Chapter 64: The Trial of Vorin

  Empty white fades into a familiar bustling market district. Memories flood in with all the sights, smells, and sounds colliding into Vorin’s senses. Looking around he realized this was the market in Gale.

  Why has the System brought me here of all places? I suppose this is where I’m from so perhaps it is taking me back to my origins.

  Before he could finish processing his thoughts he heard someone to his left faintly cough. Upon further inspection it was clearly someone young, so Vorin ran over and asked if he could use his skill to heal the young woman.

  Echo Cough has been added to Plague Collection

  Echo Cough: Highly Contagious. Symptoms include a nasty cough that follows the cough of whomever you caught the illness from.

  “Huh, that’s odd. I’ve never heard of that one before. This must be System generated for the trial.”

  A young man to his right sneezed. Normally people wouldn’t blink at a cough or a sniffle, but as a plague doctor, Vorin keeps his ears open.

  Mirror Cold has been added to Plague Collection

  Mirror Cold: Highly Contagious. Symptoms include instant cold symptoms any time the infected hears a cough.

  “Okay this is just getting ridiculous now. These sound like made up diseases. At least they don’t seem to be fatal.”

  He healed both of the sick when he used his ability. They both walked off looking much better.

  Vorin decided to go see if the System made an echo of his friends in this simulated Gale. He started to walk from where he was but had to stop when a cacophony of coughs started in the mass of people followed by more sneezes.

  It took him nearly three hours to gather everyone and heal them. His mana ran dry an hour in, and he had to take a break. The crowd applauded him, and he wished them all well before walking off to check in with the medical center.

  People were packed into the medical center. Vorin could barely get in the door let alone move around once he got in. Constant coughs followed by sneezes followed by more cough followed by more sneezes, rang though the halls. This was clearly his trial. He wished the System had made less annoying diseases.

  With everyone healed and the more generalized healers thanking him, he started to walk to his home to get some sleep. Even though it seemed to be constant coughing and sneezing his trial didn’t seem all that bad. Definitely not as bad as Zul’s physical gauntlet.

  Sunshine was barely starting to light up the city when the alarms went off. Vorin woke up with a jolt and ran outside.

  No one was outside. Gale had become a ghost town and Vorin started getting a bad feeling in his stomach. Without another thought he took off running back to the medical center.

  After fighting his way back inside, the sight he saw made his heart sink. People were coughing, sneezing, and were running extremely high fevers. He walked over and placed his hand on the first person he saw.

  Mirrored Echo Flu has been added to Plague Collection

  Mirrored Echo Flu: Extremely contagious. Can be transmitted through light, sound, or touch. Symptoms are similar to a normal flu.

  Vorin immediately yelled out that everyone without a class needs to get out of the hospital before they get sick. Then he started healing everyone. Once that was done, he realized this probably had spread like wildfire and took advantage of the city-wide quarantine to make house calls. It took him a week, but he visited every household and completely eradicated the mutated flu.

  As he walked back to his house people were thanking him once more, but he was lost in thought.

  I don’t understand what I’m supposed to be learning from this trial. My flaw is the burden of leadership, yet it has centered around my ability to heal illness. I’m missing something here.

  The next morning, he was glad to see the life had returned to the city. He was happy to walk around and see everyone healthy. People stopped to thank him and talk to him about payment. Of course, he waved them off. His intention was never to get paid or to seek recognition. It was to commit to his class like all class chosen should.

  His walk took him to the small house he grew up in. The building was tiny, and it fit his parents, his two brothers, and himself. That fact still amazed him. There was never a minute of privacy and personal space didn’t exist. In the real world this house had been torn down years ago. The System was clearly pointing him to the memories of his past.

  A tiny part of him wanted to go inside, but the memories of the place weren’t fond ones. Too much yelling and disappointment haunted those tiny rooms. For now, he would continue his walk. Since he had gone to every house already when curing the ill, he had confirmed that none of his friends were here. Not even the twins which he was sad about.

  When he walked close to the wall and passed a guard tower it made him think of his baby brother and how he now was in guard training back in Gale in preparation to get his class. Vorin didn’t do a good job at keeping up with him when he was in the city. There was no reason not to connect with him more. He just found he was never very good at that when it came to his family. Guilt panged in his heart at the realization that he was probably a bad brother. They just never had been that close.

  A shriek from a monster climbing over the wall caught his attention and suppressed his thoughts. He ran to take care of the problem and figure out what happened to the guard in that tower to miss such a beast.

  The monster was a common one around gale. A slug that had the legs of a frog. Its slime was acidic and could melt anyone by jumping on top of them and smothering them until it was over. Luckily, Vorin knew all this and was able to efficiently cut the beast and deliver a potent plague that dried the slug out until it died.

  Checking on the guard revealed he had passed out due to illness. There was blood coming from his eyes.

  Mana-infused Mirrored Echo Flu has been added to Plague Collection

  Mana-infused Mirrored Echo Flu: A mutation from mirrored echo flu that has gained the ability to absorb mana to increase potency.

