Chapter 556: The Omilaena Potion

Juray was losing blood at a terrifying rate and her eyes were unfocusing, so they might not have much time. Kai held her neck steady and opened her lips while Zae Zin Nim tried to force the potion into her mouth.

For a terrible moment he feared that it wouldn't work and he had just killed Juray.

As some of the potion made it into her throat, she swallowed, slowly at first and then more forcefully. Suddenly she surged, raising a bloody hand to grab the jar from Zae Zin Nim. Juray gripped it in both hands and began guzzling the entire thing even though it was glowing red hot and the mana seemed to be exploding within her.

When it was done, she hurled the jar away from her and it shattered with surprising force. Juray was a sight, her robe drenched with her own blood and her eyes ablaze. For several seconds there was no sound in the chamber except her heaving breaths, as she seemed to be recovering from the intense experience herself.

"That was..." Juray's expression softened into her own smile. "Too close for comfort. I guess I forgot just how fragile I am compared to you."

"Less so now," Zae Zin Nim said, regarding her thoughtfully. Caught up in the nearly mortal injury, Kai had forgotten to check her soul and see if their entire reason for doing all this had been justified.

<

Name: Juray Phrissan

Total Power: 389

Herbalist Advanced Class: 1 (303)

Dryad Crucible (+35)

Physique Level: F-0 (30)

Soul Level: 4 (16)

Herb of Life (+15)

>

With everything combined, they had brought Juray up to 389 Power, the majority of it coming from her new Advanced Class. There had apparently never been an Herbalist of her power before, and she was obviously far beyond any individual Goralian city. She was closer to the healers of the Frontier elites than the healers who worked on the front lines.

"Congratulations," Kai told her.

"I feel incredible." Juray stared down at her own hands in wonder. "I feel so much stronger, sharper... but the real potential will be in potions..."

"Which you must use to help Omilaena," Zae Zin Nim said firmly.

During the transition Kai had been worried about Juray, but now all his concern funneled back to Omilaena. They had done all this, spent significant time and resources over multiple days, in the hope that Juray could help bring Omilaena back to life. It was entirely possible that she wouldn't actually be able to do it, rendering all their effort useless.

"Right." Juray moved to her work station and placed a new jar in the center of her table. "I could repeat the recipe for a restorative person that I tried before, and it would be far more powerful, but I'm not sure that's enough. There's still a gap in power, and her condition is uniquely serious."

"What else can we do?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"Well, we need to restore her to herself, right? I was thinking that we should make an over-packed potion, filled with more different energies than a person can normally sustain. The trouble will be finding enough, specifically related to her, that won't clash."

"We have more poison."

"And that's a good first step, but there's a more obvious component." Juray pointed at the silver-blue pool that Omilaena had occupied until recently. "It came directly from her, and after practicing making potions for the Irunians, I think I can convert it into a form that won't make things any worse."

Zae Zin Nim scowled. "You think?"

"I'm confident it wouldn't make things worse, only moderately certain that I can do it."

"Then try," Kai said, "but I doubt that will be enough. I know potions are usually based on mana, but should we try to get qi and chakra fully represented as well?"

"I can handle the mana," Juray said as she dipped another jar into the pool, "and the liquid metal can be converted into chakra. But I don't know nearly enough about qi to be sure what would be compatible with her. I'm told that qi is more personal, less fungible, so we'd have to be careful."

"There is an option for that." Zae Zin Nim nodded and went to stand beside Kai. "Our dual cultivation energies should be perfect for her."

Kai cast her a narrow look. "Uh, here and now?"

"Not like that!" Despite everything that had passed, Zae Zin Nim looked away and hid her face with her hair. "People might usually use the term in a wanton sense, but it doesn't have to mean that. It can also be the two of us cultivating side-by-side... because our qi has mingled with Omilaena's, it should be well-suited to her."

"Then how can I say no?"

They sat down at the side of the room, back to back. At first they both sat in lotus position, qi gathering around them and then channeled into an aura instead of back into their dantians. At that point Zae Zin Nim reached over and, when he met her hand, laced their fingers together so they could begin merging energy.

The process was surprisingly smooth, though he thought that was because they had already been intimate in so many ways: when they had merged so much energy, just cultivating together was simple. But their goal this time was not to trade yin and yang energy, but to fuse their power together into a single stream that unified their qi.

