After spending hours with her teachers and finding they possessed an appalling lack of knowledge about the other races, Alex pulled Fletcher aside as everyone was leaving, waving her friends ahead and saying she needed to have a word with the doctor.
Intrigued, Fletcher humoured her request to speak with him along with both her Chemistry and Medical Science teachers, and he led the way to finding them. Once the four were holed up together in Fitzy’s quarters—an accident waiting to happen, with all the bubbling experiments and mini-explosions occurring around the room—Alex got straight to the point.
“I know you two are on the fence about the whole Aven-Meyarin-army deal, and that’s your prerogative,” she said to Fitzy and Luranda. “But I have a question for you all, so if it’ll make you feel better, consider it hypothetical.”
Luranda smoothed the material of her multi-coloured coat and narrowed her eyes at Alex. But the stern effect was lost when one of Fitzy’s experiments exploded with a loud pop and an eruption of neon pink sparks, causing Luranda to jump in fright and direct her scowl towards her colleague.
“Sorry! Sorry!” Fitzy cried, leaping up from his armchair to smother the sparks before returning to where they all sat, patting down the smoking ends of his hair. “What were you saying, Anastasia?”
Alex didn’t correct him about her name. She’d long since learned that he was a genius regarding certain things and a complete scatterbrain when it came to others.
“Meyarins are immortal, but they can still die of fatal wounds,” Alex said. “Of course, they also have great speed and strength at their disposal, so it’s hard to inflict those fatal wounds, but it’s certainly not impossible.”
“I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Luranda said primly.
Alex raised her hands. “Give me a second. I have a point.”
The Medical Science professor pursed her lips but didn’t argue further.
“If the war I believe is coming, comes,” Alex continued, “I don’t think it’s right that the Claimed Meyarins should be forced into a battle where they might die.”
“What are you suggesting, Alex?” Fletcher asked. “That we don’t fight back?”
“Not at all. That would be suicide.”
“Then what—”
“I want to know if it might be possible to come up with a weapon that could inflict enough damage to incapacitate, rather than kill them,” Alex interrupted.
Fletcher looked thoughtful as he said, “Do you mean like a tranquilliser?”
“Something like that,” Alex agreed. “But the problem is, there’s only one thing other than a fatal wound or crippling injury that can take down a Meyarin.”
The doctor’s eyes brightened with understanding. “Hyroa blood.”
“Hyroa blood,” Alex confirmed. “Or as they call it, Sarnaph blood. It’s so toxic to them that the slightest contamination can lead to death. But somehow you were able to save Zain after he’d been poisoned by Aven’s laced arrow. That must mean you have a cure.”
“It wasn’t a pleasant experience for him,” Fletcher said, “but yes, I was able to dilute the foreign blood and break it down until it was drawn from his system through a process similar to osmosis.”
“Do you think you could mass-produce that kind of treatment?”
Fletcher considered her question and said, “I… believe so.”
Alex nodded and turned to her Medical Science teacher. “Professor Luranda, you had a sample of the blood in class a few months back. Do you have more?”
Behind her shrewdness, Alex could see a flare of respect in her eyes. “Not enough for what you require. But I believe Hunter would be able to procure more if asked.”
Alex didn’t want to know how her SAS teacher might get his hands on Hyroa blood. She only hoped it wouldn’t involve a class field trip.
“And what would you say is the best way for it to be administered?” Alex asked the strict but medically savvy teacher.
Luranda appeared torn, like she was considering the consequences if she answered. But then she straightened her spine as if coming to the realisation that ultimately Alex’s idea would be helping to save innocent lives—Meyarin and mortal alike. “We can dip weapons into the blood, but that would still require each target to receive an open wound. The better way would be to make it airborne.”
“Like a pathogen?” Alex asked, mentally likening it to a biological weapon. “Something for them to inhale?”
“No,” Luranda said, her eyes losing focus as she concentrated. “For there to be any weakening effect, the Hyroa blood has to at the very least make physical contact with a Meyarin’s skin. But if we can create a spray device to distribute the blood across a large surface, it could debilitate all those in the splatter range.”
At the imagery that sprung to mind, there was no way Alex could fight against scrunching up her nose. ‘Splatter range’? Gross.
“That’s actually a clever idea,” Fletcher said, stroking his chin. “The Hyroa blood will be much less toxic if it doesn’t hit the bloodstream straight away. Without an open wound, it will still make them very ill, but it will also be unlikely to kill anyone before a cure can be administered. Much less risk to all involved.” His eyes lit with possibility as he finished, “We might even be able to come up with a serum that includes the antidote within the spray, something that self-activates after a certain amount of time.”
Thinking that sounded like a perfect solution, Alex turned to Fitzy, knowing he was the final voice to say whether any of it was possible. “What do you think, Fitzy? Can it be done?”
“Oh, most assuredly, Annabelle!” he cried, seemingly overjoyed at the idea of a new project. “It may require some trial and error to design the most suitable device and come up with a working prototype, but it shouldn’t take much longer than a fortnight.”
A lot could happen in a fortnight, but it was certainly better than nothing.
After hashing out a few more ideas with her teachers, including contingency options for administering the cure in case it couldn’t be included as a time-delay antidote with the initial spray, Alex left them to it. She knew she could trust them to figure out the rest without her and to seek her out if they had any further questions.
As she left the Tower building, she only hoped she would be far away from any place inside the ‘splatter range’ when the time came.
When Alex entered the Library that night, she wasn’t sure what to expect for her first official training session with Mr. Mystery Man.
Thankfully, the librarian was busy helping a student when she arrived in the foyer, so she was able to sneak past without attracting more unwarranted cleaning duties. As soon as she was free and clear down the second staircase, she willed a doorway open and fell through the familiar pitch-black nothingness until she arrived in the cavern.
She was five minutes early, just to be safe.
Mr. Mystery Man showed up right on time.