, another city upon the riverbank of the Vena. Unlike Fluentem, Ariolus was up the river, far from its mouth. Ariolus benefited from trade along the river, but it wasn't a trading hub like Fluentem had been. Unlike Lapis, there were no mines of gems, stones, or metals nearby. Inherent wealth was not on their doorstep, unless the people of Aeternitus suddenly had urgent need of the trees.
Yes, lumber was one of its greatest exports, but that alone wasn't enough to make it great.
Ariolus was a major city-state, but its strength was in its flexibility.
One of the most prominent of its neighbors was the city-state Nix. This aggressive sister city had often come for Ariolus. It was to Ariolus' credit of might that Nix had never taken the city.
Never.
Thus, Nix hated Ariolus all the more. For Nix was truly nothing but a culture built on might, or so was the common thought. How dare Ariolus stand before them in might.
Not only did Ariolus stand before Nix, the city may as well have danced over Nix's desires.
A river that brought wealth, hillsides of green trees, and a military to match Nix's. Ariolus was a gem upon Aeternitus' crown. Especially so, it seemed to Nix, up in the barren mountains to the northeast.
The fanciful worked wooden details in every doorframe did little to make Nix respect Ariolus' lives. They saw a people that played when those in Nix toiled bitterly for what they had.
It was the simple truth that Ariolus lived in more abundance than Nix, but the consequences weren't simple. What those in Nix had thrown away as "worthless play," Ariolus honed into artwork that benefited everyone who laid eyes upon it. Even if the people of Ariolus and Nix were miraculously switched, the people molded by the hilled forests would not make the same city in stone.
Perhaps they wouldn't last a day, as Nix said. Or, perhaps their city would be grander, as they wouldn't settle for a mirthless existence.
Those in Nix may have lacked the wealth for extraneous details over their doors, but to take what cheer they could afford as worthless was a worse poison to the people than greed.
Aureum knew of the city-state of Ariolus from her mother and father. It was close enough that her father took business from it. This was the rare time when her father was the customer.
Her mother had more stories to tell of it. As a girl, she lived closer to Ariolus than to Nix. Her father, Aureum's grandfather, had taken his children to see the city a few times.
When Aureum spotted the first of its tapered rooftops, she was underwhelmed.
It was early morning, and her tired, itching eyes didn't help.
They had traveled through the night. With the destination so close and their current situation so uncomfortable, it was an easy choice.
Perhaps it wasn't only exhaustion that was to blame. This was no longer the woman that had only seen the inside of the house of Nix. The walls of Lapis were a much more impressive sight than this.
At least let the people here speak less nonsense than those in the hidden manor… Aureum thought as she approached it.
Now, here was an interesting thing. As they came closer to the city, it became apparent that there was no wall. Aureum stopped to look at it. There was a cobbled road around the city and towers where a wall should be, but no wall. Like a hole in a statue where the head should be.
Aureum squinted up and down at it all, but she was tired. The secrets of the city could wait. Actually, the city could keep its secrets forever for as much as she cared.
Ariolus' bloody past history with Nix was well known. As long as it could protect her from Nix, she didn't care.
It felt strange and slightly vulnerable to enter.
I hope they didn't sell the stones of the wall during the years of peace or something.
But soon they were inside the city, and Aureum was further… underwhelmed.
It wasn't a bad city. In fact, after her dashed expectations, she noticed it was quite clean. There were little bushes and flowers growing everywhere.
Those reminded her of Fluentem. A little more wild, and all the trees in Ariolus seemed much older. But, with how Aureum had heard those in Nix talk about it…
"I was expecting a lot more," Aureum said. "Like drinking and dancing in the streets."
"Heh," Hiems let out an amused breath. "Do you believe everything that was told to you?"
"Obviously not. I was just making chatter."
She scowled.
There were bigger concerns than how interesting the city was to her.
"Doctor," she muttered. "Right away."
"I think a bath—
"Doctor," Aureum said louder, cutting him off.
