Demi-Human In The Wrong Time

107 Regaining Ones Eyes

A man dressed as a doctor wound up coming while telling Sarah that he had a new treatment method that he would like to try with Altair and that it could take hours so he excused himself with her in toe. This was something that Altair had almost completely forgotten about until she saw the lone tub in a dimly lit secluded room in a branch building of the mansion that she was taken to. Once she saw it she remembered the rest of the deal she made with Renald.

The room she was taken to was partitioned into two sections with a thin standing wall and a fairly large bathtub near it. Next to the bathtub was a large device that seemed to be hooked into the tub itself. Renald was sitting on a chair next to the tub while messing with his communicator when Altair was brought in and he looked up at her when she entered. Before the doctor or Altair said anything, Renald quickly said, "There's a swimsuit around the corner for you to change into. Get changed quickly and get in. We only have enough to try this once so we shouldn't waste any time." He turned to the doctor and said, "Be sure to monitor everything you can. I want all of the details on any change, no matter how small, to be recorded and documented."

The doctor sighed lightly before going off to the device next the tub while Altair gave Renald a strange look before going around the wall. She found a one-piece bathing suit waiting for her, which she quickly changed into, before coming back around the corner.

When she came around the corner and saw that the tub was mostly full of the precious rain water she couldn't help but feel her heart pound in her chest. There was so much of it that her eyes widened despite knowing that was how much she should have expected. However, she hesitated before climbing into it. There was one thing missing from their deal. "What about the Blood Oath?"

Renald smiled in self derision as he mockingly stated, "When I was arranging for it I investigated how a Blood Oath binds people. It works by fusing with a person's Spiritual Self, therefore it is completely useless to even try with you."

With that piece of information, Altair immediately moved to enter the tub. She didn't see a point in taking a Blood Oath anyway since she would be returning on her own regardless. She only asked because it was supposed to be part of the deal.

However, Renald didn't forget what happened last time something like this occurred and quickly warned, "Keep an eye on your condition in there. If something goes wrong then all of the water will go to waste. There isn't going to be another rainfall that I can collect from for a while."

With one foot in the tub the warning sent a shock through her body. Or perhaps it was the feeling of the warm water touching her skin that caused the jolt to pass through her. Altair wasn't sure. In either case, she continued to climb into the tub and laid back into its depths, allowing herself to be submerged up to her chin.

She let out a satisfied sigh while shivering slightly as the warm water wrapped all around her. She then closed her eyes and starting paying attention to the Mana while burning a slight amount to check the condition of her body. Everything appeared fine, for now.

The first thing she felt was a tingling sensation envelope the parts of her body that were submerged. It was incredibly uncomfortable and very distracting. It was like some stranger was brushing a feather faintly over every part of her. Altair would not be distracted by this though. She still kept her focus on her Mana and how it was being affected. She couldn't see any changes for several moments before she felt her whole body start to heat up under the water. It was at this point that she noticed that her Mana had increased very slightly. She had gained a whole spoonful of Mana to her capacity.

This didn't come without anything strange though. She also started to notice a strange substance seeping into her. She was only barely able to notice it when she turned her attention to her body that was heating up by burning her Mana and sending the energy through herself to investigate it. This strange substance felt very comfortable to her and it seemed to resonate with her Mana Pool. After noticing that she couldn't help but smile because she figured this was Manamium itself that was pouring into her body.

However that smile quickly deflated when she realized that her body was rejecting it the same way it would reject a virus. She could already detect her body starting to attack the Manamium that had made its way into her body, destroying it before she could absorb its benefits.

This caused her brows to knit together and she opened to eyes and looked at Renald. Thanks to everything that had been taught to her so far she had a pretty good understanding of how the body worked, even though hers is a bit different due to her being a Demi-Human. In either case, she was able to notice that her immune system was about to go haywire and probably send her into another fever if she didn't get something to suppress her body's natural defenses.

She didn't want the Manamium to be wasted because her body was stupid!

She spoke in a flat tone, "Father, there's something I need."

Renald looked over while playing the part due to the doctor's presence and asked in an indulgent tone, "What is it?"

"I want my immune system suppressed," immediately after she finished her statement a look of confusion came to Renald and the doctor's faces. They were looking at her like she was a weirdo. Renald couldn't figure out why she would want her immune system suppressed the other man couldn't believe that someone would just randomly want to do that when they were sitting in a pool of strange medicine that he didn't even know the origin of.

After a few moments Altair seemed to piece together the cause of their confusion and quickly added, "It seems that my immune system is attacking the medicine in my body. It will be more effective if it is suppressed to allow the medicine to do its job."

Renald knew what she was hinting at. She quickly gave the doctor the order and the doctor injected Altair with a transparent substance. He then returned to his reading.

The doctor himself didn't think much about it. He was paid very handsomely to ignore the strangeness of Altair's requests and the entire treatment that was happening right now. Since he was paid so well he wouldn't open his mouth to talk about how stupid it was to suppress the immune system when the body was rejecting the medicine. If someone happened it wouldn't be his fault.

Altair closed her eyes and returned her attention to the Manamium seeping into her. The suppressant didn't take effect immediately but she did start to feel pleasant all over her body before it did. Shortly after she noticed that the Manamium wasn't getting attacked anymore and the pleasant feeling she getting flooded with started to turn into that same feeling of euphoria that overwhelmed her last time. The only difference between now and then was that she was able to see exactly what was happening.

