Blood Bond

The van rolled to a smooth stop at the curb of a bland, nondescript office park. I had been expecting some grandiose, or at the very least futuristic building, with sparkling glass and chrome steel all over. Certainly not this.

The building before us was an exercise in corporate anonymity—a cube of tinted glass and steel panels, surrounded by impeccably manicured but soulless patches of lawn. It could have been an insurance company headquarters or a regional call center. There was nothing to suggest it housed the most advanced medical research facility in the world.

The van door slid open with a soft hiss. Ms. Vale was already on her feet, touchpad in hand. She stepped out onto the sidewalk and then looked back at me, still seated in the medical recliner.

"Come on, Leonard," she said, her tone as matter-of-fact as the building's facade. "My data shows your vitals are stable and your energy levels are more than sufficient for a short walk. I'd rather not bother with the wheelchair."

I pushed myself up. A part of me was surprised by her callousness, but another was eager to finally walk unaided. There was a certain exhilaration in surging forward on my own, with no one there to catch me if I fell. This wasn't exactly running, but it was as close as I would get for a while.

My legs wobbled a bit as I followed her across the pavement. A set of plain glass doors slid open before me, the smooth, frictionless way they mechanically parted felt… unwelcoming. This was it. My first steps into my new life.

The lobby was just as anonymous as the exterior—cool gray marble, brushed steel, and recessed lighting, all impeccably clean and utterly devoid of personality. A team of four attendants in simple, crisp gray uniforms stood waiting for us. One stepped forward and took my single small bag from my hand before I could even protest. There were no words of welcome, no smiles, just simple, efficient motions.

We were escorted to an unmarked elevator. Julia pressed a panel, but no floor numbers lit up. The doors closed, and we began to descend in absolute silence. The ride was unnervingly long. There was no music, no subtle lurching, just a smooth, continuous drop that made me feel like we were sinking deep into the earth.

—

When the doors finally chimed and slid open, the bland corporate lobby was gone. I stepped out into a completely different world. The corridor before us was impossibly long, the walls a bleak, uniform white that seemed to glow with a life of its own.

As Julia led me down the glowing white corridor, my initial shock gave way to a deeper, more profound sense of disbelief. The massive panes of glass to our left and right weren't rooms or labs as I had first assumed. They were windows into entirely different worlds.

The first contained a miniature, arid desert under a light that mimicked a harsh, white sun. I saw rust-colored sand, strange, alien-looking succulents, and dark rocks. A sleek, sand-colored lizard with intricate blue patterns on its back basked on a warm stone, its throat pulsating slowly.

The next enclosure held a lush, humid rainforest, so dense with greenery that condensation misted the inside of the glass. I could see brightly colored tropical birds with extravagant plumage flitting between branches, and a small waterfall cascading down a moss-covered rock face in the distance.

An arctic tundra, complete with a dusting of what looked like real snow. A saltwater reef, glowing with the soft, otherworldly light of bioluminescent corals and teeming with vibrant fish. It was a menagerie of impossible ecosystems, a collection of living worlds held captive deep beneath a nondescript office park.

The staggering scale, the wealth and resources required to build and maintain such a thing, was beyond comprehension. I felt both of my selves teetering as I stepped past the constantly shifting environments on either side of me. If I weren't standing right here, I'd think this was out of reach for both science and magic.

This place wasn't just a lab; it was a self-contained planet, and I was its newest specimen.

Julia led me past the last of the biomes and into an equally futuristic lab. The air here was still and pure, smelling of ozone and disinfectant. Every surface was polished white or gleaming chrome, and though the place was teeming with workers, all dressed in some variation of the grey uniform that attendants wore, they all moved in a coordinated fashion, not like robots… but more like ants, streams of them moving seamlessly past one another to their stations.

"Here you go," was all she said before leaving me with a group of technicians in slick, grey jackets.

I was directed to a chair. Its cool, smooth surface felt unnervingly slick against my skin. The process began without a word. A technician gripped my arm, firm and impersonal. Then the familiar sharp, cold prick of the needle followed. I watched my own blood, dark crimson, snake through a clear tube, filling vial after vial with a practiced, impersonal speed that was dizzying to watch. The sheer quantity they drew left me feeling light-headed, a distinct buzzing in my ears that seemed to harmonize with the low hum of the lab's machinery.

