Men watched as a woman was burnt to cinders. She died without a sound. They watched as she finally fell and waited. Minutes passed before a black ooze seeped out of the boiling lava and began moving around the crystal encased room trying to find its way out.

"Another failure," a middle aged man stated. With a sigh he continued, "Try and contain it before it runs off. Then bring in another subject before reporting our progress to his Highness's aides.” With that he handed over a list numbering over a hundred. 

Subject one:

Executed by fire

Contamination: Active

Containment: Failure

Subject Two:

Executed by Water/ Drowning

Contamination: Active

Containment: Failure

Subject Three:

Executed by Acid

Contamination: Active

Containment: Failure

…

***

The King’s advisor read through the reports. The infection was wide spread and with more than sixty percent of the city under their control it was proving hard to find who was the one pulling the strings. Report after report of towns beginning to show signs were now in his hands. The most destressing thing was that so far, no matter how they were killed, their corrupted blood would seep into the earth and vanish. It acted as if it had a mind of its own but never attacked anybody. What its purpose was nobody knew but the precognitions have been warning of a catastrophe being imminent. Anyone that looked to see what was coming, have gone insane. Only the church held that the Gods would appear to lend their aid against a great threat once more but they were always saying such things for hundreds of years. Most of the time nothing ever happened and they would just act all mysterious. Very few reports of a God descending to the mortal plane were ever confirmed. Shaking at the thought of having to report such news to his Majesty, he once again rifled through all the papers trying to find something more than their overly-optimistic prattle.

***

I was waiting to hear back from my friends. They had decided to split up against my objections. I had offered to go with them to be safe but was rejected. They had gone to talk with their families after I finished filling them in on what was going on. I got the feeling that they weren’t allowed to bring strangers around because of family secrets. According to them, their families had people on staff that monitored for big events that may threaten their positions, so it is possible that they were already dealing with the problem. Which is what I was hoping for. For now, I was reading up on every parasite type monster I could find in the library. The one thing they all had in common was that if you could find the main host, you could break the link causing a backlash that killed most of the rest. Not much else matched, from targets, life spans, how in infected others. It was all over the place. 

I finally had to give up and try to figure out their purpose for the fruit. There were only a few uses for it and almost all of them were either potions that changed a person’s appearance or concealment balms. The one thing that nagged at me was, why would they would need a fruit that is known for its masking properties if I was the only one that could detect these things? The only thing I could think was that I wasn’t and they were trying to hide the host. If that was true, then it might be around that merchant area.

I was toying with the idea of trying to find the host. It was risky but I had a couple of ideas that could minimize my risk. From using my summonables, to flying up high enough to see where the majority of these creatures were. I was just waiting to meet up with my friends at the end of the day to discuss our options and to see what they found out. As the hours passed, my nervousness increased. By the time I left the library to meet them I was all jittery.

Amy was the first one to come back. She had mixed results. Something I expected since her family was not as powerful as Bella’s and Lilly’s and lacked the resources they had. Her household couldn't do much but they said they were going to contact some other family relatives. I got a running list of how her third aunt‘s cousin married so and so and her uncle’s kid had a few powerful friends. She talked for over a half hour before Bella came back with her sister Victoria. For all of Amy’s talking, I didn’t get any more information. 

Bella had more grim information. She was told to leave the capital along with some of the younger generation. That list did not include her sister. Her family decided to leave her here to show that they “helped” in the great tribulation that was about to happen. When she refused to leave without Victoria, she was also left behind. Neither Victoria, nor Bella seemed upset about it. It was as if being sacrificed, was the most natural thing that could happen.

Hours passed as we waited for Lilly to show up. When my door finally opened it wasn't her. Instead, it was a male student that I have seen around campus. I didn’t know how he got into the women’s dorms. He simply strolled into my room as if it was his. He didn't seem scared. If anything he seemed cocky. I didn't know how much survival Instinct remained once they were infected, but this kid was obviously lacking. He was asking for death because he was holding Lilly’s necklace in his hands. I had enchanted it for her to minimize the risks of learning teleportation. I didn’t want her getting hurt since it was my idea for her to learn her magic. 

My anger was rising at the very thought of them hurting her. He stood there with an arrogant look upon his face that I just wanted to smack off. It was as if he already won. “Our master sends his greetings. We are willing to make a trade; you for her. Our master has already calculated your options, you can either surrender your friend to us or you can risk coming to get her; either way we win.” He said this all in a voice that seemed like he was auditioning for a heavy metal rock group. He spoke in that rough, artificially deep and scratchy voice. Even his scream, as Bella answered his taunts with a lightning bolt, was in it. The anger in her eyes showed she was as pissed as I was. I didn't blame her. I just wished we got more information about where they had Lilly before she did it. We… No, I needed to get her back, unharmed. The boy's body twitched as it fell to the ground. I saw a frozen smirk remained on his face as if it was all part of his plan to not walk out of here and it unnerved me. 

We quickly regrouped and began working out how to get her back. Bella knew that kid. He was a cousin of Lilly’s. One that she didn't like. According to her he was a scumbag. Although she used more refined words to say it. Which meant that most of Lilly’s family was probably compromised. Amy had a little clairvoyance magic so she might be able to narrow down where we should look. It all depended on how much they wanted me to come.

As we discussed our plans, a pool of blood began to seep out around the kid’s body. It was a bit blacker than it should have been but not enough for us to realize it in our panicked states. I didn't give it much thought as to why an electrical attack caused such a grievous bleeding wound. I was more worried about Lilly.

It wasn't until I felt a warmth creeping up my leg that I realized what was going on. It had latched onto my leg when I stepped too close. It didn't hurt. Hell, it didn’t feel like anything. It seemed to have a numbing agent in it that only now began to fade. Which was too late.  The others didn't seem to notice. It was underneath my pants, so its movements were hidden from their eyes. The pool of blood around the boy’s body shrank and vanished as I desperately tried to remove my pants.

Bella, who was talking about possible plans and allies, stopped to look at me in confusion. Before I could get them off, I felt the crystal within me, vibrate once and the warmth from the blood ooze vanished as if it was all my imagination. I pulled down my pants, since were already unfastened, just enough to take a look and see if there were any changes to it or the tattoos. What I saw was the black facets on the gem had bled into some of the green and amber ones. Not a lot, but there were now darker shades of both those colors that didn’t exist before. The gold was still pure and still took up half of the facets. What did it mean? I checked my status sheet and noticed two things right away. The black text for ‘Speak No Lie’ and ‘Pacifistic Blow’ were now faded to gray.