s's little pink face.

Without making any contact, a wave of pulses seems to radiate out of her lumpy hand. Slowly the shades of Lukas mild sunburn cools back into his usual pale. Soft and smooth as freshly pounded rice mochi.

It's not surprising she's a healer, with rare magic even, though much weaker than Lilyanne. But to be living all the way out here, and in her condition?

The world is limiting, there is sense and order even in magic. No, especially in magic. There are things that simply can't be done.

"OH! Thanks a bunch!" Lukas pats at his little face, showing it off to Gable. Who not only grimaces but turns up to the multa.

"He's...a boy." Gable says plainly.

"Oh? Oh I got it wrong again? Well still good! He has too much of your face. Has it been twenty years since I did this? Why do you always raise them up switched like that? How is anyone supposed to tell?" the half blind woman chuckles.

Well now. That's a clear sign that Lukas needs a hair cut. Preferably bald. Let's match?

"What are they needles for! What's in them?! Do they fill you with armor?" Lukas interrupts, his mouth shooting off for me.

Asking questions I probably shouldn't myself but still want to hear.

Luckily, the multa doesn't shy away at all, though her appearance causes Lilyanne to cower more in mother's arms. At least she no longer cries.

"Why it is a type of armor yes. It's made of the orchard nuts, but eating them is fatal. This is the only way to administer them and it arms people against this disease. Such a bright child! Oh Ronald, I really like how you made this one. " the old woman caters to his question.

"I wasn't made, I'm a Lukas. Aha so the bumpers are armor pieces, I knew it! Gable can I has armor to fight under my skin? So I can go beat the sun because Rosa says I can't fight the sun."

"Absolutely not." Gable doesn't even hesitate.

Oil. They can only inject them since ingesting it is not an option. Oil doesn't dissolve well, but it needs to run through the circulatory system to work.

That's why the injection shots can't really heal right, forming painful-looking boils. Even if someone heals the wound or skin on the outside, relieving some pain, it will still bubble underneath. Even if we heal them with magic, the living pathogens for the disease is still there.

This is what I can make sense of.

But nothing more. I'm not that smart. I don't know what else there I can pitch in here.

"Awww! Watch Rosa, I'mma go do it even without armors just cause." Lukas keeps interrupting my thought.

Kids think they can do anything. It's a little nice how hopeful they are.

"Yeah. Yeah sure, go fight the sun if you can. " I answer him. Then look up to regard multa Melitta, smiling down on us like a kind kindergarten teacher.

"Does it hurt?" I ask, despite knowing it must.

"A little. But that's a good thing, that we can still feel it. Shame we can't just turn these sensations on and off so easily as you or your father, little one." she answers calmly, before regarding me with a little lost look.

That's because I'm the one who looks lost.

"What? Turn on and off what? "I ask, unable to control my rudeness, despite mother rushing up , picking me up and holding me tight.

"Rosalia, " she warns against my question.

"Oh my. Looks like it's a little too early for that one to start training. Forgive me, I couldn't feel a lick of magical veins form her despite the other's being so strong. I just assumed she took after-" multa Melitta draws back, overly apologetic.

No. She said it on purpose. She knows something I don't. This woman is much older and layer than she looks.

"You thought wrong. Frederick and I are not raising her like that. We would never." mother bundles me away, covering my ears and eyes.

As if that could undo what I just learned.

"What is it? What do I take after? What can I turn on and off?" a clawing feeling starts rising up in me. That kind of desperate anxiety when something escapes me out of my control.

"Rosalia!" mother warns, her voice final.

"Mother what is she talking about? Mother...won't you answer me?" I turn back, feeling unwell.

When I don't feel well my face takes a neutral expression, professional. As if to control all the things I can't. It's always helped me in the workforce but I know it's not the sort of face a child should make. Off. Wrong.

"I'm looking to build a new project. " grampa takes over, still smiling like nothing's wrong. Nothing was ever wrong.

It leaves enough space for mother to hush me, now being not the time. But the tea has been spilled. I have another lead I can't let go of now.

"Wonderful! Another celler? Something bigger? Well, space is limited and we could always-" multa Melitta jumps over the topic before grampa interrupts again.

"But will you live long and well enough to carry it out?" he says casually.

"Yes. If the gods are merciful." her expression doesn't change despite the underlying threat.

"They usually aren't." grampa pulls out a strange package, tube-shaped and messily bound in melted wax, tossing it over.

"Whatever it is Ronald, it shall be done, with or without me." she smiles the kind of smile I've only seen in the hospitals terminally ill. The kind of grim peace that only one who accepts death around the corner.