Meanwhile, Juray was working up a storm with all of her ingredients. The results of her Class change were nowhere near as dramatic as most others, yet Kai began to see the subtle differences. When she ground up an herb, it crumbled in her fingers. Liquids seemed to lean into her touch, pouring just as she wanted them. And of course the mana that fused the results together was far more intense, and Juray wouldn't have attempted something like this before.

"I can't incorporate purely spiritual energy into a potion," Juray said, looking at their position with a frown. "But I guess... Omilaena left me that cauldron, and it turns qi into pills, so..."

She pulled out the cauldron from the Brightwind vault and began experimenting, clearly having a general idea how it worked. Soon enough Kai felt something gently tugging on his qi: when he loosened his control, he was able to direct the stream into the cauldron. In surprisingly little time, Juray managed to fuse a single new pill.

After that, she melted it down and stirred it into the rest of the potion. Its colors had ranged wildly, influenced by the newest ingredients, but all at once the potion shifted to a deep blue, the same color as Omilaena's hair or lips.

"This is the best I can do." Juray took a deep breath and picked the jar up gingerly before extending it in their direction. "And with that, I can't do anything else. It works or it doesn't."

Zae Zin Nim rushed to grasp the potion and, after scrutinizing it to her satisfaction, found another of Omilaena's syringes. Meanwhile Kai went to her body, still heavy and silvery, and gently lifted her upper body into his lap.

"Into her vein?" Zae Zin Nim asked.

"I think that would be too much," Juray said. "People can absorb some as pure energy, but if you inject too much into the bloodstream, it could kill someone."

"Try the neck," Kai suggested. "Apparently it's the best point for distributing energy through muscle, spirit, and meridians. At least I think I remember her saying something like that."

"Yes." Zae Zin Nim nodded. "She is always aiming for the neck."

And so she injected their wife while Kai held her gently.

This time there was no explosion of power, no great surge, and for a moment he feared that it had been a failure. Yet then he noticed a subtle change: the silvery coloring seemed to be receding. Omilaena's lips parted and no liquid metal emerged - a string of it stretched between her lips, then while he watched it was absorbed into her body.

Suddenly her eyes opened, glowing brilliant blue, and Omilaena surged upward with a gasp.

"Omi!" Zae Zin Nim practically tackled her, knocking her straight into Kai's lap again. He wrapped his arms around both as Zae Zin Nim desperately kissed their wife over and over.

"Hey now, hey now." Omilaena seemed almost mystified at first, then Kai saw her eyes flicker from the outburst to the pool of liquid to Juray hovering nearby. To her, it must have seemed like no time at all, but she was putting together how serious it must have been. "I guess I underestimated how difficult it is to process an Insanity, but it worked out in the end."

"It almost didn't," Kai told her. "You were unconscious and I was afraid you were going to turn to metal. We had to-"

"Kai tore out his heart for you!" Zae Zin Nim burst in. "It was romantic but it was also horrible!"

"That's a bit dramatic. You should thank Juray, because we couldn't have done it without her. Seems like you taught her enough that we could create a potion to bring you back."

"Doing me proud." Omilaena stroked Zae Zin Nim's back with one hand while extending the other to point at Juray. "Let me see if I can't find a way to thank you later. I'll start with a robe that isn't a bloody rag, but you deserve more than that."

"Oh, I think I only repaid you for teaching me so much." Juray looked split between joy that it had worked, embarrassment at the attention... and maybe growing awkwardness as the three of them clung together. "I don't think you need a healer to check that you're alright, because you obviously are. Do you need anything else?"

"Just help me get my orientation. I see I made a pool, but did it work? How much time do we have?"

"It worked well, and just over a week."

"Fuuuck." Omilaena drew out the word, her head falling back against Kai's chest, then she snapped into motion, full of energy as if she had actually slept for a week. "Okay, we have a hell of a lot to do and not much time to do it in. Even if the pool exceeded expectations, our opponent is resourceful, so-"

"Not yet!" Zae Zin Nim stayed latched to her waist, dragging her down as she tried to get up. "I thought you were dead or dying for so long, you can't run back to your lab! You... you have to make amends for making me worry so much."

Omilaena chuckled and ran a hand through her hair. "Alright, work can wait a little longer."

Kai squeezed them both tighter, Juray beat a hasty retreat, and at last the world was right again.