The Wish Game

The Path to Recovery

I woke up with tremendous pain in my head and body. My vision was completely hazy and due to the pain, all that came out of my mouth was a groan. My eyes were filled with tears, even worsening my hazy sight.

A warm and comforting arm patted me on the forehead, causing me to forget all the pain for a moment. “Don’t worry, you’ll be all right.” I knew that voice, it was more comforting than my mother’s and belonged to my motherly figure here. “R…I…T…A…” I tried to speak her name but nothing but a groan came out.

The patting continued and sometime later, I could feel someone enter the room and say, “Rita, the healer’s here. How’s she?” That voice belonged to Mira, along with Rita was my guard. A third voice came along; it belonged to a stranger, “How’s she holding up?” Rita responded, “She’s in quite a pain but awake.”

The healer, probably the stranger performed some spells on me and the pain began to subside. Mira and Rita wiped my tears and helped me into a sitting position. My vision cleared and I was lying in my room.

Rita and Mira were beside me and the healer was sitting on the chair. My arms and legs were restrained in a splinter and Mira had to hold me to not let me fall. I couldn’t feel anything below my neck and I asked the healer, “What happened to me? I can’t feel any of my limbs.”

The healer gave me a stern look and said, “I used a spell to inactivate all of your nerves going up your neck, or else you’ll feel the same pain as you were feeling before. Anyways, do you even know what you did?” I thought hard but my mind left me at the most crucial moment.

“No, I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I replied and the healer sighed and asked, “Do you know exactly how you ended up so much beat?” I thought as far as my memory could go in that miserable state, “I was bound by some ice magic-user to a tree and his friends threw six fireballs at me.”

I stopped and looked around before continuing, “The entire tree fell with me and the next thing I remember was all busted lying on the ground. Why are you asking these?” The healer didn’t respond to my question and suggested, “I’ll teach your guards the pain-relieving spell. And I suggest you stay in bed for at least a month after healing is complete.”

He went out and Mira followed him while Rita laid me down on the bed and sat beside me. “Take some rest Aadhya. We can talk about your adventures in the showdown later.” The spell did relieve me of the pain but caused an irritating numbness in my body.

I sulked down to the inconvenience and Rita used her magic to darken the room and said, “Try to sleep a little. It’ll help you recover faster.” “Yeah, thanks,” I said and tried to sleep.

The next five days were agonizingly painful. Mira and Rita spent the whole day casting the pain relief and sleep-inducing spells to help me calm a bit. They took turns babysitting me and feed me as well.

“I feel very terrible and miserable.” I said forcing my arm to move but Mira stopped me immediately, “No, don’t. You’re already wrecked; now rest till you’re all healed up.” I responded with tears in my eyes, “But I don’t wanna. I just want to move out and do things I do normally.” I began crying and Mira tried her level best to comfort me.

Rita came in after an hour and found me sobbing while Mira was trying to comfort me. She came to my side and said in a calm motherly voice, “Why are you causing such a ruckus?” I continued to sob as I said, “This numbness is making me mad. I wanna do things I do normally.”

She thought while Mira complained, “I have been trying to convince her that it’s good for her only, at least she doesn’t feel the pain.” Rita smiled and said, “Do you know what had happened to you?” I was surprised and responded with a no.

“When you were brought to the healer, she detected broken bones in your arms, legs, and back as well. She told us not to tell you this because she thought it might scare you so much that you might not recover from the shock at all.” Rita said in a calm voice but those words hit harder than that fall. A back injury could easily mean that I might not be able to move my whole life.

“The monsters you created did great to protect you but also delayed the rescue teams. They had to attempt seven rescue missions and finally, they took eight wizards with them who engaged those earth monsters and their army as the rescue teams fetched you. That took two entire days.” Rita laughed and I began wondering, ‘How long was I asleep?’

Mira however, seemed to sense my question, “It has been ten days since the competition ended. You slept for entire three days after rescue.” “Yikes!!!” I gulped and the two giggled. “So…you said I even have a back injury, so do you think…” I couldn’t continue, even the thought of that made me want to cry.

Rita replied, “Well, all we know is that your back injury is not grave. It seems like your arms and legs took most of the fall damage, but it’ll still take at least another week before we can lower the pain-relieving spell. So stay put till that time.” I grumbled and lay back in the bed.

Seven more days passed in almost the same way, I kept complaining about my condition but Rita would momentarily lower the pain relief spell to make me quit my whining. But those two would be by my side always and helped me in almost every way possible.

Finally, the healer said after checking me up, “You should lower the spell’s intensity. She’s strong enough that she can use her hands now.” Rita nodded and began chanting. I could feel life flowing back into my arms but with that came a sudden surge of pain.

“Aaah!!!” I screamed and the healer waved her hand, indicating her to stop. “Is it tolerable?” she asked me and I took some deep breaths and said, “Yep, no problem at all.” “Good, try lowering it daily bit-by-bit so that she can get accustomed to it.” She told Rita and Mira before leaving.

“So, how are your arms?” Mira asked me and Rita added, “You satisfied now?” I looked at my arms still restrained to my chest by the cloth splinter. I could only lift them a bit but it caused a tremendous amount of pain trying to do that.

