“Both.”
“With me, you will be whoever you want to be. To the city, you'll be the Master Alchemist who cured the Silver Rot. Nothing will change unless you want it to.”
I nodded. “All right. I'll stay for a while.”
Falken let out a breath. “Good. I'm glad.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Falken changed my bandages every hour until we went to sleep. He wanted to continue to change them through the night, but I refused. I was already feeling better, and a few more bandage changes wouldn't make a difference. By the next morning, my skin had completely healed, and my tail’s end had a stubble of fur growth.
I left the King sleeping in his round bed and went down to my lab to make the purging agent, pausing to ask the knights on duty their names on my way down. The harmonizer collected magical resonance and released it into the foundation of Eberein, in effect, grounding it. Over many years, it had forged paths to the major magic in the city. When the sorcerers infected it with Silver Rot, the harmonizer continued to collect resonance, but as with any infected thing, its touch spread the infection. It had infected items with resonant enchantment loops first because they put out the most resonance (it was right there in the name), which needed to be collected constantly.
But here's where it gets interesting. Although the Silver Rot could spread as a mist, it was a physical thing. Very small, but still with mass. When the harmonizer reached out its incorporeal fingers to collect the excess resonance, the corporeal rot tagged along. This meant the harmonizer had to adjust its path and find a way through solid things. The silver spores weresmall enough to seep through wood and stone, forging paths that became visible. Thus, the thick layers of rot surrounding the harmonizer. Even with the harmonizer gone, I could use those paths to spread the purging reagent. But, as I had told the King, anything removed from those established paths would not receive the purge.
So, the Dragon King ordered all the infected items to be placed in a pile stacked against the foundation of the collapsed bridge and guarded by talons. I hoped that their touching the path the purge would take would cleanse them as well. The problem was—there was no recipe for a purging agent since no one knew of the Silver Rot. Jic might work as a base. It spread throughout an item until that item was gone, leaving everything around the item untouched. That was what I needed the purge to do, but I'd have to add things to focus the jic on the rot alone. If I could do that, it would eat the rot and leave the item behind. Luckily, I had several samples of rot to experiment on.
I got to work.
Several hours later, the Dragon King walked into my lab.
Before he could say anything, I held up the new reagent and declared, “You have perfect timing. I've just completed my latest batch, and I believe I have perfected the purging reagent.”
“Already?” Falken came to stand beside me as I moved my glass testing box closer.
Inside the case was a music box coated in Silver Rot. Not simply a box with musical gears, but a device with several songs magically stored within a metal speaker. I opened the lid of the box to place the bottle of reagent inside, along with a glass pipette. After closing the lid, I slipped my hands into the glovesattached to the case and used the pipette to collect a drop of purging reagent. Carefully, I released the drop onto the music box.
Immediately, the silver blackened and flaked away. As I capped the bottle, the purge spread, consuming all the rot while leaving the music box whole.
“It consumed only the rot!” Falken leaned over the box. “Is it safe to touch?”
“Yes, the reagent consumes itself with the last of its fuel.” I tapped the box to release any clinging flakes and then removed my hands from the gloves to open the glass case.
“Amazing.” He picked up the box, opened it, and pushed a button to play a particular song. Nothing happened. “It's broken.”
“The purging reagent consumed the Silver Rot, but it can't replace what the rot consumed. In this case, magic powered the box. Without the fuel, the box can't function. But the enchantment can be replaced.”
“So all the items we've collected can be saved?”
“Not all. If the rot has spread through an item and weakened its construction, the item will probably collapse or even explode like the door to the armory. But I think most can be saved.”
“Good. I intend to return them to their owners.”
“How will you know who the owners are?”
“After the initial debacle, the collection crews were required to record everything they took and who they took it from.”
“What about the families who gave up things before that?”
“Whatever is left after the Talons return the recorded items will be compared to descriptions of items given by those families. Hopefully, we can return the correct items to their owners.”
“That will take a lot of work.”
Falken shrugged. “Better than people losing their belongings forever.”
I nodded. “Maybe that will win me some goodwill from the people.”
“When can you administer the purge?”
