When they finally docked at Talorin, Syn hurriedly disembarked, followed by Nyk, with old Zosimos lagging, trying to catch up to them.

Her heart pounded with worry, the trip had been a nightmare, and despite Nyk and Zosimos' efforts to distract her, Syn had worried during the entire trip, wondering what could have happened to her father.

Zosimos had not revealed how Nyk's Nan had managed to contact him, insisting that she'd only said that he had to rush home, bringing Nyk and Syn back and a certain set of herbs to treat her father's condition with grave urgency.

She had managed to learn the herbs she had requested, but they meant nothing to her. What did mean something, though, was how Nyk had paled when Zosimos mentioned the last herb. "Nightshade's Wrath." The sound was ominous.

As they ran through the docks, Syn noticed the worried faces of the sailors and fishermen who avoided her gaze. Not a good sign.

Zosimos kept lagging behind them, and as they began running uphill toward her house, Zosimos slowed down to a trot, panting and yelling at them. "Go, go! I'll collect more potions from my workshop and meet you there!"

"What if we're too late?" Syn fretted.

"Don't think like that. I'm sure it's nothing major," Nyk reassured her, his eyes betraying his words.

Syn burst through the shop's main entrance, dashing through the front of the shop and into the living room, Nyk hot on her heels. The scene that greeted them was overwhelming. Syn's father lay on the floor, covered in wounds. Minda and Nyk's Nana were kneeling next to him, with Minda tightly pressuring a bloodied towel against his chest, a bucket of water by her side, and Nyk's Nana applying ointments to the various wounds all across his body.

"Where's Zosimos? Is he not with you?" Nyk's Nana asked.

"He's right behind us. He said he needed to pick up a few potions," Syn replied in a panic.

"Dammit, Zosimos, we're almost out of time!" Nyk's Nana exclaimed in frustration.

Two of Syn's father's friends stood in the corner of the room, their faces etched with worry. One of them, a young boy who couldn't be more than five years older than her, tried to offer some reassurance. "He'll be alright. Heroes like him don't die easily."

But Syn couldn't shake the dread that had settled in her stomach. "What happened?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"He saved our asses. That's what happened," the other was Nysander, a wrinkly man she had seen with her father countless times.

"How? What did he do? Why is he like this?" Syn insisted, her voice almost a cry.

Finally, the old one answered, "He... fought Garoth off."

Nyk and Syn exchanged horrified looks. Garoth, the mere thought of it sent shivers down their spines.

Nyk's hand pressed Syn's shoulder tightly, trying to offer comfort in the face of such terrible news before turning to the men for answers. "Fought him off? Why?"

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The two of them looked somber. The young one spoke, his eyes unfocused and lost in thought. "No one had sighted Gorgath in the last week, and he said he had heard that some fishermen saw it fighting with another beast, so we went to check. The bastard was alive and kicking."

Syn was horrified. _I shouldn't have told him what I saw.

Said the young sailor. "W-we thought we'd have more time. W-we were about to pick up our stuff and go when the beast showed up."

"Val, it was even bigger than when it attacked the village last year," the wrinkly man added, meeting Nyk's Nana's gaze.

As the minutes ticked by, Syn's father's breathing grew more labored, and his face increasingly ashen. Nyk's Nan and Minda worked tirelessly, applying ointments and pressing down on the wounds with all their might, but it seemed like there was little that could be done. Syn could feel her heart pounding as she watched her father slip further away.

Minda's hands shook as she tried to stem the flow of blood, her eyes blurry. "Zosimos should be here by now," she muttered, her voice trembling with panic. "Why is he taking so long?"

Nyk's eyes flashed decisively, turning to run toward the entrance, but a sound of a bang at the door stopped him in his tracks. Zosimos rushed in, carrying a small suitcase and a collection of bottles.

Upon seeing the state of Syn's father, Zosimos froze. "By the gods, it is worse than I expected," he muttered, looking intently at the wounds.

Syn ran to him and punched him with anger. "Where were you?" Zosimos didn't even react; his eyes were lost in thought.

"Don't stand there and do something!" Minda yelled. Syn ran and clung to her father's hand, tears streaming down her face.

"Took you long enough to get here!, Did you bring what I asked for?" asked Nyk's Nana, but Zosimos still didn't answer. "Xander! Did you bring the herbs?" insisted Nyk's Nan furiously. Zosimos seemed to wake up in surprise at the mention of that name.

"I know you think you're in charge here, Val, but I'm not your errand boy," answered Zosimos. He opened the suitcase and handed her the herbs. "Here, just like you asked, although seeing his state, I'm not sure they'll be enough."

"You think I don't know that?" she said, quickly taking them and handing half the herbs to Nyk, "Pound and mix these with some oil, then carefully extract seeds from the Nightshade's Wrath and grind them to a powder, quickly!"

"Always so quick to order around. Some things never change," he said, his eyes void of emotion.

Val rolled her eyes. "You're lucky we need you, Zosimos," she said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

Zosimos nodded. "That's always been the case, right?" he said. He then turned to Minda. "Can you make me a thin and small capsule of ice?"

Minda turned to look at him, confused. Then she looked at Syn's Dad. "How thin and small does it has to be?"

"The size of a garlic clove, a thin but long garlic clove," said Zosimos as he quickly got to work, extracting some more herbs from his suitcase and carefully grinding them to a powder.

Minda quickly removed a bloody hand from the towel and introduced her hand to the bucket of water near her, pulling it shortly after. She opened her hand, and a small amount of water slowly gathered toward her palm. She narrowed her eyes, and a chilling breeze filled the air, causing the hairs on the back of Syn's neck to stand on end. Frost began to form on Minda's fingertips, the water on her palm moving and taking the shape of tiny bubbles.

While Minda worked on the capsules, Zosimos was done grinding and added a few drops of potion to the mixture stirring until it was a thick paste. Finally, Zosimos stood up, holding a small jar filled with the paste. "This should do."

"This what you need?" she said as she deposited the capsules on one of the few still-dry clothes. Minda's bubbles had frosted over, becoming slightly opaque and turning into four differently sized, crystal-clear clove-sized capsules.

"That's exactly what I needed." He said as he carefully selected a few of the bottles. Zosimos opened each bottle and filled the four capsules with a small quantity of the bottle's silky liquids, asking Minda to seal them again afterward.

Zosimos' face was grave as he reached into an inner pocket and pulled out a small golden bottle. "I never thought I'd have to use this so soon..." he said, raising the bottle. "We need him to swallow those before we make him drink this."