Iris found herself once again pacing around in the palace foyer, waiting for anything new to change, for any news. She hated this helplessness; this inability to help. But she understood; she knew nothing she could do to help other than watch.

Just what is Arylos going to have to do? she thought while rubbing her arms. He said he had to cut out the infection inch by inch.

She rubbed her pounding head, lost in how to process all of this, feeling useless in one of Arylos’s many battles once again. She hated being sidelined like this; she wanted to help.

She heard a door open in one of the halls and when she turned to look, she saw Bellona coming down the stairs carrying towels and a bottle of a thick and black liquid with a small dish of white cubes sitting atop the towels.

“You’re not helping Arylos?” Bellona asked while approaching Iris.

Iris shook her head reluctantly. “Arylos told me to stay out here. I want to help, but I don’t know how and I don’t want to get in his way.”

“I have half a mind to agree with him,” Bellona wondered aloud. “What he’s doing to Baldr right now could be considered torture in many cultures. He may not want to give you nightmares”

Bellona saw Iris’s expression turn more sad as she turned away and nodded softly. The Templarian felt bad for saying that; treating her like a child may not help her. She couldn’t help but shake her head and sigh. “Look Iris, I’m just going in to help change towels. If you want, you can help but you have to go in knowing that this won’t be pretty.”

Iris thought about it for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I’ll do what I can.”

“Good girl,” Bellona commented and went down the hall with Iris in tow to the third door in the hall and gave it a gentle knock. From inside, Iris could hear a man groaning and voices talking. After a moment’s pause, Bellona cracked open the door. “Arylos, your girl is with me too so make sure you’re presentable.”

Iris could hear Arylos curse under his breath for a moment before Bellona opened the door and went in. Iris felt a sick curiosity hit her as she took in the sights of the room. She saw Baldr on the bed covered in towels with his arms and legs on full display, but the skin had been cut and peeled away showing bone and muscle underneath and a variety of tools poking out. She saw that Baldr also had a strip of leather in his mouth, presumably for him to bite down on if he began to feel pain.

She covered her mouth, not quite sick to her stomach but not comforted with the site. She saw Arylos covered in blood and reaching for the towels that Bellona offered, changing out the towels he was using to contain Baldr’s blood loss. Garris took some gause that Bellona offered as well as he was dressing Baldr’s sutures.

“I also brought your favourite treat from Templarius,” Bellona added with a smile as she placed the dish of white cubes on the table next to Arylos.

“Are those Meteors?” Arylos asked, removing his mask and showing a fanged smile.

“Sure are,” Bellona added with a pat on his shoulders. “I know the Kaiyumae made a similar treat, but I doubt it’s minty enough for your tastes.”

“Damn right,” Arylos added as he picked up one of the cubes with a small tissue and popped it into his mouth. “I miss the good burn of these. Iris, would you like to try one?” he asked while holding the dish out for her.

Iris collected herself for a moment and nodded, taking one of the cubes. “Chew them, don’t swallow them,” Arylos instructed as he put the dish back on the table and replaced his mask.

Iris used the small white cube to distract her, looking at the green flakes inside. She put it in her mouth and it tasted sweet and smooth. She bit down on it and it cracked but gave way to be soft, growing softer as she chewed. The more she chewed, the more a powerful minty taste hit her in the face, clearing her nose and stunning her mouth. It was a burn but cool, like a nice winter breeze that sent a shiver down her spine.

She almost forgot about the dissected Templarian as she enjoyed the sweet. Her spirits lifted, she came over to Arylos’s side and examined Baldr’s arm, using the chewing to distract her as she examined the exposed muscle and bone. She felt a strange curiosity come over her as she saw that attached to his bones were small metal parts that glowed with a soft purple light and copper threads snaked through his muscles.

“Where is Frygga?” Arylos asked while preparing his instruments to continue cutting.

“She’s in Sentarus’s office,” Bellona responded as she made her way back to the door. “He’s bringing her up to speed on the situation and hopefully trying to calm her down.”

“As long as she doesn’t come in here, we’ll be fine,” Arylos commented while returning to his work. “I’d rather her not see anything until I’m done.”

Bellona nodded and gestured to Iris. “Do you want to go?”

Iris shook her head, interested in what was going on. “I’ll be good. I’ve gotten over it and now I want to see.”

“That’s human morbid curiosity for you,” Arylos scoffed while gesturing towards Iris’s initial seat by his side. Bellona let out a chuckle as she closed the door behind her.

“What is all of that?” Iris asked, pointing at the strange metal.

Arylos sighed and tapped one of the metal nodes with his knife and it rang like a deep bell. “That is what is infecting him. That’s the cause of his curse and I’m willing to bet the cause of all of this.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Garris commented while finishing the dressing on Baldr’s leg and cleaning off his hands.

Arylos resumed his cutting as Baldr groaned, cutting away more muscle to reveal more of the copper threads. “Feel honoured, Garris. You will be the first Khymr to see this species firsthand.”

“We have records of all living things, but nothing like this,” Garris commented, taking a close look at more metal and threads poking out of cuts in Baldr’s side.

