One Year

Treatment (2)

The four men watched as Siri made the antidote for the Crippling Silver Petal. She had already gathered all the ingredients she needed so when Ryu found the Moonlight Silence she would be able to make the antidote right away.

In a pot she boiled water and raised the temperature to the pot until it boiled. When the pot of water started boiling, she lowered the flames until it simmered. The trick to the antidote was to cook all of the ingredients on low heat until all of the ingredients dissolved and it becomes a paste. Once it becomes a paste, she would roll a portion of it into a ball for Ryu to eat, while the rest, she would place it on top of his corrupted dantians.

Siri took out all of the measured ingredients and placed them one by one inside the pot, slowly stirring it, careful not to spill anything. With the Moonlight Silence petal, she placed it on top of a thin wire rack she specially made for this reason. She then place another wire rack on top, pinning it between the two.

Siri held on to the rack with special tongs that she had Ryu's blacksmith make and held the petal over the pot so the steam would breakdown the petal's essence slowly and drip into the pot of medicine. With one hand she held the wire rack above the pot, with the other hand she stirred the pot so nothing would be burned. If the fire was too much, she would ask one of Ryu's soldiers to remove a stick of wood.

One hour became two and when the second hour hit, the silver petal had turned blue. When Siri saw that the whole petal had turned blue she took chopsticks and extracted the petal away from rack when she opened it.

With the blue petal in hand, she stirred the petal into the concoction and by then, it had become a paste. Once she was satisfied that the paste was well mixed, she took it off the fire and laid it down to the side.

She used her chopsticks to divide a third of the paste for consumption, while the rest she let cool down. Siri washed her hand so it was clean and used her hands to shape the antidote into small, swallowable pills. In the end, she formed five pills for Ryu to ingest.

"Your hands." Ryu started to say when he noticed how hot the paste is.

"It's fine." Siri told him. "Little things like this, I won't get burned. I'm always cold remember."

Siri put all the pills into a little tray then boiled some tea. She put one pain reliever pill on the tray as well and filled a teacup full with tea. She then brought the tray to Ryu.

"Shall we begin?" Siri asked him as she stared at him straight in his eyes.

When Ryu didn't move or say anything, she decided to tease him instead.

"You dare not eat?" Siri asked, challenging him. But with her challenge there was her simple smile that told him she was teasing him.

Ryu scoffed at her and in one swoop, he took all five pills and the pain reliever pill and threw them inside his mouth. With his other hand he took the tea and drank down all of it's contents, draining the whole teacup in one movement.

"Good." Siri said before she turned around to grab the pot. "Now I need you to strip and lie in bed."

Ryu's eyes flashed at her with something she was sure it was lust, but as soon as she saw it, it disappeared.

"So I can put the antidote on your back to help heal your corrupted dantians." Siri said looking at him suspiciously. "The pills will purge out any poison and impurities from the inside, while the paste, I will spread on your corrupted dantians, would heal you from the outside."

"Oh." Ryu said as he signaled Liam to push him over to the small bed.

Siri ignored the awkward moment and followed them inside.

"Prepare yourself for a lot of pain. The pain reliever will help you as much as it can, but we have to be careful of how many you eat and digest. It will put your life at risk if you eat too many." Sir told everyone. "So only ask for it when you aren't able to endure anymore. Understand?"

"Yes." Ryu said as he took off his shirt and gave it to Petra to hold. Liam helped him into bed and Ryu lied down in bed with his back facing towards Siri.

Without anymore words of warning, Siri spread the antidote over his back. The regal eagle was quickly covered with the antidote. The moment it came into contact with his back, Ryu's body tensed as he bit the inside of his mouth to keep him from shouting out in pain. From the middle of his back, where his governing vessel dantian to this third dantian, located on the small of his back. Siri quickly spread the paste thinly, across his back.

When she finished she place the pot on the table, next to the bed and watched as Ryu groaned and tried his best not to move so much.

"What do we do now, Princess?" Liam asked as he stared at his General and Prince whom he served since they joined the army together.

"Wait. And watch over him. We can do nothing for him at the moment. This fight, only Prince Ryu can face it on his own." Siri told them.