Dangerous Games - Ch. 17 Preview

No one spoke for a good minute as they all tried to process what Helen had just told them.

“Mom, your positive it was this man?” Ethan asks, pointing to the drawing of Ashford.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Helen replies.

“Are you telling me that this piece of shit delivered me?!”

“No, but he was supposed to.” Helen takes a breath and looks at Ethan before continuing, “As you know because of the car accident, I was rushed to the nearest hospital, by the time I woke up and was able to give them my information, I had already begun going into labor, so there wasn’t any point in calling him.”

“Oh, thank God.” Ethan breathed a sigh of relief, as his mother continued to look at him in confusion. “Diane, tell us, what exactly did Ashford do to my mother?”

“Before that can somebody, PLEASE tell me what’s going on?!” Helen voice cuts in.

Joe speaks up before anybody else can in a serious voice, “Helen, magic is real, Sera and Diane are witches, your disease is magical, the guy in the sketch is responsible. There, now you’re caught up.”

Helen looks around at everyone and sees the serious expressions on their faces and shrugs, “Ok.”

“Mom, you do know we’re being serious?” Ethan asks.

“Yeah.” Helen answers nonchalantly.

“Oh, ok.” Ethan says, surprised by his mother’s easy acceptance of everything. “Diane?”

“First, I want to confirm my findings with Sera, since she already had an idea about a cure.” Diane turns to Sera. “Ashford infused these people, with an excess of pure magic, didn’t he?”

“Yes.” Sera replies.

“But that doesn’t make any sense, that method has been tried before, and it was found ineffective.” Diane argues.

“Yes, when it was first tried, it was found that the excess magic would just bleed away within the person’s naturally flowing magic.” Sera sees a looks of confusion on Ethan, Joe, and Helen’s faces. “Everyone is born with some magic in them, it accumulates and dissipates naturally in our bodies similar to breathing in oxygen and expelling carbon dioxide.” Sera explains.

“And just like breathing, this process is something all living things need to do.” Diane adds.

“In the past our people tried infusing men and women with extra magic during conception in the hope that it would trigger to an increase in not just birth rates but witch birth rates.” Sera states.

“But it didn’t take because the excess magic would just go away.” Joe infers.

“In layman terms, yes, exactly that.” Diane agrees.

Sera continues, “What Ashford has done to account for this is he created a spell to hold, maintain, and cycle the excess magic through the person’s body. The idea is quite simple, but the spell needed to do such a thing is incredibly complex.”

“I thought as much, but how have we not sensed all these people walking around with excess magic coursing through them? Even now standing next to Helen, I can only sense the same amount of magic, any normal person would have, emanating from her.” Diane questions.

“I can only assume that within the spell created to maintain the excess magic, he also weaved in both a magic suppression spell and magic concealment spell as well.” Sera speculates.

“Dear goddess.” Diane says in astonishment, she then looks over to both Ethan and Helen, “You have to understand, creating a spell with so many moving parts is extremely difficult and dangerous, and speaks volumes of his skill. And those last two spells are where I believe lies the heart of this disease.” Diane states.

“How so?” Ethan asks.

“To confirm.” Diane turns back to Sera. “When you said you could cure Helen, did you mean through a magical reharmonization?”

“Yes, exactly.” Sera answers.

Diane looks over to Ethan, Joe and Helen to explain, “Going back to Sera’s analogy of how magic works like breathing, the suppression spell did its job too well, and has not been allowing the magical equivalent of exhaling. Your body has become full of, for lack of a better analogy, magical carbon dioxide, that’s what the illness is. The excess magic has become toxic and is polluting yours and everyone else’s bodies.”

“And this reharmonize thing can fix that, cure her?” Ethan asks in a hopeful voice.

“With a reharmonization, Sera would flush all the magic out of Helen’s body cleaning her out.” Diane states.

Helen notices a worried expression on Diane’s face, “What is it?” Helen asks.

“…The process is dangerous and only someone as powerful as Sera can even attempt to do it.” Diane reveals.

“Dangerous, dangerous how?” Both Ethan and Joe ask.

Sera speaks up, “I would be flushing out all of the magic in your mother’s body, in other words I would be removing not just the carbon dioxide but the oxygen as well.” Sera explains.

“What?!” Ethan exclaims.

“It’s the only way to make sure the spell Ashford created is completely removed from her body, or else the whole thing will just start all over again.” Sera finishes sadly.

Diane looks to Ethan, “Ethan, I’m not stopping here and I’m not going to stop until I figure a cure that any witch can perform, but it will take time.”

Ethan closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before opening them and looking at his mother, “What do you want to do?”

Helen doesn’t say anything, giving Ethan a sad look.

“Ladies, I think its best we leave these two alone to talk.” Joe says to Sera and Diane.

The three of them leave the room, leaving Ethan alone with his mother.

“Mom?”

“I spent a long time coming to terms with what I assumed was my inevitable death, I even began getting excited at the prosect of seeing your father again. Now I’m being given this chance and…I don’t know.” Helen says solemnly.

“What do you mean? I-I-If that was the case why did you agree to even see Sera for treatment, or all those other doctors for that matter?”

Helen gives Ethan a sad smile, “For you of course, you wanted me to fight so I fought.”

Ethan had no words as his eyes begin to water; his mother had always worn her acceptance of death on her sleeve. He was the one who wouldn’t accept it, he was the one who wanted to keep fighting regardless of her feelings.

“I’m sorry.” Ethan croaks as he holds his mother’s hand. “I’ve been selfish, and unsupportive.” Ethan takes another deep breath to steady himself. “Whatever you decide, even if it’s to not to do the procedure, I’ll support you.”

Helen says nothing for a good while before finally taking in a deep breath, and smiles, “I guess your father can wait, it’s not like he’s going anywhere.”

Ethan chuckles at his mother’s dark humor, wiping the wetness from his eyes.

Helen looks at her son, her eyes now full of determination, “Alright, let’s do this!”