Legacy's Ghost

Episode 30: Filling in the Blanks

The Monastery's hospital room is smaller than the last one I was in. It's filled with plants, a warm, comfortable bed, an overhead fan that offers just the right amount of circulation, and a massive window overlooking the colony. It feels like a room fit for a king, not a hospital room.

On the bed sits a pile of clothing that resembles my current undergarments. The nurse picks the pile up and holds it up, allowing it to unfold until it hangs. "Change tops. This has a front and a back secured with Velcro along the seems to allow access to your body for wires and ports as needed, while still giving you the anonymity your position requires."

I take the shirt from her and examine it. Sure enough, Velcro straps are used to secure the front of the shirt to the back along the sides and the outsides of the sleeves. The front of the shirt is split like a vest, with another set of Velcro tabs securing the left of the shirt to the right and securing it closed.

While I change shirts, Edmond sits in a green plush wing backed chair angled next to the bed. He crosses his hands over one knee, then he looks at me. "What do you remember from the incident in the cavern?"

I slip my current shirt off, shake my head, then pull the new hospital shirt over me, threading my arms into the arm holes. "Not much. I recount my memories and how the nurse told me he'd been treated for burns before he left."

Edmond presses his lips together as if gathering his thoughts. "The Ghost visited me after he dropped you off and told me some interesting information. He told me after that final bag of cauterizing powder, you seemed to wick electricity from the dead Swarm, pull it into yourself, and use that energy to stop the rest of your bleeding and to cauterize the rest of your wounds."

I stare at him, shaking my head. Then I sink onto the bed, using it to keep me from falling over. That's not possible. That's physically not possible. Bodies don't wick electricity. People don't magically heal themselves. Especially when they were injured like me.

Edmond nods, his gaze watchful, darting from one of my eyes to the next. He continues, "The Ghost said that when the electricity died away, the Swarm had been disintegrated, and your wound already had a fresh layer of skin growing over the gashes. All the blood that had seeped onto the floor burned to ash. The Ghost said the parts of his body that had been touching you when you became electrified received low-level electrical burns."

I rear back and shake my head again, this time more adamantly. "That's not possible."

"I can't say I've ever heard of that happening before, Atan. But here we are. You're alive and the Ghost has never lied to me in the forty-seven years I've known him." Edmond offers a kind smile. "There's one other thing."

I wait, holding my breath. What else can Edmond possibly say that will be any stranger than what I've just heard?"

"The Ghost said that as he was carrying your body out of the cavern, he saw several more piles of ash in the caves leading out of the cavern. He suspects that you didn't just kill the one Swarm, but that the caves had been filled with them, and you had killed them all. You saved the Ghost not only once, but several times by eliminating the threat he'd been unable to see because of the dark."

I lean back against the bed, laying down to keep the blood from rushing out of my skull. Goosebumps erupt over my arm and my hands begin to shake again.

Edmond couldn't have surprised me more if he'd declared that he was my long-lost father.

"H-how?" I ask.

He shakes his head and lifts his shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine. But the Ghost is on a mission to find out what happened. He wants to learn more about you and your powers. In the meantime, you must speak of what happened to no one. And I mean no one. Not your friends, not your teachers, not to yourself." Edmond leans closer, placing a hand on my bed next to me. "Do you understand?"

"Don't the doctors and nurses know?" I ask, glancing at the door.

Edmond shakes his head. "They know you're different. Your bloodwork, blood pressure, and heart rates are different than a typical human. But I've asked them to do nothing more than monitor you for now until the Ghost comes back with answers."

He offers me one of those warm, encouraging smiles again. "Everything is going to be all right. They may take some blood so they can figure out how to better care for you in the future, but there will be no more testing than that without my permission. You're here only as long as it takes for you to heal and get back to classes."

"The Ghost said I wouldn't be coming back to my room," I say, furrowing my brows again.

His lips dip. "I don't know anything about that, but until the Ghost comes back, you'll be back to school as usual."

My heart seems to plummet, and my shoulders droop. I stare out the window that faces a courtyard filled with leafy trees, lush green foliage, and bright flowers.

I was out of the bio dome—away from the Monastery less than a day—before I got dragged back in and re-inserted into my gilded cage again.

One way or another, I am going to find a way to get out of the Monastery again. I want to explore the colony and the caverns again. Find out what's going on with my body and the blue lightning bolts inked into my skin now. See for my own eyes what happened in that cavern.

Even if it means facing the Swarm again.