The sun cast a warm glow through the large windows of Elmwood General Hospital, illuminating the whitewashed walls and polished floors. The air was filled with the familiar scent of antiseptic, mingling with the comforting aroma of fresh coffee from the staff break room. It was a typical day in the bustling hospital, where lives intertwined and destinies shifted in the blink of an eye.
Dr. Eris Noxvel, a dedicated doctor and loving wife, moved with a grace born of long practice through the chaotic corridors, her navy scrubs a sharp contrast against the sterile light. She had long since learned to navigate the chaos of the emergency room, where every moment mattered and lives hung in the balance. Though she didn't possess any special powers like many of her colleagues, it was her sheer determination and deep compassion that fueled her efforts.
As she rounded a corner, her colleague, Dr. Nguyen, a healer gifted with substantial but limited enhancement abilities, emerged from the pediatric ward. "Eris!" he called, his voice filled with urgency. "We need your help in Room 204. There is a new patient in the emergency ward, a child, and her condition is worsening rapidly."
With her heart racing, Eris hurried after him. "What are the symptoms?" she asked, her mind already racing through possibilities.
"Severe dehydration and shock," Dr. Nguyen replied, his expression taut with concern.
When they reached the room, the sight that greeted her tightened her heart. A little girl, the same age as her own daughter Rosi, lay on the bed, pale as a ghost, her small body trembling. The mother stood frozen at her side, fear etched deep into her features, one hand clutching her child's tiny hand tightly.
Eris quickly introduced herself, kneeling down to the girl's level. She put her hands on the burning head of the child with care and then said with a soft, melodic voice, "Hi there, sweetie. I'm Eris. I'll do my best to make you feel good. Let's both do our best to make you safe and healthy." She offered a small, reassuring smile. "Can you tell me your name?"
The small girl lying on the bed seemed to have no energy left in her body. Her eyes were wide, filled with panic, but there was a flicker of hope there too. Then she said in a low whisper, "My name is Lilly." The words were a faint breath of sound.
Eris put a warm smile on her face, trying to reassure the little girl. When Lilly, trembling and completely drained of strength, looked at her, she felt reassured. Eris's first step in calming her seemed to be working.
"Okay, Lily. Let's see what we can do to make you feel better." Eris's voice was warm and steady, a calm mask over the urgency she felt beneath.
She glanced at the IV poles standing in the corner, sterile white against the warm room colors. "We need to get some fluids into her fast. She's malnourished and dehydrated."
Directing a nurse to prepare an IV setup, Eris quickly assessed Lily's condition. With quick, practiced movements, she gently checked Lily's pulse and monitored her breathing. The tiny wrist was alarmingly thin, and Eris felt a pang of urgency pierce her chest.
Lily's mother looked on, her eyes pleading. "Will she be okay? She hasn't eaten in days."
Their condition made it clear they hadn't eaten properly in days. Cases like this were all too common around there. Only a few were fortunate enough to enjoy a decent life.
"I'm going to do everything I can," Eris reassured her, offering a supportive smile as she carefully inserted the IV needle into Lily's arm. "We're going to give her fluids and nutrients to help her recover." Then she looked at Lilly with a soft face and tried to reassure her, "You're doing great, sweetie."
As the fluid began to flow, Eris immediately ordered electrolytes and vitamins to be mixed into the solution. "We need to stabilize her," she instructed the nurses, watching carefully as Lily's color gradually began to improve, the pallor fading from her cheeks.
Minutes felt like hours in the crowded room. Eris stayed close to Lily, monitoring her vital signs, frequently glancing at the charts to track her improvement. Finally, she noticed Lily's eyelids fluttering, slowly opening to reveal sparkling green eyes.
"Mom?" Lily croaked, her voice hoarse as she sought reassurance.
"Yes, baby. I'm here," her mother replied, tears welling up in her eyes, a wave of relief washing over her.
After about thirty minutes, as Lily's health stabilized, Eris smiled back at the girl. "You're going to be just fine. Just keep resting and let the fluids do their job."
As she prepared to leave the room, the mother grasped Eris's hand. "Thank you! Thank you so much, Doctor! I don't know what we would have done without you."
"You don't need to thank me," Eris replied, feeling pride swell inside her at the impact she had on this family's life. "I'm just doing what I love; it's my job to care for you both."
However, stepping outside, a gnawing sensation crept into her mind. Another patient was rolling through the door. A man in his fifties was haphazardly placed on a stretcher, his body covered in grime.
"His name is Jonathan," one of the paramedics explained breathlessly. "Fell from a construction site. He isn't responsive."
Eris felt an immediate rush of adrenaline. "What's his condition?"
"He's showing severe signs of malnutrition and internal bleeding," the paramedic reported with a grimace. "He's lethargic and has gone pale."
