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Fei waited with his sleeves pushed back while the alchemist finished preparations for the blood donation. Healing potions and cotton pads were on standby because Syryn wasn\'t going for the veins. No, they had no time for tiny streams of blood.

"I\'m nicking your radial artery. Dont panic too much when it gushes," the alchemist informed the guard.

"I\'ll try not to piss myself," Fei answered.

Syryn located the artery then cut Fei without warning. Warm red blood immediately shot out in a jet and it was collected in Syryn\'s saucepan. As the blood continued to spurt, Lucien dipped his wooden ladle in the liquid.

"Okay, I think this is enough." It was imperative that the artery be closed immediately, before Fei began to lose blood pressure. Syryn wasted no time in pressing to it a cotton pad soaked with three different potions.

"That\'s not enough," Red interjected. "We won\'t get more than a litre like this. Bleed him more."

"I\'m also contributing, Red. We\'re taking just enough so they can keep fighting if something goes wrong with the spell." The cotton pad was soaked bloody but the bleeding had been staunched. "How are you feeling, Fei?"

"I feel fine."

Syryn didnt think so. Nobody felt fine after losing so much blood.

"Drink this," Syryn handed him a vitamin concentrate that would aid in the promotion of blood production. The alchemist was starting to feel like his inventory was emptying faster than he had anticipated. At the very least, he was expecting Riaku to rake over a bill fit for a prince. "Kai, you\'re next."

Syryn got more blood from Kai and then added his own to the saucepan.

"Are you two good to fly?" Syryn asked the avians while closing his own cut. "Alright," he continued when they both nodded and waited for further instructions. "Red has to draw a boundary so one of you must fly him around the forest."

"I\'ll do it," Kai answered. "When do we start?"

"Now," Lucien replied.

"Fei, you\'ll find Emi and Wen on the treetops east of this place. Take them to where Rei and Gosan are waiting. And dont come back inside."

"What about you?" Red asked.

"I\'ll wait here. How are you going to estimate the distance?"

Red held his thumb up and closed an eye like he was measuring distance. "Triangles," he answered. "You worry about alchemy. I\'ll take care of the rest."

-----

While Red was hard at work, Syryn whiled away some time by taking stock of what potions and how many of each was left inside his satchel. He was done and Red still wasn\'t back. The teen then paced back and forth, regretted that he couldn\'t get his hands on the scarecrow\'s bodies for experimentation, ate a wrinkled apple, and finally attempted to write a note to Rowan.

Rowan,

I should have taken you with me. You won\'t believe what I found out. R̶i̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶d̶e̶m̶o̶n R̶i̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶h̶u̶m̶a̶n R̶i̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶s̶u̶s̶p̶i̶c̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶a̶ ̶v̶e̶r̶y̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶o̶s̶i̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶r̶e̶t R̶i̶a̶k̶u̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶e̶r̶e̶s̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶s̶e̶c̶r̶e̶t̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶I̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶t̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶b̶e̶c̶a̶u̶s̶e Riaku is a demon. But there\'s something strange about him. He\'s too calm for a demon. Do you understand what I\'m trying to say? Red likes him. I think he\'s just attracted to the double wings that Riaku has. I̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶i̶t̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶r̶a̶c̶t̶i̶ I also find his wings to be of some interest. It may be because of avian genetics that he possesses two pairs of wings. He won\'t stop attracting assassination attempts too. The future doesn\'t look very peaceful for Nua. And how have they been hiding the fact that their prince is a demon?!

The sounds of rustling alerted him to Red\'s arrival. Kai deposited the redhead on the forest floor and promptly zipped away like his wings were on fire.

"The saucepan is empty," Red waved the utensil at Syryn. "I need more blood."

"Then take mine," Syryn told him while he hastily shoved his aborted letter into the satchel. "I dont have anymore anti-co-" Red swiped a claw down Syryn\'s palm, drawing a deep gash that began to bleed.

"Rude!"

The redhead grabbed Syryn\'s bleeding hand and began guiding the arm in a pattern that went around the both of them. When the bleeding slowed down, Red made another cut with his sharp claw.

"You\'re so high handed and rough," Syryn grumbled. "If you were a healer, you\'d end up killing all your patients."

"And I dont see a problem with that," the redhead answered. "Come here."

Red used his forefinger to draw a rune on Syryn\'s forehead using the teen\'s own blood. And in a show of skill, he drew one on his own face without the need of a mirror.

"We\'re done." The younger boy relinquished Syryn\'s abused palm. A hemostatic potion was immediately poured over it.

