Shadow Spies

Jewels orders the men standing around to cut the clothes off their bodies and for them to make sure not to remove the acupuncture needles while they are at it. She tells them to wash any open wounds with water and gives them jars of healing paste to put over the wounds and wrap the wound with the gauze. While they work on the wounded, Jewels went to the refining room to make the antidote to the poison.

With one look, she already knew what kind of poison that is in their system. It's a common poison that can be made by any beginner poisoner. It was a poison called Stiffness where it slowly puts the body into rigor mortise making the body seem like it died naturally. The dark coloring on the fingers and toes are due the snake venom that slows down the heart. Once the heart stops beating, the herbal poison will take over, spreading through the dantians and then pushes the snake venom out of the body's system making it seem like the body died of natural causes.

The first small cauldron started boiling as Jewels walks up to it. In it she starts to make the second aftereffect antidote. She throws in six different common herbs and an extra ingredient from her grey space that would help boost their immune system. She took the Crescent Burst herb from the grey space and added it to the cauldron. In the medium cauldron, she made the antidote that would cure the snake venom poison. To make the antivenom, she put in five stalks of the Bluebells Purse, three stalks of the Yellow String Sprig, and six stalks of the White Bags Leaf. She went into her grey space and found the antivenom that she made from a 100 year old snake she caught and extracted the venom from. The 100 year old antivenom could cure most snake venom. Coming back from her grey space, she puts in 10 precious drops into the cauldron and stirs the potion.

In the largest cauldron she boils 10 stalks of the 1000 year old ginseng. With all three cauldrons on at the same time Zeze, Chieko and Leiko took over the stirring of the medicine.

"Should anything happen to the potion, it will be your life." Jewels tells them before she goes back into the infirmary. Jewels checks on each patient personally, making sure their wound are cleaned correctly. She made sure enough healing paste was put on and if it was bound too loose or too tight. When she made sure each and everyone of them were not in danger from the poisoning, she went back to the refining room and took the small cauldron off the fire and placed a lid over it, trapping the heat. The second cauldron were needed more time, but the largest cauldron was ready. She had help taking the biggest cauldron off the fire and set it aside.

"Zeze, you and the girls go to the house and make chicken rice porridge. Use the ginseng soup here as stock."

Zeze, Chieko, Gina, and Leiko went inside the manor to start making the porridge, Gina comes back out with an empty pot and fills it with the ginseng soup. Nemean helps her bring it back into the manor. When the last potion was ready, she had some of the people there help her. They held a bowl in their hands and Jewels scooped the antidote into the bowl.

"Make sure when you feed them that you hold their head up so they don't choke." With all bowls filled, Jewels walks back into the infirmary and watches as servants and soldiers work together to save the injured comrade and Masters. "Roc, help bring the middle cauldron into this room."

Jewels visits each patient one by one taking out the acupuncture needles as they are force fed the antidote. "Go to Roc when your bowl is finished and get more antidote to feed them." Jewels tells them.

Again and again they are fed the antidote. By the third empty bowl, the color on their skin looked better and the purplish stain on their fingers turned pink, a dark liquid started seeping out from the pores of their body.

"Quickly take a clean towel and wipe off the black poison, make sure it doesn't get on to your skin. Wipe it once with the towel and throw the towel into this empty bowl." Jewels says as she places a big bowl between the patients feet. Everyone follows Jewels's orders and wipes the black poison off the patients skin then proceeds to throw the dirty towel into the bowl. Repeating the process over and over when needed. Jewels takes the full bowls of poisoned towels and brings it outside to the fire pit that Uncle Jude made with his hands. He hadn't even have the chance to use it yet and now its being used to burn the poisoned towels. Fenghuang followed Jewels and figured out what she was doing. Helping Jewels place the fire wood in the pit, Fenghuang blew her phoenix fire and the pit caught on fire. Jewels throws the poisoned towels on top.

"Fenghuang have someone help you with this, remember not to touch the poisoned towels." Jewels reminded her.

Fenghuang dragged a soldier who seemed like he had nothing to do to help her. She ordered him around as they went back and forth between the infirmary to the fire pit. Jewels constantly checked their temperature making sure no one fell sick. Uncle Jude was the first one to wake up. His eyes slowly opens and meets Jewels's blue violet eyes. Seeing the many people in the infirmary, he knew something big must have happened after he lost consciousness. Zeze came in with the chicken rice porridge and a small bowl was fed to him. He ate it even though he was not hungry. Just seeing he determination in his niece's eyes made him shut his mouth and do what she ordered. Everyone in that room was following her orders, why not he?

One by one the soldiers started waking up. And just like Uncle Jude, they were fed the chicken rice porridge and no was not an answer. No one asked any questions as they wanted to make sure all the patients woke up and were out of danger of the poisoned state. Pop pop was the last to wake up due to his age. He looked for his granddaughter first and she stood right by him, holding his hand. She looked worried, but no tears were in her eyes, it raged with a tempered fire. Jewels personally fed Pop pop so he wasn't able to complain. Any body else and his lips would have been shut and no one could make him open it. No one but his granddaughter. He ate all the chicken rice porridge with a pout and Jewels knew he would be okay.

