Namco owns the rights to the Tales of Xillia character.
I'm merely using this as an expressive way to 'correct' pairings, heehee.

Her head was buzzing and the inside of her ears felt weird, like someone had pushed something with a lot of pressure inside.
"Uh..." she flinched, waking more and slowly opened her eyes, a strip of light streaming through the gap of the closed curtains shone immediately into her face, so she closed her eyes, turned her head and opened them again, trying to focus on her surroundings and get rid of that strange white, shadowy imprint the sudden light had left in her line of sight.
"She woke up!" a soft, sweet voice gasped in delight. "Rowen, get the doctor."
"Yes, ma'am." another, deeper voice answered and there were footsteps, a door opening and more footsteps.
Blinking slowly, she saw the bedroom she was lying in with a calming, blue colorscheme on the walls and furniture. Turning her head a bit, she saw Driselle sitting in an armchair near her, looking at her with relief in her eyes. Wondering what was going on, she tried to sit up, but Driselle leaned forward, putting a gentle hand onto her shoulder and pushed her down a bit.
"Please, don't try to move until the doctor has looked you over, Milla."
"Mh... we made it out of Gandala? What about Nachtigal?" she asked, dimly remembering running after the guy in the Fort, but after she attacked him, she somehow couldn't quite remember the rest. Just a blur of movement, some loud noise and then darkness.
"We did." Driselle answered with a nod. "And Nachtigal left. But that's not important right now."
"Awake and talking. That's already a good sign." a stranger said upon entering the room. He was a tall, stout man with slight streaks of gray in his hair. Obviously, he was a doctor, with the tell-tale white coat and the stethoscope he had around his neck. Driselle vacated the armchair and the doctor sat in it, a small, tent-shaped briefcase on the floor next to it.
A doctor? For her? What for? She felt quite fine, the headache notwithstanding.
"Let's take a look how your head is, before checking the rest." the doctor said and shone a small flashlight into her eyes, moved a finger up and down and to the sides, telling her to have her eyes follow it and pressing her forehead, asking her to tell him if anything hurt with an unnecessary force. But it was nothing. His fingers on her forehead certainly hurt, but not to an extent that it felt worth mentioning. She had known worse moments, like the feeling of almost drowning when she lost The Four at Fennmont.
"Alright. You feeling any dizziness?" he asked and she shook her head slightly. "Then sit up, please, but slowly."
Using her arms and elbows, Milla pulled and sat herself up. The doctor had her lift her top a bit, using the stethoscope to listen to her chest and then asked her to turn, listening to her lungs. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Then he moved the cover off of her, letting it pile up at the end of the bed, and that's when Milla noticed for the first time that her legs were bandaged.
When had that happened? She remembered the thick, heavy ankle bracelets she, Elize and Driselle had on them at the Fort.
But she couldn't remember... had her legs gotten injured?
"Tell me, if anything feels funny." the doctor told her, though there was a strange undertone in his voice. He picked something out of his bag that looked like one of the tools Jude had used for cooking once, with a little, spiked wheel on it. Starting from her toes, he slowly ran it up her calves, past her kneecaps and up to her thighs, past where the bandages covered her legs. "...do you feel that?"
"No." Milla replied bluntly.
Twirling the tool in his hand, the doctor pushed his thumb into her thigh and held it there, putting pressure onto it.
"Nothing?"
"Nothing." she repeated in the same voice.
The doctor seemed concerned.
"Can you move your legs?" he asked.
Wondering what a strange question that was, Milla frowned. She had moved her legs for 20 years, of course she could. But when she tried to actually do so, nothing happened. Even if she forcefully thought or told her to brain to move her legs, they just lay there on the bed, bandaged and with a red circle on her thigh that came from the doctor's thumb's imprint. Confused, Milla leaned forward and slapped her flat hands onto her kneecaps. There was no reaction. Not that she had expected one from that.
