Ulric woke first. Consciousness returned with immediacy, nigh on urgency. He couldn't quite remember why until he felt the sensation of soft skin against his, and a gentle rise and fall of breath that wasn't his reminded him.

So. Not a dream, after all. Not a fantasy or a final gift of heaven just before he snuffed out. Tentatively, just in case the perfection of form next to him was made of smoke and this was all an illusion of some sick, sick mind, he let his hands explore. Hmm…no…this was all too real. Firm over here, defined muscle. Soft over here, a lush bit of padding over top of the iron beneath. And, here, true softness.

No fucking way Old Man, you’re in a simulation, Ulric told himself with certainty. You’re a brain in a jar, this was all some kind of computer-generated landscape designed to train A.I., and someone is monkeying with the dials for their own cruel amusement. Just to spite whatever monster was watching, Ulric decided he was going to enjoy himself to the fullest, and their predictive models for his behavior be damned!

"Aahhmm. MMmm. Wait, Ulric! What are you doing!? It is first thing. At least wake me before you start." Complained the illusion, though not with any ire.

She was so real though, so immediate. What if, by some chance, he wasn’t in a simulation?

Ulric wasn't quite ready to admit that this was real life. It definitely needed more testing. Roaming touches elicited correct auditory responses and he observed the quickening of specific anatomy that was indicative of a very sophisticated physiological modeling, fraught with pertinent details. His fingers drummed lightly and he felt the simulacrum's hands grab his, its eyes open now and staring hungrily at him.

"Very well, Glade Chief, but just remember that it was you who started this, and I am not responsible if you delay your recovery." Proclaimed the lilting voice.

Just what a simulation would say, Ulric thought, as she pulled him on top of her and tried to strangle him with her mouth.

******************

The pair of them finally managed to achieve clothed status. If it wasn't one, it was the other. He was now aware that Taipan found his morning warm-up routine, which was almost always done nude, absolutely enthralling. She learned that, if she wanted to wear underpants she was going to, very nearly, have to put them on while he wasn't watching.

Ulric asked her when she'd managed to remove said pants the day before and she admitted, shamelessly, that she hadn't been wearing any the entire time. Commando. The Elf girl commando going commando. Concentrate Einar, you baboon, she's talking now.

"I fully expected you to choose to take my life, Glade Chief. When you chose to do so, I was going to seduce you and kill myself afterwards and pants seemed like a small detail at that time. I'll admit, I only really brought them in my pack so that you could grant me some final dignity after all was said and done." Taipan explained, her ears reddening slightly.

Hell's bells! Just when he thought he had her pegged she came up with a new surprise.

"Oh! So…just so we're clear, that's not still the plan, right?" Ulric checked.

"No, Ulric, that is no longer the plan." She confirmed, more than a bit cheerfully.

Good! Good. If she'd had him and then offed herself, in addition to the tragedy of that situation, great enough on its own merits, mind you, Ulric was absolutely sure that his self-esteem would never recover from that mortal blow. He’d more or less have her blood on his hands to the end of his days. Fuck! What a thought, He noted to himself.

He recalled a thing she'd said just before things had gone, so wonderfully literally, tits up.

"You owe Hal'et a sword from your Uncle, eh?" He grinned. "What was the bet?"

"She bet that, inside of Spring's first flowers, I would have taken you to my bed." Taipan said without embarrassment. "If I did, I would owe her a commission from Uncle Uldin out of my own holdings."

"And what did you bet?" Ulric prompted, with some smugness.

"I bet that, within the same span, I would have murdered you out in the deep wood and hidden your body so effectively that all would believe you had run away of your own volition. Then she would owe me a new quiver, enchanted with perpetually fresh [Three-Step Spider] venom for my arrows." She replied, also without embarrassment.

"Oh." Ulric said, all smugness vanished.

It was a thing to keep in mind, Ulric told himself. Taipan was still Taipan. He was very certain that had not changed.

"Damn!" Ulric blurted out. "I said I wouldn't bed you! Now I'm a horse's ass."

Taipan shook her head though correcting him promptly. "You did not bed me Ulric, I bedded you. There is a difference."

She seemed oddly insistent about that point and he wasn't going to argue it, but she continued anyway.

"And besides, you told that to Geyrt Iriel and that person is dead and gone. You have made no such promise to Taipan and, if you know what is good for you, you will not say something so foolish."

Ulric was a guy who liked structure in his life. Boundaries. Clearly defined limits on relationships. Which was why he didn't mind it that his Shadow had, more or less, threatened him if he veto'd sleeping with her. Her level green eyes, flecks of burnished bronze shimmering in the dim light, were completely without humor so Ulric knew not to push her on this. Not that he minded the current situation.

