“My Lord, Arylos is here to see you, he says it’s urgent,” a guard reported to Sentarus, interrupting the king’s daily digest of paperwork.

“The hell does he want now?” Sentarus sighed, setting down the papers and removing a pair of spectacles.

“He has an injured immortal with him, my Lord,” the guard continued. “We tried to stop him, but he wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“Yeah, that’s Arylos alright,” the king groaned as he got up from his desk. “Do you recognise the immortal he has with him?”

“I did not, my Lord,” the guard continued while following Sentarus down the hallway. “The man appeared Templarian, but not one I have seen.”

“He better not be trying to hatch up some scheme,” Sentarus voiced as he went down the staircase in the foyer and to the front doors. Two guards on either side of the doors bowed and opened the door for the king.

Sentarus instinctively went for his sword at the sight of Arylos and Iris carrying broken and bloody Baldr on their shoulders.

“Wait!” Arylos called out while raising one of his hands. “He’s not a threat. He needs help.”

“You expect me to help him after what he did to Gurindai?” Sentarus growled, partially drawing his sword.

“Arylos promised Frygga he would try to help,” Iris cut in desperately. “Frankly, I’m just as mad as you and I don’t understand Arylos’s motives, but there’s a reason.”

“He didn’t destroy Gurindai of his own will,” Arylos explained. “He’s infected, and I need help trying to cure him.”

“Infected with what?” Sentarus asked.

“Let me figure that out,” Arylos pleaded while gritting his teeth. “You have a good understanding of Templarian biology. I need all of the help I can get.”

Sentarus processed the plea for a moment, weighing exactly why Arylos would ask him this. He thought it over but really wanted to cut Baldr’s head off right now, even knowing that nothing good will come of it.

“The east wing, third door,” Sentarus instructed while sheathing his sword and heading down the hall while beckoning the others to join him. The three came to the mentioned door and Sentarus opened it and directed the two inside as they placed Baldr on a small bed against the wall and Sentarus closed and locked the door behind them.

“What’s your plan, Arylos?” Sentarus asked while taking a deep breath.

“Right now, I need to find the cause of the infection and how far it has progressed,” Arylos explained while taking off his jacket. Iris offered him her hair tie that he then used to secure his bangs to stay out of his face. “Apparently he was infected when he was a child and that’s when this curse came to him.”

“You’re going to try and remove his curse?” Iris asked.

“It’s less of a curse and more of a mistake,” Arylos explained while taking a stool to sit next to the Templarian and removing a gold coin from his pocket and turning to Iris. “Do me a favour. Go to Garris and tell him to join me here, and bring his surgical kit. Tell him ‘regenerator suppressing’ as well or we’ll have our hands full.”

Iris nodded and took the coin and ran towards the door, unlocking it and running out as Sentarus closed and locked it behind her. “I have a basic surgical kit here,” Sentarus explained, reaching for a bag on a shelf nearby and giving it to Arylos.

Arylos took the kit and opened it on a table nearby and began sorting the tools. “Okay, Baldr, are you still there with me?” he asked in a soft voice.

“So far,” the Templarian groaned.

“Where do you feel the most pain?” Arylos asked while putting a mask over his face.

Baldr coughed and rolled over to show his back, revealing to the two men that he had been whipped by something fierce, some of the skin cleaved away and bleeding profusely.

“What the fuck happened to you?” Sentarus asked, taking a close look at the wounds.

“Odin happened,” Baldr groaned. “He has some kind of weapon and it burns, it stings.”

Arylos reached for a set of tools and began poking through the exposed skin. “Let me know if you feel any more pain or discomfort, okay?” he asked softly as he worked through the disgusting wounds.

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“What the hell could have done this?” Sentarus asked.

“I don’t know,” Arylos confessed with a deep sigh while pulling out something that appeared to be some kind of needle or thorn from the wound. “Whatever it was, it’s not good,” he continued his commentary while placing the needle on the table next to him.

Suddenly, a knocking sounded from the door. Sentarus got up and opened it and found Iris had returned with Garris next to her holding a toolbag and a case.

“That was fast,” Sentarus commented as let the two into the cramped room.

“I was out handling another matter when I came across Iris here,” Garris responded while coming next to Arylos and examining the wounds. “Holy shit, that’s gruesome. How the hell is he still alive?”

“He’s Baldr, that’s how,” Arylos answered, setting the tools to the side. “What potions do you have?”

