While most of our allies were sleeping or on guard Calavia and I were performing a diagnostic examination of the butcher to see why she was unable to move.

  There she laid on the ground without any restraints as Calavia casted all the diagnostic spells she knew of, each time she looked more and more worried by the results.

  “By the gods, come look at this Arthur.” She called out as she looked up from the still paralyzed butcher. “There is something in her blood that is spreading onto her muscles.”

  Without waiting I quickly walked over and dropped to my knees and casted the same spells she did, what I found was most disturbing. Her blood was full of some sort of disease that didn’t have any reaction from her immune system, and whatever this disease was it was attaching itself to her muscle fibers. The only thing that wasn’t terrible news was that for some reason her eyelids weren’t affected by the unknown disease.

  Whatever it was it reminded me of slush, what happens when snow is mixed with just enough water to change it but not enough to outright melt it.

  “Is it building up?” I asked out loud as I watched the disease practically leak onto the solidified pieces that were already covering a majority of the butchers muscles.

  “I think it is, and I think it is only going to get worse for her.” Calavia croaked as she looked upon the poor woman in fear and sadness. Neither of us said it out loud, but we both knew something like this was well beyond our skills, and anyone that was skilled enough wouldn’t be willing to help such a dangerous person.

  “We should just leave her with the sergeant and his men to watch over.” I said breaking the uneasy silence. “There is nothing we can do now but bring her to Lindum to seek justice.

  With a few upward gestures I created a wide plank of earth and lifted the butcher up and off of the ground, I started walking out of our tent and the board followed.

  Within just a half minute I was standing next to the three guardsmen watching over the other two prisoners with the butcher right behind me.

  “Good evening gentleman.” I said to the men as I approached.

  “Good evening sir mage. How can we help you?” The highest ranking guardsman as indicated by the waffenrock he wore replied to me with a neutral expression.

  “We are done with the prisoner, would you be willing to keep her with the other two for now? I doubt she will be of any problem for the foreseeable future given that she is unable to move without the help of someone else.”

  “Of course sir mage, we would be happy to.” He gave a slight smile as he gave a quick bow. “And If you would like to experiment on the other two we wouldn’t mind at all.”

  The two able-bodied prisoners who were paying little attention suddenly snapped their heads towards us with shocked expressions on their faces. Their eyes turned to their leader behind me who they could see wasn’t moving. Even though they couldn’t know I had nothing to do with her condition they both shouted out in surprise, the only thing stopping us from being bothered with their cries was the gags in their mouths.

  “Unfortunately I will need to pass up on that offer, my wife wouldn’t approve of such actions.” Though we were never officially married, Calavia and I were all but married in name, it was a bit of a shame that she wasn’t willing to put such bad people to better use like I am.

  “Very well then sir, have a good night then.”

  “You have a good night as well, all three of you.”

  **********

  Morning came and so too did our march back to the city of Lindum. It was just as long as the trip there, if not even longer with the extra baggage in the form of the three prisoners we took, one of which needed someone else to transport them.

  When we eventually arrived back at the city it was past midday, it started slowly but when people found out about what had happened and that we were successful they poured out onto the street and cheered for us.

  Everyone from rich to poor was out there with a massive smile on their faces, the guardsmen who took part in the attack stood tall with their backs straight and their weapons held high.

  We marched straight up to the residence of Lord Albinus Ventor with the prisoners held like spoils of war. The guards assigned to the lord's residence quickly opened the doors for us and we stepped inside while the crowd that followed us slowly started to disperse.

  Sergeant Gallio marched right up to Lord Ventor himself while we all stayed back. Quickly the sergeant dropped to one knee just a few meters from the large wooden decorated chair he sat upon for a significant portion of the day.

  “I have good news my lord” Sergeant announced as he looked up to the tired looking lord. Though his hair was somewhat unkempt and he had large bags under his eyes, he still gave all his attention towards the sergeant as he continued speaking.

  “The bandits under the authority of the criminal known as the butcher have been put to the sword, and we even managed to capture the butcher herself.” He waved his right hand towards where I stood. I quickly placed a hand on the earth that held the butcher up and brought it over to where the sergeant was kneeling.

  Lord Albinus watched me with curious eyes as I made my way towards his trusted subordinate. I could see a good amount of age and wisdom in his eyes, along with stress and a lack of sleep. Something was bothering him terribly, I only hoped it wasn’t too serious.

  Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

  Unlike Sergeant Gallio I did not kneel or bow to the lord seated before me, instead I simply brought the butcher to his side and took a few steps back.

  “So this is the young woman who has been causing us so much trouble.” The aged voice of Lord Albinus came as he looked down on the butcher.

  “But why are you sprawled out in such a way? I would have assumed someone like you would prefer to stand before everyone and hurl insults and whatnot.” Lord Albinus stood as he finished speaking and walked around the table to stand before the butcher like he was speaking with a child.

  “She has been infected with some sort of disease that is growing atop her muscles, that is why she isn’t moving or doing anything.” I interjected.

  Lord Albinus gave me a quick look before turning his attention back towards the butcher. “Well then that makes this far easier.”

  Lord Albinus reached for the thick bandages covering and slowly started pulling them off, slowly we started to see certain details starting with her hair. Surprisingly she had long and well groomed hair, not something expected in a simple bandit.

