Chapter Text
‘It all started with a phone call,’ Riz has decided, is the shittiest way to start a story. But unfortunately for him it is also the most accurate one in this instance. He had been in his office one late spring evening, lazily reorganizing some old cases when his crystal rang and he sprang on it, eager for any client.
“Hello, I’m calling for Riz Gukgak?”
“Yes, this is him. How can I help you?” Riz does his best to remain professional over the phone, though he’s slouched against the back of his large office chair. He wonders if this is yet another call about a lost item or cheating spouse, but still holds out hope for something more mysterious that he can really spiral over.
“I’m from St. Owen’s Hospital; we have you listed as the emergency contact for Sklonda Gukgak.”
Riz shoots straight up in the chair, eyes immediately becoming slits as his vision loses focus on everything around him.
“W-what? That’s my mom! What’s happened? Is she hurt? I can be there in about half an hour-”
“Please, sir, try to remain calm. I’m unable to disclose details over the phone, but I am allowed to inform you that she is in a stable condition.”
“WHAT!? What do you mean you can't tell me??” His tail begins to whip around him, knocking over an open file on his desk, but he doesn't notice
“I’m sorry, but it is information I’m not privy to. The doctor will fill you in when you arrive.”
“W-what room is she in? I can come see her, right!?”
“Yes, indeed, sir. Let me get you that information along with the security code for entrance.”
“A code!? Why does she need a security code!?” This call is just getting worse and worse , he thinks. He looks down at his desktop, searching for a pen to write with – he just had one, but where did it go? – and finds it on the floor across the room, the result of his frantic tail. After retrieving the pen, he makes it back to his desk. His hand trembles as he tries to hold the pen firmly so he can write down the information, and with a shaky hand he fumbles a pad of sticky notes in front of him.
“Again, I’m sorry, Mr. Gukgak, but I do not have any further information regarding your mother. Now please hold for a moment while I bring that information up…”
As the person on the other end of the line ends the call, Riz can’t recall going through the motions of writing down the room number and code, but he must have because there it is on the notepad, numbers all scratchy beneath the word ‘MOM’ in all caps and underlined multiple times. He stares at the yellow square of paper and watches as it blurs out of focus as his head begins to spin. His mouth waters and he’s diving for the waste basket next to his desk as he retches and vomits up too much coffee and the cheap tacos he had eaten for dinner just an hour ago. His throat and mouth burn from the sensation as he spits into the basket, then reaches for the only thing on hand to cleanse his palate: more coffee. He groans as he swishes it around in his mouth before spitting it back into the cup; he’ll clean it later when there aren’t more important things at hand.
He pushes himself out of the chair and wobbles, feeling a rush of vertigo from the sudden movement after vomiting, but he doesn't care; he needs to get to the hospital. He locks up his office but doesn’t arm his traps – screw them, he doesn't have the time – and practically falls down the stairs to the office building lobby where he steps outside onto the sidewalk and summons a car via a rideshare app. He waits at the curb, bouncing on his feet as he cranes his neck, waiting for Jonnathyn in his hybrid whatever to show up. Please, hurry up , he prays, tears beginning to well up in his eyes.
When the sleek car shows up, clean and pristine and Jonnathyn smiling and offering Riz gum or the aux cord or water – anything for five stars – Riz growls at him to just get him to the hospital as quickly and as quietly as possible and he’ll give him all the stars he wants and a huge tip.
“Yessir,” the driver says under his breath, and the car zips off towards the hospital in silence. Riz takes the time to go over his last texts with his mom; nothing out of the ordinary, just a typical reminder for Riz to eat something for dinner and a note that she’ll be home late tonight as well. Before that, it was her wishing Riz a good day as she headed out to her own office to work with her clients as a defense attorney. Riz has only been out of college with his criminal justice degree for about a year, having moved back into his mom’s apartment when he returned to Elmville and re-opening his detective agency. He’s still as short on funds as he ever was, but right now he thinks he’d pay with his own blood if he could get to his mom this instant. As he’s checking his crystal, it rings in his hands, causing him to fumble it and thankfully dropping it on the seat next to him instead of at his feet.
He answers the call and is surprised to hear Adaine on the other end.
“Riz, is everything alright? I got a vision of Sklonda in the hospital!”
“I don’t know, Adaine! They just now called me up and said that she’s been hospitalized but the caller didn’t know the details, said I’d have to speak with the doctor.”
“Shit, that sounds terrible! How are you holding up?”
“I mean, I’m nervous as all fuck. I don’t know what happened. This is so scary!”
“Oh Riz, I feel so bad that I can’t do anything else from out here in Fallinel!”
“It’s okay. Just having you call really helps. Oh, looks like I’m here! I’ll let you know, okay? Thanks for calling!”
“Sure thing! Best of luck!”
The car pulls up to the ER entrance, and Riz dutifully gives Jonnathyn his five stars and an extra three gp tip – not something he can really afford – but Riz feels like he’s probably not going to be in the mood for eating much over the next few days until he can get to the bottom of what’s happened to his mom, so maybe he won’t feel the sting too badly.
He gives his name and security code at the reception desk and he’s whisked away through a set of double doors that look indistinguishable from all the others in the hospital, but after a couple turns he’s soon walking down a long, empty hallway. At the end is another pair of double doors, but instead of being brown like everything else in the building, these are green. Beyond these doors is a room with a large glass window and a small bench pushed up against the wall opposite of it. A quick scan shows no other doors exiting this room than the one he’s just come through. He turns to the window, and about ten feet away, in the center of that room is Sklonda Gukgak. Her bed is in the center of the room, with about ten feet of empty space all around her aside from the machines and wires that are hooked up to her. He immediately throws his hands and face against the glass, crying out “Mom! MOM!”
