Two weeks have passed since the caravan returned to the capital.
While Watt and Kyll were in the care of physicians and priests, the rest of the team was set in a semi-active state, meaning that they were still in service, but they didn't receive any missions until their team returned to its former state.
But that didn't mean they had all those days for themselves, army command made sure that they had things to do.
Day after day, they served on the capital's walls and streets, serving as temporary guards. During that time, they got to know how hard of a job is to be a guard, a defender of peace and justice among the people. Not only did they need to solve citizens' disputes, while preventing any violence from occurring, but they also had to keep vigilance at all times to save an endangered life or catch a criminal on the run.
Only Adam liked the job, it was boring, but in contrast to straightforward killing performed by the army, the guard corps solved problems mainly by persuasion, sometimes by being scary, but if they had to resort to violence the guard corps were ordered to keep the criminals alive as much as their abilities allowed them, it suited Adam much more that army's approach, especially after the incident from two weeks ago
Adam still had a problem with blood, which made him unable to dissect and study corpses that arrived in his laboratory. That was a huge problem, while his aversion to killing only made him more inclined to use non-lethal attacks, fear of blood, a trauma hidden deep inside his mind that attacked at the sight of the red liquid was a serious obstacle in his research of magic
As of now, Adam was out of service, his shift started early in the morning and ended at noon. Right now, he was sitting in the Tower's library, looking through the books about fauna and flora.
Flora's part of these books mainly focused on Alchemy, an art that focused on making various concoctions and pastes that had many different effects. For example, one of the most basic stuff the texts talked about was potions and balsams enhancing and aiding in healing. These medicaments were used on Watt and Kell, maybe alongside the rare healing magic, by the priests and physicians to hasten their recovery. Of course, it was a description of effects and applications, not a method to prepare them. No one sane would place such a valuable recipe inside a book that lies in a library.
Suddenly, the library's doors flipped open with a bang, a person with a white apron barging inside.
"Is Adam Axigna here?!" He shouted.
A few of Tower's inhabitants that stayed inside the library at the time, including Cynthia, turned with curiosity towards Adam, who in turn stood up and approached the stranger.
"Here I am, what can I help you with?" He asked, curiosity mixed with worry clear in his voice.
"Come with me." He answered and took Adam by hand outside, in the direction of the exit. Then he continued. "I am an assistant working for Dr. Rew, Mister Derek and my employer sent me to find you and bring you to the clinic."
"Is the cat finally giving birth?" Guessed Adam.
"Yes, that's right."
Hearing that, Adam quickened his steps towards Dr. Rew's animal clinic, he knew where it was as he was the one to find the animal doctor.
The clinic was located inside a tall wooden house, on the outskirts of the main square. Adam entered the building and waited for the assistant to lead the way further inside. They walked through a reception a few corridors and headed upstairs. They arrived in a lobby before a room with a glass wall, ideal to observe what was happening inside without bothering the doctor at work.
Adam walked over to the glass and waved over to Derek who stood at the opposite side of the sheet, near a table at which the cat lay.
Doctor Rew was also inside the room, he turned towards Derek and said something, which was followed by Adam's uncle leaving the room.
"Hi, do you want to enter? Doctor says that it wouldn't make a difference." Asked the uncle.
"No, I will stay here. Do you mind if I bring a chair closer to the window?" Adam asked the assistant.
"No problem." The assistant answered.
Derek returned to the room, this time alongside the assistant, who came to help his boss. In the meantime, Adam did as he said and sat down on a chair, which he placed near the window.
The cat lay on the table, she was restless, looking around and trying to go into a corner of the room, she was held by the doctor in place.
After a while, she started to pant, The doctor let her go as she stopped trying to walk away and lay on the table, shaking around in discomfort. Then, she started contracting, She lay there on her side and her abdominal muscles were visibly moving.
Then, the next phase started, and fluid leaked from her rear end. Adam read a book while preparing himself for the birth of the cat, and knew that fluid leaking from the womb meant that membranes surrounding the kittens inside, ruptured and fluid oozed from inside.
After a few minutes, a bubble along with a head inside emerged from the cat's rear. The future mom pushed for several more minutes until the newborn escaped the confines of its mother's womb.
The doctor signed towards Derek so he would stay away, as the mother took off the membrane of her kitten, and then cleaned her baby.
Queen, as the book named the cat in labour, started to give birth again, this time, after all the pushes and contractions, a disgusting piece of meat emerged. Thanks to his research Adam knew it was the Placenta, an organ which gifted the kitten with nutrients, and air and kept it alive.
Shockingly The Queen started to eat it. The doctor didn't intervene, what's more, he stopped Derek from intervening. He said something to his assistant, who then proceeded to come outside.
"I've come here to ask you if you have any questions. Cat births are usually accompanied by a big pile of questions from their owners, so don't fear to have doubts." He said after sitting next to Adam.
"No, I've prepared myself. You would be shocked if you saw how many books on animal anatomy are in the tower." Answered Adam.
"OK, just in case, I will stay here so feel free to ask questions."
The situation inside the room returned to normal after a while, as the Queen continued to give birth.
That was a long one, the cat strained herself for a good half an hour before another kitten emerged. Then, the situation repeated itself, with one difference, the two newborn kittens were the ones to eat the questionable part of flesh this time.
Dr. Rew checked their mother as they ate, he laid his hand on her stomach, probably checking if there were any kittens left. He said something to Derek while the tired cat licked her children clean from the blood and other fluids.
That was the moment when Adam noticed that the sight of blood didn't bother him, he was so focused on the fate of the cats, that he didn't associate the blood covering newly birthed with death and murder, as he was doing before, even if not consciously.
He saw blood in new sight, those two kittens wouldn't get to live if their mother didn't bleed, The blood allowed them to live, empowered them, enabling them to breathe, taste, sniff and soon to see. It is no wonder that people use the word 'lifeblood' to describe something essential, bringing wealth and abundance of life.
Now Adam saw blood in a new light, and while it still marked moments of pain and death and was a universal symbol of evil, from a wider perspective it acted like a spy, an unseen caretaker plucking weeds from the kingdom and helping to keep order. As soon as the spy is exposed, it marks the weakness of the kingdom and its soon demise or downfall, but as long as the spy stays unseen, the kingdom prospers and develops.
While the comparison he thought of wasn't the best one, to describe the unseen workings of the blood. It still made him feel better.
The blood would remind him of death and murder for the rest of his life, but maybe now, it would stop haunting him.
With the birth of two new creatures, Adam was freed from the chains he bound himself with. Seeing blood in a new light did that much, for young mage's mental stability.