Blood Contamination

There were no enemies. Rui, Lentis, Nyana, and the soldiers had no trouble making it through the castle. Though they had to take some detours since the routes were blocked by too much rubble, Lentis cleared paths for them whenever they could and they made it to the queen's bed-chamber fairly quickly. It took some time to identify it since the place was a wreck, but the broken bed and shredded sheets gave it away.

There were bodies all over, but this time, all of them belonged to the anti-mage corps. However, they didn't look like they were killed with magic. They got killed by someone... or something... But there wasn't any time to waste.

"Find the queen, go!" Rui yelled at the soldiers. They needed to find her. Dead or alive, Rui needed to know if she was here or not.

"No need," Nyana said. The soldiers stopped and looked at her. "There are no bodies under here." She held up her hand and a plant sprouted from the ground. "I searched the entire place. The queen isn't here."

"So they took her..."

"I believe so. We should-" Nyana abruptly shut her mouth and turned her head.

"Is something wrong?" Rui asked her, wondering why she suddenly did that.

"Sorry, but I will have to leave for now."

"Wait, where are you going!?"

Nyana didn't explain anything to the soldiers and took off, sprinting as fast as she could towards the inn. She placed a magic ward to protect her room so that she would know if someone broke in. Along the way, she ran back to the entrance. She kicked up a few arrows on the ground and put them in her quiver, not stopping for even a moment. The arrows may be used for killing beasts, but she will have to make do with what she had right now.

"Who's so bold as to invade my room...?"

Nyana placed her finger on her forehead and closed her eyes. Using her magic, she transferred her vision to where the ward was. Everything was blurry, but she saw that at least three people had passed through into her room. Looters? How despicable of them. Taking advantage of the chaos and plundering other people's homes... She didn't have much inside her room, but the things she did have were extremely valuable. Most of her weapons were in there as she didn't have the opportunity to take them out when all this happened.

It was the perfect time to retrieve them. Nyana angled her body lower as she ran, changing to the sprinting stance that elves used for long-distance travel. It didn't matter what the terrain was like nor what stood in her way. It was made for traveling across entire forests, dodging trees while running at incredible speeds. And Nyana was even faster here in the desert with paved roads and no one outside in the streets to get in her way.

She passed by a number of guards who were checking the situation of the city, blurring by them so fast that by the time they turned around to see what went by, she was already long gone. Having long legs was sure nice. Nyana slid to a stop in front of the inn and looked up. The second floor was a wreck. There were holes all over and pieces of wood sticking out.

"Look like someone ransacked the room... Wait, isn't that..." It was her companion's room. Seeing this made her even more furious. Not only did the criminals have the guts to rob her, but they were also destroying the place afterward? There were still barbarians that went around pillaging others like this!?

Nyana hopped up to the second floor and grabbed onto the ledge of the window. There was a voice from inside that said, "I think I hear something-" Nyana was filled with and didn't wait to hear what they had to say.

Nyana bent her body backward, doing a maneuver that would've broken the spine of any ordinary person, and kicked the window open with the flat of her foot, scaring the person on the other side. They cursed and yelled, "Another intruder!? Hey! I need help." Nyana pulled herself up and hopped throw the window, taking an arrow out of her quiver.

A white-silver flash came down on her. She didn't hesitate and rolled to the side. She jumped up onto the wall and kicked herself off of it, doing a flip and smashing the attacker's head with her heel, planting his face into the hard wooden floor.

"Argh!" Nyana stomped down the man's arm before he could get back up and pressed the tip of her arrow against the side of the man's neck. "Who are you?" she asked him.

"Huh? That voice..." the man slowly lifted his face. It was all bloodied. His nose was broken and blood was pouring out of it like a faucet.

"Hm? Oh! It's you!" Nyana remembered the man as the person that was always with Kies. "Then..." Nyana took a look around the room. It was shambles. The walls had claw marks and there was a huge hole in the floor. Outside the hallway, there was blood all over the walls on the other side of the room, showing traces of a battle. Considering the amount of blood on the wall, it was safer to assume that someone got killed and the body was dragged away.

"I'm so sorry!" Nyana apologized to Sirks immediately and helped him back up onto his feet. She healed his broken nose and wiped the blood off with a tattered cloth she tore off from the ruined bed beside her.

