A High Price

**Shaira's POV**

We arrived in Sagoria, followed by the shadows of night that engulfed us. It had been a tough stretch, and Assu’s wound kept bleeding regularly.

“We need to find a doctor,” I said, worried. “You can’t keep walking like this. You’re going to bleed out.”

“Let’s get home first, and then we’ll see,” he said, looking as pale as my natural skin tone.

I complied with his wish, and as soon as I laid him down on the only bed in the hut we entered, I rushed out to find someone who could treat Assu’s wound. But to everyone I asked, I was a stranger—someone they didn’t recognize. It wasn’t until I mentioned Assu that I got an answer. I returned with a healer who, upon seeing the merchant, couldn’t hide his concern.

“He’s lost too much blood. I’m afraid there’s not much I can do now.”

“What?” I exclaimed. “No, that can’t be! Please! You have to do something!”

The healer pursed his lips.

“For now, the only thing I can do is stop the bleeding and give him some food that might help him recover. But he’ll be at risk of dying if he doesn’t get blood immediately, and that’s something only the eteri know how to do.”

“Where can I find them?”

The healer looked at me as if I didn’t understand anything he was trying to tell me.

“Girl, where are you from? Don’t you realize I’m telling you that there’s nothing more that can be done for him? The eteri are in the fortress, which we’re forbidden from approaching. Even if you could reach it, they wouldn’t send one of their doctors to save the life of an opranchi.”

The healer’s words created a void in my chest, like an abyss opening beneath my feet.

A few onlookers had gathered around the hut, perhaps drawn by my appearance, my desperate search for a doctor, or because they knew Assu.

“There’s an eteri doctor among the settlers,” said a middle-aged woman who had been watching from the doorway of the hut. “He might be able to help you, girl, though I hear he charges a lot.”

“It doesn’t matter; I’ll pay whatever it takes. Where can I find him?”

Those who heard my question looked at me curiously, as if the woman had already told me where the doctor was simply by mentioning he was “among the settlers.”

“I’m new here, I only know Assu. Please, if someone could tell me where.”

The same woman who had suggested the eteri doctor offered to take me. When I tried to tell Assu I was going to fetch the doctor, I saw that he was unconscious.

“Go quickly, girl. I’ll stay with him,” the healer said.

It felt like my feet had turned to lead as we walked towards the settlers' land, which required crossing vast fields of crops lit only by a lantern the woman carried—one she said she had bought from the eteri.

“I thought you were an eteri,” the woman said, “but you speak our language too well to be one.”

I would have preferred to remain silent about my supposed identity, something I wasn’t even sure of myself, but I had to rely on the story I had crafted in Zuwua about my mixed origins.

“Do you speak the eteri language?” the woman asked next.

“The eteri language?” I didn’t even know what it sounded like. “I…”

“Because if you do, you could pass as one of them, and the doctor might treat you better and have pity on you.”

I said nothing and remained silent until we arrived at the eteri doctor’s house, a two-story building in the middle of vast cereal fields.

“Who’s there?” A man emerged from the house, holding a shotgun.

The woman I was with raised her hands, and I did the same.

“If you know how to speak eteri, now’s the time, girl.”

I knew my ability to speak the opranchi language was due to an implant in my head, which caused a tingling sensation whenever I spoke the native tongue. But to activate the language I needed, I had to hear some words or phrases in it first.

I couldn’t switch languages at will, or at least, I didn’t know how.

I approached the man and noticed that, upon seeing me, he relaxed his expression.

“What do you need, girl? Are you alright?” he asked in a language very different from opranchi, yet one I instantly understood, though without the tingling sensation I usually felt.

“I’m fine, yes, sir. Thank you. I came because I need a doctor, and the woman with me said there’s one here.”

“I’m the doctor. Is it for you? Are you from a nearby farm? I haven’t seen you before, girl.”

“It’s for my husband, sir. He’s been wounded and is bleeding out. He’s already lost a lot of blood. I’m not from here, nor from a farm, sir. I live in Sagoria.”

