"People die every day, Quylla." Marth sighed. "Even if itās horrible, this time war would give us a common enemy and the opportunity to stop our pretentious squabbles. Thereās so much the three great Countries could learn from each other.
"You have no idea for how long I wanted to speak with my colleagues from the other nations. Besides, itās too soon to despair. We know this plague is artificial, hence it must have a kill switch. We even know the cure for its original strand.
"We already have all we need here. Itās only a matter of putting together all the pieces of the puzzles. If we canāt, it means we are still missing some of them. Donāt obsess yourself with the cure and focus on the illness.
"Once we understand how to recreate it, weāll also learn how to treat it."
Quylla wanted to reply that it would be her relatives to fight in the front lines, but she was too tired and hungry to reply. In her frenzy, she had skipped lunch and was about to skip dinner as well.
When she saw the Warp Steps opening in the middle of the lab, she prayed for good news.
"Took you long enough for a simple recon. Have you found our undead?" Marth asked. They had no idea that the parasite contained Erlikās tissue and even that small piece of knowledge would have been a game-changer.
"No, but we can rule out Grendels as well." Kalla said before recounting them their encounter with the thrall and the discoveries they had made in the treehouse.
"Are you sure about it, Lith?" Marth was having a hard time to prevent his disbelief to leak into his voice. "Youāre the most competent Healer that I know and I would take your word at face value if not for your lack of understanding about plant folks."
"Damn sure." Lith spoke gibberish while his hands performed random gestures before sharing with Marth what he had seen through a holographic 3D depiction of the altered life force.
āGods, I wish I could do that.ā Marth thought in envy, and with him almost all of those presents. The members of the research teams were the cream of the crop of their respective countries, experts with decades of experience in the field of light magic.
Yet none of them was able to create holograms without the support of a magical device, let alone create hard light constructs.
"Professor, you can ask Lith for details later. Someone has to go there and take scans of the residual traces of the artifacts before they disappear forever." Phloria said. "Maybe itās nothing, but maybe itās how Erlik farms the symbiotes."
"Someone else, to be precise." Friya said, her stomach had finally settled up after being assaulted by Scannerās results and the long-suppressed hunger was kicking in.
"Weāre all physically and mentally tired. Unlike our enemy, we need some food and rest to work properly." A choir of growling stomachs agreed with her. Lith could go on, but Friya and especially Quylla were suffering from a massive headache due to lack of mana.
Marth nodded and had Lyta bring them back to their apartments, where the table was ready for eight and there were a couple of unexpected guests waiting for them. Kamila and Jirni were discussing in front of a big holographic map representing the entirety of the Garlen continent.
The map was filled with multi-colored dots and despite the unconcealed hostility in their voices, it wasnāt addressed to each other.
"Kami, what are you doing here?" Lithās question made both women jump off their seats and hug their respective beloved ones.
"Youāre not going to get rid of me that easily." She said while making sure he was alright. Kamila was used to Lith facing attempts on his life on a daily basis, but that didnāt mean that she was okay with it.
"Mom, whatās that thing?" Phloria pointed at the still open map.
"Weāre hunting for Manohar. The green dots are his known hideouts, the yellow dots are the reported sightings, and the red dots are where I almost got him." She snarled.
"I swear that after I get his sorry ass here to solve this situation, the moment he is done working, Iāll kill him first and Marth second."
"You almost got him?" Lith was flabbergasted. "I thought it was impossible."
"The Royals are not stupid and neither am I. Weāve been keeping track of all his research projects, making copies of his notes to know what was on his agenda. Thanks to that, we know where to search since the ingredients heās after are very, very rare." Jirni replied.
"Even ignoring the blatant violation of a mageās most basic rights, how do you even translate that gibberish? His handwriting is even worse than mine." Lith said, knowing that Manohar refused to write with water magic for safety reasons.
Mostly his own, since he would use the first thing at hand to jot down his bursts of inspiration, be it a napkin or someone elseās clothes. It made his notes easy to lose and hard to recover from his latest victim.
"Itās more than bad handwriting, itās a code. We had to hire his mother to translate it for us and believe me, she doesnāt come cheap. Now sit down and tell me everything."
Lyta clapped her hands, making several dishes appear out of the houseās dimensional storage. Everyone was a bit embarrassed noticing that Lyta would dine with them and that several side dishes included vegetables.
"Isnāt it awkward for you?" Quylla was afraid that eating them would hurt the Dryadās feelings.
"Not at all. Once something is dead and digested, itās just food. Donāt worry about me, dear. I made sure that to respect your customs, no human meat was employed to prepare your dinner." The entire table froze at those words.
"Do you guys eat humans?" Friya asked.
"Why not? Arenāt they animals as well? We donāt actively hunt them, exactly like we do for beasts, but if a conflict happens, theyāre a fertilizer as good as any other corpse." Lyta shrugged.
It took them a couple of seconds to remember that despite the fact that their appearance closely resembled humans, plant folks werenāt humans at all. It wasnāt just a matter of a different skin color or traditions.
Laruel had its own culture and morals, whether they liked them or not. Kalla had no problem with her food since the only thing she wouldnāt eat was Byk meat, but according to her nose, there was none.
āDamn, if I ever visit one of those cities of Emperor Beasts Faluel told me about, I must remember to specify that Iām not a cannibal.ā Lith thought. Beasts shared such traits with plants, feeding indiscriminately upon every life form, even their own kin if necessary.
Jirni listened to their story, trying to use her expertise about human plotting and power plays to make sense of Erlikās plan. Her face looked like it was carved out in stone, never betraying an emotion she wasnāt willing to express, but Lith could feel that Jirni knew more than she was letting on.
"My opinion is that the plague is just a diversion." Jirni said after asking Lyta more information about the size of the armies in play.
"If his aim really was to follow the rules and dethrone Leannan in battle, he would have already challenged her."