He was waking up. He regretted that decision the moment he made it. He sort of vaguely remembered being unconscious. It was nice, it didn’t hurt nearly so much. Everything hurt. Not the outside, bruising, “I just took a beating” hurt. It was that, but it was also internal. He realized (at about the same moment he realized that his eyelids hurt) that not only did he have eyelids, but also that they were closed. He would have rather liked to leave them that way. In fact, he would have loved to stop breathing and never open his eyes again. But that wasn’t much of an option. He told his eyes to open. They said “no.”

“What happened?” Somov whispered with his eyes closed. They’d told him no and he wasn’t in the mood to argue.

“You’ve been poisoned.” that was not the voice Somov was expecting. Mistress Cvita was a warm, older woman. That was Mistress Mauser. Now that he was aware of the oddity, it became clear that there were several sources of breathing in the room.

“And your healing failed,” he whispered. She would appreciate his bluntness. “Or else you wouldn’t be here.” he heard Ludomir clear his throat, but cut him off before he could start to berate him for being disrespectful to his superior. “What happens now?”

“You will be Lustrated, Somov.” that was a new voice, but could only be Leski Mikolov.

He couldn’t get his mouth to open. He tried nodding instead.

“We don’t know exactly what it was that poisoned you, but it didn’t work on Mirovich. We’re pretty sure that Lustration will purify your body and purge the poison” he remembered a bit now. There was a monster and Miro went in after it. He used his spell. The only one he could do. In public. They didn’t seem mad about it, they probably didn’t know. They didn’t think it was possible to do magic without Lustration. But once there were great works of magic done without having to fill your body with a maelstrom of toxins.

“Won’t I die?” he forced his eyes open. Mikolov stood at the foot of the bed, not looking at him. Mauser sat on a chair on his left she was looking at the wall behind his head. Ludomir sat opposite her, jaw clenched, red-faced, staring at the floor. After a moment Leski Mikolov looked him in the eye.

“Probably,” he said. There was the ghost of a tear in his eye. “Do you give us your sanction to proceed?”

Somov took as deep a breath as he could manage, which meant his lungs filled a little more than halfway. It hurt. A lot. “Yes. Can’t hurt any more than this does, can it?” he faked a smile.

“Yes. And it will.” Iryna Mauser said as she stood up.

Ludomir also stood before saying, still not meeting Somov’s eye, “We’ll be back at midnight, in half an hour.”

He lay in the bed. The Abbey had many rooms which were now served functions they were likely never intended to be used for. The “infirmary” for example was likely a small barracks or guard room of some sort originally. It connected to the main courtyard by a hallway. One without all the twists and turns typical of the Abbey. The infirmary contained four beds, though in a pinch more could be brought in and adjacent rooms could also be utilized. Somov thought that perhaps between three and four dozen people could be treated here if necessary, the major issue would be that whoever ended up here would be a fairly lost cause. They were in the Abbey and while most of the people here couldn’t use magic for healing, Iryna Mauser would always be here, as would Ludomir and Leski Mikolov. Which meant whatever they suffered from which caused them to be here was either so minor that they would only be here for a few hours or, they would die. Here. Just like him.

He tried another tactic. Remembering his lessons. The surest way to spot a Stritch was with a Dredging. Silver works well against Murklings, though their blood will etch a blade if not carefully cleaned. To keep a Gutpaw down, be sure to sever its spine. He spent a few minutes doing this before it stopped keeping the panic at bay. He tried the meditation that Miro had mentioned a few weeks ago, before leaving with Stoyan. He tried to clear his mind but couldn’t. He failed. Just like he always did. He was a failure at everything! He probably couldn’t even polish a knife properly.

The minutes took their time, they took hours to arrive, but they came. He was weeping quietly when the three Consummate Hunters returned. He clenched his jaw to try and hide his sobs. He failed. “Isn’t there some other way?” he wished he didn’t sound like he was begging.

“No.” this time Ludomir spoke. “Unless you’re Lustrated and your blood cleansed of the parasite inside you, it will tear you apart and kill another person. We don’t know for sure how long until that happens.” he sounded firm, he knew this was true, but he was trying to come to grips with what he was saying. “I’m sorry, my boy.”

“After it’s in we can…” Iryna Mauser didn’t finish the thought. Somov knew what she was saying. If he didn’t want to suffer too long, they could solve that for him. It would be cowardly. It would also be clean. Somov never claimed to be brave, but he found himself shaking his head.

“No. I can do this.” he almost sounded convinced. Which was pretty impressive because he didn’t believe it at all.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5