"Thank you..." Sirks grumbled. He was very grateful that the elf healed him, but he was still not particularly happy about getting his nose flattened like that. He patted his nose, feeling that it was bad to normal. It was not a feeling that he wanted to experience again. "Ugh..."

"Again, I apologize for my rash actions," the elf apologized to Sirks again, seeing how he still looked dissatisfied about what she did.

"No, it's all good. I was the one who attacked you first anyway. I thought you were an enemy."

"So did I... Speaking of which, what happened here?"

"What happened here? Long story." Sirks wasn't in the mood to try and explain everything that happened to the elf.

"I'm guessing the fight also reached my room?" she also asked, assuming that this was what happened after seeing all the wreckage.

"Uh, not exactly."

"What? I put a spell on my room that tells me if someone entered."

"Oh! Is that why you came back here!?"

"Yes."

"Ah..." That also explained why she was so aggressive, and she entered through their window. But seriously, was it custom for people to use windows as doors, or was it just these two? What was the point of having doors if no one was actually going to use them?

"Sorry about that. Our room got... Yeah," Sirks waved his hand around. He didn't have to explain it. "Anyway... Your room was the closest one and we have two unconscious people so we moved them to your room."

"I see..." That explained why the ward gave off so many signals. "I don't mind it, but, you didn't touch any of my stuff, did you?"

"The dagger and arrows? No, we didn't touch that. We only needed to use your bed."

"Good." Nyana walked around the hole and exited into the hallway. She opened her door and entered. Sirks followed behind her and also entered the room after her.

The first thing that Nyana checked was the rear wall where her weapons were stashed. The dagger and arrows were sitting in the same spot and position as she left them. That was a relief. Next, she turned and looked at her bed.

"There are three people?" Nyana counted, raising an eyebrow in surprise. She recognized two of them but who was the third? Sitting beside the bed was the young girl that she often saw with Kies. There were two people laying on the bed. One of them was the girl she saved twice with her healing magic and the other one behind her had her face blocked by the one in front.

"She's the queen," Sirks told her, seeing where she was looking at.

"The queen!?" Nyana approached the bed to take a closer look. It was a very skinny woman, her skin as pale as snow. Almost as pale as the Iceblade's, actually.

"She won't last long," Nyana noted, examining the condition of her body.

"No, she won't," Sirks agreed. "This sounds wrong after we barged into your room without your permission, but we need your help."

"Need my help? Are you asking me to try and cure her poison?"

"...Yes."

"I told you, but I don't know any of the desert herbs. It's a huge gamble to have me try to treat the queen."

"Yes, I understand that, but the herbalist, the only one capable of actually doing anything about it... She's dead."

"...This is problematic," Nyana said, shaking her head. "Is there no other way?"

"Not really. Kies ran out a few minutes ago before you arrived. He said that he was going to try and beat the cure out of the commander, but its no guarantee that he will return with it. He wants you to try and made a cure while he does that," Sirks conveyed Kies' message to the elf.

"And I can't guarantee it either..." Nyana crosses her arms and thought about it for a second. Her mission here was over. It had been over since the city erupted into chaos. She could've left then but chose to stay anyway. If she backed off now then everything she did would be pointless. If the queen dies then the kingdom will get divided.

"I'm not supportive of the idea, but I will try," she finally said, making up her mind to try and come up with a cure. "Do you have the herbs?"

"Yes. Kies brought everything he could scavenge from that herbalist's place here." Sirks led Nyana to the area behind the bed where there were bags of herbs, every single kind that could be found in the desert. Furthermore, he also brought back the equipment needed to grind, boil, and alter the herbs to any form or shape that she wanted.

"Amazing... Did he carry all of this himself?"

"He did with his magic."

"I see. Please move aside. I'll need to bring these to the table and set up a station."

"Of course! Here, let me help you." Sirks and Wompa helped Nyana move everything to a table and moved a chair next to it.

Nyana sat down and checked the queen's pulse. She then took a needle and pricked her finger, taking a sample of her blood. Meanwhile, the two watched anxiously. They couldn't do anything other than watch. Neither of them knew anything about medicine or poison.

Nyana used her magic to scan the blood and found traces of the poison in it. It was in large amounts. Nearly half of the small drop of blood was contaminated by the poison. If this was uniform, it meant that half the queen's body was filled with poison. "This isn't going to be easy..."

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