Melusine bolted to her feet, her mind frozen in fear. Pinching the rims of two ceramic mugs between his fingers, Vadim hoisted the kettle up and secured it to a sash around his wrapped waist. He showed no discomfort or strain with the hot cast iron cookware bumping against his hip. Perhaps he too had some hidden strength, but Melusine was too preoccupied to dwell on the matter.

"Bring the moonshine with you, Miss Melusine," the mage ordered as he exited the room. "It's obvious that you won't be able to ignore this issue, but I refuse to pass up this opportunity to enjoy a good drink."

"Of course I can't ignore it." The teenager begrudgingly obeyed Vadim's bidding, snatching up the jug and hurriedly exiting the room. "It might be a matter of life and death. That being said, if he's making a big deal out of nothing, I'm scolding his ear off." As soon as Melusine made her declaration, she remembered how Baugulf shrugged off his pain as he pulled Arn's arrow out himself. She cursed and hopped from foot to foot while she waited for the lagging behind mage to catch up and open the doors.

Vadim carelessly yawned as he flicked his wrist, the electricity of magic arcing from his fingertips and pushing the doors to his tower open once again. Rage boiled up in Melusine's chest like acne threatening to pop with putrid puss and blood. How could someone be so cavalier with a life on the line, no matter who it was? The teenager pushed her anger down and rushed outside to grab the servant hemming in the courtyard by the shoulder. The poor man winced in pain, trying to lean out of her grip, but found that he was locked fast in her iron hand.

"What happened? Where are the barracks?" Melusine towered over the petite middle-aged manservant, her eyes starting to glow a more vivid shade of crimson. He squeaked in fear, terror and confusion twisting his scrunched up features.

The bookseller from that sleepy, desolate little village flashed to the forefront of Melusine's vision, the abject horror of his final moments overlapping with reality. Her vice grip on his shoulders went slack, and the heavy weight of Vadim's palm lay on her arm.

"Calm yourself, Mel," the Archmage urged. "Sir Baugulf is tougher than he initially appears." Melusine dropped her hand entirely from the poor, frightened servant. Taking a few steps back, Melusine was grounded back to reality when she pressed her spine to the tower wall. Sweat dripped down the back of her neck and the sides of her brow, cooling her heated skin that threatened to rupture with green scales. She rubbed at her face, the gentle massage easing her breath and comforting her heart.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. Vadim diverted the servant's attention by tugging his uniform straight.

"There now, you calm down too and tell us what happened."

"I think she broke my bones," the man complained, rubbing at the bruises left behind under his stifling uniform.

"If your bones were broken, you'd be lying on the ground screaming. She's the Dragon's Proxy, you're lucky that it isn't worse."

"She's—?" The servant squeaked, pointing a crooked finger at Melusine, who growled before she could stop herself. She thought that she should make an effort to appear the least bit human on the inside, but that was proving difficult the longer she went without answers. Her anxiety ruffled the inside of her body, making it itch and twitch.

"Yes, she is, and apparently very eager to get to Sir Baugulf. So, explain while we walk. Shall we?" Vadim led the charge through the courtyard that surrounded his tower and sectioned it off from the palace.

White budded perennials glowed in the night, attracting butterflies and hummingbirds that flashed under the moon's faint luminescence. Bushes and the occasional oak tree broke up the crisscrossing of stoned trails, most leading to Vadim's tower or the quarters of his assistants.

Melusine swatted at the clusters of gnats flying around her face, keeping her inner grumbling about the annoyance silent. Her boots pattered against the cobbled pathway to the main palace as she hurried to follow the Archmage.

"Right, but I really should be going back to my regular duties—" the servant quibbled.

"I won't tell you twice. Follow and explain. Then you'll be released." Vadim didn't even turn his head to give his warning.

"Uh... right, yes, of course." He scampered after Melusine and Vadim, speaking nervously with his hands waving about and pointing at the sky. "Well, I wasn't there, obviously. Ah, but I was told that he stumbled into the infirmary, claiming to have taken ill, then collapsed. They sent for a messenger, me, and here we are." The servant tried his best to give a chittering chuckle that died on his tongue when he chanced a glance at Melusine. She wasn't trying to glare at him, but apparently she was, for he withered and shrunk in on himself.

"So all the doctors told you was that he's taken ill of some magical ailment, possibly. I'm fairly sure I have assistants for this sort of issue. Why do I have to be bothered about this?" Vadim complained, and Mel had to swallow her disgust.

"Um... may I go now?"

"Yes," Vadim said with a wave of his hand after a long, thoughtful hum. "You've been most helpful."

"Thank you, sir." The servant was lightning quick to bow and split off from the pair who didn't pause their speedy trek through courtyard and corridor.

"Now then, to the infirmary to save the day once again?"

"Gladly," Melusine grunted.

Melusine paused at the entrance to the barrack infirmary to take a deep, calming breath. Her mind madly churned with all manner of worry, bitterness, and fear. Vadim's complete lack of concern was callous, but perhaps he had a legitimate reason not to take Baugulf's mysterious ailment seriously. Or, alternatively, he was just an ass. Melusine shook her head, slapped her cheeks twice, and entered ahead of Vadim, who'd been oddly patient as she stood at the doorway staring at nothing.

"Where's the doctor?" She asked.

"Do you promise not to attack him?"

"I promise," she replied with a roll of her eyes.

"Then follow me."

Vadim led Melusine past cot after cot on either side of the high ceilinged hall. Everything was white with a uniform gray and cream accent—the curtains, sheets, covers, even the wooden cabinets and folding screens were painted achromatically. Tall arched windows let in light from tiled floor to mosaic ceiling, so it wasn't an entirely dreary atmosphere. Add to that how the majority of the beds lay empty of patients. Those that were being tended to were all the way at the end of the infirmary, where the windows overlooked one of the palace's many courtyards. Pink and yellow roses swayed in the gentle night breeze, their fragrant scent wafting in through an open pane.