The man looked me up and down, unable to hide his surprise at my appearance, but more than that, perhaps, at how fluently I spoke his language without the slightest accent.

“He’ll need a blood transfusion. I’ll go get the necessary equipment.”

“Thank you, sir. You’re very kind.”

“But it won’t be cheap, girl. Blood transfusion equipment is very expensive. You won’t find it anywhere except the fortress, and they won’t lend it to you, not even if you were a settler. I’ll also charge for the trip to that village of beggars, an extra for the hour, and another for the risk I’m taking by bringing my equipment, where it could be stolen by those savages. Do you understand?”

I didn’t fully grasp what I was getting into, and the way this man spoke didn’t inspire much confidence. But I had no other choice. Assu’s life was on the line, and I had no alternative but to accept his terms.

“Alright, sir. I’ll pay whatever you ask.”

I saw the man smile, barely hiding the malice in it.

“Good, girl. I’ll be back in five minutes.”

The man went inside and returned with a small case that didn’t seem large enough to hold the expensive, exclusive equipment he had mentioned, though it did have a sophisticated appearance.

“Where did you grow up, girl? Among these savages?” he said when I expressed doubt about what he was carrying. “This device doesn’t just perform blood transfusions; it also adapts the blood to the needed blood type.”

I made no further comments, as time was running out, and we still had a long journey back.

When we returned to Sagoria, the healer had applied a poultice to Assu’s wound, but he was still pale and unconscious.

“He still has a chance,” said the healer when he saw the eteri doctor arrive. The doctor shot him a look of disdain.

“I don’t know how you can live in these conditions, girl,” the doctor said, his eyes scanning the hut. “And you, being so pretty, why do you mix with one of these savages? If you ever realize this isn’t your place, I’ll be waiting for you,” he added with a wink that only fueled my anger, though I held it back. Assu’s life now depended on this man’s skills.

Without much care, the doctor grabbed Assu’s arm and passed his hand over the surface of the case, which then expanded into a variety of containers, screens, and mechanical arms. This triggered another flash of memories, images from a silent, incomprehensible past, projecting a vision of my own arm being pricked by the same kind of needle now piercing Assu’s skin.

I closed my eyes, pushing the memory away, focusing on the present.

I saw the doctor watching one of the illuminated screens of the complex blood transfusion device.

“The blood flow reading is quite low,” he said with a smile, as if pleased with the discovery. “If we had been five minutes later, you’d be a widow, sweetheart.” He looked at me with thinly veiled lust. “But he’ll be fine, darling. Don’t worry anymore.”

I took a relieved breath. As repulsive as the doctor was, I now owed him Assu’s life, and that was enough reason to tolerate him.

“I’m going to give him some of your blood, sweetheart,” the doctor said, reaching out to take my arm. “You’ll only feel a little pinch, nothing more.”

My blood flowed from my veins into Assu’s, and within minutes, he began to regain color in his skin. Soon after, he woke up.

Overflowing with joy, I wanted to hug him, but more of my blood was still needed to fully restore him.

“Your husband is out of the woods now,” said the doctor after reading Assu’s vital signs on one of the device’s screens. “Now, as for the payment, like I warned you, sweetheart, it won’t be cheap.”

“I’ll pay whatever you need, doctor,” Assu said, now fully recovered and understanding the eteri language.

“How much do I owe you?”

The doctor looked at Assu, surprised that he spoke and understood his language.

“I’m afraid the debt was contracted by her,” the doctor said. “I won’t accept any payment other than a personal one from your wife.”

“What do you mean?” Assu asked, clearly irritated. “Just tell me the price in credits, and I’ll transfer them to your account, doctor.”

The doctor removed the needle from Assu’s arm and mine, ran his hand over the device again, and closed it.

“Your wife and I didn’t agree on a price in credits, my friend,” the doctor said, his eyes gleaming with malice. “She incurred a personal debt, one that can only be paid in person, if you catch my meaning.”