Vis (part 1 of 2)

“Quick, bring him into the healing pools…”

“Take him to the infirmary right now…”

“Help me! Anybody, please! Help me!”

Their shouts, the shouts of dying vis, is too hard, too painful to ignore.

People losing hope, losing life, surrendering life… Death rampant like an uncontrollable epidemic.

Screams, maddening screams of life sundering away, being consumed by horrors unimaginable.

If only we could do something. If only we could treat them all.

“Sir, we’ve got a patient awaiting your care. Other life mages are doing all they could to suppress the ebbing of vis, but its a losing battle. Sir, we really need your help.”

“Quick, take me to him now!”

This is one of the last bastions of life left alive. Others have mercilessly fallen to the uncontrollable hoard of undeath, constantly ebbing away at the life forces of our numbers in an unstoppable, exponential rate. We can only suppress them in vain. It’s painful to watch vis slip out of an innocent.

“My child, hold on…”

I took the child’s hand. His… Her… body has been reduced to a skeletal state, you can barely tell he or she was once human, or was once alive. The young innocent floated in one of our suppression pools, pure sources of the mana we have closest to that of life and healing. It’s below par, but its the only option we’ve got.

I rushed in beside the pool. The pool was filled with fresh water from an aquifer. Soon it too would drain up, and we have to find new source of mana to fuel our healings, or more aptly, suppressions. After a suppression has been done, the water that once filled the suppression pool would be so contaminated with death, it can no longer be used. This only adds to the gravity of the battle we cannot hope to win.

“Hold on my child”

A light blue glow emanated from my hands. I touched the child, channeling away undeath and holding back vis. She must survive…

The vis from her body was being pulled away, sucked out uncontrollably. I pressed my hand harder into her forehead, sending her into a fit of spasms. Her frail skeletal frame rocked violently, splashing water around her. Its as if undeath itself is fighting our efforts; and unfortunately, undeath is winning.

“My child, you will not die today!”

I pressed on harder, sealing off whatever vis she had left. She will survive this, she has too.

“Undeath, leave this innocent girl at once!”

Her frail frame jerked more violently than ever in all directions.

“My child, hold on! Be strong!”

Then she stopped moving.

I fell back first into the water, feeling part of my own vis draining away. At once I stepped away from the contaminated pool.

I drew as much pure blue mana from the pool, enough to allow me to check how much vis the young girl has left.

I turned my back. She was the fourth one today.

Sedraxis took another from our number. The land that once teemed with life now claimed one more.