Of Caverns and Casters ✓ [TLRQ #1]

Chapter 54 - Sean

I set my presswrite on the bed, finally done with the preliminary research. Excitement buzzes in the back of my head. What started as a simple inquiry has turned into the first truly interesting thing I've picked up since before the Blistering Death. I glance out the window, no idea what time it is. It's dark, but it does get dark early now—so would she be in her room or downstairs?

As I turn to check, someone knocks on my door. "Sean, are you in here?"

"Leavi! Perfect timing." I usher her in. "I just finished analyzing some things." Waving her to follow me, I sit on my bed with my test results.

"Sean, there's something else going on—"

"Can't it wait? You'll want to see this. Here." I pull the paper from my presswrite and hand it to her. "The data is there."

She glances at it but hands it back. "Sean, I can't look through all this right now. There's important things going—"

"Didn't you say this was important too? I found things."

She stops, appearing to finally listen to me. "What do you mean? What did you find?"

My mind whirs at where to start. The marker in her blood, for one. The trace amounts of radion-poison in the powder. Aster acting shady when I asked for his book.

I decide to start with the simple stuff. "There's an element to your blood that I've never seen before. I checked mine, and it wasn't there. Took Aster's, and it was. So, there's that. Plus... well, I'd be careful with that powder."

Fear shoots across her expression, and she steps closer, voice lowered. "There wasn't a hallucinogen in it after all, was there?"

Ignoring her oddly intense reaction, I forge on. This is too interesting to get sidetracked from. "Not that I could find, but multiple prolonged exposures could significantly shorten your life."

She looks startled. "What?"

"There's trace amounts of radion-poison in it."

"When you say trace amounts—"

"I mean enough that if you're consistently exposed to this stuff, it could definitely take a decade or so off your life. Not enough to give you radion poisoning, but still."

"How many parts per thousand?"

"Less than a tenth. But you're not getting my point, Leavi. It's radious."

"I understand that, Sean!" She pushes her hair back from her eyes, then sits on my bed. Calmer now, she says, "I'm done with the stuff anyway."

I pause, flummoxed. "Okay, hold on. I would normally just go on and not question it, but—" I'm so baffled that I don't think of the words falling from my mouth. "You're telling me that Leavi Riveirre is just 'done with' something that she hasn't figured out and conquered?"