She strode out before him.
Like a majority of businesses around Aeternitus, clinics in Ariolus made money by being available. So, it wasn't difficult for Aureum and Hiems to find a doctor.
Soon, Aureum sat at the front while an old man looked over Hiems on a bed in the back.
She waited, her head nodding off. She startled back up and blinked.
I can't fall asleep now.
There was an urgent need to be awake and be aware… even as she had no ability to help or change anything.
I should have listened to Mom more closely.
Aureum's mother had always chatted about herbs to Aureum. The Zizans sold rare plants in Nix after all, and herbs were one of their mainstays. But most of it had washed over Aureum's head.
It had worked out all right. Or had it?
Aureum was moments away from hearing the real answer. Whether Hiems' body was permanently damaged had yet to be known.
"'Ello, Gemmo," Gemmo said.
He reached up to play with Aureum's hair.
"Oh, so you're up now while I want to sleep," Aureum said. "It's 'hello' you little copycat," she continued while squishing Gemmo's cheeks as he looked up at her. "'Hello.' Can you try that?"
"Elllyooo," Gemmo said.
Aureum released his cheeks.
"Hell-lloo," she said, slower.
"Hell-mmooooo," Gemmo said.
"Is that good enough to call it your first word?" Aureum said. "I guess you're already saying your name." She gave a small couple of claps. "Let's call it close enough. Good job, Gemmo. Well done!"
She reached down while he reached up. Her hands enclosed his small ones.
"It's done," Hiems said, looking down at the two of them.
The doctor was a little bit behind him.
"Aw crap, I was trying to pay attention," Aureum said. "But listen, Gemmo can say hello! Say hello, Gemmo."
"Agwhooo!"
Aureum and Hiems stared at him.
"Hello, Gemmo?" she said again.
"Hellooooo," Gemmo said.
"Good job!" Aureum said.
Hiems smiled too, but he had an ominous feeling.
We're almost a family, he thought.
That wasn't the source of the feeling, though. That part was kind of cute.
A man considered a monstrosity by his family and a woman who ran away from home, and neither fully married. Both without a home or a job of their own. This is what he has to call family.
His smile faded. The stability was fragile at best. But first.
"You wanted her to know as well, right?" Hiems said to the doctor.
"His mana is blocking itself," the doctor said, stepping forward from behind him. "You should keep him from practicing it."
The old man demanded this from Aureum as if she had any say over Hiems' decisions.
"Can you tell me more?" She asked.
The old man's face scrunched up. He looked like a rat sucking lemons.
"He said you already knew most of it," as the doctor spoke, his thumb jerked in Hiems' direction.
"I want the educated details if I'm going to tell him off," Aureum said.
"Heh…," the doctor sighed. He scratched his neck as he went to sit back behind his counter again. "It's a severe case of a mana clash. I've only seen this sort of thing in torture victims of my youth. They used to inject mana of the opposing element into victims' veins to make them speak. It usually just broke their pearls and minds…"
The doctor looked off into the distance. Aureum opened her mouth to speak.
"—Anyways, it doesn't quite match up with that. I'll believe the patient in this case, but it's usually impossible to layer a pearl to this level if the mana is incompatible with the sorcerer. For good reason."
He turned to look down his nose at Hiems as if to punctuate his point.
"I can give medicine to dull the pain," he said. "But the stronger stuff isn't meant for long-term use. Besides, he isn't like the cases I treated in my youth. Even if it is blocked, it's his mana. It doesn't cause him pain unless he uses it. In that way, it's almost like a rare case of a failed condensement. He's lost some level of control of his mana without dying but experiences a heightened level of effort and increasing pain as he uses it."
The doctor stopped to take a sip from the mug on his counter. Some sort of tea that had cooled off hours ago.
"What can we do to heal him?" Aureum asked while she could get a word in.
"Heal him?" The doctor shook his head. "Didn't you hear me? He's showing symptoms of an imperfectly formed or cracked pearl! You can't just heal that!"
