Hello everyone, and welcome back to Before KH: Shadows!

Creativity: Also, allow us to apologize for our prolonged absence. We didn't run out of material, but things just... happened. Okay, things happened for weeks two and three. Week one, we have no excuse for.

Author: Yeah, April 30th we just forgot. As for May 7th, we've got a good excuse there; Wisdom Teeth. Good god, getting rid of Wisdom Teeth...

Creativity: Good thing that only needs to be done once... eugh...

Author: Honestly, the op wasn't that bad. It was the liquid diet and being knocked on your ass for a whole week after that sucked! Oh, and it's so weird not being able to feel your face! I thought my mouth was just shoved with too much gauze afterwards, and it turns out that, while there was some gauze, most of what I thought was gauze was just my own tongue! Oh, and you have no frame of reference for how to get liquids into your mouth! I needed someone to walk me through how to drink water and it's weird!

Alright, rant over. May 14th we were occupied with Mother's Day (best damn eggs benedict and florentine I've ever made, *not so humble brag*), and now I think we're all caught up. Where were we...

Creativity: We were about to plug the Discord server, at password this: 5RRcGwh

Author: Well, yes, but I meant in the story. Now where were... Ah yes! Ryo had just fallen mysteriously ill after a horrific vision in the king's collection of relics! Now, let us resume.

Without further ado, allow us to proudly present chapter 16 of Before Kingdom Hearts: Shadows!

Veris and the queen's rush through the castle was met with several shocked and stunned looks from the palace servants, but the pair couldn't pay them any mind.

"Explain everything!" The queen commanded as she threw open the door to the palace infirmary and marched over to the occupied bed. Veris hurried along beside her as she tried to get a good look at the figure on the cot. It was hard, as there were healers and magicians swarming it, but she could vaguely make out her friend's prone form at the center of the crowd.

"According to Jorge, he had been walking strangely when they called to him. When he turned around, he already looked quite sickly. He collapsed shortly afterwards." One of the magicians briefly explained.

"What is he ill with?" The queen pressed, only to get an uncertain headshake.

"The only symptoms we've identified are extreme weakness and a high fever. We're applying ice to try and keep his fever down, but we still don't have a definitive illness." The magician replied.

"Could this be a relapse from his affliction with the Curse of Wrath?" Another wondered, only to have the queen shake her head.

"No one else has had a relapse of any kind before. This is something else."

"We haven't ruled out poisons, mundane or mystic." Another opined, and while the queen didn't shoot that one down immediately, neither she or Veris were all that convinced.

"We haven't seen any entry wounds to indicate being injected or otherwise poisoned by a dart or blade, meaning it would have to be edible or vaporous." A healer muttered.

"Or inflicted magically." A magician added.

"Who would want to poison him though?" The queen inquired. Veris couldn't say for sure, but the queen almost sounded accusatory. If it was though, it was swiftly banished from the atmosphere as the queen pressed onward for a diagnosis, turning to Veris.

"You and your friends have seen him the most prior to him ending up like this. Can you think of anything unusual in his routine or behaviour?" She asked.

Veris' mind raced as she tried to think of something, anything to help explain what was going on. There should have been some signs that he was getting ill! He'd looked perfectly fine when they'd all been having breakfast that morning! Sure, he looked a little more tired than usual, but that didn't suddenly turn into this in a few hours!

"Tired…" She suddenly realized.

"I think he's been having nightmares, recently." Veris blurted out. The magicians' eyes fell on her.

"Nightmares?" The queen questioned. Veris nodded.

"Every night for the last week or so, I think. I asked about them before, but he brushed them off, and it didn't look like they were affecting him this badly…" Veris rambled, only to be hushed by the queen.

"I can't say I've seen him as much as you have, but I have to agree that he didn't seem to be showing signs of ill health until now." The queen concurred. "Is there anything else? Any oddities in his behaviour or mood that can serve as clues?" She pressed. Veris searched her memories, though she unfortunately couldn't dredge anything up, aside from the nightmares. Perhaps Garren or Barkos knew something, wherever they were in the castle.

The queen frowned as she turned back to Ryo.

"We may just have to keep him as stable as we can and hope that he's strong enough to fight this illness on his own." She muttered, clearly not satisfied with the possibility. "Keep him alive, monitor him at all times, and make sure to note any symptoms he or anyone else in close proximity to him. We need to know if this is contagious."

All of a sudden, Ryo started to groan in discomfort.

