Suggested Listening

"Now that you have stripped the sarite of all its unique aspects, it will lose cohesion. Much like salt, you may have to grind it some to fully break it apart." Professor Abrax's own shard fell apart, as did Elruin's, but some students had to take the time to apply their pestle and mortar to the crystal. "You'll find that as the quality of the shard grows, so too does the difficulty of breaking it apart. Part of why we practice using the weakest shards available. Remember, keep a careful feed to the powder, or it will sublimate."

Elruin suspected the true reason had more to do with expense than convenience; weak shards were cheaper by a wide margin than their more powerful counterparts, since the weak shards were only good for low level alchemy. Still, she maintained the slow burn of magical energy needed to sustain the particulate sarite, a process requiring more control and power than one might expect. Three of her classmates, all years older than her, failed the process.

"Now that you have the sarite stabilized, work the energy lattice into the powder while slowly adding it into your tincture," the professor droned on as if she hadn't given these exact instructions a dozen times in the last few weeks. "Remember, it is a simple recipe and weak powder. You're being judged on stability, not power."

Elruin concentrated harder on her potion, because everyone in the room knew that statement was directed to her in particular. Her control had improved, but work this delicate was like trying to touch a spider's web without shaking it. Her grades would be far better if they allowed her to use a stronger brew, an opinion she expressed once or twice, but it seemed the teachers didn't approve of cheating while the whole class watched.

Her vial lit up as the plant matter bonded with the sarite powder, creating something with its own unique properties. In effect, using what little life remained in the tea-like water to create a semblance of life that could contain magic, but not much more. Once again, it was too bright, with more power than the juices within could sustain. Within a day or two, it would separate and the energy would bleed off. The goal was a potion that could last for months.

She reached for another shard, knowing there was little point in fighting the inevitable.

Before she even began, an exhausted looking woman appeared in the door of the lab, along with one of the school's guards. "My apologies, Professor, this is an emergency." In spite of the subservient language, the guard did not take subservient posture. Her guest, however, did. "She was sent to collect Lady Elruin, claims there's a bloodmold outbreak."

Suggested Listening

Three other students lost their concentration, and in doing so ruined their projects as well. In a civilization with easy access to healing magic, the magic-resistant bloodmold was one of the few remaining diseases that most healers could not deal with. Many refused to try, for it was all too common that the fungus jump from patient to doctor, claiming another life in the process.

While the students muttered in fear and shock, Professor Abrax remained calm. "You swear this to be true?"

The woman, which Elruin now recognized as one of the caretakers for the children staying in the shelter, held out one of the few official seals of House Cali. To use a House seal without permission from an official of the House was a crime resulting in enslavement or worse. "I swear only that Lady Erra's told me to deliver the message."

Elruin had begun to move before the woman finished speaking. "My apologies, Professor, but it is an emergency." If it was a bloodmold infection, then it was a threat to thousands within the city. Specifically, anyone lacking the magical fortitude to survive burning the infection out of the body would die. If it wasn't, then there was an emergency Erra and Cali felt worthy of starting a city-wide panic over.

Another of Erra's regular assistants at the Shelter, Rika, ran toward her in the hall. "Lady Lemia said she has something for you, and you should meet her in your dormitory before going to the Shelter."

"I need my sarite, anyway," Elruin said. Most of it wasn't applicable under the circumstances, but she had a couple shards that could boost her speed, more than enough to make them worth the side trip. She gave a glance to her servants. "I'm sure the guard will be here soon, tell them what you know." She didn't wait for their response.

The two women, older than her by years, bowed their heads. "Yes, ma'am."

Elruin ran through the hall, but by now the news had begun to spread so nobody stopped her. She found Lemia in their dorm, holding a black outfit up.

"What is that?" Elruin went straight for her sarite, Lemia could answer while they worked.

"A gift for you," Lemia said. "I was going to save it for your birthday, but under the circumstances it might be better to have it now. I made it from necroleather off those hand monsters. It's got a reserve of necromancy that should amplify your magic and protect you from other magic, especially creation aspect stuff. And I even managed to work some self-mending magic in there."

Elruin turned to look at the sleek leather combat armor, similar in form to that which Cali had worn when the first met. She stripped out of her outer clothes, then put on the new armor with Lemia's help. The absolute black of the armor contrasted against her pale skin, and served to emphasize her status as a necromancer and as a warrior and nobility, with her house crest stamped onto the left shoulder and proper sarite pouches stitched within. "It's beautiful. Thank you so much."

