Chapter 45: Brain Circuit?

Two days had slipped by since Orion’s collapse, his body succumbing to the Trihydra’s venomous strike, and still, he hadn’t stirred. The medical facility, a dim sanctuary of stone and herbs, hummed with quiet tension under the night’s cover.

The air carried the faint tang of antiseptic and the earthy scent of drying plants, the only light from a flickering lantern casting long shadows across the room. Orion lay on a narrow cot, his broad chest rising and falling in shallow breaths, the black veins that had once pulsed across his skin now faded to faint, ghostly traces. His eyes remained closed, his face pale and still, a stark contrast to the commanding alpha he’d been.

Ronan, now in charge of the pack since Orion was not available, moved with a steady resolve, his deep voice a low murmur as he coordinated the pack’s defense.

Brynhild, true to her word, had found someone to provide the necessary changes for Sophia to live peacefully.

Sophia found solace in the changes to her own space. Her kitchen, once bare, now held a sturdy iron stove, a gleaming kettle, and an array of utensils, pots, pans, and wooden spoons, arranged with care. Too bad she had no idea how to use most of the utensils.

The warmth of her bath water eased the chill from her bones, a luxury she relished after days of bathing cold, freezing water.

Her clothes, too, were being tailored, thick woolen trousers and a fur-lined cloak cut to her frame, replacing Brynhild’s oversized loans.

Ronan had covered the costs, his gruff generosity a surprise, though Sophia insisted, "I’ll pay you back, I promise," her voice firm with determination.

Sophia had no idea that the clothes even required payment. It wasn’t until Ronan paid with his coin that she realized. And she was determined to get the money to pay him back.

That night, the medical facility grew quiet as the pack settled. Tobias returned from his business. He slipped into the room where Ronan, Lysander, and Orion rested, the door creaking softly behind him. The lantern’s glow illuminated their faces as they gathered at a little distance from Orion’s cot, their voices hushed to avoid disturbing the unconscious alpha.

Ronan leaned close, his broad frame casting a shadow. "You’re later than usual, Tobias. What held you up? You said you’d be back in three days."

"I kept my promise to Sophia. I told her I’ll try to find her when I get back and so I searched for her. I tried to ensure she was okay, tracked leads, asked traders. But I couldn’t find any trace of her. No travelers, no records. So I came back after everything hoping she was here. She is here, right?" He asked them.

He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he found out that she had been hurt and he just neglected her.

"She is." Lysander replied.

Ronan’s lips twitched into a grin. "You’ve taken a liking to her, haven’t you? You never warm to people this fast."

Tobias chuckled, a dry rasp that barely rose above a whisper. "Maybe she’s got a spark. Or maybe I’m just tired of your sour face."

He moved his hands to his satchel and brought out a book.

"For me?" Ronan asked him with a smile.

Tobias scoffed. "As if."

Tobias gave the book to Lysander. "I got what you asked for." He told him.

Lysander, hunched over a cluttered table nearby, accepted the leather-bound tome with a grunt. His blonde hair, tied back with stray strands escaping, framed his face.

He flipped through the yellowed pages, his brow furrowing as he skimmed the text. "There is nothing here that I wasn’t already aware of," he grumbled. "This is just basic and common amnesia knowledge..."

"Can’t say it’s common since I never even knew of the condition." Ronan said but Lysander ignored him, pouring over the book.

"This just contains vague triggers which are useless. And not a single drug to help cure the condition. What’s the point?" He turned to a page with intricate drawings, cross-sections of the brain, labeled with looping script, and diagrams of neural pathways in fine ink. "Look at this," he muttered, tapping a sketch of a brain split into lobes, each marked with tiny, rune-like annotations. "They’ve mapped the memory centers like a mapmaker’s dream, see this fractured network? It’s like a dam holding back her past, trauma locking it tight. And here," he pointed to a drawing of blood flow with glowing lines, "they suggest memory loss shifts the mind’s rivers, but no potion to redirect it. These sketches, brain layers, neural threads, are art, not answers. I need a key, not a painting!"

