The next day, Lyra was the first to wake up. She left early for the church, where she spent the morning healing the poor people who crowded at the doors, their faces marked by pain and need. Father Valentín found her when she finished, with a smile that Lyra didn't like. "Ozkar was very impressed with your healing abilities," he said, his voice smooth as oil. "He will surely call you again soon." Nevertheless, he assured her that for the next day they had another job. Lyra nodded, feeling a knot in her stomach. As she left, she went alone to the Adventurers' Guild. She wanted to see what missions were available for ranks F and E, wanting to remember them to suggest to Esther, if she did well in her test, some they could do together. She read some on the large mission board: "Clean the cellar of 'The Drunken Fool' tavern of giant rats (Rank F)," "Choose an escort for merchant Alistair to the next town (Rank E)," "Retrieve a lost pendant in the city sewers (Rank F)."
Esther, for her part, went with the cage of rats to the training place. On the way, she received her usual dose of sexual harassment. "If you keep walking like that, you're going to cause a landslide!" a man shouted at her from a balcony. "That ass should have its own postage stamp!" another whispered as he crossed her path. She ignored them, though a deep sexual frustration consumed her for not having relieved herself after everything that happened the day before. The comments, though she hated them, somehow provoked her. She eagerly looked forward to going to relieve herself and, moreover, taking more drugs to become stronger. She felt somewhat weaker physically, but now that her magical power was complete after resting, she felt too good. When she arrived, Eric was waiting for her alone. He had his shield, a solid metal one he didn't usually use, and on the ground he had a bucket full of water. Esther asked him what that was for. "It's your test for the job we have to do," Eric told her, his tone serious. "I want you to first launch a fire attack against the shield, as big as you can. And then control the power for a smaller one, the size of the bucket. That one I'll let burn me and I'll put it out with the water. After that, you'll have to make my arm as good as new." The test seemed somewhat excessive, but Esther accepted. She feared hurting Eric more than necessary.
She concentrated, took a deep breath, and launched the fire for the first time with all her power, trying to make it as big as possible. To her own surprise, a massive fireball came out of her hands, crackling with a force she didn't know she possessed. Eric had to strain to protect himself, and the heat of the shield as it warmed almost burned him. He took it off quickly before it could harm him. "Incredible! Your progress is amazing!" he congratulated her, shaking his arm. He prepared for the next attack. Esther made the second attack against his bare arm, which he covered as if he had an invisible shield. The attack was smaller than it should have been, but it set his forearm on fire for an instant. Eric used the water from the bucket to put himself out, making sounds of pain. His arm looked horrible, the skin red and blistered. Without delay, Esther went to the rat cage and approached him. She began to consume them with her magic, transferring the wounds to the small animals. Eric's arm was left almost as good as new, but hairless, since she had never managed to make them grow back as Lyra knew how to do.
Eric examined his arm, flexing his fingers with an expression of amazement. The skin was smooth, though pale and without a single hair. "You're approved," he said, and for the first time, his smile was genuine, one of equals. "We have a job in a mine. We have to disinfect it of monster spiders. It's a category D job, but between all of us, we trust we can do it easily, especially now that we have a healer." Esther nodded, her heart pounding hard. "I accept." "Perfect. We'll meet at the city exit tomorrow, as soon as the sun rises. The payment for each of us will be the equivalent of 3 gold coins." It was quite a bit for them. It was a risky job, but with the four of them, it felt much more manageable. "We won't train with the sword today," Eric added, noticing the exhaustion on Esther's face. "I want you to be rested for tomorrow."
Esther, determined not to tempt fate again, did not return to her inn. She went to another cheap, dark inn on the other side of the city, asking for a room without asking questions. She felt a great anxiety to inject herself, it had only been 24 hours since the last dose but it had only been a blue one and it felt like little to her. Her hands trembled as she retrieved the familiar vials from her hidden pouch, the red ones gleaming with a dangerous promise in the dim light of the room. A chill ran down her spine as she imagined the emptiness that would soon consume her if she didn't act quickly. The cravings gnawed at her insides, a relentless beast demanding to be fed. She could already feel the edge of her control fraying, the world around her sharpening into painful clarity that only the drugs could soften. She injected 3 reds, 1 blue and 2 sedatives. Even so, with everything she had accumulated, she did not lose consciousness or get out of control. The sedatives kept her stable, but they did not put out the fire burning inside her. She had to masturbate several times in a row while to do it she couldn't think of normal things, they didn't turn her on as much as Kork abusing her, Lyra's gaze and in the end even pressing herself naked against Lyra. She was disgusted, getting aroused thinking about her only friend. She was disgusted with herself and more because she had come once already thinking about her. Her mind, poisoned by the concoction of chemicals coursing through her veins, refused to conjure the gentle touch of a lover or the memory of an innocent moment of tenderness. No, her thoughts darkened, twisted into shapes that mirrored the corruption festering within. It was Kork's greasy whispers against her ear, his leering gaze that stripped her bare, his "accidental" brushes against her legs and arms that made her skin crawl with a heat she couldn't control. That, at least, was familiar, a violation she had learned to anticipate and almost, almost welcome as a catalyst. But then her traitorous mind betrayed her further, shifting from the obvious predator to the one person in this wretched city who had shown her kindness. Lyra. Lyra's innocent, perpetually sad eyes, the way she looked at Esther with a mixture of pity and desperate hope, her slender hands that trembled as they clutched her too-large habit. The image was pure, holy even, yet in her drug-addled state, it became the most potent aphrodisiac. She imagined Lyra's gaze fixed on her, not with pity, but with a strange, forbidden curiosity.
The thought sent a jolt through her that was sharper, more intense than anything Kork's filthy presence could evoke. And then, the ultimate betrayal of her own soul: she pictured herself, naked and vulnerable, pressing against Lyra's clothed body, feeling the rough fabric of the nun's habit against her bare skin, imagining the other woman's breath catching in her throat. She was disgusted, a wave of nausea rising in her throat at the vividness of the fantasy. Getting aroused thinking about her only friend, the one person who saw her not as a victim or a tool, but as something pure to be protected. She was disgusted with herself and more because she had come once already thinking about her, the orgasm shuddering through her body leaving behind not relief, but a cold, hollow emptiness and the acrid taste of self-loathing. In the end, like this, with only the filth of her mind, she was in a silent room that was only a witness to her gasps and her choked moans, until finally, the torrent of arousal calmed down. When she finished and straightened her clothes, she took advantage of the calm to talk to her brother. His ethereal figure appeared before her. "Your methods seem horrible," her brother began, his voice without the usual judgment, just a clinical observation. "The sex, the drugs... but you're getting results quickly, Esther. I'm proud of you." She blushed, a strange mix of shame and pride. "What's it like being dead?" "I don't remember any of that," he replied, his gaze lost in the distance. "My last memory is the moment before I died, and then, when you did the ritual. There's nothing in between. It's like a blink." He came a little closer, his voice lowering to a whisper. "Try to keep going without finding out what it feels like." "Since you died, you have a very dark humor," Esther told him, with a small smile. He didn't return the smile. "It's what's left when the fear is gone."