Pointless Struggle (Part 1)

Ingesting Thrud's cells only had three possible outcomes. Inside an incompatible host, they would die in just a few days. This was the most common scenario. In the case of partial compatibility, the subject would become a made mage.

They would be useless as energy donors, but the symbiotic relationship with Thrud's cells would allow her to influence their thoughts, to use them as her spies, or simply as sacrificial pawns to keep the authorities busy.

Arthan's daughter had played that game many times. The trick was to constantly move from one country to another. She only needed one treatment once every hundred years and she was careful to pick cities that were both populous and corrupt.

By the time the local authorities noticed something was going on, Thrud was already gone. Once the odd phenomenons ceased, everything would be dismissed as an unknown disease, leaving not even a footnote in history books.