"It would. But it would be easier for everyone this way." grampa points down at the parcel, information for later. "Construction begins after we leave, I want the setup and production to be first priority. It will even help out your concerns about lasting through the coming winter. "

"But?" multa Melitta apparently knows how grampa operates far too well.

"Your body will fail before then you old crone, and unfortunately you're the best candidate to watch over this zone by leagues. " Gable steps in.

"Oh I am so honored. You know little ones, when your Gable here was a wee pristine cherub, you could never get one nice thing out of him. Not until that meteor storm and young Ronald came crashing along."

"Aaaahhh good times, you hid me down the well and I had to cling on. I was so weak back then haha," grampa sighs,

"Oh I never liked that side of that old castle anyways. Good riddance. And you were so adorable, I still remember how you wore nothing but the slain pelt of a 4th grade battle boar. The skull kept slipping off your tiny head." she told.

"Ahem. The tasks on hand?" Gable interrupts by coughing, ending that particular trip down memory lane.

Thank goodness for Gable but uh, hey I wanted to hear that story too, errr I mean gather information. Mental note to track down multa Melitta for some interviews if I ever get the chance to escape alone.

After all, it's clear enough none tells me anything. Ever. In any lifetime. Can't be blamed if I have to go hunt for it outside.

"Gable's right," grampa sighs, sounding too exasperated for speaking the truth.

Without any fear or regard, he takes multa Melitta's damaged hands into his own, imploringly through his request sounds as straightforward as any orders.

"Gather up your cabinet, medical team, and the patients who have been through treatment the longest, in the platform in the town square. Throw in a few choice citizens as you wish. Don't tell them a thing. We'll be performing one last miracle." he winks

"...how wonderful...everyone will be so...happy. You never offered such generosity..." the old woman sounds conflicted.

"You shall stand right-center Melitta. I know how you feel, how you turn down any special treatment, not until we can find a better cure. But you can't lead anyone further if your dead body is burning in a pit! I'm going to need you for as long as you'll all put up with me. Hold on for me won't you old girl?" grampa comforts.

Wow. What a charmer.

Unfortunately, grampa seems to be just multa Melitta's type, for she caves. Simply wilts and whimper feebly into his thick arms. She wipes away the tears that still cry through both eyes and resolutely nods.

"Great! Put that away and call in the bells, there's some fun to be had." grampa hugs her as if she were a normal old woman, and she weeps silently for but a breath more.

"And time." Gable pulls them apart. Hitting grampa with a few rounds of fire and spells for disinfection.

Or just hitting him more for the sake of it. That's fair.

We're brought to a rest area somewhere underground after multa Melitta steps out to shout her orders. A welcome break especially with children.

My own mother sits us down silently. Cleans our hands and hands us juices. Going through the motions as if she doesn't know which of her children she needs to address first. Who needs her more.

A still scarred and nervous Lilyanne, doing her best to not cry. Or me, still silent and biting my lip from the information I've only begun to learn.

The answer should be obvious. I've never needed her.

"Oh Rosalia, we were going to tell you....about something... when you were older. " mother uselessly chooses wrong. Her comforts wasted on me.

"No, you wouldn't have. " I state simply, feeling nothing. Not bitter, not mad, though that seems to be easier. I don't really feel anything at all, except for this hollow.

Because I know the truth. I have a whole lifetime of the truth behind me.

So I ignore it easily when mother gives me her confused look. She doesn't know how she never told me. Or how she dies.

The bubble glows back up over us, Gable holding Lilyanne as he has us follow along. I do not fight it as the woman who calls herself my mother takes me back in her arms. After we leave this room, we're to stay close and hidden altogether.

All but for grampa.

We're no longer alone. The informed residents who work this place bow before him. They give humble thanks for absolutely nothing and stare with awe long after he passes.

He already stands out normally but now? He walks unprotected and undisguised along the underground hall. There's no need for introductions or identifications, everyone knows who he is. They don't dare step in his way but can't seem to remove themselves entirely either. As if trying to glance at him a moment more.

The tunnel leads to an airy open stone room. I can hear bustling noises from above while the ceiling takes many carved shapes like a square. There are stairs and platforms leading up. Up to the surface.

Before grampa steps up, he turns and smiles, holding out his hands.

"Can take the girls for a quick moment?" he actually asks this time.

While Gable easily hands over Lilyanne, mother seems to hesitate with me. Her arms tightening around my torso.

"I don't think Rosalia is feeling all too well," mother tries, stepping back.

"Well...what does she want to do about that?" grampa speaks with a strange tone in his voice, low and oddly surrounding my senses.