She could hear Driselle gasp lightly in a corner of the room. The doctor told her to turn, lifting her legs for her and made her sit on the bed, with her legs bending over the edge. Grabbing a tiny hammer, he knocked it a few times against each kneecap. Again, her legs didn't move, didn't twitch and gave no reaction at all. The doctor grumbled, mumbling to himself under his breath.
"Doctor..." Driselle asked, obviously worried. "Are they paralyzed?"
"Yes. Completely." he answered. "From toe to thigh. Maybe even her waist. Please, lie down again and turn on your side."
Following his order, Milla did so and he used the little wheel again, this time going to the top of her thigh and further.
"There." Milla said suddenly, turning to look over her shoulder slightly. "I feel that."
The little wheel was just at the part that changed from hip to leg. The doctor mumbled again and put the cover back on her.
"I'm sorry, but your legs are completely paralyzed. The only upside I can see, is that it isn't up to your waist."
Paralyzed and completely? The words didn't make sense. Her legs had worked for her life up to now, so why shouldn't they do so now? That was a silly idea, anyway. Legs didn't just stop working, after all. They had no mind of their own, nor were they fickle in any way. While she was wondering why this could happen, the doctor talked in a low voice to Driselle and left.
"Milla. Let me open the window, some fresh air will do you good." Driselle said, moving to the other side of the bed and opening the curtains and opened the window, letting the sun shine into the room.
"Driselle." Milla said, turning her head towards her. "What happened?"
The young woman flinched, her hand still on the curtain clawing into the fabric a bit. She was visibly shaking, trying to think of a way to tell her what happened, though she didn't know all the details herself, having only seen the aftermath. Taking a deep breath, Driselle steadied herself and searched for simple, but right words.
"I don't know all of it, but when we came out into the hall, you were unconscious and... y-your legs were all... mangled..." she stuttered, her mind remembering the horrible image of Milla lying on the ground, her boots torn and scorched in places, the skin on her legs burnt or bleeding. She pressed her lips together, like the memory made her nauseous. "But I think it was the ankle bracelets. Remember, Gilland said that they'd explode if we left the prison area... you ran off before we could open yours. They must have exploded when you chased after King Nachtigal."
"I see." Milla answered calmly, looking up at the white ceiling.

Milla sat up in bed and moved the cover off her legs, staring at them. They were looking just fine, actually, except for the bandages. And even those looked like one would expect bandages to look. Nice, cleanly wrapped in a methodical fashion that had the left one wrapped counterclockwise and the right one clockwise. The idea that they wouldn't move when she wanted them to still seemed impossible. Wanting to get up, Milla pulled herself to the edge of the bed and had to grab her legs to swing them over the edge.
She stared at her feet on the carpeted floor.
She didn't feel it.
Frowning, Milla dimly remembered a time several years ago, back in her shrine. She was very young, still a child and she remembered telling Undine how her foot was feeling numb after her latest meditation. Her foot had felt like it had been filled with cotton or some other fluffy material, but was now beginning to feel all tingly, like a lot of tiny, little needles were repeatedly shuffling inside her foot, stabbing her over and over. It had confused her. Undine, understanding and patient with her as always, explained that her foot had 'fallen asleep' and that the tingling was the foot waking up again.
Somehow, her legs felt similar to that numbness all those years ago.
"Wake up..." Milla muttered, remembering how moving around had caused the tingling to start up. So the same should happen now, too. It was logical. Telling her brain to make her legs move, to no avail, she stubbornly pushed herself off the bed with her arms and stood... feeling for a tiny second like she was floating, then her knees buckled and she slammed loudly onto the floor, feeling her elbows make uncomfortable contact with the carpet, scratching her up.
Footsteps hurried outside and the door was thrown open.
"Milla!" Jude gasped, looking concerned.
Obviously, he had been told about her condition and probably understood it better than she did. Jude came over to her and leaned down, putting her arms over his shoulders and his own under hers, pulling her up and helped her settle into an armchair that was standing nearby. Making sure she was sitting safely and comfortably, Jude straightened up.