He grunted his assent before looking around. He felt like he was missing something. Wasn't there supposed to be something happening? Oh! The doctor!

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Hey, where's Doc Yessiree? I was so distracted I forgot he was supposed to stop by for treatments." Ulric asked Taipan.

She tilted her chin in that way she had of indicating that he was being slow.

"He came to check in yesterday while we made love. He left. You did not notice?" She asked with skepticism.

Ulric chewed air for a few seconds. "What do you mean he came in!? Like, into this auditorium came in? You know, while we were, uh, busy? Why didn't you say anything?" Ulric demanded.

Now she definitely thought he was slow.

"Because it would not have changed anything. Are you saying that you would have stopped if you'd noticed?" She said with a slight barb on her question.

That is a Trap Ulric Einar.

You were not saying that, don't you dare say that. "Of course not! I was just…surprised that I did not notice that you noticed!" He said quickly hoping to remove the springs from this particular catch.

She smiled then and he inwardly sighed his relief. "He was discreet and left immediately. And you were being enthusiastic about keeping me occupied. Delightfully occupied." Her tone increased the temperature in the cool hall by about five degrees.

He couldn't keep an idiot grin off his face at the memory. "Yeah. You were pretty awesome." He told her without shame.

Ulric realized that they were being like a couple of teenagers on their first romp. In Ulric's defense, he'd long, long ago made clear that this Elf woman was a manifestation of perfect female form to him. Her response though was something of a mystery.

Taipan's own assertiveness had been a bit of a shock but Ulric was starting to get the feeling that that was just how Elves rolled. She was definitely more open with him, like she'd shed a layer of the usual armor she'd kept over her emotions. Sitting here like this, the atmosphere was lighter, easier to breathe. If he was being honest, it made her a little more like her father, and just a little less like her mother. Which was going to be disturbing if he invested too much examination into it because she already shared far too much physical similarity with the Elf King and Ulric was going to creep himself out.

Ah. Damn. He'd made himself sad, thinking about Bald'rt. Now that it had come to him, he needed to know. He couldn't just sit here and pretend nothing was wrong out there.

"Hey, Taipan, I'm sorry to ruin the good vibe but, I gotta know. How is your dad?" He asked his voice heavy with concern.

Her mood fell, plummeted really, and she scrubbed her hand through her abbreviated hair, still unused to the absence of her long braid. He didn't rush her, giving her whatever time she needed.

Minutes passed. Ulric tried to imagine how he'd have felt if it was his old man but couldn't. Not truly. The old geezer had never even had a colonoscopy and his Mam had promised to have him buried alive if he didn't hurry up and start dying. He missed them both fiercely at times like this. For Taipan, all he could do was wait and do whatever he could to help.

"He lives. Barely. Shor, Bathe, and my Dam returned to Irielhos in time to halt the Bane from corrupting him completely and they continue, even now, to try to prevent its effects from deteriorating further." She told him, voice leaden with despair.

"What do you know, Ulric, of Bane poisons?" She asked, still despairing.

About her question, he knew nothing and he told her so. She paused for a moment to collect herself before she was ready to discuss it.

"Bane poisons are unique. They are targeted towards a specific race and, towards the members of that race, are ultimately lethal. They do nothing to any other living creature. The odds of survival against a Bane are so close to zero that I don't know of any Elf that has ever truly escaped death from it. The poison infiltrates the flesh, and blood, then it enters the core and infects the victim's mana itself." She said, hate for those who had used this against her father radiating off her.

But Ulric didn't get it. How was that different than any other poison? Hell, she'd poisoned him the first time they'd met and he had a feeling he was missing something, something that separated this Bane from a regular poison.

"Alright, so tell me why this Bane is so much worse than, say, the [Striped Bark Snake] venom you were using." Ulric prompted.

"Because, worse than the immediate influence of the poison on its victim, it turns the body of the target into a poison of equal potency to itself. A single drop, smaller than the eye can see, is sufficient to begin the corruption, turning blood and mana to poison inside the body, rotting it from the inside out. When Banes are used, they must be eradicated completely, the very ground scrubbed and buried deeply, far away, to prevent continued infection. Their use is a declaration of intent to commit genocide, and violate the accords of war between any and every species Ulric." She said gravely.

He was stunned. That was…horrific. It was a level of awfulness that he found hard to imagine. As if contaminating wells with mercury or something. Worse. It was, almost, like nuclear weaponry, in a way. It destroyed when it was used, and then it just kept destroying, over and over, tainting the land.

