MAZE - The Endless Quest

Hera met the Harmony Guardians, the humans, and Elistrae in front of a sandwich shop close to the dungeon. They greeted each other, but soon, it was clear that someone was missing.

“Where is Leo?” the Empress turned to Sophia.

“He’s not coming,” she replied.

“What? Why not?” Bonnie stopped talking with Skyler and turned around.

“He says he doesn’t want to leave his uncle alone. He’s been sleeping there ever since we got here,” Paige explained.

Everyone nodded, with sad expressions, but Hera just frowned, “So he intends to be by Marco’s side the entire time?”

“That’s what it sounded like,” Fernando nodded.

“Yeah. No. That’s not going to work. I’ll be right back,” Hera marched off towards the hospital. Nimbus saw her intensity and quickly turned into a mount for the Ophidianite.

“Wait. Hera, what is so wrong about him staying there?” Neria grabbed the Empress’ shoulder.

“Staying there? Nothing. Doing only that will end up messing him up. I’m not going to force him to come here, but the sooner I talk with him the better,” as she replied, the triton just nodded and let her go. Hera quickly jumped on top of Nimbus, “I’ll be back in 15 minutes. With or without him.”

Before anyone else could say sometime, they took off. Nimbus already had a permit to fly in the city and they arrived at the hospital in just a couple of minutes. Hera quickly went inside, the staff already recognized her, which allowed the Empress to move quickly. She reached the intensive care unit, where two doctors and three nurses were on call at all times to take care of the ten patients in less time than it took for one of the staff to fill up a glass of water. The people here were all beyond what normal healing could do, and the ones taking care of them focused so much on the medicinal way of healing that they couldn’t help in the front lines, not as much as other healers. Once in front of the door to Marco’s room, she knocked.

“Come in,” Leo’s voice came from the other side.

“Hey,” Hera walked in and approached the bed, “Any changes?”

“Not really. He’s just sleeping,” Leo looked up to Hera, “Did you come here to ask me to join the dungeon too?”

“That too, but I wanted to ask you a question first. What do you want to do?”

“What?”

“What do you want to do?” Hera asked again.

“About?”

“Your life. You wanted to find you uncle, and you did. What comes next?”

Leo frowned, “Next? You talk as if this is over. Look at him, Hera. This is far from being over.”

“Yes, his struggle is not over. But your part in this is Leo. You are not a healer. You can’t do anything to help him. Not anymore. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be by his side, but are you going to spend the next months, or years, here? What if the Alliance solves the Soldier of Strength issue and they decide to stop paying the bills for this place before Marco gets better?”

“I have money, Hera,” Leo replied in a cold voice.

“Do you? Or is your money stuck in a human bank that you couldn’t access right now?” Leo looked away and Hera continued to talk, “I’m not saying you need to leave today, but you can’t treat this like a run to the ER because he got a bad case of the flue. Where you spend a few hours, watch over Marco as he gets some medicine through an IV and then goes back. This will take a long time.”

“Hera- “ Leo was about to reply but was cut off.

“I’m not just saying this. Let me tell you a quick story. My grandfather died before I was born. He had a stroke, and then he deteriorated a lot. It got to the point of having to amputate his leg due to some complications and it ended up with him dead. And that wasn’t a one day thing. It took months. My grandma was by his side the entire time. Every day she would sleep in the hospital, wake up there and refuse to leave. It got to the point where the nurses offered her to take a shower in their locker room because she wouldn’t go home for any reason. That went on for almost six months. She watched as the love of her life struggled to survive and declined with each day. In the end, my grandfather died. Grandma Triss said he passed peacefully in his sleep, but according to my dad, that wasn’t the case.”

“Hera, what’s the point of that story? Are you trying to say my uncle is going to die, so this doesn’t matter?” Leo frowned.

“No, the story is not over. Can I finish it?”

Leo crossed his arms with a long sigh, “Fine.”

“Ok, so. After all that, what do you think happened to my grandmother? After one of the worst moments of her life, how was she?”

“Sad?” Leo had a confused expression.

“Well, yeah. Of course, but what else?”

“I don’t know. Tired? Frustrated?”

“Yes, yes. And sick. Staying with my grandfather took a tool in her body. And that illness destroyed her. Her knees and back were never the same, neither was her health. She wasn’t old back then, but she wasn’t young either. Grandma Triss went from someone who was always walking around and doing things to someone who couldn’t move all that much. My dad even had to cook for her for a long time. And all of this is not even mentioning the depression that followed. It took her years to get some of the light back in her life. She even told me that I was a big part of that, even if I wasn’t the first grandkid she had,” Hera finished the story.

“What’s your point?” Leo groaned.

“My point is. During all that time, my grandma acted as if she was going to stay in the hospital for just a couple of days. Even when her body was telling her to rest. Can you imagine what it would be like if my grandfather survived? He would have gone back home to a sick wife while trying to cope with the changes. And he would have to accept that his wife was only that sick because of him. Even if people say it’s not his fault, that would be in his mind. To be clear, I’m not saying my grandma should’ve just waited at home. I understand why she stayed with my grandfather. And I’m not saying she should’ve left him there and moved on with her life, but if she found some balance, what happened after might not have been so bad,” Hera reached out to hold Leo’s hand, “We’ve found your uncle. He is not ok, but he is safer now. You need to take care of yourself, too. Don’t just spend the next whoever many months inside this hospital room beating yourself up for not finding him sooner.”

