Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 142: To Stop a Plague

Naereni

Doubouir's words made everyone focus on him further. "Toren's been following Mardeth's actions for the past few months, tracking down his operations through Alacrya. And most recently, we managed to infiltrate a base of his along the Redwater." I picked up how Sevren's stump of a shoulder twitched uncomfortably at that mention. "But I managed to get a look at the machine the Vicar of Plague used to create this altered blithe concoction, and I studied a sample of the drug myself." He winced as another explosion went off somewhere in the distance. "Mardeth seemed to have incorporated some bits of an acidbeam hivemother's mana pattern into his concoction. Whenever that awful mist touches a mage, it perpetuates the cycle, infecting their mana core and spreading to others. Once the blithe mist is unable to detect mana any longer, it will seek the closest crystal of basilisk blood."

Hofal drew his pipe from his trench coat, looking at it. His fingers trembled as he tried to light a smoke, his eyes more than haunted. "What's the point of all this?" he asked, dropping his pipe. He didn't try and pick it up again, instead looking emptily at the fires blooming in the distance. "Just to cause pain? To cause suffering for suffering's sake?"

Doubouir shook his head. "The basilisk blood contains the resulting mana. It maintains its charge. Charged for... Something. I never got that far. Once I realized it was a mana plague, I left my base immediately." His eyes flicked to Boulders. "My sister opted to join."

"I'm a powerful striker," the navy-haired noble said, stepping forward. "I can more than carry my weight in helping you," she said seriously.

Ahh, this one needs to prove something, I thought, scrutinizing Caera Denoir with narrowed eyes.

"Is there a way to stop it?" I asked aloud, forcing a cheery tone, "To stop both the spread and the concentration? You're the smart one here. We're all different flavors of idiot, so you'll need to tell us in simple words."

Sevren hesitated, his pure white bangs shadowing his face. He suddenly looked half-starved. "I've got an item here," he said, withdrawing something from a dimension ring, "That might be able to break the connection to the basilisk blood."

My eyes widened in surprise as they drank in what was nestled in his palm. A dark crystal seemed to absorb the light. Absently, I tried to calculate how much it was worth. I knew what it was, after all. They'd been used in the Joans' failed Clarwood Forest expedition.

"A beastward," Wade breathed, his hand instinctively brushing against Apple's flank. The adorable skaunter hissed in disgust. My lover caught onto Sevren's plan quickly. "When these are broken, they're able to scramble an acidbeam hivemother's connection to the rest of her hive, at least on contact! That's what you're planning to do!"

Sevren sighed, withdrawing the item back into his dimension ring. "That only solves one part. I can't stop the spread of infection from person to person. The best way..." he visibly hesitated. "The best way would be to kill the infected. Put them out of their misery," he said with steel. "Death makes the mana inside their body go inert. Once the mana is inactive, the mist won't spread any longer."

Greahd pushed herself forward, looking up at Sevren Denoir. Even while missing an arm, the man held himself with a sort of dignity as he matched Greahd's stare. "That isn't the best way," she said sternly. "That is the easiest. Those two are not the same. There are no doubt hundreds of mages who've been infected. Maybe thousands. To kill them all would be a massacre on the greatest scale seen since the war between Vechor and Sehz-Clar!"

"So what do you think we should do instead?" Sevren asked bitterly. "I didn't get time to try and make an antidote. And considering there isn't even an antidote for normal blithe's effects, I'd like to hear what solution you've got in mind!"