  Then we got a good look at her forehead and chin as the bandages came off, she had fair and young skin indicating she was a young woman rather.

  When the rest of the thick bandages covering the butcher's face were taken off a few gasps could be heard from the servants who stood off to the side. I could also see that Lord Albinus was surprised by who he found under the bandages. Without looking at any of us he placed the bandages back over her face and turned away from her.

  “Thank you all for your service, but I would like to be left alone for now.”

  For a moment we were all confused. I looked to the sergeant who looked just as confused as the rest of us. Without thinking I reached for the butcher intending to take her to the dungeon where the other two prisoners were to be taken before Lord Albinus stopped me.

  “If you would not mind sir mage I would prefer if she stayed here for the time being.”

  I looked to the back of Lord Albinus, back to the sergeant, and back again to Lord Albinus hoping for an explanation that never came. So instead I spoke up with a simple question.

  “Is there something wrong Lord Albinus? Do you know this woman?”

  Lord Albinus grunted in a mix of anger and annoyance, but it wasn’t directed towards me. “I thought I knew her, as it turns out I don’t know her as well as I thought.”

  An uneasy silence filled the room as neither I nor Sergeant Gallio knew what to say in response. Whatever his relationship with this woman he was feeling rather betrayed by her actions, so much so he didn’t even want to look at her face.

  “Very well my lord, we shall leave you here with her.” Sergeant Gallio was the first to say anything. He quickly gave a small bow before taking me by the shoulder and directing me back the way we came. The other guardsmen that were standing by the doorway quickly made space and then followed us outside.

  As we stepped outside my mind was filled with a whirlpool of thoughts and worrying possibilities. Who was that woman really? And how did Lord Albinus know her?

  “Hey, what happened up there?” I heard a voice asked along with someone pulling on my sleeve. I turned my head and found Calavia hanging onto sleeve with confusion as plain as day on her face.

  “I don’t know.” I replied honestly as she let go and started walking beside me. “I think Lord Albinus might have known the butcher, whatever her real name is.”

  “You don’t think she was someone important to Lord Albinus do you? Perhaps a cousin, or a subordinate.” Calavia’s voice shook slightly as we stepped off to the side away from the marching guardsmen. Quickly we found an old bench to rest on while I did my best to calm Calavia down.

  “Whoever she is to Lord Albinus I doubt she will be able to harm him again given that she can’t even move on her own.” I said trying to help Calavia calm down. It seemed to have a small effect as she stopped shaking, but her eyes told me it was still bothering her. It reminded me of when I first met her in my first life, the way she was scarred by the loss of so many people she trusted. I didn’t know what to make of her feelings.

  Eventually she leaned over on my shoulder and grabbed onto my arm, without thinking I raised my arm and put it around her waist and pulled her close. Neither of us said anything for a while as we both had things on our minds, but I was the one to break the silence.

  “Now that we have dealt with the bandits plugging the area it should be safe enough to go out and search for ingredients. It has been a while since I have done anything with my alchemy equipment.” Calavia couldn’t help but smile wearily and nod as I continued.

  “And if we want to build that home of ours out here we are going to need as much money as we can get.”

  “Yes we are.” Calavia replied as she wiped her eyes and turned to face me. “What types of ingredients do you think we will need?”

  *********

  Three days passed as Calavia and I searched through the nearby plains and forests for anything that could be used in alchemy. During that time we were renting a room at one of the inns in the city where I would actually do my alchemy and we would keep our things.

  “What about this?” Calavia called over from several meters away. Above her head she held some sort of green plant, not unlike the rest of the green plants that filled the majority of the forest we were looking through.

  “Just give me a second.” I called back as I swiped a healing root from the ground before I started walking over to where Calavia was.

  Calavia looked at me with a mix of pride and worry in her eyes as she held the plant up towards me. Quickly she handed the plant over to me and I began looking it over. The plant at a first glance was nothing special, I would have just dismissed it as another weed or other useless plant. The only reason I didn’t was to humor Calavia and outright dismissing her contributions would have been a great way to strain our relationship.

  But interestingly enough as I started looking over the plant I noticed several odd things about it. For starters the shade of green was far too dark compared to everything else I could see. Then I noticed the odd smell coming off of the plant, it smelt quite similar to sulfur which I could recognize from my time as an apprentice alchemist.

  “Well…” I started. “I can’t say for certain what this is, but it is certainly a unique specimen.”

  “But I thought those books on herbs and other types of plants had information on every plant in the region.” Calavia exclaimed as she stepped forwards to take a look at the plant. “It shouldn’t be possible to find something new out here.”

  “This is the first time I have seen anything quite like this, I wonder what uses it could have.” I thought out loud as I ran ideas of possible substitutes for various potions and other alchemical creations I already knew how to make.

  “This will require extensive testing, then we can share and publish our findings with the mages guild. Who knows what that could lead to.” I couldn’t help but smile as the possibilities passed through my mind and what they would mean for the both of us.

  From there we spent a majority of the day looking for more specimens of the unknown plant and as luck would have it we found several more specimens, more than enough to run a few tests and experiments to see what it could be used for.