They wheeled Jonathan into the treatment room just as Eris's pulse quickened. She assessed him quickly; his skin was clammy, and dark circles framed his sunken eyes. His limbs were frail, and as she pressed her fingers against his wrist for a pulse, it was weak and thready.
"We need to start IV fluids immediately!" she barked, adrenaline fueling her urgency. As they established the IV, Eris glanced at the monitor; his blood pressure was critically low.
"Let's check his blood sugar!" Eris ordered, moving swiftly to insert a glucose monitor on his finger. The reading confirmed her fears. It was dangerously low.
"Give him a bolus of dextrose," she instructed, squeezing the nurse's shoulder as they worked seamlessly in tandem. But as she worked, Jonathan's condition worsened. His breathing became more erratic, and his skin turned ashen. Eris's heart sank as she saw his eyes roll back.
"Dr. Nguyen, please use your healing spell to stabilize the patient. We can't let him die." Nguyen was waiting just behind her in case she couldn't stabilize the patient.
He would have to save the patient by himself using his healing affinity powers.
But since he had a very small amount of affinity cells and essence, he could only help a little bit. And on top of that, he was only allowed to use his powers if everything else failed because he could only use his powers a couple of times a day.
His level of power towards the healing affinity was low, but he was a very determined and dedicated person. He moved ahead of Eris and spread both his hands in the air above the patient.
Concentrating, he held both hands over the patient.
Suddenly, a green light surged out from his hands and started wrapping around the patient.
After a while, the patient's skin color began to change back to its original color. He was getting better. But he was not out of danger yet. So Dr. Nguyen kept standing there for ten minutes, and then he suddenly reached his limit. He was nearly out of essence. But he kept going. Eris was doing her best to control the situation in the meantime. She knew that if Dr. Nguyen ran out of essence, the condition of the patient would be bad. After pushing himself for five more minutes, he suddenly fell down on the ground, gasping for air.
As soon as he fell to his knees, all of the monitors started producing more sounds, showing that the patient's condition was already starting to worsen. Eris kept on treating him, but it was in vain. She said with a lot of despair and shock on her face,
"No! You can't leave us!" she whispered fiercely, pressing down on his chest in a desperate attempt to force life back into him. "Come on, Jonathan. Fight!"
Sweat poured down her brow, stinging her eyes as the beats of her heart echoed in her ears. Time seemed to warp as she continued compressions. "Stay with me! One, two, three, four…"
But despite her relentless efforts, Jonathan slipped away from her grasp. The monitors flatlined, piercing the air with an agonizing beep. The truth hit her like a boulder; she had failed, and the loss settled cruelly within her.
With trembling hands, Eris stumbled back and wiped her brow, the weight of frustration pressing down on her. She had given everything to save him, but he was gone. "I… tried and yet I failed again," she whispered, her heart aching.
Sometime later, outside the room, she slumped against the cool corridor wall, struggling to hold back tears. Dr. Nguyen found her there, concern etched into his features. "Dr. Eris, are you okay?"
She shook her head, her voice breaking as emotion spilled out. "What is the point of having all this technology when we can't even save a patient who could have been saved? We have the means to help everyone… but can't help everyone. Why has our world become so cruel that we are not able to save a person who is powerless as compared to the person who has everything? Why does our world not care about the powerless people anymore?"
There were a lot of questions with no answers to them whatsoever. She knew about the society. The city. She was frustrated because she knew the city had every means to save a patient, but they were meant to be for only those who wield power.
"Calm down, Eris," he cautioned gently. "You can't save everyone."
"Isn't that why we are doctors? To help all humans? We're all entitled to those basic rights, regardless of status! Why is there this stark line dividing the Inner from the Outer?" she exclaimed, her voice reflective of her rising frustration.
Dr. Nguyen stepped closer, empathy evident in his posture. "I know it's unfair, but we can't fight the system alone. You and I, we're just two people. All we can do is try. Save who you can, one patient at a time."
As if the universe was responding to her turmoil, another announcement blared over the hospital intercom. "Attention, we have multiple casualties arriving from the reclamation zone, four soldiers in critical condition. All medical personnel, please prepare for emergency triage!"
Eris's heart sank once more, but this time with a different kind of urgency beginning to pulse within her. "Come on!" she shouted, racing back into the treatment area.
As the soldiers were brought through the doors, Eris felt her breath hitch. The sight was harrowing; bloodied and battered bodies lay on stretchers, the scent of iron filling the air. One female soldier had sustained extreme injuries; her entire left arm was severed at the shoulder, blood soaking her uniform.
"Why are they here and not at the Draycrest hospitals?" Eris demanded, urgency pushing her to ask as the paramedics wheeled the soldiers in.