I hold out my arms uselessly, indicating permission and allowing him to take me with his free arm.

"Did you have fun?"

That voice.

"Grampapa it so many, and Lily was good. Not a dumb stinky baby, pffft. Lily no cries at awll at all the scaries. Lots of owies, so it all scarwies and sad. Lily sads now. " my sister starts babbling, a spoiled little girl in her grandfather's arms.

"Ahhh, so we're learning things the hard scary way. Aren't we?" he responds, softer than he usually does.

"Yes! Mama say no monsters, and that when Lily cries it makes everyone sads. No one wants to be scary monsters with owies. Lots of sads. " that little girl slowly absorbs, learning through more exposure than she's ever had.

"It does! Because the world is very big and full. It sometimes looks a lot different than how we think of it before. Doesn't it Rosalia?" grampa turns his attention towards me.

Like it's all a test he's teasing me with.

"You knew?"

I want to stay silent. Really now. But my mouth seems to have a mind of its own sometimes.

"And you didn't. Isn't it interesting how much we miss one time around? " grampa hums.

"Why? Why couldn't you just tell me, why couldn't you all just..."

I don't even know what it is I want to say, or ask. Too many thoughts and tangents spill in my head.

"I can't answer for what I don't know, didn't live. I can't tell you one best way to proceed. Your new unknown is going to be as scary as it's what you need." he pats.

"Scary!" Lilyanne repeats, blessedly not understanding a thing.

"I don't even know what's all going on," I admit. That numb pooling into something blue, a body of water I have already long drowned under.

Grampa laughs, cradling us with a bounce at each stair step.

"Tell me about it! I never know anything. Tell me all the things you don't know, are finally willing to say, and only then can we do anything about it. Well, all in due time of course. No one is hurrying my cute grandbabies to grow up, or I'll beat them up." he says, breathe light.

At a certain stone platform, he sets both my twin and I down, squishing our little arms in goodbye waves. I'm certain that somehow both Lilyanne and I are walking away with entirely different conversations from this.

What a crazy old man.

"When the ceiling lights up, just push as you normally do." he instructs.

"But...Lilyanne can't heal like this? Definitely not in masses, it's too weak and gets lost. Even when she was at her strongest." I look around, seeing nothing but stone.

I've told grampa before about the miracles Lilyanne has performed, as well as her limits. Like a delicate piece of art, she does best when she can give a single subject her full attention. It was clear in my memory how her healing abilities on a wide range or battlefield situation was more psychological than anything. The more subjects, the weaker the effect.

My sister, still only three years old, gives me a question blank head tilts while grampa laughs it off, rubbing our bonnets practically off.

"Grampapa knows! Gable and I got something set up to help with that. Just for today," he winks those big brown cow eyes disgustingly.

Who do I look like? An old multa woman? Take that nasty fake charm elsewhere.

To which he does, blowing gross kisses to Lilyanne's happy giggles and hopping up and away. Past trap doors and platforms up out of sight.

The roar of the crowds above is deafening, even through stone walls. It's like being backstage at some concert. Down below Gable has my mother and Lukas moved to a different area. My mother's overly worried eyes on us the whole time, even as Lukas clings to her skirts and comforts her with his standard babble.

When the world above goes into an agitated silence, I somehow catch bits and pieces of grampa's voice. Tunneling through this underground passageway.

"My good people..."

It's still too far though, too thick. I strain my ears, my senses to hear more.

"...over 50 dead recovered....bodies burnt. Their possessions up for identification.... I cannot say I'm sorry for your losses. Laws are not always correct but I do not offer false promises or hopes-"

"Rosa scawies?" Lilyanne clamps my hand, breaking my concentration.

"No Lily...actually yes. But we'll just take it a day at a time. Alright?" I sigh.

"Okay dokey! Rosa need poopies? Lily tell mama and Gabgab you gotta goes?" she asks at my scrunched up face, still trying to listen in for more.

"...Maybe later Lily, now stay real quiet and get ready!"

"Okay dokey!"

Focusing again, I can almost see in my mind's eye grampa's poster hero speech. Serious in some parts. Lively in others. I wonder what he can say to further his own press and agenda, that dangerous fool. Pretending never to know a thing.

I guess I can kinda relate.

"This is not a cure. This is none. This is a thank you as you will all still most likely die here. Absolutely!"

Nevermind. He's insane.

It's a good thing this man was never a politician let alone a king. He would run a country into the ground, and use the remaining pit as his wine celler. Yep.

Somehow the people of the masses seemed to love him.

