In his state of instability Anthony began to have a vision, locked in the cavern of darkness in his mind. It was the 5 circles of magic for 4 elements lined out like a giant star flat as a board. Slowly it began to evolve into a three dimensional sphere with circles aligning as one. Then he saw the sphere glowing at two points one that glowed with the red hot flame and the other glowed with white and blue luminesce of a drop of water. As they began to flicker like bright stars in alignment, the sphere suddenly turned around and revealed a perfect unity between fire and water. The light of red and blue mixed together and formed a purple light that began to shine as bright as a light stone of the highest quality.

The next thing Anthony felt was his body jolt as he started coughing and gasping for air as a burning hot liquid was poured down his throat. Master Zoe picked him up and patted his back as she grabbed his hand for comfort. The ether of his own breath felt like fire upon his throat, but left a familiar taste in his mouth.

“That’s it Bios, you’re going to be alright.” Master Zoe said, leaning behind him.

“Cough...what...is...that...liquor?” He asked, smelling the ethereal fumes from his throat.

“Hey, come one, that’s my best stock!” Charlie the miner was standing beside him holding a bottle in hand with a purplish liquid inside. “Haven’t you ever tried Manticore Shine, it’s imported from the Free States?”

“Cough...aren’t those...poisonous?” Anthony finally caught his throat.

“Only if you don’t know how to process it.” Jason said, holding an empty cup in his hand beside him. “You can purify the venom with several herbs and spices to make a potent alcohol. Assuming you know the right ratios that is.” He smiled as he put down the cup and placed his hand on Anthony’s shoulder. “I can’t believe you took a full dose of Ebony Fungus water straight into your body. If we didn’t find that hooch, your heart would have been working overtime for hours.”

“Hey, you know your old man’s gonna wonder why I took that from his office. He only opens it on special occasions.”

“Tell him to put it on my tab, his next foot injury is one of mine.” Master Zoe responded.

“You know he’ll keep you to that.” Charlie held the bottle tightly.

“The mushroom?” Anthony remembered the task he was assigned. “Did I succeed?”

“It’s passable...” Master Zoe showed the mushroom in the jar was not brittle and dried. “...We best not try it again though, your powers are more potent than I thought they were with this task.”

“Wait, then how are we going to preserve the rest of them?”

“We could try roasting them, but we’ll lose half the stock to burning in the process.” Master Zoe puzzled over this conundrum.

“Wait!” Anthony said, rising to his feet again. “With your permission Master Zoe, I’d like to try again.”

“You barely survived the last time, kid, I’m not gonna..."

“Please, I think my method might be incomplete.”

“Incomplete? What makes you think you can complete it now?”

“Surprisingly it was when I was temporarily incapacitated.” He took out his blunt crystallized dagger from his side. “I’m not sure, but I think there might be a simple missing piece to this equation.”

“I’ll stand by with the booze in case he knows out again.” Jason pushed at Charlie to pour another glass.

“...Okay, Bios, I’ll trust you.” Master Zoe nodded her head as she placed another jar in front of him.

Anthony was more nervous and cautious in this second attempt. This time he placed his knife in front of him as he began his deep breathing exercise. He imagined the process again, the drops of water within the fungus and inhaling them like a void into his body. He closed his eyes as they jumped toward his nostrils, as he flinched back as if trying to avoid contact. It was only a twitch but he felt his body naturally trying to react, but in an instant he opened his eyes to see what had transpired.

There in front of the edge of his dagger he saw a pool in front of him, a droplet the size of a large mushroom standing still floating in stagnant water form. Everyone watched at this spectacle, Jason took a swing of the alcohol in his cup not willing to believe what he was seeing. Charlie did the same as he watched what happened next in this ceremony that transpired.

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Carefully Anthony moved the tip of his dagger down the sphere of black liquid dipping its point directly upon the pool. He eased the crystal into the pool and started breathing differently using the air of his diaphragm to call upon the power of his soul energy. Slowly, but surely the liquid began to turn and bubble turning into black steam that went straight up into the sky above. Master Zoe instructed everyone to stand back for fear the fumes might catch their breath if they were to close. It took several minutes but soon the liquid had completely evaporated, leaving behind not a trace of the liquid upon the red glowing rock.

“Woo-hoo!” Charlie began to roar with cheer.

