Markets and Multiverses (A Serial Transmigration LitRPG)
Chapter 264: Fizz

Two more weeks passed before I started to get suspicious. The source of it all came from a rather unexpected place.

“My parents were saying last month that rent prices around the city were getting cheaper recently,” said Anise. She stuffed another forkful of cake into her mouth, and grinned. “With my shop open, and rent prices decreasing, I've been thinking about changing where I live. Do you think the three of us could get an apartment for ourselves? It might be fun to live together for a while. Well, maybe including Felix is a bad idea. This society’s a bit strict about men and women mingling before marriageable age… but still. I could line the walls with those alchemical papers you and Felix make for me, and I wouldn’t need to hide any of my activities anymore. I could also live a bit closer to my shop. What do you think?” asked Anise.

“I’m not opposed to it, but… you said rent prices decreased last month?” I said, frowning.

When my mother had claimed that the rent for our apartment had been raised, I hadn’t thought much about it. If the price got outrageous, we would move, but I wasn’t that hung up over a small rent hike. But now, Anise was saying that rent prices had decreased in most of the city last month? That didn’t make sense.

"Yeah, rent prices started dropping across the town. Some alchemist invented a new invention called alchemist's greenwall. I have no idea how it works, but it makes constructing new houses a lot easier. So a bunch of new houses are probably going to be built soon, and the prices for existing ones dropped a bit." Anise shrugged. "Or something like that. I don't know much about the market, but that's what Old Mo told me when I asked him to explain."

"I see..." I said. A horrible suspicion started to rise in my heart.

"Sorry Anise - we can talk about this later, but I just realized something."

"Is it an emergency? Can I help?"

"Not this time. It's personal, and unlikely to lead to violence," I said.

Anise nodded, and I excused myself. I abandoned the uneaten half of my cake, and started running to Old Mo's bakery.

“Old Mo!” I said as I ran into the shop.

“Yes, Miria?” he asked. He frowned when he saw me. “You don’t look so good. Is everything all right?”

“Last month! Did the rent increase for our apartment last month?”

“No, it didn’t.” said Old Mo, as he gave me a baffled look. “Rent prices for our building remained the same. But I expect it to drop next month. I expect that rent for residents in our building will also decrease in a month or two. Why do you ask?”

“Sorry, I have to go,” I said, shivering. "It's... Sorry." Old Mo raised a hand towards me, before he lowered it.

"Good luck," he said, as I exited the shop. My thoughts started to swirl around in my head.

My mother had claimed that rent prices increased last month… but they hadn't. What was going on? I made my way back to my home to ask about it, but realized nobody was home.

My mother usually stayed at home on Saturdays, but today, it looked like she had gone out for some reason. I felt a bizarre mixture of relief and disappointment, when I realized that I didn’t have to confront her yet. But the horrible suspicion gnawing at my thoughts didn’t go away. I hesitated for a moment, wondering if I should just wait for her to return. But I couldn't help myself.

I started searching through the house. I checked beneath the sofa cushions. I opened up pillow cases. I looked underneath everything. I used my spatial sight to check inside of little crannies I usually ignored.

And after half an hour of searching, I found it.

There was a small packet hidden in the mattress lining of my mother’s bed. I fished it out… and realized exactly what was wrong.

Sitting in my hand was a packet of Fizz.

The exact same Fizz that had nearly killed my mother, and that she had promised me she was staying away from.

I felt the world start to spin.

I had spent years curing my mother. I had helped cut the embedded crystals of Fizz out of my mother’s brain with Dr. Trish. She had… she had seemed receptive to treatment. I hadn’t managed to remove the deeper Fizz crystals in her brain, but she had been able to function. She had lost a bit of motor skills, but she had been fine. She had survived something that should have killed her. She was getting better.

And less than two months after I started going to university, she had started taking Fizz again. The moment I left the house, she started her habit anew. All of that hard work, gone. All of my desperate attempts to save her. Gone.