"...how are you taking this?" he asked, his hands fiddling with each other awkwardly.
"What do you mean?" Milla asked bluntly.
"Huh? About your legs... not working."
Milla looked at an unspecific point on the carpet and frowned. She didn't understand his question. What was there to think about? It still didn't make sense to her for them to not do what they were supposed to. Perhaps she hadn't moved enough. If it worked on her foot years ago, then it should work on her whole leg, albeit with more work put into it, right?
"Milla...?" Jude said, seeing her look angrily at the floor. Having studied medicine, he understood the doctor well, even when he began to go off on a tangent full of medical terms that confused most of the people nearby, so he knew how bad the situation was for Milla right now. But he felt like she wasn't in the mood for any company at that point, so he thought it'd be best to leave her alone. "Milla, I'll leave you alone for now. But if you need anything, just... yell or something. I'll come and help you right away."
She nodded slightly, registering his words and he left the room, closing the door behind himself.
This was stupid!
She slapped her thighs a few times again, trying to wake her legs up. While she felt her palms reacting to the force of the hits, her legs were not reacting at all. Slowly, Milla put her hands onto the arms of the chair and gripped them tightly, pushing herself up into an almost standing position. She clenched her teeth. Her arms were shaking from holding her weight, her waist hurt from the strange position she was in and her legs... were just there. Not quite floppy, not quite stiff, they were turned and bent at a strange angle and trying to put any weight on them didn't work. Sighing loudly, Milla let herself fall back into the chair.
She felt exhausted from that little stunt.
Halfway lying in the chair, Milla let her eyes wander through the room. The flowers in the vase next to the bed were fresh, which somehow made her think that it was Driselle's little hobby to stock the house with them. She saw some birds on the windowsill, picking at it, looking for something. Finding nothing, they flew off and out of her sight.
Somehow, watching them, made her slowly realize what it meant.
Her legs... weren't moving. They were paralyzed and, given the doctor's tone of voice, it was permanent. There was nothing that could be done about this. She was left to being unable to stand, to walk or do anything with her legs without some form of assistance.
How stupid! How asinine!
Slamming her fist onto one of the chair's arm, she honestly felt frustrated about this. What a nuisance it was to her. She had things to do and this was just an inconvenience to happen. Annoyed, Milla pushed herself up again and immediately crumpled into a kneeling position on the floor. Hissing, she punched the chair again and began to crawl across the floor to the bed. The door opened a few moments later and Jude entered again, seeing her slowly making her way by way of her arms.
"Ah, Milla, let me give you a hand-"
"I can do this." she replied tensely.
"Milla, just-"
"I'm fine, Jude!" she snapped at him and made it to the bed, putting one arm onto it and pulled her upper body up, clawing her way across the width of the bed and dragging her legs behind her. Jude watched her, so intent on not asking for any help, and muttered a low apology before leaving again. Milla ignored him, moving her legs with her arms into a straight position and lay down again.
This was really inconvenient, right down to annoying...!

Milla couldn't remember if she ever had had a worse night. Again and again, she had tried to make her legs move, either by using her brain to do so or she used her arms to lift them, bend them, move them and them still falling as soon as she let go. She grew more and more frustrated, biting her lip and getting angrier at the minute. And then she eventually gave up.
As she was lying there, on her back and underneath the cover, staring up at the ceiling and nothing to do... she began to think. And she hated it. She hated her inactivity. She hated just sitting or lying somewhere, doing nothing. She didn't mind it when it was meditating, as it allowed her to empty her mind and focus. But this was nothing like that. She wasn't able to get into her usual position for meditating, which made it difficult for her to properly do it. Instead, her mind went to places she didn't want to.
Making her realize what her lack of useable legs meant.