"Thank you—
Hiems was cut off.
"What? So he just doesn't use his mana forever?!" Aureum said. "He's a warrior. Not using his mana is not acceptable!" She took a moment to bite her lip. When she continued, she was still furious. "I'm not asking for a miracle. He can still control mana! His pearl isn't the origin of the problem! There's still hope."
The doctor rubbed his head. Then he threw his hands up.
"Maybe a fancy doctor at Fluentem or Lapis would tell you about possible treatments," he began. "Things like flushing the mana in his body and even destroying his pearl…"
"So he can be helped!"
"Let me finish, missy," the doctor said. "These are nice dreams, but in my decades of practice, they are only dreams. Flushing his system with mana to achieve balance needs to be done regularly, and with great cost from a sorcerer willing to do it. If he wanted to continue the life of a warrior as you suggested, that isn't any solution. Unless you lot are inherently wealthy."
"Well—
It wasn't a question. The doctor continued his lecture as if Aureum hadn't spoken.
"There is little written about destroying pearls. Usually, it's in combat. It's left untreated and leads to almost immediate death. All survivors' records I read mention slow death afterwards. I've been lucky enough not to see it in person. With the pearl compromised, mana leaks out uncontrolled and acts as a true poison to the body. Not just blocking the flow of it in his body, but causing manifestations of it inside him. Sorcerers of fire are burned from the inside, sorcerers of ice freeze to death, and so on. Sorcerers of wood grow tumors and die. It is what it is."
He waited. Aureum frowned.
He was telling her it was pointless, and that was something she would never accept. Instead of playing to his patience, she bit her tongue out of spite.
"She just cares for me," Hiems said.
Aureum looked at him with opened mouth before clamping it shut.
"Yes! Yes, I just care for him!"
She frowned deeper as a blush rose across her cheeks. That made her more furious.
"I can't accept that he has no cure," she said. "My pearl was destroyed, and I was fine."
The doctor squinted at her. Then his face relaxed the next moment.
"Sure, sure. But whatever 'miracle' occurred, don't expect it to occur twice. Maybe clean yourself up as well."
"What—
"I know you care for him. I saw the signs of wind mana cutting and crushing the ice mana blocking his veins. But you should be thankful you saved his life. There are things that just can't be fixed."
Aureum was beyond insulted. Hiems placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Doctor, thanks for your help. What do we owe you?"
The doctor scowled again.
"Let me tell you my advice first. Don't use mana, ever. At least for a full month. Then you should get somebody with training to look you over again. The body may rebalance itself on its own given time, but it won't if you strain it. You should seek out a specialist. If you have the money for it."
He rubbed his neck.
"You owe me… Well, it was basically a checkup. About six quinque would call it even. You can pay in increments."
"I'll pay it right now!" Aureum said as she placed Gemmo onto the bench to her side.
Hiems eyes twitched. He had a feeling about what she was going to do.
Aureum pulled the money from the ring, making it appear from thin air. The doctor's eyes popped wide open.
She counted the quinque coins as she hammered them into the counter.
"One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. There's your money, you—
"Let's go," Hiems said.
He had already picked Gemmo up and pulled at Aureum's arm. She went along with it until they were outside.
She expected him to stop, but he kept going.
"What's the rush?"
Hiems sighed. Then he grinned.
"I don't want to sleep in a cell because of a false report."
"Why would he report us?" Aureum asked.
"Because we hold wealth that we shouldn't."
Aureum blinked up at him. Hiems missed her blank expression. He was looking ahead.
"You mean the ring?! I own that!" She said.
"Yes, but we don't have easy proof. We could be held for a while."
"You're paranoid!"
Hiems shook his head.
"I think it's bath time anyways," he said. "Why wouldn't we rush for that?"
"Because we're exhausted!" Aureum said.
But she kept running alongside him.
It was different from running for their lives. It was more like they were kids running from their studies.
There was a fresh, cool breeze across her skin as they ran through the city. Or maybe she was the one who was warm.