Mary was right about the tests only taking a little while. If Blossom were to guess, it had been no more than half an hour. But her sense of time was slipping away rapidly. So, there was a good chance that her guess was off. But the pain faded away quickly. Blossom's mind became clear again. A wave of sleepiness rushed in to replace the pain. No, she couldn't fall asleep. What was it about this place that made her so tired. Blossom had felt tired ever since arriving here. Had it been like that last time? She couldn't remember.
A little bit of Blossom's strength had returned to her. Now she could move her head and glance around the room. Mary was noting something down on a piece of paper. Hopefully Blossom was in alright condition. Surely, Mary would have told her if something was wrong with her, right? Mary gathered up all of her papers into a pile and carried them out into the hall, closing and locking the door behind her. She didn't look over at Blossom.
More weariness washed over Blossom. Keeping her eyes open was proving to be quite the difficult and painful battle. The rhythmic tap, tap, tap of Mary's footsteps weren't helping Blossom one bit. As she listened, Mary's footsteps grew fainter. Blossom shook herself fiercely and strained her ears.
"Come on, come on, focus," she hissed under her breath. She tried to sit up and failed miserably. Why had she even tried that? She could barely walk like this. Last time Blossom had been here, she had overheard a conversation between Oren and one of the younger workers.
He had mentioned that the main reason Mary took away so much of the dolls’ strength during the punishment periods was because she didn't want the dolls to commit suicide. It didn't really matter if they did that during the games. But here, dolls were needed for experiments. At most, Blossom would probably be able to take a few shaky steps from time to time.
So, Blossom just sat up and glanced around the room. It was mostly empty. The last time that Blossom had been here, she had looked through the testing rooms pretty thoroughly. That had been a huge waste of time. This time, Blossom would rely more on her hearing and less on her own understanding. Her clarity and understanding were at rock bottom currently. She turned her attention back to the sound of Mary’s footsteps. Mary was talking to someone now. This could be important. Blossom's ears were ready to catch every single word.
"Take as long as you need. We can't afford to miss anything with this one," Mary was saying. "I was surprised to see her back here. But it's a great opportunity. She's always been special. Do you know where her old files are? Her abilities are really remarkable."
"I think I remember," the worker responded. "Is there anyone else who you want me to share these with?" he asked. There was a long pause.
"Yeah, make a couple of copies and I'll take them to Oren," Mary said at last. Once again, all the cheer had left her voice. "I'm sure he'll discover something useful. Childish and obnoxious as he is, he knows magic well.” So, Oren wasn't dead. Dang it. Blossom had just begun to hope.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"I could give it to him," the worker offered.
"No!" Mary cleared her thought and softened her voice.
"By the way have you figured out what's causing the malfunctions in the city?" asked the worker.
"No. But I'm sure we'll figure it out before too much longer." Mary aggressively injected more cheer into her voice. "On the bright side, now we know that those new weather settings will work." She burst out laughing. "So that's nice. Hopefully, playing around with the weather will make the games more interesting for the viewers. But we should wait for the new workers to get the hang of things first. Ella should be ready pretty soon. That'll make everyone's workload a little lighter."
Ella? New workers? Malfunctions? Clearly a lot had been happening here. But at least now Blossom knew what had been causing the weather to act so strange. Had the city ever malfunctioned before? Probably. But if it had Blossom probably hadn't noticed it.
"Yeah," said the worker. Judging from his voice, he didn't sound too hopeful.
With that, the two of them fell silent. Blossom listened as their footsteps began to blend in with the other noises as they walked farther and farther away. She realized then that she was smiling to herself. There wasn't a single conversation in this level that Blossom wouldn't be able to hear. Sorting out the different sounds could be very hard at times, but she had gotten much better. That was something that Mary hadn't taken away from her. Well... at least not yet. Blossom knew better than to get her hopes up or place her trust in one of her own fragile abilities.
Now she allowed her eyes to close. That always helped Blossom focus on sounds. Her ears carried her down halls and into various rooms. But none of the conversations around her stood out as being all that important. So, at last, Blossom gave in to her urges and let herself drift off. The wonderful darkness began to creep over her once again. All the sounds that surrounded her blurred together till they were all one faint, distant hum. Blossom could escape for a little bit. For a few moments, her sleep was sound and peaceful. Then dreams of the past began to swallow her up.
"C-can't you see I'm trying?" Blossom burst out. She hated the tremble in her voice. "I'm doing all that I can." Small cracks were forming in her hands from how tightly she was clenching her fists. It was hard to see Ruby's face in the dim light of the tunnels. But Blossom knew she was glaring at her.
"We can't keep moving at this pace. We were supposed to be at the city's core three weeks ago," Ruby whispered. Her voice was sharp as a knife. "At this rate we won't make it."
"I know! I'm doing what I can! But I can't just snap my fingers and teleport us to the center!"
"Don't lie to me like that, Blossom. You haven't been giving this plan your all. You keep skipping nights of work, just like Lu." Ruby's words boiled the fear out of Blossom's soul.
"Because I never wanted any part of this! I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you!" Blossom froze as she felt a blade being pressed to her neck.
"Fine, if you don't care about this city, then I clearly don't need you. So, I leave this up to you. Either you get back to digging, or you won't leave this tunnel again. The overseers won't find your body down here. It's your choice, Blossom."