Another crew came to push the cart of vials away. There goes her banks of blood.

After the blood draw, they moved me from one intimidating machine to another. One was a large, white ring that smelled faintly of ozone and slid over my body with a soft, mechanical whir. A thin, red targeting laser danced across my chest before settling over my heart, and I held my breath even before the quiet instruction came: "Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out." Another machine required me to rest my head against a cold metal plate while a series of sharp, distinct clicks echoed around me, mapping the inside of my skull. Through it all, no one spoke to me, other than to give those same snap, simple commands.

When it was finally over, I was escorted out of the lab and back into the glowing white hallway, where Julia was waiting, leaning against a wall and scrolling through her touchpad.

She pushed off the wall as we approached, and raised her gaze from the screen for just a moment. "Looks like we have results. Good."

She fell into step beside me, leading me down another identical corridor, this one lined with solid white doors that looked just like the walls they were set in.

"I've taken the liberty to requisition you a sufficiently powerful laptop," she mentioned, her tone casual. "It will be in your room. We find it helps new patients... acclimate."

She paused, then added, "We've had several... curious and talented individuals like you in the past. Just note that whatever you do on the laptop is being monitored, so... play with that in mind."

Her choice of words felt strange, chilling even. "Previous patients?" I asked, my voice a bit tight. "Like me? What happened to them?"

Julia stopped walking and turned to face me. She tilted her head, giving me that same unnervingly calm, analytical look from the van.

"They had cancer, Leonard," she said simply. "And they were here because this is a research institution."

That word research echoed down the length of the corridor. My still woozy head wanted to laugh. I really am at someplace better.

Before I could dwell on it further, one of the white doors opened as a gray-haired man in a lab coat stepped out. He readjusted his glasses when he saw us and dipped his head to Ms. Vale, who promptly ignored him. Behind him I saw stacks of cages, and a large maze on the floor. There seemed to be the stereotypical white lab rats running through the maze. But is that circuitry on their heads?

We stopped at the end of a corridor where a thick glass door stood. It slid open with a soft hiss and only the two of us moved forward. A beam of white light slowly scanned over us. Undisturbed, Julia stared straight forward, and I mimicked her stillness.

A disembodied female voice sounded from above. "All foreign contaminants cleared, you may now proceed."

Another thick glass door slid open before us, and we walked into a different hallway, not as wide or tall as the previous one. This one felt more personal. There were rooms with glass walls to either side of us, each of them with beds and digital monitors in them.

"Oh, are you my new neighbor?" A chirpy, bright voice asked from below.

I looked down to find a little girl with reddish brown hair looking up at me with her head at an angle. She had a thumb at her lips, and in her other hand was dragging a beat up teddy bear that's seen better days.

She then turned and waved. "Hello Julia! Is this what you were doing up there?"

"Yes, Annie, this is Leonard, he'll be just 2 rooms down from you in the west wing."

I was shocked, Ms. Vale was actually capable of a warm, personal smile. I tried to match her and leaned downwards. "Hi Annie, you can call me Leo, all my friends do. It's good to meet you."

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

Annie leaned forward, her green eyes squinting as she studied my face. "Leo? You don't look like a Leo." She paused, tilting her head. "And your eyes are funny."

My skin crawled into goosebumps beneath my shirt. I strained to keep my voice light. "Funny how?"

She leaned in closer, and covered her lips as if sharing a secret. "They're like fire," she whispered. Her voice then regained its childish excitement. "Green fire! And your hair's on fire too!"

My breath caught in my throat. How? How could she possibly see that?

Annie took a small step back, and tilted her head the other way. "Your face's pretty though," she concluded thoughtfully, then her expression crumbled into fear. "...but you're scary!"

With a little yelp, she spun around and ducked behind Julia's legs, dragging her battered bear across the floor with her.

Ms. Vale patted Annie on the head and then leaned over to me. "She's suffered some trauma in the past. Most of the patients here, you'll find, are a little eccentric."

I wasn't quite sure how to respond. "Oh, ok? Sorry, Annie."

Then a small pair of fingers wrapped around mine. I looked down to find Annie beside me. She looked into my eyes and grinned a buck tooth grin, eerily reminding me of a different little girl in a different world. "It's ok. I'm scary too!"

