Will I stay or go? FBOCT SE

Maxwell milled around the hospital, listening to the doctors and nurses discuss the tournament or patients.  Every corner he turned produced more sounds, talking, groaning, beeping.  Never mind the bleach and cleaners that seemed to insist on tickling his nose with their potent aromas.  Really all these things were why Maxwell hardly ever wanted to work as a doctor...plus he didn't like jobs that required he remember things quickly.  Wait...Maxwell paused.  There was something he was supposed to be remembering right now wasn't it?  The receptionist's phone began to buzz, adding even more to the noise of the hospital.

Ah yes!  He was supposed to call Cyrus!

Quickly the young man dug around in his pocket and produced a small ear piece which was promptly placed into his ear.  Magic hummed from it, a spell placed around it would block any listening parties from tapping the signal.

“How is she?” Cyrus' voice came through, mixed with a bit of static.  Still, the older man's rich voice came through well enough.

“The nurses say she's as stable as she can get...but she's mostly just sleeping.” Maxwell carefully spoke to make sure he remembered all of the details of what he'd been told.  This was why he liked being a camera man, if he forgot something his camera remembered it for him.  “When they pulled her and Todd out of the building it looked like she managed to protect her partner with a layer of water infused with magic.”

Cyrus was quiet for a moment, likely thinking.  He did a lot of that. “How is her partner?”

“He's good!  Well I mean he needed some repairs but he's ok at least.  I think I saw him go back to his room not too long ago.”

“Good...good...” Cyrus paused again, though it was a shorter one this time. “Maxwell I need you to leave town now.”

This caused the young cameraman to pause.  “Leave?  But...why?”

“Because I need to come to Kryssa...and no matter how I move now I'm likely to catch at least Mr. T's attention...to say nothing of how active Fate has been lately.  I don't want you caught in the crossfire of my actions or what's happening in this tournament right now.”

The halls suddenly seemed so quiet to Maxwell now.  He remembered Cyrus speaking to him about when this time would come, it had to happen....but still some part of Maxwell had hoped it wouldn't come to this.  He liked Cyrus, they'd worked together for quite a while now and he was a good companion.  Cyrus had often been able to empathize with how displaced Maxwell felt some days...Las Vegas was not exactly his usual place of work.  But then again Las Vegas was not where Cyrus belonged either.

“Ok...just be careful.”

“You as well my friend.”

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Cyrus moved as quickly and quietly as his old legs would allow.  Oh his spells kept his bones from getting too frail and his joints from creaking...but there was no denying his body was still feeling his age.  It was times like these he really did wish for the ability to revert back even to just a few years ago, but all he could do was just shake his head.

“No time for wishes right now..” Cyrus mumbled to himself as he entered the hospital. Maxwell had thankfully been able to pass on the right room number so Cyrus could make it easily to Kryssa's “room”...Granted there were few places in the hospital to accommodate a giant sea serpent.  The room they had found was essentially the whole of a basement floor, converted to a giant pool for the serpent to lay in.  The day was moving forward and tournament matches were well underway, meaning nobody really paid the old man any mind as he ventured forth.  A receptionist stopped him briefly, but a flash of his best “kindly old man” smile and a few quick words were enough to let Cyrus move on.  Soon he made it to Kryssa's “room”.

Machines that monitored the great creature's health were suspended up on shelves to keep them from getting too wet, a system that wouldn't have worked if the resident patient hadn't been so still.  And how still she was, and her scales were so dull and pale, so lifeless.   The doctors said she was stable, but they couldn't see it.  They could heal her physical wounds and call her well, but there was so much more to it.  The poor creature was dying, she had been since probably before she'd even arrived in the future.  There was a sickness there, one that few could see or recognize.  One that was making her body steadily give out on her, and Kryssa's move to protect her partner had been the last straw.

“Oh child...” Cyrus found himself whispering as he waded through the pool, placing a hand on the, now gray serpent head.  “You could make it if only you had the will...but you've lost that too haven't you?”

There was hardly a stir in response.  Cryrus shook his head and dropped the spell carved stone he'd been holding on to, letting it fall into the water with a quiet “plunk”.  “Now is not the time to lose such a thing Kryssa, I'm sure I'm not wrong in thinking you have many who are counting on you.”

The spell from the stone activated and gentle light spread throughout the water, healing magic attempting to sink through into Kryssa's scales and gills as the water guided it.  While the spell stone did it's work, Cyrus did his own.  The old mage let his magic guide him into Kryssa's memories, trying to find a the right spot where she would hear him.  There was a marsh of guilt to wade through, worries thrown about it like thick weeds.  She felt she had failed everyone around her, names of those very people flashing by as Cyrus tried to dig through.  One in particular sent a sharp pain of regret through Cyrus' own heart.

“Enough...” Cyrus whispered to Kryssa and himself, trying to pull forth memories that would spark her determination once more.  “You cannot save them if you don't wake up.  There is still hope child, but not if you allow yourself to fade.”

Slowly life seemed to return to Kryssa, the memories and thoughts putting their determination behind the healing spell now within her. She was not yet ready to give up, she'd just had to be reminded of that.  Kryssa nostrils flared, taking in the scents around her, likely trying to orient herself.  She stirred before Cyrus, it was weak and held a manner of confusion.  When she spoke her voice was tiny and quiet, despite her large form.

“....Grandfather...?”