“What do you need?” Garris returned while opening the case revealing a variety of vials. “I can do some basic mixing here.”

“Give me an Oriole first,” Arylos responded while showing Garris the needle he pulled out. “That looks organic so let’s be careful of poisons.”

“Good idea,” Garris responded, taking a vial of a golden oil and mixing some herbs into it with a shake before handing it to Arylos.

“Is there anything I can help with?” Iris asked, feeling an impatient itch.

“I’m sorry, but it may be best if you stay outside,” Sentarus commented while resting his hand on her shoulder.

“I’m not just going to wait outside like some helpless child,” Iris barked.

Sentarus hesitated but ultimately let Iris go as she sat in a chair near to Arylos and watched. She felt like hours passed as she watched the repeated action of Arylos suturing the wounds closed and applying different tonics that Garris whipped up quickly. The two and Sentarus kept exchanging information between each other that went over Iris’s head; talks about blood, blood content, cellular regeneration, regeneration inducing, things she had never seen or heard before.

After the agonising hours, Baldr finally laid down on his back, stitched together and bandaged as Arylos washed away blood on his hands.

“We’re still not done here,” he sighed as he reached for a thin knife and pierced Baldr’s arm, dripping blood into a vial before quickly bandaging the wound. “We still need to find the source of the infection and how far it has progressed.”

“What are you testing for?” Garris asked, preparing a fresh vial for mixing.

“Do you have Petyr’s Philter?” Arylos asked while taking the vial of blood to the table.

“I have some,” Garris responded while reaching for a sealed ampule with a blue slime sloshing around.

“I need you to mix that with some verdana and crushed mandrake,” Arylos instructed while taking out a knife.

“But the philter will degrade in air and I don’t know that recipe,” Garris added. “I’d rather not waste the philter.”

“Just fucking do it man,” Arylos growled.

Garris snapped out of his hesitation and snapped the ampule as the blue slime began to loosen and liquify. “Carefully add a single verdana pettle and half a dose of mandrake,” Arylos instructed.

Garris followed the instructions in a separate vial and quickly handed the mix to Arylos who then set it on the table. Arylos pierced his palm and some of his black blood pooled out and dripped into the mixture and he mixed it with a wooden stick. Iris watched as the liquid went black but then began to turn clear and steam billowed out from the top of the vial.

“Step back,” Arylos instructed and the group started to move away from him. He took the vial containing Baldr’s blood and mixed it into the clear mixture and stirred it around as the red blood began to fade into the transparent liquid. Then suddenly, the concoction turned a deep blue and purple and the steam was replaced by a purple flame and blue sparks that shot out of the vial. Arylos quickly dropped a glass dish over the vial and the fire subsided but the sparks still burned and popped, scorching the wood of the table.

Iris saw that Arylos was counting seconds with his fingers as he watched the reaction progress, worsening with each passing second as the liquid started to overflow out of the vial. After about a minute, the reaction died down and the liquid started to solidify into a glowing mass of silver with purple embers glowing along it.

“That’s what I was afraid of,” Arylos commented as the reaction died down. He then returned to his seat and prepared a series of knives and a white bubbling fluid that he dumped the knives into. “Sentarus, send word to Frygga to meet us here. Iris, you won’t want to be here for this. Garris, I’ll need your help to fight this off.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Iris asked while standing up.

“He is indeed infected by a dangerous species,” Arylos explained. “One that is turning him from a Templarian into something else entirely.”

“How do you plan to cure him?” Garris asked while strapping a mask onto his face and offering Arylos a pair of spectacles to wear.

“I will have to cut it out,” Arylos explained while donning the spectacles. “Another species is taking over his body and controlling him. I will have to cut it out by force, one inch at a time. Garris, prepare some Northern Swallow; it’s going to be a long night.”

“Already have some prepared,” Garris answered while taking out vials of a bubbling red liquid that Iris recognised from Torasu.

“Also, get Baldr some Deathwish,” Arylos continued while taking the vial. “This is going to be incredibly painful for him.”

“I’ll notify Templarius,” Sentarus said aloud while opening the door.

“No, just Frygga,” Arylos corrected in a stern voice. “We can’t let anyone else know until I resolve this for certain.”

Sentarus thought for a moment before nodding and heading out. “Iris, you need to leave too,” Arylos continued while taking a drink of the red potion. “I’m going to have to cut him open, and it won’t be pretty.”

Iris slowly nodded and made her way out of the room and closed the door behind her, quietly wishing she could help make a difference.