Warsinger - Chapter Twenty-One

I followed Masha out to a trestle table, where she had her trunk open and was deftly arranging her potion-making tools: glassware, a crucible - a thick metal dish on a burner - and a funny-shaped jar called an alembic, among other things. When she was finished, she unrolled a cloth full of clean, extremely sharp knives, set up a rack of ingredients in jars, and then carefully removed a large molded container the size of a small canonball. She removed the straps and carefully opened it, revealing a small, sealed bottle of glowing blue mana. Even with the seal intact, I could feel the heat and energy emanating from the stuff. 

"Other than Karalti’s blood, this is the first time I've seen liquid mana up close," I said, watching Masha set the bottle into a special stand. It was lighter than it looked, the mana inside swirling like brilliant turquoise mercury.

"Well, feast your eyes. That is almost five hundred olbia sitting there in that bottle." She snapped on a pair of safety goggles.

"How does anyone afford to be a mage in this game?" I scratched my head, wincing.

"Most sorcerers only need green-grade mana. This is pure Mastercraft-quality liquid bluecrystal, eh? No adulterants, no copper."

"It's got to be toxic. What are Vash's odds?" I frowned.

"Bloodscour is one of the safer alchemical brews," she said, pulling on a leather filter mask that covered her nose and mouth. "We only use a single drop of mana in it. Listen well, Tuun, because the ingredients must be mixed in a special order. Firstly, you must chop the herbs as finely as possible. Cat's Eye Mushrooms, King's Grass, and Holy Basil. They are macerated, meaning that they are mashed, in the order I just spoke. Then you add this Stingcrab Blood, and then - quickly - add five drams of colloidal silver. You stir them until the mixture is blended, then add one single drop of mana."

I nodded, watching as she prepared her ingredients. Masha measured out the silver, set a corked bottle of frothy light blue crab blood near the crucible, readied a clean dropper near the mana, then began to expertly chop the herbs into tiny pieces. Every time she finished with one ingredient, she wiped the cutting board down, and started on the next, neatly separating them into different small pottery bowls.

"Now, watch me." She dumped the mushrooms in her mortar and pestle and pounded them into a mash, and kept grinding as she reached for the grass and dumped it in. The mortar rasped as she ground it into a dull teal-green paste, then added the basil and continued without pause.

"It must be constantly agitated," she said absently. "You must not stop moving once!"

"Yes Ma'am," I said reflexively. The A.R appeared over her hands, showing how she perfectly emulated the holographic directions to mash and stir. A meter filled up as she did, and when it was full, it pinged and vanished. Masha grunted with satisfaction and uncorked the Stingcrab blood. She poured in the entire two-ounce vial, and an acrid, sweet smell billowed from the bowl. The herb mash began to hiss and pop, turning a darker blue color as the monster blood reacted with the plants. Masha poured the liquid silver suspension in, and the potion began to bubble like molten metal.

"The mana transmutes the monster blood and neutralizes it," she muttered, delicately uncapping the flask. As soon as she did, the billowing burned-plastic reek of ozone filled the room. The blue liquid began to reach up the curved sides, climbing against gravity to escape, but Masha deftly caught a drop of it and resealed the bottle before any of it floated away. There was an audible hiss of pressure from the cap as the mana churned in the bottle, consuming the air inside and creating a vacuum inside. The substance settled down then, seething gently.

"And now... hup!" Masha held the dropper over the bowl, then squeezed it with a small, careful flick of her wrist. The mana fell like a tiny star into the boiling silver surface, which bucked, rippled, and then swirled like a small galaxy before settling into beautiful silvery-blue liquid with a faint turquoise glow.

[You have learned a new receipe: Bloodscour Potion]

Bloodscour (Alchemical)

A vital medicine for managing severe internal infections, Bloodscour potion is unstable and has a shelf-life of barely twenty minutes. When freshly prepared, it is one of the safest alchemical infusions available, though there is always a slight risk of Stranging. However, the solution decomposes rapidly. Spoiled Bloodscour is highly toxic and guaranteed to mutate or kill a human.

Side-Effects: Bloodscour is administered intravenously. It is fast-acting, but causes severe nausea that must be managed to prevent the patient from continuously vomiting. The Severe Nausea penalty timer is random, lasting between 1-24 hours.

Toxicity: 1/10 (10/10 when spoiled)

Ingredients: Cat's Eye Mushrooms, King's Grass, Holy Basil, Stingcrab Blood, Colloidal Silver, Blue-Grade Mana or higher (liquid form), 1x Sealed Flask. Sale Price: 100 olbia.