Her mission... would be impossible to complete. If she had no way of walking or travelling without relying heavily on someone else, it would unnecessarily complicate things. And what kind of Lord of Spirits would she be, if she couldn't do anything on her own? Even the lowest grunt of Exodus would laugh at the amazing Maxwell on the floor, yelling threats of death at them and swinging her blade from below. Well, she might be able to slice their legs off and put them into a similar situation to hers, but otherwise...
But even ignoring that, if she couldn't fulfill her mission, she would be...
"I'm useless..." Milla said out loud to herself.
And to her surprise, she felt the corner of her eyes burn and she sniffed. Quickly putting her hand to her face, she wiped her eyes and felt it getting wet. She was crying. The idea of not being able to complete her mission... hurt her. So much, that she cried. Confused, she rubbed her eyes. Milla had always known how important her mission was to her, but to this extent? But somehow, the more she thought about it, she realized that... her mission was the reason for living. She had nothing to do, except her mission to destroy Exodus. With that gone, she had no goal. Even her journey up to now had left her with nothing to potentially fill a void.
Except, perhaps, for eating. But was that something that could be called a hobby?
Feeling sick to her stomach, Milla turned her upper body to the side and, grumbling, used her arm to flop her legs sideways.

"Milla." Jude said the next morning, entering her room. "I think we can fix your legs!"
Milla looked at him in surprise. Was there really a way to fix her lame body parts? After having finally managed to fall asleep, having spent hours feeling horrible about this, she was groggy. And while her head didn't buzz as it did the day before, she had an annoying little sharp, stabbing pain on her right temple, though she was trying to ignore that. If there was a way to fix her legs... but she shouldn't expect too much. She mustn't get her hopes up, only for them to come crashing down.
"Oh?" she asked and saw him nod enthusiastically.
"I remember my dad, who's a doctor, having some technology that can help with lame body parts." Jude told her. "I'm sure it'll work on your legs, too. I already asked Driselle for some help to prepare getting to Leronde."
"Leronde?"
"It's my home. And my dad's practice is there, too."
She nodded and Jude helped her up, carrying her on his back down the stairs, where Rowen and Elize were talking and Driselle waved in greeting. While she and Jude began to talk about how things were ready to get them to the nearby port, Milla thought how fast things could change. If what Jude said was true and his father could help, perhaps it was okay for her to think positively. Maybe even to allow her hopes to raise a little bit. Right? Jude carried Milla out the door, where a horse was waiting. Rowen hurried over and lifted Milla off the young man's back and put her onto the saddle of the horse. Jude walked to the other side of the horse and, when Rowen moved Milla's leg to the other side, he grabbed it and made sure it was placed in the stirrup, albeit unmovingly.
"Are you sitting comfortably, Miss Milla?" Rowen asked.
Comfortably? The leather of the saddle was sticking to the skin of her thighs and, she had to admit, it was feeling a little stiff on her crotch and her legs were, of course, just limply hanging off the sides of the horse. But it was working for now and the sooner she made it to this healing technology, the better, what did the comfort matter that much?
"It's fine." she answered.
"Do I really have to stay?" Elize asked Jude, holding Teepo close to her chest.
"Mh. You're safe here with Driselle and she said she'll make sure you'll be comfortable. Rowen is here, too, after all." Jude answered her, leaning down to her height. "Besides, this will be pretty boring. But once Milla's healed up, we'll probably drop by."
Elize still looked a little sad about not coming along, but smiled a bit and nodded.
Jude took the reins and began to lead the way, looking behind him for a bit and waved to them.
As they proceeded to the port, Milla was lost in thought. She had felt dreadful when she thought of herself as useless during the night, but now that it was light again, she somehow felt stupid for thinking that. Of course, if Jude's father wasn't able to help her, she had no idea what to do next... but she shouldn't jump to conclusions. But Jude had sounded so sure about it, there was no way this was going to backfire, right? The ride on the ship would take a day, perhaps. Maybe longer? She had no idea where Leronde was or how far away it was from Sapstrath port. But looking forward to a cure, it might make the ride feel like it was going by faster.
