Chapter Seventeen: Triage

Vex couldn't sleep.

Even cuddled up to Trinket, surrounded by his comforting warmth and the soft rumbles of his breathing, she couldn't make herself relax. Damn it, there wasn't time for her to lie here and sleep. There was no telling what The Righteous might be doing, might be planning. Trying to rest felt like giving up, like allowing them to build on their advantage and race forward with whatever their master plan was. What if they tried something during the night? What if they got into the Zenith? What if, while Vex lay here safe and sleeping, those motherfucking cultists got to Percy and tried to finish what they'd started?

Groaning, she buried her face in Trinket's fur, wishing she could banish those thoughts from her mind. She knew she and the others would be worse than useless if they didn't take some time to sleep. But for all her reassurances to Vax this morning—well, yesterday morning, by now—she secretly agreed with him. Sending Grog with Garron had been the right thing to do, of that she was certain. But that left only herself, Vax, and Keyleth to conduct this investigation: their team of seven reduced now to three. What else was waiting to split them up further? How thin could they spread themselves before The Righteous simply picked them off one by one?

A crossbow bolt pierces Grog's throat as an invisible assailant impales Garron with a sword. As they fall, the attackers signal to others, and six heavily armed cultists storm into the temple. Tharivol and Deora try to stop them but are cut down immediately. The cultists make their way to the hospital wing. Two enter Cassandra's room with daggers drawn. The rest kick in Percy's door.

Pike tries to fight back, but falls under a barrage of crossbow bolts. Too many.

One cultist steps up to Percy and prepares to slit his throat. With her last breath, thick with blood, Pike gasps, "Scanlan, no!"

A resounding boom tore Vex from her nightmare in a rush of adrenaline. Trinket jerked awake as well, with a snort and a snarl. Keyleth sat up with a yelp, clutching her thin blanket to her chest, and Vax leapt to his feet in the blink of an eye, daggers in hand. The moment seemed to stretch into slow motion, and an instant felt like an hour before anyone recognized the intruder.

Scanlan slammed the door shut behind him and pressed his back against it. "Hey guys, I'm home," he panted.

Everyone else relaxed—a little. "What's happened?" Vex demanded. "We weren't expecting you back so soon."

"Fucking True Sight, that's what happened," Scanlan bit out indignantly. "The Righteous saw through me almost right way. I barely made it out alive!"

Vax swore. "So you got nothing from them, then."

"Not nothing." Scanlan grinned and reached into his bag. "Before I made my daring escape, I managed to get my hands on—oh, no."

His smile fell and he froze, his face going white.

"What do you mean, oh, no?" snapped Vex. "What did you find?"

Scanlan pulled his hand out of his bag, and in it he revealed one tiny vial of sky-blue liquid—perhaps half an ounce of it all told—and several glittering shards of glass. He sighed and sagged with relief. "Oh, good, there's still one left. I think it's the antidote to their poison!"

"We should take it to the Zenith and have Father Tharivol take a look at it," said Keyleth. She yawned despite the crackling urgency in the air. (Or maybe Vex was the only one who felt that.) "What time is it, anyway? Is he even awake yet?"

"I. Don't. Fucking, Care," Vex snarled. She snatched up her armor and began to put it on. "Get dressed. We're leaving now."

By the time everyone was armored up and out the door into the half-domed amphitheater of the Lady's Chamber, the sky was beginning to lighten with the barest suggestion of dawn. Vex gave a curt nod to Keeper Yennen, already up and preparing for the morning's services, then led the others toward the Zenith.

As they approached, Vex found Captain Garron posted outside the door. Alone. Her nightmare came flooding back to her, and before she could think, she demanded, "Where's Grog?"

To his credit, Garron didn't react to her abruptness, and instead snapped a sharp salute. "Asleep, milady. Inside," he said. "He is due to relieve me in an hour. Shall I fetch him?"

"No, that's all right," said Vax. He glanced at Vex with a raised eyebrow.

Vex waved off his concern. Don't worry about it. Without another word, she pushed the doors open and strode into the temple and directly to the hospital wing. She seized the first acolyte she saw by the front of her robes. "Where's Father Tharivol?" she practically shouted in the girl's face. "We need to speak with him right now."

The acolyte flinched. "I-I must ask you to lower your voice," she pleaded softly. "Father Tharivol is tending to Lady de Rolo. He said he's not to be—"

Vex released her, turned, and flung open the door to Cassandra's room.

"—disturbed." The acolyte swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, Father, they—"

"Can you identify this?" Vex seized Scanlan by the wrist and dragged him forward, snatching the intact vial from his hand as he squeaked indignantly. She thrust it into Tharivol's face as he turned to face her with his perpetual sneering dourness.

"Perhaps," he said stiffly. He took the tiny vial from Vex and studied it. "Where did you get this?"

"Just tell us if it can help Percival and Cassandra," said Vax.

