You know one thing about the gods' blood? It's gorgeous. It's beautiful.

Depending on what type of sprout you’re looking at (human-esque organ, or plant life, or a building), the colour of the ichor can be anything from a deep maroon to gold to a burnt bread colour. No matter what, it’s always iridescent. Mesmerizing it is to move around and see the multicolour sheen upon the top layer shift and change as you change the angle from which you look at it. Mesmerizing to think of the blood’s power as well, but also terrifying.

A couple drops swallowed by accident because you didn’t realise the fruit on the ground was from a god’s sprout is one thing, at most you’ll get a bit high. But harvesting more than that… well, there have been some crackpot theories about how regular humans might get the gods’ power through their blood. Consuming it, or using it as some type of fuel. None of these theories have borne anything useful, though. Just gotten people killed.

And why am I thinking about all this?

“I don’t know how, but I feel a bit dizzy.” The oven said this right before I went outside, thinking I’d ask someone to help out with the oven’s dizziness.

That is when I saw a trail of ichor right in front of my house. Its colour is a mustard yellow. Much more muted than the gold of regular plant life or of a creature like Loaf.

The blood of the gods’ main body (the ‘centre of growth’ from which they originate) is a different hue than their various sprouts. This mustard yellow? Main body blood. A god was hurt, directly hurt.

The trail. I should definitely follow it and I should definitely find out what is happening. I should.

I really don’t want to, though. I don’t want to find out what’s happening with the gods now, and why this blood looks so fresh, and who spilt it, and I do have some theories about what happened (those ‘magic people’, those ‘witches’…), but do I want to confirm them? Right now, when I’m just very, very tired and nothing else?

Yes, yes, “Lavan, if you’re tired, how come you were planning to ask someone to help with the oven’s dizziness?”, that is a fair point. But it’s different when I know there will probably be some type of conflict and that I’m just… the dialects of the gods at the borders of the districts are different from the gods in the inner regions. Etiquette, too. I’m more familiar with the gods at the borders and, more importantly, I actually understand how to resolve conflict when it comes to them.

What if I go out to investigate this ichor trail now and I just worsen whatever brand-new conflict has started? I think the witches could be real, even if Camellia is suspicious about them. I think maybe they did some innovation with the regular everyday magic everyone uses and just weaponised it, something like that, and…

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Oh no. While I was having this stupid internal debate, Loaf slipped out the open door and she is licking the ichor.

“No no nonono!” I pick her up and run back inside.

Slam the door with her in one arm, and lock it, and run as if I’m trying to escape the ichor– as if that would help! Check Loaf for signs of ichor poisoning, you fool!

I clean the ichor off her paws, since she stepped in it, and I clean it off of all of her fur so she doesn’t lick in any more of it or anything and she seems calm, perhaps a little bemused at the way I ran inside (I hope I’m imagining that, though!) but normal, but that is not a sure sign of her not being poisoned and I need to get her to Epiprocta as quickly as possible and–

“Lavan?” the oven says.

“Yes?”

“You seemed worried. For no reason.”

“There is a good reason–”

“Not really. Loaf is alright.” It puts a smile into the air. “And actually, so am I!”

That tone it had just now was suspiciously cheerful. “What do you mean by that?”

“I think the ichor helped. I think it’s good for us. Both for me and the loaf.”

…

…okay, this definitely means… many, many things. Something should be clicking in my head right about now (but did I mention I’m tired), but there’s too many different things clicking and…

The oven is humming in happiness. I take what feels like many centuries (probably just seconds) to stare out into the emptiness.

Okay. Loaf seems perfectly normal. But I still don’t understand the connection between the cat and the oven (the connection of food and energy, that is), and acting normal doesn’t mean she isn’t poisoned, how much can the oven detect about her health anyway?

Okay, okay. I’m just going to drop Loaf off at Epiprocta’s so she can make sure she’s okay. But I need to investigate the ichor trail. I don’t know much about the effects that occur from a god drinking ichor… and if Loaf and the oven’s digestive tracts(?) are connected, then the effect of drinking the ichor– how did anyone even manage to spill THAT much ichor, actually? How did someone manage to damage a god that badly? Because even with the sprouts, they heal their wounds so very quickly and the gods’ main bodies are even more durable (and I’m pretty sure the mustard) something is happening, I need to figure it out.

Mini-harp and kitten in hand, I head on out.