"Ah!?" she was ripped out of her thoughts and felt herself fall hard onto the ground, her legs spread at weird angles, one flopped up to her left shoulder. She couldn't quite tell if the position was uncomfortable or quite the opposite.
"Oh, Milla!" Jude gasped. He blushed at her wide-spread legs and looked away, all while obviously trying to suppress a snort at her strange position. He coughed, rubbing the back of his head. "A-are you hurt? Um, need a hand?"
"No." she replied, using her arm to push her leg down and sat up. She looked around. The boar had run off and so had the horse, perhaps back to Driselle. And they hadn't walked all that far to the port yet. While she could see it in the distance, it was still a good walk away. And that was not something that she was going to manage.
And then there was Jude, kneeling in front of her with his back turned to her.
"What-"
"I'll carry you." he said before she could finish.
A part of her wondered why he thought that was best. The horse couldn't have run off that far yet, so he could look for it. And if it had happened to make it all the way back, he could pick it up again, even if it meant he had to go back on his own. But perhaps that's why he wasn't even mentioning that. He didn't want to leave her on her own, especially when she couldn't properly protect herself. So maybe this was the best, and fastest, way to actually proceed. But it was difficult to actually get the piggyback to work.
Milla managed easily to halfway climb onto his back, but Jude had to lean forward to get her limp legs to flop enough so he could grab them and then slowly got up, adjusting his grip slightly. He sighed and set off down the road again. They were not as fast as they were before, but there was that proverb of slow and steady winning some metaphorical race.
Not that she ever understood that saying.
As they made their way, more that Jude was making his way, to the port, they were fortunate enough to not meet any more boars or similar. But Milla began to not really like the carrying thing. It made her feel weak and dependent, which was an unfamiliar feeling to her and she couldn't say it was one she particularly relished. Although she couldn't just say she'll do it on her own... while she could maybe make it to the port, it would involve crawling and not a very fast pace.
"Jude." Milla said.
"Eh? What?" he asked, beginning to pant slightly from the strain.
"Yesterday, I yelled at you. It was wrong of me. And must have startled you. Hurt you."
"Oh. No, really. It was okay." he told her. "I mean, maybe it hurt a little, but I can understand why you said that."
"...Good." she admitted. At least he understood and sounded like he forgave her for that.
The rest of their journey to Leronde port was uneventful.
There was certainly that moment where Ivar popped up, despite her precise and repeated orders, and decided to get into a fight with Jude. Not that she cared much for it, she had made sure to get away from that as fast as she could. Given how all she could was throw herself onto the ground and crawl, she didn't get very far. But at about that moment, Ivar and Jude had realized what she was doing and stopped. That was an upside and she hoped that her telling Ivar, again, to go back and stay in Nia Kheria would work this time.

Leronde Port actually looked similar to the port of Sapstrath, though there was no visible sign of an inn right near where the ships came in or left the area. Though, since Jude told her a bit about Leronde on the way over, she knew that there was one. Leronde was a port town to begin with. And the way it sounded, the food in Leronde's inn was one of the best he had tasted.
As soon as her legs were, hopefully, healed, Milla knew that she had to eat there.
"Whoa, move, move!" a voice called out and Jude, with Milla on his back again, took a step back. Two kids that were pushing a wooden wheelchair were careening past him, with an older girl sitting in it. At their speed, they were heading straight for the edge of the platform. The boy gasped and slammed his feet onto the ground, sliding along. While he and the wheelchair stopped just fine, the older girl was propelled out of the seat and towards the ocean. "No waaaaaaay!"
Jude snorted. Curious, Milla leaned over his shoulder.
The girl swam to the edge of the platform again and pulled herself back onto dry land, dripping wet like a mermaid that was just changed into a human, and rushed over to Jude. She kneeled down and bowed in shame.
"I'm so sorry! We were just messing around and-" she stammered and got a good look. "...Jude!? What? You're here? Why? Oh! Uh, this is actually... you know this... and just... a-anyway...!" Her eyes actually took in what she saw and travelled down to Milla's legs, still wrapped in bandages, though they now showed some dirt on them from when she had crawled on the ground. "She's hurt!"
