To his credit, Kai didn’t hesitate, simply picking up the potion, uncorking it and draining it in a single pull.

As he did, Verdan finally calmed down enough from seeing the state of his friend’s arm to notice just how scarred the rest of Kai was.

Verdan had seen some of the scars in passing before, and knew that Kai had been in a lot of combat, but the sheer amount was staggering.

Kai’s chest was almost more scar tissue than healthy flesh at this point.

The Sorcerer grunted and made a sound of displeasure as he put the empty vial back down. “That was disgusting.”

“Shush, now show me your arm,” Natalia said, waving aside his comments as she turned Kai to get a better look.

Intrigued by what she might have made, Verdan moved closer, observing the signs of corruption for any change.

Nothing happened for a few long moments, and then Kai hissed in abrupt pain, his eyes going wide as he clutched at his arm. “It stings, and it feels like my bones are on fire.”

Natalia paid close attention, but showed no sign of concern over Kai’s discomfort. “Interesting.”

This was another side of Natalia, one that Verdan hadn’t seen much of. This drive was how she’d become the alchemist she was.

Turning back to look closely at Kai’s arm, Verdan saw that the corruption markers were slowly withdrawing. The potion was working.

Natalia forced Kai to stand there and wait while they monitored his arm, and eventually, the marks faded altogether.

The skin tone was still off, but that would no doubt take longer to return to normal.

“How do you feel?” Natalia asked once they were certain there were no other changes.

“Tired,” Kai said in a weary tone. “My arm feels like I’ve been badly beaten, as well.”

“Hmm,” Natalia hummed noncommittally, prodding Kai’s arm in places before shaking her head. “It looks healed, but I’m concerned about how long it took. Verdan, you know more about corruption than me. What do you think?”

“I don’t know what to think about this injury anymore,” Verdan said, eyeing Kai’s arm mistrustfully. “That was a quicker purge than I expected, but it was also quite localised.”

“What I’m hearing is to rest. Keep from using it too much and we’ll see,” Kai said, parroting Verdan’s previous instructions back at him with a sardonic smile.

The Wizard nodded reluctantly and motioned for Kai to get his shirt back on. “If you see any sign, and I do mean any, of that corruption returning, let me know.”

Kai nodded, rubbing absently at his arm as he did. “I will. I’m going to go get some coffee. Do you want anything?”

“No, I’m good, thanks,” Verdan said, ushering Kai out of the room before closing the door and turning back to Natalia. “That was a damn impressive potion. How did you make it?”

Natalia blushed, her cheeks going bright red, and glanced away as she shifted in her seat. “Well, I just combined a purging potion with a few others and an old recipe for a spiritual illness. It seemed to come together nicely.”

Verdan shook his head, amazed by her inability to see just how impressive she was.

Taking a seat next to her, Verdan saw a second vial of the potion in the case she’d brought and chuckled to himself.

Natalia saw what he was looking at and shrugged with a wry smile. “I wasn’t sure about the dosage, so I came prepared.”

“Just the level of preparation I expect from you,” Verdan said with a teasing note before leaning in and kissing her softly. “Tell me more then. How did you combine it all?”

Natalia sat upright, her eyes bright as she began to explain the research and experimentation she’d done to get to this final product.

Verdan sat back and listened with a smile, enjoying the chance to see Natalia in her element.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

-**-

Verdan checked in on Kai each day for the next three days, making sure to visually inspect the Sorcerer’s arm when he did.

It wasn’t that he thought that Kai didn’t understand the severity of the issue, it was just that the Sorcerer was stubborn and disliked making a fuss over his injury.

Some of the guilt that seemed to drive Kai onward had faded after their fights with the Gormagyr, and Kai had seemed better and more grounded for it.

That wasn’t the same as Kai being in a good and healthy place, however, and Verdan knew that full well.

Still, there was no sign of anything returning or flaring up, which was encouraging. Verdan even dared to hope that Natalia had finally hit the right combination of things to finally deal with it once and for all.

He had paid attention when she went through her list of ingredients and the experimentation she’d done, and some of it had the feel of Parada to him.

The fourth type of magic was esoteric and as far from the organised and logical Aether as could be, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t usable or repeatable.

Perhaps a combination of Aether and Parada was what they’d needed to deal with it.

Either way, there was no sign of it returning.

Verdan was just leaving Kai after his last check up when he saw Ruan waiting outside of the mansion with a carefully folded list in one hand.

