“Not every illness or injury had a known treatment. At times we just had to work with what little we knew and our best judgment, when there were no precedents to call upon.” - Saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

“Then what can we do!?” asked Reinhardt with not a bit of his frustration and helplessness leaking into his voice. That Elfriede was injured was bad enough, but that she was poisoned by something where the antidote would have done even worse things to her than the poison itself was beyond frustrating. It was a situation where he was literally helpless as he had nothing in hand that could better the situation.

“A moment,” said Mæster Goerenbrandt as his brows scrunched up in concentration. Both of his hands were laid on the back of Elfriede’s shoulders, and from such a close distance, even Reinhardt could feel the mana thrum as the dwarven healer worked his magic. “Huh. This is quite an unexpected find to say the least.”

“What is?” Reinhardt asked with worry evident in his voice.

“The poison isn’t affecting her as badly as it would have done to a dwarf. The effects are the same as far as I could tell but I’m not detecting any breakdown or damage to her nerves that would have happened to us…” explained the old dwarven healer patiently. He was probably used to seeing panicking family members of his patients, to be fair. “The effects on her should be temporary… Do we have a good wind mage around? No… wait… she’s already forcing herself to breathe using the wind!”

“Friede is a wind mage herself, yes,” said Reinhardt as he caught on to what surprised the old healer. “She used to struggle with an old lung injury… and used to use her magic to help her breathe properly. She’s done that for decades.”

“That explains why her breathing is so smooth even with the poison affecting her…” mumbled the old dwarf as he quirked an eyebrow with interest. The old dwarven healer then moved towards the side, keeping one of his hands on Elfriede’s shoulder all the time. “Madam Edelstein, can you hear me? If you can, can you move your eyes? As far as my knowledge goes, victims of this poison should still be able to do that.”

As a reply, Elfriede’s eyes moved side to side. She clearly heard Mæster Goerenbrandt’s words and was capable of doing so. It helped that her eyes were wide open, so the movement was easily visible to everyone.

“Excellent, now, please look towards my direction for a no, and towards your husband for a yes,” added the old dwarf. As he moved to Elfriede’s right, Reinhardt had moved himself over to her left, his arm helping support her back all that while. “Your husband informed me earlier that you are a wind affinity mage and are forcing yourself to breathe at the moment. Are you able to keep doing this for a prolonged period of time?”

Elfriede’s eyes shifted towards Reinhardt for a short while before they returned to stare blankly towards the sky.

“Excellent. Is there another wind mage who is skilled with air movements in your company?” asked the old dwarf next. “It would be better if we could get several of those to help with the situation at hand, even.”

This time Elfriede’s eyes shifted towards Mæster Goerenbrandt. There were several wind affinity mages amongst the Free Lances, but most of them barely qualified for such a title, and were very limited in what their skills could do. The ones who were more skilled specialized in different fields, like using wind to amplify their hearing or carry their voices, or like in Hannah’s case, to use the wind to help make her flight more efficient.

None of them were skilled in doing something like forcing the wind to move into someone else’s lungs with enough force to make it inflate but without damaging it like Elfriede had done for herself for decades. Such a skill would have been useless against a resisting opponent anyway, as then their innate resistance would have overwhelmed a magical attempt to “invade” their body.

“Hm. That is more troublesome,” said the dwarf with a slight frown. “In that case, Madam Edelstein, are you capable of keeping your breathing going while you sleep? Either that, or forgoing sleep until you have recovered enough to be able to breathe unaided again. I am afraid those are the only options left, given the cards we were dealt with.”

Elfriede’s eyes turned towards Reinhardt once more. It was somewhat eerie to see her seemingly transfixed like that, with just her eyes moving.

“Dad! How is mom!?” asked Erycea the next moment. Reinhardt turned his head and saw his daughter running their way in great leaps and bounds on all four. Given that she had taken off to chase after one of the assassins earlier, Reinhardt thought that she likely just returned after finishing her task. The way she rushed over to where Reinhardt and Mæster Goerenbrandt made some of the guards briefly alert themselves, though they relaxed when she skidded to a halt next to her parents, her white spotted fur somewhat matted with sweat. “Is she going to be all right?”

“We’re hoping for it, Ery,” said Reinhardt quietly to his daughter. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw that Erycea was not injured at all. While he trusted his daughter’s capabilities, as a father he couldn’t help but worry for her regardless. “Did you catch the assassin? That one might be an important one given how your mother singled him out.”

“Got him alive. I left him with Kari and Alva since they were nearby. We made sure to get rid of anything he might be able to use to kill himself too, including his teeth,” said Erycea all too nonchalantly. “We weren’t too sure about just tying him up since he’s a dwarf so I broke his arms too just in case.”

“Good work,” praised Reinhardt.

“Apologies for having made you worry, Captain Edelstein,” said Mæster Goerenbrandt. “I believe your wife should be in no mortal danger as long as she could keep the air flowing to her lungs. She will need to do that until the poison naturally decays and leaves her body. I will ensure that she suffers no complications from this and recovers fully.”