New Eden: Live to Play, Play to Live

The General was the first one to find his objective, after examining how the mana affected the Baron's wife.

"This curse is quite the nasty one. It is washing out all of your wife's natural mana by forcefully injecting dark mana into her body. The only way to cure this is to find the source and cleanse it."

The General turned his head to Astaroth.

"How is it going on that side, young man?"

Astaroth was frowning. His sense pointed at the woman's chest, but it seemed deeper, for some strange reason.

Almost like the mana was entering her heart. Astaroth leaned in closer, extending his hand forward toward the woman's breast.

"He's trying to defile the lady!" a guard shouted, lunging forward.

But he never made it far, since the Baron held the man back.

"The General trusts him, and I do too. I believe he is trying to help. Back down!"

"I'm… I'm sorry, my lord," the guard said, stowing his weapon and walking back to the wall.

The Baron gave a stern gaze at Astaroth, watching his every movement. Of course, he was worried too, since this was his wife, but he stood by and waited.

Astaroth nodded at the noble and went back to business. He grasped the lady's bed robes, exposing a bit of her bare chest, before pulling on a pendant tied around her neck.

The necklace unclasped from her neck and dangled in his hands.

"This necklace has a weird mana signature to it. Was it always that way?"

He turned to look at the Baron, who had a strange look on his face.

"This necklace can't be the cause of her illness. It is a gift from her clan, and she has had it ever since we were married."

"And has she always worn it, or has there been a moment recently where she wasn't?"

"Hmm. She wears it at all moments, even during her sleep. Wait… Come to think of it, there were a few days when she wasn't wearing it. The clasp had broken and her personal attendant brought it to be fixed."

"And she got sick after that? That didn't raise any alarms?"

"That was months ago. My wife has only been sick for a few days, at most. That can't be the cause."

"Where is her attendant now?"

The Baron became gloomy.

"A demon kidnapped her attendant not long after she fell ill. That is why we are on lockdown. We have yet to find the fiend, or the attendant's body. We fear it might have consumed it already."

"Hmm," Astaroth said, looking at the pendant again.

Something was strange about the necklace. There were traces of dark mana on it, but they were almost imperceptible.

The General was also looking at the necklace with a discerning gaze.

"May I?" he asked, pointing at the pendant.

Astaroth nodded, giving him the necklace, before going back to examining the woman. The dark mana entering her had not slowed down after removing the pendant, so he knew that wasn't the source of the curse.

As Astaroth was still trying to figure out where the mana was entering through, the General made a discovery.

"Hmm. Was there always an engraving on the back of this pendant?"

The Baron looked puzzled. He had inspected the pendant when it came back from being repaired, and he didn't spot any engraving.

But when he walked to the General, and looked at the back of the pendant, there was indeed now an engraving. It was barely a millimetre deep, and hard to spot without looking for it.

"This wasn't there when the necklace came back. But it's impossible to have it done after. My wife has worn the pendant at all times since."

The General passed his thumb on the engraving, looking at it afterwards. There was a slight golden dust on his thumb, matching the colour of the pendant.

He licked his thumb before grimacing.

"This dust is golden bone dust. It is a dust often used to make ink for rituals by witch doctors. But why would it be on the pendant? It needs to be mixed into a liquid to take hold."

Astaroth had an eureka when the General said that.

"I am terribly sorry, Baron Duncan, but I will have to be very improper."

The Baron looked at him, confused, but Astaroth didn't wait for his approval. He tore the Elven woman's robe apart, revealing the woman's ample bust.

The Baron's face contorted into a mask of rage as the guards all lunged forward again, swords pulled out.

"What do you think you are doing?! Men! Kill him!"

But before anyone could execute the order, the General stood up abruptly, his eyes wide. He had just recognized the engraving, and when his eyes shifted to the woman's exposed breast, he found the same one tattooed between her breasts.

"Enough! He is trying to help her!" the General howled, launching a force wave at the guards, catapulting them into the walls behind them.

The action took the Baron aback, since he had rarely seen him expressing himself this way. The mage was usually the quiet and composed type.

After knocking the guards away, the General quickly leaned forward.

"Good thinking, young man. But now I'm afraid we need to work even faster. The sigil on her chest shows how long she has, and the darker it becomes, the less time she has."

Astaroth gulped at the statement, since the sigil was almost all black already. They had almost no time left.

"What can I do to help?" Astaroth hurriedly asked.

"I will try to lock the mana out of her body, to slow down the process. But that will buy us minutes, at best. The only way to stop this curse is to kill the caster."

Astaroth felt the burden on his shoulders and nodded solemnly.

"I think the caster is still on the manor grounds since they quickly issued the lockdown. But you will need to find it, where the guards have been failing for days. Can you do it?"

"I will not fail!" Astaroth promised, before darting out of the room.