"Sit there," Red told the alchemist. "And when you start feeling full, discharge the mana as you see fit."

"Your instructions are too damn vague," Syryn said to the redhead. "What do you mean full?"

"You\'ll know when you feel it." Red settled down in a meditative pose. He was inside a circle that was connected to Syryn\'s own circle by a trail of drying blood. "Sit down, Syryn."

The amount of blood and the nature of the ritual had the alchemist feeling like he was being sacrificed. He trusted Red but a small part of him felt trepidation at what was about to happen.

"Getting cold feet?" Red asked after opening one eye to look at Syryn.

"No. But I do have a message for Rowan if I end up dying," Syryn answered.

Red raised one brow at the teen. "What message?" And that did not bode well for Syryn. A scathing remark or an assurance would have helped calm the teen. It would have made him less nervous about the ritual.

"Tell him that I- lo- like him?" Syryn cringed just a little bit after letting out those words.

Red opened his other eye and gaped at Syryn like the teen was growing another head. "Are you serious right now?"

"Only if you\'re planning on killing me."

"You are such a loser. Tell it to the old man yourself." Red closed his eyes again. "I\'m starting now. Release your unfounded fears that I\'m about to kill you. If I wanted to do that, you\'d have died a long time ago, dumbass."

Syryn\'s mind was a chaotic place that refused to calm down. He began to take measures breaths and counted them as Lucien\'s power swelled like a bubble around their bodies.

The first phase of Lucien\'s spell involved creating a link between the larger and smaller boundaries. It took a few minutes for the redhead to set up a smooth flow of magic connecting the circles and both parties involved. The moment it all fell into place, Syryn felt himself bound to Lucien\'s magic. It was as if an umbilical cord was tethered between their bodies.

The spell rushed through their link and an abnormal quietness settled upon the forest. Syryn had the impression that the forest was silently mourning the impending death of itself and all the beings that it sheltered. The magic in the air became denser as the pressure of Lucien\'s spell grew. And then the destruction began. The sounds of hundreds of trees groaning at the same time sent goosebumps down Syryn\'s back.

--

Fei, Kai, Rei, and Gosan wore matching solemn looks when they saw the outer lines of trees changing colour even as the spell was being set up.

When the groaning of the forest started, leaves withered and turned to dust while wood cracked and splintered into dead husks. What once was green and vibrant now lay dead and brown. Decades of growth and life was reduced to nothing right in front of their eyes. It was a terrifying flash of death on a large scale.

"A simple healer and his brother," Rei stated grimly. He was conflicted by what he was seeing. On one hand, it was fortunate that the brothers were part of their travelling party. On the flip side, they were taking two unknown and obviously very powerful mages back to Nua. If they hadn\'t met the assassins, the avians would have never realised how dangerous the brothers were.

"Background research had nothing much to say about their capabilities," Kai said to the others. "Syryn\'s flawless victory in his first friendship meet was all the available information I could find about his fighting abilities. Nothing was said about the younger brother but that\'s his spell wreaking so much havoc."

"It\'s not a run of the mill spell either," Fei reflected. None of them wanted to mention the dark origins of such killing magic.

"Feel that?" Rei asked his fellow guards. The temperature was decreasing.

"I hate the cold," a now awake and groggy Emi complained. "What\'s happening?"

"We dont know," Fei replied. The slow breeze blowing dust in the air turned into a strong wind and it changed directions rapidly like it couldn\'t decide which way to go.

"Why are we all here together?" Wen asked.

"Just sit still and watch," Gosan told the newly awakened guards.

"No, really, where is his highness?"

"Inside the dying forest."

"What are we doing here then?" Emi asked the others. The other guards wouldn\'t have been sitting there so calmly if Riaku truly needed their aid. It still vexed Emi though that her brother was alone.

"Orders," Fei told Emi. "His highness instructed us to leave."

"And you just left him by himself?" Wen asked with some disbelief.

"The two of you disobeyed him and received the sleeping treatment," Kai dryly replied.

"At least Emi and I tried."

"Fat lot of good you two did. While you were sleeping, we got work done." Fei lightly fanned the air with his wings. A layer of white dust had settled on them. Belatedly, he realised it was a dusting of snow.

"Snow. That\'s just great," Emi grumbled. She hated the cold with every fibre of her being.

The situation abruptly went from calm to stormy in the span of a few seconds. Like a beast that had been released, a cutting cold enveloped the air and began to freeze everything. They could even see Riaku\'s figure floating above the icy carnage that was spreading like a white disease. But what was most apparent to the watchers was the lack of scarecrows in their sights.