Once they were all in the room, Beren gave more explanation. Each contestant would have to take care of a case. The contestants had to diagnose it and prepare the best prescription to heal the patient. They had three hours to treat their patient and write a report about it. Talents and pets were allowed, but using them could lower the final score if the patient's healing wasn’t due to pharmacist skills. It was a traditional competition, but Galen’s mother had hated it because it used beasts that were truly sick or injured. However, Galen wasn’t here to judge the ethics of such trials: he needed the money and the prize.
Several members of Dahi High School’s staff organized the contestants. One was making them draw a number at random while the others were guiding them to an exam table surrounded by screens to give some privacy to the students and their patients. Then, staff members were bringing the carrier containing the sick or injured beast corresponding to the drawn number into this private space.
The ingredients and plants were put in a common space for the contestants to peruse and choose from. Three of the five beast tamers from the Association were in the room with them. Their purpose was to keep an eye on the six young beast tamers competing in the room and judge how much their talent and their pet were involved in the trial. Like in the previous trial, all the young beast tamers were gathered to make it easier to supervise them.
Galen drew the number twenty-four and quietly followed the staff member to his exam table. All the necessary basic tools to examine the beast and produce potions or pills were placed around it. As the staff member put down the carrier on the table, Galen saw a notable Blue-Winged Magpie through the front bars. Keeping Lucia close to him and his hands to himself, the youth observed what he could of the bird. Galen had to wait for the signal to start the competition. But it was hard because the poor beast was noticeably suffering from several lacerations and some broken feathers essential for its flight. Galen would have to carefully examine the bird to be sure that none of its wings were broken too.
As soon as he heard the signal to begin, Galen came near the injured beast. He firmly reminded Lucia that she couldn’t use her skill to heal the bird. Seeing her clear disappointment, he told her she could try to reassure the magpie. Galen wasn’t sure how she would do that since one of the fairies’ uncanny characteristics was that they couldn’t produce any sound. Putting away any wandering thoughts, Galen concentrated on his task and opened the carrier to coax the beast out of it.
Unable to hide inside the false security of the box anymore, the magpie cowered on the table. Lucia landed in front of it and gestured authoritatively from the bird to Galen several times. The youth restrained his startled laugh. That wasn’t what he imagined she would do, but it was effective enough since the magpie turned cautious eyes to Galen.
Shaking his head, the boy checked the bird physically first to draw his own diagnostics. He didn’t use his talent [Insight] yet. He knew his talent was a helpful tool, but he didn’t want to get dependent on it. He counted three deep lacerations on the magpie’s belly and eight superficial ones on its back and head. One of the light cuts was near the bird’s left eye. Treating it would require delicate work since the magpie’s instinct would tell it not to let anything come near its eye.
As for the wing flight feathers, Galen noted down several remiges needing repair as well as two rectrices from its tail. From what Galen could infer, the magpie suffered from a claw attack that resulted in the main three lacerations. The other injuries were probably due to its fall.
Once he had a firm idea of what the magpie was suffering from, Galen signaled to the nearest beast-tamer invigilator that he was going to use his talent. Better to actively show transparency than to give any handle to his enemies. Beren surely had had the time to plot another scheme.
Galen was confident in his diagnostic, so he didn’t expect his talent to show him much. However, he frowned as his [Insight] revealed that the bird was suffering from something more. In its first level, his talent didn’t give him an accurate answer. Galen had to focus on the subtle clues enlightened by [Insight] to determine what was wrong with the magpie. His conclusion made him swear under his breath.
“What it is? Why are you upset?” Lyra asked with concern.
“The magpie is suffering from internal bleeding,” Galen thought to her while breathing deeply to calm himself.
“I don’t understand why that’s upsetting you,” Lyra said in confusion.
“This kind of injury shouldn’t be given to high school students to heal. It’s too serious.”
Galen asked Lucia to keep the magpie company, reminding her again not to use her healing skill on it. Then, he went to check the ingredients set on display. After he quickly scanned everything, he frowned.“That’s even more impossible since I see no high-grade spirit plants. They are necessary to heal internal bleeding in a few hours. The only other way is to operate – if one doesn’t have a healing pet. I’m not a surgeon.”
“So, that’s Beren’s new scheme. He gave you this case on purpose to hinder you.”
