The three of us reached the elevator. The door popped open and the three of us rushed in.

Ding

One floor went past.

“So who’s going where?” Daisuke asked.

My head snapped to him. I affixed my gaze on him.

“Isn’t obvious?” I asked him. “We’re going to the hospital. And Maggie’s going to the apartment.”

Maggie tied up her strawberry blonde hair in a tail before she spoke again.

“It might be difficult to get in,” she explained. “They might have someone watching to make sure that things go off without any hitches.”

Daisuke and I moved at the same time, I to my pocket where I kept my house keys and him to his gun belt. I tossed her the keys and he gave her the shotgun from his belt.

“That should get you in quickly,” I told her. “We live on the 6th floor, Apartment 6C.”

“And this should be a fun surprise for anyone that tries to get in your way,” Daisuke explained. “Just ride the recoil with it.”

She looked down at the shotgun and then back at Daisuke. She shoved it back in his hand.

“No thanks. I’ll stick to my revolver. She’s never steered me wrong before,” Maggie said.

The door dinged open to the lobby and the three of us shot out to our respective places, Daisuke and I to the side parking lot and Maggie out the front door.

After no more than a second, I was back in the driver’s seat, driving south down to the Cloudy General Hospital in the Southern Zone of Epala.

“What time is it?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the road. Once again I had to be thankful that Epala didn’t have a lot of hoverbikes. The streets of Epala were practically empty. Not a hoverbike to be seen and the only thing to worry about were mages running around.

Daisuke clicked his pocket watch open.

“4:45 am.”

I did the mental math as the air whooshed past us. At this pace, we’d be there in another 10 minutes, giving us barely enough time to stop whoever’s in Tamar’s room.

“Just so you know, don’t expect any sexy time stopping antics from me in there, I’m running low on mana,” Daisuke told me, loading his revolver.

My head snapped to him.

“Really? That quickly? You only did one spell?”

He sighed. “I was the one that got us here on time to save Silver. And that costed an arm and a leg. All I’ve got in the tank is fire and darkness magic before I’m running on fumes.”

I put my eyes back on the road. I didn’t think of that. I took a deep breath and let it out. Stress wasn’t going to help me here. I remembered what my Master had taught me. The first step to defeating your opponent is defeating the unnecessary emotions in your own heart. Stress and worry were a part of the equation.

I took another deep breath and said. “Sorry. Just a little keyed up.”

Daisuke put his hand on my shoulder. “We all get some slack during times like this. Take yours.”

As he said that, the hospital came into the view. I looked over at him again.

“4:49 am.”

I pulled in off to the side parking lot, as Daisuke and I grabbed our stuff to hopefully get to Tamar in time.

We burst through the doors to find one of the nurses with a spear laid next to her station, reading the newspaper. Her eyes snapped up to the sudden noise and she said. “What the hell is up with this?”

“Sorry don’t have much time to talk. Explain later,” I told her as we ran up to the elevator. As the door shut behind Daisuke, I kept tapping the button for the 5th floor. Daisuke slapped my hand away.

“Don’t be an idiot. Pressing the button isn’t going to make it go faster,” he told me.

“I’ve got a lot of nervous energy here. What do you want me to do with it?” I said.

He shrugged.

“Save it. We’re here.”

The door opened and we ran down to Tamar’s room.

“It’s 4:55.” Daisuke told me as we opened the door.

“The inevitability of some things really does suck, doesn’t it, Tammy?” a low female said into the soundless night. “I hate it. We can live our lives to be the best people in the world but then someone’s feelings or actions can just end us like a snap of the finger.”

Boot heels clicked on the floor. Someone got up from beside Tamar out of sight. She walked in front of us. She was a shorter woman of no more than 165 cm. She wore a black choker with a ruby affixed to it. The woman wore a red blouse, black pants, a long duster coat, and a messenger bag over one shoulder.

“What are you doing here, Yulae?” I asked her, the words came out a little more guttural than I expected.

She shrugged, tussling her long brown hair, and pulled out a wand from her messenger bag. She pointed it at me and said. “I’m doing what my new mistress ordered me to do. Nothing personal.”

“Well you’re about to try and kill Rez’s sister. You know that’s about as personal as it’s going to get,” Daisuke chimed in. A hammer clicked into place behind me.

“Daisuke, ward the hallway outside please,” I asked him.

For a moment, there was no movement then footsteps went into the hall.

“That’s so sweet of you to make sure that everyone around is going to be safe but it doesn’t change the fact that-” she started but I didn’t let her finish.

“Mana Burst.”

Mana rushed into every fiber of my being. I rushed forward, grabbed Yulae by her shirt and threw her out into the hallway right into a wall. She smacked against it with a satisfying thud.

“Damn it,” she said, getting up after she slid to the ground. She brushed herself off and looked none worse for wear.

A shotgun roared behind me. Yulae put up her arm and fire rose up to protect her.

“Fuck, she’s still quick,” Daisuke said.

