Mateo sighed out of relief and sat on the wooden chair at the table, “Troublesome or not, your timing saved probably saved us.”

The elder smiled, “I could sense the power in the East growing ever stronger.” She got up and poured the liquid from a teapot into several cups. Then distributed them to each of the party.

“Yeah, thanks!” Elizabeth shouted holding her cup high above her head.

The elder chuckled and pulled out a chair in front of the group, taking a sip from her own cup. Amalia pushed the hair from in front of her face. “Earlier, you said you used blood magic?”

The elder put down her cup, crossed her legs and put her hands under her chin, “That’s correct would you like learn how to use it?” Her smile was wry and dangerous.

“I would love to, but I’m completely unable to access my magic at the moment,” she spoke with a passive-aggressive tone.

“Dearie,” The elder said taking a sip. “I wouldn’t have been called a witch if I used magic, now would I?”

A spark shined in Amalia’s eye. “So it’s possible to learn this magic?”

The elder’s smile widened as she got up from her seat. “Its only as possible as you are willing to learn it.”

Amalia grabbed her hand and looked her in her blue eyes. “I’m willing to learn everything you know!”

The elder pulled out a knife from her back. The blade was straight and looked freshly sharpened. All over the hilt, there were outlandish inscriptions. Amalia began reaching for the blade when Elizabeth stopped her. “Are you sure, you want to do this? The elder did say that blood magic was risky.”

Amalia stopped in the middle of her greed. She looked to the elder and asked, “You did stay that, what are they?” Her stern look was back.

The elder dragged her finger across the table all the way back to her seat, “Blood magic is long forgotten and forbidden magic, it's binding. If you start it, you must commit.”

Amalia and Elizabeth looked at each other, Elizabeth backed down allowing Amalia to grab hold of the knife. “I’m willing when you are.”

The elder smiled, “We start immediately, but we’ll need a large space.”

Mateo drank the rest of the tea, “Lady Amalia, I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Amalia looked to the elder; she motioned for the blade to go down her palm. Amalia looked back to her own hand and ran the blade down her hand, in its wake a stream of crimson blood began to ooze and drip onto the table. After a few seconds, her blood began to have a react. Amalia jumped up knocking her chair back. She let go of the ornate knife, it landed and stuck itself within the wood, Her blood then flashed with an intensifying light, Mateo and Elizabeth sprung to action drawing their swords pointing at the elder.

“What did you do, witch!” Shouted Mateo.

The elder chuckled and pressed her finger against the tip of his sword drawing blood of her own, a neon blue color dripped from the tiny incision. “You can stay your swords, young ones. She’ll be fine.” She got up from her seat and grabbed onto Amalia’s wrist and pressed her finger into the wound. Amalia winced at first but began to scream as the pain quickly grew to unfathomable degrees. Amalia’s veins began turning black, each second the discoloration intensified until the surface of her skin complexion was the same as a porcelain vase that had been dropped.

The elder began seeing her breath as the surrounding air temperature dropped significantly. She also then felt cold steel touch the back of her neck. She closed her eyes, this was now beginning to feel annoyed, “If I explain what is happening, will you restrain yourself?”

Mateo moved the sword slightly away from her neck, “Would you kindly?”

Amalia fell to her knees in pain. However, she refused to give in to the pain and scream. The elder folded a few stray strands of her hair from her face, “Since she was tainted with the creature’s poison her body has to expel the residuals.” The elder reached into her dress to pull out a small thin pipe and a match. She turned towards Mateo, “The average human body can handle one source of magic.” She exhaled a puff of smoke from her pipe and continued, “She’s simply just going through a metamorphosis.”

Amalia gritted her teeth; the pain was excruciating, it was as if her entire body was being set on fire from the inside.

~^~

Rinae was the first to get a taste from the dragon’s magical organ. The red liquid just about stained her skin as it rained down her skin dying her porcelain color. It was delicious; she licked her lips, this magic was ten times the quality she had ever received from any one race. She turned around to see Scarpha and Hera return to her.

Hera hung her head in defeat in front of Rinae, “I’m sorry, Sister. We couldn’t get them.”

Scarpha snaked her way around; her voice lisped as she talked, “We still have a good host.” she climbed on top of the carcass and began drinking from the massive organ that the dragon contained.

Six transparent tentacles emerged from the ground piercing the flesh; the liquid could be seen being slurped up and retreating to the ground. Amalia clicked the blades on her stomach together, “We’re heading straight for the false queen.”

Scarpha stopped herself from drinking anymore and crawled towards Rinae her mouth dripping with the magic liquid. “What about the newborns?”

“I will set up a new hive where the false queen is. Bring them there.”