The woman was alive, the uncursed man was dead, and the cursed man was dying. There was a residual feel of essence from the dead man, and Serenity caught a whiff of a scent he recognized - he smelled somewhat like Desinka. Whatever he’d been before, he was definitely truly dead now, so Serenity resolved to worry about him later.

Serenity was confident the cursed man was one of the people they were here to rescue, especially if he actually was Guildmaster Hollis, so he needed attention first. The feeling of cursed essence was stronger from him than from anyone else Serenity had seen, so there were two problems he’d need to deal with. “Raz? I’m going to need some help healing. I have to stop the curse, he doesn’t have much time.”

Serenity pulled a potion out of his bag. It probably wouldn’t do much, but if it stopped the bleeding when he removed the dagger lodged in Hollis’s chest, that might be enough. That was really all he could expect of a potion made in the Tutorial, especially when he was using it on a higher-Tier person.

Serenity knelt next to Hollis, then reached with his aura and caught the strands of cursed essence. He wanted to clear away as much of the curse and essence as possible before removing the dagger, to give the best chance possible for the potion to heal the man and return him to life, instead of pushing him over the last barrier separating him from unlife. It was close.

The one saving grace was that Hollis definitely didn’t have a monster core. The essence in him seemed to be trying, but it wasn’t sufficiently concentrated, and something seemed to be specifically keeping it out of his brain as well.

At first, it was easier than healing Syri; he knew what to do and the man’s body didn’t hold on to the Death essence the way Syri’s had. He did find an odd strand in some of what he pulled out; instead of darkness and anger, it felt of light, warmth, and energy, leaving him feeling slightly buzzed as he filtered it out. He sent it back to Hollis, assuming that it was part of the man.

Once he’d weakened the curse as much as he could quickly, Serenity pulled the dagger out and poured the potion over the injury. It would have a lower overall effect that way, but it would specifically heal the dagger injury, and that was the immediate problem. He’d have liked to wait longer, but he wasn’t sure there was time; he wasn’t a healer, after all.

He saw Raz start healing the man, so Serenity went back to cleansing the curse. The more he pulled, the more of the buzzing energy built up. He’d sent it back into Hollis at first, but it wasn’t long after he started again that it stopped wanting to re-enter Hollis’s body. He couldn’t stop it from coming out, unfortunately; the spark-filled mana was somehow entwined with some of the cursed essence, almost like it was shielding Hollis’s vital organs from the curse while allowing his skin and extremities to be lost.

Serenity could easily separate the two, but the more he pulled from Hollis, the weaker Hollis became. Serenity knew Raz wasn’t a particularly good healer; Rissa was a better healer despite her inexperience. He was simply all Serenity had.

On the other hand, Hollis was the Healers’ Guildmaster. If Serenity could bring him to consciousness, surely he’d be able to heal himself.

If the problem was caused by separating the odd energy from Hollis, maybe all he needed to do was put it back. What was it, anyway?

Neither Identify nor Analyze seemed to work on it, so Serenity pulled some to his mouth and bit it. He was out of better ideas, and sometimes even bad ideas worked.

[Bloodline recognized: Azata (subtype: Lightning)]

That had to be part of Hollis. It probably explained why Hollius seemed to be getting weaker as Serenity pulled it out with the curse; it might be all that was keeping Hollis alive. Perhaps if he pushed it back in, Hollis would wake up?

He’d have to force it, but so be it.

Serenity started pushing the fizzy mana back into Hollis as quickly as he could separate it from the curse. It didn’t want to go, so he pushed harder.

Mana alone wasn’t sufficient, so Serenity pushed it with essence - first what he’d purified from the curse, then some of his own. Eventually, it seemed to snap into place and Hollis’s body started pulling the tingly mana from Serenity as quickly as he could purify it.

Serenity barely heard Raz when he said he was out of mana, but he couldn’t stop. If he did, Hollis would certainly die, and it wasn’t clear if he’d rise as a mummy or if he’d just be dead. If Serenity had to guess, it would probably be death, with as much cleansing as Serenity had already accomplished.

Serenity finally finished removing the last of the curse and the accompanying Death-tinged mana and essence and fed the last of Hollis’s bloodline back into him. Holding the bloodline in Hollis's body was getting easier now that he wasn't adding more, but it still took a little effort. As he came out of the trance, he was able to examine the changes around him.

The dead man still lay where he fell, but the injured woman was bound and seated against a wall out of the way. She still seemed to be unconscious. Raz, Katya, and Hale were all standing, staring at Serenity.

No, Serenity was wrong. They weren’t staring at him; they were staring at Hollis. Serenity turned his attention to the man he’d been healing.

