chapter twenty-one
~ descent ~
"She's lost six pounds in the last week."
A blonde brow rose in surprise, "I thought you just said that her fundal height measurement has increased."
"It did," Conrad said as he took a long look at the chart. "It increased by another one and a half centimeters. The seedling is fine, she's growing at the rate I expect her to."
Knives reached out and took the chart from the doctor's hands, then frowned after a few moments. "So Meryl's body is at the point where it can no longer support the growth of the seedling."
"That's right," Conrad said as he pushed his hands into his pockets and sat on the edge of the desk. "All of her recent symptoms can be traced to that, including the bleeding from the rashes on her back."
"What about the dynamicytes?"
"I figured you would ask about that," Conrad said wryly. "So I took a sample early this morning. The final results won't be in until tomorrow morning, but her last sample indicated that there was an increased number present in her blood and they still appear dormant."
"What about your theory? The one you told me about last week?"
"Yes, wellI still cannot explain Meryl's relative good health at this stage, but I no longer think that the seedling is metabolizing the dynamicytes. If she was, there would be less dynamicytes in Meryl's blood rather than more."
The doctor shook his head and smiled a bit, "It's really quite amazing. Six months ago, I expected Meryl to be on life support by now. I figured that we'd be preparing to deliver the seedling by Cesarean section by now, too. Yet, she keeps putting these spins on all my theories. Every day that she is able to carry that seedling increases the chances that it will be born problem free."
"Is there anything you can do to help Meryl? To increase her chances?"
"Aside from making her more comfortable these last few days? No, I don't think so. It's out of my hands. I fear anything I would do to try to help Meryl may end up hurting the seedling."
Knives flipped though the file once more, rereading the various measurements and test results as Conrad stood by. After several minutes, the plant glanced up at the human with an annoyed expression, "Go."
As the human exited, Knives made himself comfortable as he continued to mull over twenty-eight weeks worth of measurements, observations and test results and tried to make sense of it all. Knives was no expert in human physiology, but he knew she wasn't reacting the way they had anticipated a human to react. Nor was Meryl reacting as a plant was expected to react. She was uncharted territory, an unknown variable in Knives' equation.
The free-born plant pushed his chair away from the desk and turned toward the window behind him, watching the leaves sway in the wind. Noon was quickly approaching and Knives wanted to chat with his brother again. Though Vash still insisted on being stubborn and shortsighted, it was good to have him near. Knives suspected that Vash was beginning to see things from his point-of-view, only his devotion to Rem kept him from admitting to it.
That long-dead human kept him from many things. Knives never thought she would continue to haunt them both over a century after her death.
Folding his arms over his chest, Knives briefly considered telling his brother everything, even if it upset him. When Knives had a difficult time dealing with a puzzle as a child talking to Vash often helped clear his mind enough to look at the situation with a new pair of eyes. Vash wouldn't have the answers Knives needed, but the distraction could be helpful.
Then again, talking to Vash could be enough to send Knives into a frustrated fury that prevented him from thinking rationally for hours. His brother was capable of doing both.
The sound of the door being pushed open with too much force caused Knives to spin around in his chair, a look of murder in his eyes for being interrupted so rudely. When he turned and saw a very flustered Zazie, all sparks of anger immediately melted away.
"What happened?" — "Where's Conrad?" they both asked at the same time.
Knives stood and peered down at the humanoid, waiting for her to answer his question first.
"She's Meryl's not waking up. She's just laying there totally unresponsive. I got her to open her eyes, but that's it." Zazie looked around the room, "Where is Conrad?"
Knives was already making his way out the door and toward Meryl's suite before Zazie finished her question. The hive followed him part way down the hall before Knives called over his shoulder, "Go find him. Now!"
"But, where..?"
When Knives entered Meryl's room, he found her laying on her side in bed. The covers were partially pulled back and haphazardly surrounding her. Eyes closed, skin pale, Meryl looked like death warmed over. He touched her forehead then grabbed her hand, noting the coolness of her flesh. Knives frowned. Was it finally time to put her on life-support? Would they have to remove the seedling early?
