Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.

  ~ Helen Keller

  When they arrived at the hospital, Mark was in good spirits and recovering well, but poor Tawnya had worsened. The shock of the gunshot wounds, compounded by her previous injuries proved too much. She had slipped into critical condition, and they could only visit her in the ICU one at a time.

  When it was Sarah's turn, she stood next to her unconscious friend, wishing there was something she could do. Nurses bustled about regularly, but eventually, she found herself alone with Tawnya.

  Staring down at her unconscious friend, Sarah got a crazy idea. Maybe she could do something. After glancing around again to confirm they were alone, Sarah closed the privacy curtains.

  No doubt a nurse would return at any moment, but she had a chance to try a little experiment. What better way to test the limits of her path than to see if she could share a gift with her friend?

  Sarah quickly opened the system store and spent all but one of her free points to purchase one healing potion. As soon as she confirmed, her inventory popped up, showing the health potion sitting in the room in her mind next to the Spirit potion.

  Fighting to contain her excitement, she willed the potion out of her inventory and it popped into her hand. Again, the potion did not resemble the classic health potion from video games or fantasy novels. It was not a fancy vial, filled with bright red liquid. It didn't look like the Spirit potion jar either.

  Instead, it was an old-fashioned, dark-colored glass bottle, like those used a hundred years ago. The entire bottle was covered in tiny runes etched into the glass, transforming the plain bottle into something intricate and fascinating. Again, she did not recognize the runes, and did not waste any time studying them.

  Barely containing her excitement, she popped the stopper and peered inside. The liquid seemed clear, or maybe it was brown like the bottle. Unlike the Spirit potion, it moved in the jar as easily as water. It smelled like spices, with a very prevalent smell of ginger. That reinforced its image of some kind of ancient tonic instead of a fantasy healing potion.

  Why would her personal magic progression path that created its own system store produce a healing potion that looked like a historical remedy instead of a fantasy potion? Sarah could not begin to guess, but honestly, she didn't care.

  “As long as you work,” she muttered.

  Then she gently tipped the liquid into Tawnya's mouth. She had never tried a system-generated potion, so could not ignore a prickle of worry that she was about to do something bad.

  No, it was labeled as a health potion, so even if it did not work on her, there was no way it would do something bad to her, right? Sarah forced down her worries, forced herself to believe, and continued slowly pouring the entire potion between Tawnya’s lips.

  She reflexively swallowed, and Sarah poured in the potion slowly enough that she did not lose any of it. When she finished, the little bottle disappeared in a puff of sparkling light.

  Crazy magic. She hovered over Tawnya, watching her closely. For a moment, nothing happened. Her fears spiked, and she worried that it would fail or hurt Tawnya since she did not have the system.

  Then Tawnya’s shallow, quick breathing slowed. She drew in a deep breath, then let it out in a long, slow sigh. The pallor of her skin was replaced by a healthier flush, and the beeping of the monitors all around the little room changed in pitch and frequency. Something had definitely happened.

  Sarah was no doctor, so she had no idea what the change in the sounds and the numbers flashing on the screens meant. All of Tawnya's wounds were covered by heavy bandages, so she could not check them to see if they really were improving, but she felt a rush of hope to see Tawnya sleeping more comfortably, her color so much better.

  A nurse came in just then, a middle-aged, stocky woman with warm, steady eyes. She pulled back the privacy curtain, took one step into the little room, then stopped. Her eyes flickered between the different monitors, then to Tawnya's face.

  Sarah watched closely, clearly reading the woman's shock and surprise. The nurse was professional, swiftly shook off her shock and rushed to Tawnya's side. She took her pulse, checked her temperature, her frown deepening all the while.

  She glanced over at Sarah and asked, “When did her condition start changing?”

  “Just a minute ago. She took a deep breath, and then she seemed to look better and sleep a little easier. Do you think she's going to be okay?”

  The nurse’s frown only deepened. “I don't know what to think yet. Excuse me.”

  She rushed away, shouting for a doctor.

  Sarah allowed herself a victorious grin. Just then, Tawnya groaned and blinked open her eyes. Sarah moved to her side and carefully took her hand, making sure not to disturb the bandages there.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Surprisingly good,” Tawnya answered, her breath a little hoarse. “Really thirsty.”

  Sarah found a cup filled with ice water nearby, with a long, flexible straw sticking out the top. She helped Tawnya drink. The potion seemed to be having a miraculous effect, even though it had only promised to restore up to fifty points.

  That would have only refilled about a fifth of Sarah's current health points. Then again, Tawnya did not have the system, was not walking its path, so maybe that made the potion heal her completely by default?

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  When Sarah was first shoved onto the path, her health points had been a lot less. It would have had that much more of an effect on her too. Regardless, she could not be happier.

  Her friend sighed after sipping for a moment and asked, “How long was I out? It must have been a while because I feel so much better. Did I slip into a coma or something?”

  Sarah grinned. “No, the restaurant attack happened just a couple days ago. You were not doing well, but all of a sudden started improving.”

  The nurse returned with not one, but three doctors and four other nurses. They rushed into the room, surrounding Tawnya, checking her pulse and temperature and peppering her with questions, while conversing together in rapid-fire medical jargon that Sarah could not follow. They all look shocked, but ecstatic.

  Sarah asked, “What's happening? Good news I hope?”

  “That's what we're trying to figure out,” one of the doctors said as he started peeling back one of the bandages on Tawnya's chest, where she had been shot.

  Sarah could not see the wound from where she stood. Too many medical personnel were hovering and leaning over Tawnya's bed. The gasps and exclamations of surprise told her everything she needed to know.

