Tressa is going to be distress(a)d.

Cyrus peered around the inn room. He was alone. He drew out Gideon's Dagger. Although the rest of the party understood that Cyrus was doing his work and was not going to do anything evil, they still were apprehensive of some of his experimental ideas. Primrose had been using this dagger in combat for a while and she hadn't told Ophelia where it came from. He asked politely to borrow it today. He ran this experiment idea past Primrose and Therion to meet the prerequisite party/committee approval requirement.

He flipped open the book and began to try some tests to see if the dagger had any extra magical properties. It wasn't for a while until he got it to react with a bit of condor blood. Cyrus smiled and poured out the rest of the bottle into a bowl. With a bit of practice, he found that he could make the blood move a little bit. If Gideon had been able to do this to the blood of living creatures, Cyrus knew there would have been bigger problems than the skeletons when fighting him.

He poured the blood on a handkerchief and began to focus on drawing the blood out of the fabric. It was a small quantity, but cleaning spells would be nice considering what happened to white shirts in battle.

Cyrus heard a shriek.

He looked up to see the cleaning lady of the inn at the doorway. He looked down to the blood drops hanging in the air, at the bloody knife, then back up. "Er, good morning madam?"

Your reputation in Stonegard has suffered.

"What a shame my dear boy... A thirst for knowledge like yours would be such a terrible thing to waste..." Yvon marveled at how quickly Cyrus had translated and examined a reworked ritual. Huh, Dominic had left out that bit. He was not admitting Cyrus possibly knew more about blood magic mechanics than he did. "Apprentice yourself to me and I will overlook your little trespasses." Although Cyrus hadn't been studying this for 15 years, he had been focusing his work on much different aspects of this book and had a much more creative outlook. Yvon and Lucia scoffed at the footnote warnings and hazards Cyrus had added. (They would come to regret this later.)

"How kind of you... I refuse. I am, shall we say, philosophically opposed to your stance on knowledge. I believe that knowledge should be shared, not hoarded for one's personal gain." Cyrus kept leaning backwards to look up. The two villains were still being careful to remain out of sight and the pit was deep enough to be further than the range of Cyrus' magics.

"I thought you'd say as much. Most unfortunate, Cyrus... Most unfortunate. As you know, this is my house and I don't get many callers these days..." Cyrus racked his brain. He didn't like the part Yvon mentioned about starving to death. He knew a blood magic spell that might help with that, but then his companions would need to slay him like a rabid dog. He immediately wrote off other spells for similar reasons.

"Has anyone seen Cyrus? Therion?" Asked Ophelia. Stonegard was a nice little town and she had not been the person on 'Watch Cyrus to make sure he doesn't freak anyone out' duty so she had gone shopping. Tressa had, naturally come along.

Therion shook his head. "It wasn't my turn. Olberic, weren't you assigned to watch him today?"

Olberic said "I was sparring with H'aanit this afternoon, remember? Alfyn was with him today."

The group looked for the apothecary and found Alfyn treating some old man's back pain. "Sorry, I didn't mean to get all distracted but he was just talking to this guy, Dominic. I thought he would be fine for a bit."

Upon returning to Dominic's home, they found that no, Cyrus was not fine for a bit. As the group was looking around trying to find Cyrus, they saw a girl sprinting through town muttering about about ladders or rope. The group followed the pale-haired Therese without needing to say another word to each other.

The group found Cyrus just as he was getting ready to burn his notes to keep them out of Yvon's hands.

Chasing Yvon further down into the cellar meant that they would inevitably run into some apprentices. Cyrus was deeply disappointed to see fellow scholars turned to this foul work. Alephan would likely have failed them all on the spot and given them detention. Since this wasn't in the shrine, Cyrus would have to stand in and teach them a lesson.

Researchers I, II, and III smiled as they reached into their robes for their concoctions and bloodstones. They were confident that since they had been studying this stuff for years, they were superior at blood magic. They were correct in that they had studied a lot more about how to use the fell power of sacrificed lives to hurt their enemies. Cyrus, however, was about to show his specialization in the study of blood magic. He reached out to the arcane strands of power in the air and twisted them with a swift incantation.

He cast his own spell as quickly as he could but failed to warn Ophelia about what he just did. A researcher had pulled his stone out and set about activating it. Ophelia cast Luminescence at the exact same time as the researcher presented his stone with a curse. That curse spell turned to curse words the following second after Ophelia declared, "May the Sacred Flame shine forth!"

The blood stone melted and there was far more coming off it than Cyrus' first stone purification experiment. In an instant, the floor was covered with copious amounts of blood flowing out of the pockets and robes of the three enemies who were screaming just as loudly as the startled party. There was a mixture of confusion, horror, disgust, and terror. It was incredibly loud with the echo in the room. Whatever your favorite swear word is, rest assured that Therion was employing it. The seduced townsperson by Primrose fainted.

"Ophelia, what in the name of the gods was that?! Your magic never has done that before!"

"What new sorcery hath been wrought!?"

"I'm dead! I'm gonna die!"

"Why is there so much blood?!"

"Oh yuck, it's all over my clothes!"

"What did you do to my crystals?!"

The only person not screaming was Cyrus who glared at the researchers accusingly, "How many people did you slaughter for your experiments?!" He knew he could get the spell to work without the circle.

"I didn't mean to do that! That isn't supposed to happen!," said a panicked Ophelia before she remembered, "Wait, you said you would warn me next time."

The party all looked at Ophelia before they remembered about the purification experiment. The researchers looked down to the melted blood crystal puddles which were still flowing from their pockets. About nine people worth of blood now soaked their hands and robes. Their prized bloodstones were now completely gone. They all took one more look at the triumphant Cyrus before fleeing. Researcher II slipped in the blood and twisted his ankle going down the stairs yet did not look back.

Silence fell in the room as blood dripped down the stairs and the remaining people took in the size of the puddle.

"They killed way too many people for those stupid rocks," noted a stunned Alfyn.

"Agreed. We shall teach them a lesson not soon forgotten. H'aanit, you did bring that modified trap?"