Nikalia was immediately concerned when Spot started howling. Her grip on the silkling that she was petting tightened and it snapped at her. It was probably hoping for another treat and then it would behave again but she put it down and it looked up with a devistated gaze, begging for attention.
The Arachne sprinted up the stairwell, grabbing onto the bannisters and climbing the void between the stairwells. She reached the top and found Taramo to be breathing but shallowly. He was also unconscious.
"Spot, tell Ariwyn quickly!." The wraith darted out of the room and broke through one of the stairwells while rocketing down to the bottom floor.
She did a brief diagnostic and found he was not poisoned and had no traumatic injury, only a few splinters when he slumped against the partially rotten wood wall. She webbed her pinky finger and gently plucked the wood out while she was considering how to get him down.
Outside the building would be marginally quicker but she wasn't quite strong so the chance that she would drop him was greater than nothing. She was considering webbing him to her torso to burden her arms less when three guards, the gate contingent, called from the stairwell.
She hoisted Taramo over her shoulder and stumbled to the stairs, laying him on the floor of the top flight.
The guards were edging their way around the hole on the landing that went through two levels of the building.
"Taramo is unconscious," One of the guards nearly fell when she called that out, "I need your assistance to get him to the goddess."
The other two had saved the young guard and left him to catch his breath while they ran up the stairs and bypassed the other hole.
The guards could easily carry Taramo once they'd commandeered a fine bench that had a decent backboard to hold Taramo on by Nikalia's webs but the holes would be impossible to bypass normally. They used the silk that the arachne had gathered from the silklings and tied it to the board around both ends and two of the guards with Nikalia lowered his body to the young guard, who disconnected the web rope once it was secure on the landing.
Ariwyn arrived when they were leaving the stairwell on the main floor like a galloping sea star. The guards flinched when she threw her pot onto the space on the stretcher and it cracked but she was heedless and immediately started a much more in depth medical scan.
"Something's pulling his mana and hiding it from his use." She gave the diagnostic to Nikalia after they arrived at the shrine room, shared by both Taramo and Lady Aria. She glared at the patriarch before he stood down. How a plant stared someone down Nikalia couldn't explain given she was preparing Taramo's bed for him.
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He was let on the bed and the guards departed, leaving the plant and the arachne to tend to Taramo.
"How do we find out what the source was?"
"That is no issue. I know exactly where the problem is, only not how to remove it." Ariwyn replied, then went silent for a moment.
The door slammed open and Spot came in with Taramo's wand. He dropped it on the table and curled up at the foot of Taramo's bed and whimpered. Then Ariwyn continued
"What do you know about Adras and his System?"
"Well he's one of the neutral gods that gives improvements to those who participate in the system and contribute to it."
"He was one of the original archmages. His system is designed to be neutral but it can be turned to attack. What would happen if someone attacked a priest of Adras?"
"They'd lose any progress with their system."
"What if they never existed in the system, or decided that the lost progress was acceptable?" Ariwyn gave Nikalia time to think about it, but eventually answered herself.
"If someone does something particularly bad to Adras or his people it is possible to add detrimental effects. Any boosts and improvements are spells and glyphs that are integrated into the target's mana. Some spellcasters can use similar methods to reduce the efficacy of their enemies, but with the System in use it is possible to have a permanent debuff. Taramo has a ludicrously high mana drain debuff active which syphons the mana away from him before he is able to consciously use it. There is also a failsafe that will cause significant destruction if his access to the system is terminated in any way."
"Then what can we do?" Even though he might wake up, having no access to mana would be debilitating for him and they risk death to remove it.
"I simply need to get good enough to sever the system without making any mistake. I have one subject to test on but I will need more. Can you get some?"
"Couldn't we appeal to Adras and have him reverse it?" This abuse of the system was obviously targeted and broke all sense of neutrality.
"We could, but the only access here is through the conduit, the Priest of Adras. Without his permission and involvement no attack of this kind could occur. And if it did happen then he would be in charge of ruining the betrayer. The problem being that he probably has chosen sides and will want to make sure anyone who could share his misdeeds would not be able to."
Another knock was made on the doorframe. The patriarch was outside, patiently waiting outside the audio wards.
"Fine, come in" Ariwyn clipped.
"I have bad news." He began. "I received word from the new group of immigrants that have your alchemist. They have been besieged at the outpost we made in the middle of the journey. Six Silver Chain goons are blocking their way and they have a spellcaster, a necromancer. It would take three days to reach them and they will run out of food in five. We need more security to make sure that they arrive safe and my men are already doing double shifts. If your archpriest needs the alchemist we need more firepower. Our only others available are you two."
"I'll deal with them." The arachne's mouth split in a vicious grin, "Would six test subjects be enough?"
"If I must, I will make do."
There will probably be a big block of action that I don't want to split up. How would you prefer I work it out?
