V2Ch44-Nanny Dearest

Two and a half days passed.

Yulia and Adelaide spent time with Mina each day, repeatedly bathing her in Healing Aura.

On the first day, after three shifts of healing, Mina felt as if she understood something about the nature of the Mana that Yulia and Adelaide were using to heal her. She’d been watching them just because she had nothing else to do, but her interest sharpened as she noticed the effect on her own body. There was a fatigue from being healed, as if it was pulling on some of her own energy, but logically, she knew the degree of fatigue wasn’t enough to explain the effectiveness of the healing.

What Mina had begun observing casually, she began watching more carefully and then trying to understand analytically. At some point on the first day, she felt as if she was about to have a breakthrough. Then she fell asleep, and she only woke when baby James started crying to be fed.

After sleeping through the rest of the night, the morning brought the revelation of a System alert.

[Quick Study successfully analyzed Healing Aura. You acquired the Skill Healing Aura!]

Goodness, really? Did I learn a Skill just from watching it used and trying to understand how it worked? Mina immediately went down a rabbit hole, trying to think of ways she could use Quick Study to increase her repertoire of Skills.

She was interrupted by baby James’s demand for more milk, which she happily satisfied. Mother and child enjoyed a perfect connection as the baby breastfed. Something many mothers would envy.

“My beautiful baby,” Mina cooed, momentarily forgetting about her Skill and its delightful potential for abuse.

Once baby James was fed, she found she could walk again, although she only walked around her and Yulia’s room. It was snowing outside, and Mina suspected her surprising post-natal vigor wouldn’t last very long in the cold. In any case, she didn’t want to be far from her son if he started crying on his first full day outside of her body.

After Mina had tired herself out a bit, she used Healing Aura on herself. The word from her team—passed on through DaSilva and Adelaide when they visited—was that no one expected her to participate in challenges anytime soon. But she didn’t want to use that excuse for any longer than it was actually necessary.

By the next morning, Mina had decided she was capable of more strenuous exercise. She forced her body into doing pushups, situps, and walking more briskly around the room.

Adelaide walked in, found her exercising, and ordered her back to bed.

Mina almost argued, but then baby James started crying. So she returned to bed and fed him instead of trying to change Adelaide’s mind.

There’s going to be a new dogma about what women can do right after they’ve given birth, Mina thought. With magical healing, we don’t really need to lie around and rest for weeks. But it seemed that those changes would take a little time to take root.

For now, she focused on feeding her baby. And she used Healing Aura on herself whenever Yulia and Adelaide were busy or low on Mana.

“I can’t believe you have such a useful ability,” Yulia said when Mina first explained how she had acquired a Healer Skill. “But I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since it’s you.” Those last words were spoken with a mixture of admiration and resignation.

That night, Mina awakened to the sound of someone throwing stones, either at the window of their room or at the window of the room next door. She got up, expecting it to be Jose trying to talk to Yulia. Mina wasn’t oblivious to the way he looked at her sister.

But when she made it to the window, she saw a figure she didn’t recognize. He threw another stone, and when she saw that it wasn’t aimed at her window, she went back to bed.

The morning dawned on another new day. The sky was clear that morning, which Mina found notable, because it had snowed the previous three days, either in the morning or the afternoon. Not for the first time, she wondered if the weather was under the System’s direct control. Surely it wasn’t a coincidence that as the challenges went on, and people had their food stolen, the environment seemed to become actively more hostile.

The population counter had dropped by another few people in the night, as had been the pattern recently.

[2,633/3,397 Survivors]

Mina tried to ignore that. As much as she wanted to catch the murderer, and had been interested in catching them since the beginning, the fact was that this serial killer hadn’t done nearly as much damage to the population as the challenges. At this rate, no one would survive the Orientation.

That wasn’t even factoring in the hunger that must be growing in some corners of the settlement. And it would be difficult and dangerous to go hunting for food in this snow, even if it might have been easy walking a week ago.

If people don’t have food after this challenge, what will they do? Mina wondered uneasily. I guess we have to double down on the strategy of sharing, but I don’t know if that will be enough.