"Your majesty? Something's…"

The magician was cut off as Ryo's groan built to a pained yell as purple sparks began to dance across his body in growing frequency and intensity before a black and purple pulse erupted from his body, throwing every near him back three feet at least, save Veris and the Queen, who were protected by some sort of energy barrier that had materialized between themselves and Ryo. Veris' eyes flicked between the queen's outstretched hand, glowing the same shade of electric blue as the shield, and Ryo's prone form. He'd grown quiet and was still breathing, but he looked more pained than before. She couldn't tell if it was sweat, meltwater or tears that were starting to drip from the outer corners of his eyes. There was also a slight shudder in his fingers and wrists, which Veris didn't think was from the cold or fever.

"What's happening to you…" Veris whispered in helpless horror. The queen now had a darker look on her face.

"Take him to another room. Monitor these surges, whatever they are, and keep the number of healers and magicians working on this to only those who have been in the room already. No word of this gets breathed to anyone who doesn't already know without my express permission. Am I clear?" The queen ordered.

"Yes, my queen." The healers and magicians all answered and immediately got back to work. The queen turned and caught one of the magicians working on Ryo. "Come with us." She ordered before she swept out of the room, Veris and the other magician in tow.

"Escort her back to their room, then go find our other two guests if they aren't already there." The queen instructed the magician, who simply bowed in acknowledgement.

"What are you going to do?" Veris asked, briefly kicking herself for neglecting her manners. The magician looked ready to remind her of them, but the queen didn't seem to notice, as she kept on marching. The magician seemed to pick up that this wasn't the time for a lecture and backed off.

"I need to speak with someone. I don't know if they can help, but we need whatever we can get right now." The queen muttered as she strode off, leaving Veris behind and equal parts lost and scared {find better terminology}. Veris took a shaky breath as the mage she had been left with began to escort her back to the group's room. She wasn't sure where Garren and Barkos were, but given it was getting closer to lunch time, she hoped they'd be there. If they weren't, well, hopefully it wouldn't be too hard for the magician to track them down.

"What's happening to you…?" Veris asked miserably as she returned to the group's shared quarters. Whatever had happened to Ryo, it didn't feel like a sickness, and it didn't seem like a poisoning, physical or magical. And what were those purple sparks about?! Was Ryo afflicted with some other curse? Had he been carrying it since her father found him in the mud all that time ago? What else could it be?

Questions whirled around her head in a tangle of noise, building and building until she stumbled straight into the door to their room, head first. That did something to dissipate the noise, but not for long as Veris slowly pulled the door open and stepped inside. The sound of the door latching shut echoed loudly in her ears.

"Hey Veris, back for lunch?"

Veris hazily turned her gaze to Garren, who was sat at his temporary desk, reading a book. Barkos was not too far away, doing the same, though he seemed to notice that something was wrong as he set his own book down and rose from his chair.

"Everything alright?" The bookish hunter asked, concern written across his face.

"Something's wrong with Ryo…" Veris started numbly before she managed to reign herself in enough to elaborate. "He's sick; we're not sure with what, but they were floating around the possibility that he's been cursed."

"Shit, not that Curse of Wrath thing again!" Garren swore as he slammed his book shut and shot to his feet. Veris shook her head.

"No, it's not the Curse of Wrath, but it could be something else. He's running a fever, he's really pale and he's unconscious, but that's just physical symptoms. He's… sparking."

"Sparking?" Barkos noted sharply.

"Yeah… It's not constant, but every once and a while, purple sparks start jumping across his body before… It's like a shockwave. It's enough to toss someone off-balance." She elaborated. Barkos frowned as he began to pace.

"You said it was purple, not red like those monsters he got caught the Curse of Wrath from… You don't think one of the magicians here cursed him, do you?" Barkos growled. Garren seemed to be seriously considering the possibility, but he didn't seem convinced.

"I don't think the magicians are at fault here. I mean, why would they curse Ryo? After all, you're the one getting private magic lessons from the queen. That would at least give us a motive in resentment and/or jealousy." Garren argued.

"And, this looks like something the healers, magicians and queen haven't seen before. Purple sparks screams magic, so if this was some sort of curse, poison or prank gone wrong, you'd think they'd be able to find something." Barkos agreed grimly as he continued pacing.

"So, what is it?!"

Veris's outburst silenced the room.

"He's dying in there! How can this just suddenly happen?!" Veris choked out. The other two fell silent for a moment, knots of dread starting to form in their guts as it began to sink in how serious things were for their friend.

"He's got the healers and magicians of the court attending to him. Between those two camps, Ryo's got the best odds of anyone, under the circumstances." Barkos eventually said. It wasn't a great reassurance, but it was something.

"Wait… I don't think this is a new thing."

Veris' and Barkos' eyes both jumped to Garren, who was now staring intently at the ground as he rubbed his temples, clearly trying to focus.