Every hope of a better life as a family.

Gone.

My hands started shaking as I looked at the packet of drugs, and I felt tears start to trickle down my cheeks.

I wiped them away, and tried to think positively.

Maybe my mother was… was studying how to cure fizz addiction. She had almost died from it, after all. If she was... researching fizz addiction, maybe that was why she had Fizz. I didn't think my mother knew anything about research, but maybe she had learned behind my back.

Or… or maybe Fizz was useful for other things besides getting high. That was… that was risky, considering my mother’s past, but it was plausible, right?

Right?

I knew I was grasping at straws. But I kept hoping that one of them was correct. That something would make sense.

I felt myself start to shake harder, as my thoughts warred with each other.

<Sallia? Are you awake?> I asked, hoping for her to say yes. I didn’t know what to do. Was it starting again? Had everything been for nothing?

<I’m… awake…> said Sallia. She sounded very sleepy.

<What do I do?> I asked. I sent her an image of the Fizz that I had found in my mother’s mattress.

<Are those what I think they are?>

<It’s Fizz.>

Sallia paused. I sat down and stared at the little package of drugs. 

<Where did you find it?>

<In the lining of my mother’s mattress. She hid it from me.>

<I’m sorry, Mir,> said Sallia, finally. <I don’t know what to say. If you love someone, they have to love you back. If you treat someone well and they treat you like shit, it just hurts.> Sallia’s voice became gentler. <But I guess that’s not what you want to hear right now.> Sallia sent me a wave of emotions over the friendship bracelet. It was a mixture of warm, soothing feelings. Love, friendship, happiness… Sallia was pouring her emotions into me through the bracelet.

But it didn’t help the pounding in my head or the roaring in my ears. My mother was taking Fizz again.

<What do I do?> I asked.

<What you want to do is up to you,> said Sallia. <But personally… I don’t think your mother is going to change. She almost died, and right after getting healed, she started again. She values drugs more than she values you, and I don’t think it’s a good relationship dynamic. Have you thought about just... distancing yourself from the situation? I don't think this is good for your mental health, Mir.>

<How can you say that?>

<Well… based what she’s done so far, I think that your mother values the drugs more than she values you. She threw away years of your hard work. She reminds me of my first and second families,> said Sallia. <My first family tried to marry me off to some bastard I had never met before. My second… treated me like I was useless, because I didn’t have enough absorption essence. They still loved me, but they treated me like I had no value at all. And they ignored a lot of my feelings on the topic. I know that things were hard for the islands, and so they did their best… but it still felt awful. Now, your mother is throwing away everything you’ve done to get high again. Even if you love her... there are some times when you need to distance yourself from the situation.>

"But she'll die!" I yelled. It took me a moment to realize I hadn’t just sent that message to Sallia. I had screamed it out loud. <I can’t just… family doesn’t just abandon each other! How would you have felt if I just left you to suffer alone on the islands? What if none of us had each other while facing the nightmares in the Market? What if we didn’t have each other?> Part of me knew that I was starting to lose my rationality. That I should stop and take a deep breath. But I just couldn't seem to control myself.

<It’s not the same!> Yelled Sallia. <Even you know that! You’ve never told your mother about the Market, because deep down, you don’t trust her either!>

<I can’t leave her to die though! Without my healing, if she takes more Fizz, she'll drop dead one day.>

<But you also can’t fight a battle for your mother if she’s on the other side,> said Sallia. <If you constantly try to help your mother, and she kicks your efforts out the window, things will never improve! You can’t make someone get better if they don’t cooperate with you! I don't want to see you fighting a battle you can never win. You can't make someone live a better life if they don't want to. You would just be suffering pointlessly. I don’t want to see that..>

I closed my eyes, and felt a few more tears spill out as I thought over Sallia’s words.

Before I had time to think of a response, I heard the front door open. My mother was home.