The free-born plant leaned over the human and saw a growing pair of blood stains on her back. He pulled back the collar of her shirt, revealing a narrow view of her shoulders and back.
This was bad. Blood was freely oozing from her pores. Lots of it. Knives knew the bleedings often coincided with increased activity of the seedling, but not always...
Could it be that the seedling was distressed?
Concerned Knives let his eyes rest on the swell of her belly and quickly unbuttoned her shirt, exposing her skin. He knew from previous bleedings that when the seedling was very active, one could see it moving within from the outside. Meryl's flesh would stretch with every sudden thump or exaggerated turn from the seedling within. More often than not, that internal movement meant pain for Meryl, though she did her best to ignore it.
Several seconds passed by as he watched and all appeared to be calm, the only detectable movement was the rise of fall of Meryl's chest as she breathed. Knives knew that just because he could not see the movement didn't mean that the seedling was not active. Laying his hand on her abdomen, Knives expected to feel the familiar flutter of the seedling moving; instead he felt an unusual pull compel him.
Brows creased, Knives focused on the pulling sensation. The seedling was still too young to be able to communicate; nevertheless, the pull he was feeling was clearly coming from her. His interest piqued, Knives gave into it a little. He pushed a trivial amount of his energy down his arm and out of his hand, curious to know how the sensation would change.
A soft groan and the sudden twitch of Meryl's hand caught Knives' eye. He immediately stopped the flow of energy and was quickly bombarded with primitive demands for more as the seedling moved beneath his hand. Knives watched Meryl for several seconds, waiting to see if she would awaken before turning back to the swell and the turning seedling within. With great care, Knives gave into the feeling once more, this time allowing a greater amount of energy flow out of him.
Meryl did not visibly react as she did before, but Knives kept a watchful eye on her as he fed energy into her body. The demand for more energy began to lessen as the movement under his hand slowed. Knives felt pleased to see Meryl's face return to a healthy color and the rise and fall of her chest increase as her breathing became deeper. Encouraged that he could actually do something to increase her chances for survival, Knives let more energy flow out of him. After a few moments, Meryl's eyes fluttered open as the sound of footsteps filled the room.
Hazy violet eyes blinked at him with uncertainty as they focused. Her surprise was evident when she realized Knives' hand was resting comfortably on her exposed belly, filling her with a warmth she'd never felt before.
Conrad came into view and she felt her skin crawl from the way he was looking at her. He smiled at her with a strange gleam in his eyes when he noticed her scrutiny of him. A spark of annoyance flared and died in a matter of seconds. It was difficult to feel angry when she felt such warmth flowing though her. The sensation was quite pleasant.
She looked at Knives' hand on her belly and blushed deeply. Violet eyes looked up at free-born plant with questioning eyes, "Knives...? What... what are you doing?"
* * *
Corinth of the Cliffs was Mecca to the members of the Body. Every cell felt obligated to visit the small village at least once in their lifetime for worship and fellowship. It was not a requirement of the faith, but it was a highly encouraged practice.
Corinth itself was relatively small with a population of a little over a thousand people. There was no plant in the village, no large buildings, hospital or sheriff. A clueless wanderer could very easily pass by Corinth and not even know it was there. It existed in pure isolation in an area of the planet most people considered hostile to life. Moreover, that specific area of the planet was hostile to life. It was the desert of the desert, yet the village somehow thrived.
Milly was in quiet awe of the village the moment Wolfwood pointed to a distant cliff face and said, "That's it."
"What?"
"There," he pointed again. "In the cliffs. They don't call it 'Corinth of the Cliffs' for nothing you know."
Milly paused in her walking to peer at the cliff face, searching for familiar white washed buildings or a flash of light from a ray of sunshine bouncing off a window. After straining her eyes for several seconds she turned back to her companion, "I don't see anything."
