The chief walked along a street, towards the lake. His long robe swept the road as he walked past the onlookers. Behind him were the prophet and the messenger. He kept bowing slightly with a smile at those he met along the way. In minutes time, he was at the hut where Eddie had been lain.
The hut only had two rooms. The door that led to the other was shut, leaving then with the one they were standing on. It had a bed embedded on a wall. A desk stood near the bed. On the desk were different kinds of vessels holding different kinds of things: from pens to herbs. Just above the desk, on the wall hung a few small guards. On the other walls were pouches of different sizes and materials. Near the wall opposite where the bed was was a bench. It was adjacent to the main entrance. At the edge of the desk was the door that led to the other room.
Eddie lay motionlessly on the bed. His breathing was slow but consistent. His eyes were tightly closed. If it were not for the heaving of his chest, one would have thought that he was dead.
"Great chief." The old lady was seated at the desk stirring a brown liquid in a glass. She did not even turn when the chief arrived but she stood to her feet and turned with a curtsey.
"How is he?" The chief asked with his eyes fixated on the young man lying on the bed.
"I have given him some herbs to stabilize his condition. I do not know how long their effects will last." Her tone was polite, but no way submissive.
"About the amulet, are you sure it can heal him?"
"I did not say it could, only that it could help." She shrugged, and explained when she saw their curious gazes, "His pain is caused by two magics intertwined at his chest. One is pernicious, spreading as it waits an element to finish him. The element is only to multiply the effects of what is already there severalfold. It kills him instantly, and even if he is to be saved, the damage that has been caused is hard to heal. The second one is explosive. It comes from within. Once invoked, it escapes his body through his chest with destruction.
"Once it is out, it leaves behind a wound, which can heal with time. I have checked his aura; he walks with the power of the painters. The healing would have taken just a day at most to completely heal. However, with the effect of what was initially on him, the wound is spreading like wildfire." She turned to the young man on the bed and slid the sheet that was covering him to his umbilicus.
His chest was blood red. The wound that had only been on one side of his chest was now covering his entire chest. It was a wonder what the old lady had done to control his bleeding and to prevent the sheet from being stuck on his wound. He was even sleeping soundly.
The three men almost jumped out of their skins upon seeing the condition the man was in. Even when they calmed down, their lower jaws remained lowered. "The entanglement amulet is only capable of stopping the spreading. After it has been stopped, there is only one person who can lift the mark that is aggravating his condition. This person, the last time I checked worked for the Celestial Witch. Those who serve that woman are anything but kind to other people." She went back to her seat and continued stirring her liquid.
The chief looked at Eddie pitifully. He wanted to say something but a notification from his phone stopped him. He retrieved it from his pocket and checked what was there for him. Upon seeing, his face distorted into sadness. A palm sized blue amulet, the shape of a leaf and the color of gold appeared on his palm. Its thickness was about an inch and from how he lifted it, it was heavier than it really looked.
"They are here and what they want is this amulet. I would rather use it to save a life than to give it to those brutes. I wished the mage was here before them, but the longer I wait, the sooner they will kill me and obtain it from my storage wristlet. They know I cannot keep it anywhere else where the finder they have cannot find it. If it is used on him, and it somehow acknowledges him, the finder they have among them might not be able to trace it. With it lost from them, it cannot be used for destruction." He handed it over hurriedly to the old lady as he explained. The prophet and the messenger nodded in realization. They agreed, it would better be used in saving a life than in destroying several.
She took it and rested it on the table with a nod, "It was crafted by wizards and a sprit painter. It may just acknowledge him."
"That better be the case. Let me see what they have to say, I will be back in a jiffy."