The tip of the stick trailed along delicately, as if painting a priceless piece of art. An art not to be forgotten, the names of the of the fallen refugees.

The last three days had been painstakingly slow for Zilian, leaving him with nothing to do. Even when there was some task to be done it was accomplished easily. He passed the time away by reading the journal constantly these three days, countless hours before break of dawn until past the last flickers of the candle in the middle of the night. Blade was right that he did not have a goal, not even a clue of where to go. All he knew was what to run from, maybe he should just rid the blade so it would not be a burden to him anymore.

Lifting the stick to reveal his work, he reads aloud the name of one of the many innocent lives taken weeks ago. He scraped his foot across to wipe the name and began writing the next list names on the list, having remembered every name that there was in that book.

With a final stroke of the last name in the book, he stepped up back to see how Gienna was faring. Her fever spiked up during the night, leaving Erica working tirelessly to aid her bedridden friend.

"Is she doing better?" Zilian asked while stepping in the room.

Blade was the one who replied, not holding any apparent grudge of their argument three days ago. Then he saw his eyes, the unforgiving stare because of his thoughtless comments. "No, she seems to be getting worse. She started coughing up blood."

Erica had been changing a damp rag from Gienna's forehead, then suddenly gasped as she dropped the bowl of water. Before he could ask what was wrong, she lifted Gienna's arm out of the blanket. The arm seemed perfectly fine to him, but Blade shifted closer to get a better look. He brought the candle in closer, the light revealed the arm to be riddled with dark pieces of skin as if it were rotting away in decay.

"What is it?" He asked the obvious question.

An unsurprising reply from Erica was the response, "I don't know."

"One way for us to find out. You two come with me to the library." Blade pointed his finger at them.

"We can't leave her alone." Erica protested while holding onto her friend’s arm, unable to break apart.

Blade tried reasoning with, "We will be right back. We are going to see if this Kenplar has any books of diseases, which I am certain he does."

"No, she needs someone here." She replied defiantly. Erica had seldom left Gienna's side ever since they had arrived.

"We do not have time to argue." Blade shouted angrily.

"Just bring all the books here, then I can help."

Blade sighed in defeat, seeing that he could not separate her from her dear friend. "Fine. We will be right back. Come on ZIlian."

Not waiting for a reply, Blade exited the room. Zilian walked alongside him to the library, the room just as they had left it; dusty, old books tossed all about.

"What should I look for?" He asked.

"Anything that has Medication or Symptom written all over it, and I mean it literally."

Blade went to the back end of the room on the left wall, scanning each book one by one while trailing them with his finger. Zilian went shuffling through the books on the ground, piling them one by one under two categories, 'Will Help Gienna' and 'Useless'. Before he knew it, they had piled up a couple dozen books, mostly those with the word "Symptoms" written on them. He and Blade took what they could and headed back to Erica with their arms full of books.

Erica stepped up to give them a hand. "Here, just place them on the floor."

After settling all the books down, each one of them grabbed one and began to read. The first book Zilian grabbed was titled 'Deadly Jungle Symptoms and Cures', he had no idea if this was the right place to start but it was just as good a start as any.

He read disease after disease, its symptoms, and cures. Periodically lifting the book to show Erica a possible match, only to find out it was not what they were looking for. One way or another the diagnosis was off by one symptom or wrong geological area for it to manifest. After a while he kept it to himself, if he was not sure if it was the one, that was a good enough sign telling him it was not.

After several hours, it had become painstakingly clear that just about everything they read was not even close to what they were looking for. They had to take several trips to the library and back, and before long the room was a library of its own. Finally Zilian stood up after what had felt like an eternity of reading books, hearing his own joints pop into place as he stretched his legs.

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"What time is it?" He asked with a yawn.

"About one or two in the morning." Erica replied with her eyes glued to the book she was in. She was the one who read the most, three times more than he and twice as much as Blade. It felt like she was through a book every couple hours.

"What, we've been up for that long?" He exclaimed surprisingly.

"Yes, we were. We are close, I can feel it. See if you can get more books from the library."

He shook his head apologetically, "Sorry Erica, but these are it. There’s nothing else in the library on the subject of medicine."

She glanced at him, "You sure?"

