The thick viscous blood that it had begun to cough up became thinner and less frequent, so Dmitri took the next step and drew the glyph for air and began to extract that element. The wheezing got worse and the rat fell on its side. Dmitri quickly realised that as well as starving the disease of air, he was doing the same to the rat. He reversed the flow of air and instead began to feed air back into the creature. He thought for a moment, trying to think of a way to extract air, earth and then water when his mind hit upon something Wayte had said; he’d seen Dmitri using fire and had thought that was part of the cure. So Dmitri took a risk and drew the glyph for fire and began to feed that into the rat. The rats wheezing turned to shrieking and it began to cough up blood once more. The black sores erupted and oozed the foul liquid. The rat collapsed and lay on its side in a pool of black ooze, a trickle of blood trailing from its mouth.
“It didn’t work,” said Claudia from behind Dmitri.
He turned around quickly, having not heard her approach, “No, it doesn’t appear that way does it.” Dmitri sighed dejectedly, “How are you coming along?” he asked her.
“Hey,” she said, gently placing a comforting hand on his shoulder, “we knew that this wasn’t going to be an easy task. I know you are doing the best you can.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “But I have managed to make a few potions we can use.”
Claudia guided Dmitri over to her workbench, “This one,” she said indicating a bulbous little jar filled with a green liquid, “will constrict airways, causing people to choke and struggle to breathe.” Then she indicated a vial filled with a yellow liquid, “And this one, will cause an itchy rash almost instantly.”
Dmitri nodded, clearly impressed, “But how do we get them to ingest it?” he asked.
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“We don’t,” replied Claudia, and then explained, “you simply throw the potion at the ground and when the container smashes, the liquid within will react with the air and become a gas, then they will begin to choke or itch accordingly.”
“Impressive,” said Dmitri truthfully, “I can’t even begin to understand how you did it, I’m just happy you have.”
“It was surprisingly easy actually,” said Claudia, “The choking gas is made from the pollen of a certain flower. The pollen normally causes this reaction in a small number of people, but I have made it stronger so that it should affect just about anyone. The other one, the yellow potion, it is made from a mix of nettles, it is contact with the skin that causes the itch in that.”
Dmitri was nodding as she explained, it was incredible work that she was doing.
“Look!” exclaimed Claudia, pointing behind Dmitri.
He turned to look at what she was pointing at; it was the rat. It was walking around its cage, alive! Dmitri quickly went over to the cage and inspected the rat. Its fur was matted from blood and oozes and it had open wounds where the sores had been but otherwise it was completely fine.
“Will you look at this, it’s completely healthy,” said Dmitri astounded.
“But how?” asked Claudia, “We saw it die. Didn’t we?”
“Not quite,” said Dmitri, “We saw it stop moving. It is quite possible that it simply lost consciousness because of the pain.”
“So it is a cure then?” asked Claudia.
“Yes, a complete cure.” replied Dmitri. “Could you create something that added fire and water to the disease over time?” he asked.
“Water is easy,” said Claudia, “I’ll just add something that can break down any food into water. Assuming the person has eaten within a day or so they should be fine. Fire though is a different question. Do you want it to catch fire? And actually burn?”
“Not as such,” he replied slowly, “I only added a small amount to the rat and it burned it all away in a flash. So maybe a small burst that burns itself out.”
“Well,” she started, “if we use the same fire liquid idea from our potions, it should work. I’ll just change the amount of liquid it needs to ignite.”