“And you’re still a sneaky little assassin, Daisuke. Always looking for the best opportunity to end things quickly,” Yulae countered.

“It’s like you said. I’m an assassin. If it’s ever a fair fight, someone fucked up. Silver said that herself.”

Yulae shrugged again.

“Silver and Rez gave us good advice not the best though,” she said.

“I’m pretty sure I taught you everything I could based on my experience,” I told her. I felt a familiar buzzing in my head. Something was about to happen.

Something hit the floor and rolled into the room.

“Damn. Daisuke cover your eyes and your ears.”

In an action completely unlike him, Daisuke turned to me instead of covering his eyes, leaving him wide open for the flashbang. And just like how we did so many tonight, Daisuke was stunned and flat on the ground, rolling in pain. Something else rolled into the room and Daisuke was tied up in a second.

“I can’t believe how easy that was but it’s a given when you just give a little Suggestion Magic for him to ignore his instincts,” a man’s voice said as his footsteps heralded his entrance. I knew him.

“Embry, it’s been so long. Come to try and sell yourself to the highest bidder again?” I asked.

Embry was taller than average height guy with short black hair, and relaxed brown eyes. He was also well known around Epala for selling his talent to anyone who was willing to pay. Couldn’t fault him for that.

He walked past me and stood next to Yulae, putting his elbow on her head. She swatted him away and said. “So Rez how do you like your chances?”

The image of knives and fire sprang to mind at her words. Their sharpness, the edge, the burning and crackling fire.

The knives made of black fire appeared between each of my ten fingers. Yulae noticed it first. She knew me well enough to know how fast I could actualize a spell. However she was too slow to warn Embry

“Partum: Black Knives!”

I threw all 8 at the two of them, one hand at a time.

“Flame shield!” Yulae roared. A disk of fire as large as the room’s ceiling protected them from the front but I didn’t make that spell just to be an all in...see the knives explode. The knives’ explosion blew the fire shield and the shockwave threw them both against the wall.

“Ouch,” Embry said. “That really hurt.”

Yulae opened her mouth to say something but then her head snapped to the staircase. The door burst open. A short woman wearing a white t shirt, white jeans and boots along with a grey cloak fastened by a cloud pin walked into the room She had long brown hair tied in a bun and brown eyes.

She set her eyes on me then on Yulae.

“Well if it isn’t Ms. Yulae,” she said.

Yulae sighed, putting her hand on her hand like a frustrated mother although to be fair she was.

“Origami, shouldn’t you be in bed? You’re still a growing girl.”

“I’m still growing. I drink my milk,” she said, walking up to stand beside me and Daisuke. Something flashed and Daisuke was cut loose.

“What are you doing here little lady? This fight is for grown up mages not a some 16 year old fresh out of the Academy,” Embry said.

Origami kept smiling.

“Aw no one wants me? That’s sad. I thought we could have a party,” she said. “Just me, Master Rez, Daisuke, you two, and about 10 nurses I told downstairs that you guys were trying to hurt one of their patients. And a fellow nurse too.”

At those words, I could practically seen Yulae’s eyes shrink down to pins. We all knew how serious nurses were about protecting their patients. They don’t carry around those big spears just for show.

“You’re bluffing,” Embry said

Origami’s smile grew bigger, as if the smugness of it couldn’t contained.

“Maybe I am. Maybe I’m not but my mom is a nurse and she once told me a story about a co-worker of hers, stabbing a mage trying to kill her patient in the field. She kept stabbing him and healing him until he past out from the pain. He took a really long time to give up. Like a whole hour.”

The sound of footsteps on the stairs rung through the room.

“I’m just saying that you could take your chances but the nurses will make you wish they were death dealers and not life savers once they catch you,” Origami told him.

Embry opened his mouth to speak but Yulae grabbed him by the collar and ran down the hallway. Their footsteps sounded for a moment before I felt the warding spell break and the sound of a window breaking.

“It’d be too easy to wish she died from that right?” Daisuke asked.

“I’ve seen her jump off buildings before. Not something she prefers to do but she can take the fall. She’s still alive,” I explained to him. Then I turned to Origami. “Thanks. When did you make it back?”

“Less than ten minutes ago,” she said. And then she broke out into her usual report giving fashion. “I was flying in on one of my sculptures when my mirror started sounding. I checked my backpack and Silver told me to go to the hospital to back you up so I did.”

“I’m going to need to thank Silver for that. She saved our butts,” I said. I patted Origami on the head, not really a very professional action but Origami had always been similar to a little sister to me. She took the head pat gracefully.

The door burst open and about 5 nurses, all carrying long and pointy spears, walked into the room in a formation that looked like they were well practiced at it. I recognized the peak of the formation. It was Lydia.

She scanned the room, saw me, Origami, and Daisuke.

“What happened in here? The little lady there told us that the patients on the this floor were in danger.”

Daisuke stepped in front of me and Origami with his hands up and a smile on his face.

“Relax ladies. The situation was taken care of. You guys were late but don’t worry no one’s dead and the damages are pretty small.”

