Flashback ( PDFDrive )

The real prize for Ickiest Way to Start the Day went to the moment
Elwin announced that he needed to change out their bandages to give
their treatment a fresh start. Even Livvy didn’t stick around when
Elwin sliced into the cocoons and unleashed a musky plume—and she
kept a running top ten list of the grossest things she’d done.
There were no words to describe the odor, or the grayish-green
ooze that splashed everywhere, which was some sort of by-product of
the marrow regenerator. But Fitz’s face turned a color similar to the
shade of his eyes, and Sophie had been very glad she’d only had a
couple bites of her breakfast.
And that was before she got a glimpse of her swollen hand.
“Try not to move your fingers,” Elwin warned.
She couldn’t have even if she’d tried. Her hand felt stiff and numb,
as if she’d left it out in the cold too long. And her fingers were
currently the size of raw sausages—and just as pale and squishy and
gross.
“I know it’s hard to believe me when I say this,” Elwin told her,
flashing a glowing orange orb around her hand, “but this is actually
much better than Livvy and I were expecting. The echo wasn’t letting
me get a clear picture of your progress, and it looks like the bones
have set far more than I thought—enough that I can finally start
treating some of the nerve and tissue damage too. So the next time you
see this hand, it’ll look almost normal.”
Sophie tried not to focus on the “almost” in that sentence.
Or the potent smell of the blackish, reddish, bluish goop he smeared
across her palm.
“I’m guessing I don’t want to know what that stuff is,” she said as
Elwin started wrapping her fingers mummy-style in strips of thin