Ava did so. The rabbit gave a last breath, and the noise fell silent.
After a few moments, Ava said, “It worked. His heart stopped. I felt the moment he rejoined his Elementai. They’re together now, even if they can’t get into the Ancestral Lands.”
“Very good, Ava,” Sophia stated. “Now you understand that healing magic isn’t just restoring. It is also taking.”
Fabric rustled as she wrapped the rabbit’s body in a blanket and took him into the house. “I will bury him beside his Elementai after our lesson. It’s only right that they be reunited. No Elementai should be separated from their Familiar for long.”
There was an ache in her voice I couldn’t place and didn’t understand. Ava turned to Sophia. “Mama, if I can do all this so easily, maybe there’s more I can do— like how I healed Charlie in the hospital.”
“What were you thinking?” Sophia asked curiously.
“Can you go get Daddy?” Ava asked.
Sophia hesitated. “Ava, I know you don’t want to see your father suffer, but this won’t be the same. We’ve had the best Anichi healers working with him for decades?—”
“No, you haven’t,” Ava insisted. “I’m the best Anichi healer there is, and you didn’t haveme. Can’t I at least talk to him about it and see what he thinks?”
Sophia sighed and stood from her chair. “You can talk to him, but ultimately, this decision is up to him.”
Sophia left to go get Liam.
I turned to Ava. “You think you can heal your dad’s illness the same way you healed me from the poison?”
“Why not?” Ava asked. “I regrew wholeorgans. Why can’t I regrow my father’s body?”
“Because his illness affects every organ and body system all at once,” I said. “When you regrew my body, it was similar to transplanting one organ at a time. Your dad’s condition would require you to destroy him altogether, and if you did that, there’d be nothing left to regrow.”
“We don’t know that,” Ava argued. “At least let me talk to him.”
“Even if you could heal him, you need to be prepared if he says no,” I pressed.
“I know you wouldn’t want to be cured of your blindness, but this is different,” Ava insisted.
“Is it?” I shook my head. “I’ve lived most of my life as a blind person. I’ve learned how to navigate the world in my own way. If you were to regrow my eyes and give me my sight back, I wouldn’t know what to do with it. I’d be too overstimulated, and I’d have to completely change the way I interact with life and learn a whole new way of being. My disability has never been the problem— the problem is the way people treat me. But here in Ilamanthe, where everything is accessible to people like us, I don’t feel like my disability is a hindrance, because I’m given the tools I need to thrive. I like the way I experience the world, and I wouldn’t want to have it any other way. I’m not saying all disabled people would feel the same, because we all experience life differently, but that’s how it is for me. Maybe your dad likes the way he is, and doesn’t want to change.”
“I’m not sure I could regrow your eyes, even if I wanted to,” Ava admitted. “You lost your sight due to a spell the gods created. I’m powerful, but I’m not more powerful than a god.”
“Promise me you won’t try,” I pressed. “I gave up my sight to save your life, and if we were to reverse that, we could reverse the spell, and you might not survive that.”
Ava scoffed, and I could tell she was rolling her eyes. “Fine. If you don’t want me to try, then I won’t.”
I smiled. “That’s my good girl.”
Sophia and Liam returned to the terrace, and they both took a seat at the table.
“All right,” Liam grumbled. “Let’s move it along.”
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” I asked cautiously.
Liam grunted. “My illness has been a pain in the ass since I was diagnosed. I don’t really expect to be cured, but I guess I’ll just have to live with the inconveniences of not feeling like shit everyday if this actually works. What a tragedy.”
Ava’s voice brightened. “Mama explained to you what I want to do?”
“You want to try and cure my illness, but it’s not going to work, so we might as well get it over with,” Liam said. “Let’s give it a shot, so I can get back to what I was doing.”
“Daddy, you’re such a pessimist,” Ava grumbled.
“Whoa, back up,” I balked. “I don’t think you clearly understand what Ava’s suggesting. She wants to destroy your organs and regrow them, like she did to me in the hospital, in order to cure your condition. You guys can’t seriously think this would work? She’d have to completely regrow your immune system, and that’s not something even the best healers in the world can do. Even if itcouldwork in theory, Ava could kill you in the process. This isn’t worth risking.”