“Where’s Nurse Tamar’s door?” one nurse said, pointing to the missing door to my sister’s room.

I looked away for a moment. It was me that threw Yulae through the door...probably not the best thing but it was the best thing I had at the moment to protect Tamar. I’d do again without being asked. However it still left me with the bill of fixing the door so I did what any reasonable mage with very little extra money would do. I blamed someone else.

“It was Embry Crowe. He blew through the door once he saw that when a fight was going to break out,” I lied. I kept my voice calm and my face straight and maybe the nurses weren’t going to notice. By the fact that they didn’t know that Tamar was being attacked until Origami told them, they must not have any surveillance spells on the floors so who’s to say who broke the door…

Lydia looked at me for a long moment after my answer. Then she turned to one of her nurses and said. “I’ll check Nurse Tamar’s room. Half of you fan out and search to see if the assailant is still on the floor. The other half check on the patients, standard checks.”

“Yes ma’am!” they all exclaimed and rushed to their assigned duties.

Lydia turned from me, Daisuke and Origami but stopped. “Come with me please Rez. Your allies can join us as well. I know you would want to check to see if she’s okay.”

I nodded and smiled at her. She didn’t really have to give me this short visit while she was checking Tamar’s vitals but my gratitude was already there. I hurried up to walk behind her. Daisuke and Origami followed in suit.

Tamar’s room was pretty much still as immaculate as when I visited her less than two days ago. Lydia walked into the room first, spear aloft, checking the room. Normally I’d probably say that it was unnecessary but this was her hospital and her squad of nurses came to check on the floor. I wouldn’t never take her responsibility to her patients from her. After a second of checking, Lydia pronounced the room as safe and immediately set on checking Tamar’s medical equipment.

Tamar was unhurt but something was different about her. I looked at Daisuke and Origami, both looked like they didn’t notice.

“Lydia, did someone come in here earlier?” I asked.

Daisuke and Origami turned to me, back on guard.

“No, I checked the chart before I came up here. The woman that snuck in here said she was here for someone different and other than you, no one has been here to visit Tamar.”

I looked down at my sleeping sister and sighed. “Then we’ve got a issue.”

“What do you mean?” Daisuke asked. “She looks fine. Not a scratch on her.”

I picked up a length of Tamar’s shoulder length black hair and said. “Then who brushed and combed my sister’s hair? Her nails also look trimmed too.”

Lydia looked at Tamar like she just properly saw her today. She pulled out the chart from the end of Tamar’s bed, stamped her index finger on it, murmured a word and started flicking through the paperwork. She pulled out a photo and showed it to us. It was a picture of Tamar. Her hair was a mess, her face was dirty, and her nails were a little longer than she would have preferred if she was awake. Tamar was more of a tomboy-ish type but still took care of herself and cared about her appearance.

“Every 6 hours or so, we take pictures of our patients and catalog their physical state at the time. Mostly so we know the time period in which something went wrong,” Lydia explained. “This is the picture we took at midnight. And we have no other guests that asked to see Tamar nor any nurse came to check on her other than to check her vitals, take the picture, and make sure the IV gave her her nutrients.”

“So what you’re saying is that the only person that could have prettied up Master Rez’s sister is Ms. Yulae?” Origami asked. “Why would she do that?”

Daisuke shrugged, a very casual Daisuke like response to the situation.

“Maybe Yulae was giving her her version of last rites?” Daisuke said. “Is it really only Yulae that could have done it?”

Lydia nodded. My head buzzed again. PoE recognized something and was warning me that something was up. And I agreed with it. Something wasn’t adding up. I wouldn’t say that Yulae was a heartless woman but she was well known for killing people without much hesitation if she needed to. If anything she was down right silent if she was on the job, she wouldn’t give us a whole conversation like she did and she would have killed Tamar immediately on her ordered time if she was being serious. And the fight...something was off and we needed to figure out what it was.

“Something’s definitely off here,” I said to the room. I turned to address Lydia. “Things are going to get hairy from here on out. Can I trust you all to be there for Tamar? I’m not sure if I can stay here to protect her.”

Lydia nodded.

“We’ll be there for her. One thing the hospital doesn’t take lightly is someone trying to hurt any of our patients. There’s going to be at least three nurses watching the floor and one nurse in Tamar’s room at all times until the shift nurses deem the threat to be over.”

“And who are the shift nurses?” I asked.

Lydia put her hand on her chest. “Myself for the evening. I work from 6pm to 6am. And Kessy, she works from 6:30 am to 6pm. I’ll make sure to tell her during the shift change.”

“Thank you. We’ve got to get going. Things are time sensitive and we need to be on them.”

Lydia nodded again. “Be well and safe.”

Daisuke and Origami left the room while I stayed behind. I took a step to Tamar and gave her a peck on the forehead.

“I’m so glad you’re safe. I promise I’m going to bring you back.”

And with that, I followed Daisuke and Origami back into the hallway.