”Dee, you really have to stop appearing in my office like this.” The grandmaster Lothar grunted, clearly dissatisfied with the situation.

“Or, and I’m only throwing an idea out there, you could stop reacting so violently every time.” Dee countered with a grin and let go of the grandmaster's sword she had been holding in place with two fingers surrounded by an armor made of light. “I can’t imagine there are too many people besides me passing through the shadows in such an obvious way to enter your office.”

The grandmaster grunted again, not really able to argue with the point. That didn’t make him feel any different about the whole situation though. “So why is wolfy over there puking into my garbage bin?” He asked, changing the subject a bit.

“He’s a little...delicate.” Dee replied with a bit of disdain in her voice.

“I don’t think that’s just him being delicate. Is that black blood he’s puking out?” The grandmaster asked with disgust as he got a better look.

“Like I said, he’s a little fussy. A little shadow energy in his lungs shouldn’t be a reason for such a big reaction. I told him to hold his breath.” Dee argued a bit defensively.

“You’re one to talk. *cough* I’m not blessed by some dark deity that protects me from all that stuff.*retch*” Shunkaha managed to argue between coughs with a feeble voice. Besides, Dee might have warned him, but only less than a second before the shadows surrounded them, and he had been in the process of inhaling right when it happened.

“So what brings you here again? Don’t tell me Faylen is hurt.” The grandmaster asked a little worried.

“No, nothing like that. We just need a bit of information and an unofficial introduction. You can provide both, which is why we’re here. You still owe me for that whole debacle with the Tree of Life, so…” Dee quickly dispelled his fears.

“I disagree, that mission was something that released you from your punishment as an assassin, a rather prolific one at that, I might add. Still, that mission became a bit more than either of us expected perhaps, so I won’t be unreasonable so long as your demands aren’t.” The grandmaster countered while sitting down behind his desk.

“First of all, we need to find someone. A Lacademonian girl with the name Cynisca Helios. She became a member of the order at the same time we did. She was one of the more gifted people taken in that year and was supposed to become part of the chapter that was sent into hot spots as a rapid deployment force.” Dee also described the outer appearance of the girl, the most noticeable detail being the red hair.

“Humm, I’m not sure I remember the particular individual, but when the problems with the Night city communities started, all the Lacademonian members of the order were called back to their original community. As the situation is still setting down, they have not returned but should do so in a year or two. I don’t know if the girl, or she would be a woman now, will be one of those returning. I can’t say for sure where she is now or even if she is alive, though I can give you the location of the Lacademonian community currently. They don’t usually turn away visitors, though I’ve heard rumors of some recent trouble that might alter things a bit.” The grandmaster looked thoughtful as he spoke, trying to remember the exact details of the reports he had read.

“What kind of trouble?” Dee asked with her eyes narrowing. This whole thing might not be as simple as she thought.

“Well, as the Night city communities left the Day city after the Young King’s proclamation, they didn’t all leave quietly. I heard some of the Day city communities that have ties with the Night city were especially affected, and that includes the Lacademonians. All the details are not clear yet, as I sent out my own scouts recently. If you don’t mind looking into that while meeting them, then all the better. I can give an introductory letter to you, just in case, to prove you have connections with us. That should go a long way towards proving your intentions. That said, your identity as a member of the Five Winds might work just as well. You said you had another thing you needed?” The grandmaster tapped the table while considering the possibilities. If he got Dee to share what she found out, then that would make his job easier.

“I need an introduction with the Mystic’s guild. We need their enchanters.” Dee declared without any preamble.

The grandmaster suddenly leaned back in his chair with a small whistle. “Well, this is an interesting coincidence.”

“Why?” Dee asked suddenly full of suspicion.

“Well, as it happens, the Mystics guild also had a run in with someone they should not have messed with. Or to be precise, a group of their younger mages got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some of those mages are alive, but I would not describe them as healthy. What’s more, two of the people who got hurt were children of some of the greatest mages of the guild. They were out socializing and making connections and ended up wandering into the wrong area. The guild has requested aid from both us and the Holy Orders to help those kids recover. I’m willing to bet that the mages wouldn’t mind repaying the favor if you managed to help those two in particular. They’d also owe me a favor.” The grandmaster suggested with a grin.

