Chapter 22

"How is this possible? What have you done to me? Are you sure?," Loreto asked anxiously and with an effort she pushed herself off the bed and sat on the border.

Instinctively, she touched her abdomen. The laparoscopy scars were still closed as before. She had no pain or discomfort in her core. Only the constant piercing in the back of her right hand bothered her. How long had she been unconscious? The sterile stench in the room twisted her stomach with anxiety. All eyes were on her. Nuada had arrived running to the room with his sister and a black-suited agent. The tall druids mingled among the lab white-coated doctors and remained grouped at the feet of her bed. Agents Sapien and Krauss were standing at each side of Loreto. The Prince was still by her side. He placed himself before her like a living shield and faced the rest.

"Answer," he challenged with an authoritarian tone. "What have you done to Loreto?"

One of the doctors walked to the opposite wall in the room where Loreto saw a work surface which reminded her of a laboratory. There were microscopes, flasks, test tubes, beakers, bunsen burners and electronic two-dish balances. Wearing rubber gloves, he removed a deep Petri dish from inside a small refrigerator and approached the Prince and her. He showed it with the lid on. Loreto didn't know what it was, yet her gag reflect watered her mouth at the content inside.

"This is a biopsy of the adenocarcinoma we removed from you," the doctor said. "Come with me."

Loreto tried to stand up, but for a single second the entire room turned around in circles. Nuada caught her in his arms and held her strongly by her waist. She clung to him, placing her arm around his back and they walked towards the small lab area. The druids, medical doctors and Agents Krauss and Sapien came near to watch. The doctor opened the small door of what seemed like a cross between a safe and a freezer. He entered the password, and the door released a click. Icy smoke emanated from the inside and spread through the surface to quickly evaporate. He produced a dish of similar dimensions. For a few seconds it was impossible to recognize what was in its interior because the condensation of the glass lid prevented vision. The doctor removed it and showed Loreto the content. It looked like a piece of moss of intense green and tiny vegetal hairs. The doctor dissected a sample of the adenocarcinoma and took a piece of moss with long tongs. He blended both samples separately and sucked out each of them with glass pipettes. In silence he gestured Loreto to the microscope, dubious, she neared herself to the eyepieces. The doctor poured a bit of the blended adenocarcinoma on the dish and next; he added some of the moss in a liquid state. What Loreto saw took her breath away. The substances reacted to the contact, a ballet of small particles from the second amount surrounded the first one at full speed. The blurry shapes of the first blended amount muted until completely changing their outside, then almost magically, they disappeared from the dish.

"What you see now is the cellular change," the professional said by her side. "This moss is the result of the Elemental's ichor. When it makes contact with the malignant tumour, its DNA copies itself to imitate carcinogenic cells and in a matter of seconds it destroys it from the inside."

"Agent Krauss ordered to take samples of the moss that grew from the Elemental's ichor," Agent Sapien added and looked at his German colleague.

"Judging by the analysis and tests we've done on the Elemental's ichor molecular and cellular structure, it seemed logical to me it could fight carcinogenic cells and that's how it has been," Agent Krauss said with solemnity and exhaled through his mechanical gills.

Loreto stood up in slow motion. Open-mouthed, she walked back to the bed. She let herself fall sitting on the border. She questioned everyone with her gaze. The forest god, the giver and destroyer of all life, had in its sap the key to eradicate cancer once and for all. The Prince had told her that specimen Agent Hellboy shot was the last of its kind. If they wouldn't have taken samples of its ichor moss when it died... The Prince arrived before her. The room was in utter silence. He raised her face by her chin and fixed his gaze with hers. Tears were piling up the corner of his golden eyes. Loreto also felt tears invading her and clouding her vision. He had perceived the metastasis inside her abdomen the previous late night. He had taken her immediately to his druids and had got the agency's help. Loreto shut her eyes tight and tried with all her strength to breathe in through her closed throat. The pressure in her chest was hyperventilating her.

"You saved my life," she sobbed in a choked whisper.

