Jude sat by Iris, in the middle of all the birds she had been treating, and waited for her to wake up. While he waited, he pondered what to do next. He would have to be present to act as an interpreter if Queen Millicent decided to teach her Mana Life, but he wanted to go to Mythrini’s cabin to see if he could find out more about their equipment.
It took a couple of hours for Iris to wake up. It was already nearing dusk, so they wouldn’t be able to do anything else that day. Instead, Jude told her everything he had learned that day and asked her if she had any thoughts on what to do next.
“I think the birds still need treatment, and that’ll probably take another couple of days, so I think you should go to the cabin while I do that. When you get back, we can work on Mana Life and the Fae in the cocoon. Do you think the memory sharing thing will work on me?”
“I think so. I don’t know if you’ll understand what’s being said in the memory, though” Jude replied.
“I can get an idea from the images. We should try it. That way you won’t be tied down to me to interpret everything.”
“We’ll talk with the queen tomorrow about it. I think she already turned in for the night.”
“She’s probably healing herself now that she can. These last couple of days taught me how exhausting it can be to use up all your mana. It’s like my body wants to shut down immediately.”
“You did great today too. They are all extremely impressed, and you gained a lot.”
“Right. Keen Vision and the title. The skill doesn’t have a level, so I’ll have to figure out how to upgrade it.”
“What about the rest of your stats? Any other level ups?”
“Not today, but I have a feeling that it’ll happen again soon.”
“Makes sense the way you are using everything you can like that. Keep pushing yourself. We’ll need to get stronger… And you’re sure you want to hunt The Devourer?”
“After seeing the birds today, I can’t go back or go anywhere knowing I would be leaving them to die. We have to end it.”
“I agree. I also want to know what that red pulse is all about. We need answers.”
“We do…” she added glumly.
They talked well into the night, going over every detail they could think of since they had been brought to that place. Around midnight, when the howling had just started in the distance, Iris suggested they sleep. She was still tired from all the work she had done that day, but more than that, she didn’t want to hear that sound every night. They could sleep peacefully now, hidden in the Fae Realm, high up in the canopy of the trees, but everything else around them was still dying, and the sound accentuated the cause of all of that.
Because they could both sleep at the same time, Iris snuggled up to him again, a respite of human warmth that kept her sane through everything that was happening to them. Since the night before the trek to the tree, when they had indulged in each other after considering they might not survive the next day, she had come to crave his scent at night, and had it not been for the great amount of intelligent beings surrounding them, she would’ve given in to that carnal craving again. Jude was the same, with every part of his being trying to control himself when he felt the warmth of her body against his and the scent of her hair under his nose. That struggle persisted for a while before they both eventually passed out exhausted and frustrated.
In the morning, Jude relayed what he and Iris had discussed to Queen Millicent, who whispered a few words to Rost before turning back to Jude and saying, “Rost will lead you to the cabin. It is outside our realm. Overcome with rot.”
“I’m prepared,” Jude said, but at that moment, Iris handed him five test tubes filled with a clear liquid. She had created those that morning because she would be reusing the syringes from the previous day, so she didn’t need to save her mana.
“These will purify you or anything that gets touched by the rot. The water itself won’t last more than an hour like this, but if you drink it, it’ll keep you immune for about six hours. I’ve tested it, and it works.”
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“You tested it?!”
“Don’t look at me like that. I’m a doctor. I need to know these things.”
“You take too many risks.”
“It’s fine. Use one for yourself, and the other four in case you need to douse something clean. Though, if it’s far, I guess they won’t work at all.”
Jude told Queen Millicent about the panacea’s time limit, and she replied, “It is close, and Rost is fast.”
After that, Iris promptly returned to the birds that needed her most after thanking the queen for the chance to learn from her. Queen Millicent bowed to Iris in return, happy to be of assistance to her people’s savior.
