After the End: Serenity

Serenity didn’t have any good ideas on how to help Rube, so he turned towards Aki’s core rather than packing everything back up in his bag. “I don’t have anything. You said you had more ideas?”

Aki sounded pleased to be consulted. :A few, though the next one is similar. How close are you to your next Path? Raz is quite a ways away, but you have mentioned the advantage of being able to return to the Tutorial. Can you choose a new Path that might let you heal him, even though you cannot take him with you?:

Serenity started shaking his head as soon as he realized what she was asking. “I’m no healer. Not at all. The odds of me getting a healing Path are so low it’s just not going to happen.”

:You aren’t a standard healer, true. You are a destructive healer. Death-based, I’d guess, given Rissa’s Path. Are you not?: Aki was clearly not going to let him get away with his normal rejection.

“How did you know?” Serenity was fairly confident he hadn’t done anything to give that skill away. Had he?

Aki’s laughter rang out in his head. :I listen, Serenity. I hear everything in my dungeon, even if I don’t pay attention. I heard enough about Jeremiah to have a good idea about your healing.:

Serenity shook his head. He really was terrible at keeping secrets, wasn’t he? Not that that had been a secret, really; it was simply that he’d forgotten the dungeon could hear everything and considered himself to be in private in his home. It was a good thing he trusted Aki. “It still won’t help Rube. I can’t just destroy his arms and a good chunk of his side, someone has to also fix him. And we don’t have a healer who can do that.”

:You are a destructive healer. That means you understand the body. You are also a shapeshifter, you can heal yourself, and you can share abilities. What are the odds that you can find something related to one of those abilities that will either let you heal the itchy man or let him heal himself?: Aki sounded impatient, as though what she said was obvious.

It probably would have been if Serenity hadn’t gotten hung up on thinking of it as something that had to be solved specifically by healing. “You have a point. I don’t know how likely it is, but it’s possible. It won’t be healing, but maybe there’s some way.”

Serenity pulled up his Status to check his Path progress.