—

Ms. Vale seemed content with letting Annie show me around the premises. She dragged me and her bear over to the cafeteria, the rec room, and even the indoor garden with shafts of what I assume was fake sunlight.

All the workers seemed to know Annie; the janitors waved and joked with her, and nurses patted her on the head while she introduced me as her "big sister Leo," and no one seemed to bat an eye.

We encountered a few of the other patients on our tour. Most of them seemed normal at first glance, if not a little haggard—I supposed most of them were on some form of chemo. Looking over at Annie again, I noticed her own hair was a little thin, a fact she tried to cover with a bright red bow. Was she just starting her treatment, or near the end?

A large man with dry, scaly-looking skin stood blocking the middle of the hallway, and Annie pulled me in a wide arc around him. "That's Mr. Norman," she whispered. "He's got a skin thing that's real bad. He doesn't have long. That's probably why he's so grumpy."

As if on cue, Mr. Norman started yelling at a passing nurse, who patiently but firmly ushered him back into his room.

I looked down at Annie again. She seemed strangely perceptive; she would occasionally comment on how long she thought each patient had left. It sounded like the macabre make-believe of a child exposed to too much sickness, but her comments about my own nature had been so spot-on. I had to ask.

"Annie… How much longer do I have?"

She looked at me in confusion, her head tilting from side to side. "That's a silly question, big sister Leo. You're so scary you'll probably live forever, but…" Her bright expression faltered, her smile fading. Her small fingers squeezed mine. "Your roots here… they probably don't have much longer."

I couldn't bring myself to ask her to clarify what she meant.

Before I knew it, Annie had pulled me up to the room directly opposite mine. "Aunty May! Here's your new neighbor! It's big sister Leo!"

An old woman was lying in the bed, thin and frail, with a tube in her nose and only a few wisps of white hair. "Ahh… good to meet you, Leo," she said, her voice feeble. "I'm sorry I can't greet you properly." Her fingers barely rose from the blanket in a weak wave.

I looked toward Annie, and she just slowly shook her head.

"Yeah, it's good to meet you too," I managed. "I guess I'll be right next door."

"Yes, yes… why don't you get settled in," Aunty May whispered hoarsely. "We can talk… more… when I have more energy."

Annie guided me over to my own room and then waved me goodbye before hopping off down the hall, her beat-up teddy bear dragging behind her. I found my small bag already sitting atop a simple drawer and a large laptop sitting on a desk beside the bed. Looking around, I saw that three of the walls of my room were made entirely of thick, seamless glass, just like every other room here. So much for privacy.

—

The glass door to my room slid open, and Ms. Vale appeared. She was accompanied by a taller man with a medium build, dark hair and ebony skin. He was dressed in the standard nurse's uniform here—a white jacket woven from some fine, high-tech fiber with buttons running down the right side.

He was introduced as Nurse Pratchett, apparently the head of the nursing staff here.

"Hello Leo," he said. His voice had a grainy texture that felt calming after Julia's sharp edges. "I'm just here to get you situated. In case you need anything, whether it be food, assistance for physical discomfort, or just someone to talk to, you can always reach us via your BMI link." He tapped the solid, smooth band on his own wrist; his was white, a stark contrast to the black one on mine. "Just press a finger against it and tell it what you need."

I looked curiously at my own black onyx band. A tap on its polished surface sent a faint white glow rippling over it. "Umm… can I get a burger?"

Nurse Pratchett's voice echoed as he answered both in person and, a split-second later, through the band on my wrist. "Alright Leo, I assume that was a test. We can bring you a burger if you like, but it would still have to follow your dietary regimen."

My eyes were still glued to the band as I nodded absently at his words. Finally, my very own smartwatch. Though not in the way I ever thought it'd come.

The rest of the afternoon was spent getting a rundown of the watch's capabilities, which included tracking my vitals and even dispensing my medication. Nurse Pratchett demonstrated how a small, nearly invisible port could open on the surface of the band, into which an IV tube could be plugged. It was an incredible, if unnerving, piece of high-tech. This thing could basically inject whatever it wanted into me.

Julia brought up the idea of trying new custom chemo mixtures, since my body had become, in her words, "fully resistant to the current set."

