“It’s not the first time that an undead has managed to infect people, either to safely feed upon them or to control them. This kind of trick, however, always followed the same pattern.
“The tissues would be hidden inside their victim and act as a parasite. Hence you would find two energy signatures, each belonging to a different being and then remove the unwanted one.
“In our case, the Draugr tissues form a symbiote that fuses with its host, making it impossible to treat them separately. That’s why it managed to fool us for so long. It followed the pattern of Jiera’s plague but had a different effect, leading us to believe it was simply a different strain of the disease.” Marth said.
“That’s it!” Quylla jumped off her chair in excitement. “Professor, if I recall correctly, Jiera’s plague deadly trait was its ability to bond with its victim tissues and make them rot from the inside so that any attempt to heal it would just hasten the decay process.”
“Exactly.” Marth nodded. “It was a disease that couldn’t be cured with normal healing magic. It required a combination of darkness and light spells because otherwise the healing would multiply the infected tissues and help spread the disease until it became untreatable.”
The cure required the Healer to distinguish the healthy parts of the patient’s body from those damaged. Then, they had to bombard the body with pulses of darkness magic strong enough to kill the infected tissues and only weaken the rest.
At that point, it was possible to infuse the patient with both life force and light magic, since only healthy cells would manage to reproduce whereas the infected would die of strain.
The procedure had to be applied to the patient’s head and torso first since unlike limbs, they couldn’t be regenerated. Also, time was of the essence. Due to the plague’s nature, if there were no healthy tissues the patient was doomed.
“My guess is that Erlik has infused his tissues with the same spells that empowered the plague. So far, first, you have treated it as if it was Jiera’s plague and then as if it was just an undead parasite.
“Yet our enemy is actually a hybrid. We already know how to eradicate the plague, but how can we adapt the cure to a Draugr?” She asked.
“Draugr don’t have many weak points aside from being unable to move during the day. They are creatures of envy and greed, so…” A flash of understanding appeared behind Marth’s eyes.
“Oh gods! It’s just an idea, but if it works…”
***
Ernas Household, now.
As an Archon, Jirni Ernas was no longer just an Officer. Her role required to supervise the job of many Royal Constables and the reports that kept flooding on her desk made her more worried by the day.
The Empire had managed to stop the advance of the Lich’s army and was slowly reconquering the lost lands, but there were still a lot of people who had lost their homes.
All those who had family members in the Griffon Kingdom or in the Blood Desert were seeking refuge from the war in the other countries, but distinguishing those who were really so desperate to betray their own homeland from the spies sent to spread false information was very hard.
The Kingdom had strengthened the army presence at their borders, even considering the idea of invading the Empire before deciding against it. Not because the Griffon Kingdom pitied its neighbor’s predicament, nor out of gratitude for sharing the cure for Jiera’s plague.
Just like when the Kingdom had faced the threat of Kandria’s parasite, it was a matter of opportunity. Forcing the Magic Empress to split her forces would have caused her certain defeat, but the joy from the victory wouldn’t last long.
If the Gorgon Empire crumbled, half of it would fall under Veeza the Lich’s grasp, giving the undead a stable foothold on the Garlen continent.
To make matters worse, not only would every single fallen citizen of the Empire be turned into another member of the Lich’s army, but also the Griffon Kingdom would become her new neighbor and next target.
With the current invasion of undead coming from Jiera, it would mean fighting enemies from both inside and outside the Kingdom, plus the risk of offering their back to the Blood Desert.
The Empress was their best bet against Veeza, or at least the Kingdom planned to use her to buy enough time to get rid of its domestic problem with the undead while preparing to colonize Jiera.
All the resources that the Empress had to invest in the war, the Kingdom was using them to not lose the colonial race against the Blood Desert. Unbeknownst even to Jirni, Salaark was treating his undead guests as she treated anything else.
They could either bend the knee or become fertilizer for her personal garden. Rumors said that her renowned Blood Roses would grow in the middle of the desert only thanks to the outstanding nutritional values vampire’s ashes had.
Which, needless to say, had led all but the bravest or most desperate among Jiera’s refugees to stay away from the Blood Desert.
The Kingdom wasn’t so lucky. Between the murders committed by the undead but disguised as common crimes and the criminals trying to pin their deeds on the undead Jirni’s workload had doubled.
Too many nobles had raised their heads again, daring to commit crimes against the Crown and against the rules of magic now that they had the perfect scapegoat. On top of that, Archon Ernas also had to orchestrate the search for Manohar.
All of her predecessors had failed to bring the Mad Professor back during the Kingdom’s time of need and had paid for that with their position.
‘First Phloria and now this. I’m wondering if I got this assignment because the Crown trusts me since I succeeded in handling Manohar in the past, or if it’s just some political play to undermine the Ernas’s authority.’ Jirni thought.
Lately, Orion was subject to harsh criticism for having shared the secrets of the Royal Forgemasters with his daughters even though he had only done it after vouching for them and getting the authorization from the Royals themselves.
Jirni wasn’t new to political attacks, but that was the first time that the Ernas family was surrounded from all sides. The Ernas was one of the most ancient and powerful households in the Kingdom, wielding both blue blood closely related to the Crown and the power of magic.
Usually, only Jirni would be targeted and solely because her job as a Constable made her an enemy of criminals, be them noble or not. Orion wasn’t involved in politics and his work as Royal Forgemaster was highly praised.
However now someone was systematically undermining their prestige and authority, starting from the weakest member of the family.
‘I knew that becoming an Archon would have made my position even worse, but I would have never expected that they would have taken it out on the entire Ernas household.
‘If it was me behind this plotting, I would make sure that Phloria gets reprimanded for her incompetence as both a leader and Royal Forgemaster. If they pin the blame for the Professors’ death on Orion’s teachings, the domino effect will hit him next.’