Taking the aftereffect antidote into the infirmary, she took new bowls from the cabinets and poured the aftereffect antidote into the bowls. One by one it was handed out to the patients and they were able to drink it all down. When no one threw up, Jewels had every one help change the sheets of the patients and burn the sheets. She did not want any contamination in her infirmary. After the long and arduous day, the patients fell asleep even if they didn't want to. Uncle Jude tried his best to stay awake, but his tired body and mind said otherwise and he fell asleep with a question on his lips.

"The most important thing now is that they don't fall into a fever." Jewels said out loud to no one in particular. "David can you post six guard around the infirmary. Four outside and two inside?"

"Yes, my Lady anything else?"

"Thank you everyone for all your quick thinking and hard work. Now as they rest we should too. Return to your rooms and get some rest. For it'll be your turn soon to help out the infirmary." Jewels said as she looked at her Uncle.

Thomas comes up to Jewels and lay his hands on her shoulders.

"My Lady, you should also rest."

"I will rest tomorrow when I know for sure that no one will fall into a fever. If I can catch the signs of fever soon enough, I can give them a potion to help them over come the sickness. I will stay." Jewels tells him.

"Then this servant shall stay up with you."

Jewels nods once as her eyes looks over to Pop pop. Seeing both of them lay there, hurt and unconscious, she stills her heart and her thoughts of revenge as she prepares herself for a long night.

By morning, Jewels was tired. There were several insentience where several soldiers showed signs of a fever, but luckily she saw the signs and showed Thomas what to look out for. He helped her tremendously that night. Nemean, Fenhuang and Roc stayed up with her as well as the five of them watched over the patients. Jewels sent word to Zeze to make the same porridge for breakfast for the patients and finally turned in to go to sleep when she made sure all of them at the chicken rice porridge with the stock of the 1000 year old ginseng. They all promptly fell asleep again when they finished the porridge.

"Zeze, you are now in charge when I go to sleep. Make sure all of the patients drink the soup of the 1000 year old ginseng. The ginseng soup is not to be reheated. It is suppose to be the temperature of the room. okay?"

"Yes, my lady."

"For lunch, a light lunch of chicken soup with carrots and cabbage. Lightly salted, nothing else. If they ask for something else. tell them no. If they want bread with the soup that would be fine. But nothing else, do you understand?"

"Yes, my lady."

"Should any of them show signs of a fever, you come get me, do you understand?"

"Yes, my lady."

"If anyone shows any signs that look abnormal, come wake me up immediately."

"Yes, my lady."

"No visitors, no guests."

"Yes, my lady."

"Except Raiden, if he comes through the front door, let him in."

"Of course, my lady"

Jewel left responsibility of the patients to Zeze and the responsibility of security to David. When she reached her room, she took a quick shower and fell asleep immediately.

It was late afternoon when she finally woke up. No one had come get her, so she guessed that nothing must have happened. She got ready quickly and went to Pop pop's room. She used the pipette to get squeeze enough of the tonic into the pipette and made Pop pop's Unbinding Tonic. She then rushed to the infirmary to see every patient siting in their beds talking and chatting like nothing was wrong. The whole infirmary was filled to the brim of soldiers and servants talking to each other. When she came inside, everyone quieted down and looked at her. Uncle Jude sat on Pop pop's bed and had his arm around Pop pop's shoulder's. Jewels walks up to them and she hands the Unbinding Tonic to Pop pop.

"Did you drink your tonic tea today?" Jewels asked Pop pop.

He shakes his head no. Jewels nods her head once and Pop pop drinks the tonic in on move.

"Much better," Pop pop said as he set the tea cup down. "We scared you there didn't we little one."

Uncle Jude and Pop pop embrace her in a hug.

"Scared who?" Jewels said as silent tears fall down her eyes "I was ready to burn the whole Redbane Kingdom to try to find you."

"Even if you made an enemy of this Prince?" Raiden said from behind her.

Jewels pulls away from her family to stand up and greet him properly, but she was stopped. Raiden's hand wipes away her tears.

"You would have understood why I did it and forgiven me for it. For you know I would have done the same for you as well."

"Hmm. " Raiden answered as he carefully and gently wipe the tears that seem to not want to stop. "This Prince's fierce Princess Consort, who could kill the Ando Clan for their offense by burning them alive and forcing the people around her into submission, is crying? This Prince's fearless Princess Consort, who calls out the ferocious raptor, Roc, the enchanting phoenix, Fenghuang and the viscous lion, Nemean, is crying? This Prince's courageous Princess Consort, who attacked shadows with fire, rescued her loved ones, and caused a red sea of fire at the Redwood Forest, is crying?"