Meanwhile, Rost placed himself on a branch lower than Jude’s just by a little, and waited for Jude to get on top of him. Jude thanked the king of the Avians of that forest and got on. As soon as he did, Rost took off into a nosedive parallel to the trunk of the massive tree. About halfway through, Rost pulled up and settled in regular flight. Jude, who had missed the opportunity to skydive, not only because he had been pulled into that place, but because it had been an extremely cold winter so far, and jumping in the winter was not a pleasant experience, reveled in the aggressive way that Rost flew. The speed, the altitude, the air, they all soothed him.
It only took ten minutes for him to see the cabin in the distance. The roof of it broke through a circle of short, dead trees. The wood was splintered in places and rotted in others. The cabin itself was quite large. Because the trees around it were dead, Jude could see that amount of space that had been carved out of the forest by Mythrini to build his cabin. It was more of a lodge than a simple cabin. It had two floors and an annex that Jude guessed was Mythrini’s workshop. Because he had a limited time, the annex would be his goal.
The annex itself was in much better condition than the rest of the cabin, informing Jude that Mythrini had probably used his skills on what he found most important about his possessions.
Five minutes later, Rost and Jude were above the cabin. They had decided that Rost would drop Jude by the cabin and would fly around until Jude came out again. The bird king did not want to land on the rotted trees surrounding the place for it was not immune to the rot, but it could fly without landing for multiple days if necessary.
Rost flew as low as he could, and Jude jumped off his back on the dead grass surrounding the cabin. He had already drunk the panacea Iris had given him, so he wasn’t worried about being contaminated by the rot.
After getting up, he headed in the direction of the annex. Jude took one last look at the main cabin and noticed that most of it had collapsed into itself. The rot had eaten through the wood, leaving pure destruction behind. Whatever had been in the main cabin was long gone.
By contrast, the annex was still standing. The rot had been mostly rebuffed from corroding the place. The wood outside was starting to redden, but inside, everything was still pristine.
When Jude entered, he saw a couple of mannequins, similar to those they had found in the middle of the forest, but they had nothing on them. There were scattered materials on the floor, as if someone had grabbed what they could and left in a hurry. There were tools on the walls and on desks, but nothing really stood out to Jude, so he went around checking everything. There was nothing broken or rotted, but there didn’t seem to be anything immediately helpful. There were no weapons displayed, no other garbs or accessories. There were just weaving tools, unfinished fabric, and a cauldron by a fireplace.
Jude had searched from top to bottom, moving and scanning every tool, every piece of fabric, to make sure it wasn’t important, and had nearly given up when he approached the cauldron. Unexpectedly, inside of it, there was a book.
“Why would this be here of all places?” Jude asked himself.
When he opened it to the first page, he saw that it was a diary, Mythrini’s diary. It recounted everything that had happened since the beginning of the rot, more than Queen Millicent’s memories had told him. Mythrini had been unable to return to the Fae Realm after leaving, so all of his knowledge had been left there. He had researched the red pulse along with the rot, and while he had made little headway with the rot, as he had been a weaver and not a healer, he had managed to reach the source of the pulse.
Jude skimmed through the information in the book as fast as he could, but about halfway through, he found, hidden between the sheets of paper, an old iron key.
“There’s more to this room!” Jude exclaimed, and proceeded to search once again. By now, hours had passed, and the other four vials of panacea had gone unused. There was no food, but he kept himself hydrated by drinking a vial when he got thirsty. He searched and searched, but he couldn’t find a hole for the key, so he decided to take it with him and ask Queen Millicent about it upon his return.
After exhausting all possibilities, Jude exited the annex and looked up to see Rost flying above. He waved at the giant bird, who dropped down to just above Jude’s shoulders and picked him up on its talons. Once a bit higher up, Jude climbed up the legs of the bird until he was sat atop Rost again. Inside the workshop, he had found a satchel, and he had placed the empty test tube vials in it, along with the book and the key.
With the sun still above them, they made their way back to the Fae tree. There was still plenty of daylight left, but it was getting close to Jude’s six-hour time limit, and he didn’t want to be surrounded by rot without Iris to heal him. He had searched everything possible anyway, so he didn’t see himself making any more progress by going over the cabin one more time. Instead, he wanted to dive into the book more thoroughly and glean any new knowledge he could from it.Their lives could depend on it.