“So nice of you,” Professor Lightglow said. “You always have a place here should you change your mind. Your Skill is one of the best treatments we’ve found for ripple-nodes.”

“Thanks, professor, but I think I can do more good in green,” Genny replied.

“Our loss,” Professor Lightglow said. He smiled down at me. “Vince, I presume? Vincent Koutz?” I nodded. “Come in, come in.” He gestured toward his office door.

I turned back to Genny before leaving. “Thanks for fixing my phone,” I told her. “I hope my little idea is helpful!”

Genny laughed. “Oh, it will be,” she said. “They love finding new uses for existing Artifacts at the Construct College. Hope your meeting goes well!”

I followed Lightglow into his office once Genny left. His secretary was busy clearing some clutter from his desk. She nodded and left with her hands full of assorted papers as I came in. “Please, sit down,” the professor told me. He gestured to a padded couch. I sat on the couch and he settled in behind his desk, facing me. He steepled his hands before him and frowned. “I read the letter from Professor Finkman,” he said ominously. “She says you have pancreatic cancer.”

I nodded. “That’s the one. But it’s stage four, so it’s not really contained to just my pancreas anymore.”

Professor Lightglow pursed his lips. “I am familiar with cancer,” he said. “It is one of the deadliest uncurables. Most peasants don’t understand it. How sure are you about your diagnosis?”

“Very sure,” I said. “In my world, we have technology that can look inside people. There is no chance it’s something else.”

“That is troubling news,” Lightglow said. “We have not yet found a cure for cancer. The best I can offer you is a short list of healing Skills that won’t make your condition worse. Regular treatments may be able to extend your life. Miss Regina possesses one such Skill. Unfortunately, I cannot offer you a Brand of her Skill. Any Branding has to be contracted through the Broker’s Guild and I have a limited budget for those types of expenditures each year.”

I stood up. It was just more bull. “You made me come all this way and wait around for that?” I demanded. “I’ve had enough of this! You could have just told me out there that you couldn’t help me. You didn’t have to put on a show of making me feel comfortable.”

“I am sorry,” Professor Lightglow said. “I wish I could do more.”

“Yup, that’s what the last guy said.” I headed for the door.

“We have treatments!” the professor said.

I turned back. “What kind of treatments?”

He nodded his head to the side and sighed. “Not a cure, but we might be able to give you more time. If not, we can at least minimize your symptoms.”

“My only symptom,” I said, “is that I’m dying. Can you fix that? No?”

“There are other things I can do for you. Please, sit down,” Lightglow said, gesturing again to his couch. Reluctantly, I returned. “I can see the evidence of some of your symptoms written in your flesh, young Vincent. You are wasting away. You are weak. We have a treatment that can help with that.”

“Sure,” I said. “I’ll take it. Whatever treatment you have.” I remembered my earlier frustration with the stairs. Anything to not have to feel like that as often would be a godsend. “Where will I have to go? What will I have to do?”

The big man pushed back his chair and stood up. “I already possess the requisite Brands,” he said. “Step forward.”

I got up from the couch and the professor rolled up the sleeves of his suit, revealing a myriad of Brands all up and down his arms. The Brands looked slightly off from what I was familiar with. Rather than the soft, curvy lines of a fingerprint, his were made of straight lines and right angles. I tried to click on one, but the pop-up just said,

Error. Please select a Brand to receive a translation.

Strange. It seemed that not only did his Brands not look like normal Brands to me; they didn’t look like normal Brands to my overlay.

“This Brand combination is still in its preliminary testing phase,” Lightglow said. “I am told you possess a Skill that can render you unconscious?”

“Yes,” I said, readily agreeing with any assessment of my Skill that didn’t involve the fact that all it wanted to do was suck the life out of other people.

“I suggest you use it,” the professor said. “This process is extremely painful, and it would take a week to reserve the appropriate equipment from the Construct College to numb you.”

“No, I’ll be fine,” I insisted. “Just go ahead.” I didn’t mention that I’d had a Pain Taker used on me. I kind of liked the idea of letting him think I just had a naturally high pain tolerance.

“You don’t understand what you’re saying,” Lightglow said. “One of the Brands I’ll be using on you was originally intended to torture others. The last person I tried to administer this treatment to without something to block the pain had to see a healer to fix his voice after, as he’d worn it out with all the screaming.”

“No, I really don’t need anything,” I repeated. “In fact, now I definitely want to be awake for this. I’m kind of curious to see what the upper limits of my pain tolerance are.”

Lightglow raised an eyebrow. “You… want to be tortured? Are you by chance related to Professor Finkman?”

“Why would you ask that?”

“Because that is the sort of thing I would expect her to say. She is… unique. I am not sure she has emotions of her own.”

I shook my head. “No relation,” I assured him. “I’m not even rissian. I just have a really high pain tolerance. If I make a peep, you have my permission to stop.”

“Very well,” Professor Lightglow said. “Do not say I didn’t warn you.” He grabbed my arm and dug his fingernails into my skin. I saw pinpricks of blood form, but the damage to my skin was just information, as clinical and separate from me as though I were reading about it on an overlay pop-up.

One of the sharp-angled Brands on Lightglow’s biceps lit with an eerie red light. I felt pain rush through his hand to fill my body. I observed it, observed how it burned like fire under my skin. An odd sensation, but the Pain Taker didn’t suddenly stop working just because I was being exposed to more pain than usual.

“What’s this doing?” I asked. “And how long will it take?”

The large man’s eyes went wide as he saw me standing calmly before him. “It is done,” he said. “I am… impressed by your pain tolerance. Most men will make bold claims, but you are the first to back them up. How is it possible for you to even resist the barest involuntary flinch?”

“Ah, well, humans aren’t the same as rissians, remember,” I said. Not a direct lie. I was getting better at those.

“You humans are certainly a remarkable species of orgkin,” the professor remarked as he pulled his clenched hand off my arm.

“Thanks, but what did that—” My voice cut out as a pop-up from my overlay answered that unfinished question. First a new icon appeared in the corner of my vision with a little cartoony flexed bicep, then I got the details for my new buff.

Buff: Enhanced Strength Strength: +7 Stamina: +3 Dexterity: +1

I held my arms out to inspect them. They didn’t even quite look like my arms. The muscle definition was like they’d been chiseled from stone. I rolled up my sleeve and found I had actual biceps. Not big, but defined. When had I ever had biceps before!? I had to check one more thing. It didn’t even matter to me that Lightglow was standing right in front of me. I lifted my shirt. “Daaaaaaaamn!” I said. “I have abs! That’s not a six-pack, that’s an eight-pack! I’m ripped!” I actually looked kind of like those pictures of unhealthy body builders that have to cut weight right before competition. There didn’t seem to be an ounce of fat on my entire body.

Professor Lightglow nodded. “Yes, that is one result. This Skill combination creates muscle mass, but the tradeoff is you lose your body fat.”

I laughed at that. “Somehow, I think I know about five billion people that would take you up on that offer. What do I need body fat for when I’m this ripped?” I held up one arm and flexed my biceps just to see them bulge out. It didn’t even look like my arm!

“Unfortunately, you do need body fat in your condition,” the professor continued. “As you continue to waste from your illness, your body will need to depend on its own energy. You have not gained any new reserves, only reallocated those you had, so that they can help keep you on your feet. We have found that this process does not extend lifespans overly much, but most patients report a higher quality of life after treatment.”