"Mh. We were on our way to my dad's." Jude said as ways of explanation and the girl grabbed the wheelchair and turned it towards them, patting the back of it slightly. With a sense of gratitude, Jude turned and knelt, carefully lowering Milla into it.
It certainly was a bit more comfortable now, though she still felt a bit awkward. This way, she was sitting and smaller than either of them, which still gave her that weak, fragile feeling. She was on eyelevel with the two children now, who were still standing around and looked at her with wide, curious eyes. She returned their gaze, unaware that hers held the same kind of curiosity.
"Sorry, guys. We'll play again later, okay?" the girl said and the kids waved goodbye, with her grabbing the two handles in the back of the wheelchair and beginning to push it in front of her and up a ramp, Jude walking by her side.
"So, you two know each other?" Milla asked, the silence having felt a bit weird to her.
"Ah, yes. Leia Rolando, my childhoodfriend." Jude explained. "Leia, this is Milla Maxwell."
"Hi. Sorry, gets bumpy now." Leia said and passed through the gate that separated port and town, with the ground changing from smooth stone to uneven cobblestone, which did jiggle Milla in the chair a bit.
"Oh, the bully."
"Bully? Jude! What did you tell her?" Lei asked in indignation, but aside from Jude stuttering a bit, nothing came from it. Since she turned the wheelchair into one of the first buildings, they must already have gotten to the Mathis Clinic. Inside, the wood of the building had a rustic atmosphere and a woman with black hair met them almost at the door.
"Jude. Welcome home." she smiled. "Oh, a patient for us?"
"I'm home, mom. Yeah," he answered. "we need to get a good look at her legs. And do you remember what dad used to work on lame body parts? I know he used something, but I can't remember where he last put it..."
His mother gave him a stern look, but then took over the steering of the wheelchair.
"First, we assess the injuries, Jude. Then we look for solutions." she reminded him and wheeled Milla into the exam room, sentencing Jude and Leia to wait outside. The exam room had a more greenish shade to anything that she would have expected to be white. That's how she mostly knew exam rooms and medical things to be in books. White. A man was standing next to a desk, his head lifting from a patient file he had been reading when he heard them come in. He wore glasses and had short, brown hair and some fine lines around his mouth. But his eyes were the same shade of brown as Jude's, so he must have been Jude's father.
"Derrick Mathis." he introduced himself, offering his hand to Milla.
A bit confused, she took and shook it. She was wheeled next to the exam table and, with barely a word of warning, Derrick had lifted her out of the chair and onto the table. He went to a small sink on the opposite wall and washed his hands, before putting on a pair of thin, plastic gloves. Almost methodically, he pushed a small, wheeled table towards his wife, who began a new patient file.
She asked Milla a few simple questions, like her name and problem with her legs.
"They're paralyzed." she answered bluntly.
"Mh." Derrick replied and began a similar spiel to the doctor at Driselle's home. The little wheeled tool run up her legs, the tiny hammer knocked around her kneecap. Neither of them had any changed result. He mumbled to himself, but apparently his wife understood him just fine, because she kept writing notes on the file. "Alright, lie down. We'll see what the bandages are about."
"Covering injuries from when the shackle exploded." Milla told him after lying down.
Derrick, who had begun to slowly unwrap the bandages on one leg, stopped in his motion. Exactly what he was thinking at that moment was difficult to tell, but there was a stiff, almost scary look in his eyes for a few seconds. But then he seemed to think better of it and continued to remove the bandages from one leg, then the other.
Curious, Milla looked down and saw it herself.
Her legs looked weird, to say the least. There were fresh scabs here and there in patches, some had a strange white circle around them, which she figured might be some piece of her former boots that had gotten stuck to her skin, but not properly removed. Other than that, they looked fine. It was almost eerie the way she had injuries right next to perfectly smooth, pink skin.