"You just don't know what you're looking at," he said with a smile as he motioned her to start walking again. "It's there. You don't see it because you're looking for the wrong things. The village is kind of built into the cliff."
Milly looked again and pressed her lips together as she studied the landscape. "It's in the cliff?"
"Mm-hmm. Actually, if you want to get technical about it, it's behind it."
"Behind it?"
"Yeah, there's a tunnel you have to walk through first that leads to the village." Wolfwood smiled again, "You'll just have to see it."
"They must have a lot of ancient technology and a healthy plant to be able to do all that in a place like this."
"Oh, no. They don't have a plant. That would be blasphemy," Wolfwood said in a grave tone. "When we get into town you have to watch what you say Milly. This isn't like any place you have ever been to before. These people will not hesitate to kill you if they suspect you to not be one of them. You can't say stuff like that, even in passing."
"But you said the other night that they would tell Legato that we're coming. Won't they be suspicious of us right away?"
"I'm pretty certain that I can trick them for a while," Wolfwood said with a smile as he patted his breast pocket. "You just need to start thinking like a plant worshipper and forget everything you know about the way things are normally done."
* * *
Milly bit her lip to keep from yelping as her foot was stepped on once again. Wolfwood glanced over his shoulder at her when she suddenly squeezed his hand. He could only manage a quick look of sympathy before turning his attention back to navigating the two of them through a thick mass of people.
Hundreds of people surrounded them on all sides as they tried to make their way through the tunnels. Wolfwood had been shocked speechless when he saw the amount of people occupying the main tunnel leading into Corinth. The sight sent a cold chill down his spine and he hesitated.
"What's wrong?"
Wolfwood's brows furled together as he peered inside the cave. "There's... I've never seen this many people here before," he whispered. "I've been to this place more times than I can count and I've seen maybe ten... twelve people in this cave at any one time. This is unreal."
Milly looked back at the crowds. People were packed in together shoulder to shoulder and barely moving. It was enough to make anyone feel overwhelmed with claustrophobia. "Is this bad? Should we go back?"
"N-no. I'm certain the guards have seen us by now. If we turn back, they'll get really suspicious and investigate. We have to go in."
Wolfwood grabbed Milly's hand and lead her into the cave, "Stay close and remember what I told you. I'm Chapel and you're Miss Sarah Jacobs now, remember that, Sarah."
Over an hour later, Milly was starting to limp from having her feet stepped on so much. The air inside of the cave was oppressive and difficult to breathe. The insurance agent squeezed Wolfwood's hand tighter as she worked to keep up with him and tried not to stumble over anyone's feet. She didn't know how much more she could take.
"You doing all right?" Wolfwood shouted over his shoulder, the cacophony of voices echoed all around them. The noise was starting to make Milly's ears ring.
"Yeah, I'm okay."
He squeezed her hand fondly as he guided her through the cave, "We're almost out."
Milly said nothing as she pushed herself between groups of people, many of whom smiled at her happily as she went by. Their merriment was puzzling. People hugged each other, smiled, laughed and expressed words of joy. Had the situation been different, Milly would have sworn she was at a wedding. It was bizarre.
"Watch your step," Wolfwood called out just in time for Milly to glance down at the ground and realize she had already lost her balance.
A hand grabbed her arm, pulled her back onto the step and held onto her until she regained her balance. "Careful there," a friendly voice laced with an old earth accent said from behind.
Milly turned toward the voice while still gripping Wolfwood's hand and smiled, "Thank you."
The man smiled at her and nodded, his brown eyes giving Milly a feeling of warmth. The lines around his eyes deepened as his smile grew, "I haven't seen you here before. Are you new?"
"Y-yes. Chapel brought me," she said as she nodded toward Wolfwood.
At the mention of his name, Wolfwood leaned forward and stuck his free hand out at the stranger. "Pleased to meet you..?"
"Keegan Weir," the stranger said as he shook Wolfwood's hand. "And the pleasure's all mine."