Kasakh, the she orc waited while the three familiars conferred silently with their respective Chosen.

"Yes!" Xico shouted from above. "My Chosen says yes. We will help her and Anya's Chosen. My Chosen will get to fight orcs and I will get to fly here!"

Tania and Anya nodded to the orc confirming their Chosen's' decisions. It was a deal, they would help her get back home in exchange for whatever medical knowledge she had.

"Now tell us what you know of his sickness."

"What caused it? Tell me so I can make a better guess ... diagnosis," said the she orc.

"A poisoned knife."

"Poison? Knife? What kind of poison? Liquid or powder? What color? I can only tell he is suddenly weak and short of breath. There are many which causes those signs."

"Yes, it comes and goes. He was stabbed by a special orc blade. He was poisoned with it, a thick white milky liquid came out of the knife?" Anya felt silly explaining it to the orc. Of course there was no such thing. A knife was a knife. How could a liquid be hidden in it? But that was what she had heard, she hoped the green one would not think she was deranged or making fun of her.

Tania grunted in agreement confirming Anya's narration. The two familiars had discussed between them when Anya had overheard her Chosen talking about it with Valentine. They had compared notes and agreed to keep alert for any information or possible cure they may come across in their travels / dungeoning.

The half-grown orc's eyes widened in shock, her huge mouth hung open. Kasakh's strong reaction indicated her recognition of the poison. It gave Anya hope.

"I heard him say, nak? Naog? Naaugg zee vrrr?" Anya struggled with the foreign word. Her canine brain was not made to decipher weird foreign languages.

"Nauk-dzi vras," Kasakh said sucking in her breath. She fully understood the implications of the deadly substance. "The red black death. And he was stabbed by a special orc knife, the sacred Illaru? Who could be so cruel?"

"Yes! That is it, what you said. It exists?"

"Yes, it exists," Kasakh trailed off wonderingly, "... and he survived?"

Kasakh lifted her black beady eyes to stare at Lazarus. All at once, her respect for this puny human increased. She had seen him fighting against the poison. She was aware of the gradual pain and suffering the nauk-dzi vras could inflict. After all, she had personally seen Sharak's declining health as he suffered through the long drawn out phases. It had turned ugly at the end.

The Overlord's young son, the jaav ukon, had been poisoned too. Sharak, the well-known miraculous shaman had been tasked to save the boy or he would be sentenced to death.

The shaman orc had taken the poison himself to enable the effective study and testing of his concoctions. Sharak had drunk a small diluted bowl of it confident in his abilities to deal with the new poison. It was death either way for him, so he had no qualms as he downed the strange milky liquid. Then he tried everything to reverse its effects. Nothing had worked. Sharak could only create a partial antidote to reduce the pain and suppress the poison, prolonging the jaav ukon's life. He needed more time.

In the end, Sharak had concluded that the terrible nauk-dzi vras could not be cured, unless the impossible was achieved. He had written it down, his wild theory and hidden it. It was so insane it might actually work. Then he had spoken frankly to the Overlord.

To achieve the impossible, they had to do the unthinkable. And so, the Overlord had sent Kalthu, his surviving prince and the only orc he could fully trust on his suicide mission up the forbidden mountain and into the secret portal. Only the high council knew of this secret and how to activate it. Kalthu had undertaken the mission willingly after being briefed.

Regrettably, Sharak ran out of time before he could test out his crazy theory himself.

Kasakh had desperately tried to ease Sharak's pain, staying by his side until he died. Sharak was an orc and he had suffered greatly especially towards the end. The human race was weaker, they would suffer more. He would suffer more. The human would also die faster, he did not have Sharak's special poison depressant. She looked regretfully at Lazarus. Too bad.

The Overlord had been supplied with a large amount of the medicine for the young prince. However, now that the recent news of Sharak's death had reached the Overlord, the Stronghold was in an uproar. No one else knew how to make the medicines, except, maybe Kasakh. So word was sent out, to capture her and force her to make more. She had been hunted and in hiding for a week. She had to get back home.

Meanwhile, the courts' powerful necromancer had evoked a static spell on the jaav ukon at the Overlord's command. The young orc was sleeping the death sleep in his chambers, biding his time while his desperate father scrounged the lands to save his precious son.

"I am sorry, your human is doomed." Kasakh did not mention the poison's horrible ending. "There is no known cure for nauk-dzi vras."

----------

"This is not good."

"What?" Lazarus asked.

"You tell him."

"No, you tell him."

"No, YOU. He is your Chosen."

"Cut it out both of you. What is it? Anya?"

"The green one is being hunted by the grey ones. The grey one's master has a young one who is sick ... sick like you Chosen."

Valentine turned to look at Lazarus. "Tania, the grey ones are the Imperial guards? Warriors?"

"Yes. Green are not warriors, only the grey ones are. They are much stronger."

"And they are hunting Kasakh. Why?"

"They were also searching for the Banished One."

Anya continued, "Only the Banished One could have made the medicine to ease the poison but he failed."

"The grey one's master, their Overlord, king? His boy is sick like Laz?" Constantine frowned. "What do you mean?"

Suddenly Lazarus stopped in his tracks. He turned fully to face the startled trio. "Oh Gods! Their Overlord's son has been poisoned ... like me. He is going to die if he is not cured soon, isn't he?"

"WHAT!!" Valentine gasped.

"Then all hell will break lose."

"Yes, the green one said the Overlord even sent the handsome Prince Kalthu over in search of possible ingredients but he got caught in the war there."

"Kalthu, the prince?" Handsome? Kalthu's rough grey craggy face came to mind. Lazarus blinked and shook his head at the image. "Whoa, hang on for a second. Why did ..."

'You are not making any sense," Constantine interjected.

"Ugh, too much info here," Valentine was rubbing his forehead. "I'm getting a headache."

"Let me put it in a nutshell." Lazarus thought for a bit, "You mean to say that the Overlord's son was poisoned. Sharak took the poison trying to cure it because his life was forfeited if he couldn't cure the jaav ukon anyway, right?"

Kasakh nodded.

"Then the prince, Khaltu, the jaav ukon's elder brother?" Lazarus's eyes widened in realisation to another nod from Kasakh before he continued with his theory, "was sent to search for ingredients in our land?"

"That's when we came in," said Valentine. "Season One."

"Meanwhile Kalthu's younger brother is in a static spell sleep either waiting for a miracle or a slow death," Lazarus finished with a frown. "Sharak was working on something," he said thoughtfully, "he must have been on to something or he would not have sent Kalthu to our place. Then Sharak died," Lazarus finished softly.

"Not good."

"Aiiiyayai-yayaii! What a mess!" Constantine shook his head. "But you know, of all the orcs here, why look for her?" He jabbed his thumb at Kasakh. "We just met her by coincidence. The Overlord must know of others with better information on Sharak or whatever he was working on."

"No, there is no better person than this green one."

"Why?"

"Because she is his only child," Anya and Tania mind voiced in unison. "She is Sharak's only spawn."