  Frustration overwhelmed Vorin as he healed the guard. His efforts were somehow failing. He was sure to eradicate all instances of the flu the past few days. Now it had mutated again and became even more dangerous. This guard was a class chosen.

  A disease being transmitted through light is unheard of and the fact this was ramping up to become even more dangerous made Vorin act quickly. There was an immediate quarantine while he started to heal the city for the third time. Unfortunately, he couldn’t get to everyone immediately and twelve people had succumbed to the newfound potency.

  Officials of Gale enforced a quarantine for days after he finished healing this new version to ensure that the disease was gone. In that time, they burnt the bodies of those that died from the illness. Vorin looked on into the flames and felt the guilt rising once again. He should have been able to save them!

  Over the extra days of quarantine, he laid in bed going over what he could have done differently to save them. What he could have done differently to save Layola. What he could have done differently to save Bylken, their healer. He knew that the cycle was starting once again, and he knew that it wouldn’t solve anything. Still his thoughts spiraled until he didn’t even want to get out of bed. Unfortunately, the System had other plans.

  Sirens started to ring out once again and someone came to his door.

  “Sir, I’m sorry to bother you, but we need your help again. There is another outbreak and it’s bad. Twenty-three have already been confirmed dead.”

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  “What? How?! Were they breaking the quarantine?”

  “No sir. We have no idea how it was spread.”

  Vorin left with the man, and they went door to door once more except this time he placed his hands on everyone to ensure the eradication of the disease. Another sixty-seven were found dead when making their rounds.

  On top of this crisis, the citizens of Gale started to get angry. A lot of them thought the city officials were making the outbreak up or using this to control the population for some gain. This resulted in more people breaking quarantine. Guards started arresting these citizens. All these actions ramped up the spread of the disease once more and soon a quarter of the population was dead. Fear took over where there was anger or mistrust. Only four guards had not fallen to the disease and now Vorin was taking it upon himself to keep the city safe from monsters while also battling the ever-mutating disease.

  When word got out that Gale had a plague specialist, refugees from around the world started arriving by the boatload to escape cities that completely fell to this horrible flu. Refugee camps had to be set up throughout the market district and Vorin was constantly healing people. What he found was that all these refugees had different diseases. Some just weren’t showing any symptoms yet.

  Mana Shingles has been added to Plague Collection

  Mana Shingles: Moderately Contagious. Painful skin ailment caused by the body of the infected absorbing too much mana.

  System Shock has been added to Plague Collection

  System Shock: Moderately Contagious. Only passed between people that share the same class. Causes a painful shock to your mind whenever interacting with the System.

  Monster Sickness has been added to Plague Collection

  Monster Sickness: Highly contagious. Whenever in a 50 meter range of a monster you become fatally ill.

  Instant Cancer has been added to Plague Collection

  Instant Cancer: Contagion level unknown. Some class chosen get instant cancer when using a skill. This fatal disease kills its victims within a day.

  Stoneblight has been added to Plague Collection

  Stoneblight: Extremely Contagious. Become solid stone. This process takes two days to complete.

  These were only a few of the ridiculous diseases that the System came up with. Some were fatal, some were only mild, but all of them were a problem when the Mirrored Echo Flu started to mutate and incorporate them all. Vorin couldn’t keep up with the number of cases popping up. People started dying daily.

  ***

  Two years passed and the world was grim. Each day they would start by burning the bodies from the day before. The death count was in the billions at this point. Most of the population had flocked to Gale in search of Vorin.

  He was exhausted from constantly using his skills, but it had been good for his progress. His mental health had plummeted, however. At first, he thought he could just outpace the disease. That ended up being a fool’s dream. His efforts weren’t enough, and he was pushing as hard as he could. That’s when he decided to use his other skills to try and fight fire with fire.

  Over the past two years he had created one hundred and eighty-two iterations of his own plague that was designed to eliminate other plagues. They would work briefly, and he could take a break from healing for a couple of weeks and then the damn flu would mutate again. The System was mocking him, and it was taking its toll.

  “Why am I never good enough?!” Vorin screamed while the ill were all around him waiting to be healed. This was his third outburst in the last twenty minutes. He never could figure out why people were lining up to follow him or rely on him. This was not what he asked for and the pressure was too much. Of course he was the only one that could help them, but some people started to worship him like he was their savior. The truth is that he is just a regular person. There has never been anything special about him or at least that’s what he told himself. Still people flocked to him naturally.

  Deep down he knew the cycle of guilt would get worse and worse until there was nothing left of himself. He didn’t know how to stop.

  How do people let things go? How do people not blame themselves? How do people not care? No matter what I do, people seem to follow me even though I keep failing them.

  Exhaustion was written on his face constantly. Another thousand people died. Another thousand deaths on his hands because he couldn’t be strong enough in his class. He slammed his fists on the table and walked out of his office.

  The sun shined down on him, and he realized it had been almost a year since he had been outside. His days were filled with healing and crafting a plague fighting plague. His mind emptied as he walked, and stress started to wash away. When he looked up, he realized that his childhood home was once again his destination. This time he decided to go inside. Nothing could make him feel worse than letting the world die.