"Back in Woodfell, I remember one time I was collecting wood and I saw Ryo off the path in the woods. He was hunched over like he'd just been sick, but he seemed to get better pretty quick and when I saw him later, he was helping Barkos bring in a kill like it was no big deal." Garren recalled. "It's not much to go on, and there weren't any purple sparks that time, but…"

"Wait, I think you're right. Sometimes when he'd come back from training in the woods behind our house, he'd look kinda pale, but it never lasted long. It wasn't very often, maybe twice or three times a year, but…" Veris realized.

"Something pre-existing that's caught up with him?" Barkos wondered as his face scrunched up in thought. "If it's stress-based, then everything between Woodfell and our arrival in Radiant Garden would serve an excellent trigger. Cap that off with suffering a curse, and that's a recipe for disaster."

"We should tell this to the healers. If it can help them, they need to know!" Veris decided before turning to leave, only for Garren to stop her.

"We're only guessing here, let's not jump to any conclusions and possibly make things worse." He argued.

"We can't just sit here and do nothing! we need to help him!" Veris shot back, only for Garren to cut her off as she went to argue more.

"We can't! The healers and magicians can, but we can't help him now." Garren lamented definitively. Veris went to argue back, but couldn't find any words.

"It hasn't even been a few hours yet. They'll get it under control and start fixing him before the day is out, you'll see." He reassured, though the sentiment didn't reach his eyes. Veris wanted to argue back, but no words came to her. She was even more trapped than before.

The wait was agonizing. Garren and Barkos were both pacing while Veris sat at a desk, index finger scratching at the surface. Eventually, Barkos sat down and started writing in a small book. Garren kept pacing, arms crossed and eyes focused intently on the ground. Veris had stopped scratching at the desk and was instead playing with fire. A fireball about the size of a walnut hovered above her hand, casting a flickering crimson glow across her face, reflecting small tear tracks that would be otherwise unseen. The fireball slowly moved in circles above her palm before it shrunk and began to slowly weave between her fingers before it returned to her palm and she suddenly squeezed it shut, as if crushing the flickering light within her fist. She took a deep breath through her nose at let it hiss out through her teeth.

A knock at the door had each of them scrambling before Garren quickly pulled it open. On the other side was one of the court mages, wearing a grim face as she waited for an invitation to enter the room.

Garren quickly closed the door once the mage was inside and turned to their visitor.

"Is he okay?"

"Do you know what's wrong?"

The mage held up her hand to forestall further questions before taking a deep breath.

"Your friend is alive, and is becoming more stable. However, we currently do not have a definitive diagnosis for what has gone wrong." The mage informed them.

"What about those purple sparks? Does that tell you anything?" Veris pressed, only for the mage to shake her head.

"They do tell us that whatever ails him is likely magical in nature, but that still leaves plenty of possibilities. We can however rule out all known mystic poisons." The mage continued, only to be interrupted by Barkos.

"How does purple sparks not narrow it down?" He exclaimed, only for the magician to glare at him.

"Because, the only form of magic known to be associated with purple involves the manipulation of gravity, which I can assure is not what is occurring with your friend." The magician growled back. "And before you ask, we know this because he has neither increased in weight, decreased in weight, nor does he appear to be pulling inwards upon himself and crushed from the inside out. So far, his only symptoms are outward pulses of energy and a fever." The magician further detailed, clearly frustrated with the teens' questions and doubts. They did look a bit ashamed for snapping though, and quickly composed themselves before continuing.

"It's entirely possible that your friend is afflicted with something never recorded before, which needless to say is going to make things much more difficult to diagnose, let alone treat." They summarized, before taking a breath. "That said, we believe that we will be able to manage his symptoms and hopefully he will have enough strength to fight it off on his own." The magician concluded before she turned to leave.

"For what it's worth, the queen seems to have an idea as to what is wrong with your friend. She has sent out summons for a specialist of some kind, and they should arrive within the next couple of days or so." She said in farewell before departing.

"Sending for a specialist?" Veris wondered aloud.

"That does sound somewhat promising." Barkos realized as he mulled it over in his head. "If she only sent for one specialist, rather than several, it means she's reasonably certain of something related to Ryo's sudden turn and wants someone more knowledgeable about that something to confirm her suspicions."

"I just wish we knew what it was." Garren grumbled as he started pacing again.

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough." Veris murmured as she looked out the window as the sun began to set, casting the sky blood red. Once it would have been a beautiful sight. Now it felt ominous, or mocking.

And that's where we'll leave it for the day.

Creativity: Wow. We've got work to do to make sure we're all wrapped up in time for the big finale.

Author: Indeed we do! Better hop to it.

In the meantime, thank you for reading, please review, hope to see you on Discord and we'll see you next time!