A firm hand lands on his shoulder, and a deep voice, warm and full of sorrow, says something to him, but Riz can only hear the sound of his own heart hammering in his chest. The hand squeezes his shoulder, and Riz is suddenly pulled out of his own head and looks down at the hand, then along the arm to the handsome dwarven doctor standing next to him.
“I said, Mr. Gukgak, that I’m very sorry about your mother.” The doctor’s voice is deep and comforting, but it doesn't lessen Riz’s apprehension.
“Wh- what happened to her? Wh- why is she hooked up like that?”
“I’m afraid she’s in a coma.”
“C…coma…? Why, what…I, uh… who are you?” Riz can barely get the words out, his mouth is suddenly so dry.
“Doctor Asha. I’ve been assigned your mother’s case. Unfortunately we don’t know the cause of the coma, and we must treat it as if it could be a contagious illness. We don’t even know if it’s magical or pathological,” he says, gesturing to the ground around Sklonda’s bed, and Riz notices for the first time dozens of runes painted on the floor around her. He notices more on the walls and ceilings, and he takes a couple steps back in shock at the sight of it all.
“It looks like a fucking ritual in there!” he snarls.
“Yes, it essentially is one,” Dr. Asha replies. “We’re trying all we can to awaken her, and some methods do come down to rituals.”
Riz backs up a bit more until the back of his legs meet the cold steel of the bench and he slumps down on it.
“What…what happened? Do you know anything?”
“From what we’ve heard, she was found unresponsive at her desk just over an hour ago, when the janitor came in to clean her office. We have her and the rest of the staff from the building under quarantine as well, but so far no one is showing any signs like your mother’s. I’ve personally heard that a medical forensics team is being dispatched from Bastion City to examine the building.”
“And I can’t get any closer?”
“No, I’m sorry.” Dr. Asha sighs. “She could be cursed, have succumbed to a virus, or anything else that could be passed on, so-”
“So we need you to sign an NDA,” a new voice says from behind Dr. Asha. Riz turns his head at the familiar voice, unable to recognize it, and sees that a tall, dark-skinned half-elf has entered the room as well, the doors swinging shut behind her.
Riz wipes his eyes and squints, and recognition dawns.
“You’re that agent ! From the Council !”
“Yes, that’s correct, Agent Angela Worrel of the Council of Chosen. My team and I have been assigned to investigate this mysterious illness, and in order to not incite a panic , we are insisting that all those involved sign a non-disclosure agreement so as no information about this gets leaked before we are ready to address it publicly.”
“Wait, what !? You’re going to make me sign something so that I can’t tell anyone what’s happening? That’s insane!”
Angela pulls out a pair of sunglasses from her chest pocket and fiddles with them, twirling them around her finger expertly. “Well, we can’t force you, but we are capable of bribing or threatening you.”
“ WHAT !?
“Look, kid.”
“I’m twenty-three.”
“Yeah, well, to me you’re the same little shit that I threw in a jail cell for corroboration in the murder of Johnny Spells, and it is within my authority to put you behind bars again. I can get you into solitary confinement so you’ve got no one to talk with; keep your lips sealed that way.”
“Try me!” Riz growls, ready to leap at the agent, but she holds up a hand.
“ Or , we can go the bribe route,” she continues. “Where you sign the NDA and we cover one-hundred percent of the bills that are currently racking up as the doctors, clerics, and wizards all work to save your mom.”
Riz freezes.
“Wait, what?” This is a lot for him to process all at once; first the coma and then the threat and now the bribe.
“The government of Solace will pay for all of your mother’s care and recovery. Plus the NDA will not be forever; we will revoke it as soon as we’re ready to go public with our findings. So how about it? Sign, and you won’t get arrested and you won’t have those nasty bills to pay later.”
Riz’s tail twitches as he thinks deeply on this offer; it’s just his silence for a limited time, and Cassandra knows that even with his mom’s newer job and higher paycheck, the bills would really be a strain for them. He glances back at his mother, her eyes closed peacefully as the chaos of the machines and runes surround her.
“F- fine! I’ll sign your stupid agreement,” Riz spits as he thrusts his hands out for paper and pen, all the while looking bitterly down at his feet.
Angela grins wolfishly. “Thanks for making this easier on us, kid. And don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this in no time flat. Your mom’s in good hands.”
As Riz signs the contract with an angry flourish, he grits his teeth, fangs grinding against each other. He’ll get to the bottom of this.
“We appreciate your cooperation,” Angela says flatly, and turns and walks back out the double doors.
“Thank you for your understanding,” Dr. Asha continues. “Now, as her emergency contact you are allowed to return at any time to view her, and we will inform you of any breakthrough or if we need more details from you.”
“Y-yeah. I get it.”
“Very well. You may stay as long as you like, but the security code will change daily, so please keep on top of it.”
“I understand. Thank you, doctor.”
The doctor leaves, and Riz is left alone in the room with only the quiet sounds of the machines hooked up to his mother. He stands back up and walks over to the glass once more, pushing his face against it once again, trying to get as close to her as he can, but he feels only the chill and hardness of the glass preventing him from reaching her.
He has to get to his mom’s office before anyone else does, has to find out what happened there, curse or contagion be damned. But first, he’s going to watch his mom for a little longer, hoping and praying that she wakes up.
She doesn’t.
An hour later, Riz removes his face and hands from the glass, and as he pushes against the double doors to leave, he swears he sees movement; not from the room, but in the glass. He freezes and stares where he’s smudged the window with his face, but only sees a dissipating fog of breath from where he had been breathing just moments ago.