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The balcony of Ren's room in the Dao Guild residential wing faced east, which meant the morning came at it directly. Ren stood in it with a cigarette and a coffee, one hand on the railing.
"Haa." He exhaled and watched the smoke drift into the wind and disappear.
This is life, he thought. No cancer risk. No need to worry about the lungs. This body is genuinely good.
He took a sip of coffee.
He was thinking about nothing specific, which was its own kind of luxury. The guild was quiet below, the city not yet at full noise, the sky a clean pale blue in the direction of the sunrise. He stood there and let the morning be what it was.
"Brother Ghost."
Lily's head appeared through the balcony door, followed by Martinez pushing in beside her.
"We need to go to school," Martinez said. "Otherwise it'll be late."
Ren checked the time. "Give me ten minutes."
He showered and changed into a black long-sleeve shirt and black slacks. He found the two waiting in the hallway with their bags, Lily standing straight and quiet, Martinez shifting his weight impatiently.
The car was parked in the guild lot. Small, several years old, practical. He had never felt strongly about replacing it.
He felt even less strongly about it now as they pulled into the drop-off lane of Qintara National School and joined a procession of vehicles that were, uniformly, not this.
A white luxury sedan pulled in ahead of them. Behind it, a black car that was probably the nicest thing that had ever been parked in this lane. Lily looked at the gate through the windshield, quiet, taking it in.
Martinez looked at the car in front of them and then looked at their car.
He said nothing. He was twelve and had some discretion.
Ren pulled up to the gate.
"Have fun," he said. "And Martinez." He looked at him in the mirror. "Protect Lily. If anyone gives her trouble, mention Vice Guildmaster Chu Xinghe's name."
"Are you sure?" Martinez said. "Won't he mind?"
"He can take it. His face can handle the burden. He'll be fine."
"But shouldn't we ask him first—"
"I'm his friend. I can speak for him."
Martinez looked deeply unconvinced. Lily was already picking up her bag.
"Okay, brother," Martinez said, the responsible weight of the task settling over him visibly. "I'll protect her."
"Focus on your studies too. Both of you."
"Bye bye, brother," Lily said.
They got out. Ren watched them walk through the gate, Martinez already drifting slightly so he was between Lily and the school entrance.
"Haa," Ren said.
He sat in the parked car for a moment, the engine still running.
I should get back to work.
He pulled out and joined the stream of considerably nicer cars leaving the school district.
. . .
By the time he reached the forty-fourth floor he had half-convinced himself he did not need to send the text. Then he remembered she had specifically asked him to, and that the penalty for not doing it was probably another ambush around a corner at an inconvenient moment.
He pulled out his phone.
He looked at the camera.
Which angle is good.
He was standing in the grafting room doorway. He turned slightly, raised the phone, and took a photo: his own face in the lower frame, and behind him the blood-red grafting circle and the dim walls of the room, the cardinal sigils barely visible at the edges.
He attached it.
Morning. Just starting work.
Sent.
The delivered notification appeared. Then, almost immediately: read.
What the fuck, Ren thought. Was she waiting?
Good morning misterrrrr !!!
Also why does your workplace look so haunted?? It looks like something is going to come out of the walls
He thought about this.
Aesthetic purposes, he typed.
(≧▽≦)/ what is that mister you're so funny, it's like you're being mean to your patients on purpose
That's the point.
Woooo you evil doctor!!!! You're not about to say Igor fetch me the brain are you
Ren looked at this.
Igor. Fetch me a brain.
(￣ー￣) calling the police, this person is committing medical crimes
Ren smiled.
I'll get back to work now.
Sure mister!! Don't be so mean to your patients okay you meanie doctor
(͡~ ͜ʖ ͡°)
He pocketed the phone.
Cling.
The front door of the clinic opened, the bell above it catching the air as it swung.
"Excuse me," a voice said. "Is the doctor in?"
Female, soft, careful. Ren put his phone down and the white mask grew out from his face, flesh and white surface, settling into place. He walked to the reception desk.
"Hello," he said. "I'm the Doctor."
The woman flinched.
She was wearing a wide-brimmed hat pulled low, a medical mask covering the lower half of her face, and sunglasses. The combination covered every identifiable feature she had. She stood just inside the door, not committing to coming further in.
"Sorry," she said, after a moment. "I wasn't expecting—"
"It's fine. Come in."
She came in, slowly, and sat in one of the waiting room chairs. Her hands were folded in her lap and did not move from there. She kept looking at the walls, which Ren was used to.
"I heard you can treat difficult cases," she said. "Unusual ones."
"Yes. As long as you're not dead, we can cure anything. That's the policy."
"Oh." She seemed to find this either reassuring or alarming, and had not yet decided which. "A friend told me about you. She said I should come." A small pause. "Lucy. The Dao Guild secretary."
Lucy, Ren thought. He had not expected that. He filed the question for later.
"What's your situation?" he said.
She looked at him. She looked at the walls again. Then she reached up and took off the hat.
Her head had no hair. Where hair would have been, and covering the entirety of her scalp from the crown to just above the ears, eyes looked back at him. Dozens of them, arranged in a dense irregular pattern across the skin, different sizes, most of them open. They moved independently, some following him, some directed at other parts of the room, some blinking at intervals that had nothing to do with each other.
None of them were the same color as her regular eyes.
She watched him with her actual eyes, her real ones, the ones in her face, and the expression in them was the particular mixture of humiliation and fear that came from having shown someone something for the first time and waiting for the worst part of their reaction.
Ren looked at her scalp, taking in the arrangement and the density and the movement patterns.
"When did this start?" he asked.
Her shoulders dropped by about half a centimeter. Just the question. Nothing else yet.