Adama was at Naaza’s side in a flash, raising an antidote up to her lips. The Mixer’s face had gone sheer white, her breathing growing shallow, and the antidote only slightly helped. Adama followed the antidote with a health potion, hoping to abate the damage caused by the antidote resistant poison. Adama watched with concern as Naaza’s condition only marginally improved again. Her eyes remained closed, and her breathing disturbingly labored.

  Adama was reaching for another antidote when another figure appeared:

  “Allow me to help, please.”

  The commanding, feminine voice caught Adama’s attention immediately. Looking up, he saw a stunningly beautiful female elf, with jade hair and eyes staring back at him. He nodded, stepping away as the elf lifted a bottle filled with violet liquid to Naaza’s mouth. Once Naaza had drunk this new serum, the elf placed her hands on Naaza’s chest, murmuring a string of words that had her whole body glowing a soft emerald. In a flash of light, the elf finished the chant, and Naaza’s breathing finally smoothed out. Color returned to her face, yet her eyes stayed stubbornly closed. The female elf looked up, addressing Adama professionally and without emotion:

  “She has been dosed with a very powerful sedative. My treatment had kept her condition from deteriorating and it will help her recover eventually. However, this kind of poison is stubborn. It will not leave her system for several months at least. Unless you know someone with better magic than I.”

  Adama folded his arms, eyebrows furrowing contemplatively. This entire spectacle had caused a great commotion at the party, and as he thought Lilli pulled on Adama’s robe:

  “Mr. Tim, how about we go somewhere private, where Miss Naaza can recover more comfortably?”

  It was the mysterious green haired elf who answered in his stead:

  “Please, come to my home. This way.”

  Adama picked up Naaza and followed her to a particularly massive tree with a beautifully carved door. Emi, Lilli, and King Larfal followed him, the King waving to his subjects and telling them to continue the party as he handled the issue. Inside, Adama laid Naaza down on a plush bed, and the King spoke up:

  “My deepest apologies, mighty warrior. This disaster was entirely my fault. I will take full responsibility on behalf of my people. Whichever traitor poisoned the Lady Naaza, they will be found and dealt with.”

  Larfal bowed his head in shame, fully prepared to face the human’s wrath. To him, one of his people had gone insane and decided to poison their new allies. As King, he would not let this stand, and he had already ordered his guards to hunt down the intruder while his wife went to help the humans. Adama waved away the King’s apology:

  “It wasn’t your fault. It was mine for not informing you. We are on a mission to thwart an assassination attempt on our goddess. I should have informed you that they might show up and try to stop us.”

  Now the King looked up in surprise:

  “Assassins?”

  Adama told him everything, watching the King’s face turn thoughtful as he learned of the recent plot against Orario’s divinities:

  “I had no idea your motives were so pure. I’d assumed you were just a band of traveling mercenaries.”

  Adama raised his eyebrow:

  “If I were totally mercenary, I’d have taken the Imperial commander’s offer.”

  King Larfal gave a cough of embarrassment:

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Ah, right. Still, I would apologize for our security failure in allowing our ranks to be infiltrated. We would be happy to guard the Lady Naaza in her convalescence. Rest assured; no enemy will get to her under our watch. In addition, please accept another 20 million vals in Tree Sap. As a show of my sincerity.”

  Adama nodded, but his mind was far away:

  “We won’t make it in time.”

  It had already been more than a month since they had set out on their journey. They’d been doing well on time so far, but their schedule was tight. Travel to the Valley of Dragons would take more than 2 months from where they were, since it was in the northernmost part of the continent. Once there, it would take some time to find a Sun Dragon, kill it, then use its Heart to make the cure. Then they needed to travel back to Orario, which would take another ~3 months. As of now, the overall mission would take no less than 7 months. In theory, they had nearly a full year before they met their hard deadline, but Airmid had told him before he left that some of the divinities would likely begin expiring after 8 months from being poisoned. The cure had taken 2 weeks to create, so 7 months had been Adama’s goal for the journey. The timing would be tight, but that still left 2 weeks of wiggle room.

  Now, Naaza wouldn’t wake up for a few months. Even if they brought her back to Orario and got her healing as fast as they could, that would be an extra 3 weeks out of their way. Even if Airmid’s magic woke Naaza immediately, and that was a big if, going back to Orario would lengthen their travel time to the Valley. A detour meant adding another ~2 months to their trip, meaning that their timetable would be in the red zone. Hestia would be in unacceptable danger.

