'This is bad...' Ly thought, as she stared at the man on the bed, slowly turning cyanotic.

"What happened to him?" she asked the woman behind, ignoring the kid crying on the bedside. The whole room smelled tacky, so it was probably just cleaned from vomit.

"I—I don't know... He was all good until morning, then he started feeling sick, and he passed out, and his body got possessed for a second and now he's like that..."

"Possessed? Oh, you mean his body started thrashing around?"

"Yeah! It was so scary! I thought a Demon had possessed him or something..."

"No.. sometimes the body will do that when it's freaking out about something. Did he feel sick or anything before?"

"Not really, no. He said he had a headache and couldn't breathe right."

While listening to the woman, Ly got closer to the man on the bed. His heart was beating so slow one could barely even hear it. 'Odd... This looks like...'

"Oi! Did he eat or drink something strange today or yesterday night?"

"Not really... The only thing different was the Strength Oil the town's Doctor told him to take a spoonful."

"Strength Oil?"

"Yeah. It was really sweet and smelled like almonds."

"I s— Bring me that oil here, right now!"

"O—Okay!" The woman ran out the room at Ly's order, leaving her and the girl in the room alone.

"This is bad... This is real bad... Why the fuck would that quack do this?" She muttered out loud, making the girl look up from the ground and stare at her in disbelief.

Ly opened the small chest she brought with her, rummaging through the contents searching for a small vial. "Found it!"

After a couple minutes searching, Ly had a very small glass tube on her fingers. It was kind of transparent, but a little brownish in color. But inside, small blood-red crystals could be seen.

"What is that?!" The girl asked, wide-eyed at the eerie look of the thing the "witch" took out.

"Sea-Blood Crystals" she started explaining. "These are crystals extracted from creatures of the sea. I have a very small amount of them since I don't go to the coast that often..."

"Is that so..." The girl muttered, not so certain. Before she could think any more, the door opened with a loud thud.

"Here! I brought it!" The woman walked into the room with a small pottery vial.

"Let me see..." Ly got the vial from the woman, opened it, and took a sniff at its contents. "Yeah... This is almond extract. My hunch was right." she said, before sighing. "He was poisoned by this. I can't tell you for sure whether it was intentional, but there's no mistake."

"You mean... the doctor almost killed him?"

"I would never call that quack a doctor, but you do you. I'll give him the medicine now."

"Thank you!"

Moving quickly, Ly opened the man's mouth, moving the vial towards it...

"No... It's not gonna be fast enough... He'll die before it works." she muttered to herself, but unfortunately loud enough for the others to hear.

"What do you mean?! He's gonna die?"

"No, no! Sorry. I thought out loud. It's just that feeding it to him won't work.

"Oh..."

Calming the woman down, Ly went back to checking her chest. She first grabbed a small round bottom dish, a vial of transparent fluid, and a pair of tiny metal rods.

The woman hugged her kid, as she saw the witch sprinkle the crystals onto the dish, then drop a couple droplets of the transparent liquid onto the bowl. After a couple minutes of thorough mixing, the fluid in the bowl looked just like blood. Using her mouth, Ly pipetted the bloody mixture into the larger of the rods. It was hollow, and had a tiny slit on the side that would not let any liquids through, but allowed a tiny amount of air. Turning it upside down, she inserted the smallest rod into the opening opposite to where she got the liquid in. There was still a tiny blob of it on the bowl.

"Are you not taking that last bit?" The woman asked, apprehensive.

"If I inject air into him, he dies. I'm better off wasting a small bit of the medicine, than running that kind of risk." Ly's answer made the woman shiver, but also trust her. The woman watched in awe as Ly stabbed the man's arm, right where the green lines of the blood vessels could be seen. In a second, she emptied the rod, usign the smaller one to ram the contents into his bloodstream.

"Now, we wait." Setting all things she used aside, and storing the rest of the crystals into her trunk, Ly sat by the bed, waiting.

"Huh? What about him?" The girl asked, being stared daggers by her mother.

"No, It's fine." Ly addressed the mother. "Now that I gave him the medicine, it should take him a few minutes to slowly get better. He'll wake up in an hour or so. Saying so, Ly crossed her arms, and dozed off to sleep, listening to the two's conversation.

"See?! I told you we could trust her, she's even waiting to see if he gets better before leaving." the girl said.

"Yes, child, but you know how your uncles are... And they went do get the doctor... I'm afraid it won't go as smoothly as this..."

"Like I care! My old man is way more important than what they think!"

"I know, honey, but you should be prepared."

"Okay, mom."

And so, Ly fell asleep to her tiredness... only to be woken up by someone shaking her shoulders shortly thereafter.

"YOU BROUGHT THE WITCH UPON OUR HOUSE?! ARE YOU INSANE?!" A thunderous voice yelled in the distance.