One familiar face lay on the furthest cot up against the eastern side. The moon's glow cast an angelic halo upon his pale blonde hair. Baugulf was stretched out on his back, his hands folded on top of his stomach. Melusine's heart skipped a beat, both from his beauty in the moment and fear that his positioning meant that she was too late. Relief flooded her immediately when he opened his pretty blue eyes. But something was wrong, those ocular sapphires were too light a shade and focused on nothing around him.

An elderly man stood by Baugulf's bedside, hunched over and leaning on a cane. He wore a doctor's royal blue sash and flat cap that was tucked behind his long, pointed ears. He lifted his squinty gray eyes from his clipboard up to Vadim, his bushy mustache quivering when he greeted him.

"Archmage, good of you to come. And so quickly too. Here I was expecting to have to keep the patient stable for a tenday or more."

"Slaine, how unfair of you. That's a nasty rumor started by our mischievous ruler. I typically only make people wait three days."

"I feel so special, my friend. You hurried along just for me?" Baugulf chuckled, not glancing in Vadim and Melusine's direction as he sat up in his bed, fumbling for his pillows.

"Don't be daft," Vadim scoffed as he took a seat on the cot next to Baugulf's, setting his ceramic cups and the cooling kettle down on the end table. "My guest was so beside herself with worry that when she heard the news, she leapt to accost the poor messenger you sent me."

"I didn't—" Melusine began to protest, but had to admit that she'd come on far too strong earlier. "Alright I might've grabbed onto someone without permission, but you don't need to tell them about it."

"No no, I'm sure that I do need to." Vadim gestured towards the Tigeress's Carress, and the end table, raising his thin eyebrows demandingly.

Melusine groaned, then placed the jug of moonshine on the end table.

"Miss Melusine, you're here too? I'm sorry that I didn't greet you, I err..." Baugulf spoke up, but struggled to find a way to explain his sudden ailment.

"You're blind," Melusine finished for him as she took a seat next to Vadim. "And the cause might be magical?"

"No," Slaine interjected, turning to a medical tray on a trolley behind him and plucking up a small surgical dish. He hobbled over to Melusine with an impish twinkle in his eyes. "I only said that to try to get Vadim down here faster. I do need his help, but not to heal. It's not his forte anyway."

"You sly devil," Vadim said, not seeming to be all that upset now that he was already in the infirmary. Melusine peered at the dish in the doctor's hand, her brow furrowing when she noticed the two small slivers of metal blades as thin and long as the nail on her pinky finger.

"They're the edges of an arrowhead. I believe that they were designed to break, and release a slow acting poison into the bloodstream," the healer informed his guests.

"Urgh..." Melusine squeezed her eyes shut. Baugulf twisting the elven prince's arrow out of his leg flashed to the forefront of her mind. How she'd been so quick to seal the wound after merely trying to glance into the laceration. Arn had retreated far too easily as well, his goal already accomplished. Why hadn't she noticed? "The elven prince."

"My thoughts exactly," the doctor agreed, his mirth turning grim. "I suspect it's a poison of old, from the wars between humans and elves. It will cut Baugulf off from all sensation before finally stopping his heart. With Vadim's help, I can slow the process for a month at most."

Melusine glanced at Baugulf, trying and failing to gauge his reaction to the news. He was blank as he sat up in bed, perhaps still in shock.

"I'm hoping that this is the part where you say there's an antidote," Melusine prodded.

"Luckily there is, but it's not kept in the palace stock. I sent a messenger to the king requesting that he'd select a knight to go retrieve it."

"As if he would," Melusine grumbled. Sensing the tense silence that suddenly fell upon the room, Melusine calmed herself by combing her bangs back from her face. "Where is the antidote then? On a particular mountain? In a dangerous swamp?"

"Inside the heart of the elven reservation, fiercely protected," Slaine answered, and chuckled when Melusine gave a loud groan.

Melusine couldn't resist answering the call of Baugulf waving his hand for her to come closer, leaning on her knees and lowering her head to touch his fingertips. The knight patted and brushed her hair until he found the top of her head. Under the gentle touch of his fingers, her heart calmed, soothed like a wave of cool water washed over her.

"So I'm going to have to sit here and wait... I'd much rather go out there and get the antidote myself. But I'm the last person who should be picked for diplomatic issues."

"Thank you for worrying about me, Miss Melusine."

"How could I not? It's partially my fault for not being more thorough."

"You shouldn't take on the responsibility of everything that goes wrong around you," Baugulf advised. "You'll never get any rest."

"Speaking of rest, it is getting late. I'm afraid that normal visiting hours are long over, Miss," Slaine interjected once more, setting the dish back down on the trolley. "The Archmage needs to stay, but I must ask you to go to your lodgings for the night."

"Hm?" Vadim glanced up from where he was sipping tea from one cup and partaking in the moonshine with the other. Melusine knew not where he had fished the tea leaves from, and almost didn't care to know. Melusine was secretly glad that the second cup was not intended for her. "Oh, yes, of course, leave all the hard work to me, doctor. Fine, I suppose I have absolutely no choice," he teased, taking one last sip of whiskey before standing up and rubbing his hands together.

"I would go... but I have no idea where I'm supposed to be staying."

After Melusine admitted this, the room went stiff and quiet. In synchronicity Baugulf and Vadim heaved heavy, long-suffering sighs.

"Of course, I forgot to show you to your rooms first," Baugulf muttered.