SAGE (under edit)

Chapter Twenty Seven

Lake Yuan was a peaceful place to rest in the late afternoon, yet despite Sage being by the lake's edge with the sounds of the city far in the distance she felt anything but peaceful.

Convincing Ashe to examine Raidan hadn't been easy, but Sage hadn't expected it to be. Ashe was a Soldier, yes, but she was first and foremost a medic and it was that side of her which eventually agreed, spurred by her curiosity at the mysterious poison inside Raidan and her compassion for Sage.

'If you tell him that I sent you, he won't resist you,' Sage had assured Ashe, 'and he certainly won't try to hurt you.'

Ashe had, of course, wanted answers – clarity – on why Sage was going to such lengths for a man she was supposed to hate, and although Sage had offered some she had promised to explain more after Ashe's examination.

So Sage was waiting at the lake, having decided it was a safer space for them to meet. There was still the possibility that Ashe had changed her mind and was revealing Sage's request to the Renark right now, or that Ashe was unable to see Raidan at all by convincing Talia like Sage had. But Sage knew this was her only option, and if it didn't work then... Then she had lost, and everything she had been feeling – everything she had been risking – was for nothing.

The flicker of Ashe's Kyra marker had Sage rising to her feet. She turned around and found the young medic striding toward her, brow furrowed in consternation.

Before Sage could ask, Ashe said, 'He wasn't what I expected.'

The comment caught Sage off-guard. 'You mean... Raidan? You were able to see him?'

'It's not uncommon for criminals to receive a medical examination to ensure they're fit for trial,' Ashe told her, 'so it didn't take much convincing.'

'And Raidan?'

'Obviously he's sick and Kyra deprived,' Ashe said, passing Sage to stop by the edge of the lake, 'but I wasn't expecting that he would try to convince me not to help you find a cure. He only spoke a few words and yet he seemed... concerned for you.'

Ashe looked over her shoulder to Sage, bemused. 'What is going on between you two?'

Sage took a step toward her, heart racing. 'I promise I will explain, but can you tell me what you found first?'

'It's not good,' Ashe said softly, her voice filled with the kind concern that made her so favoured by patients. This was why Sage knew Ashe would help her; as a medic, she could look past almost any wrongdoings of a person if it meant saving them from unnecessary suffering.

'I don't know what the poison is, Sage, but it is very similar to Silvertung.'

'Silvertung?' said Sage, vaguely recognising the name.

'It's a rare plant that, when ingested, attaches to red blood cells and causes the body to attack its own red blood cells as if they were foreign substances needing expulsion by the immune system. In one case, the autoimmune response was so severe that the victim experienced irreversible bone marrow failure,' Ashe explained, her hands slipping into the pockets of her coat. 'Possibly, Silvertung has been used in the poison Raidan has but it may have been synthesised, altered, to attach itself to the Kyra points instead. It could still create the same autoimmune response.'

'And the cure?'

'It's only a theory, never proven because it was hypothesised after researching the rare few victims post-mortem,' Ashe replied. 'The victim would need blood transfusions to replace the blood that is lost and at the same time undergo dialysis to remove the poison. But for Kyra it's tricky. You can't perform a dialysis on Kyra the way you can on blood; Soldiers rarely need a dialysis because their Kyra has an innate function to do just that – and there has never been any known poison to directly attack Kyra like this. For Raidan to survive, I think he would need someone to use their own Kyra to remove the poison while simultaneously replacing his lost Kyra with their own to kickstart his system.'