She tried to avoid letting her mind go back over a topic she had considered repeatedly over the last two days. Cara. Whenever she thought about the murders, her mind went back to Cara. She’d killed two people back in the maze, Mina was fairly certain. Some of the memories were hazy from pain and stress, but she remembered a bloody sword.

Mina had told no one about this. She did that for me. How can I use that as a reason to consider her? But no one else was presenting themselves as a better suspect.

Yulia went downstairs to perform the first of the daily exchanges; she brought rations, and Alba traded them for cooked food and gossip. The Cook heard more of what was going on in this Orientation than any other person in the building, since most residents of the inn still ate her cooking and went to the common area to eat their food and socialize.

A few minutes after Yulia left, there was a knock at the door, and Mina rose to answer it.

She’s a little faster than usual, she thought. A queasy feeling crept into her stomach. Was it someone else? Had something happened to Yulia during her short walk from their room to downstairs?

She couldn’t have guessed who she would actually see standing outside of their room.

The proctor stood there, dressed in the full regalia of her role. The green and red robe and Judy mask looked almost comical on the tall, thin figure.

Mina opened the door fully and just stared.

“What are you doing here?” Mina finally asked.

[It has come to our attention that the other life-form that you brought with you into Orientation has emerged from your body.]

Mina felt a surge of fear, and she fought her instinct to immediately slam the door in the proctor’s face. She remembered the man who had defied the proctor outside and been gruesomely killed. Her hand shook at the thought. But she abandoned any thought of trying to run back inside the room. If the proctor wanted to harm her or her baby, a wooden door wasn’t going to stop that.

“Yes,” Mina said. “What about it?”

[There is a challenge scheduled for today, as you know. There are no children in this Orientation besides the child you recently birthed. Therefore, I wanted to offer to take the child off of your hands. He would only be a burden during the challenge, after all.]

“What do you mean, take the child off of my hands?” Mina asked coldly, giving the proctor a death glare.

[We offer two options: either we can take your child from you and hold onto him through the duration of Orientation, or we can temporarily take custody while you complete the challenge. If you prefer the latter, this will be available during every challenge going forward.]

“What, you have a nanny service?” Mina’s tone was skeptical, but the ice in it had defrosted. Inside, she felt relieved. She had been concerned about what she would do with baby James if she needed to participate in a future challenge. Now it seemed she had nothing to worry about.

[I will hold onto the boy myself if you choose the second option.]

The proctor’s voice seemed softer, more straightforward, all of a sudden. But perhaps Mina was just imagining it.

“And how would the first option have worked?” Mina asked, curious.

[Under the first option, the child would be placed in suspended animation for the duration of your Orientation. He wouldn’t age a single day. In short, you wouldn’t have to miss a moment with your child.]

Mina shuddered despite her effort to keep her composure.

[But I take it by your choice of words and body language that you intend to take the second option.]

Mina nodded, her slender frame suddenly shivering with unaccountable cold.

[Then I will take the boy. The competition will begin in the next hour.]

“I-I need to feed him again,” Mina protested. “You have time to leave and come back, correct?”

[Yes.] A hint of impatience this time. Then the proctor vanished into thin air.

Yulia rounded the corner and saw Mina staring into the hallway.

“Did I take too long?” she asked.

Mina just shook her head.

Ten minutes later, an announcement sounded.

[All survivors of the first few challenges, prepare yourselves. The next challenge begins in twenty minutes. This will be a hunting challenge, so prepare with that information in mind.]

[00:20:00]

Mina was feeding baby James at the time of the announcement. I’m very lucky, she thought. Clearly, the System at least isn’t actively trying to kill me. The proctor offered me daycare and gave me a warning that the next challenge was going to start soon. This almost feels like preferential treatment.

Ten more minutes passed. The proctor reappeared outside of Mina’s door and knocked. Wordlessly, Mina handed baby James over. Despite her slightly increased trust in the System, she still felt pangs of worry as the baby left her hands.