"This is a huge incident. Most of the soldiers lost their lives. The remaining ones are in the worst condition, and all of the other hospitals in Draycrest are busy at this time saving the other soldiers. Most of the hospitals are full, so we have nowhere to go except for the other hospitals in Ironreach, with no time to transport them further," a paramedic explained, breathless. "They had to stop here to save them today. We needed to administer first aid rapidly before relocating them for complete treatment."
The paramedic hadn't finished, but Eris shouted, "Stop the bleeding!" Eris commanded as they rolled the soldier's stretcher in. "We need a pressure bandage and transfusions. NOW!"
The second soldier, a male with large gashes across his torso, showed evident internal bleeding as they pulled up his shirt, exposing cruel damage. The third soldier was pressed against the gurney, struggling for breath, his skin flecked with pallor. The fourth soldier, the youngest of them all, lay unconscious with multiple fractures, his skin ghostly pale.
The atmosphere was thick with tension, the air sharp with determination and dread. The buzzing of machines accompanied the frantic whispers of the medical team. An inferno of anxiety billowed, and Eris felt it swirl around her like an impending storm.
"Split into teams," Eris declared, her instincts honing in. "I'll handle this female and this male patient; you handle the other two." She pointed at the first female and male soldier.
Eris quickly assessed the female's wounds. Eris pressed a wad of gauze to the female's stump. 'Tourniquet and O-negative, now!'
"Yes, Doctor!" nurses responded, moving quickly to gather the supplies.
The female soldier groaned, her eyes fluttering open as Eris's face came into focus through the haze of pain. "Please… save my team," she whispered, her voice laced with desperation, not for herself, but for them. Eris's heart felt both heavy and warm. Even in agony, the female soldier's thoughts were with her team. What a noble heart she has.
"Don't worry about them, we are trying our best to save them. I'm right here, and we'll get you through this," Eris promised, maintaining eye contact as she worked.
Meanwhile, Nguyen was with the other two soldiers, each in critical condition. He had already used his powers to the fullest, so he was also in a very bad condition to treat those. But there was a solution for him. He put his hand inside the pocket of his long coat and then pulled out a small bottle filled with an unknown green liquid. He drank that liquid in no time as he was in a hurry to stabilize the other two soldiers. After drinking the solution, he felt his body fill with renewed vigor and vitality. He stood in front of the other two soldiers' beds and started performing the healing spell. This time his job was to stop the bleeding of the other two soldiers so Eris could focus on the first two. He filled his mind with determination and resolve, a resolve to save the other two soldiers until Eris could save the first two.
After stabilizing the female soldier, Eris turned her focus toward the male soldier, whose breathing had markedly slowed.
"Make sure he stays conscious. Give him oxygen support; we need to monitor his pulse," Eris ordered, her heart racing. The soldier winced but managed a feeble nod, the flicker of resolve still shining in his eyes.
As she pressed ahead, blood continued to ooze from the female soldier's severed arm while Eris stitched the other male soldier's gashes. The urgency heightened with every moment, the reality enveloping them, a fight against time with every heartbeat that echoed through the room.
The grave reality of their work became palpable in the pressed white walls of the emergency room, the tension tightening with each passing second. The repetitive sounds of the equipment, the anxious murmurs of the staff, and the scent of blood charged the atmosphere, pushing Eris and her team to their limits as they fought for each soldier.
With fate hanging in the balance, every second counted. Finally, after what felt like hours, relief washed over Eris as she managed to stabilize all four soldiers. They had meticulously addressed each wound and its treatment. It was a great feat for her and her team, especially since it was the first time they had treated wounds of that caliber, and yet they managed to save each one of them without losing any soldier. But as soon as they finished after stabilizing each patient, the fatigue from hours of continued work fell on them with the weight of a mountain and the adrenaline faded as they caught their breath, exhausted but satisfied that they had done everything in their power.
Families flooded in, drawn by the gravity of the situation, relief blossoming as they witnessed their loved ones alive. Tears of gratitude streamed down the faces of mothers and fathers, each embrace heartwarming yet heavy, a poignant reminder of the sacrifices made by their brave warriors.
Eris felt a mixture of pride and pain as she watched them, yet her heart grew heavy when she thought of her eldest daughter, Elysia. Because cases like this were rare, and to be honest, it was Eris's first. She had never treated a soldier with battle wounds before. Just like these soldiers, Elysia too was part of the army now, on top of that a captain leading her own team into battles. What if she found herself in a similar situation, brought back battered and broken without someone like Eris to save her?
But she also knew that her husband was a reliable man. Despite having no affinity, he would do anything to keep his family safe, so in that regard, she was somewhat comfortable knowing that her daughter is safer than most of these soldiers.
But she was a mother of three, nonetheless. So no one can stop her from worrying about the future of her children.
As Eris stepped outside into the cool evening air, the weight of her thoughts lingered. She had to do anything to save the future of both her children and her husband.
