The temporary lab was tense, filled with a feeling heavier than Master Fen's strange fumes. The failed healing test was a huge, unanswered problem hanging over them. Lira sat quietly, looking after the rescued pot plant, her brow furrowed, seeming to listen for a whisper only she could hear.
Jonah paced the stone floor, his mind replaying the scene over and over: the blight's relentless, hungry return. It wasn't just a force; it was an organism.
The lab was split into two worlds.
In one corner was Master Fen's messy area for alchemy. Glass vials softly bubbled with strangely colored liquids. A complex set of lenses pointed at a slide holding a tiny piece of bad soil.
Hiss. Bubble. Clank.
"Useless fungi!" Fen complained, turning a brass knob. "Lazy bacteria! No drive!" He peered through the eyepiece, his wild white hair looking stiff with frustration. For hours, he had been trying to find what caused the spread, the true start of the sickness.
