Chapter 65 — Elixir of Restoration

  “It’s ready,” Emina informed him, placing a glass flask with brown liquid on a small table they had dragged over to Laiya’s bedside. “Venom recovery, bone-mending, and flesh-mending potions added to a neutral tavi solution. Are you sure this is safe? There were some color changes.”

  No, there was no way it was safe. That was why Toren’s whole plan had been to avoid potions. But, as Emina had pointed out when he discussed with her and Warnel what he wanted to attempt, Laiya didn’t have his regeneration Ability.

  Emina hadn’t been idle while Toren was self-immolating and playing with fire. She had been matching Laiya’s condition with potions in her alchemy books and, in particular, wanted to try a venom recovery potion. Some of the nastier venoms were known to cause impairments similar to what Laiya was experiencing and venom recovery potions could sometimes heal it.

  None of them had any idea how his blood would react with the potions or if the potions would react with each other. Whether they had Laiya drink the potions together or in sequence, it was all going to mix with unexpected results, even the order the potions were administered might change the interactions between the magically-altered contents of each.

  If not for the purifying effect of his imbuement technique, each treatment attempt would have to be done separately, spread out over multiple days. There was still a fair chance that important parts of each potion’s benefit would be lost, but at this point, some effect might be better than no effect—assuming he could purify away any undesirable weirdness prior to giving it to her.

  How to get the blood to where the injury was… he still wasn’t sold on feeding it to her with the potion. If it didn’t absorb through her throat, her stomach wasn’t any closer to where he suspected the problem was, and he had no idea what stomach acid would do to the blood’s properties.

  Cutting Laiya’s neck open was a non-starter. The risk of a mistake or her parents panicking was far too high. Well, at least trying to get near the spine that way… though maybe something shallower would work?

  Seeing Laiya’s closed eyes, Toren remembered something—a story about a terrifying parasite that could enter the brain by crawling around and behind a person’s eye. Dripping the potion mixture with his blood into her eyes would get it inside her head and down into the bones of her neck from the inside.

  But… if it went wrong, Laiya would die a horrible death.

  No. One look in Emina and Warnel’s direction and he was sure, should he try that method, he’d be dead from [Sure Cut]s before they would have a chance to learn if it worked.

  Whether blood could be forced through flesh… there was an easy enough method to test it. He tried pulling blood through the palm of his hand. Bruising began to spread before a small pool of blood collected.

  “Toren?” Warnel asked.

  “Looks like I don’t need to cut myself,” Toren offered and worked the blood back through his skin.

  It was slower and cost more mana and willpower, but it would work. This time, he [Empower]ed his blood as he had done with Warnel earlier before again pooling it into his hand and carefully dribbling the glowing and flaming liquid into the potion mixture.

  The dribbles were met with hissing and a black smoke drifting up from the mixture. Gradually, the brown color to the mixture faded with the black smoke, leaving a vivid purple with a golden sheen.

  “Is it supposed to do that?” Falma asked from where she was nervously watching.

  “That color…” Warnel voiced, brows furrowed.

  “It’s certainly not a natural color,” Emina agreed, brows also furrowed. “More like a fancy enchanted drink or an expensive elixir the nobles might buy for ‘enlightenment’…”

  The message from the World Spirit filled Toren with relief. If the others had Sponsored Professions, they would have likely received a similar message. The achievement was surely worth more to the Hatterwicks’ crafting Professions than his [Berserker] Profession. Even better, Falma’s participation in the concocting should benefit her Profession choices.

  “I’m ready,” he prompted, placing a hand against Laiya’s throat and stepping to the side some to give Emina room to administer the elixir. The contact helped him force his [Mana Sensing] and [Blood Control] through her sleep-weakened mana resistance.

  At Toren’s advising, Laiya had already been administered a sleeping draught. Having experienced the pain of [Burning Blood]’s healing, Warnel didn’t argue with the choice, either. In fact, Warnel’s grimacing acceptance had Emina eyeing both of them at the time.

