The work had gone on long enough that the battlefield no longer felt like a place of war, but something quieter and more disturbing.
The mages moved between corpses with steady hands. Their earlier hesitation buried beneath routine now, while the knights stood guard in loose formations around them with their constant vigilance but no longer strained like before when the battle was still raging.
The air carried the heavy scent of blood and burned Magic. The sounds of cutting and scraping blended into a dull unpleasant rhythm that no one spoke about anymore.
Then something broke that rhythm.
One of the younger mages, stationed near the outer edge of the field, had been working on a wolf-beast that had already been opened from chest to abdomen.
He had collected several samples and sealed them carefully following every procedure as he had been taught. But as he reached to store one final tube, something inside it caught his attention.