Taipan saw his shock and was convinced that her Honor saw the depth of the menace that was the Bane.

To ensure he understood she told him of the even greater sin, which was the creation of this atrocity. It was a better world before she told him.

"Race Banes do not exist in nature, Ulric.” Taipan began, slowly, “They must be manufactured and their ingredients are the bodies of the members of the race for which the Bane is being created.

Her features grew menacing as she spoke, muted rage twisted in intense loathing as she described this fresh horror.

“The process is simple: torture a person until, in their insanity, their hatred for their own existence grows so great that it warps their core, turning their own mana into a destructive force to end them. Then that tortured core is refined into a liquid with various alchemical agents and, once purified, you have obtained your Bane. The challenge is in that most do not live long enough through the torture to become corrupted, most die long before they can be rendered. On average, it takes a thousand victims to produce a single Bane core. The stronger the person was before they broke, the greater the concentration of the resulting Bane."

Ulric's instinctive response was total annihilation. Whoever would do this did not get to live. He would not allow it, not on his world. The instinctive humming violence that had been sleeping soundly in his skull was awake at this existential threat.

He realized that his fist was shaking.

They had done this thing to Bald'rt? To someone who had offered him kindness? To a man who lived for his people and the happiness of his children?

"Unverzeihlich." He whispered.

"Is there anything I can do, Taipan? Anything at all?" Ulric offered.

She shook her head slowly, trying to remain calm. "There is nothing that I know of. The problem is that the corruption must be rooted out, all of it, at a scale so infinitesimal that it defies imagination. No amount of medicine removes it, and, even though you can heal the flesh and blood it just continues turning the body to more of itself. Great as they are, unparalleled within their own domains of skill, even my Mothers have limits in the face of Bane."

Ulric sighed, thinking about the awfulness of this toxin. In many ways, it was similar to heavy metal poisoning but worse. The stuff collects in the fish, kills the fish. Then another fish eats that fish, and, once enough collects, kills that fish. Then it kills the human that eats that fish. Then it gets into the soil and sits around waiting to kill another. Back in the Centuries Below, when humanity hid beneath the ground, metal poisoning was a disaster that had nearly wiped out colonies in which the particular elements were common. They'd had to, eventually, chelate their drinking and agricultural water, just as a matter of course.

Wait. Chelation? Binding agents?

"Taipan, how do you find the areas that have been contaminated by those infected by the Bane?" He asked, cautiously, not wanting to become hopeful.

She quirked her eyes. "It is an easy spell, Ulric, to identify. All Bane are identical, no matter what individual is used, the result is the same, only the concentration, the end amount, varies. It is a simple thing to recognize the precise location of Bane. If it weren't, most of Orlethrem would have already been eradicated, there was a mass attack some five thousand years ago. Those people do not exist anymore." Taipan said, the edge on her voice clearly indicating her preference for the current people responsible for her Father's state.

He had an idea forming. If you could find it, maybe you could bind it. If you can pin it down, maybe you can then remove it.

"Are there any metallic compounds that are capable of bonding to Bane?" He asked. He needed it to have a metallic component, that was the only way his plan worked, mostly because that was how it worked back on Earth. An organometallic chelator, a metal binding agent, sequestered the heavy metal atoms and allowed the body to then process them.

"I do not know, I don't know why you ask either. What are you plotting Ulric?" She asked seriously.

Ulric told her reluctantly, he did not want to feed her false hope, but nor did he want to withhold an idea that might save her Father, and, perhaps, who knew how many others down the road.

"There was a thing very similar to what you describe back on my home world, only it happened naturally, on occasion. A substance could accumulate silently in the body, causing sickness and death. That body would then also be poisonous and taint the ground in which it was placed, which could then re-enter another person. We had a way to deal with it, but it required a substance that would be introduced that specifically binds to the poison. Binds to it so that you can induce the poison to be able to be extracted from the body. I think I can do something similar, if there exists a compound, or magic, that will bind to the Bane. At least, that would stop the decay." He finished outlining his theory.

Taipan stood aggressively, grabbing his hand and hauling him up the stairs at a rapid walk. He was too surprised to resist and only just kept from tripping as she drew him along. Ulric felt the vague chafing of his nearly healed burns but ignored the discomfort. It hadn't stopped him from having fun and it wouldn't stop him from helping a maybe friend.

He must be onto something or she wouldn't have responded so. He had no idea where she was going but let himself be led. Instead of complaining about useless things and being rendered unconscious so she could just pack him, which is what he was convinced would happen, he spent his energy trying to refine the budding idea. It sounded insane to him. But, then, all magic was slightly insane to him.