Dee frowned. “Healing isn’t really my thing. I’m pretty sure there are much more skilled healers among the paladins.”

“Ah, but that’s the thing. If it was just about healing, then the Holy Orders would be enough. There’s something seriously wrong with these kids, and a simple healing spell isn’t doing the trick. The mages are also skilled at removing simple curses, so that’s not it either. I seem to recall from your training that you might not excel at healing, but cleansing spells, poison removal and removing curses are more your thing. Besides, from what I hear you have a knack with the death element, and I have a reason to think that particular knack might turn out more useful than standard healing ability.” The grandmaster clearly knew something he had not mentioned yet.

“Spit it out. You know something. Who did they run into?” Dee could guess what that something was.

“They ran into people from the Spider Cult. Those bastards have been less than happy with the Crimson Witches gaining the spot in the first circle, and they are taking it out on others in various ways. They’re keeping it mostly to seemingly random occurrences to not draw retaliation from the Young King, but they’re getting more blatant as time passes. It would not surprise me in the least if the troubles with the Lacademonians had something to do with the Spider Cult as well.” The grandmaster revealed his hand. It didn’t take much to figure out how a run-in with the necromancers might end up with something nasty that had to do with Dee’s specialties.

“I see where this is going. Give me the recommendations. I’ll see what can be done.” Dee had to agree with the grandmaster’s assessment, but looked like she had bit down on something sour. It felt like things were once again playing right into the smug man’s hands, and Dee was once again the pawn in his plans. Yet she had come here seeking for help. If the grandmaster gained something from it, then so be it.

As soon as the grandmaster handed Dee the recommendations, Dee grabbed the neck of Shunkaha, who was still busy hugging the garbage bin. “Do hold your breath this time.”

“NO, NO! WAIT DON’T!” Shunkaha tried to protest in despair but was too late and managed to inhale more of the shadows that suddenly surrounded them.

--------

“So you’re the ones sent by the order?” The mage asked a little incredulous. Dee was allowing the man to sense her rank as an immortal and was radiating holy power, but she didn’t really look the part. The lavender wing, halo, and angelic looks supported the fact that she might be able to help, but the black wing, dragon horns and more warrior suitable clothing spoke of something entirely different. Shunkaha most certainly didn’t look the part either, as he looked more like a patient in dire need of some healing.

“That’s the grandmaster's seal on the document, is it not? Now do you want the help or should I leave?” Dee replied with a less than pleased expression while pointing at the document in the mage’s hand.

“Yeah, alright. No need to get angry. We’re just a little under stress here. The priests sent by the Holy Orders already arrived and are working on the patients. Not having much luck from what I hear.” The mage replied a little apologetic.

The older mage started leading them deeper into the tower. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a guild filled with mages, the insides of the tower were much larger than what the outside let on. That was saying something, considering the fact that the tower was pretty large on the outside already. After walking for twenty minutes and going up several magical lifts they arrived at a large area designed for treating injuries. The walls and floors were filled with magical glyphs and formation designed to improve healing or at least delay the inevitable.

There were dozens of mages running around and a trio of priestesses talking with two priests. Their talk seemed to be filled with disagreement and arguing as Dee and Shunkaha entered following the mage. “The patients are isolated in those two rooms.” The mage said, pointing at the two doors behind the arguing holy people. The doors were covered in magical spells clearly designed to keep whatever was inside from leaving. “The parents of the patients were moved elsewhere on the instructions of the priests as they were getting in the way with their demands. If you want to talk to them, just tell me and I’ll lead you to them.”

“And what is this?” One of the priestesses demanded after seeing their entry. “More so-called healers to make this even messier? We don’t need another would-be savior messing things up further!”

“She.” The mage pointed at Dee. “was sent by the Radiant Sun.”

“Stay.” Dee commanded Shunkaha with a single word and moved towards the two doors.

“Hey, wait a moment!” The same priestess tried to intercept Dee. “You can’t go in there! We can’t have this thing spreading!”