Hollis seemed to be stirring. Serenity took a closer look at him to confirm what he thought he’d seen. Yes, he was right. Hollis no longer looked drained of his life; instead, he looked healthy. The stab wound wasn’t obviously visible, and he looked more like he was waking up from a good night’s rest than from being stabbed and nearly killed by a curse.

It wasn’t until Hollis sat up that Serenity realized he had a small pair of feathered wings trapped in his shirt. The wings partially peeked out through the neckline; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been certain what they were. They were much smaller than Serenity’s. A few feathers that didn’t seem to be part of the wings showed at the wrists as well.

Had he accidentally triggered the man’s bloodline? That seemed likely. Oops?

On the other hand, Hollis definitely wasn’t undead. He didn’t have Death magic running through him. So at least Serenity had succeeded there.

Serenity reassured himself. It didn’t seem like such a bad thing. A person’s bloodline could make or break them, and Lightning Azata sounded like it would be a good bloodline for a lightning mage.

Hollis looked around the room. His gaze fell on Hale. “Yngoliat? No, wait, you must be the son. Ynsarac, was it?”

That broke the ice, and Hale came to help Hollis to his feet. “What happened here?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” Guildmaster Hollis admitted. “I’m pretty sure something knocked me out, then I woke up bound in the darkness. My magic didn’t work; I couldn’t feel my Affinities. It took a long time to get out. I hid and followed these two to this room. I think they were the people behind it; I heard them talking a little while I was still trapped. We need to get the others out.”

“Does your magic work now? Can you heal?” Serenity knew it was a fluke that he’d been able to heal Hollis by triggering his bloodline; he really should have waited and sent someone to the Guild to get Rin. He simply hadn’t believed there was time; the Guildhouse was a couple hours’ walk from the warehouse, and Rin might not even be there, since it was now well after dark. “I can remove the curse if you can heal them afterwards.”

Hollis closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate for a moment. Serenity wished he had magesight; it would have been nice to know what Hollis was doing. When Hollis opened his eyes, he nodded. “Yeah. It’s back. Easier than it has been in a long time. What did I miss?”

“I, ah, I think I accidentally awakened your bloodline. I don’t think you’d have survived otherwise.” Serenity looked around the room. He hadn’t paid any attention to the table, chairs, or stack of paperwork before. He supposed it didn’t really matter to him since he couldn’t read it anyway.

Hollis laughed. “Accidentally awakened a bloodline. That’s a new one. I didn’t even know I had enough azata blood for it to count; no one’s awakened the bloodline in generations.” Hollis paused and seemed to shake himself. “I have to admit my back’s pretty uncomfortable, but other than that I feel better than I have in years. We should get started.”

“Take off your shirt,” Serenity suggested. “Cramped wings aren’t fun.”

Hollis looked confused but followed the suggestion. He seemed far more comfortable without his shirt. Serenity could see that most of Hollis’s upper body was covered with a downy fuzz and small feathers instead of hair.

It definitely wasn’t a full transformation - Serenity knew that azata were noticeably less human than Hollis looked - but it was still a big change. Hollis stretched, then headed out into the larger room where the coffin-shaped boxes were, and the two of them started opening boxes and healing anyone they could.

It took the rest of the night and well into the next day to clean out the warehouse. A few people were dead and a few were undead, but most were somewhere in the middle, cursed. Many were in bad shape from dehydration. Serenity wasn’t sure how many different healers he worked with, but he kept going as long as he could, and that was long enough to empty the warehouse.

The undead all had monster cores; most were mummies, but there was one draugr, two vampires, and a zombie. Serenity wasn’t sure what to do about that; after breaking so many curses,including the ones still lingering on the undead themselves, he didn’t have the energy to immediately offer them the options he’d given Desinka.

Syri suggested simply putting the undead out of their misery. “After all, it’s not like they’re ever going to be happy as undead. It’s also safer, undead and people don’t mix.”

Serenity growled. “No. They are people. None of them chose this, and none of them deserve to be executed for being unlucky.”

Syri didn’t suggest it again.

Her interference did make Serenity decide he’d have to offer them some options. Few of them would be able to hide their nature the way Desinka could; none of them appeared as human as she did. Even the vampires had obvious fangs.

Once he was done removing the curses on the warehouse’s survivors, Serenity pulled the undead into a room to talk with them. He was nearly loopy with lack of sleep, but it needed to be said before everyone scattered.

He gave them the same options he’d given Desinka, along with a couple of extra offers. He’d go with them to the Necropolis if they wanted, regardless of which option they chose. From there, he told them he’d be heading home; if they wanted to and they hadn’t chosen to be linked to a dungeon, they could come with him, but they’d have to help against the invasions. He didn’t want to bring people who wouldn’t help, undead or not.

He’d give them time to decide; he couldn’t do anything that night anyway.

After he dismissed them, Serenity wearily made his way back to the Whale and his bed before passing out.