Prisca immediately moves towards the person most in need of help. She judges this person to be one of the two unconscious people who have passed out from the pain inflicted upon them. She carefully examines his body.
“Prisca, do you know how to help them?” Angelidis asks.
“I think I do…”
“What exactly is wrong with them?” Ajax asks, concerned about the people who he got out of harm’s way.
“I treated a couple people so far, and from my guess, whatever those guards just sprayed is an alchemical concoction that uses pain magic.”
“...Pain magic? That sounds sort of familiar.” Angelidis is confused. They don’t teach about pain magic in schools, and it isn’t something you can find on the streets. She hasn’t even heard of the syndicates using it to exact vengeance.
Ajax and Shaula have not come across ‘pain magic’ in their information gathering either. They both listen carefully.
“It’s a perversion of healing magic. Normally, it’s difficult to use on days like today, especially outside. Pain magic potions are something that the guards can only use during interrogation sessions through injections directly into muscle or bone. Ironically, they aren’t supposed to work when absorbed through the skin and they evaporate really quickly. But, it looked like they found a way to spray it at people and make it stick…”
She touches parts of her unconscious patient to see where the spray had afflicted him. She judges the affected areas by how the patient reacts to her touch. As a result, she understands where she needs to apply her remedy.
Prisca concentrates and activates a spell incantation. Angelidis, Dzan and Sigvor can feel a soft flare up of mana as she weaves together a magic circuit. She speaks the words of the incantation. Once again, Ajax and Shaula hear the special ‘simple yet complex’ words of that language. They immediately recognize the spell parameters of healing magic.
They’ve already read healing magic incantations before and they’re always amazed at healing magic’s complexity. It is significantly more complex than other forms of magic at the same level. Of course, it is also significantly less complex than modern medicine due to mana’s compatibility with living organisms.
The nail of Prisca’s index finger starts glowing subtly. Ajax and Shaula can see it clear as day. Angelidis, Dzan and Sigvor can’t really tell the difference.
She moves her index finger in slow, zigzag patterns across areas of her patient’s face and ears. The patient’s face tenses for a moment before starting to relax. She then guides her nail across his hands, palm, fingers, back, etc. Ajax squirms. The hands are full of nerve endings.
If that spray could cause lingering pain to even Ajax, what must have it felt like to this young beastkin man? Did it feel like they were chopped off? Or would it be like that needle torture? The skin being peeled? Being burned? Boiled? This young man did pass out from the pain…
However, once Prisca is done, her patient merely appears like he’s asleep. All his unspeakable pain is now gone.
She quickly moves to the rest of the patients. Cel and Sito have already started working through the afflicted as well. Sito cannot use healing magic while Cel is a novice compared to Prisca. He can’t use single phrase incantations, so he has to speak his incantation in long form precisely and carefully. Sito helps him examine his patients.
The unconscious ones they each treat wake up within a minute of feeling the pain letting up. The young girl who Ajax had led away from that scene starts crying after Prisca heals her. Angelidis sits down and talks to her calmly to help her feel less anxious. Dzan and Sigvor talk to each other as they watch the healers work their magic.
Ajax and Shaula feel at a loss for the scene in front of them. It doesn’t seem real the way that a simple touch of magic can so easily kill the pain. They are both still barely aware of magic and its miraculous properties. Ajax does have some questions.
“What do you think pain magic is, Shaula?” He asks. He would have asked Prisca or her friends, but knows better than to interrupt them while they’re working. Shaula considers how to answer.
“Well, if it is healing magic, and it’s related to pain, then… I’m guessing it’s got something to do with nerve endings. I don’t know enough about mana, but I’m guessing it targets nerves, the ones on the surface of their skin in this case. I… doubt that it targets the pain organ in the brain though but that’s always possible.” Shaula muses, her face slightly grim.
[Right, I did say that it looked like their nerves were being overstimulated. You know… why do you think the guards used that spray here? If they had used it in other places in public, then don’t you think more people would be talking about it? Angelidis at least would know about it, right? Dzan and Sigvor too.] Ajax turns to whispering so that he won’t be heard. Shaula follows suit.
[Prisca mentioned alchemy, right? That the spray they used was an alchemical concoction, a potion in spray form I mean. The Tritol Baron runs some alchemical production plants in this city, you know? He probably made something new and handed it out to the pigs.]
[Ah… He’s probably testing this shit on people who have no way to complain to him about it. Even on Earth, I’ve heard of some governments that use weapons on civilian populations, so they can get good field tests on ‘live specimens’. A good demo would help them get good weapons contracts. I mean, the marchers were chanting pro-war shit too, right? This pain spray seems like it’d definitely make it onto a Final Crusade battlefield, considering how well it hit those beastkin. It probably works on draconids like Angelidis as well, so…]
Ajax understands that the Semjazan Empire has nations of beastkin and draconids who are not on the Federation’s side. These demihuman protesters make good test subjects for when this weapon would need to be used on the Federation’s enemies.
If demon biology is similar enough to human and demihuman, it probably would work on them too. While the two of them are thinking about this, Shaula smells something.
“Wait, is that… smoke?” Shaula says out loud. She had been so distracted by the flurry of activity here that she only noticed the smell for the first time.
“Wait, Shaula, do you hear that?” Ajax turns his attention past the protest crowd towards the marchers. They’re laughing with glee and…
“They’re destroying the statue already!” Shaula turns towards the protest crowd. From those words, Angelidis turns her attention away from Prisca. Dzan and Sigvor turn as well. All five of them immediately get up and rush towards the crowd to see what’s going on.