  There was another option. An alternative plan would involve proceeding without Naaza. Adama had gotten her to show him how to brew her cure for the poison as insurance for exactly this situation. He had been involved in its creation and was even given a written explanation of the formula and process for its creation. That said, this was high level Mixing. It required judgement calls, discernment, and skill that went beyond merely following a set recipe. Adama was helped a little by his distant past as a refiner, but this was a completely different discipline at the end of the day. He had been hoping to get more practice with his teacher on the way to the Valley, which obviously was now out of the question.

  The worst part about all of this was that the cure needed to be brewed on site. The special properties of a Sun Dragon’s Heart couldn’t be preserved much more than two days after death, much less after three months of transport. There was a good chance they would need to brew the cure while still in dangerous territory. It would be up to Lilli and Emi to guard Adama while he worked, which wasn’t exactly a recipe for success since neither had any serious close quarters abilities.

  On the other hand, they had a massive surplus of ingredients, which meant that a failure or three when brewing the cure would only cost them time. Adama was confident he could figure out the cure. The problem was the guard. As he thought, an obvious solution suddenly popped up:

  “Actually, scratch that. I don’t need more sap. I need manpower.”

  The Elf King looked confused until Adama elaborated. He was asking for the King to lend him some of his elites for the journey to the Valley, to guard Adama as he moved to brew the cure. Adama also requested that the elves bring Naaza to Orario for her recovery. If Airmid could speed up her recovery, that would be ideal, and it would probably help to have another ally in the Adventurer’s city while he was away. The King agreed to both requests, eager to make up for the recent catastrophe. He even threw in some extra sap anyways, saying that simple manpower was too small a gift.

  After they ironed out the specifics, the King’s soldiers showed up at the house. They reported no success in catching or even finding the assassin, as Adama expected. With the mood ruined, the adventurers did not rejoin the party, choosing instead to remain at Naaza’s bedside. They were ready to leave in the morning and Larfal’s soldiers had finished their preparations overnight as well. The adventurers saw the party carrying Naaza off, then went their own way. Adama was interested to see that Valar had been sent to accompany him, alongside a squad of 6 other deadly looking male elves. Though, the King had given him one more familiar face:

  “Who invited the kid?”

  Adama spoke, looking at Valar and jerking his head toward a certain blonde-haired figure. Said kid piped up before the elf commander could answer:

  “I may not be very stealthy, but I’m one of the best archers in the elf scouting corps! I’m a prodigy, I’ll have you know!”

  Adama just raised an eyebrow, and Valar let out a sigh, saying:

  “She’s right, actually. What she lacks in experience, she makes up for in natural skill. So long as we keep a close eye on her, she could be an asset.”

  “Hey!”

  Adama turned to scrutinize Theresa, and she met his eyes courageously, despite the slight blush creeping into her cheeks. All hostility gone, the girl now radiated nothing more than a strong admiration and determination. Before he could speak, she continued:

  “You saved my family. Let me help you save yours.”

  Adama was mildly shocked at her sincerity, her current stance a drastic turnaround from their initial encounter. He watched Theresa with new eyes, realizing there might be a bit more to this young elf than met the eye. He decided to meet that sincerity with some of his own, giving her a small nod and saying:

  “Good to have you along.”

  Theresa gave him a surprisingly deep bow, responding:

  “I’ll do my best to be helpful!”

  Shaking his head wryly, Adama turned and started down the path. The others fell in behind him, the party an impressive sight when they picked up the pace. They glided through the forest like a small gang of wraiths, eating up mile after mile of ground at an unwavering pace.

  In the distance, an unseen foe lurked, watching with a magic magnifying lens. Gears turned behind the eyes of the Master Assassin, assessing the situation.

  He had succeeded in disabling the Mixer, which should have hamstrung Hestia Familia’s efforts, but it seemed things wouldn’t be simple. The swordsman had proven unusually resilient, evading death and forging onward, some sort of contingency in mind no doubt. Adama gave even the Master reason to fear, and he remained surrounded by capable allies. A direct attack was possible, especially if they leveraged the bulk of their forces. Yet this was not their way. Even if such an attack worked, they would certainly sustain crippling casualties.

  The Master would need to put secondary plans into motion. He sent out a messenger hawk, put away the glass, and followed.