Rick saw fifty years of pure, agonizing loneliness. He saw the physical proof of every single night Lila had cried herself to sleep because he was too much of a coward to come home. Rick crawled across the floor. He stopped in front of a small, delicate lantern made of painted glass. He touched it. Instantly, a memory flooded his mind. He felt Lila’s emotions from thirty years ago. He felt her sitting in a rocking chair, holding a blanket, feeling her youth slip away, wondering if she had wasted her entire life waiting for a dead man. Rick gasped and pulled his hand back. He choked on a sob. He crawled to another lantern. This one was made of heavy, dark iron. He touched it. He felt Lila’s emotions from ten years ago. Her hands were hurting from arthritis. Her back ached. She was so tired. She just wanted to see his face one last time before she died. "I am so sorry," Rick wept. He curled into a ball on the stone floor. He grabbed his own hair. The guilt was crushing him. It was

The giant, underground laboratory was a nightmare of twisted metal and rotting flesh. Rick stood perfectly still. He held his wooden staff in his left hand. The brilliant, emerald green light burned brightly at the top of the wood. It pushed back the terrible, freezing white mist that filled the room. He stood in front of his family. He protected Luna, who held her heavy iron wrench. He protected Ash, the little girl with endless black eyes. He protected Lila, the old, frail woman who had waited fifty years for him to come home. Rick stared up at the ceiling. Hanging from the dark, metal roof were the Founders. They were the ancient, immortal masters of the Pharmaceutical Guild. But they did not look like human beings anymore. They looked like giant, bloated, pale monsters. Their bodies were huge and swollen. Their skin was a sickly, translucent white. Thick, black metal wires and glowing blue glass tubes were jammed deeply into their flesh. The tubes pumped magical energy into

"I had to wear the suit," Isaac smiled a tiny, rare smile. "It is the only way to get past the heavy blast doors of the inner city archives. But I assure you, the suit is just a piece of cloth. My heart belongs to the green light now."Behind them, the smooth, echoing voices of the Founders erupted in sudden, violent fury. "TREASON!" the walls screamed. The sound was so loud it made the floor vibrate. "You are a defect, Isaac! You are a broken tool! We built you! We gave you a perfect mind! How dare you bow to a filthy anomaly?!"The giant, bloated, pale monsters hanging from the ceiling thrashed violently against their heavy metal wires. The glowing blue tubes pumping into their bodies flashed with angry, blinding red light. "You built a machine, Founders," Isaac replied calmly, turning to face the ceiling. He clasped his white-gloved hands behind his back. "But the Ghost Doctor gave me a soul. And a soul is much stronger than your broken mathematics.""Then you will die with him!"

The white marble walls began to crack. Black, toxic liquid began to ooze from the fractures in the stone. "What is that?" Luna cried, standing up quickly. Isaac’s pale eyes darted around the room. His mind raced. "The failsafe," Isaac whispered in horror. "The Founders were paranoid. They wired their own life support systems directly to the foundation of the continent. If they die, the Vault is designed to self-destruct and take everything above it down into the abyss."Isaac looked at Rick. "The Vault is collapsing," Isaac said urgently. "It is going to create a massive sinkhole. It will swallow the town of Riverbend completely. The cottage, the market, the people... everything will fall into the dark."Rick’s eyes went wide. His heart hammered in his chest. He had just saved his home from the immortal monsters. He was not going to let a dead man's trap destroy it now. "We have to stop the collapse," Rick said fiercely. "We cannot!" Isaac yelled over the loud rumbling. "The ener

Isaac finally reached out his pale, clean hand. He picked up the wooden cup. The cup was rough. It was not smooth glass. It felt strange in his hand. He lifted the cup to his lips. He took a tiny sip. The hot tea washed over his tongue. It was bitter at first, but then it became incredibly sweet and warm. He felt the heat travel down his throat. He felt it settle into his chest. He had died today. His chest had been crushed. Rick had used magic to restart his heart. His chest still ached terribly. But as the warm tea settled in his stomach, the ache slowly began to fade. His tight, nervous muscles finally relaxed. A profound, deep feeling of peace spread through his entire body. Isaac opened his eyes wide. "It works," Isaac breathed out in shock. "It works perfectly.""Of course it works," Rick laughed quietly. "My mother taught her the recipe. And my mother was a genius."Isaac set the cup down. He looked at Rick. Then he looked at Lila. "I have spent thirty years studying th