“I… I’ll keep that in mind. But I’m still not going to the dungeon with you all today.”

Hera shook her head, “That’s fine. We can handle things. But take care of yourself. If you need, take it slow. Go to the cafeteria to eat. Walk around the garden in the back. Also, did you even check on Tiger ever since we arrived?”

“I… didn’t,” Leo looked away.

“So go see him. I know the stables here looked really good, but I’m sure he would rather be with you. And if you want company, just ask. I’m sure Bonnie and Alex will be up for it, too. Not to mention your crew. We can go eat, get some drinks. I can even be your wingman. Check out the snake lady is a great icebreaker.”

That line made Leo chuckle, “Yeah.. I got to agree with that one.”

“Just take care of yourself, ok?”

“I will. Thanks for looking out for me.”

Hera smiled, “Anytime,” she started walking away but stopped before reaching the door, “I have to check one thing, but maybe if he turns into an Ophidianite all of this would be gone. I mean, I basically went inside a cocoon and I’m pretty sure I was soup at one point during the process. So all we need to do is make him able to wake up to accept that offer and take him to a doorway.”

Leo glanced back to his uncle, “Do you think that would work?”

“I don’t know… it was just an idea. I’ll double check. Maybe that is an option.”

“Ok, but this would be up to him, and I don’t think we can explain what you are properly before he wakes up.”

Hera nodded, “I know, and I’ll check with Alex, but I do have a couple of skills that might help and they would be related to doing this. Racial skills, I mean. I’ll check with her and come back to you later today, ok?”

“How many racial skills do you have?” Leo frowned.

Hera paused, “Everyone is waiting for me, I should go,” she stepped out of the room and just as she was closing the door, she added, “I have eight.”

“YOU HAVE EIGHT RACIAL SKILLS?” Leo’s voice echoed, but Hera was already leaving the place.

She quickly flew back to the sandwich shop, where everyone was still waiting for her. Once she landed, Neria passed a drink for the Ophidianite, “How did things go?”

“Is he coming?” Paige asked.

“No, he’s staying there. But he said he’s going to think about not being there all the time. And I think he meant it.”

“Damn, how did you manage that? We tried talking with him and he just said no all the time,” Fernando asked.

“I told him a story about my grandfather and my grandma. But I think I only hit the mark when I asked about Tiger. He realized he left him in the stables ever since we got here,” Hera explained.

“Right. Why didn’t we think of that?” Sophie turned to her friends, but no one had an answer.

However, the subject wasn’t over as Alex froze and kept staring at Hera, “He still has that thing?”

“Thing? Tiger is a sweetheart!” Paige protested.

Alex shivered, “Nope. Don’t care. If we are running the dungeon, let’s just go,” she walked off, heading to the building where the dungeon was located in a hurry.

“What bit her?” Fernando asked.

“She hates frogs,” Bonnie replied while shaking her head, “At least she doesn’t freak out when we see one anymore. It was fine after Leo got Tiger, but we spent a while away from them. Then we had to deal with that a group that was aggressive and coming after us. I was the one that had to kill them while Alex just hid on top of a tree.”

“Really?” Vash started laughing.

“She would have hated the Kalandria Empire,” Skyler smiled.

“Did anyone enjoy the Kalandria Empire?” Roan groaned.

Vash was about to say something but the entirety of the Harmony Guardians started at him, stopping the harpy from uttering a single word about the subject. Everyone continue walking towards the dungeon as Bonnie gave everyone the run down the regular dungeon.

“I played it cool, but I’m a bit sad we didn’t get the extra reward for being the first to ever complete the new dungeon,” Elistrae said as they entered the building.

“Don’t worry. You wouldn’t be able to anyway,” Hera replied.

“What? I can gather a team large enough to beat it,” the elf huffed.

“No, I don’t mean that. When you make a dungeon, you can’t be the first one to enter it. Neither can be your descendants,” Hera explained.

“What do you mean?” Fernando turned to the Ophidianite.

“I made a dungeon before. It was a historical one, I think. About a griffon that terrorized a room and stopped any dwarf from harming its kind by using a legacy. Anyway, because I was a part of the events that led to the creation of the dungeon, I couldn’t participate in the first clear. The dwarves had the same issue with a different dungeon. Because the events in there happened with their entire civilization, and it happened only a few generations ago, everyone was too close to what happened and they couldn’t enter the dungeon. I’m guessing this is the same situation, even if it’s not a historical dungeon,” Hera explained.

“Oh, really? I didn’t know that,” Elistrae replied.

“Yeah, even though there are so many people around, those details about making dungeons seem to be hard to come by,” Hera continued to walk after Alex. She was curious about how Alex was able to affect this dungeon to such a degree. It was likely related to her legacy, but that created its own question. Could she do similar things using her legacy? Maybe this dungeon had the answers to that.