With that, Claudia went over to her reagents and took down several jars. She asked Dmitri to heat a bowl of water which he did by drawing the glyph for fire and directing it into the water. When the water was boiling, Claudia began to add the ingredients she had selected and stirred them in one by one as they dissolved. The liquid thickened as she stirred it and the colour changed. First a murky brown, then it turned a rich emerald green. Finally, as she added her last ingredient, a spiky red leaf, the mix turned a vibrant red.

“Cool it down quickly,” said Claudia.

Continuing with the fire glyph, Dmitri began to extract the heat. Furthermore, he drew the glyph for air and cooled it with that as well.

Claudia continued to stir while Dmitri cooled the mix and it began to thicken and then solidify. Soon enough, all the heat had been extracted and the mixture was solid. Claudia let out the breath she was holding, “It is done,” she said with a smile.

“Is it?” asked Dmitri, “How do we mix it with the disease?”

Claudia replied by getting out two mortar and pestle, “We grind it into a fine powder.”

She divided the solid red mass into two parts, a piece of which she placed into the stone bowls.

“Watch, and follow what I do,” instructed Claudia. Picking up a pestle, she began to break up the red compound, Dmitri followed suit with his own.

Slowly and carefully they continued until finally Claudia stopped, declaring hers complete. Dmitri, not as experienced as Claudia wasn’t quite done yet.

“I’ll finish yours,” said Claudia, “Take some of my powder and mix it in with the black ooze.”

Dmitri gathered some of the powder and breaking open the magic seal on one of his samples, added the powder to it. Not sure what to expect, Dmitri watched carefully as the two mixtures combined. The red powder simply dissolved.

“It dissolved,” he said to Claudia, sounding disappointed.

“Yes, it was meant to,” replied Claudia. “It means that now the ooze is a self curing version, give it to your rat.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Dmitri took a scoop of the ooze over to a new rat, the other having suffered enough. Upon being presented with an unknown substance, the rat sniffed at it and took a small bite. Nothing. Not even so much as a cough.

“Damn!” shouted Dmitri, slamming his fit on the bench. Claudia, watching the proceedings shook her head, “I guess we did it wrong,” she said.

“But I was so sure!” said Dmitri, “It was the exact same method I used to cure it before.”

“But the rat you cured you infected first didn’t you?” asked Claudia.

“Yes, but that’s why the changes were meant to be ones that happen over time. That’s what you created isn’t it?” asked Dmitri for confirmation.

Claudia didn’t respond, she was staring at Dmitri.

“Isn’t it?” he asked again. Then he noticed what she was staring at, it was once again the rat behind him. The rat was writhing in agony, its breath rasping. Suddenly, its back arched and it let loose a fountain of blood from its mouth, it sprayed across the workbench and splashed over some of the other rat cages.

Dmitri quickly gathered cages and took them to varying spots in the room, dumping them apart so the now mutant disease wouldn’t spread further. The original rat was on its side, kicking feebly into the air. The black boils had erupted all over the creature as well.

Claudia, some cloth over her mouth and nose, was using some cloth scraps to try and clean up the blood that the first rat had sprayed everywhere. Meanwhile, Dmitri was observing the progress of the second rat; its entire body had begun to swell, the boils engorged and painful, a small trickle of blood seeping out its mouth.

From around them, a wheeze began from each of the rats that had been caught in the spray of blood.

“Uh oh,” said Claudia, realising what was going to happen next. “Dmitri!” she called, “Do something!”

Dmitri traced the glyph for air and gestured to one of the newly diseased rats, a blanket of air wrapped around it and gesturing again, Dmitri directed the rat out of its cage to another part of the room where he left it suspended in the air. Doing this with all of the wheezing rats, he enclosed them with a massive bubble of air. The sound of their wheezing was amplified by their close proximity to each other. One of the guards outside the door proceeded to bang on the door, “What’s that noise? What are you doing in there?”” demanded the guard, “I’m going to get Draycott!”

Claudia looked at Dmitri in alarm. He shrugged, “It is too late, we can’t do anything to stop him coming now.” A strained look appeared on his face, “Help me reinforce the shield. Copy the glyph I did and focus on air.”

Claudia did as he asked and traced the glyph in the air, her expression one of wonderment as she communed with the element of air. She concentrated on the shield of air that Dmitri had constructed, pictured it thickening.

“Good work,” said Dmitri, “Now we just have to hold it long enough. It’s going to be bad.”

The wheezing stopped. The rats each arched their backs as if taking a deep breath. The next second the inner walls of the shield were running red with blood. Claudia vomited.