Back at Xianshi Inn, Natalie Brown, the ex-agent that once worked for Lady Vyn, finally got to meet her family locked up and held hostage by her former employer. For anyone else, this would be a warm and emotional reunion scene, but just not for Natalie Brown's own father, Herman Brown, a mage with limited power due to his injuries from when he was young, but well traveled and experienced to know that such a sweet reward did not come without a price.
"What have you offered to them?" after holding his daughter long and hard for a long minute, Herman Brown asked Natalie after wiping his tears away.
"Information." Natalie smiled with tears still running down her face: "Don't worry, dad, I am prepared to make this deal. I had to, I had no choice, for I've failed the quest I was sent here for. If I should return, not only will I be punished, you will suffer as a consequence as well. So this is the choice I made."
"Are you sure they're trustworthy?" Herman Brown asked: "How are you sure they're not just another Vyn-Hellinger family?"
"You're here, are you not?" Natalie held her younger brother and sister in her arms and smiled: "They could've just led me on, they could've kept both of us in the dark until they've forced almost every piece of information out of me. Looks like I bet on the right choice."
"My dear sweet Nat, I'm so happy." Natalie's mother could not stop crying: "I am so, so proud of you."
Just this moment, someone knocked on the door to Natalie's room, and the voice of Rash came through the door: "Ms. Brown, I brought tea and coffee for your family. They are on the house per Mr. Yu's orders."
"Thank you very much Rash, can you leave it at the door? I will grab it in a minute." Natalie cleared her throat and said.
"No problem. Mr. Yu told me to tell you that it's better while it's still hot. It will also cleanse the toxins that were forced upon your family. Also he told me to tell you that you should drink it while you're close to the bathroom."
"Toxins?" Natalie immediately sat straight and took a careful look at her parents and her younger siblings: "What - are you poisoned?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid so." Herman Brown answered: "You didn't think Lucias Vyn would just be keeping us there out of the kindness of her heart without a few extra insurance policies? "
"I'm cold..." just this minute, Natalie's younger brother grabbed some blanket off Natalie's bed and started shivering.
"Shit!" Natalie placed the back of her hand on her younger brother's forehead - he was burning up, and for some unknown reason, tiny dark veins started popping up on his neck, his face and his hand. She jumped off her bed onto the ground bare footed, rushed to the door and grabbed the tray placed on the floor with a teapot, a coffee pot, several cups and a bowl of random bite sized bakeries and snacks on it. She poured some tea into one cup and gave it to her younger brother, who then immediately drank it up like it was a cup of sweet soft drink.
"Thank you, Nat, I ..." Natalie's younger brother's shivering instantly got better, but before he could express his gratitude, his facial emotion changed drastically as if some sudden feelings of disgust and discomfort just stirred inside him and he leaned over to the side of the bed and started vomiting onto the carpet.
"Oh MY GOD!" Natalie's younger sister was startled by this violent reaction from just one cup of tea: "What the hell?!"
Natalie immediately put her hand onto his younger brother's back and used her magic trying to soothe him and to see what was going on with him - it turned out that he was not only having a reaction to the tea, but also to something that had been in his body for quite a while - the toxins Rash just mentioned, which was now being drained from him through vomit.
"Go, go to the bathroom and drink the tea." Natalie turned back and said to the rest of her family: "This tea is indeed detoxifying him, go, now!"
In just a few seconds, all but one of the reunited family of Browns were vomiting from the tea.
When Natalie's younger brother leaned back with a slightly traumatized look on his face, Natalie felt his forehead once again, and found that his temperature had gone back to normal, he was no longer shivering.
"How are you feeling?" Natalie asked, still concerned but mostly relieved.
"Hungry - like I've never eaten in weeks."
"I'll ask for some cake. They have good cake here, you are going to love it." Natalie gave his younger brother a hug.