“That’s not important. What’s important is finding a way to heal the magpie despite everything.”
The magpie’s health wasn’t so bad that it would die. At least, that’s what his [Insight] conveyed to Galen. However, he still hated how powerless he felt because of his limitations. He hated it even more because he couldn’t be sure that Beren didn’t purposely hurt the magpie.
“Remember what Mum taught you,” Lyra suddenly said gruffly. “That’s what Artem is telling you. I don’t think I got his tone right.”
Galen let a soft smile come to his lips. Lyra’s nonsense and his brother’s words allowed him to relax a bit. His mother had made sure Galen was aware that his pharmacist skills weren’t omnipotent and that he was prepared for when he wouldn’t be able to heal one of his patients. Galen asked Lyra in a teasing voice, “Did he add that he’ll take care of the Yaratilis Family?”
“My, how ever did you guess that?” Lyra drawled while rolling her eyes.
The small banter finished to calm down Galen. His eyes jumping from one ingredient to the next, he rapidly elaborated plans only to disregard them soon after. The ingredients were of a higher quality than in the previous trial, but nothing high-grade. As Galen reviewed the appropriate treatments he knew with the available plants, he realized that the trial was to give a prescription to heal the pet. However, nothing was said about healing the beast immediately. A prescription often had a dosage and a duration. Still, it would surely lower his score if he couldn’t present the Blue-Winged Magpie in good health at the end.
Galen finally settled for a triple treatment. First, he decided to make a balm to stop the bleeding and accelerate the scabbing of the magpie’s wounds. Second, he planned to bake a pill to help with the internal bleeding. It was the most grievous injury, but making the pill was a long process and Galen judged that it was better to proceed in this order. Third, Galen would give a medicinal bath to the beast.
He planned to stay close to what birds would do in nature to treat their broken feathers. The youth would have to ensure that the magpie’s wounds were scabbed before getting wet. While the pill should also help with that, it wouldn’t have enough time to work, so Galen still needed to find another way as insurance. Even without the internal bleeding, treating the broken feathers simultaneously with the lacerations was indeed difficult enough for high school students. Spirit plants did allow accelerated healing, but the efficiency and the timing were limited in the competition.
Moreover, examining the magpie and making his plan took Galen almost twenty minutes. To enhance the efficiency of each treatment, Galen tried to personalize them to better suit the magpie by adding some ingredients with its type of spiritual power. He was also careful about how the three treatments would synergy. All this fine-tuning took a lot of time. He knew this disadvantaged him, but he refused to do anything less than his best.
Galen took his chosen ingredients back to his private space. For the balm, he mainly used leaves from the luminous yarrow – the famous mutated Achilles’ plant and an ingredient with diverse species often used against bleeding. Galen mixed it with the above-ground parts of the bright goldenrod and fresh roots of the yellow silvery dock. Then, he added some light-blue elderberries to guard against infection, just to be safe. To get the right texture, he used grape seed oil as a binding ingredient, although it was the leaves that were useful against bleeding.
Once Galen was satisfied with his balm, he carefully cleaned the magpie’s lacerations before applying his product to its wounds. The bird tried to move back as Galen touched its painful belly, but Lucia sternly gestured at it. The bird chattered in a complaining tone, but it let Galen treat its wounds.
Before going back to his small laboratory, Galen instructed Lucia. “Don’t let the magpie smear the balm or clean it.”
Confident that his fairy wouldn’t let anything happen to his patient, Galen concentrated on the pill. He had a little more than two hours left. Galen needed to go faster. While he hadn’t done this kind of pill before, he had spent a lot of time training each of his skills under his mother’s supervision. He neatly prepared his chosen ingredients – a dozen leaves of feathered nettle, a dozen leaves of fluffy pyrola, some leaves of blue-tinged yarrow, and some leaves of sky-blue bugleweed to reduce pain. The sky-blue bugleweed wasn’t strictly needed, but the youth stubbornly added it to his pill. For his binding agent, he chose the beeswax again. No gestures were wasted, and Galen finished his preparations for the pill with thirty minutes to spare.