Of course, I couldn’t tell any of the two, or else, they’ll put that maddening numbness spell again. ‘I have to get used to this pain.’ I said to myself as I put a little smile on my face. The recovery magic I was under, hastened the rebuilding of my bones and everything around them but the pace was still slow considering the natural time it usually takes.

Later that evening, Rita was beside me helping me with some exercises to help with my arms. Mira came inside the room and Rita asked, “Weren’t you supposed to be outside?” Mira said, “He wants to meet her.”

“Who wants to meet me?” I asked and Rita smiled, “It’s not important. We’ll tell him to come later when you’re healthy again.” “No, this time he’s insistent. Miss Mineva’s there as well, so…” Mira said and I added, “I think I know who you’re talking about. Fine, I’ll meet him…” I tried to get off but Rita immediately pushed me back.

“Your legs are still numb. Don’t forget only your arms are out of the spell only partially that is.” She turned towards Mira and said, “Okay, bring him in.” Mira went out and Rita helped me in a sitting position and put pillows behind me for support.

Mira came in with the warden following her. Mineva was also behind him. The warden and Mineva sat on chairs beside me while Rita and Mira stood behind me. “Congratulations on your spectacular performance in the intraclass exams.”

“It wasn’t anything spectacular,” I said gloomily. The warden wasn’t anyone I liked, his presence always made me annoyed. So I wanted this conversation to be over with fast. But the warden smiled, “Don’t be so modest, you know you are placed 26th in terms of survival and 8th in terms of points.”

I sighed and looked down at my busted body. The warden continued, “You and the monsters you created killed 3 and maimed more than 20 competitors and now the Selected competitors come at 105 from 128.” “Does that mean?” I began and Mineva added, “Yes, all of the high order casualties occurred through your hands.”

The warden coughed and continued, “As I promised, you’ll be incorporated into normal classes. And after all, what we saw in the competition, you might’ve got greater potential that our instructors can tap into.”

The conversation was getting ugly and I was in no mood to continue this. “Sorry, but I am not interested in joining any classes. I’ll continue under Mineva’s mentorship. Thanks for your offer.” The warden stammered, “But, don’t you want to be with others. You can get so much benefit…”

“I told you my decision. And you can’t force me to join. If I am correct about the rules here, I entered the mentorship with mutual consent and I’ll withdraw after mutual consent. Because, I am already against it, the question is out of the box.” I said trying to clench my fists.

Mineva gave a little smirk and said, “I told you she wouldn’t agree. Plus, she has been trained differently so far than the class.” After hearing this, the warden gritted his teeth heavily. It didn’t take any strategic analysis to deduce that he was up to something.

He continued his mumbling about the pros of being in the class with my peers, further irritating me and stoking my already short temper. “I want you to reconsider your decision and rejoin the class.”

The statement finally snapped my fuse and I gritted my teeth in rage. “I’ve had enough of your tall tales. I told you my decision beforehand, I am not interested in studying with those losers. I am fine where I am.”

Before he could say anything, I grabbed the knife from the fruit basket and jumped on the warden. My body was completely numb; it was only the initial push that propelled me forward; if he just moved I would’ve missed completely.

But the warden just froze in place; I slammed into him and held the knife at his neck. “You’d better…” The door slammed open and three guards came barging in. They had a receiving crystal in their hands and were watching the inside through a transmission crystal.

“Nullify the pain relief spells.” The warden ordered as I pushed the blunt knife near his throat, though only I, Mira, and Rita knew it was blunt. The guards nullified the pain relief spells immediately.

Pain surged in my body as the nullification completed. The numbness of my limbs vanished as well but the pain was overwhelming. “Thanks for giving me back control,” I said with a smile that I was struggling to keep.

‘It’ll be painful but…’ I thought as I leaped towards the guards and quickly knocked them out before returning to the warden with the knife. “It was a bad call to have them nullify the pain relief spell. Now tell me, do we have an agreement?” I asked pointing the knife towards him.

The warden was perspiring heavily as he looked at Mineva, Rita, Mira, and then me. None of the trio would stop me at this point and he knew this. “Well, yes. We have an agreement, you can continue under Mineva’s tutelage.” “Good!” I said pulling back the knife and going back to the bed.

Rita again cast the pain-relieving spell, bringing back the numbness and the pain vanished. Meanwhile, Mineva brought the three guards back to consciousness and the warden left with them. As they left and Mineva closed the door, I sighed in relief “Aah…It was heck painful.”

I whined as the three giggled, “Why’d you do that stunt?” Mineva asked and I replied, “Oh, he was annoying. I lost my cool and the numbness wasn’t helping either.” I smiled and she got up, “Thanks for trusting me. Now, we can’t slack off till you recover, so take this and study on your enemies.”

She passed a strange crystal to me and continued, “It has the fighting styles of every participant in the competition, including yours. Try to learn something about their weakness and ways to exploit them.”

“Mineva!” I called her out as she was about to leave. We were in a mentor-mentee relation but I was allowed to call her out casually. She paused and turned back, “What happened?” “I want to learn more about ‘Magic Resistance’.”

She nodded and replied, “Okay. The next thing we’ll work on will be Magic Resistance. But before that, focus on healing.” She left the room leaving me in the room with Rita and Mira who performed a sleep-inducing spell to help me sleep after the outburst of pain in that stunt.