Misha exhaled as he finished putting together the last list of expenses for the month. It was already late into the night and he had once again surpassed his limits but his body was growing weaker and he knew that one day, it would no longer be able to keep up with the strenuous load it had borne for so long.
He stood up, the chair dragging across the floor as he did. His sleeping quarters were located on the highest floor of the palace, just one above where Winter's. It had also been the place he had spent most of his life- first as an aspiring scholar, then as a researcher and in present day as an administrative worker. Time had gone by without sparing anyone's feelings and without remorse but the room hadn't changed in all those years. He could still see the same moon from the window and listen to the same wind rushing by.
As he exited the study and began heading for his room, he felt something distinctly wrong in the air. It was a spine-chilling sensation amplified by the complete silence around him. Misha found himself naturally stopping at Winter's floor. He prayed with all his might that it was his imagination, old age catching up to him and making enemies out of shadows but- there were no guards. The floor was empty.
"Winter." He sprinted towards Winter's door. His lungs felt like they would explode with the strain. From the stairway, Winter's door was at the very end of the long corridor. Its purpose was to make it harder for intruders since there was only one entry which doubled as the exit. In that situation, it also made it harder for help to arrive in time.
He finally reached Winter's door, tucked into a corner which protruded outwards. The door was locked. "Winter!" Misha called out but there was no reply. With no other choice, he held his hands against where the lock was and the wood dissolved, melting away into a molten red substance. Doing so only exhausted him more and he was gasping for air when he pushed the door open. There lying on the ground, face as white as the snow was Winter.
"Winter..." He bent down, grabbing Winter's arm and feeling for a pulse. There was none. His face was contorted into an expression of pain. His eyes were blank and there was bluish-white colouration around his mouth and at the tips of his fingers. There was no doubt about it- he had been poisoned. Aside from a small spot on his neck which must have been made by the needle, the only other injury he sustained was on one of his hands which had been completely battered.
"Winter." He found himself repeating the words as if that would make the lifeless body in front of him wake up. He felt his eyes well up with tears but he suppressed them, unwilling to give up. It was unimaginable how something like that could have happened but there was no time to think about that. He had to find a way to revive Winter somehow.
He racked through his decades worth of memories in search of any knowledge that could prove useful. A random piece of trivia, a passing comment from a healer, the odd saying of a potion maker- something, anything that could help him in that situation.
'Magic currents.'
The word came to him like a knife from within the fog.
'Did you know that if you connect a person to the currents, it'll amplify their abilities?'
'Don't be ridiculous, they can only amplify their life force not their abilities.'
'Tch, you have no imagination! Hey, do you think...a person with a blessing will have even more amplification than normal?'
'That's impossible. Blessings can't be proved.'
It was a futile, last ditch attempt but with Winter still lying cold on the ground, it was the only thing he could think of. Magic currents were a legend albeit one of the more popular ones. Finding a magic current was hard but tapping into its energy was even harder. It was said that throughout history, only one person had fully tapped into those powers. Some sort of hero. Allegedly, that hero had left behind a book for emergencies explaining how other people could do the same.
Firstly, one had to find the magic current which only runs in places far from the ground like on mountains. Then, the magical ability of one person had to be transferred into the origin via a beaker and mint stone- a place marked as a sort of location finder for magic currents. The origin would extend its signal to the surrounding area and lit up any spots with high magic concentration aka the magic currents. The final step was the hardest one no because it was complicated but because it was entirely dependent on luck. No matter how complicated the other steps were, they had a process- a means of achieving it. The last one had no reason. Or maybe it did but they hadn't figured it out yet. The hero's book had been torn into shreds a long time ago- only traces of the instructions remained.
The final step required the person to be connected to stand in the magic current. If they could resonate with the current using their internal abilities then the current would seep into them- boosting the energy within them by millions of times.
Without sparing any more time, Misha dragged Winter's body to the stairway and carefully pulled him up the stairs. His strength was limited but he knew he had the energy to try this last measure. No, even if he didn't have the energy he would find it from somewhere.
Now that Winter was at the highest possible place, Misha got to setting up the scenario. He picked the table in the center of his room to be the origin. He used an old vase which was said to have high magic containing ability as the medium through which he would direct his energy. Before beginning, he mixed the elixir he had stored away years ago. It was the kind of elixir that had no expiry date and which could only be used in memories. It would temporarily stop all bodily functions for about 1 minute. Its purpose varied from being used in medical procedures to stopping enemy generals but Misha fearing that the poison would interfere with the procedure, planned on giving it to Winter.
