Chapter 72: The Disease Is Alive

Valeria knew that expression well enough by now.

"No."

Raven looked at her. "What?"

"Deep Mire."

"I didn’t say anything."

"You don’t have to anymore."

Garran looked between them. "Do you always have conversations like this?"

"Unfortunately," Valeria said.

Raven ignored that and turned back to the captain. "What do I need to enter the red zone?"

"My authorization."

"How do I get it?"

"You don’t."

"Then why does it exist?"

Garran pointed toward a list containing soldiers and medical teams. "For authorized personnel."

Raven understood immediately. "You need people."

"I need people who follow orders."

"That narrows your options."

For the first time, Garran smiled, though barely.

"Greyhaven mentioned that too."

Raven was beginning to suspect the woman at the counter had written an entire biography about him.

Before he could respond, someone knocked on the door. A young woman in medical clothing entered with dark stains across her gloves.

"Captain."

Garran’s expression changed immediately. "What happened?"

"Another case from Sector Five. Male, thirty-two. Sudden collapse. No fever during this morning’s screening."

"Alive?"

The woman hesitated before answering.

"No."

Garran closed his eyes for a moment. "Take him to Ward Three. I want an examination before cremation."

She nodded.

Raven caught the detail that mattered.

"No fever?"

The woman looked at him. "Correct."

"Mana loss?"

"Extreme."

"How much?"

"Almost all of it in less than an hour."

That got Raven’s full attention, and Valeria’s expression became serious as well.

Garran pointed toward the door. "You already have your registration. Find lodging in the clean district. Tomorrow, you can speak with the alchemists if you genuinely want to understand the Reservoir Toads."

Raven didn’t move.

"I want to see the body."

Garran looked at him. "No."

"If something is draining mana and the toads that store mana are disappearing, the two may be connected."

"They may also have nothing to do with each other."

"Correct."

"You’re not a physician."

"No."

"Or an alchemist."

"No."

"Then what exactly are you?"

Raven considered the question.

Soldier, assassin, mercenary, and biological predator with an Authority capable of analyzing organisms were all technically accurate.

None seemed particularly appropriate for medical paperwork.

"Good at finding things that are trying to kill me."

Garran stared at him for several seconds.

"That is not a profession."

"In Greyhaven, apparently it is."

Valeria smiled.

The captain did not.

Yet.

"You’re not entering the ward."

Raven accepted that answer.

For now.

They found lodging three streets away, though it cost twice the normal rate. The owner explained that part of the price paid for purified water, which Raven considered a sufficiently reasonable investment to avoid arguing.

Valeria left to speak with local contacts while Roland checked the stables and supplies. Raven used the time to study the copy of Garran’s map he had been allowed to make.

The Mana Reservoir Toad had a semi-aquatic habitat, absorbed ambient mana passively, and possessed a crystalline bladder capable of storing energy without immediate degradation.

Exactly what he needed.

FORGE confirmed the new information once he entered it.

«Potential Component Analysis Updated

Target Function:

Stable Mana Storage

Species Candidate:

Mana Reservoir Toad

Standard Specimen Compatibility: UNKNOWN

Regional Population Status:

ABNORMAL DECLINE DETECTED

Additional biological data recommended.»

Raven closed the interface.

"You too."

He didn’t expect an answer, and none came.

Valeria returned shortly afterward carrying a bag of bread, meat, and something that looked like dried fish.

Raven looked at it. "Is that for me?"

"For everyone."

"Regeneration."

"That’s why I bought more."

Raven took a piece while Valeria sat across from him.

"I spoke with someone."

"That usually comes before trouble."

"One of Mirevale’s alchemists knows my family."

"Ah."

"Don’t make that face."

"What face?"

"The ’favor’ face."

"It was a favor."

"It was free information."

"That is a favor."

Valeria sighed. "The Reservoir Toads started disappearing before the first official case of Hollow Fever."

Raven stopped eating.

"How long before?"

"Five or six days."

That was interesting.

"Then they may not be disappearing because people are hunting them to treat the disease."

"Not all of them."

"Where did it start?"

"Southern sector."

Raven opened the map.

Southern Channels.

One of the last areas where the toads had still been sighted.

"And Deep Mire?"

"The hunters disappeared afterward."

Raven arranged the sequence in his head. The toads disappeared first. Then people became sick and began losing mana. Teams searching for more toads moved deeper into the wetlands, and some of them never came back.

It proved nothing, but it was enough to justify looking for a connection.

Roland entered the room, and his expression killed any possible comment about the food.

"Soldiers downstairs."

Raven stood. "For us?"

"Yes."

Valeria rose as well. "That was fast."

Three soldiers were waiting outside. One of them was the same man who had been with Garran earlier.

"The Captain requests your presence."

Raven looked at Valeria.

"That almost sounded polite."

"Try not to ruin it."

Ward Three had been built on a platform separated from the rest of the medical district. The interior walls had been coated in white lime, and the air smelled strongly of herbs, alcohol, metal, and blood.

Garran waited outside.

"Don’t touch anything."

Raven looked at him. "You changed your mind."

"The physician found something unusual too."

"What?"

"I’d rather you see it."

That was a much better answer.

They entered.

The dead man lay on a stone table. He looked to be in his early thirties, thin, with no visible wounds. His skin had taken on a grayish pallor around the lips and fingertips.

An older physician stood beside him with part of his shirt already opened.

"Mana completely depleted," she said. "But there’s no typical damage from overuse."

Raven stepped closer. "What does that mean?"

"When someone empties their mana too quickly, the channels become inflamed. There are microlesions and sometimes internal bleeding."

"And he doesn’t have that."

"Almost none."

Valeria understood first.

"So he didn’t spend the mana."

The physician shook her head.

"It looks as though it simply... disappeared."

Raven studied the body.

Predation remained silent.

He moved one step closer, then another.

That was when he felt it.

A faint pressure that wasn’t coming from the man himself.

It was coming from inside him.

The interface appeared.

«Biological anomaly detected.»

Raven stopped.

Garran noticed. "What is it?"

"There’s something in him."

The physician frowned. "Where?"

Raven looked toward the neck without entirely knowing why. Predation was registering biological incompatibility, a presence that did not belong to the primary organism.

«Foreign biological signature detected.

Source Location: UNRESOLVED

Host Status: DECEASED

Secondary Organism Status: ACTIVE»

Raven slowly raised one hand.

"Don’t touch him."

The physician was already standing close. "Why?"

The corpse opened its eyes.

Valeria stepped back as Garran’s hand went to his sword.

The physician froze.

The dead man inhaled, but not properly. A wet sound dragged air into his lungs while his jaw opened slightly.

Then something moved beneath the skin of his throat.

It wasn’t a muscle.

It was too long and too thin, traveling upward from the chest like a living cord before disappearing beneath the jaw.

Predation updated the analysis.

«Foreign organism confirmed.

Analysis initiated.»

Raven watched the dead man’s throat move again.

He had come to Mirevale looking for a toad.

He was beginning to suspect the swamp had different plans.