Chapter 15 – Medicinal Magic

Cobal knocked on the door of Lysa’s office.
“It’s open,” her voice came from inside. He opened the door and both him and Salandra stepped into the room before closing the door behind them again.
“Back so soon?” Lysa asked. The librarian was sitting behind her desk with Mana off to the side, both of them with a cup of tea. It seemed like they’d been talking until they were interrupted.
“We need a bit of your insight,” Cobal said sheepishly.
“How can I help?” Lysa said.
Salandra stepped forward. “I actually need a bit more from Mana, I believe Cobal said that was your name.”
Mana nodded. “And who do I have the pleasure of talking to?”
“I’m Salandra, I’m a scribe at the Topaz Slumber.”
“Nice to meet you Salandra, how can I help?”
“Well, Cobal said that you know a bit more about the magic that paralyzed your friend. Without a bit more insight into what caused his condition, I don’t know how to start working on a solution.”
“That makes sense.” Mana looked at Lysa who crossed her arms. “Well, from what Mana here has told me, a magical circle caused the effect when someone stepped onto it. It went dormant after one use, from the sounds of it.” Mana nodded in agreement.
“So you’re ruling out that it could be a toxin activated through magic?” Salandra asked.
Lysa nodded. “Well, it’s not a good idea to rule something out without solid proof, but I do believe it to be highly unlikely. If they used a toxin I feel like they might have just tried to kill the person stepping onto the trap. With magic it’s much harder to do that, so paralyzing someone would be a good middle ground. Presumably the person who put the trap there could then quite easily take out the paralyzed person.” She looked at Salandra. “Can you think of a toxin that would paralyze someone and not kill them within a very short amount of time?”
Salandra thought for a bit. “There’s one or two that could have that effect, but they’re not exactly readily available. I’ll have to do a bit more specific research if I want to find something that fits this description but I think it’s more realistic to look at this as if it were caused by a magical effect.” She rubbed her chin. “It’ll be a little bit outside of my expertise to figure out a solution, but it’s not something I can’t figure out.” She crossed her arms. “I hope,” she added quickly.
Cobal looked at Mana. “What do you think?”
“Well, having seen the circle and the effect it caused I think our best way of solving this is figuring out exactly how the magic that caused this works. That way we can reverse engineer a solution.” She put down her cup of tea. “Having said that, as of right now I have no idea if we’ll be successful at doing so. I’ve talked with Lysa all morning and I definitely think she can give us some great insight, but I don’t know if we can fully figure it out within a reasonable amount of time. Especially if we’re considering the other reason why we’re here.” She looked at Cobal for confirmation if he’d told Salandra about that or not.
“Yes, our other reason is more important.” Not mentioning it hopefully clued in Mana that he hadn’t shared that part yet. Lysa and Kayzel were the only ones they’d told about it so far. Cobal turned his attention back to Salandra. “If we assume that strange cultist magic caused the paralyzation, is there a chance you can find a solution?”
Salandra nodded. “There’s a chance, but I need a bit more information.” She looked at Mana. “How well did you examine your friend after he was paralyzed?”
Mana rummaged through her pouch and pulled a note. “I had Fareh write down as much as she could figure out about the paralyzed people. She has a background in medicine so she knew quite a lot.” She handed the note to Salandra who quickly scanned through it before nodding approvingly. “This is very detailed, that makes my job a lot more manageable.” She smiled. “Thank you.”
Mana smiled back.
“And how has your chat been so far?” Cobal asked.
“Productive,” Lysa answered. “I’ve learned quite a bit about your journey together and I must say I’m impressed.”
Cobal blushed. “It’s not all been great and friendly, but we’ve come a long way,” he said.
“We certainly have,” Mana agreed. She smiled at him. Cobal thought back to their early days in Ravadier and being frustrated with his new task. That seemed like such a long time ago, even though it had been a little under a year. “We’ll head back to the Topaz Slumber then, thanks for the insight.” And with that the duo left Lysa’s office and returned to the other library.

“So you study medicinal stuff?” Cobal asked. They’d returned to the little alcove where they’d talked earlier and Salandra had some books next to her.
She nodded. “Yes, I mainly study herbs and plants that are native to the nearby wild regions.”
“Like the Feral Wildlands?” Cobal asked.
“That’s what many call it, yes, but lots of scholars have argued that they’re much less ‘feral’ as the name implies.”
“Oh, how come?” Cobal was intrigued. He’d been taught from a very young age that the Feral Wildlands was a scary place he should avoid. He still held that belief, but the fact that Grac lived in a village in the wildlands had to mean something.”