"Hey, I wouldn't even be able to make something like this without your help." Lemia handed the outfit over. "But, umm, I'll need it back in a few days. Not forever, but you're wearing half of my grade."

Elruin laughed. "Okay. Thank you again." Now when she ran, she had her sarite to speed her way through the school, and then the city proper. The armor felt incredible, as its magic blended with hers and restored her focus and strength in addition to amplifying her power. She tapped into her skills to amplify the strength of her sarite, pushing her speed to the point where she might have matched a natural horse at full gallop. Nowhere near competitive with Cali, or any of the other elites of the city, but enough that it would surprise anyone who expected her to be yet another backline necromancer.

She arrived at the shelter in record time, with little of her strength expended on the journey, but the news had spread wide already. Around the quarantine hut, a crowd carrying torches stood. They were agitated, but not one approached the house. They could not approach to burn the building, for the nonviolence aura would not allow it. They would not approach for any other reason, for fear of the bloodmold.

Near the shack stood Lyra, whose incredible power made it difficult for Elruin to look within. Still, she could sense Calenda, two adult women, and a young, dying, boy. Another life force was in there, inhuman, but more potent than most people. She knew Erra would be nearby as well, but couldn't spot her in the crowd.

Lady Marela approached Elruin the moment she slowed near the edge of the crowd. "Lady Elruin." Like most of Calenda's family, she had little love for the necromancer who had embarrassed their family so thoroughly. "This is a quarantine zone."

Elruin regarded Cali's older, less pleasant, sister. Almost two years ago, she had been intimidated by the tall, bulky soldier. Now, she could see the difference in their strength, and Cali had explained the gap in their political station. It was by technicality that Marela didn't have to bow to her when they met. Besides, there were too many people here for the few guards who had arrived to control the crowd for long. At some point, probably soon, someone would think themselves around the peace field, by convincing themselves the people in the shack were already dead.

Suggested Listening

"A quarantine on my estate." Elruin brought up her violin and bow, then drew the first sharp notes. "It's my problem to fix." Power surged within her, drawing upon her emotions then refined by her instrument. Darkness roiled around her, as she changed the notes to support the delicate process of marrying life-destroying necromancy to protective earth magic.

Whether she was afraid, or hoped the bloodmold claimed her as a victim, Lady Marela stepped aside, and watched the girl pass without objection. Elruin walked forward, black energy seeping down her arms and legs like ink spreading on paper while people scrambled to move out of the way. They abandoned all plans to torch the building, for fear of what the lady of the estate might do to them if they tried.

When she got closer, she recognized that Lyra had shielded this area, warped the wind such that the almost-invisible infective particles drifted inward instead of spreading outward. She had heard bloodmold was virulent, but this seemed excessive. "Thank you, Lyra."

Elruin lashed out with a burst of necromantic power, burning away much of the living dust that carried the deadly parasite within. Now that she knew it would die when exposed to her magic, she stepped into the protective wind tunnel. When done, she would need to burn the soil around the quarantine house. It was odd, that there were no animals in the dirt. The bugs, even the worms, had fled or died before she arrived. She suspected it was Lyra's doing.

"Lady Elruin?" Cali asked from behind the door. "Please tell me that's you." Within the building, a gasping series of weak sobs could be heard.

"I'm here. You can open the door."

"Good." Cali moved the barricade she put up. "I've been doing what I can to stave it off, but I'm not equipped to fight this stuff." She held up her hand, covered in blood red slime. "I don't think it can truly infect me, but it's doing damage. Don't worry, I'll be fine."

Elruin stepped into a scene from a horror movie. On the ground, near a corner, lay a blob of red goop which looked more like bright strawberry jam than a fungus. The only hint that it might have once been a person was hair and clothes which the plague hadn't subsumed.

In the beds on the furthest side from the dead woman, three people were in various states of infection. The worst was a young boy, both legs freshly amputated, and a deep, throbbing red color just beneath his skin. Each vein was visible, with the same red goo as the corpse, but it pulsed with a soft glow each time the boy's heart beat. It struck Elruin as not unlike the vampiric sarite which Calenda used, but instead of death feeding on life, this was life feeding on life.