As she reached for Dee, her hand was stopped in the air by invisible hands. “I don’t seem to recall asking for your permission. I take responsibility for my own health, and if you are unable to stop whatever is in there from spreading while I open the door, then you don’t deserve to be called a priestess. Now I’m going inside and making my own judgement since I obviously can’t rely on yours. If you want to lose that hand, then keep trying to stop me. All the other people who wanted to touch me against my wishes have regretted that decision.”

Dee walked right past the woman and muttered a few words under her breath as a small prayer to Lumen. Golden barriers isolating the outsides from the insides settled around the doors as she opened them and walked inside. Immediately on entry, she knew that whatever was inside here wasn’t contagious as such. Nothing was trying to attack her health, magically or otherwise. So why did the priests outside think something would? She approached the bed where a rather young man was lying surrounded by magic that seemed to slow the passage of time around him. As she entered the field, Dee felt the blessing of Eternity reacting and making her immune to the effects of the seals.

‘Huh, rather handy that. I don’t have to disable the seals to make my diagnosis.’ She thought to herself.

She allowed her mind to study the man and realized he was in really bad shape. She also immediately realized why the priests had made a mistake. Whatever was ailing the man, and most likely the other victims some of whom had likely already died, would jump to a nearby person when the previous person affected died. That would give the impression that the problem was contagious. “Bloody healers should really be a bit better at identifying such things.” Dee muttered, though she had an unfair advantage thanks to her ability to read what the magic inside the man did. It wasn’t that the priests outside had no idea how it worked, they just weren’t sure the death of the patient was the only way the problem spread.

The problem seemed to be a combination of a magical poison, disease and a curse. It held certain properties of all three. It grew inside the body like a disease, creating toxins to poison the major organs of the target, but it also drew power from the target and weakened them like a curse. The drawn power made the offending spell more effective and able to jump between targets. It also held the elements of death, poison and something odd that Dee could only classify as decay.

‘Maybe a sub-element combining destruction and death?’ She mused to herself.

She also sensed something else. The offending spell had several nasty tricks built into it. One of the most obvious ones, and probably the one the healers had already run into, was the fact that while the different parts of the spell all contributed to the patient’s death, they also kept each other in check. For example, if a healer was skilled enough to eliminate the disease portion of the spell, the toxins already built up inside the body would react and turn into acid, instantly destroying all the affected organs. The affected organs in this case included just about all of them.

“Huh, perhaps the priestess had a reason to be worried. If I was a normal healer, then I might try removing parts of this spell as a habit common to all healers. I would trigger the traps without knowing anything. At least one healer already made that mistake once and they didn’t want me to barge in and make the same mistake.” Dee said thoughtfully. Many healers often also cast basic healing spells before diagnosing the problem just to keep the patient alive a little longer and to ease their pain. That only made the situation worse in this case by powering the spell ravaging the patient.

“Something they could have tried explaining instead of just trying to stop you with snide comments.” Croestia pointed out.

“True enough. I’m guessing the strengths of that particular priestess don’t include bedside manners. I can see how a really skilled healer might grow a bit crabby, seeing as they are most likely bothered all the time. They are perhaps the most desired commodity in a world like this. Countless patients and only so much time.” Dee mused. She wasn’t feeling any more positive about the priestess, but she understood to an extent.

She had never stopped studying the spell inside the man while she spoke and found another problem. “Well. Whoever designed this particular spell is definitely a necromancer. Only someone like that would think to counter the ability to resurrect the patient after death.”

Dee had seen what she needed to see. She entered the other room with another patient from a side door that was connecting the rooms for easier access and found the female patient to be in the exact same condition. As she exited the room, she noted that there was a pair of strong mages present to stop any further violence between the healers. “So did you kill the patients already?” The same priestess asked snidely from among the other healers who had apparently finished their argument.

“Unlike some, I don’t go healing people blindly. I study the problem first. Though don’t think I didn’t notice the fact that you were willing to let the patients die just to get petty revenge on me. A real healer would have tried warning me despite the circumstances. But hey, the fault wouldn’t have been yours if I made a mistake, right? You put your own wellbeing above the patient. Do note that I’m not judging. I’m just making an observation.” Dee replied with a grin. She might have been making an observation, but she made it loud enough that the nearby mages heard.

