The Laws of Paxia

18. What's the price?

Chapter Eighteen

What’s the price?

  “Hey, cripple!”

  The loud snapping voice wakes me abruptly from my dreamless sleep. I push myself into sitting position just to see Dahlí smirking back to me. She’s holding a violet crystal lantern in her right hand and it is glowing weakly. It’s like being in a fairy land of some sorts. The things they use, I could never imagine!

  She’s wearing a long slim black dress now and she looks very graceful in it despite her bad manners. Her hair is pinned up in a ponytail and it is falling down over her left shoulder.

  I rub the sleep out of my eyes and give her an annoyed glare back. It took hours of crying before I finally fell asleep and now she’s here to even take that from me.

  “My name is Meryl, you know. What time is it?” I ask her sleepily.

  “It is almost two in the night! Now get your lazy ass out of bed,” she orders me.

  I sigh deeply and swing my legs out of the bed. I put my feet into a pair of slippers I left on the floor and get myself into standing position. The nightgown falls down my legs and I really hope I don’t have to change. She leaves the room quickly as a silent reply and I force myself after her with a yawn. She seems very eager to show me something and she’s waving at me from another door I haven’t entered yet.

  I didn’t explore the cave during my sleep. I kept my soul connected to my body and felt sorry for myself.

  Surprisingly the door leads to another hall of rooms. What is this, a maze? I hope she won’t drag me too far. The hallways are dark and the only light comes from Dahli´s lantern. She opens another door and turns on the light inside of it. She closes the door after us and I look around the white sterile room. All the surfaces are empty from items and it looks like it isn’t being in use.

  “This is our clinic,” she explains restlessly and drags me to the big container at the other side of the room.

  “Well that explains the loss of items,” I joke without getting a laugh back. This girl only seems to enjoy her own pranks.

  She pulls on the glass and it immediately loses its colour and becomes transparent. The sight in there makes me lose contact with Tarih and I fall down into a heap on the floor. I don’t even have to stand to see him. I put my palm onto the glass and forget to breathe for a few seconds.

  It’s my Lex.

  He is breathing steadily in there and he looks very healthy.

  “Lila doesn’t know,” Dahlí says slowly. “I didn’t want to tell you sooner. His state was very critical and I wasn’t sure if I could save him.”

  “What did you do?” I ask her breathlessly.

  “A little bit of this and that,” she tells me with a smirk. “He’s fully recovered now. But this treatment comes with a price. It’s like being reborn.”

  I force my gaze away from Lex’ sleeping body and meet Dahli’s sympathetic one.

  “What do you mean? What’s the price?”

  “His whole memory is wiped out. He won’t remember you, his family or anything he’s been through in life. It’s the cost of the treatment and it’s the only way of saving him that I know of. Maybe other worlds have better cures.”

  “Rebirth,” I whisper as the tears starts falling down my cheeks. “Thank you. This is enough. Please tell me we can send him home to his family now.”