Still mumbling, Derrick examined her legs, pressing and turning them. From an outsider's perspective, it looked coldhearted, almost brutal, the way he lifted her leg, bent it easily towards Milla's chest and stretched it out again. But since Milla couldn't feel a single thing, not even when the injuries themselves were touched, it only looked bad.
"Jude said that you had something that could cure me." Milla told him when he had finished his exam and had told his wife to reapply some bandages on her legs. She was working slowly, but each wrap was evenly layered and, Milla noticed, her left leg was now wrapped clockwise and her right leg counterclockwise.
"Deal: you answer my question, I'll answer whether you can or can't be helped." Derrick replied and turned, his arms crossed.
"...answer what?"
"What is your relation to my son?"
"We are not having illicit, carnal affairs, if that is what you are concerned about." Milla shot back without batting an eyelash, recalling that is something that parents tended to be worried about. Though usually more about men hanging around their daughters. "Jude is a friend. And he brought me here, to get you to help me. That is all."
Derrick inhaled deeply, unclear if she had been trying to make a joke about the affair thing, but knew it wasn't worth thinking over.
"Very well, I'll be blunt. No, I cannot help you." he said and turned around again. "I don't have that technology anymore."
Her hopes, which she had slowly let rise on the way to Leronde, dropped faster than one could imagine.
So, it was pointless, after all. The journey had been pointless. The fleeting moment of hope she had had in that room at Driselle's, with the slight warning she had felt that it might not work, had been correct. There was nothing to be done. And that horrible, burning gut feeling of being useless arose in her again, making her feel sick.
"You're probably tired from the journey. We'll have you spend the night here, for observation. The injuries are fresh and, while covered, I want to keep an eye on them for a bit. Especially since it looked like you crawled through stuff you shouldn't." Derrick said, though how well Milla was listening wasn't clear. She moved automatically to the edge of the exam table and Erin assisted her back into the wheelchair, grabbing her patient file and wheeled her out of the room and down the hall, with Jude and Leia following behind her, before bringing her into a small patient room. Leia and Jude's mother picked Milla up and put her onto the bed.
"Milla..." Jude started, but his mother lifted her hand and he immediately silenced himself, seeing Milla put the covers up to her shoulder and lying down, facing the wall. She obviously didn't want company, too busy actually digesting the news Derrick had so easily dropped on her. She didn't notice how Leia talked with Jude's mother as they left.
She didn't even notice that her foot had peeked out from under the cover and was hanging out of the bed, which Jude carefully pushed underneath the cover again, before leaving and closing the door behind himself.

"Milla..."
Waking up, feeling a hand jiggling her shoulder slightly, Milla shook her head and opened her eyes. It was dark in the room, with only a small amount of moonlight falling through the window. Jude was leaning a bit over her and kept his finger on his lips, making it clear that she should keep quiet. Sitting up, she looked at him and saw Leia standing near the door.
"I found it." Jude whispered, holding up a box with its top off, revealing some strange, hexagon shape and with little hooks around the edges. There was a kind of gemstone in the hexagon shape, but it was dull and mostly sucked in any light, rather than reflect it. Jude took it out of the box and pulled the cover off of Milla, motioning for her to turn on her side.
He attached it to her right thigh.
"...how is it?" he asked, still keeping his voice low. "Anything?"
"...No." Milla answered. Her legs were still numb and limp.
Jude muttered to himself, similarly the way his father had done, wondering what the issue was. There was nothing like a manual, so no way to see if they had skipped a step in the 'How To Use' section. While his memory of his father using this technology was vague, he knew for sure that all it required to work was to attach it to the person's lame body part.
"Jude?" Leia asked, coming closer. "What about that gem? Doesn't it look... used?"
Both paid more attention to the gem, which still looked the same as before. Curious, Milla touched the gem on her thigh and felt a familiar, tingling sensation at the tip of her finger.