“You’ll give him back as soon as the challenge is over?” Mina asked. “As soon as I’m back here? And not wait for everyone else to be finished?”

[Yes, Ms. Danailova. You have our word.] The proctor’s tone came off as impatient again, but Mina had the smallest sense that she was trying not to be.

Then the proctor, and the baby, were gone.

“I can’t believe it,” Yulia said quietly.

“What? What are you saying?” Mina asked anxiously.

“Oh, um, I can’t believe the System offers babysitting services,” Yulia said. “Now I’ve seen everything, right?”

“Hm. Yes, I guess that is surprising. Then again, they’re all about fair competition here, I think. And it wouldn’t be easy to do careful magic while carrying a baby around.”

Please bring back my baby when it’s over, she thought a bit desperately. Even this brief separation was painful. The idea of being apart from baby James for the rest of Orientation was unthinkable. But it would keep him safe. Completely safe. If Mina died somehow, she didn’t want to take her baby with her. She stewed over the idea in silence for a couple of minutes.

“You know,” Mina said finally, “I forgot to ask the proctor something.”

“What was that?”

“I was wondering if she could take little James to his father, in case something were to happen to me,” Mina said. “You shouldn’t have to carry a baby around the rest of the time you’re here if the worst should pass. James probably has things well in hand—”

Yulia’s face went white. “Is something wrong? Are you feeling okay?” She crossed the room in a couple of quick strides and put her hand to Mina’s forehead.

“No, nothing like that,” Mina said, smiling despite the pit in her stomach at the absence of her baby. “You and Adelaide did a great job healing me. I just meant that the challenges seem so dangerous, after these last couple.”

“Yes,” Yulia said. “After so many of us had run-ins with minotaurs. I’m just glad you, James, and Cara got out okay. A lot of people died in the last dungeon”

Mina had gathered, once her physical condition was closer to normal, that Cara had explained the premature labor as a consequence of a minotaur run-in similar to what other group members had experienced. Mina hadn’t corrected Cara’s version of events. She owed the girl at least that much for saving her life. Though the lies were troubling.

Cara hadn’t come to visit over the last couple of days, though she sent her congratulations through Adelaide. So Mina hadn’t been able to confront her about any of this.

“Yes,” Mina agreed. “Oh, by the way, did you hear anything interesting from Alba?”

Yulia bit her lip for a moment, then spoke. “She didn’t want me to tell you. Everyone thinks you’re really delicate right now.” A strained smile. “They don’t know you like I do. You remember how you’ve been saying that the food situation could become a crisis soon?”

Mina nodded.

“Well, last night, a few people started going around to other inns and begging for food. Even though it was freezing cold. Some of the inns are either not sharing, or they’re running out of food. Alba thinks it’s probably going to get worse.”

“I see,” Mina said. “We’re probably shielded from the worst here, since only challenge winners can enter this building. But it looks like a serious problem is brewing outside.”

Yulia must have seen how worried Mina really was. Without any warning, she pulled Mina into a warm embrace.

The two of them had spent all their time together these last two days, but most of it thinking about the baby. Playing with the baby. Talking about the baby.

Mina hugged Yulia tightly in return, and the two of them stood together in silence.

Locked in their own thoughts. And waiting for the next challenge to start.

Mina had so much that she wanted to say to Yulia, especially whenever she thought of her own mortality. Or the increasing tension in their Orientation. Or baby James and his future.

There was so much to say, she didn’t know where to begin.

You’re so good with the baby. That was a good place to start. And it was true. Just the thought made Mina smile. If something happened to her and James, Sr., Yulia would be able to handle the baby.

She opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly they were no longer in their room at the inn.

The System, in its characteristic way, had transported them elsewhere with no warning but the silent timer.

Mina looked around and found that she and Yulia were together this time. Thankfully. The rest of the team was there with them, too. They must have been transported to a completely different region, or perhaps a different universe, from the Orientation world.

They stood in a beautiful meadow, flowers and clover in full bloom. The trees bore tempting fruit that gleamed like red and green gemstones.