"I talked to a specialist about your condition and she thinks she might be able to help. Do you mind if I let her in?"

Rena was tempted to send Faluel away, hoping that the bad news would disappear along with the Healer. Yet her maternal instinct was stronger than her fears and superstitions, so she turned to Senton who agreed in her place.

"Who are all these people?" Rena didn't expect a second team of Healers to barge into the house. Especially not one wearing her own weight in fur and another looking like someone who was there because he had lost a bet.

"Good gods if it's chilly. Do you mind turning up the heat?" Faluel asked.

Nalrond was too shocked and embarrassed to say a word. To him, it was Lith's house to be identical to Protector's and he wasn't used to being around so many humans. He could have teared them up like paper mache in his beast form, yet the Rezar was quaking in his boots.

"Sure thing." Elina operated the panel that controlled the house temperature, making the room as warm as during a sunny spring day.

"That's really an ingenious system." The Hydra said while studying the central heating magical devices spread throughout the house. "Too bad it wouldn't work for my place. Maybe I should make myself a winter cottage."

Once Faluel was done undressing, all eyes were on her. To not scare her hosts, she had changed her hair to silvery blond with streaks of white, pretending to be just a normal human expert in light magic.

"Aren't you a little too young to be a specialist in anything, miss…?" Elina didn't mean to be rude, but aside from Lith and Quylla, the Hydra appeared to be the youngest person in the room.

'Darn, I knew I was forgetting something. Damn cold that slows my brain.' Faluel cursed.

"Faluel. Just call me Faluel. As for your question, I'm a well-renowned genius that some consider on par with the unreliable Manohar." Faluel wasn't actually that brilliant nor did she have any idea who would win if she ever fought against the Mad Professor.

All that mattered to her was to put her patient at ease and gain her trust.

"Really?" Everyone asked, Quylla included, making Faluel words lose a good chunk of their luster.

"Who's Manohar?" Nalrond was only getting more confused by the second. His ignorance put another dent in Rena's opinion about the odd squad of Healers.

"Yes." Faluel ignored the disbelief in the room, brimming with the confidence of an Empress talking to her loyal subjects. "I'm the mage who will take care of Lith after he is done with the army. I'm a specialist in Healing and Forgemastering."

"Really?" Everyone asked, again.

"Yes." Lith glared at Quylla to make her stop acting surprised at everything. "Master Faluel belongs to an ancient magical bloodline and offered to share her wisdom with me. She's an even better Healer than I am."

Lith hated to call the Hydra his master, but he knew that, if he used the term Professor, Quylla's reaction would make everyone doubt his words.

Lith was many things, but being humble wasn't among them. Hearing the deference in his tone toward Faluel and calling her as he had only done for Nana sealed the deal for his family.

"Can you save my baby, Lady Faluel?" Rena asked.

"Just Faluel, please. As for your question, I can't answer before taking a look myself. Do you mind me giving you a check-up?" Faluel said, receiving a nod for an answer.

She placed both her hands on Rena's womb and then activated Invigoration. Faluel's eyes burned with white light and her hair turned to silver. The light spread from her hands to Rena's body and three wisps appeared where each baby was.

None of it had any practical use, but she knew how humans were prone to mistake theatrics with real power. Her show was impressive enough to leave all those present in awe, Quylla included.

"The bad news is that the diagnosis of my esteemed colleagues from the White Griffon is right. The good news is that I don't agree with their prognosis. I'm confident I can save your baby, but I'll need everyone's help." Faluel said.

"What do we have to do?" Elina asked.

"To succeed I need time, space, and to not be interrupted for any reason. Also, for the duration of the procedure, I need the members of the family to be in a different spot from their guests. Can you do it for me?" Faluel said.

Kamila was worried by the gravity of Rena's condition, but she knew there was nothing she could do. She went to Zinya's home along with her sister and the children, leaving the Verhens alone.

'I do realize that Senton was allowed to stay only because he shares the same blood of the unborn child. Then why does it still hurt feeling cut out from the life of the people I love?' She thought, holding back her tears.

Faluel had Rena lie down in Lith's bedroom because it was the biggest in the house while the rest of the family sat on the other side of the nearby wall per the Healer's instructions.

"I'll take care of the kid with the Strangler. Lith, you know Rena better than anyone, so it's your duty to keep her stable and give us a constant flow of life force. Quylla, you take care of the other boy. Nalrond, you take the girl." Faluel gave Rena a potion to drink before the procedure and several others for later use.

"I said I wanted it to be a surprise." Rena half laughed and half sobbed.

"I'm sorry, sis. Feel free to beat me up once we're done." Lith said, trying to make her laugh.

He knew that Rena didn't actually trust Faluel nor Nalrond, she was just desperate. Yet he was also aware that the real reason why the Hydra had untrusted Rena to him wasn't to just hold her hand, but because he was the only one beside Faluel who could use Invigoration.

If something went wrong, it would be his duty to prevent the damage from spreading to the mother and then to the other children.

'Okay, guys. I can't waste time talking or explaining stuff so we'll use a mind-link during the whole procedure.' Faluel's thoughts echoed in the Healers' minds, shocking them to the bone. 'Yes, telepathy is a thing. Now put up your game face and stop scaring the patient.

'I usually don't give lessons for free, but I need you to understand what I'm doing step by step so that you can prepare your countermeasures before something goes wrong. Eyes on the prize, save the questions for never, and good luck.'

Everyone activated their tier five Scanner and Chisel spells. The former allowed them to sense the life force of the patient while the latter was used to manipulate it at will.

'Step one, treat the Strangler disease. The usual approach here would be to fix the life force and get rid of the congenital disorder once and for all, but the kid wouldn't survive, just like your Professors said.

'We can't even destroy the corrupted tissues and replace them with healthy new ones without killing both mother and child due to the release of toxic substances. What I'm going to do, instead, is treating only the already affected areas and leave the rest for after the birth.

'Keep your respective patient stable, watch, and learn.' Faluel thought.

When looked through Scanner, the life force of a human looked like something built out of lego blocks and an erector set. What the Hydra did was to take the blocks that comprised the blackened part of the lungs out one at a time.