The other two, one of whom was a nurse who helped the sick, had smaller infections creeping up their hands and showing around their lips and eyes. Their pulses of light were brighter, more regular, as the disease had not yet ravaged them as it ravaged the boy.

"Do you have a strategy?" Calenda asked. "We usually used fire mages for this, if we could find one brave enough to chance it. It'll be better to get your mistakes out of the way on me first. I'm more resilient than they are."

"Right." Elruin got to work, flushing Cali's skin with the softest of necromantic touches; she needed a procedure that could work on humans, not zombies. It died fast, on Cali, who provided it no source of nourishment. To her shock and surprise, the corpse-blob began to dim as well. "It... shares life force?" She had never so much as heard of such a thing before.

"Will that help us kill it?" Cali asked.

"Maybe. How did this happen?" Elruin pointed her hand at the blob, then spread her fingers. A wide-spread wave of necromantic energy scoured the fungal pod, and its pulsation ceased. All three patients screamed in agony as the remaining bloodmold attempted to siphon off more life energy to protect itself from the necromantic barrage.

Confident she had the basics down, Elruin moved to the boy. All but insensate, the poor child cried tears of bright red while Elruin worked and Calenda talked. She hated to admit it, but Professor Abrax's insistance upon pinpoint precision and flawless execution were paying off in this delicate operation where a single mistake might kill the patient.

"The boy came in, carried by his mother," Cali said. "I healed the mother, and she seemed fine, but her son got sick." Cali looked back at the pile of bones and rotting tissue. "She hid how bad she was hurting, I think, so that we focused on him. By the time I realized it was bloodmold, it was too late for her and I had to amputate his legs to slow the infection. I don't know how or why it got to visible symptoms on the rest of us so fast."

Elruin adjusted her necromancy to ignore human essence as much as possible, while targeting bloodmold as best she could. "It's feeding on life energy, including that of the healing magic we use in the hospital. Or it was, something's blocking it now. Lyra, I think."

She stopped speaking in order to delve deeper into the diseased life energies of this poor child. She burned away the mold as she could, throughout his body, but there was so little else left in him. "Get ready to use all the healing magic you have on him, in a second. Cut open his stomach and dump the healing potion in if you have to."

"What? Why?" Cali moved into position, ready to obey in spite of objections.

"Because I have to kill him if I want to save him." Elruin sang to her power, and let out the black vortex of energy. Attuned as it was to the bloodmold, it still left the other women screaming, and it was enough to stop the boy's heart. A moment later, she siphoned all that energy back to herself, while holding the boy's soul in a shell which could not be breached by the usual ravages of death. "Now!"

Cali obeyed, and poured healing magic into the dead body. The brain was alive, and the damage was light within the core of his body. The difficulty was in sparking life in the blood, but after a long minute he gasped and began sobbing.

Elruin relaxed her grip, and allowed the soul to rejoin the body it had grown to be an intrinsic part of. "I... think we did it. Please help the other two." Elruin stepped out of the building, then began to look around. Still she wore her shell of pure death magic, a show of power as well as a precaution. She began the act of burning everything. When she was done, not a single fleck of dust or blade of grass lived within fifty feet of the women's hospice building.

"The bloodmold is gone." Now that they were safe, she allowed the necromantic 'ink' to fade back into her body, leaving behind her natural pale complexion, then addressed her prestigious guest. "Lady Juna, how long have you been observing?"

Juna smiled at the girl who just kept surprising her. "A few minutes. I almost went in when you flooded the whole complex with necromancy, but I decided to wait to see how you did. It appears your strategy worked out for the best."

"What would you have done?" Elruin looked back at the building. "This is the first I've ever seen bloodmold, I had to improvise more than I'd like."

Juna considered how to phrase her statement. "As per the best experts' teachings, I would have kept a steady supply of healing magic on them, extended my natural resistance to heat to the patients, and then heated their bodies to the point that it cooked the disease out of them. I've never tried it before, but I'm told it works about half the time on peasant bloodlines. It's the best we have."

Elruin considered what she saw of the disease before she eradicated it. "I'm not sure that would have worked in this case. I think this version of the disease was changed, somehow."

"You're not the first who's come to that conclusion," Juna said. "We need to have a conversation, in private."