Jason casually nodded while Master Zoe smiled and looked toward the jar of dried fungus and picked them to inspect the quality and texture.

“That’s better Anthony, now we got a lot more jars to do before the night’s out. Then we’ve gotta plan for tomorrow’s excursion.”

It was a slow night for drying out mushrooms, but plenty of good company with a miner and farm boy taking turns with the bottle of booze, playing drinking games while Master Zoe and Anthony worked. When they were finished Master Zoe scolded Jason reminding him he still had a job to do tomorrow, whether he was hung over the next morning or not. It was a fact that didn’t discourage him from having a good night’s sleep.

The next couple days were as casual as the first, going into the caverns marked with X’s collecting a few samples and then moving on to the next. Master Zoe instructed the men not to take too many cropped mushrooms or the Boreas Group might suspect something. It was a trick considering there were patches of complete ripe crops unpicked, but left intact. After picking and decontaminating their suits, Anthony continued to dry them out for transport each time getting a little big fast until he could gather the water and evaporate it in one fail swoop.

Master Zoe was kind enough to share with him the instructions to create special medicine from the Ebony and Ivory fungus. Ebony Medicine for treating anxiety and depression and Ivory Medicine for the treatment of hemorrhages and strokes. She even shared how in ancient times primitive mages used their spores to achieve higher enlightenment in Body and Soul forces respectively. However, much like any herbal remember, its habitual use led to the creation of less poisonous strains like Ebony Liquor and Tandem Powder.

“A Healer builds Wisdom...for there is always something new to learn.” She would frequently quote that selected phrase for the Code of Asclepius.

On the night of the second day, Anthony had a vision from his spiritual form. It was the same dream he had every night since the night he started staying near the mines. His body would fall though the ground into the caverns below and keep an eye on the Myrrh Ants and the dying Myrrh Ant Queen waiting for the new one to be born. More and more he noticed that as the new Queen’s color grew the current Queen’s began to fade, and a strange rainbow colored web began to cocoon around her. It was on this night he witnessed something he never had before, the rainbow egg that had been squirming and waiting to be born finally cracked.

The great queen’s head turned to see her spawn for the first time and the last as her vibrant color began to completely fade. Then suddenly the vibrant luster of her exoskeleton became still, leaving the newborn spawn to call out as a pale imitation of her mother’s call. No matter how small or fragile her screams, the other myrrh ants revere her as their new queen. The death spiral had broken as a legion of white myrrh ants escorted by a swarm of black Myrrh Ants carried the queen deeper into the cavern leaving the queen’s body alone in the now stagnant cave.

That’s when Anthony noticed something strange appear on the queen’s body, a strange pinning of mushroom head that seemed to break out from the Queen’s skeleton. It was indeed a mushroom, but now he had seen it. It seemed to light up with a spark of halo atop its head made of the same vibrant colors as the egg shell. It was then he felt himself being pulled back from the cave, not in the same way he had before but slowly gradually guided by some unseen force.

He caught glimpses of caverns, crevices, abandoned rails, steel doors and sections of the mine that lead him up toward the quarry mine entrance and back into his body where he spotted Master Zoe approaching him for his usual wake up call. Before she could even lay a hand on him, he sat up in an uproar as his spirit jumped into his body.

“Whoa, kid, give an old lady a heart attack why don’t ya?” Zoe placed her hand on her head in dramatic fashion.

“Master Zoe, I know where it is.”

“What, where what is?” She asked.

“I know where we can find the ant queen’s grave?”

“Ant Queen?” Jason said barely getting up for the day. “What’s this about an Ant Queen?”

“Anthony, an Ant Queen’s grave site is rare, I was lucky enough to find it in an unmarked cavern a year ago.”

“I know where it is, a fresh one that may even contain Myrrh Ant Parts? Do you know what this means?”

Master Zoe quickly grabbed her gear and started suiting up, while Jason laid down wondering why they were starting so early.

“Finding a grave is one thing, but a fresh exoskeleton is a different story, you bumpkin.” Master Zoe said in a rush. “There’s an experiment I’ve been telling Anthony about, but I’d need a myrrh ant queen skeleton to do it. If the kid’s got a hunch I’ll bet my good leg I’m gonna take it.” The day had already started, but Jason was already pushed around.