Chapter 01

I jerked awake, and as soon as I had, a bunch of hands grabbed me and held me down. Not exactly comforting.

"Whoa! Shiva! Easy there buddy, you took pretty bad spill. I don't think you should be moving around like that.

"What happened? Where am I?" I had this weird impression that I had been in my own bed, sleeping peacefully, but now I saw that I was actually in a hospital. Mom stood to my right, my cousin Devka was on my left, and my sister Jade was at the foot off my bed looking like she had been in the middle of talking with a man that must have been the doctor. 

"You were on a recon mission, they said your line snapped," Devka said, scratching nervously at his eye patch, the other purple eye seemed hesitant to look straight at me, "they just woke you up from surgery."

"Surgery?" My head did feel a bit hazy, the shock of being in a strange room had worn off and I was slowly becoming aware that every inch of my body hurt.

My sister stepped towards the foot of the bed, her white hair still tied back and stained in places with grease. She must have come straight here from the forge, not bothering to shower or change.

"Yeah, an experimental surgery," she said, "you got fully humpty-dumptied, bro."

It was a light hearted joke, but her eyes were two purple points drilling into mine. I had seen that look when she inspected swords, scrutinizing them for the slightest imperfection. She was trying to scrutinize me for the slightest imperfection right now.

They were worried, and trying to play it off.

"How experimental?" I asked.

The doctor cleared his throat, and stepped forward. She was an older woman with fire-red hair and white irises. When she reached up to brush a strand of hair behind her ear, I saw that she was wearing the old style wrist weights, instead of the newer, more fashionable ones that everyone else in the room was wearing.

"You're the first human patient," she said triumphantly, "it's a thesis that me and a colleague have been working on for our entire lives, and it only just received approval from the royal committee a month ago."

"How do you feel, sweetie?" Asked Mom. She was the only ones in the family who didn't have white hair, instead it was long and black, and that sometimes made her look a bit ominous. She had that look now.

"I'm fine, Mom," I said, "I'm just a bit dizzy."

"Well, they did rebuild your brain," said Jade. Devka shot her an incredulous look.

"They what?"

"A very experimental surgery indeed," said the doctor, stepping even closer. The way she was staring at me seemed a little too eager for my liking. I was pretty sure she was a bit more interested in her experiment than in my well-being.

"It shouldn't affect any of your memories," the Doctor said, excitedly, "that part of your brain was intact, you can still recognize everyone in this room, right? Just the fact that you're alive again is already a huge success."

"Alive again?" I decided I didn't like this doctor very much.

"Yes, we were able to resuscitate you, and print new brain matter to replace what you lost in the accident-"

There was a show, heavy, clang of bells from outside and we all feel silent for a moment. One clang, two clangs, three, then silence.

"Blackout imminent," Mom announced, like we were little kids who hadn't memorized the bell tables yet.

The door burst open and a nurse matched in with a clipboard.

"Ah, Doctor Wes, perfect. I have this room marked as 'equipment non-essential,' is that accurate?" The nurse said.

"Yes! The patient is completely stabilized!" the doctor turned her crazy eyes to the nurse.

"Neat-o, I'll be taking these batteries then," the nurse brushed Devka away like a fly, and started undoing the clips on the wall by my bed that held the batteries in place. The equipment all around me powered down with a snap. The only thing that had actually been connected to me had been a heart rate monitor anyway.

"The lights have their own mini-batteries," the nurse said, wheeling out the wall batteries, "they'll stay on for about an hour or so. Before then, all visitors are asked to leave so we can work. If you're caught in the dark, please follow the grow-in-the dark stripe painted on the hall to the exit."

The door swung shut behind her. 

The doctor turned back to us looking a bit put out.

"When will he be able to come home?" Asked Mom.

The doctor sighed.

"I want to keep an eye on him for another couple of weeks, for observation."

"And when will I be able to return to duty?" I asked. I pretended not to notice mom's nervous glance.

"When I determine that your arms are gonna do everything you tell them to do," snapped the doctor.

"Thank you so much!" Said Mom, as Jade shooed her and Devka out into a hallway that was busy with people preparing for the blackout.

"Sure thing, don't worry about it," grumbled the doctor, "just another day on the job, I guess, I only brought back the dead..."

She kept mumbling to herself as I watched her pull out a lighter and start lighting the candles around the room.