Even now, judging from the fact the crowd hasn't erupted into boos and tears, it's still going too well. Sheesh. I'll never understand Public Relations or sociology, despite all my experience. Maybe everyone's brain-damaged?

I wonder where the brain-damaged minion is right now? Still with Damia? I'll beat him up if he comes back even more brain-damaged. Maybe Vincent too? I could use the kiddy help to reign Lukas AND Lilyanne in. Oh and secret stash sweets that aren't poisoned.

"Once again, and all the agains that will never be enough. Thank you for surviving." the old man's voice barely breaks through the echoes.

My distracted scattered thoughts end not from another odd shake or question of Lilyanne's but the warm glow of the ceiling lighting up. Overly complicated transmutation circles begin shining out, overlapping one another, and the signal has been received.

With one last reassuring look down at Gable and mother, Lukas excitedly pointing up at the display, we get to work.

No need for focus or finesse, not just yet. For now, grampa's got this. So Lilyanne, give it all you got. Aaaaand zap!

I can't say it's too exciting to just be pulling off the usual routine. But the thunderous sounds from above, the miracle that must be going on the surface, means it must be a real sight.

Grampa's right. This isn't a cure, the disease still active inside them even if their sight is restored or their wounds healed like how it was before. By law, these people will all die enclosed with the walls of the leprosarium. Never to escape or return back where they came from.

We're all just doing our best to survive.

I don't think the truth is all that bad of a message, though grampa could have most certainly worded it better.

The sounds don't die out but the impromptu ceremony must end eventually. Lilyanne tiring out faster despite her stamina practice, perhaps after all her work on the tree and orchards outside. She is after all only a small child.

"zap zap zap Lily do zaps." she hugs the platform rock with a very funny sort of expression.

Ah kids are hilarious when they're serious.

The ceiling lights cut out with a wave from Gable. His nod indicating that it was over. As soon as he does, Mother rushes up the stairs to pick us up even before I can get Lilyanne to stop pushing magic blindly.

How did she get up here so fast? While baffled, I can only think this to myself already swept up inside her arms. That's too fast?

The roaring of a cheering and delighted population resounds throughout the space until the trap door closes shut once more.

Grampa walks down the upper steps, sweatdropping as he escorts multa Melitta. Not fully healed but looking...better.

She looks older when her face isn't so bumpy or swollen, the wrinkles finally more pronounced. Her fingers are still missing on her outstretched hand, and there are pox like scars across her skin. But it's better, less painful. Both of her eyes shining teary but clear, sight restored.

Relief is a type of progress.

"Thank you. For everything." the old restrengthened woman bows low.

When she gets up, she presents each of the adults in our party but a single plump peach. It doesn't look like much, but hey aren't those....

"Oh Multa Melitta! We couldn't!" mother tries to turn the gift away.

Five years stored in a single fruit, one single tree that can only produce so many. If diluted and used as a medicine, it could only go so far. To eat a whole fruit is a luxury, and selfishness, that is hard to afford. I can't even imagine the price if I sold one of these on the black market?

"You're actually old enough to have one now. Take it, perhaps to share with your...darling? You could do it like those two..." the old woman giggles, pushing back the peach.

"Oh these old tales," mother blushes, putting away the peach.

"Well, I know we save them for research but...it has been a good 20 or so years since we had a fresh taste." grampa already splits one in half, grinning as he presents one side in front of Gable's nose.

Grey eyes roll before the man himself shrugs.

"I suppose if it's only half... " he relents, taking the split fruit. Even putting up with grampa clicking the half peaches like they were champagne glasses.

"To another 20 more?" grampa bites the wrong slice, grossly eating out of Gable's hand.

"I regret everything already, " Gable swipes and switches fruits, but he smiles lightly before taking his own bite. Following up, "...yeah sure. Already don't have much of a choice. "

"Whatever makes you feel better about yourself Gabe." grampa licks at the remaining juice.

What a lovely scene. Such a weird friendship. I'm getting hungry just watching.

A dangerous thought but I do wonder what such juicy a treasure tastes like.

"It's alright. Bacon is better." Lukas chews.

"Well of course you think bacon is better, you're...wait what?! What are you eating!?!" I scream bloody murder.

It's like the countdown before a bomb detonates. Shock. Stillness.Slow-motion, grampa already jumping into action, taking away the cursed stolen fruit in Lukas's hand as Gable silently screams, eyes promising a certain kiddy a painful death, or maybe just a very intense grounding.

"Ah just like old times." multa Melitta laughs.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! OW OW OW BACON MUCH BETTER AAAAAAAAAAHH!!!!!!"