The Charlatan

22. An Acquired Taste

Priyanka stayed silent as she was wheeled down the bright hallway of Mor's medical centre. She wanted to remember the feeling of being confined to a chair, as many individuals not as lucky as her would live on with that reality every day. She closed her eyes and silently prayed to her gods to keep those people happy and healthy. After sending out a last deity-directed thanks for choosing to help her, Priyanka felt her chair come to a halt. She opened her eyes and in front of her stood her care team, headed by the lead doctor who had greeted her when she first stepped foot in Mor's medical facility. He smiled at her and kept eye contact as he signed one-handed to her translator, who had stepped away from Priyanka's wheelchair.

"Are you ready to say your farewells to this chair?" the young man addressed Priyanka.

"Of course. What do you need from me?" she answered politely. The medical team, through Priyanka's translator, explained that they would run the same diagnostic tests they had been running for the past few weeks, and would carefully observe Priyanka's walking just to be completely positive that her body was healing appropriately. If they deemed that Priyanka's recovery was progressing normally, Priyanka would be free to walk out the medical centre on her new legs.

Priyanka complied with all of the procedures, as she had done every day for the past several weeks, and she completed the therapy exercises effortlessly. Even without her translator, Priyanka could tell that the medical team was pleased with her progress, and when they announced that she had passed their examination, Priyanka was not surprised. Delighted, nevertheless.

"Now, they say that they need you to do these stretches daily," Priyanka's translator explained on behalf of the doctor, who handed her a piece of paper, "These diagrams should be easy to follow. Come by in case you have any questions. Any trained physician should also be able to help parse these for you. As well, you will have to perform maintenance on the parts, since they are synthetic and prone to permanent damage. They do not heal like your other limbs. We will send this manual with you." He handed her a hefty book. "If you experience any severe symptoms – seizures, loss of muscle or bladder control, total paralysis – see a specialist immediately. We recommend staying in Mor for a while in case of early complications. We especially recommend coming back to Mor as soon as you can should these complications occur when you depart."

"I will be diligent," Priyanka replied. She turned to the medical team and smiled. "I thank you very much for your help and guidance. I was in good hands."

The team smiled back at her before they set their sights on cleaning up the space. Priyanka took this as her cue to leave. "Thank you for your assistance as well, Jivan," she addressed her Mori-Dehic translator. He shrugged, but sported a shy grin. Priyanka spoke again, moving out of the way of her doctor when he flashed past with what she could now identify as a medical imaging tool in hand. "I must return to speak with my sister, but please meet with us in an hour at the reception desk so we may sort through payment."

"You are leaving immediately?" Jivan asked as he too shuffled out of the way of the cleaning team. Priyanka nodded.

"Likely," she said as she moved to exit the crowded examination room. Jivan followed. "We will at least clear space for others who need medical treatment. We are to wait for friends to arrive before we decide on whether or when we depart," she continued. Her steps sounded with a soft clanging echo against the smooth hallway floor. Priyanka had had time to adjust to the new weight of her synthetic legs, but the sound of her resonant footsteps was still occasionally jarring.

"That is a good plan. I will see you and Safiya at the front, then," Jivan said as he broke sync with Priyanka's steps. Priyanka detected relief in his voice, and had to suppress a grin. He is most certainly taken with Safi, she mused. He wants more time with her. Unfortunately, neither he nor Priyanka had seen Safiya much in the past few weeks. After she had ensured that her sister was in good hands, Safiya had mysteriously disappeared for most of the day, every day. With rehabilitation, therapy, counseling, and constant maintenance to worry about, Priyanka had not had the time or energy to bring up her sister's absence, but it did not bother her too much. She knew her sister was capable of taking care of herself, if all else fell apart around her.