  Creaking open, the door revealed a dark room that was once a living room for his family. Memories flashed to life as he watched him, and his brothers play with toys on the carpet. His parents weren’t paying attention to them like always. He was surprised they were even home. His little brother, Rory, was complaining that Vorin had taken his favorite toy. Their baby brother, Gram, was trying to get their parents’ attention to show them the drawing he had just completely that looked like a bunch of scribbles on paper. Rory continued to cry and scream at Vorin to give him back his toy. Vorin was obviously denying doing anything wrong as kids do and that was when his mom had enough. She slapped Rory for making too much noise. Of course he started crying. Then Gram had started to cry because she was ignoring him. Both their parents yelled and then left them alone to go upstairs. Vorin was left to comfort the screaming children. He gave Rory his toy back and told him that he was sorry. Then he looked at Gram’s drawing and told him it was the best he had ever seen. That was the day he realized his responsibility.

  As he turned into the dark kitchen, he remembered getting up early on education days to get his brother’s breakfast and send them off. He couldn’t remember where his parents would always go, but they were never there. His brothers always would complain about how awful his cooking was. It was all they had.

  He walked up the stairs to where the bedrooms were. Walking into the bigger of the two, he remembered his parents’ bed and how it was always empty. Instead of sharing the room with his brothers he would sleep in there since they never seemed to use it. Sometimes they would stumble in when it was still dark out and would scream at him to get out. The pain of his mother’s class enhanced slaps was still something he felt when things went wrong.

  Shame surged up his body when he reached for the doorknob to the room he was supposed to share with his brothers. He took a deep breath to shove it down and gain the courage to open the door.

  They only ever had two beds in there. When he did sleep in the room, Rory and Gram would share a bed and he’d take the other. He smiled at the memory of those late-night conversations with his brothers. The minds of kids are something spectacular. Where did we come up with all that stuff?

  A memory started to unfold, and he knew this was the one he had had been avoiding. Rory was laying in his bed on a cold winter day, and he was complaining about how sick he was feeling. His fever was high, and he had this bad cough. Vorin thought he was just overexaggerating as he often did. Rory pleaded with him to take him to the medical center, but the truth was that Vorin just wasn’t feeling it that day. He had been screamed at by his parents the night before and he was angry at them. So instead of taking his brother, he told him to wait for his parents. It was their responsibility. Those were his actual words even though he knew they had never taken responsibility for anything in their entire lives.

  Anger and hatred boiled from within him. His parents had failed him and his brothers, but the feelings were pointed inwards at himself. He knew this would always be his biggest failure. This was the day his brother died because he couldn’t get over his hurt feelings for his parents.

  Suddenly, the memory faded, and he found himself downstairs in a new one. His parents had come home two days later and complained about how bad the house smelled. Vorin never dared to yell at his parents because he knew there would be a class powered strike coming if he did. When they started to scream at him that day he just took it. Their mother didn’t even shed a tear when she learned of his brother’s death. It was just more screaming. They told him it was his fault. He was to blame. He should be ashamed of himself for not being able to save his brother.

  Vorin held back tears and rage while watching the memory unfold until he shifted to become that little kid again. His mom was screaming while his dad stood in the background without any emotion like usual. This time would be different.

  “Shut up! This was not my fault. He was your son. Do you even know what that means? You were supposed to protect him! You were supposed to protect us! Hell, the bare minimum was to care at least a little bit, and you couldn’t even do that! I was eight years old, and you blamed me?! Where were you when your son, my brother, died?! Why did you even have kids? This was your fault. There was no way I could have known how serious it was at eight years old. This was the day you both left and never came home again and you know what? It was the best decision you ever made. Gram and myself made something of ourselves. We had to bury our own brother that day. Once he was in the cold ground, we knew our lives had changed forever. At eight and five. I always tell myself and others that he and I aren’t close, but that’s a lie. We are probably the closest people in our lives to one another because we know what we had to go through. Once we were able to be on our own we stopped seeing each other less and less because we remind each other of that horrible winter day. The smell of our dead brother that permeated this house. The crunch of the snow as we dragged his body into his early grave. I am an awful brother. I’ll admit to that, but I’m not an awful leader. At the very least I’m not the worst because you two couldn’t even spare a thought to care about the people under your responsibility. At least I care and I try to be better. At least I attempt to keep the people under me safe. Even if everyone on this planet dies from these plagues, at least I did something. I’m proud that I at least tried.”

  Tears flowed down his face as the revelation broke the dam down and all the built-up trauma finally was let go. It wasn’t a gentle stream, but a raging river. He realized that when he let go of the guilt from that first death, the guilt from the others followed. Some things are simply out of his control. All he can do is try his best which he has time and time again. That’s why people follow him. Being a leader isn’t about making sure nothing bad happens because things will always happen, it’s about caring when something does happen and doing your best to lead them through the situation.

  His childhood home and memories faded back into the blinding white space. Tears fell and vanished just like his guilt.