The Teacher, The Student, The Companion, The Servant, and The Lover
Ardyn and Varric were at Elsa's side in an instant. Her beastkin form trembled; Varric lowered to her side, a curse on his lips.
"What have you done to yourself, Old Lady?" His hand moved over her body, and the thick yellow and green toxin began to leech out and move toward his hand.
Elsa's body trembled even more as the toxins were pulled from her. She let loose a soft moan, but she didn't regain consciousness. Her ethereal body shimmered before them as it helped in the healing.
The toxins moved out of her body like glistening slime and smelled like loamy decay with sickly sweet notes that oddly tickled the olfactory systems. As Varric drew them out they collected in a large glob within a magical bubble near Varric.
Ardyn moved closer to Varric, touching his shoulder with hers—their magic combined and began to flow forth. Ardyn's hibiscus of power rose over her soul plain, closer to her soul hibiscus. Her power washed over Elsa and began looking for a way to help her, faster and more efficiently.
Varric watched her magic work; he smiled as he shifted the group of three to a triage tent set up deeper in the sacred forest. His eyes watched the toxins, but his senses stayed locked onto what Ardyn did. Her magic was so familiar to him. It was like something he had known all his life but lost due to lack of usage. His scales tingled across his body as he felt something ancient within him resonate with Ardyn. It was something he had never felt or known before. It was a sensual completion, and he knew that he had to have it.
His heart thumped in his chest as their bond seemed to tighten even more as he began to understand just what she was to him. He understood that she had always been more than an acquisition, or even a blessing. Ardyn was a missing piece he had never realized was missing.
As they shifted, Ardyn watched her magic move over Elsa's systems. She saw the toxin that Varric was drawing out, but she also saw what the toxin was leaving behind. There were yellow and green globules moving through Elsa's magic systems and into her soul sea. They poured forth like a great waterfall, and Ardyn found herself wondering how so much could get into her teacher's system so quickly.
Just as they finished their shadow step to triage, Ardyn found the small piece of quill left just under Elsa's skin. It had broken off just under her thick tortoise skin, between her fine scales. Varric finished drawing out all the venom and he looked to Ardyn for what to do next.
"There is a small piece of quill on her side between her scales." Ardyn blinked and allowed him to see what she had seen. He nodded. "Allow Atina to get it. The toxin has left some sort of soul-magic poison behind. It is attacking her magical systems and soul sea as one. Help me clean it up."
Varric nodded again, and Atina stepped forward from the void without a word. Her shadow magic moved forward, and a petal on Ardyn's soul hibiscus shifted—Atina's magic expanded and contracted and underwent a metamorphosis.
[Void-Shadow Soul Light] was born.
Atina did not pause; her magic moved quickly, found the sliver of quill, and began drawing it out. It was quick work but tedious. Atina was breathing hard, and sweat was thick on her face, by the time she was done. Seraphis appeared behind her and supported her as Varric and Ardyn continued their work.
Varric's three-strand necklace had trembled on his neck. The shadow strands conducted the magic from the uncut, round battle-robe crystals embedded within them. Ardyn's rainbow soul gem had lit up brightly. Magic streamed from both magic-crafted pieces, and Ardyn and Varric's souls stirred as one. Their vision, intent, and power became one as they sought to save their teacher.
The ethereal magic moved forward and destroyed, absorbed, or changed the globules in Elsa's blood. Elsa's body glowed a deep violet-black as their magic cleaned every inch of Elsa's magical systems and soul sea.
Even as they worked, the globules left dead passages in Elsa's system, and the globules fought back like sentient, single-cell beings. Ardyn and Varric pushed their magic harder and further, and Ardyn spoke to Seraphis.
'Help my Teacher now. Use your dark touch.'
Seraphis no longer answered because he was a servant. Ardyn had become more to him—a source of power and completion. He came forward and did as he had been told without question and, like Atina, his magic changed. He reached into Elsa's wound with his dark magic, and a different petal on Ardyn's soul hibiscus trembled and Seraphis' magic vibrated subtly. It moved forward and drew the decay with it as it passed.
[Dark-Anti Soul Touch] was formed.
Seraphis cleaned the wound as Ardyn and Varric battled the globules.
Ardyn and Varric's magic moved forth and the venom byproducts rushed forward toward Elsa's soul sea. As Ardyn and Varric's magic rose behind the globules a silver wall of magic formed to stall them. It was shattered and their magic drew it in – leaving nothing behind in Elsa's systems and never letting up on the enemy.
As the three worked, the four cornerstones of Sidus Serpens began to settle and strengthen the foundation of the great ethereal realm. Their world was shifting, becoming, waking. It was time for Ardyn and Varric to stabilize Serpentia and take their places as two of the rulers of Sidus Serpens.