“Well, I’m not quite yet an expert on the subject, but through research and field work we’ve learned a lot about this region and the sort of people that live near the boundaries of it. There are many interesting species with a long history that dwarfs our own. If the place was completely hostile then these people couldn’t be living there.”
“You mean other humans?” Cobal asked.
“Some,” Salandra said, “but there are many other species that live there.”
“Like the Irkan,” Cobal agreed.
“Yes, like the Irkan. They’re a fascinating bunch. They can be best described as gentle giants. With a dislike of violence despite their big stature they make for very kind and strong people. I’d love to meet one someday,” Salandra mused.
“Perhaps the opportunity arises soon,” Cobal said, holding in a grin. If she helped them out with Dylon’s paralyzation, he wouldn’t mind introducing her to Grac. With the Irkan’s permission, of course.
“I hope so, but from what I’ve read it’s quite a trek to reach Tas’Irkan from here. Several days through the forest isn’t something I see myself doing without proper planning.”
Cobal smiled. “Well, putting that aside for now. How well do you think you can help us out with our friend?”
Salandra rubbed her chin. She seemed to do that every time she was thinking about something. “It’s hard to say, since I can’t inspect him in person. But with the description you’ve given me I can make some good guesses as to what sort of magic has a hold of your friend. The good news is that I think these sorts of ailments will cure themselves over time. The bad news is that depending on the power used in a spell, it could take a very long time for him to recover and I don’t know if a human body can hold out that long.”
“That’s something I worried about as well, he can’t eat or breathe in this predicament, so wouldn’t he die?”
Salandra shook her head. “No, the magic wouldn’t kill him in that sense, but the lack of nutrition would eventually get to him. I hope the people taking care of him will understand that and try to get some food into his body. Most paralyzation effects slow down the bodily functions but don’t fully turn them off. There’s a high chance that if you force food and water into your friend’s body, it will still process those.”
Cobal wondered if Fareh would do that, but he would trust the old pirate woman. She seemed smarter than he was. “I think our friends will take as good care of him as they can.”
“That’s good. Then it’s mostly a question of figuring out the effect. I’ve grabbed some tomes on magical traps. From what you’ve told me it was a strange kind of magic that isn’t common anymore. This note that your friend gave me says that this kind of magic is more of a way of channeling magic than its own thing. That leads me to believe that the actual paralyzing effect will be the same as with other types of magic. That means if I can find the right compounds and herbs I can create an antidote that should work.”
Cobal was impressed. He expected to be digging through scrolls and books for weeks and come up with very little, but Salandra seemed to have a plan from the start. “What can I do to help in this process?” He asked. “Besides staying out of your way.”
Salandra laughed. It was a pleasant sound. “Well our first step is to find out which types of magic cause paralyzation. Once we have a list of the ones we can find we can start to narrow it down by removing those that are either impossible or highly unlikely. If we have it narrowed down we can start looking at solutions to them and prepare an alchemical concoction to help your friend.”
“And if you put it in a way I can follow?”
“Go through the books I hand you and find mentions of paralyzing magic.”
“That I can do.”
Salandra handed him the first book on the pile. “Good luck.”
Four hours later the exhaustion of looking at books had caught up with Cobal and his eyes felt like they were spinning. “How do you do this all day long?” He asked Salandra. She was still thumbing through a book and had a lot of notes. Cobal had only made his way through about a third of a book while Salandra had just started on her second book.
She smiled. “You get used to it. But I do take regular breaks. Normally I take more than today, but I wanted to get a solid start.” Cobal looked out a window off on a far wall. It seemed to get close to dusk already, the sun was slowly going under. This deep in the forest meant it got dark fast. “You want to come with me and Mana and get some food? As thanks for your help in the upcoming days?”
Salandra smiled brightly. “I’d like that very much.”
“Let’s finish up here and then go pick up Mana.” Cobal finished up the chapter he was reading. It was a pretty boring book about different medical side effects of magic. He assumed that Salandra gave the less useful books to him. He didn’t mind, this was important for Dylon and the others’ safety so he wouldn’t want to be the one to mess it up. Another twenty or so minutes passed when Salandra closed her book. “I’m ready for dinner whenever.”
“Great, I’m starving.” They quickly put away the books they used and Salandra made a note of their progress before they both went down the stairs and left the Topaz Slumber. They picked up Mana, who was waiting on the steps of the Ruby Observatory and then went back to the Phantom Homestead where Clara was already preparing that evening’s dinner. Mana went to their room for a little bit to freshen up and when she came back she told Cobal that Eliana would be gone for the evening so the three of them would have dinner together without her.