The Price

The cracks on the crystal's surface widened.

Blue-green light spilled from every fissure, illuminating the entire underground chamber. The Hydra's corpse still lay nearby, heat rising from its enormous body and making the air feel thick and sticky.

I knelt on the ground, my right hand pressed against my severed left wrist. Master Roxy's healing magic had stopped the bleeding, but the pain at the stump hadn't let up for a moment. How could I put it? It felt like someone was slowly sawing through my arm with a dull knife.

"My left hand... it's gone. At least it was my left hand, so it won't affect my writing or daily life much. Most importantly, everyone's still alive. The price was high, but if we could get Zenith out... it was all worth it."

I looked down at the end of my left arm. The bones, muscles, skin, and blood vessels had all been crushed. No matter how advanced the healing magic, it probably couldn't be reattached.

The crystal pillar gave one final, crisp crack.

The crystal began to crumble from the edges, fragments drifting down like snowflakes. The blue-green light faded, and the fragments dissolved into tiny points of light in the air, slowly sinking into the ground.

The crystal was gone.

Zenith fell from midair.

Paul reacted faster than I did. Seemingly forgetting the pain of his severed arm, he caught the falling figure with his right hand. He moved carefully, as if catching something that might break at any moment.

Golden hair spilled across his arm.

Zenith.

My mother.

Her eyes were closed, her expression peaceful, her skin so pale it was almost transparent. Four years of crystallization had left her body so light that Paul could cradle her in one arm. Her breathing was shallow, so shallow that her chest barely seemed to rise and fall, but she was breathing, which meant she was alive.

"Zenith spent four years inside that crystal. Now she's finally out, right there in Paul's arms. We did it."

"Mother..."

The word squeezed out of my throat, so hoarse it didn't sound like my own voice.

She didn't respond.

"Mother!" I raised my voice.

I braced my right hand against the ground and tried to stand, but my balance was off. A phantom pain shot through the place where my left hand should have been, and I nearly fell back down.

Zenith's eyes opened.

Her blue eyes looked straight ahead, but her gaze didn't settle on anyone.

"She's looking at me. Her eyes are open, but her gaze passes right through me, empty and lifeless. What is Zenith looking at? What's wrong with her?"

Paul's voice came from behind me, trembling in a way I'd never heard before.

"Zenith... Zenith, it's me, Paul. I'm here."

She didn't respond.

Paul held her a little tighter, his right arm around her shoulders. His face was buried against her neck, and his shoulders were shaking.

"Zenith... look at me, please look at me... I'm sorry, I'm sorry... I was too late..." He sounded as if he might burst into tears at any moment.

She still didn't respond.

Her hands hung at her sides, unmoving. Her eyes turned toward Paul, but there was nothing in them.

Master Roxy stepped in front of Zenith, a pale green light glowing at the tip of her wand. She waved the light in front of Zenith's eyes, then clapped a few times beside her ear.

No response.

"...Hmm." Roxy put away her wand, her voice quiet. "Her body isn't injured, her mana is dissipating normally, and her vital signs are stable, but her consciousness..."

Her voice faltered for a moment.

"Hasn't recovered... Perhaps she was crystallized for too long. Or perhaps... I can't say."

Paul said nothing. He just held Zenith tighter.

I knelt beside them, looking into my mother's vacant blue eyes.

My thoughts were in a jumble, and a buzzing sounded in my ears.

"Four years. Zenith spent four years inside that crystal. Paul searched for her for four years, and I searched for her for four years. Now she's right here, in Paul's arms. But her eyes... those blue eyes used to smile and grow angry when she looked at me, and glare at me when I caused trouble. But now they're like a doll's, without any emotion, and all I feel is a chill."

"...Mother." I called to her again.

My voice was so quiet she couldn't hear it.

Master Roxy crouched beside me, her wand resting on her knees. She stared at my severed left wrist for a long time.

"Rudeus," she said softly, "your left hand... the bones were crushed too badly. Healing magic can only close the wound. It can't regenerate it. At least, I can't. I'm sorry."

"It's all right, Master Roxy. I still have my right hand, don't I? And we rescued my mother."

"Mm... um..." She hesitated. "Rudeus, are you all right?"

I looked down at my left wrist. The stump was covered in a thin film of pale green mana, and the bleeding had stopped, but there was nothing below it. Just empty space. The five fingers that had been there for fourteen years were nothing but a memory now.

"Fourteen years. I used this hand to write, make quagmires, fire Rock Bullets, and hold Eris's hand. Now it's gone. I was right-handed in both my previous life and this one, and now I don't even have a choice. Somehow, the thought makes me want to laugh. Maybe this is what it means to come to terms with it."

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," I said.

Master Roxy gave me another look but didn't press the matter.