Tobias leaned closer, his brow knitting. "Speak simpler, healer. I’m no scholar."

Lysander sighed, rubbing his neck. "Fine. It’s about the brain, how Sophia’s amnesia might work. I don’t get it all yet, but I’ll study it. The drawings are clever, showing memory blocks, but no cures. I’ll figure it out." His grumbling held a spark of intrigue, a healer’s mind wrestling with the puzzle.

"So you mean Sophia has a brain injury?" Ronan asked him.

"Wasn’t that obvious?" Lysander asked him.

"But how do you know she has a brain injury when we can’t even see inside her brain?" He asked them and Tobias nodded, also getting in line with Ronan’s question.

"Gods help me," Lysander muttered with his gaze fixed to the sky before turning to them. "When I say injury, I don’t mean it in the literal sense."

"Um...but injury is injury right?" Tobias asked him.

"Yes. But there are some injuries one can’t see. For example, an injury to your wolf spirit." He told them.

"I’d feel it if Dracon was injured." Ronan pointed out.

"That’s it. You feel it but people don’t see it. Sophia’s condition is like an injury to the circuits of the brain. Like I said, something is blocking her memory..."

"So...what’s a circuit to the brain?" Ronan asked him.

Lysander blinked, he could not understand how he was friends with people like this. He released a sigh and explained it the best way he could.

"It’s like a road to the brain. It sends information from the body to the brain." He told them.

"Like the road to the black market?" Tobias asked him.

"Like that."

"So that part...memory lane is blocked right? Like when that huge rock fell over the road to the black market?" Ronan asked Lysander who nodded. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"That’s intense." Tobias said.

"So how do we remove the rock?" Ronan asked Lysander.

"That’s what I’m trying to research and why I told Tobias to get me this book." He told him as he raised the book in his arms.

"Oh."

"Yeah oh. Now do you all understand?" Lysander asked them like he was speaking to students.

"Maybe." Tobias said to him the same time Ronan said, "not really."

Lysander ignored them, done with their antics and their brains and went back to the book.

Tobias shifted his gaze to Ronan, "Why are there so many Skylur bodies lately? I heard five were dragged in today."

Ronan straightened, his voice dropping to a whisper. "To be sincere, we don’t know. The day Sophia was sent out, we found her being attacked by one and we know Skylurs don’t travel alone but in packs of at least four or so. If not for the whistle you gave her, we would have walked in on her body."

Tobias’ eyes widened. "Really?" He asked in shock.

"Yeah, that’s why Sam was sent to you. We had to make sure you were okay and that the whistle wasn’t stolen or you were injured somewhere." Ronan told him.

"As you can see, I’m good. Do I get my whistle back?" Tobias asked him.

Ronan removed it from his pocket and gave it to him. Tobias wore it and gave him his thanks.

"But I saw ten bodies, not five." Tobias pointed out.

"Thats because we were attacked some days ago. A trihydra was with the pack." Ronan told him.

Tobias’s eyes narrowed with worry. "How the fuck is that possible? Trihydras and Skylurs are enemies."

"I suspect there’s something wrong but we don’t know yet. Nirvana has always been mysterious, maybe some magic is making them unsettled." Ronan pointed out.

"Brynhild said the same thing." Lysander muttered.

"Shouldn’t we go out to check then?" Tobias asked them.

"I’m planning on it. I’ve put a team on standby in case they hear anything or see anything strange. I plan on speaking with madam Tyler about reinforcing the charms, once Orion wakes up, I’ll lead a team into the forest to see if we can pinpoint what’s wrong."

Tobias nodded. "Anyway, this just gives us good business. Someone’s been searching for Skylur fangs in the black market."

Lysander frowned, his voice a hushed question. "Skylur fangs?"

"Yeah." Tobias replied to him.

"Why?" Lysander asked him.