Reaching for the Stars

Chapter Forty-Two

"Welcome to the fifty-second herbalism student competition, this year will be full of talent I can tell. It is my honor to be the Queen of an Empire that has many young talents, there is a reason we are seen as one of the strongest empires, even if we may not be the largest. And every single one of you is a part of that honor, each and every single one of you is the best your respective academies have, but there can only be one winner, so may the best herbalist win!" This was my first time seeing Queen Amalia, I had heard about her in rumors, but had never actually seen her in person before.

She wasn't what I would call a beauty, but nor was she ugly, instead she seemed like a warrior queen, much like I imagined the ruler of an empire of warriors would be like, she was plain faced but it was that glint in her eyes, the fervor in her voice, it made her appear more breathtaking in person. A warrior through and through, she wasn't even wearing a dress, but a suit of form fitted leather armour, not as good as metal sure, but much more comfortable to wear in day to day use when a battle is not expected, or so I imagined at least, metal armour sounded stiff, hot, and heavy, not a good idea for everyday use.

She didn't give a particularly rousing speech, but it made almost all the herbalism students in this room, who were my competitors, stand up straighter, proud of the honor they brought to their country. If I had thought she meant to include me in her speech, I might have very well stood up taller as well, but I knew I wasn't, being officially from the Khirad empire and just a student at the Ashara Academy with a temporary pass, I wasn't considered a member of the Valena Empire, so her so called speech had nothing to do with me.

"I am Grandmaster Dmitri, each of the judges beside me today are also Grandmaster Herbalists, we have personally decided on the three trials you will face in this year's competition and the first one is a basic task for all herbalists, heal an ill person. Each of you will be randomly assigned a number which corresponds to a real patient, they will come out once your numbers are assigned." Most of the herbalists looked extremely relieved to hear how easy this trial would be, but I knew it was too easy, there had to be more, the fact that the Valena Empire had five Grandmaster Herbalists, of which I had thought none were currently alive, meant there was no way this competition would be so simple.

"As this is a competition for the best herbalism students we have in the empire, these are no ordinary illnesses, some have been poisoned, some have notoriously difficult to diagnose diseases, and some have illnesses with cures that are incredibly hard to make. As I said before once you are assigned a number, your patient will be drawn to your table as a thread of their spiritual energy is linked to the token with their number on it, once all the patients have arrived at their assigned tables, you will have two hours to diagnose and treat your patient, failure to do so will result in elimination." It may have seemed easy, but some potions could take hours for a less skilled herbalist to make, even skilled herbalists could sometimes only reduce that time by half, yet we were told to diagnose and treat a patient in under two, it was an extremely difficult task.

With a wave of his hand, small rocks flew out of large bowls next to him, and landed on each of the competitors tables, I grabbed mine and immediately saw the number one hundred and seventy-nine. I understood the number, but I could neither feel grateful or worried, because until the patient attached to the token arrived at my table, I would have no idea what I was dealing with. Grandmaster Dmitri had been clever in his wording, that the two hour time limit will start after the last patient has arrived at their assigned table, the smart competitors will take the extra time to diagnose them before hand in order to get themselves as much time to brew the required antidote or cure.

Once the last rock token has landed on their assigned desk, a bell rings, and the doors from the right side of the room open, patients streaming in, about half of the other competitors had already received their patient before mine finally arrives, I look her over with a critical eye before I even dare to feel her pulse. Pale skin, shallow wheezing breaths, sweating, a black tongue, which I only saw because of her wheezing breaths.