The Autumn Mage

Chapter Twenty

     "I am going to administer a very potent plant killer," the Rose Doctor explained calmly.

     "I don't mean to tell you how to do your job," Aki said breathlessly, "but you do realize that I want to live, right?" 

     "Once the toxin reaches your stomach it will react with your stomach acids and enter your bloodstream. This should kill the spores that are causing the transformation and you should return to normal in a matter of days."

     "You're using the word 'should' a lot there doc."

     "Yes," he said coldly. "Like I said, this is something that I've never seen before and I have never attempted this."

     "So won't the toxin kill me?"

     "It will."

     "Then how is this helping?" The Doctor sighed heavily.

     "I will use every technique at my disposal to try and keep you from staying dead. It's a long shot, but it's your only chance. Once the transformation completes there won't be anything I can do. As long as your body retains a shred of its humanity I can try and help." Aki breathed out slowly.

     "Okay. If it's all I've got, let's try it."

     "Great," the Doctor said as he turned towards the door. "I'll be back in a couple of hours." Aki did not move and waited in silence for his return. He grew anxious as his small square of sunlight no longer appeared on the floor and instead made its way up the wall and began to fade to a dull golden color. He finally reappeared as the sky became purple not saying a word as he tried to remain focused. The Doctor began to draw a complex shape in the center of the cell floor with a piece of white chalk, circles and triangles intersecting and meshing. Inside the corners and around the inside of the outer circle he scribbled arcane letters that Aki did not recognize.

     "What are those?" he asked hoarsely. He cleared his throat but it did not make it feel any looser. He slowly scratched his prickly arm, now a dark shade of green.

     "Ancient protection Scribes. They're Atlantean, which hasn't been spoken in a thousand years." At the top of each triangle he placed a small white candle. "Take off your clothes and lie in the center." Aki hesitantly obeyed the stone floor cold against his bare skin. He shivered and tried not looking at the Doctor embarrassed. Standing outside of the circle the Doctor raised his staff above his head and closed his eyes. The staff was as tall as he was and as thick as his arm. It was fashioned from a Melaleuca tree beginning as a simple piece of wood at the bottom and splitting into two winding strands flopping over at the top. It had a striking pure white color and a carved dragon's head at the tip with a rose quartz in its mouth and small wings on the side of its head. It emitted a faint sweet smell that tingled the nose and felt warm in one's hand. 

     As he brought the staff upwards the candles gently lit themselves with a small topaz flame bathing the room in a ghostly teal light. He began chanting odd words which Aki assumed was more Atlantean. He began to raise his voice and spit the words out rapidly, the flames rising up with his voice and white wax rolling down the side like pale blood. He reached the climax of his incantation and stopped speaking suddenly, the walls reverberating with the silence. As his words hung in the air the flames roared to the ceiling and then quickly died down to where they barely lit the blackened wick. Smoke hung above the circle and turned counterclockwise so slowly that Aki barely noticed that it was rotating at all. The Doctor breathed in deeply before opening his eyes. He slowly scooped up a small ivory bowl that Aki had not noticed resting by his feet and entered the circle slowly and deliberately and kneeled by Aki, raising his head gingerly. Aki glanced with just his eyes and saw it was full of a thick brown liquid.