Leaving Claudia sitting on the bed, Dmitri went back over to the samples. Drawing glyphs for water and fire, he tried purifying the black liquid using a standard form of healing. Almost immediately the ooze reacted, as would be expected when adding water, it thinned out and there was more of it. But what Dmitri didn’t expect was that after stopping the flow of water and air, the ooze continued to grow. In no time, it had doubled. Quickly, to prevent further spread, Dmitri drew the glyph for fire and incinerated the sample. Relieved that the fire had managed to destroy it, Dmitri moved to the next sample and the next elemental combination.
Behind him, the door opened and Wayte entered looking around urgently. Seeing Claudia, he rushed over with only a brief nod at Dmitri.
“What happened?” asked Wayte, “I felt the link and then suddenly you were gone!”
“You came up here for that?” asked Claudia with a smile, “You really are a sweet man aren’t you? It’s a shame someone so good is surrounded by so much evil.”
Wayte looked at her, not comprehending.
“I’m fine,” she explained, “Dmitri was just working on the disease and he had to infect a rat.” She shuddered in remembrance, “It is not a pleasant thing to watch. But he is working on it now.”
A burst of flame ignited another sample as Dmitri exhausted another option.
“Oh,” said Wayte, his relief palpable. “Just that when it broke off, I was afraid that something had happened, that Birkett had gotten to you or something.”
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Claudia smiled and put a hand on Wayte’s arm. “Thank you for caring. Your wife is a lucky woman.”
Wayte blushed and smiled, “So is Dmitri to have you.” Then he changed the subject, “I’ve managed to convince the guards outside that I’m checking up on your progress, so I can be in here for a short while longer. But this linking, it is an extraordinary experience. I could tell what you were doing when you were accessing my speed and strength!”
Claudia frowned, “What do you mean?”
Another flare of fire occurred as Dmitri continued, causing Wayte to look over.
“I’m trying to cure it,” Dmitri explained, seeing that he had Wayte’s attention.
“With fire?” asked Wayte.
“No,” said Dmitri, “I am using the fire to destroy any sample that grows and spreads too much.”
Wayte nodded, not really understanding, “Good luck,” he said and turned back to Claudia. “When either you or Dmitri actually used the speed or strength that you had gained, I could feel what you were doing. One of you earlier had tried to lift something really heavy.” He looked around the room, weighing objects in the room with his eyes, trying to gauge which item it was, he latched onto one of the workbenches, it was solid oak, immensely strong and heavy because of it. Wayte went over and grabbed an end and partially lifted it.
“Yes,” he said, lowering it again, “it was this one.”
Dmitri had stopped what he was doing and had been watching the two of them and he raised an eyebrow at the table lifting. He looked at Claudia in askance; she started to blush. Dmitri shook his head and laughed, getting back to his work. Time to try water again, he traced the glyph in the air and added some water to the ooze. It bubbled again and began to expand once more. Instead of incinerating it so soon, he traced the glyph of air but instead of adding it this time, he extracted the air from the ooze. Denied its food source, the disease stopped spreading. Detecting something else in the mix, Dmitri traced the glyph of earth and began to extract that element. This time the ooze began to contract, losing substance until it was only a small puddle of liquid. Using the glyph of water once more, he extracted that from the liquid; soon the small dish was empty, the elements having reclaimed their own. Dmitri let go of his magic with a smile.