"Yeah, I've checked and rechecked like five or six times." He rubbed his temples tiredly.

"Then there is something we must have missed something in here." She closed the book she was reading, which she had evidently finished. She shuffled through the piles of books, apparently looking for one she might not have read thoroughly. She looked like she was going to burst into tears again.

Trying to calm her down, Zilian attempted to console her, "Erica, it will be fine."

"No! I will not lose her too!"

He placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her, but her response was to slap his hand away. She cried in her hands, despairing that she was helpless to help her friend.

"Not to burst your bubble, but I think I found what is wrong with your friend." Blade said.

Raising her head, Erica composing herself back into reality with a sniffle. "Really?!"

Unable to wait for a moment longer, she snatched the book from him to see what he was reading. For a moment, her spirit seemed to rise as her chest filled with hope. However, her smile quickly turned into a frown.

"Wait, this can't be." She looked at Blade curiously.

"Yes, it is. I am sorry Erica, but your friend is not going to make it."

She stared blankly, looking back into the book.

Zilian exclaimed, "What do you mean? You found out what is wrong with her, all we need to do is make an antidote."

Blade shook his head sadly, "If only it were that simple. First step was to find out what it was she had. The second is to find out if it is curable. In her case, it is curable. But the pulp is made from the leaves of a rare flower, which is only found naturally on the borders between the Wind and Swamp empires."

"Is there nowhere else we can find it? Maybe in a city nearby in some vendor shop." He offered hopefully.

"Zilian, I am sorry, this is not something you find in any shop."

The shadows emitted from the candle danced from Erica's sudden excited jumping.

"Is something wrong Erica?" Blade asked worriedly, apparently fearing the disease caused insanity.

"No, she is going to be fine! We have everything we need!"

"You must be out of your mind. The Moonlight flower is nowhere nearby!" He exclaimed.

"But it is! The Kenplars have a small patch of these flowers on their land."

Blades jaw dropped and Zilian gawked, it took him a moment to realize what all was left that they needed to do. "That is great Erica, where is it?"

Her eyes shied away. His joy turned into his frustration, he pulls on his hair yells while spinning, "Can't anything just be simple? For once I just want a normal life."

Blade answered, "You know you never going to have anything normal." Slightly insinuating about his predicament with the sword. That struck him in the heart, he knew he had a second meaning for that. Referring to him and the sword he was 'guardian' of, which was in his opinion against his will. He had no energy left to argue with him, so instead he tried to focus back on to the situation at hand.

"How much time does she have?" He asked.

"That is another problem, she should already be dead. I am guessing she was only slightly exposed to it." Blade answered.

"'Exposed'? You’re not making any sense to me."

Blade sighed. "She was exposed to a manmade weapon, a rare disease used as a weapon. Typically once exposed to enough of this disease, you die in two to three days. She seems to have survived for much longer than that. That being said, she could die in another week or in an hour. I would not bet on the former though, given her state."

"Well, we need to start somewhere. Erica," addressing her, "No clue where it might be?"

"I only remember they had it, I can’t recall where it was, just that it was dark. The flowers normally glow from the light of the moon, so it must be somewhere in the forest or in a cave. I do remember they were not glowing because of the darkness."

"Not much to work on then." Blade remarked while rising from his crouched position. "So what is your call Zilian? As I see it, we either find the flower or just end her misery."

With no hesitation he replied, "We are finding that flower."

Blade grinned, pleased, "Thought so, I would have done the same. At least we have something in common." Blade reached out his hand to shake. Zilian smiled. He was right, they finally found something in common. He grasped his hand and gave a sincere shake.

The heartwarming moment was interrupted from Gienna’s hacking. Erica swiftly came to her side, grabbing a rag to wipe the sweat off her.

"She only has a couple of hours." She affirmed. She lifted the rag, revealing the sweat was bloody. "The final sign of death; if she does not get the antidote soon, she will not make it." A tear rolled down her cheek.

Zilian and Blade both knew what had to be done, so they both ran outside from the main entrance. No need to exchange comments, no need to lay out a plan. They both knew it was somewhere dark, and that it glowed when moon light bounced off of it. Most importantly though, they both knew that time was running out.