Demonic Maladies

Erika was firm that Kori not leave the caravan to tend to the men who were scratched by the werewargs. Instead, she read to her sister from the romance Romeo and Julius until the carriages came to a halt in the grounds of the estate of Lord Vereticus.

Kori was curious to meet the nobleman after hearing of his wisdom. Perhaps he would let her look in his library.

The sisters waited a while for the time it took for their host to formally receive Siegfried. Then their uncle came to take Kori directly to him.

Rudolph led Kori through the entrance hall that was tiled with wide, black and white flagstones to an ornately carved oak staircase and to a pair of double doors. Rudolph knocked on the doors and then entered, ushering Kori inside as well.

Inside, a gentlemen in richly embroidered robes sat at a desk on which there was a mass of parchment. Kori glanced around. Her immediate impression was that the study was very cramped. There was a globe of Granat, a globe of the moon, bookshelves laden with books old and new, glass fronted cupboards with bottles and jars containing powders, potions and even preserved organs of animals. There were surgical instruments in other cupboards.

Lord Vereticus himself was a middle aged man with an aquiline face and a neatly trimmed goatee. Kori thought his manner conveyed worry. She had seen the look before in anxious patients and she wanted to comfort him, but Rudolph had to speak first.

"Vereticus, this is my niece." Rudolph wasn't spending any time on formalities it seemed. "You know already how I have pushed for her acceptance into the Gruenwald nobility and how her abilities have proven indispensable in the fight against the Wolf Cult." Here Rudolph opened his fist to show Vereticus the platinum rings that had belonged to the two defeated Cultists. Vereticus looked keenly interested at this.

Rudolph nodded. "Yes, Korina has defeated a second Cultist, this time the werewolf was a mage." Vereticus took a sharp intake of breath. Rudolph continued: "But she has been sadly injured. She subdued the Cultist with a magical shriek which broke his concentration on his evil sorcery, but which also proved dangerously taxing to her. Can you help? I know the supernatural is your area of interest."

Vereticus nodded. "I shall help. I want to help, even though I cannot help my own son."

"Oh?" Rudolph looked at him quizzically, but Vereticus ushered them into an adjoining room covered in gleaming white tiles where there was a long, leather padded reclining chair.

"First thing's first. Time may be of the essence." Vereticus took a pair of leather surgical gloves from a cupboard. "Young Lady," he addressed Korina, "due to your demonic heritage you are prone to distortions of the flesh. But I feel confident that I can help. Try not to worry. Just sit down." He motioned to the leather chair. Feeling some relief washing over her, Kori lay down on it.

Vereticus unlocked a steel cupboard and withdrew what appeared to be a facemask made of silver hammered very thin. It was moulded in the likeness of a female face.

"Again, try to relax…" he advised. Carefully he unwound the bandages the surgeon had placed around her face and holding her jaw in position with one hand, he positioned the silvery mask onto her face with the other. Kori felt it burning cold and could not stop herself wincing. Vereticus relinquished her face and the mask remained in position. The chill sensation lessened although her face now felt stiff and heavy.

"Success!" Vereticus sounded relieved. "Now you should regain consistency, but I'm going to prescribe a schedule for you that involves both rest and exercise to make sure." He turned to Rudolph. "Lesser demons have an ectoplasmic element to the physical forms. The ichor that flows through their veins is somewhere between blood and ethereal fluid. And the lady Korina represents an intermediate state between that of a pure human and a lesser demon. The mask should remain in place until she regains her normal form."

He turned back to Kori. "I have a pain killer that should ease the sensation."

Vereticus turned to another cupboard and took out two jars. He removed a pill from one with a pair of tweezers and dipped it into the other jar. "There, coating it in chocolate should help it go down better. I'll brew a tincture for your sore throat presently. I am confident your voice will soon return."

Kori was able to swallow the pill, although her throat was still painful. She nodded to Vereticus and tried to croak out her thanks.

"So what happened to your son, man?" Rudolph asked.

Vereticus sighed. "This past month has been marked by a number of strange and terrible occurrences. Disappearances… people torn apart by packs of wolves and lately, corpses of the recently deceased rising from their graves. Then last week at the full Moon, my son was strolling through the grounds of the estate and I heard him cry for help. I ran out to find him kneeling and a terrible figure standing over him. A figure, swathed in shadows, with the figure of a muscle bound man and a head like a wolf. It – It was sinking its teeth into my son's shoulder. I had prepared for such an invasion with a concocted compound of silver nitrate which I cast at the horror. He released my son with a roar of rage and raised his middle finger at me, on which I saw one of the rings of platinum which you now carry. He said with a snarl; 'Your son is cursed now, pathetic amateur magician. The wolves will run wild and my master, the Arch-Lycanthrope will see this land run red with the blood of man…' Before I could attack again, he simply disappeared from view as though he had just melted into the shadows. No matter how hard we searched, he was nowhere to be found."

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Rudolph looked grim. "Well now the Wolf Mage is dead. But it sounds like he wasn't the Arch-Lycanthrope."

Vereticus looked grimmer. "Korina has done extremely well, but too late for my son. I tended his wound, but he was stricken with fever which got worse. He was barely coherent. He kept saying in a high, sing-song voice, 'something in the darkness pulled me deeper, something in the madness gripped my mind… cut the strings that bind me to mankind.' The effects of the wolf's curse became apparent right away. Despite everything I could do, the fever got progressively worse and his physical form began to warp… he is now trapped in a semi-lupine form. His mother is distraught. She can hardly stop crying."

