The Infinite City: The Dungeon That Never Ends

 "What? Explode," I said, sitting up.

 "Careful, don't hurt yourself now. There is a magical spell that can work, but the only person to ever do it is an S-rank healer, who is living 150 miles away from here. So if you wish to speak with him, we can contact him. He has told us that he prefers to just be notified to examine everyone with the problem, but that would be unethical without your permission. So should I call him here?"

 "Call who here?" Nil asked, walking into the room.

 "Lady Moondrift, now that Tern is conscious, you cannot be in the room."

 "Rowan, it is fine. I want her here. So answer her question," I said.

 "Elarion Syllenweave is the only healer that knows how to remove leftover magical energy from a magical stone explosion," Rowan said.

 "Oh my, Elarion Syllenweave is one of the oldest living elves at 15,000 years old. And that whole time he has been studying magical healing," Nil said.

 "Yes, that fever you got, Tern, after your fight was some of the magical energy reacting to the magic of your flaming sword. And some of it converted to heat. In other words, you basically cooked your insides. The only reason you survived is your intrinsic magic as an elf not letting you die from illness fighting the magic," Rowan said.

 "Call Elarion Syllenweave. What's the worst that can happen?" I said.

 "You explode before he gets here," Rowan said.

 "That was a rhetorical question. I did not really want an answer," I said.

 "Oh."

 "Hello, my name is Elarion Syllenweave. I believe that the lovely Rowan told you everything about your condition," Elarion said.

 "That is correct," I said.

 "Good. So the only treatment that I have found is a spell of my creation. And the worst part is it is very resource-intensive, even needing the eye of a dragon. And that is one of the least expensive parts. And it will not heal the burn scars."

 "So it is expensive. Adventurers Guild?"

 "Yes, very. But since you are part of the Adventurers Guild, they will cover 50% of the cost. And if you allow me to put a ritual on you that will track your recovery over the next year, I will cover 15% of it myself. If you help with my research, it will cost 60,000 copper."

 "Hell's, I don't even have that," I said, looking at my feet.

 "Well yes, you do. The bounties from the outlaws that we killed—Red-eyed Grinth had 45,000 copper and the other four had a total of 5,000 copper. You also could sell the sword of Grinth. So you have to pay a little out of pocket but not much," Nil said.

 "What about your half of the bounties?" I asked.

 "No, I am not taking half of the bounties. You killed Grinth, who was the only real threat on the battlefield. So now you will be taking all of the money and paying for the treatment," Nil said with steel in her voice.

 "Ok, Nil, thank you," I said.

 Walking over to my locker in the corner of the room, Elarion opened the locker.

 "Is this the sword of the Grinth fellow you were speaking of?" Elarion asked, holding up Grinth's sword.

 "Yes, do you want to buy it?" I asked.

 "No, not me, but a friend of mine is collecting the set. It is one of the Blades of the Forgotten Forge. There are 13 total, and my friend has six of them."

 "I apologize, Lord Elarion, but there are only ten blades in the set," I said.

 "Ha, that is a very common misconception that I believe my friend has helped spread to impede other collectors. But there are 13 in total. Now I owe my friend a favor. So if you give me this blade, I will perform this spell at the material cost of 50,000 copper," Elarion said.

 "Sure, take it. It is too big for me to use, and I doubt that I could have sold it for 10,000 copper to begin with."

 "Good. Well then, let's do this," Elarion said.

 Performing the spell took 15 hours, and it was very easy for me. I just had to lay back on the table while Elarion placed items around me and chanted in a weird language. At the end, there was a crashing boom. Elarion looked startled.

 "Was that boom normal?" I asked.

 "No, it was not," Elarion said, pulling a crystal and waving it over my chest.

 "All the magical energy is gone, so it was something else," he said.

 "Should we go check it out?" I asked.

 "We? No. Me? Yes," he said.

 "Ok," I said.

 He walked out of the room, pulling a dagger out that I had not seen on his body.

 Elarion walked back in the room laughing ten minutes later.

 "The Garuda beat the Naga in their endless fight—well, at least for now. The age of the Garuda continues. There will be a festival next week, so if you recover well, you can go to the festival."

 "Great. How long do you expect the recovery to take?" I asked.

 "Three days, if your body replenishes the natural mana. But from the spell I used, I got a good sense of the mana in your body. I think that you will be fine in two days, to be honest. But I don't want you fighting for at least a week," Elarion said, scratching his chin.

 "Ok."

 The Garuda Festival is very fun. There was grilled snake seasoned with salt from the Sea of Elarun and a spice sauce. Nil found me sitting off to the side.

 "What is wrong, Tern? Should I go get Elarion?"

 "No, I want to know something. Why did you make a team with me, Nil? Sure, I have some skill as a swordsman and close-range fighter. But with your family's connections, you could have easily found someone more skilled than me."

 "What? Where is this coming from, Tern? For one, on the first day I met you, I told you that I did not want to pay out three or four people in a party. And also, Tern, I have come to care for you."

 "You have known me for two months, Nil. You gave up 25,000 copper so I could get a treatment. You also gave me an A-rank potion, the cost of which is more money than I have ever had in my life. Why me? Why not some other person? You have spent so much money on me. So tell me—why bother? Don't get me wrong, Nil, I am so thankful—I don't have the words to express it. I mean, you pulled me out of obscurity. That magical energy trapped in my body—if that happened before I met you, I would have lived every day wondering when I'd blow up. So don't think that I am not grateful. All I want is to know why me," I said, holding back tears.

 "I don't know. Do you remember when you put on your amulet—the Blood Silk Oath?" Nil asked softly.

 "Yeah, why?" I said, putting my hand to the amulet.

 "When you put it on, you said that it felt right. When you said that, I thought that the goddess' power in the amulet had felt benevolent to you. But now I think I realize that the goddess might want you to live. That you have some greater destiny. Maybe that is true and maybe not. But the one thing that I can say for certain is that I believe that you and I will go high in the Adventurers Guild," Nil said.

 "Thank you, Nil, that means a lot."

 "Now let's go back to the festivities. Look, the Dance of Falling Flowers is beginning."

 We danced all night, losing and finding each other in the crowd.