I didn't agree. The idea that the hunger might take hold of me when I return to the Keep sent a wave of pure panic through me. What if I attack everyone there? I can't have Astrid, or my parents see me like that! I pleaded for a break, my voice cracking with dire desperation.

Thankfully, Nurse Pratchett intervened, agreeing with me. "It's a bit much for his first day, Julia," he said calmly but firmly. "We can hold off for one night, given that he already had an infusion this morning."

Julia's face soured in response, but for once, she held her tongue. Her eyes, though, held a gaze of hungry fascination that wouldn't let go.

—

By the time I was left alone in the stark white silence of my new room, a profound exhaustion had settled deep into my bones. The day had been a relentless series of jolts—the bittersweet farewells at the hospital, the sheer, unsettling scale of this place, and all the people I've met here, especially Annie. And I was already tired of being in this glass fishbowl.

Remembering a promise that I'd made, I opened the new laptop and called home.

The conversation was short; I was too drained for much more. But seeing Mom and Maya on the screen, their faces filling this alien, sterile space, was like a deep drink of cool water. Mom told me she loved me and reminded me she'd be there to visit soon. Maya, seemingly oblivious to the day's heavier tensions, chattered about another funny thing that happened in her class, her wide, bright grin a beacon of simple, innocent joy.

Seeing them, hearing them—it was everything. It was the reason I was here. The reason I had to endure the needles, the scans, and Julia's disturbing gaze.

When the call ended, the screen went blank, leaving me with only my own pale reflection in the dark glass. I shook my head; the day wasn't over. There was still time before I would inevitably switch back to the other side, where the Keep and all the usurpers awaited.

I tapped out a few commands on the keyboard. I was here, in this crazy, advanced place. They had given me a laptop, a powerful one. Well, I will make full use of it.

My fingers flew across the touchpad, bypassing the standard welcome interface and diving straight into the programs. As Julia had promised, the machine was powerful. The UI was snappy, and renderings that I knew were complicated took only a fraction of a second to run. But more importantly, it came with a software suite that was unlike anything I'd ever seen—not just word processors and browsers, but a full array of advanced simulators: a complex physics engine, bio-simulation modules with the promised protein-folding programs, and a molecular chemistry simulator that looked professional-grade.

My mind immediately went to Aetheria, to my failure in the courtyard. Shroud Step. I closed my eyes, reliving the taken memory of the Air Assassin's skill, the ingrained knowledge that I possessed but couldn't execute. I tried to apply Earth's logic to it. How could a body blur and move like that? Was it a physics problem? Bending light around a form? Some kind of localized quantum tunneling? The concepts were so far beyond my understanding that they might as well have been pure magic. I shook my head, frustrated. That path was a dead end, for now.

But then, another memory surfaced. A different foe, a different power. The brethren of the Air-affinity Assassin—the Fire-affinity Stalker. Flame Bomb. I had taken that skill from his mind as well. This skill wasn't the control of something as complex as space and time; no, it was far simpler: plasma, a state of free ions stripping electrons away through intense heat. I relived his stolen memory as if it were my own: focusing my mind on the flames, thinking about raw heat and violent expansion, and then projecting those very thoughts upon the name Flame Bomb as I called it out in my mind at my Soul Seed to unleash its power.

It reminded me of when I called out to my blood; all I had to do was to project the image that I had focused on in my mind to will it into doing what I wanted. Perhaps it's the same way with the Soul Seed—it's just an actuator for my focused thought. All I need is to have the right... image.

My fingers pulled up the molecular chemistry simulator, followed by the search browser.

First, I searched for "Flames, Plasma" and looked at the various states where flames could transition into plasma. I ran the simulations, watching how the particles bounced and interacted as I fed more energy into the system. My searches led me to more processes, more states of matter, and I simulated them as well. I ended up at the chemical composition of gunpowder, simulating how charcoal, sulfur, and potassium nitrate interacted to bring about a contained explosion. My queries went even further afield, leading me to the principles behind dust explosions and even the intense, focused energy of a thermite reaction.

What I was looking for was insight into the underlying physical workings of these processes. I needed to see. I needed to understand at a deeper level what was going on. I needed the scientific insight to project onto my Soul Seed exactly what I wanted to happen, to impose my will upon the world.

No longer will I be kept in the dark.

No, I will not be an imbecile any more!