The second day since Yuri's departure had worn on Martina like years. She sat beside Agnus, her hand wrapped around his, feeling the heat radiating from his skin. The fever had worsened overnight despite Emilia's efforts. The black veins had spread further in the past two days, creeping up his neck toward his jaw, down past his navel. He wasn't conscious anymore, and there were now fears that, even if help arrives, it may be too late.
Heron had barely moved from his chair. He no longer cries, and his face is now blank with exhaustion and fear. Both he and Martina are being brought food, with which they struggle and have to force themselves to eat.
Emilia was working over the clock, checking Agnus' pulse, changing bandages that quickly soaked through with that black blood, administering doses of medicine that seemed to do nothing but keep him breathing a few hours longer. She started to administer blood from the village rations to keep him from dying from blood loss.
"His heart is weakening," Emilia said quietly to Martina during one such check. "At this point, I don't think he'll recover."
The door burst open. One of the gate guards stood there, breathless from running. "There's someone at the gate. Says they were urgently summoned. They're in some kind of machine, a big one. I don't have permission to let something like that into the village."
"Let them in!" Martina was on her feet instantly.
"But the machine—"
"Let them in!" Emilia's voice joined Martina's, sharp with command. "We'll handle everything later. Now go!"
The guard took a deep breath before turning and running back toward the gate.
Minutes later, there was loud knocking.
"Enter," Emilia yelled.
Haran entered first, and Martina barely recognized him. His face was drawn, his eyes shadowed with exhaustion. Behind him came another man, older, carrying a pristine leather case.
"Everyone," Haran said, his voice rough. "This is Dr. Adys Remmus. He's agreed to examine Agnus."
The doctor moved forward without ceremony, setting his case on a nearby stool. He was perhaps fifty star-cycles old, with gray-streaked hair pulled back in a tail and hands marked with old scars. His clothes were city-made, fine wool and cotton, already looking out of place among the dried herbs and rough-hewn furniture.
"How long since the bite?" Remmus asked, not looking up as he opened his case.
"Two days," Emilia answered, her voice tight. She watched the doctor with obvious wariness as he pulled strange instruments from the case.
"What treatments have you administered?"
Emilia listed them: the paste, the valerian, the willow bark, the measured bloomshards. Remmus listened while his hands moved, assembling something from his case. It looked like a small lantern, but instead of a flame, a soft pink glow emanated from its center.
"And his condition?"
"Deteriorating. The venom is spreading despite everything. His heart is failing."
Remmus nodded, unsurprised. He lifted the pink-glowing device and held it over Agnus's torso, moving it slowly from the wound upward. Through the device's casing, the pink light pulsed and shifted, growing brighter near the blackened veins.
"Interesting," he murmured.
"What is that thing?" Emilia asked, unable to keep the suspicion from her voice.
"A diagnostic tool. The pink crystal inside resonates with living tissue. It shows me the density and health of flesh, helps me see what's happening beneath the skin." He moved the device lower, across Agnus's abdomen. "The venom has damaged the blood vessels extensively. There's necrosis in the surrounding tissue." He looked up at Emilia. "You did well to keep him alive this long with what you have."
The acknowledgment seemed to soften Emilia's stance slightly, though she still watched his every move.
Remmus returned to his case and pulled out a cylindrical object, perhaps the length of a forearm. One end tapered to a needle point, the other held what looked like a small vial filled with pale green liquid. But set into the cylinder's body was a vivid purple crystal, pulsing with faint glow.
"I need to step outside for a minute to the ambulance vehicle. I have some anti-venomous potions that I will try to test out."
Without waiting for any approval, he just stepped outside.
"I apologize for providing no notice. The doctor is discreet, and I paid him enough not to mention anything about our visit to the village." Haran said to Martina.
"I can't believe that is what you are worried about, Haran," Martina sobbingly said. "I am just glad you decided to come and help us, all things considered."
"How could I not? I owe both of you so much. So don't be ridiculous." Haran replied.
But the conversation was cut short as the doctor returned to the room. He was carrying a box with several vials. He then took out one with a dark green liquid and poured a little bit of it into the cylinder. He then turned to Agnus, pushing the instrument into the wound.
"What is that?" Heron spoke for the first time in hours, his voice small.
"A purification syringe," Remmus said, not unkindly. "The purple crystal inside can separate substances in blood, isolate toxins so they can be removed or neutralized. The green solution is an anti-venom I've prepared—broad-spectrum, enhanced with extract from crystal-treated herbs."
He looked at Martina and Haran. "I need to tell you honestly: I don't know if this will work. He has no consciousness, so the venom may have already caused damage to the brain."
"Please, just try," Martina pleaded.
The doctor pressed something on the cylinder's side, and the purple crystal began to glow.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then Agnus's body went rigid.
His eyes flew open, whites showing all around the pupils. A sound tore from his throat. It didn't sound quite a scream, more like the keening of an animal in a trap.
"Hold him!" Remmus commanded.
Haran moved instantly, pressing down on Agnus's shoulders. Yuri, who had entered quietly behind them, took his legs. Martina grabbed his hand, tears streaming down her face.
The syringe's purple crystal grew brighter, pulsing with an almost angry light. Through the glass of the vial, the green liquid began to flow into Agnus's vein, but something was wrong. Where the liquid met his blood, dark tendrils began to form, writhing against the glass like living things.
"What's happening?" Haran demanded.
Remmus's face had gone pale. "The purple crystal is reacting to something in the venom. Something that shouldn't be there."
The black veins across Agnus's chest began to writhe beneath the skin, pulsing in rhythm with the crystal's glow. The wound itself seemed to darken further, and from the puncture marks, black blood began to seep. But something was different. It was black, yes, but shot through with something that glittered in the lamplight. Tiny particles that caught the light like fragments of glass.
"Creators preserve us," Emilia breathed. "Is that...?"
"Crystal," Remmus said, his voice tight with shock. "There are crystal particles in his blood. That's why nothing worked. The venom isn't just poisoning him, it's trying to integrate crystal matter into his body."
The revelation made the whole room go numb.
"Can you remove it?" Martina asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
Remmus was already adjusting something on the syringe, his hands moving with careful precision. "The purple crystal should be able to separate the particles from the blood." He trailed off, watching as more of that glittering black fluid seeped from the wound. "The concentration is very high. Haran, can you fetch me another syringe from the bag?"
Haran quickly passed the syringe to Remmus.
"Emilia, please hold this one while I prepare the substance once more. Whatever bit him injected him with high dosages of venom. Creators surely had mercy on the man. I don't know how he survived this."