“How do you like this? It’s an ingredient used in medicine out east. It’s a crude drug called arrowroot,” the wrinkled old woman said, showing off the winding, tree-root-like plant in a wooden box.
“What effect does it have, ma’am?” Glim asked.
“Oh, I don’t know,” the woman said.
“You don’t know, but you’re still selling it?! And can this really be used in medicine? It looks like garbage...” Glim picked up the plant timidly, as if he were touching something filthy.
The woman’s humpback shook a bit as she chuckled. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you? If you don’t know something, you can figure it out yourself.”
“Saying something so illogical like it’s a good point,” Glim scoffed. “You’re trying to trick me. Don’t you think it’s strange that you don’t know anything about what you’re trying to sell?”
“It’s not strange; it’s fair. If someone who wants to buy it knows what it’s good for, then all’s well that ends well. Anyway, I’ll start writing up your bill. If you want anything else, make sure to let me know.” Without even asking Glim, she headed off to prepare the bill.
“At this rate, my debt will just keep growing,” Glim grumbled.
“Yeah, but you have to try everything you can,” Shannon pointed out. “Isn’t this a good opportunity?”
“I suppose.”
“I know about crude drugs too, and I don’t think there’s any harm in trying that one out.”
“Oh, you do? I thought she was scamming me. Mages have such extensive knowledge.”
“Just comes from living a long life.”
Glim snorted. “Ha ha, I suspect you haven’t even lived half as long as me yet. Good grief.” He paused. “Anyway, even if we buy a lot of ingredients, I don’t think we’ll be able to try them all.”
“Why?” she asked. It was important to try lots of different things when experimenting. Even mages had to sift through the vast amount of knowledge they had about the world and figure things out through trial and error. There was no other way.
“We’re limited,” he explained. “I’m running low on unicorn horn already. At most, we have enough left to compound it about fifty more times.” He put his head in his hand at this bleak number.
The old woman shouted, “Didn’t I tell you I’d have a bit of that in half a year?!”
“I can’t wait that long!” he shouted back. “Lily doesn’t have that long left.”
“Then we have to make the medicine within those fifty attempts,” Shannon said, patting Glim’s back. “That’s what I’m here for.” There was no point in her working with him and saving money if she couldn’t help him and Lily.
Glim looked at Shannon, let out a short breath, and squeezed his eyes shut. “You’re right,” he said after a moment. “And that’s what I intend to do, of course. I’m counting on you.”
“Leave it to me! I’ll show you what a mage can do.”
“Oh, that’s right.” Glim looked at her with an expression she couldn’t quite read. “Can I trust you about that other thing?”
“Other thing?”
“You know...the clinical trial. Even if we’re able to test successfully on a mouse, in the end, we have to do clinical trials on people to complete the formula. Otherwise, we won’t have proof of its effects on humans. But I do have an idea for what you could do...”
His words reminded her of her original goal. “Oh yeah, of course! Don’t worry. I’m fully prepared.” She flashed him a V-for-victory sign.
“Well, I suppose I have no choice but to believe you.”
They filled a bag with the ingredients they’d purchased, then escaped the shop before the old woman could coerce them into buying even more expensive products. They returned to the laboratory without delay and began compounding a new mixture. There were so many limitations that they had to keep in mind; between Lily’s deteriorating state and the dwindling supply of unicorn horn, there wasn’t much time left.
“We’ll combine your knowledge and my experience and start with several different mixtures,” Glim said.
“For sure. How about we begin by compounding the materials with a basic antidote?”
“Let’s!”
With practiced ease, Glim started mixing components together, beginning the trial and error process. Shannon executed her role as assistant well, advising Glim on appropriate herbs and introducing him to crude drugs, not to mention heading out to buy more materials and equipment when they ran out. Although Glim hadn’t known until Shannon told him that unicorn horn was poisonous, his ideas were already beginning to take shape; he was, after all, a brilliant doctor.