"It's a spirit stone." she said and earned confused looks from the two. "Stones that are infused with the mana of a spirit; Undine told me that they are very rare these days, but used to be much more common centuries ago. They aren't permanent, as the mana in them tends to be a mere fraction of the spirit's and when the mana is used up, they lose their luster and properties."
"Hm..." Jude tipped his left temple in thought. "There is the Felgana Mine. Gems and jewels were often excavated from it and this stone might have originally come from there... I wonder if we could find another spirit stone there... Are you up for this, Milla?"
"What?" she asked.
"If we head off to the mine, we could look for a spirit stone and use it to heal your legs. And with any luck, we'll find it soon and make it back here before it gets light again." he explained calmly.
Milla cocked her head to the side in confusion. Jude wanted to take her along for this? With her lame legs, into an old, abandoned mine that was likely filled with tiny passages on rough, uneven ground? It sounded unnecessarily complicated and like a very bad idea, in general, because of the circumstances. It would be difficult to maneuvre the wheelchair inside of the mine, unless Jude was going to carry her again, though she doubted he'd do that.
And he was called a prodigy in his medical school, the way he said it once... But, the more she thought about it, it probably made sense. Neither of them had recognized the stone for what it was, perhaps her presence was needed, so they would be able to find one. Sighing slightly, Milla sat up and pushed her legs over the edge of the bed.
"Let's go." she said.

Milla had been carried on Jude's back out of the clinic, Leia slowly and quietly pushing the wheelchair outside. The journey to the mine itself had been overall rather easy, as the streets of Leronde were completely deserted at this time of the night and the Voltea Woods, leading to the mine they wanted, were not as densely populated with trees.
The mine itself was dark and had a musty, dank smell in the air.
Just as she had thought, the mine mostly consisted of narrow passages that were uneven and jiggled Milla around in the wheelchair, beginning to get a headache after some bumps made her hit her side against the side of the passage. Leia apologized whenever it happened, but Milla shrugged it off. It wasn't Leia's fault, though she made sure to move more carefully after such an occurence, and Milla began to think that was a horrible idea. And getting deeper into the mine was difficult, as some of the passages had collapsed slightly and new paths had to be broken free, which Jude did with a pickaxe he picked up at the entrance of the mine.
"Does anything feel like a spirit stone yet?" Jude asked, rubbing his hands together after using the pickaxe on a wall again.
"...Not yet. I think I can feel something, but it's deeper inside." Milla answered.
A part of her really wanted to snap at him for thinking that taking her to this place, useless as she was, in the middle of the night and not having a plan beyond groping in the darkness was pretty stupid. Maybe his goodnatured intentions had gotten the better of him and made him lose his calm, logical composure or the mining idea made him giddy.
But she knew they had to go through with this, it was the only thing that might help her anymore...
She really hoped this was going to work...

A few things here. First, this is what I wanted in the game. I wanted to hear, or see, Milla actually caring that her legs exploded and got paralyzed. In fact, I restarted my original run of the game and opted for Milla's route at this point, because I was hoping I was going to get a scene that had her monologue via skit or extra scene about how she felt about this... but I didn't. She didn't even seem to care that she couldn't fulfill her mission, the one thing she had as a goal in life. Instead, she treated it like a minor inconvenience and I saw no change between her before or after her legs were healed. And never noticed that it supposedly caused her pain, until I did a subevent in Xian Du. Oh, and I had to call out Jude's stupid idea of taking Milla into the mine. Yeah, I think if I ever have a sprained ankle or broken leg, I'll just go walk it off by mountain climbing. D'oi! I tried to give him an excuse for doing that.
Second, this is where I show my ass and that the only version of Xillia I played was the Japanese one. So, I don't know what the stone in the Aspyrix (or Jintex, as it was in Japanese) was actually called in the English version. I merely translated it in a simple way from the Japanese term.
Finally, I was really tempted to turn this into a full-fledged comedy when I wrote the part of Milla falling off the horse.
Well, I might do it in another chapter or story...