I poured mana into my right hand and pressed it against the end of my left wrist. Earth rose from the ground, slowly gathering and taking shape under my mana, wrapping around the stump. I made a hand with earth magic. Though it had no movable joints, it could at least help me keep my balance and hold things, like wearing a glove.

"It'll have to do. Better than having nothing there."

I tried moving the earthen hand, but it didn't budge. Of course it didn't. It was just a piece of shaped earth, with no nerves, muscles, or bones.

Eris came over.

She crouched in front of me, her longsword resting across her knees. Her fingers were covered in blood: Paul's, mine, and the Hydra's. Several holes had been burned into her clothes, and half her hair had come loose. She looked a mess.

She looked at my left wrist, at my crude earthen hand.

Then she looked up at me.

Her eyes were as beautiful as ever, but now they were red. Her lips moved as if she were trying to find the words, but in the end, all she managed was:

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize..."

"If I'd been a little faster, a little stronger... your left hand wouldn't have... I almost didn't make it in time..."

"Eris, thank you for saving my father." I smiled at him.

Her mouth moved again, but no sound came out.

"You made it in time," I said. "You always do."

"What if... what if I don't make it in time next time?" Her voice trembled a little.

"Then we'll get faster and stronger. Together."

Her hands were shaking. The girl who was usually so strong and such a tsundere was actually trembling at a time like this. I knew she wasn't afraid now; she was shaken by how close it had been. If she'd been a step later and hadn't interrupted the Hydra's charge... he was afraid of losing me.

I took her hand in my right one.

"Thank you, Eris."

Her eyes reddened. "Didn't I tell you not to thank me? Idiot... idiot..."

Eris wouldn't cry in front of other people. She was strong. She bit her lip, lowered her head, and buried her face in my shoulder. I could feel her shoulders trembling, and warm liquid soaking through the clothes on my shoulder.

I said nothing. A few meters away, Paul sat holding Zenith, saying nothing either. Master Roxy silently put away her wand and potion bottles.

The underground chamber was quiet.

There was only the sound of water dripping from the rock walls and Paul's heavy breathing.

I didn't know how much time passed before Eris's shoulders stopped shaking. She lifted her head from my shoulder and roughly wiped her face with her sleeve. Her eyes and the tip of her nose were red, but she didn't look at my earthen hand again.

She stood and walked over to Paul.

Paul was still holding Zenith. His eyes were red, but he wasn't crying. His right arm remained around her shoulders, his chin resting on top of her head, the two of them leaning against each other.

Eris crouched in front of him and reached out to touch Zenith's hand, which hung at her side.

Zenith didn't respond.

But a second later, her fingers curled slightly.

It was a tiny movement. If Eris's hand hadn't been resting on the back of hers, she wouldn't have felt it at all.

She said nothing and didn't look up at Paul. She simply laid her hand over the back of Zenith's, feeling its faint warmth.

Then she stood, turned, and walked over to me.

"Let's go home," she said.

"Yeah, let's go home."

"Yeah, home. To the home that belongs to us."

I watched her from behind. Her shoulders were straight, her steps steady, and she still held the sword Paul had given her as she walked, step by step, toward the entrance to the passage.

I looked down at my right hand, then at the crude earthen one.

Then I stood and followed her.

Master Roxy hurried after me from behind.

"Wait a moment, Rudeus."

I turned around.

She came over and crouched down to look at my earthen hand. Holding her wand, she gently poked its surface with the tip, then turned it over to examine the underside.

"Hmm... this prosthetic hand," she said, frowning slightly, "is too crude. Shaping it with earth magic can only make a fixed form, with no joints or movement. But if I combined it with magic item technology..."

She looked up at me, her eyes lighting up.

"Using mana circuits in place of nerves and mana to drive it instead of muscles... maybe I could make something better, a prosthetic hand that can move."

"Could you let me take a look?"

I looked into her eyes. This Water King Rank magician, nearly a head shorter than me, had blue twin braids that looked dark in the faint light of the underground chamber. The expression on her eternally fourteen-year-old face was more serious than anyone's.

"Sure," I said.

She nodded, stood, and walked to one side. Taking a sheet of parchment from her waist pouch, she began to draw. Her pen scratched against the paper, the sound especially clear in the quiet chamber.

I stood where I was, watching her.

"Master, thank you. No matter when, you're always there to give me a hand."

In the distance, Eris stopped at the entrance to the passage to wait for me. She didn't look back. She stood there without taking another step.

I took a deep breath and walked over to her.

Behind me lay the Hydra's corpse, as massive as a mountain.

But we didn't look back at it.

The entrance to the passage was just ahead. Eris stood there, two swords hanging at her waist, her hair fluttering gently in the breeze.

I walked up beside her and took her hand.

We simply smiled at each other, neither of us saying a word.

Then we walked into the passage together.