Nuada embraced her in his arms, trapping her against his chest. She clung to his back and let out the crying. In the background she heard the raspy deep voice of Agent Hellboy and that of Agent Sherman asking what was going on. Agent Sapien told what had just happened. Loreto released the pressure and separated from the Prince to look into his eyes.

"I owe you my life and I have no way to repay you," Loreto cried and took his big hands in hers against her abdomen. "Once you told me you were in debt with me for having helped you to escape this torture," she threw a look to Agent Krauss and ran her eyes over the rest of the special agents. "Now it is I who's forever in your debt but my forever is not as long-lived as yours," she lowered her head and sobbed in silence. "If I'm lucky I'll live to become a hundred years old and when I'm a grandma all wrinkly and hunched full of other diseases and by then I haven't been able to repay you even in part what you've done for me, what will I do? I have no power to change the situation of your people, I'm just a singer!"

The Prince hugged her again, this time he wrapped her with all his body. She heard him sobbing, almost choking. She buried her face in his dark coat and deeply breathed his intoxicating perfume which, like a protective caress, soothed her anxiety for an instant. She should have been jumping for joy and relief. She was lucky. Too lucky. If she would have never involved herself in the operation to catch him, she would have never known Nuada nor his people, the elves. She would have never known of Bethmoora. Now she would be under an invasive chemotherapy treatment, losing her hair and weight to the bones for the tiny hope of stopping the metastasis progress. How many people died of cancer in an hour around the world? Nuada squeezed her even harder against him. He was reading her thoughts. And suddenly she remembered. She separated from him and faced him, stupefied.

"Didn't you tell me the descendants of the Elemental, the forest demigods, have similar properties but in lesser intensity?," Loreto said and questioned with her gaze the group of druids and Princess Nuala, too.

The elves looked at each other and nodded.

Loreto burst in laughter like an epiphany. She walked to the center of the room.

"Don't you realize what you have in your hands? Humans would give anything for the definitive cure for cancer. Your Highness," she spoke to the Princess, "Nuada, you have the upper hand. Negotiate the return to the surface for Bethmoora with the cure for cancer as the bargaining coin!"

The twins looked at each other and then to the druids. The special agents also exchanged looks and remained quiet.

"Little one," the Prince whispered and with a sad half smile drawn on his lips caressed her cheek, "what would stop humans from taking our forest demigods by force once they learn of their properties and powers?," he said with sorrow in his voice. "With the Golden Army forever dormant, we have no way to defend ourselves against their missiles and bombs. What would stop humans from oppressing us like they do with animals and take what they want from us?"

"The map with the location of the Golden Army," Princess Nuala blurted out loud and approached both of them. "Only those of royal blood can access the royal chamber of Bethmoora. We could move our forest of the Elemental descendants into the depths of our original home. The only one beside us who would have access would be Anung Un Rama for being the son of the Fallen one," she said and looked at Agent Hellboy.

The agent was suddenly conscious that all eyes were laid on him.

"I'll drop by whenever I'm in the neighborhood, I guess," Red said with sarcasm and reluctantly extended his stone hand.

"We don't know whether the forest demigods ichor will produce a similar effect in human carcinogenic tissue as what was achieved here today with the Elemental's," said one of the druids.

"With Your Highnesses' permission, we could take samples of the specimen planted beneath New York and bring them here for analysis, comparison and tests," Agent Krauss suggested.

"To drain the Elemental descendants indiscriminately will end up killing them," added another druid.

"It wouldn't be necessary," Agent Sapien said, "our scientists could synthesize its molecular and cellular structure."

The Prince walked away from Loreto and towards the room exit door. He took the knob in his hand and opened it. He turned around one last time.

"Before doing anything, we ought to make sure our forest demigods won't suffer under such interventions," he said with authority. "Only if their ichor can be emulated artificially with the same properties and if it acts similarly against the disease that almost kills Loreto, shall I act accordingly and consider this idea," he looked piercingly into her eyes. "I would rather see Bethmoora fade than be subdued by humans. I will not make the same mistake my father did. I know the human race better than they know themselves. If they attempt to oppress us and take away from us the last thing we have, I shall not have any mercy."