As the pill was baking, Galen checked on the magpie. The superficial lacerations were already scabbed over while the deeper ones showed some signs of scabbing. It was encouraging. Invigorated, Galen began his preparation for the medicinal bath while keeping an eye on the oven. Simply bathing in a river was enough for birds in nature, and – if his memory served him right – it was because layers of a spongy matrix were naturally surrounding each feather’s central shaft. Once this matrix was soaked, it helped the shaft return to its previous straight shape.
In fact, the boy had seen his mother preparing medicinal bathes enough time – be it for the Caladrius Bird or the Phoenix – that he was quite confident with his preparations. Of course, Tana’s pets were much stronger than the magpie, so Galen couldn’t simply copy his mother’s prescription. However, he knew that plants with water spiritual power were essential as well as ingredients containing keratin to reinforce the feather’s shaft.
Nevertheless, for the bath to get the minimum efficiency, the magpie would have to stay in it for at least fifteen minutes, though twenty minutes would be better. Time was tight, but it was possible – in fact, if the magpie wasn’t suffering from internal bleeding, three hours were the perfect time for a complete recovery.
Galen poured hot water in a large basin in advance to better control its temperature. Then, he put into the water a bath bag that contained some marine sage, azure comfrey roots, and sea lavender that he had refined earlier at the same time as the other ingredients. Due to the restricted time, he had to keep things simple.
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With Lucia’s help, Galen protected the deep lacerations to keep them from getting wet with a mixture of beeswax and pine tar he had prepared beforehand. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best he could do in such a short time. Finally, he guided the magpie to the bath and manually ensured that the broken feathers were realigned to reduce the time required.
As he instructed Lucia to supervise the bird to keep it from leaving the bath, Galen hurried to write his report. He began by explaining his diagnosis, being careful to mention the visible and rational clues his talent allowed him to see to discover the internal bleeding. Galen also tried to stay vague about [Insight]. Then, the young pharmacist explained his triple treatment and the synergy he tried to create between the light, water, and air spirit plants in addition to their healing properties.
The youth was usually very focused when he wrote a report. However, he interrupted his work several times to check on the magpie. He blamed himself for not focusing on his task but couldn’t help himself.
“Stop fighting against your nature,” Lyra commented. “You’re not like Artem.”
“I know,” Galen answered since he was aware that between a patient and a competition, he would always choose his patient. “But if my lack of competitiveness keeps us from evolving the fairies, I won’t forgive myself.”
“But you’ll feel worse if you don’t heal the Blue-Winged Magpie to the best of your abilities, won’t you?” Lyra softly chided him.
Galen didn’t answer Lyra. He got the magpie out of its bath and carefully dried it. Galen barely finished his report in time. Unfortunately, the young pharmacist had to rush through it, risking losing a few points. Galen put back the magpie into the carrier and stapled his report on it. A staff member brought the carrier away as soon as Galen was done.
Looking around, Galen noticed he was one of the last contestants to finish. The room was almost empty, with only some dawdlers and staff cleaning or tidying up. Galen bitterly realized that in a healing competition, being the best healer didn’t mean being the fastest. The contestants weren’t judged on their timing but on the quality of their treatment. So, the time given had to be ample enough.
Galen knew his own skills. Moreover, his mother had trained him so that he was able to act in an emergency. Being among the last ones to finish was another proof that his trial had been messed with.
“Artem is telling you that he is studying how to survive out of the Cities-States so that you can harvest the spirit plants together,” Lyra said in a cheerful voice. Artem had been raking his brain, hoping to cheer his brother up, so the dutiful CSI passed on his ideas. “He’s also reminding you to try to get Lucia to touch all the pets present in the competition.”
“I’m sure Lucia will happily take up this mission.” Galen forcefully played along as he went back to the main room. The Light Fairy obediently stayed near Galen during the trial, so she took the opportunity to fly around along the way. Artem’s idea sounded more appealing to Galen now that the competition was over and Lucia needed to stretch her wings.
In the main room, Galen met up with the students from Dascalos High School. Mrs Bousrani frowned at him but didn’t say anything. She still hadn’t forgiven Galen for forcing his way into the competition.
Galen saw Mahlon and Melanie quietly talking together and decided to leave them to their discussion. He looked for an empty seat next to his classmates and found one next to Amethyst – a mundane girl with deep purple eyes – and Naeem – a mundane boy with olive skin. Both had participated in the healing trial. Naeem was reading a book about pharmaceutics research, and Amethyst was curiously looking at the contestants from other schools. They briefly looked at Galen when he sat down, but they chose to ignore him. Galen didn’t mind.