It didn't take much longer to finish setting up. Taking in a deep breath, Misha cut open his palm- allowing his blood to flow freely into the vase and directing his energy into it. The mint stone- a somewhat common but dull stone- was already placed inside the vase. Misha winced as he continued to lose blood. Blood was not a necessary part for the procedure but because he was too weak to consciously direct his energy, he needed a medium of transfer and blood was the most suitable one. After a few more seconds passed, the mint stone lit up and emanated a strange glow. Looking around desperately he saw different points in the room light up.
Grabbing a cloth from the side, he wrapped it around his palm and dragged Misha to the brightest spot he saw. Putting the body at its center, he rushed back to continue the process- knowing full well that the point of his step was only to detect the magic current. The rest had nothing to do with him.
The elixir he had given Winter would have run out already- restarting his body's clock. Clutching onto the half-wrapped bandage like a lifeline, he waited in complete silence. Nothing happened.
The old man, unable to take the shock, fell to his knees. His body bumped into the table with the vase and the vase toppled over as well, falling onto the ground and shattering. The mint stone was still glowing- a strange thread growing from it and moving through the room.
Still in his own world, Misha put his head down on the ground, cursing the fact that he never bothered to learn much about medicine during his days as a scholar. He had only learnt the most rudimentary of things. As regrets swirled through his heart, he didn't notice the fact that the stone had now connected itself to Winter via a stream of light particles. The body which was dead was slowly changing. It was a process different from healing or renewal. It was as if the poison was going backwards. The colouration disappeared, then the poison which had spread throughout began to concentrate- concentrating further and further. Some cells were destroyed in the process but the body managed to grow new ones instantaneously. By the end, the entirety of the poison had returned to the point it came from.
Winter lifted his head. He couldn't see what was happening but it felt weird. It was painful but not the same pain as before. Scrambling around, his hand caught onto a splinter on the floor. He pulled it out- a voice in his mind told him to stab it into his neck. Although he recoiled from the idea, he drove the splinter into his neck. Shockingly, it only pricked his skin. Something left his body, his vision was slowly coming back. It was nothing short of unbelievable.
He stood up, knees still shaking. Grabbing the splinter, he tossed it into a bowl sitting a few feet away from him. The splinter was coated with a strange substance- undoubtedly the poison. When Winter finally began to regain his senses, the first thing he saw was his accountant sprawled on the floor, looking dead.
"Misha!" He shouted, his voice sounding too loud and too quiet all at once. "What happened?"
The old man raised his head tentatively, looking at him with widened eyes as if God had descended onto the world somehow.
"You're alive?" He asked as if still apprehensive.
"I suppose I am." Winter replied bluntly. Memories from earlier in the day flooded his mind. He fell onto the ground, clutching his head in distress as they poured in. The last words of that woman echoing in his head somehow. He didn't think he had been listening but it was as if his senses were sharper now, able to hear even what his body hadn't been capable of hearing.
Misha led him to a seat and he inhaled deeply, trying to calm himself.
"I'm so glad, I'm really so glad." Misha kept saying all kinds of random things. He looked like he was still on the verge of tears but somehow kept it together.
Misha took a seat beside him, both of them lost in their own thoughts reflecting on the events that just transpired. It was a disaster and a miracle simultaneously- something absolutely unheard of. Misha was the first to break the silence.
"But...how could this happen?! How did you get poisoned? We have to catch the culprit immediately! They managed to subdue all the guards but there must be some method to doing it, we have to-" And he was already back to thinking strategically about the next steps. Winter understood where he was coming from but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel annoyed. That woman had shown him something he had never considered properly before which was also his biggest weakness. There was no way he could just waltz back into the throne room as if nothing had happened.
"No."
"W-what?" Misha was clearly caught off guard by his decisive tone.
"I'm not going back to being King."
"B-but Your Majesty, you have to go back! If you don't go back then the kingdom will be ruined! You know that I'm not one to interfere with your choices. I've stayed silent all this time but if you stop being King then this kingdom and everything we've built will-"
Winter had enough. He stood up abruptly which made Misha stop mid-sentence. He walked towards the only window, looking out at the palace grounds which were completely empty. It was a picturesque landscape if one were to look at first glance but there was something horribly wrong about it. At last, he turned to Misha- a sharp glint in his eyes.
"Let's destroy this kingdom then."