  Though avoiding further suffering for Laiya would help with keeping her parents onboard with the effort to heal their daughter, Toren’s primary concern was that the girl wouldn’t be able to maintain control over preventing her mana from resisting his, and he needed to use [Control Blood] on the imbued blood to direct it to the areas to have the ‘damage burned away’—any other approach was far too risky.

  Emina’s hands trembled faintly as the vial was tipped above Laiya’s mouth.

  “Small amounts,” Toren reminded.

  Thankfully, the elixir still counted as blood—somehow. His gains in [Mana Sensing] continued to prove use, revealing a special color and feel for the ‘blood mana’ still present, and he immediately began working the dribbles of elixir through throat-flesh and toward Laiya’s spine.

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  Laiya twisted and grimaced, her mouth opening to groan and her arms moving as if trying to push them away. Warnel leaned over, putting weight on his daughter’s sheet-covered arms to better restrain her.

  Finding the exact locations needing purifying and healing had been an exercise that Emina insisted he perform before they risk using the blood or any further potions, and he had done so. It had felt like a hopeless endeavor, but once he found the first location where the mana-flow seemed disrupted, finding others had become much easier. The largest of those disruptions was where he was sending the initial dose of elixir.

  Laiya’s back arched as the liquid seeped into the bones at the base of her neck, and Emina had to help with the restraining. Other than directing the liquid, Toren was leery about trying to reinforce or alter the mana-intent already imbued. He did watch as the mana from the elixir transformed what it came into contact with, spreading out from the path it had followed.

  “Another dose,” Toren tersely told Emina, and with an uncertain look, she dribbled more.

  Toren continued to direct the liquid, adding it to what was already beginning to spread up the inside of Laiya’s spine but had slowed in its progress as the potion’s fire and nature mana were depleted. With the second dose joining the first, the spread of transformation was resumed, reaching toward where he had originally drawn the blood away from the inside of her head.

  “Burns!” Laiya hoarsely cried out, twisting more violently and trying to arch upward again.

  Falma covered her ears when her sister began to scream from the pain.

  Emina gripped the bedding hard enough for her knuckles to whiten and stared fiercely at Toren for any sign in his face that things were going wrong. He put that out of his mind, focusing on forcing the elixir to more places where Laiya’s mana was turgid.

  “One more,” Toren ordered, and Emina’s face twisted in anger, but she did dribble another dose. Warnel was grinding his teeth and shifted his weight to better prevent his daughter from thrashing about and worsening her condition.

  The sleeping draught having been purged by the elixir, more screams and struggle followed, and Laiya was reduced to whimpers for them to stop by the time the elixir had cleared her body of mana-obstructing damage.

  Withdrawing his mana and senses, Toren took his hand away from Laiya’s neck, and stood straighter, stretching his tight back muscles and breathing out his tension. “It is done.”

  Shards of the Mirror of Truth and mana from the World Spirit swirling around him and the Hatterwicks spoke to their success or failure.

  ~~~

  Toren's stats:

  Name: Toren of Theravos

  Race: Human

  Age: 20

  Profession 1: Level 8 Burningblood Berserker (9800/16000)

  Mana: 5/115

  Strength: 16

  Constitution: 16

  Dexterity: 15

  Agility: 13

  Wisdom: 12

  Intellect: 8

  Will Power: 18

  Perception 15

  Appearance: 9

  Charisma: 8

  Luck: 10

  Attribute Upgrade Points: 7

  Traits:

  Sacrificial Guardian

  Abilities:

  Burning Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: Mid → High)

  Control Blood (WIL, Rank 1, Proficiency: Low → Mid)

  Flurry of Blows (DEX, Rank 1, Proficiency: Low)

  Ability Upgrade Points: 7

  Profession Skills:

  Constitution of the Phoenix 5

  Empower 6

  Focus Rage 8

  Combat Awareness 6

  Berserker Weapon Arts 6

  Pain Tolerance 8

  Intimidate 5

  Skills:

  Danger Sensing 3

  Stealth 18

  Mana Sensing 16 → 17

  Wilderness Harvesting 12

  Theravos Language 11

  Religion 10

  Divided Focus 7

  Meditation 6

  Hunting 20

  Archery 19

  Running 15

  Wound Binding 8

  Arithmetic 4