He wondered how long they had to wait for the results.
“The jury will take around one hour and a half to go over everyone’s work,” Lyra told him before he could ask Amethyst.
Galen got more comfortable in his seat. He was tempted to walk around Dahi High School to learn more about their students and equipment, but he didn’t want to give any Yaratilis members a reason to suspect him of anything.
“Did you learn anything else of interest during the trial?” Galen asked Lyra to pass the time.
“I didn’t eavesdrop anything of interest from Beren.” Lyra felt frustrated about it. She sighed. There were a lot of limitations in being a CSI. “I supposed he made his arrangements before the trial.”
“It doesn’t matter anymore. I’d need a miracle to be among the top three of this competition.”
Lyra didn’t like seeing Galen giving up like this, but she understood his reasoning. She decided to report the little things she noticed in the afternoon. “The beast tamer with a bush was just next to you.”
“Kahlil? Did he have an interesting case?” Galen asked to distract himself from his worries.
“Yes, Kahlil.” Lyra took a short time to think over Galen’s question before answering in an annoyed voice. “How do you want me to be able to judge how interesting his case was?”
“I don’t know. Did he sound excited?” Galen smiled a bit as he teased Lyra.
“You’re the only one I heard muttering!” Lyra lied shamelessly. The screens gave the contestants some privacy, and a lot of them muttered swear words or half-forgotten textbook lessons to trigger their memories.
“Alright, calm down! What did you want to tell me about Kahlil?”
“He used his talent in the trial. I think his talent allows him to make better potions, but I’m not sure what its name is.”
“It’s very useful for a pharmacist.” Nevertheless, Galen believed his [Insight] didn’t lose to it. Since Lyra brought up the subject, the youth asked about the other beast tamers.
“On your other side was Rachel’s friend, but I didn’t learn much about her. She was very discreet.”
“Her pet looks like a crossbreed between a poppy and a butterfly. I really wonder what its name is.”
“Try to let Lucia touch it later. Talking about pets, I’m almost sure that one of the beast-tamer contestants used his pet to heal his patient.”
“Do you know who?”
“I didn’t catch any name. But he wasn’t as conscientious as you because the invigilator from the Association loudly scolded him.”
Lyra shared some more useless gossip. Bored, Galen called Lucia back to him. Using their hand gestures to communicate, Galen directed her to fly following his orders. He was trying to be stealthy about his gestures. It was good training.
To avoid attracting too much attention to Lucia, Galen sent her to different parts of the room and only ordered her to touch a pet from time to time. Some people openly expressed disgust when the fairy flew by them, but Galen had already gotten used to it. It didn’t affect him in the least.
After a while, Lyra was happy to announce that the twins had reached a new threshold in the encyclopedia, winning two new chances to use the shuffle. It lightened Galen’s mood.
However, as the jury came back to the stage, he became somber again. Lucia obediently came back to sit on his shoulder.
The dean made another short speech to congratulate everyone for their hard work. Then, he invited everyone to read the contestants' names, appearing on a screen above the stage. The names were written in order, from the eleventh to the fiftieth. The dean gave everyone some time to look at the list.
Galen’s hope surged again as he didn’t find his name on it. However, some names surprised him, like Kahlil Howayek, who ended up in the eleventh place. What could have happened for him to be ranked so low?
Another name that caught Galen’s attention was Safak Yaratilis – surely a cousin of Zeki since the Yaratilis Family was too small to have a minor branch. Galen also recognized several names from Dascalos High School at the top of this list, like Melanie and Naeem. Mrs Bousrani had a pleased smile on her lips, showing her approval.
“Oh! He’s the one!” Lyra suddenly exclaimed.
“What are you talking about?”
“Safak Yaratilis. He’s the one who used his pet to heal his injured beast. Though, from what I’m hearing, it wasn’t intentional. His notable Yellow-Horned Lark disobeyed him and healed the beast without his consent.”
Galen could only be glad that he had been so firm with Lucia.
After some time, the dean drew everyone’s attention to him again. He read the names of the ten best contestants, beginning with the tenth one. As their name was called, the contestants had to come to the stage, and the jury would talk to them before giving out a small reward.