Tharivol muttered something under his breath, and his eyes flashed with arcane light. His whole demeanor changed in an instant: his brows shot up, his jaw dropped open, and his posture straightened as though a great weight had been lifted from him. "Dawnfather's mercy," he breathed. "Yes, this seems to be crafted specifically to counter the effects of the poison used on Lord and Lady de Rolo." He held the vial up to the light, and what hint of a smile had graced his features faded. "But…"

Vex narrowed her eyes as her initial surge of wild joy was doused by that last word as though by a splash of cold water. "But. What," she snarled.

"But the mixture is dilute. What you have here is only sufficient to cure one person." Tharivol glanced at each of them curiously. "Have you any more?"

Scanlan let out a long sigh and hung his head. "Not for lack of trying," he grumbled."

"That is unfortunate. If there is any more where this came from, I advise you to go and retrieve it. Quickly. It may be Lord de Rolo's only hope." Pulling the cork from the vial, Tharivol turned back toward Cassandra.

Without her conscious input, Vex's hand darted out and seized Tharivol's wrist. "Wait!" she cried. "What if we can't get any more? What happens to Percy then?"

Tharivol's expression softened, and he met her eyes with a look of utmost sympathy and compassion. No words were needed.

Blinking back tears, Vex whispered, "How-how much time does he—"

A dull thwack interrupted her question, and Tharivol's eyes rolled back as he slumped to the floor, unconscious. Vex barely had the presence of mind to rescue the vial from his slackening grip, and when she looked up again, she saw her brother standing over the priest's crumpled form, one of his daggers in his right hand with the blade pointing backward, a small smear of fresh blood on the pommel. He met her eyes, gave her a short, sharp nod, and held out his left hand.

Numbly, she gave him the vial.

Vax swept past Keyleth and Scanlan and out the door, and Vex followed, their protests barely registering on her consciousness. She knew what he meant to do. She knew what the consequence would be. But she also knew she couldn't stop him if she wanted to.

She didn't want to.

Pike, dozing in a chair beside Percy's bed, startled awake when Vax barged into the room. She rubbed her eyes as he approached, knelt, and poured the potion down Percy's throat. "Wh-what's going on?" she asked groggily. "Vax? What are you doing?"

Vax didn't respond, only watching Percy intently.

"Get his clothes," Vex whispered to Pike, without looking at her. Her voice came out small and distant. "He doesn't like to be—"

Percy coughed, groaned. Vex held her breath, hardly daring to hope even as his eyes fluttered open. (She had never seen a more beautiful shade of green.) The creeping necrotic lines retreated and faded from his skin. What little color he ever had returned to his face, and his ragged breathing evened out. His furrowed brow relaxed. She could practically see the pain receding from him as he stared up at Vax, and then his eyes locked onto hers. "Vex?"

She was by his side in an instant, running her fingers through his hair, smiling through the tears that finally fell and laughing as she sobbed. "I'm here, darling. You're all right. You're going to be okay!"

Percy pulled himself up to a sitting position, wincing as the movement pulled in his wounded shoulder. Pike hurried back to his side and laid his shirt and waistcoat in his lap, then touched his shoulder and muttered something under her breath. Her hand glowed with golden light… and the wound finally sealed itself and all but vanished, leaving behind only a thin white scar that was buried by the ones around it.

She turned to Vax, her whole face lighting up in astonished joy. "You did it!" she cried. "You found a cure!"

Vax grinned giddily back at her. "I can't take the credit for this one, Pickle. It was all Scanlan.:

With a squeal of happiness, Pike tackled Scanlan with an enthusiastic hug and planted a kiss on his cheek. "Scanlan, you're amazing!"

"Indeed." Percy cleared his throat as he finished buttoning his shirt and began to pull on his waistcoat. "Thank you, Scanlan. It would seem Cassandra and I owe you our lives."

Vex froze. The room fell silent.

Percy's fingers stilled on the second set of buttons, and he looked up very slowly, his face hardening. "Scanlan?" he said, his voice low and dangerous.

Scanlan wouldn't meet his eyes. "I… I'm sorry, Percy," he said. "I was only able to recover one dose."

"I see." Percy leveled an icy stare at each of them in turn. "And you bloody fucking idiots gave it to me."

"We weren't about to let you die, Percival," Vax snapped.

"So you've condemned my sister to death instead." He wielded the words like weapons, stabbing, his precise diction giving them a razor's edge. "Put yourself in my place, Vax'ildan. What if it was you or Vex? Who would you want us to save?"

Vax's face went white. "Percival, I…"

Vex swallowed hard. "Darling, that's not fair."

"You're right, it isn't." Percy glared at her, and it broke her heart to see the grief and betrayal on his face. "You don't have an entire city relying on you to lead it." He swung his legs off the side of the bed and stood, moving slowly and stiffly but pulling an aristocratic dignity around himself like a cloak. "I am going to see Cassandra. Alone."

Keyleth bit her lip. "Um. Percy?"

But Percy swept past her like a cold wind, without sparing a glance in her direction. "Alone," he repeated. "Right now, I don't want any of you near her." He paused in the doorway, and added without looking back, "Or me."