The journey back was easy. Everything seemed easy after defeating the mutant centipede. Some of Alanna's bones still ached, but she had done the impossible: Taken on and defeated a dangerous monster all by herself. Granted, she didn't think she would have ever done it without Solizzar's help. Had he not taken her in, fed her, clothed her, and trained her to fight she would have likely died in these caves, all those months ago. Even if she had survived, she did not believe anything good would have come of it. She would have fled to the nearest town and been reduced to a beggar, or lived out of these caves like a feral animal.
She didn't just owe Solizzar her life, she owed him her future. She did not know if she could ever repay a debt that vast. She tried not to think about it, and instead just focussed on how much she wanted him to be proud of her, to show that his trust and belief in her hadn't been for nothing.
She thought about what she wanted to do once she left as she climbed the caverns back towards their shared home. Most settlements were walled in to protect from monsters, with an extra wall beyond that to protect farmland. The vast majority of people were born and died behind one set of these walls, never seeing the outside world except maybe from what visitors carried on them.
She thought about foraging as a profession. Mushrooms and herbs were rare within the walls for obvious reasons. If they happened to grow within sight someone would grab them for personal use or to sell off, so they had some value. She imagined a little cottage full of drying herbs, with a cozy fireplace to heat her during winter, and furs... Lots of furs. She hated how the orphanage never had thick blankets and how the floor was wood in every room. The draft could kill, Naji would say.
Her heart sank a little. She had no way of knowing what happened to Naji, whether she was safe or taken care of. Part of her wanted to run back home, sword held high, demand entrance to Birchhaven and take Naji with her to a new home. It was a foolish thought. Birchhaven had more soldiers defending the gate they threw her out of than she could hope to beat, and more yet beyond that. She discarded the thought as a childish fantasy, hoping Naji had been adopted someplace nice. She was a good person. Nobody deserves being thrown out on the streets... Or out the gate.
Alanna finally returned to the entrance to home, easily identifiable by the fact that the tunnel leading there was perfectly rectangular. She rushed the last stretch home, joy driving her legs despite how tired she was.
"Solizzar! I'm back!" she called out as she entered the laboratory. Everything was dark here, the firepit beneath the lab bench not burning, and the torches had been reduced to mere embers, not replaced since she left.
"Solizzar?" she called out. She called down each tunnel connected to the laboratory, hoping to hear from him, but there was nothing. Worry began to tighten her chest. She had never seen Solizzar leave his home, not for anything other than preparing her obstacle course, so for him to leave without even saying goodbye was completely unlike him.
She decided to look in the one room Solizzar had asked her not to enter: His personal abode. While she had always been curious what his room would be like, she respected his wishes too much to ever violate his privacy. At least, until now.
She pushed open the door. It creaked, and she was immediately hit with an awful smell, that of meat that had gone bad. She saw Solizzar on his bed. His breathing was labored, his robes discarded to the floor. There wasn't much reason for him to cover up, though his face had hints of masculinity insofar as a mass of worms in the shape of a face could have them, the rest of his body was merely the silhouette of a person cast in worms.
"Solizzar? What happened to you?" Alanna asked.
Solizzar turned his head slowly, as though only now awakening from a deep slumber.
"Alanna," he gasped, speaking slowly, as though struggling for every word. "I am sorry. I did not wish our goodbye to be like this."
She rushed to his side. Up close she could clearly see how unwell he was. Many of the worms that composed his skin had fallen off, his bed covered in dead castoffs. The bones that formed the framework of his body were clearly visible in places.
"You are dying," Alanna said, almost not believing it herself.
"You were always... Quick," Solizzar said.
"W-what can I do?! There has to be something!"
Solizzar shook his head. "When... When we use magic to create new life... New monsters... Their lifespans are never guaranteed. Some will die in hours. Some will last for hundreds of years. My time... My time is up."
Alanna fell to her knees. All the eagerness and hope she had felt earlier to her now brighter future felt dashed. As much as she had thought about what she wanted to do, she never thought about where Solizzar would be in her future. Some part of her had quietly assumed he would always have been here, in these caves, offering sage advice over a cut of freshly-cooked game.