Kori let out a sob. Rudolph stroked his beard pensively. "The Wolf Mage only died this morning so we can see what will happen now… but I fear your son won't turn back unless the Arch-Lycanthrope and the Wolf Demon are defeated. This concerns the three of us greatly. You must tell us all you know."

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Later in the library of Vereticus, the scholar took a leather bound tome from a shelf and opened it as Kori and Rudolph sat and listened as he told them what he had discovered of the Wolf Cult.

"We know that werewolves are susceptible to silver and I have created a compound of silver nitrate that I will share with you presently. This latest plague of lycanthropy can be traced directly to a quintet of great evil doers - a warlord, a necromancer, an assassin, an imposter and a brigand - who formed a demonic cult. The Cult in question originated perhaps four to six months ago in the mountains far to the east, across the freezing wastes of Nebelheim and the Odelands. Their intent is to bring destruction to Nordheim and our way of life and they have sought to do so by nefarious means. They conducted a summoning ceremony by which they summoned a greater demon to assist them. The ritual involved five consecrated platinum rings. I believe the necromancer was the Wolf Mage you slew. He would have led the actual ceremony, even if the demon did not appoint him to be the Arch-Lycanthrope. The rings of the Cultists are a collective symbol that they are bound in the demon's service. It does not work the other way around. The five evil men became wolves under the demon's great shadow."

Kori made a mental note of everything he said. She tried to mime that she wanted to write something. Rudolph frowned. "What's wrong, Kori? Are you suffering from tremors?"

"The young lady has something to tell us," said Vereticus and he gathered up a sheet of blank parchment along with an ornate quill.

Kori scratched out a message as quickly as she could while trying to keep her handwriting elegant so as to impress the scholar:

I read something in a book on demons at Gruenwald. There is a symbol one must mark out to banish a greater demon, using consecrated artifacts, but it did not explain further. Would the rings count as consecrated artifacts? This is the symbol.

Kori scratched out the weird, esoteric symbol she had found in the book on demonic visitations. It resembled nothing so much as a five-pointed star with irregular angles. Vereticus picked up the parchment, frowning. "Yes, Korina, I have heard of this. The rings would suffice, but it would take all five. The ritual of banishment which you read about is really a counter to a ritual of greater demon-conjuring. In short, it is going through the motions of conjuring in the opposite order. The rings would have to be marked out around the demon first and of course, to be effective, the banishment has to be carried out by a mage or by another demon, or a demonspawn… Ahhh! You are a bright young girl. A shame you are not my daughter."

Kori gazed at him through the eye holes of her mask, feeling powerful emotion well up in her at these words. Rudolph put a hand on her shoulder. "I wish my brother had been as wise as you."

Vereticus shook his head. "The life of a scholar searching for wisdom is not everyone's cup of tea. To each his own." Kori nodded.

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For the next week, Kori had to adhere to the strict timetable for rest and exercise that Vereticus had laid out for her. Erika kept her company during this time. Kori thought she could sense unease from her sister, even though Erika was such a calm and self-composed person.

The healing potions Vereticus brewed for Kori soon restored her voice. She could discuss ingredients with the scholar at length when she could speak again. One day, Erika went with her to the bath house in the grounds, where they both swam in the small marble pool of heated water. Kori drifted very slowly so that Erika could keep abreast of her.

"I'm glad my mask doesn't rust," said Kori. "And that I can speak again. Listen, Erika, I've been wanting to tell you something. On the way here, after we went fishing, Siegfried kissed my hand… I … I didn't know he was going to. It made me happy at the time, but I know it was wrong…"

Erika was laughing. "Silly Kori, Siegfried kisses a lot of noble girls on the hand. On the mouth too unless the Regent is watching him. He can't help being a terrible flirt when all the girls are crazy for him."

"You really don't mind?" said Kori anxiously as they began another length of the pool. "I'm glad that you're the one who will marry him and be future queen. You're everything a queen should be - so kind and far wiser than so many people three times your age. But my feelings about the Prince confuse me…"

Erika looked a little sad. "It is not for my sake that I wish he wouldn't flirt with you. I do not want to ever see your hurt or heartbroken. Especially since… when the Wolf Mage attacked I thought for a second I might lose you. It – it looked like your whole head was about to come apart."

"Vereticus knows what to do, dearest," said Kori softly. "Siegfried was exactly right about him. He may be a flirt, but doesn't that prove the Prince is wise? Vereticus knows how I might banish the Wolf Demon. I can probably make a start as soon as I can take this mask off. I could set everything right and even heal Vereticus' son as well. I've certainly never healed an illness as terrible as his before. It would be a monumental achievement in my career as a healer."

"Yes, the old fellows all want you to be embroiled right at the center of this," said Erika, her voice now very cool. "I daresay mother would approve of their strategies."

Erika was cheerful again at bedtime though. While recuperating, Kori preferred to sleep in Erika's bed rather than the one in the guest room reserved for her. Kori settled beside her sister. She was beginning to get used to her mask now, although it was still awkward. Her face felt stiff, but she no longer had the alarming sensation of her jaw sagging.

She chattered to Erika about her research on ways to defeat greater demons and evil cultists. A particularly chilling example of the latter had been the Dread Disciples from the world of Obsidia, led by Gangrich Carcescu. On Obsidia, Carcescu had been finally defeated by a witch named Rebecca. "Rebecca had to change herself a lot to be strong enough to defeat Carcescu and Disciple Phobia when they tried to wipe out the population of Obsidia. It's so touching that she had complete faith in her loved one to still love her even though she would … no longer look the same anymore."

"Rebecca knew what was most precious to her," said Erika, taking hold of Kori's hand.