"Wow. It looks neat." I marveled at the stuff as it shifted and swirled. "Smells like fourth-day music festival ass, though."

"Yes. It rapidly decomposes into an awful black tarry thing." Masha worked quickly, taking a clean glass and rubber transfuser from her kit. She drew the solution into the chamber, capped it off, and attached the needle. "Alright. I hope your Baru has a strong stomach."

We returned to find Lazar still working. Vash’s skin had turned a nasty blueish color, but he was still hanging in there. The doctor nodded to us, and moved aside. He'd been hard at work, removing the dead skin and cauterizing the healthy tissue. 

"Burna's breath. I've already had this lamp-eyed fool jabbing hot irons into my arm. What awful thing are you going to put in me, woman?" Vash gave Masha a wink, eyes dancing despite the pain he endured.

Masha clicked her tongue, but she was also smiling. "Quit your whining, you rogue. And brace yourself. This will make you very nauseous."

"Oh! We have something to help with that!” Lazar said, scuffing his chair back before bustling off.

I hung over Masha’s shoulder while she felt around Vash's good arm, the left, and pinched the inside of his elbow. "Tuun! Come here and insert this needle, then administer the Bloodscour over precisely five minutes. You - you pump your hand like this, eh? Make a fast as tight as you can, relax it, make a fist again."

Vash surprisingly didn't turn her order into a masturbation joke. He did wag his eyebrows, though, squeezing his fist until the bones in his hand creaked, then letting it go. His entire arm, from bicep to fingertips, was tattooed solid black, but he was thin enough that I could see the vein Masha intended me to use. My Field Medicine A.R guided me through the steps, walking me through a  holographic minigame that used animations and arrows to direct me what to do. I flicked the needle a few times, swabbed his skin with alcohol and a small pad, and slid the needle in. The monk didn't even flinch - though he did grimace when I began to slowly depress the plunger. A timer started to count down, along with an animation that showed me how fast to push down on the contents of the vial.

"They don't call it Bloodscour for nothing, do they?" Vash broke into a hot sweat, grunting as he shifted on the bed.

"We'll give you some ibuprofen and you can walk it off," I joked, speeding up a little as I noticed the level of the vial was higher than the level in the animation.

Behind us, Lazar rushed into the room. "Alright, here: put this under your tongue."

"Ugh." Vash opened his mouth, and accepted what looked like a pressed tablet of mashed herbs under his tongue.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Oh! It's an anti-emetic," Lazar replied. "Liquorice and hyssop lozenge."

"Anti-what?"

"Anti-emetics stop you from vomiting," Masha said. "Easy does it, now."

We were down to the last two minutes, and Vash was clearly struggling. As the potion got to work, he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath through his nose, let it out of his mouth, and relaxed down onto the bed. I was about to try and get him to say something when a red exclamation mark flashed and a new kind of alert, one I'd never seen before, pushed into view.

[Kingdom Alert: The city of Karhad is rioting!]

Vash was lucky I didn't squirt the rest of the Bloodscour straight into him. My hands twitched, but I managed not to drop the transfuser. "Fuck! A riot is breaking out in Karhad. I have to go."

"You have to attend your patient," Masha said primly. "Concentrate."

Lazar's eyes widened, and he pushed his glasses up along his nose. "Masterhealer, I can take-"

"No. Only a couple of minutes to go," the woman said. "Easy does it, Tuun."

Every fiber of my being twitched in the direction of the courtyard - where I could hear Suri, Vilmos and Istvan galvanizing into action. Someone was ringing the alarm bell at the front of the barracks, yelling at the soldiers there to get their kit on and assemble. I forced myself not to bring up the KMS: to concentrate, and follow the holographic guide as the fluid level slowly descended toward zero. 

Vash was pouring sweat now, meditating through the crippling nausea and pain. It felt like an eternity before the plunger touched the glass. He shuddered through with a sudden chill as the A.R chimed.

[You have gained skill points! You have reached Level 15 in Herbalism, Level 11 Alchemy, and Level 15 Field Medicine!]

[You have reached Level 15 in two skills. To progress any further in these skills, you will need an examiner to promote you to Journeyman.]

The baleful red light slid away from Vash's head and heart, pulling back toward his shoulder. He grunted and writhed as Masha took a cold compress from Lazar and lay it over his soaked forehead.

"Go now and see to your people," she urged. "The worst is over. We will keep him alive."

"Yes ma'am. See you on the other side." I pressed the transfuser back into her hands and bolted for the castle courtyard.