Her maternal instinct surged as she knew it was time to reconsider their living arrangement. They could move to Draycrest, especially now that Elysia is a captain; she would have the respect and rights that came with it.
A determined Eris made her way home, knowing that she had to talk to Theron about their family's future. Today's events had made a big impact on her views about Ironreach. It had been a comfortable place for her family up until now. But the world they were living in was so full of unknown horrors that she couldn't take any risks. How could she keep her family safe in a world fraught with danger?
She was also not happy about the fact that her children were growing up in a society that prioritized power and status over shared humanity. She wants her children to be like her husband, and for that, she needed her family to be safe, to be free to thrive, away from the harsh realities outside.
The sliding doors of the hospital hissed shut behind Eris, cutting off the sterile air. She inhaled deeply; the air outside was thick with the smell of fried dough from a street vendor and the underlying musk of damp concrete. The sky over Ironreach was the color of bruised flesh, twilight pressing down like a weight.
She adjusted the strap of her medical satchel and stepped into Martell's Market, its flickering neon sign buzzing like an angry insect. The aisles were cramped, shelves half-empty, standard for Ironreach. A pyramid of withered carrots sat beside a freezer humming laboriously, its glass fogged with condensation.
As she picked through the vegetables, voices slithered from the next aisle:
"—heard another squad got wiped out near the western fissure. Clan Veymar's hiding the numbers again—"
Eris's fingers stilled on a bundle of limp scallions.
"Bullshit. The Army's the one lying," a man rasped. "My cousin's in the Ironreach barracks. Says they pulled four survivors from the Gravelands yesterday. The rest were torn apart. Something big got loose; I heard it was not a normal beast. The Army wasn't prepared; they didn't expect that kind of creature in that sector."
A chill crawled up Eris's spine. The pressure on her mind intensified. Her daughter Elysia was out there right now, leading her own team. Theron was on a mission in an unstable zone. She clutched the scallions tighter, their roots shedding dirt.
"Clans and government playing tug-of-war with corpses," a woman muttered. "Mark my words, they're racing to claim something out there. And we're the fodder." She kept listening until they all left the store.
The bell above the door jingled, and the voices fell silent.
Eris exhaled, her breath stirring the plastic wrap on a tray of discounted meat. Four survivors. The soldiers she'd stabilized. The ones who'd looked at her with glassy, thousand-yard stares.
She turned her steps toward Rosalin's school to pick her up. Normally, it was Kyle or Theron's responsibility, but today Theron had asked her to do it as he had other duties to fulfill. Her heart was heavy after losing a patient. She needed to lighten her mood, and what was better for that than seeing her youngest child?
She grabbed the meat, its surface slick under her fingers, and hurried to the checkout.
Rosalin's school was a squat building with peeling blue paint, its yard dotted with rusted swing sets. The ancient oak tree by the gate shuddered in the wind, leaves whispering.
She rounded the corner and froze.
Kyle was already there, bent at the waist in an exaggerated bow, his left hand tucked behind his back like a storybook butler. His uniform jacket was rumpled, one sleeve singed at the cuff from some experiment gone wrong, she guessed.
"I have come to pick you up, my lady," he intoned, nose in the air.
Rosi stood with her arms crossed, her puffed cheeks and knitted brows the spitting image of Theron mid-calculation. "No thanks. I know you, Kyle. You'll use your powers to tickle me again, and I won't fall for it this time."
Kyle gasped, clutching his chest. "You wound me! I am but a humble servant," he said, overacting now.
"Liar," Rosi said, but a giggle escaped from her mouth after seeing the overacting of her brother.
Eris's chest swelled with warmth. For a moment, the whispers from the market and the memory of the dying soldiers faded into silence. This, this was what she was fighting for. Her children. In this dark, cruel world, they were her most precious treasure.
The moment Kyle and Rosi saw her, they broke into a run. And as she watched them racing toward her, her heart grew lighter with each of their steps, as if every footfall was wiping away a layer of her sorrow.
Then Kyle's eyes gleamed. "Race you to Mom!"
"Wha— Hey!" Rosi shrieked as Kyle's body dissolved into swirling shadows. He reappeared inches from Eris, slapping her shoulder with a triumphant "Ha!"
The dark energy clinging to him smelled like ozone and something deeper, older, like the air before a thunderstorm.
Rosi stomped up, her braids bouncing. "Cheater." She raised her arms demandingly. Eris scooped her up, kissing the sugar-dusted curve of her cheek.
"I'm more loved than you," Rosi said to Kyle with a smug look on her face.
"In your dreams!" Kyle cried, but he was grinning as he hoisted Eris's grocery bag onto his shoulder.
The walk home was loud with their bickering, the cobblestones uneven underfoot. Eris held Rosi's sticky hand, her thumb brushing the child's knuckles. So small. So alive.