The Manamium was resonating with her Mana Pool, causing odd distortions to occur. The Mana within her was burning away on its own at an incredibly slow pace. She followed its trail and found that it was messing with her mind and nerves. She couldn't tell exactly what it was doing as she didn't have enough knowledge, but she did feel far too good about sitting in the water so she assumed it was doing something to make her feel that way. She was also starting to find it very difficult to concentrate on what she was doing.

She quickly attempted to stop her Mana from burning itself upon finding the reason for what was happening to her but she found herself unable to stop it. It wasn't that she couldn't. In fact, she was pretty sure she could. But she just couldn't focus on it. The euphoria she was feeling was growing by the second and her mind was starting to sporadically white out. The rate that it was doing so was increasing as well and she figured that she wouldn't be able to think about thing very soon.

But her body was still heating up as well. At the rate it was heating up some problems might arise, so Altair quickly used a general Magic that was often used during hot summer days, Heat Sapping Magic. Its name was stupid but it was effective. Mana would be moved through the body and absorb excessive heat collected in the body and then it would take the heat out of the body with it while dispersing. It wasn't a Magic that needed to be continually focused on to keep going.

As Altair had expected, her thoughts were soon consumed by her euphoria. She even moaned lightly when it happened as well, drawing confused looks from both the doctor and Renald.

Renald gave the doctor a questioning look which resulted in the doctor immediately looking over the information that was being pulled from Altair. Upon seeing the results he looked more confused than before.

This look only caused Renald to wonder what kind of absurd thing Altair had managed to cause this time. He was starting to get used to it so he just impatiently asked, "What is it?"

The doctor's eye twitched before he turned his head to Renald and said, "She appears to be drowning in dopamine, sir."

Renald blinked before falling silent. This was something he would have never have guessed. It was too surreal. After a long moment he finally said, "Well, that is a very strange side effect to the medicine. Keep monitoring her condition and let me know if anything else changes."

It had only been three minutes since Altair had gotten in the water and she was already like this..

The doctor really didn't know what to say about it. He had never heard of a medicine that had this kind of effect. It was beyond a simple recreational drug in that it seemed to cause the person to experience the pleasure from every pore of their body. But he wasn't paid to pay attention to that kind of thing and Renald had made it very clear earlier that he would absolutely not be allowed to know what the medicine was exactly. So the doctor pulled returned his attention to the machine and continued to monitor Altair's condition.

Altair spent several hours in a hyper excited state. For her, though, it passed in the blink of an eye. As her mind slowly stabilized as the Manamium from the rain water was all fully absorbed into her body, she found herself to be completely exhausted. Her back ached from being in the same position for too long within the ceramic tub and she groaned as she sat up in the water. Her skin had longed pruned over from being submerged too long.

Renald saw her turn her head towards him and simply asked, "How do you feel? Was the medicine working properly?" Even though his voice was filled with the doting love of a parent, both Altair and Renald both knew that he was only really interested in one thing: Was the rain water doing what they expected.

Altair looked to see how much her Mana had expanded and found that she had gone from buckets of Mana to a small pond of Mana. This increase brought a weak smile to her face. She raised a trembling arm and found that her limbs felt like jelly for reasons she didn't know. Finding that out she stopped trying to move and said, "I'm fine. I feel a lot better than before." She looked at Renald and said, "It's empty. I would like to rest though."

Renald's eyes widened visibly as his gaze met Altair's. He was silent for several moments before he turned to the doctor and said, "Go write your report on everything you have witnessed. I will handle things from here."

The doctor gave Renald an odd look but left the room immediately.

Once he left the room, Renald grabbed Altair's chin and drew her face closer to his while staring straight into her eyes.

Altair shifted uncomfortably while she was still in the tub and pulled to the side. She had to brace herself against the top of the tub to prevent her chest from hurting from the pressure.

Renald then asked, with a serious expression, "Your eyes changed."

Altair's eyes widened slightly. 'Can it be?' She thought to herself as her eyes quivered and she asked in a slightly trembling voice, "A-Are they green?"

Renald nodded his head. He didn't know about this change at all and this came out of nowhere. It was only possible to change the color of a person's eyes by getting eye implants or using colored contracts. The prior was nowhere worth it as you could end up blinded from an EMP round or you would have to remove them in confidential areas. The later was far more common and wouldn't be a problem. However, he had no idea that her features would change on their own.

Altair's heart quivered in joy as she laughed lightly before saying, "These are my real eyes. My hair will change too as I get more Mana as well." She had finally gotten a piece of herself back permanently. Her hair had returned to its silver color before but it was only temporary. She had no idea if her eyes changed back then but she suspected they did. Now, it seemed that they were permanently back to normal. While she couldn't feel it and didn't notice anything different after getting them back, she still felt more complete now that they had returned.

Renald withdrew his hand from her and she slumped back down into the tub. His mind was racing on what he would need to do to keep the truth about Altair a secret. He was silent for several long moments before Altair pulled herself out of the bath with slightly shaky arms.

She then walks back around the partition to dry herself off and change her clothes. As she was doing so she said, "I can return at any time. I will probably be gone for a month at most before I come back. You should make preparations on your end to cover it."

Renald's thoughts drifted back to where he was and he sighed lightly before replying, "I see."