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JOANNA’S home was in an area that was just on the edge of being considered shady, without quite stepping over.
Space was limited with the city being surrounded by the walls, so the citizens lived in multifamily buildings. There were some buildings that even had lifts, but those were rare. In general, the higher floors were cheaper because of that.
Lushera walked up the apartment building’s stairs to the fifth floor, the walls smelling of mold and the paint peeling off.
“Kate, I’m home!” called Joanna.
“Welcome ho—”
They entered the small room. There were two beds next to each other, a girl in one of them. She sat up, her eyes growing wide at the sight of their strange guests. Her skin was so pale it was nearly see-through. She looked a little older than Lushera. Well, Lushera’s outside appearance anyway.
“Mom, who are these people?” Rather than being on edge, she seemed overwhelmed.
Lushera stepped forward to make the introduction. It was a special situation, but it still fell within the role of a manager. “Hello, it’s nice to meet you, Kate. My name’s Lushera. I’m a member of the adventuring party, the Golden Helm. And this is, uh…my mom.”
She was an adventuring manager who traveled with her mom. It was an abnormal introduction since she only said what was okay to be said.
“I met your mom while she was looking for medicine,” she continued. “I gave her this, something I just happened to have. It’s a red dragon scale.” Lushera brought out the fragment of life force, as red as flame.
“A…red dragon scale…?” Kate looked at it in shock, covering her mouth in the same way her mother did, just with a thin, bony hand. “How much did it cost?”
“Kate, sweetie,” said Joanna, gently reprimanding her for asking the price, even if it was only a hesitant question. It might be rude.
“I just want to help. I feel there’s a bit of a connection here. Basically, what I’m saying is…it’s free,” said Lushera, trying to be as gentle as she could to put Kate at ease.
This was part of being an adventurer too. Sometimes you did jobs not for money, but for society, for people. This wasn’t for nothing though. Adventurers with heart were the ones society rooted for, the ones who became famous.
“Joanna, do you have a pestle and mortar? And could you boil some— Actually, cold water should be fine,” said Lushera.
“Of course, I’ll go get it right away!” Joanna went into the small kitchen to the side of the small room.
Then, after they watched Joanna leave and they heard sounds of her rummaging through the shelves, Kate whispered quietly, “Um, I’m sorry, Lushera? Could you come here?”
Lushera did.
“Take the scale and go, please.”
“What…?”
It took some time before Lushera processed what Kate said. She looked straight at Lushera, her eyes gentle. They were eyes that had long watched their own death approach, a gaze that affected even seasoned adventurers.
“If you really insist…give it to my mom after I die. It’s got to be worth a lot, right? If you do that…she can buy herself something to eat. Something nice, not just the stale bread they sell at the end of the day…” She sounded meek, even submissive, which contrasted with the steadiness of her tone.
“Why would you say that…?”
“I can’t do it anymore. My mom works herself to the bone for me. She’s taken out loans, but she’s always smiling in front of me… She’s happy just because I’m alive, but I…”
Lushera gasped in realization, for more than one reason.
Kate continued. “Will this one scale make me better so that my mom never has to worry about me again? If not, it’s all pointless. It just means my mom will keep suffering for longer. I want her to be free…”
A single tear fell on the sheets, crumpled in Kate’s grip.
She would never be able to say these things to her mom. What she said was the unfiltered truth, only shown because Lushera was someone from the outside. What Kate wanted was a quick and a painless death. A parting that would satisfy her mother after her long, arduous battle. She wanted that to come as soon as possible.
“Pretty sure you’ve paid me back by now. You don’t have to worry about me. Go somewhere, live free. I’ll decide how I die.” Lushera heard a pleasant, low, sad voice in her mind. Her throat tightened and she couldn’t get any words out.
“No. That no good.”
Lushera turned back to look at Kaphal, she spoke in her faltering human language while Lushera was as still as a statue.
This doll, the incarnation of a dragon of fire, knelt on the edge of the bed and took Kate’s frail hand in her own. “You special thing to Joanna. You throw away yourself, you throw away Joanna’s special thing. Protect special thing with everything. It not…suffering.”
Her emotions came through even though she wasn’t speaking in Draconic. She had lost her real daughter before she was born. She took in Lushera, then dedicated everything to protecting her. That was why she understood how Joanna felt.
“But…but what do I do then? Even if it doesn’t hurt her to do it, if she keeps going like this, someday she’ll just…wear herself down to nothing…”
“Then, the first thing you need to do is tell her,” Lushera said, wiping away the tears that nearly spilled from her eyes. “Tell her it makes you sad to see her going through so much, in the same way it would make her sad to see you die. Maybe she hasn’t noticed, she hasn’t realized…” Those words were the confession of a fool who hadn’t realized that very thing themselves.
“Oh, there it is! It must have gotten pushed to the back because I haven’t used it in so long.” Joanna came back in with a somewhat large and old mortar and pestle. She stopped in her tracks, taken aback by the emotions in the room, realizing they weren’t normal. “Oh… What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” said Lushera. “Kate was actually just telling us how much she loves you.”
“What? I—”
“Aha… Thank you, Kate. I love you, too, sweetie.” The creases at the corner of Joanna’s eyes deepened as she smiled and hugged Kate.
Kate seemed uncertain of what to do, both embarrassed to be treated like that in front of guests, but also not wanting to push her mom away. Lushera could almost feel her emotions as her own. Maybe it was more accurate to say she sympathized with her.
“Thank you for the scale, Lushera,” said Kate.
“Hm? …You’re welcome.” They nodded to each other, Kate’s expression softening slightly.
“So, I guess adventurers call people by their given name. Like, you haven’t been using our family name. You call us ‘Joanna’ and ‘Kate,’” Kate observed.
“Oh, does that bother you?”
“No, it’s just that I’m always in the house, so I never have anyone call me by my name other than my mom. It feels a bit odd.”
“Guild receptionists refer to all adventurers by their given name. There are a lot of active adventurers using trade names or fake names and don’t have surnames. That’s why it’s normal for people to use given names when doing anything related to adventuring,” explained Lushera.
Kate gently brought her hands to her chest, like she was putting something precious in there for safekeeping.