The clinic was quiet in the early morning.
Steam rose from the kettle in the back room. Cai sat beside the window, scribbling symbols onto scraps of paper—Root echoes, still lingering in his nerves. Sylas worked silently, pouring fresh antiseptic into new glass vials. Veyra swept the floor, though her eyes kept drifting toward Elric's desk.
He hadn't moved in hours.
Elric's journal lay open. The pages were covered in diagrams: root systems, human anatomy, and sothing new—a branching pattern that looked like veins and language.
Lira appeared in the doorway.
"You didn't sleep."
"No," Elric said, not looking up.
"You're expecting soone."
"Yes."
---
Outside the Capital
Dust kicked up behind three horses as they raced toward the outer gate.
The lead rider wore black leather, no crest, no colors. Behind him rode a man and woman—healers by trade, scouts by necessity. The ssenger slowed only when the capital ca into view.
"We're late," one of them said.
"No," the lead rider muttered. "We're right on ti."
---
At the Clinic
The door opened with a quiet knock.
Elric stood before anyone else could.
Three riders entered. Dust-covered. Wary.
"Doctor Elric?" the lead asked.
He nodded once. "You ca a long way."
"We ca because our people are dying," the rider said. "They forget nas. Their limbs stop responding. They speak words they never learned. So start repeating mories that don't belong to them. And one girl swore the trees whispered in her dead grandfather's voice."
He unrolled a scroll.
A map. Drawn in haste.
On it: blackened zones near the border. Villages marked with faded circles—like veins spreading outward.
Veyra moved beside Cai. "It's another sickness?"
Cai didn't speak—but his gold-lit eyes flared faintly.
"I saw it," he whispered. "Burning forests. Ash in the lungs. Faces forgetting themselves."
The rider stepped back. "We brought this in secret. The Council has ignored every request. People say they've sent no help because we're outside the Core districts."
Elric stared at the map.
"They're not infected," he murmured. "They're overloaded."
Lira frowned. "With what?"
Elric answered slowly.
"mory."
---
Council Hall, Sa Day
Lady Virella paced.
Chancellor Morian read the report in silence.
"Six settlents affected," he murmured. "And they're asking him to solve it."
Virella slamd a palm on the table. "He caused this!"
"No," Morian replied. "We did. He rely exposed it."
He looked up at her.
"Send no troops. No Circle. No threats."
"Then what?"
Morian closed the file.
"Send silence. Let the world choose who it trusts."
---
Back at the Clinic
Elric rolled up the map.
He looked at Lira, then Sylas, then the three strangers.
"You ca for help."
The lead rider nodded.
"Then we go," Elric said. "No more thrones. Just dicine."
Lira stepped beside him. "We're leaving the city?"
"We're going to the source."
He turned to Cai.
"Can you still see it?"
Cai's golden gaze t his.
"Yes," he said. "And it's screaming."
---
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