  The medical staff were flummoxed, but very professional. They very quickly confirmed that all of Tawnya's wounds had somehow started rapidly healing. They were not closed entirely, but looked like they were weeks old, not days.

  They again asked Sarah if she had noticed anything, and she repeated the same line she had told the nurse. They soon kicked her out so they could do a full series of tests on Tawnya to confirm she really had suddenly improved. One of the nurses admitted that she suspected Tawnya would be moved to a normal room for observation soon.

  Jill made a big fuss, demanding to see Tawnya again, but was denied, despite pleading and even weeping very theatrically. The nurse told her kindly, but firmly that they could visit Tawnya tomorrow.

  Jill stomped away from the desk with a scowl, but then stopped and turned to Sarah, her expression changing to a thoughtful one. It was kind of weird seeing her look so intense.

  “Sarah, do you think Tawnya's sudden healing has anything to do with how you healed from that gunshot wound so fast?”

  Sarah struggled to conceal her dismay. Jill was not supposed to be a deep thinker. She managed what she hoped was nonchalant shrug. “How could it?”

  Jill threw up her hands in exasperation. “How am I supposed to know? I barely understood what we were doing down in the vault. Tomas and that crazy Eirene lady were doing some weird stuff. It was like a drug-induced nightmare.”

  Sarah gave her a hug. “I'm glad we made it out of there when we did.”

  “Me too, but still. What if a side effect of those machines that no one has figured out yet was some kind of inherent rapid healing? It could be worth millions.”

  “That would be cool, but don't mention that to anyone.” At Jill's confused look, Sarah continued. “The technology has been lost. There's already a legal firestorm and too many lawsuits to count. If we drop a bomb like the possibility of super healing onto that firestorm, who knows what kind of insanity you'd spark?”

  Jill cocked her head to one side, considering the point. Then she flashed a smile. “Could get a lot more screen time, though.”

  Sarah laughed and headed for the exit. “You're already on the news every day. Don't give everyone an excuse to get distracted by somebody else. Tawnya could become the new face of Alterego. Where would that leave you?”

  Jill considered that, and Sarah hoped she would just drop it. She did not need any more attention. She left the hospital with a spring in her step and a smile on her face. Her path really could create health potions that could heal anyone, not just her.

  Could she somehow get a lot more free points and buy a ton of them? Would they cure something like cancer? The possibilities seemed endless, but she'd have to be careful how she proceeded. Once word got out about her system, she'd never get a moment's peace again in her life.

  Worse, would some nameless government agency kidnap her and try to pick through her brain to figure out where the system came from, or how to replicate it? No, she had to understand more before she made a move like that.

  The rest of the day passed quickly, although she had to repeatedly fend off aggressive reporters. She also got a visit from one of the police investigators. Instead of asking about the restaurant attack, they had questions about Tawnya's swift recovery.

  Apparently, the female EMT who had tried to treat Sarah at the restaurant, but found her wounds already healed, had included that strange disconnect in her report. The police had actually picked up on that. It proved to be some annoyingly impressive work.

  The investigator, a tough-looking man with a blocky jaw and penetrating gaze fixed her with a stare that seemed to see way too much and finished with, “Do you know what is causing the rapid healing?”

  “No,” Sarah said, but by his frown, it was clear he could tell she was lying.

  “Is there some kind of enhanced healing or recovery drug that Alterego developed in addition to its body transfer technology?”

  He jumped to the same conclusion that Jill had, and it gave Sarah an out to avoid sharing the truth, which he never would have believed.

  She sighed. “Detective, you're pretty clever. I will admit that I was injured by the gunmen at the restaurant, but I did heal rapidly.”

  “How?” he asked, for once looking astonished. Even discussing transferring souls between bodies had not rattled him at all.

  She held up a hand. “First, I don't know why it happened. I was so shocked at the time that I told the EMT I hadn’t been wounded. I needed to process what was going on.”

  “Can you hazard a guess as to what that might be?”

  Sarah shrugged. “I honestly don’t know, and I have no knowledge of anything that was part of the body-transfer technology that might affect a body's ability to heal. That's a question for Mr Fleischer or, more likely, Dr Maerwynn.”

  “Alterego has far too many secrets that I fear will never be answered,” the detective admitted with a grimace. “Losing the body transfer technology may or may not be a good thing for the world. The politicians and pastors can decide that question, but a way to help people heal more quickly? That’s something the world needs.”

  “I agree,” Sarah admitted honestly, but did not add that it was something she was already looking into.

  The detective seemed like a good man and he was right. If she could harness the healing aspect of her system, it could save a lot of lives, and that was the most exciting thing she had experienced in a long time.

  Before the detective left, Sarah felt she had to caution him to be careful how he shared that information. If Alterego really was working on something like rapid healing, no doubt it was highly classified and proprietary. Despite the company's legal and solvency issues, recklessly revealing an industry secret like that could devastate the company even further.

  “I know the procedures for safeguarding proprietary information, miss,” he assured her. “I don't plan to make any public statements about the rapid healing, at least not yet, but I will include my findings in my report. If we're lucky, maybe Mr Fleischer can shed some light on it.”

  “I hope so,” she lied.

  One more reason to get in touch with Tomas. Could she warn him somehow without revealing her path? Life was getting too crazy and too complicated. She needed help, and Tomas and Eirene were the only resources she might rely on.

  Despite the danger speaking with them represented, her new path was consuming her life. They knew far more about the crazy world of magic and soul stealing. Hopefully they could shed some light on what was happening to her.

  Sarah considered ways to bring up her questions without revealing everything at once. She didn’t settle on any great ideas, but couldn’t hesitate any longer.

  “Hopefully I’m not making a giant mistake,” she growled as she logged into her computer and sent an email to Tomas, asking if they could meet.