A snowstorm had picked up in the Ryuon region of Dezolis and the town was already covered in several feet of snow. Makeshift steel barriers had been put up over the buildings to protect them from the weather. Nobody was foolish enough to stay outside and no travellers were on the road; the few people who ever used the roads between the largely isolated Dezolisian towns had taken shelter in one of the many entrances to Skure mine, a smaller mining outpost, or at least a cave or large rock. The weather didn't really affect Lutz. It was nothing a Deban and a few Nafois couldn't handle.
As he wandered down the path, watching the snow fill the sky and wipe everything clean, leaving only a sparkling expanse of pure white, he wondered if Algol would ever know a fresh start. He also worried about Rolf's health in this extreme weather. Palmans were never really supposed to live on Dezolis. Motavia had been changed beyond recognition by the Palman attempts to colonise the planet so they could easily live on its surface but Dezolis remained as unchanging as a diamond, and as hard along with it. Now that Motherbrain was gone, Motavia would be free to return to its original state, the desert reclaiming its territory. He wondered if that was for the best. Palmans needed a place to live, now they no longer had Palma, but Algol could not afford any more extreme change.
Ultimately, though, it was out of his control. Algol would find a way to restore its balance. If it couldn't find a way on its own, it would give a way to the next Rolf to come along.
It was difficult to locate the doctor's surgery in the snow. The doctor quickly opened the door as narrowly as he could manage and pulled Lutz inside. The Esper helpfully dispersed the snow with a concentrated Foi before it could get near the equipment.
Rolf did not respond to Lutz's call. He was barely alive.
Lutz sat beside him and took his hand. Closing his eyes, he felt for Rolf's life energy. It was a flickering flame, barely alight at all, despite his hand burning with fever, the skin gaunt and drawn from the desperate energy that he threw against his illness. Rolf was fighting but it was a losing battle - it was a flame burning too fast and too bright, without the fuel to keep it going. Like an uncomfortable, cloying warmth, the sickness began to creep up Lutz's fingers. Succumbing to the instinct that all Espers possessed, he felt himself drawing the negative energy into his own body and channeling his own life force into Rolf's body. He tightly reined in the instinct; it would get him killed for nothing. He would never be able to supply enough energy on a one-for-one basis when it was draining this rapidly. Delving deep into his reserves of mental and physical energy, he began to draw upon more and more, merging it together into the raw form of thought acting upon matter, of information overwriting itself endlessly, a single wave of being and unbeing, where he held it without letting it loose.
"Excuse me," said a quiet female voice he recognised as Amy's, "Are you about to use Nasak?"
Lutz did not open his eyes or move. The simple distraction did not affect his concentration; he was a battle-trained mage. He had not expected Amy to be awake and about but he had expected there might be some interruption if someone saw him preparing for a powerful technique without warning.
"You mustn't. Rolf's my patient. I can use Nasak, if it comes to it," she said. By the tone of her voice, she would do so with less hesitation than he; it would simply be the logical extension of her duties as a medic who has sworn to save a patient. Unless there were deeper and stronger bonds involved by now; Lutz was not an expert in such matters and Empathy was one of the few psychic powers he didn't possess.
"Rolf will still need you later. It would be bad time to leave him," whispered Lutz.
"Millions of people will need you later," whispered Amy.
"I can help them without being there. You can't."
"You saved us all once, so we owe you a debt," she said, "And you're supposed to come back again in a thousand years."
"You paid your half when you defeated Motherbrain. Didn't Rolf tell you that part? And as for what's supposed to happen... we've all gone too far away from that now, so it's entirely our own fault, I'm afraid," a serene smile spread across his face as he began casting again. Amy yelled something at him and threw herself at him, casting Foi as she moved. Neither thrown body nor fireball hit him. He had cast Saner on himself before entering the town; he had been expecting an interruption.
"Nasak," he whispered. He released the sphere of energy and it expanded like a supernova until it enveloped his every sense. He surrendered himself to it.
Rolf woke up wondering why he was still alive, why there was so much yelling and why it was mostly Amy doing the yelling. He hoped she would calm down and not do anything drastic. She had been threatening to use Nasak on him yesterday.