“Ah, Kai, you might want to come with me for this one,” Verdan said, calling back to the Sorcerer, who had been about to meditate.

“Oh?” Kai cocked his head to one side questioningly, so Verdan gave him a quick rundown on what he’d discussed with Ruan last time.

Intrigued, Kai agreed and got back to his feet, absently rubbing at his arm as he grabbed his spear and followed Verdan over to the mansion.

“Everything okay, Ruan?” Verdan called out as they crossed over to him.

“Just fine, Boss,” Ruan said with a broad grin, his words crisp and clear. “Got that list for you to look at.”

“Alright, let’s see it,” Verdan said, holding out a hand and taking the piece of paper as he led the way into the mansion’s living room. “This is quite a few, Ruan.”

“Well, they’re all solid, dependable folk. Most of them I’ve worked with before, but those I haven’t have been vouched for by at least two others.”

“Well, let’s take a look then,” Verdan said, turning back to the list of several dozen names.

Some of them he could remove immediately. There was a hard limit to how effective his healing was, after all.

By and large, though, Ruan had followed Verdan’s guidelines for what sort of person to include. “This is good work, Ruan. Do you think they’d all be interested in working for me?”

“You pay us well, Boss, and you take good care of us. One look at Barb’s new hand will tell anyone just how true that is.”

Verdan nodded, taking the compliment for what it was, even though he regretted not managing to save her hand to this day.

Remembering that day brought back memories of Declan, and those two damned Sorcerers who’d tried to kill him.

Fighting the anger bubbling up inside him, Verdan locked it away and focused on the here and now as he passed the paper to Kai. “What do you think?”

Kai scanned the list silently for a minute or two before nodding. “I recognise a few of these, and if they’re all to this quality, then I say we do it. Some of them I would have recruited the first time around if it weren’t for their injuries.”

“Alright then,” Verdan said as Kai passed the paper back to Ruan. “Go ahead and set them up to be here in a week’s time. Half on one day, half on the next. We’ll try and get through them all then.”

“Will do,” Ruan braced to attention before hurrying off to make the preparations.

“Do you have enough money for all of them?” Kai asked softly once Ruan had gone. “That’s a lot of guards.”

“Well, the city pays me a monthly amount for the use of the machines, and that covers everything we spend at the moment. I also get the money from the adventurers, and I’ve a new product to release soon. Here, take a look.”

“Oh?” Kai sat up straight as Verdan tossed him a medallion. “What’s this, and what crest is that?”

Verdan cleared his throat and blushed slightly. “Well, that’s my family crest. With everything going on, I thought it time to start marking these things as being mine.”

“An eye over an open book,” Kai said, looking down at the crest with a crooked smile. “How apt.”

“Yes, well, where I’m from, it would fit in nicely,” Verdan said, rolling his eyes. It had been a spur of the moment decision for him to include the design, one that was probably driven by the time spent in the north with the Kranjir.

“So, what does it do?” Kai asked again, flicking it up into the air before catching it.

“When worn, it applies a weak healing effect. Not enough to cure anything, but enough to keep people alive until a healer can get to them.”

“Damn,” Kai said, eyes going wide as he looked down at the medallion with astonishment. “How many of these are you making?”

“Dozens,” Verdan said, grinning at the shock on Kai’s face. “When this all goes straight to the abyss, I’m going to use those to keep as many people alive as we can.”

“The Sects will want them,” Kai said warningly, but Verdan simply shrugged.

“The Sects can have them, as long as they’re willing to pay.”

“You know, somehow I’m not so concerned about funding this new group of guards,” Kai said, giving Verdan a growing smile as he went to pass the medallion back.

“No, keep that one. Put some string or something through it so you can wear it. I’ll be giving out the first run of them to all our close allies in the next few days.”

Kai nodded and tucked the medallion away. “That’s a good idea. How are you making them?”

“Right now, Magnus is slaving away at a machine down in Elliot’s forge. He can only do a dozen or so a day, but that adds up quite fast. It’s also helping him manage splitting his attention.”

“He’s progressing well, then?”

“He’s got a tenth of Dirk’s talent,” Verdan said honestly. “But he has more stubborn determination than even you.”

Kai barked out a laugh and shook his head, about to respond, when there was a knock at the door and Pawel stepped inside.

“Sorry to interrupt, but we just got a message from Commander Silver,” Pawel said, clearing his throat and looking between them worriedly. “The Sects have engaged the Cyth.”