“In the tenth place, Mahlon Ruh with 177 points.” Under the audience’s applause, Mahlon came to the stage with his Purple Frog. Beren Yaratilis went forward first to speak in the name of the jury. He congratulated Mahlon for his daring experiment but also cautioned him about its danger. This danger was the main reason he lost points. Galen couldn’t help but shake his head at Mahlon’s recklessness. He always found that it contrasted with the Ruh Family’s reputation for caution.
While Galen was distracted, several other contestants were called out. The ninth and seventh place were mundane students while the eighth was the girl from Uspeh High School with the rat. When the dean called Amethyst Gataki, who managed to rank in the sixth place, Galen applauded loudly with his fellow students.
“In the fifth place, Emma Dordevic with 186 points.” Watching the girl climbing to the stage, Galen recognized the mundane girl from Uspeh High School. He seemed to be right that these two girls had solid pharmaceutic skills. He would have to keep an eye on them in future competitions.
“In the fourth place, Galen Eos with 189 points.” As he heard his name, Galen felt his heart drop. Fourth place. In a way, it was worse to be just a step away from his goal. Taking a calming breath, the youth went up to the stage.
The members of the jury were taking turns to talk to the contestants. It just happened to be Beren’s turn again. How could it be a coincidence?
“Galen, you did good. But you shouldn’t overdo it. You must have wanted to prove yourself, but too much medication can also be harmful.”
“What a hypocrite!” Lyra exclaimed as Beren’s went on and explained that using the pill to stop the bleeding from the lacerations wasn’t needed.
“If I didn’t treat the internal bleeding, they would have blamed me for not seeing it.” Galen was bitter, but he couldn’t do anything about it. “Forget it. This time, he thought of every way to block me.”
When Galen looked at the other pharmacists from the jury to check their reactions, they acted as if they didn’t know him, whereas Galen knew some of them thanks to his mother. So Galen meekly took his reward and left the stage.
It was a box specially made by the Yaratilis Family. It allowed to preserve plants for a long time. The contestants ranked tenth to fourth were allowed to place five ingredients from the first trial inside. Although it was basic ingredients, it was still something.
Then, Rachel was called. She ranked in the third place with 190 points. Seeing Mahlon’s broad smile, Galen wondered how much of his result was calculated. Rachel wasn’t so highly ranked in the first trial. Galen suddenly suspected that Mahlon had schemed to end up lower than her to prove to his Family that they should have let him study at Dahi High School.
Jason Makris – a mundane student also from Dahi High School – was ranked second with 191 points. The member of the jury who congratulated him explained how the youth cleverly took care of a complicated case in a simple way. They were obviously proud of him, but Galen felt that Jason deserved it, and he sincerely admired him. Both Rachel and Jason got rewarded with a better quality box and were allowed to choose five plants from the second trial in addition to a monetary price.
In the first place, without much surprise, was Zeki with 196 points. Listening to the gossip among the audience, Lyra learned a bit about Zeki’s talent. It was a talent worth of the Yaratilis Family’s tradition of creativity. It allowed him to find new ways to treat his patients and helped him create new recipes. Even though Zeki didn’t use it during the first trial, it still gave him an advantage: he had experience using unusual ingredients and adapting on the fly.
Zeki obtained the right to choose plants from the jury’s personal collections. This was what Galen had been aiming for. These famous pharmacists surely had some spirit plants perfect for the fairies’ evolution. Galen looked on bitterly as Zeki got a list of the spirit plants available to him.
“What a total circus! The three at the top places are from Dahi High School! And look! Their students are also very present in the top twenty.” Lyra ranted a bit while keeping an ear out for interesting gossip. She added, “Ah, even the students from Yahsun High School are complaining. No students from their school are in the top ten.”
Galen ignored Lyra and centered himself. He needed to choose his five plants. Having spent so much time with Mahlon this day and having no hope of obtaining a spirit plant to help with the fairies’ evolution, Galen realized that having a weapon of his own was more important than his Family’s traditions. The youth decided to ask Mahlon about cheap but efficient poison he could easily refine.
Lyra was concerned. Galen was stuffing all his feelings of frustration and disappointment inside, without any outlet. It was prone to spell a disaster later, but she left Galen alone for now.