The compounding continued throughout the night. Shannon knew she wouldn’t make any money if she didn’t work.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Phew! The air tastes great up here.” Shannon extended her arms, stretching. She’d been stuck down in the basement for a long while, and even though she was still inside, the air felt fresh up on the ground floor. “Now then— Huh?”
She saw the little girl, Lily, out of the corner of her eye. Perhaps Lily had needed some air as well; the door to her treatment room was open.
“Are you awake, Lily?” Shannon called.
Lily turned her head toward the doorway. “Ah, um...yes. You’re Ms. Shannon, right?”
“Yup yup. Glad you remembered my name.” Quietly, Shannon entered the room and approached the edge of the bed. Even if she were trying to be nice, Shannon wouldn’t have been able to call Lily’s face anything but pale. Well, at least Lily didn’t seem to be in pain at the moment.
“I remembered because no one but the doctor comes to see me,” Lily replied.
Speaking of which, Shannon hadn’t seen anyone else around except Glim. It didn’t seem like anyone even came close to the house. Who was Glim to Lily in the first place, anyway? “Is Mr. Glim your dad?”
Lily giggled. “No. The doctor is my mom’s childhood friend.” She paused. “I think my mom brought me here and asked him to take care of me.”
“Oh, I see. So that’s how you two know each other.” There seemed to be something peculiar going on with Glim, but Shannon had decided not to get herself too involved in all that. “And that’s how you came to this faraway house to get treated.”
“Yes. It’s been almost half a year. Not even my mom can come visit me...but I guess that’s to be expected.” Lily cast her gaze downward sadly.
“That sounds hard. But we’ll have the medicine ready soon. You just have to hang in there a little longer.”
“Okay, thank you. By the way, Ms. Shannon, are you really a mage?”
“I sure am.” She pulled out her wand and held it up as if she were about to cast a spell.
Lily’s eyes sparkled. “That’s amazing! And you’re traveling, right?”
“Yup, here and there.”
“Whoa, that’s so cool! I want to go on a journey too...”
“You do?”
Lily’s nod was reserved, but Shannon could tell that inside, she was excited. “I look out my window all the time.”
“Well then, where do you want to go first once you’re better?”
“Right now...” Lily paused, thinking. “I want to go to the festival. It’s really close, I know, but it seems fun.” She looked out the window, her expression blank but her eyes spilling over with envy.
Saluena was a rare disease of unknown origin, and it spread through body fluids. Therein lay the problem: trying to care for bedridden patients caused the number of infections to increase. Of course, the original saluena epidemic had occurred over three hundred years ago. Shannon hadn’t been in that region at the time, but she remembered how prevalent it had been.
Back then, patients infected with saluena had been abandoned in deserted houses deep in the mountains and left to die. This inhumane approach had rapidly reduced the number of people infected with the disease. Without the source of the infection, saluena had no way to spread.
For that reason, very few doctors or physicians ever tried to find a basic cure. There had been few people to cure left in populated areas, and once the sick were disposed of, the strange disease had been mostly eradicated. No one was willing to risk exposure to pursue a cure.
“I’m sure you’ll get to go next year,” Shannon said.
“I hope so.” Lily smiled. It seemed Shannon had given her some peace of mind.
Shannon took out a necklace with a goddess-shaped pendant that she had obtained a long time ago. Slowly, she moved her hands toward the back of Lily’s neck.
“W-Wait, don’t get too close!” Lily protested, squinting and ducking her head. Then she seemed to notice the weight on her neck. “What’s this?”
“I’m pretty sure the pendant is of a goddess of journeys. I don’t wear it, so you can have it.”
“Th-Thank you so much...” Weakly but happily, Lily touched the necklace. “I’ll take good care of it.”
“This means you’re sure to go on a journey. Look forward to it.”
“I will. But...” Unsurprisingly, Lily’s expression turned dark. She must have felt what her own body was telling her—that she didn’t have much longer.
Even so, Shannon said, “We’ll get you fixed up soon, so take it easy. For now, plan on going to the festival next year.”
“Okay.” Lily smiled faintly. “I’ll look forward to it.”