The priestess wanted to argue but knew this was not the place. She would only be digging her hole deeper in the eyes of the mages by trying to justify her actions. One of the other priests stepped-in to her rescue by changing the subject a bit. “So what did you discover? We are in a bit of an impasse. Two of us want to remove the separate parts of the spell while trying to counter the adverse effects, while two of us want to try removing all the parts at the same time to try and avoid those same effects. She” the man pointed at the cranky priestess “is arguing that neither will work. She says we need to trigger the spell to pick a new target. According to her, it would be easier to fix the damage once the spell moves on and isn’t actively making the situation worse any longer.”

“Of course, she’s saying this because she’s the only one strong enough to resurrect the patients if they die while we work to fix them. And she only has a vague idea on how to trigger the spell to go to a new target and no plan on how to save the new target.” Another priestess pointed out. It was possible to resurrect a person who had just died if the soul was still close to the body. The time one could do that was not long and the process was uncertain, but it was the most extreme solution available to very powerful priests. Usually, it was also a bit pointless as whatever problem caused the person to die in the first place was still around. If someone’s head got blown off by a spell, there was little point in trying to bring the soul back to a headless corpse.

“None of those options will work.” Dee replied coldly. The priests were about to protest but were silenced by Dee’s finger pointing at the cranky priestess. “She is the closest to the solution, but isn’t going far enough.”

“Explain.” The nearby high ranked mage demanded with narrowed eyes.

“All attempts to remove the spell without transferring it first will trigger the traps in the spell. It would be one thing if the toxins had not already gathered inside the organs, but they have. Removing the separate parts at the same time would have worked if done few hours after the spell took effect, but not any longer. Now the spell will have to be transferred first. The problem is, the only way to trigger the transfer without triggering the traps now is for the patient to die momentarily. And the sooner the better.” Dee explained her reasoning.

“What are you saying exactly?” The mage asked grimly.

“I’m saying that instead of waiting for the accumulated damage of the spell to kill the patient, we kill them and trigger the transfer. Otherwise the damage will be too much. I don’t know how good she is at bringing someone back to life, but I suspect there are limits. That’s not the worst part though.” Dee made a small distasteful sound with her mouth as she thought of the last trap.

“There’s still more.” The mage already looked like he was ready to burst.

“You’re forgetting something. This spell was created by a necromancer. Do you think they did not consider the dead coming back? There are two last traps in the spell. If the spell has no viable target to transfer to, it will use the remaining power it has accumulated to destroy the previous holder’s body. Upon being transferred, the spell will also lash out at the soul of the deceased patient, forcing it to move on to whatever comes after.” Dee had to give the designer of the spell some credit for being thorough.

The mage and the healers slumped. “Then there’s no way?” Even the cranky priestess asked with a frown. She was fairly certain that Dee’s analysis was correct. She too had managed to decipher parts of what Dee had said, and Dee had filled in the blanks.

“I didn’t say that. There’s a reason why the grandmaster sent me instead of a more experienced healer.” Dee replied. “I can deal with the transferring spell and keep the soul safe. What I can’t do is bring the patient back or fix the damage done to the body. All three things have to happen at the same time. It still won’t be a guaranteed success, but there’s a chance.”

“How will you deal with the transfer?” The cranky priestess suddenly asked. “I couldn’t figure that one out. I was thinking of offering an animal as a viable target, but that seems iffy at best as the spell might be able to recognize the viability of the target.”

“Oh, that one is easy. I’ll offer myself as a viable target. I have a way to instantly remove the spell from myself, but it won’t work on someone else.” Dee replied with a sudden grin. The spell might be an effective combination of a disease, curse, and poison, but at the same time, that was a weakness. It would not be able to survive if there was no body to survive inside. If she could turn her kitsune form entirely into fire, then the disease and poison parts would be burnt away, while the curse part would most likely be eaten by the black flames. Even if the curse part was not eaten, it would not work alone. And that was assuming the black flames were not capable of cleansing the entire thing off her even without the transformation.

“Other opinions?” The mage asked and was answered by the priests shaking their heads. They were not confident in their own ideas. Dee’s idea was drastic, but they had to agree that it had the best chance to work. Not a great chance, but a chance nonetheless.

“Well, let’s get to it then.” Dee declared almost happily. This sounded like a fun little test of her powers and control.