Over the days Alex and Lika’so worked tirelessly. Alex was learning quickly and Lika’so was an excellent teacher; however, the problem was that Alex wasn’t learning fast enough. The language was easy for Alex to learn but in order to make his case to The Council, he would need to be a fluent speaker. None of the members of The Council would be wearing translating pants and they would most likely be asking him many complicated questions.

The first thing Alex did was create a schedule. This was how he had learned to speak Russian in three months. For sixteen hours a day he had studied and practiced. He ate while he learned. Restroom breaks were very infrequent and he had showered only once a week. His health had waned but he had been determined to break his previous record of learning to speak Swedish in six months. It had taken a massive toll on his body, but he had learned a new language in only a quarter of a year. Alex felt he could have learned Russian faster if he hadn’t needed to sleep.

Alex expressed his disdain for sleep to Lika’so partway through the first week.

“If we did not need sleep, we would have almost twice the amount of time to get this done,” he had complained in Kni’il.

Lika’so’s eyes widened. “Wait here,” she told him standing up from the chair she had been sitting in while teaching Alex.

“Where are you going?” Alex asked in Kni’il.

“I'm going to fix the problem,” she replied.

‘That’s pretty vague,’ Alex thought, but he trusted her so he said nothing more.

Lika’so exited the house and Alex was left alone to practice his Kni’il.

---------------------------------------

Closing the door behind her, Lika’so made her way through the village. Her idea would allow the both of them to stay awake for the rest of the month without the need to sleep or eat, but it was illegal and could be very hazardous to both their health.

She was going to get jud’ic, a magic-based drug derived from the judif plant. 

The judif plant’s roots stored so much energy that half a gram could keep a person awake for five hours. However, consuming too much of it would put an enormous amount of strain on the body’s organs. There was a way around that through the jud'ic drug but the process of making it involved a highly controversial casting method called “biocasting”.

Biocasting was a type of casting so rarely used Lika’so had forgotten about it. Though it had the potential to be hugely beneficial in the medical field, it was culturally seen as bad and was illegal in almost the entire kingdom. There were some who practiced biocasting and sold their services to people who wanted them, but they were very expensive.

Lika’so knew a biocaster in the village. There was a problem though. She hated Lika’so.

Nijo’tika was her name. She had been Lika’so’s girlfriend ninety years ago but after a falling-out, they had stopped speaking to each other. They saw one another from time to time in the market but never said anything. The breakup had been hard on Lika’so and she still had feelings for Nijo’tika.

Lika’so knocked on Nijo’tika’s door. It opened and there she stood.

“I need your help,” Lika’so said.