“That’s the problem; you have records of all living things,” Arylos commented, reaching for a prying tool and pulling the threads out of the muscle, causing Baldr’s hand to twitch and convulse. “I find it hard to call this thing ‘alive’, not like you at least.”

Iris watched as Arylos pulled out a bundle of the threads and tied thread around the bundle in two places and cut the bundle in the middle of the two strings. “Alright, that’s his hand free,” Arylos commented with a relieved sigh, reaching for a pry tool with a hammer.

“What’s next?” Iris asked, intrigued by the operation.

“I have to remove these nodes or they will continue the infection,” Arylos answered, gesturing to the chunks of glowing meddle embedded in Baldr’s bone. He then lined up the pry tool and hesitated. “This is the part that will hurt the most,” he added, shaking his free hand to get the nervous shaking out of it.

“So the threads are how it’s attached to and controlling him?” Iris asked, examining the work done so far and wondering how much more they have to go.

“Yes,” Arylos responded, lining up the hammer with the pry tool, working up the courage.

“Wait, doesn’t reincarnation destroy the body to rebuild it from scratch?” Iris asked, having an idea come to her.

“It won’t get rid of the infection,” Arylos explained while taking a series of breaths. “It will try and survive going into the next body. And Templarians can only reincarnate a certain number of times; we can’t waste an incarnation trying to get rid of this.”

“But cutting those threads frees him up, right?” Iris asked, forming her theory. “What if you cut the threads and then cause him to reincarnate? Would it still survive?”

Arylos thought for a moment and lowered the hammer and the tool, calculating the possibility of the theory.

“She has a point,” Garris cut in while considering the idea himself. “Think about it, cutting the wires disables the creature’s awareness of the body. Then it’s a race against the clock to keep it unaware as we get it out. And at the end of it all, his body will be broken and weak anyway. Maybe cutting the wires to disable the creature and then inducing a reincarnation would be best; burning away the creature by force.”

Arylos considered the possibilities before nodding, slowly increasing the speed of his nodding as he put the tool away and reached for a knife again. “Good idea, Iris. It’s worth a shot. The creature is ‘unconscious’ so to speak so as long as it stays that way, I should be able to cut free. Then we can induce a reincarnation and let Baldr’s biology take care of the rest.”

“The problem is causing Baldr to reincarnate,” Garris added, reaching for his own set of tools as he gathered the bundle of threads hanging out of Baldr’s side. “Even Anoron hasn’t been able to cause Baldr to reincarnate.”

“The creature is suppressing it, so if we keep it disabled and cut its connection, it won’t be able to do anything,” Arylos explained and Iris could tell he was smiling from his ears rising.

With a renewed determination, Arylos searched for more threads to cut, tying up each bundle and slicing through the bundles with increased caution and speed. Iris couldn’t help but smile herself as she watched the Titan work meticulously, occasionally offering Baldr more of the dark black liquid for him to drink.

After hours of watching Arylos cutting through Baldr’s body, cutting more threads as he went, Garris finally bandaged the last of the cuts in the Templarian’s body and the two let out exhausted yet relieved sighs. Arylos removed his mask and got up from his chair and pulled the leather strip out of Baldr’s mouth, to which Baldr coughed and licked his lips.

“We’re done, Baldr,” Garris told the Templarian, pouring a final glass of the dark black liquid and offering it to Baldr’s lips.

“From here, we need to induce a reincarnation,” Arylos instructed while untying his hair and removing the spectacles. “Are you able to walk at all?”

“I can’t feel my body,” Baldr groaned. “I can’t move anything.”

“I figured as much,” Arylos commented while he went to the door. “Garris, do you have any wheelchairs that I can grab from the inn?”

“Uhh, I’m pretty sure I kept a couple here just in case a while ago,” Garris responded while thinking deeply. “I’d probably check with Bellona, see if some of her guards have any.”

Arylos nodded and went out of the room, leaving the Khymr, the Templarian, and the human-Templarian hybrid in the room alone. Iris wanted to find words for Baldr, but couldn’t find any that would be appropriate.

“Why are you helping me?” Baldr wheezed, his eyes glancing towards Iris.

Iris chewed on her soft sweet some more, realising that the flavour of this cube had faded. “Trust me, I haven’t forgiven you, but Arylos promised to help you and he’s a man of his word so that’s all I need.”

“But I tried to kill him, I killed your people,” Baldr continued.

“Again, I never said I forgave you,” Iris repeated in a stern voice.

After a couple minutes of silence, Arylos returned to the room with a wheelchair and Sentarus behind him as the two were talking to each other.

“Alright Baldr,” Sentarus began as he leaned against the door frame. “The boys here are going to take you out back into one of the mountain chambers. We’re going to induce a reincarnation and leave you to reincarnate in privacy. That should help you.”

“I don’t know how you plan to do that,” Baldr groaned as Arylos and Garris lifted him up to get him into the chair. “Even Anoron couldn’t do that.”

“I have a plan,” Arylos added once the Templarian was situated. “Just be lucky that you can’t feel anything even after we cut out the creature because it won’t be pretty.”