"Shut-up." Jewels told him as she laughed. "The Ando Clan had it coming. My animals to call are here to help me when I need it as I will help them and we had to set the forest on fire to kill the shadows, but we promptly put the fire out when we were sure the shadows were all dead."

"My heart," Raiden says gently. "I am sorry I was not there for you last night."

"If you were there, you would have killed the whole Ando Clan, not just some of them like I have. You would have called your animals to call as well and our animals would have fought each other and not the enemies. And instead of half of the Redwood Forest being burnt down, it would have been the whole forest, considering how you deal with things, you would have out done yourself."

Raiden smiled at Jewels. "Good. No more tears."

Jewels rolls her eyes at him, but she is happy to see him. He knew exactly what to say and do to make her stop crying.

"Wait, you killed the Ando Clan?" Uncle Jude interjected as he interrupted the loving couple.

"Yes, about that." Jewels started as she began to tell everyone in the room what happened yesterday. When she finished, the whole room was quiet.

"So you were able to capture the shadows for questioning?" Uncle Jude shockingly asked Jewels.

"Yes." Jewels replied back.

"Lets interrogate them." One of the soldiers shouted.

"We will." Jewels said. "Let me talk to my animals to call to get their opinion first before I bring them out."

"How did you trap them?" Another soldier asked.

"Brooks secret." Jude answered for Jewels

Raiden had been quiet the whole time when Jewels explained to everyone what happened to her yesterday. He had to decide what he wanted to do before he told Jewels and Jude the truth.

"General Jude, Princess Consort, a word?" Raiden said as he looked at them before leading them to the gazebo. Far away from eyes and ears.

At the gazebo the three of them stand silently as Raiden chose his words carefully. Before he started, he, Uncle Jude and Jewels all casted a soundless barrier. As all six of Raiden's guards stood around the gazebo as guards. 

"What I am about to tell you is of national security, should word get out, Redbane's citizens will be affected and there will be chaos. " Raiden said. "Redbane has been in a dark war with those shadows for 20 years now.  They are demon spies that were unleashed on to Redbane, by the King of Therland days before the end of the 4 Kingdom Great War. Our soldiers have been tasked to kill them for over two decades now and so far have been successful in eradicating them to almost extinction.  However I was called into the palace for an emergency meeting yesterday because there have been several reports of the resurgence of demon spies.  With the largest amount of demon spies residing in the Redwood Forest. That was why I have been in a meeting the whole day, yesterday. We were coming up with plans to attack all demon spy congregations in a simultaneous coordinated attack. However, last night when we heard there was a forest fire at Redwood Forest, we were suspicious as to why the forest caught on fire.  When Ichi came back, he reported that the fire had already burnt itself out and all the shadows who were suspected of living in the Redwood Forest were killed. My generals and I need to be there when you bring out the captured shadows.  We need to find out how they are able to come into Redbane Kingdom in large quantities without detection.  We need to find out if they are working along side anyone else."

"You and your generals can be there" Uncle Jude told Raiden.

"Let me talk to Fenghuang to see what the best possible condition there is to bring them out." Jewels tells them.  Sitting down on one of the benches, Jewels's mind goes into the grey space.

Jewels went into her grey space and found Fenghuang, Roc and Nemean already interrogating the shadows.  Since she went to sleep, the three of them went back into the Infinite Galaxy.  Instead of resting, for the past six hours, they have been questioning the shadows on their own.  With a lot of physical persuasion, by the three of them, only 5 of them were still alive to answer questions. What creeped the three out was that the five of them spoke in unison as if they had one mind. From their interrogation, they were able to learn that the shadow demons master lives in Redbane. 

" "Near here." is the exact words." Nemean clarified.

Their master had  sold her soul to their true master in return to have the ability to summon and control the shadow demons. The master's house , is where they come through from the Shadow Realm. 

"Who is your master?" Roc asked them.

"Master is Master." The shadows answered in unison.

"What is your master's name?"

"Master has no other name than Master."

"Where is your master's home?"

"Master's home is like the other homes."

"Where?"

"This shadow does not understand "where" master's home is. Master's home looks like other homes."

"Do you know what Kingdom you are in?" Jewels asked the shadow a broader question.

"We are summoned to the plain of the living."

"Yes, but where in the plain of living are you?" Jewels asked again.

"This shadow does not understand, is not all plain of living the same?"

"When you were in the forest, what is the forest called?" Roc asked frustrated.

"This shadow does not understand."

"What were your orders from your master?" Fenghuang interjected.

"We were told to go hide with the monsters and wait for orders. That was all."

"Have you been on this plain of living before?" Jewels questioned.

"No it is this shadow's first time on this plain."

"Where do you go when you disappear from this plain of the living?" Nemean genuinely asked.

"This shadow does not know."

"How convenient that they don't know anything." Nemean said.

"How does your master look like?" Jewels tried again.

"Master is dark. Master is rage. Master is jealousy. Master is revenge."

Jewels pointed to her hair color and asked him. "Does your master have this color hair."

After thinking awhile, they shadow said, "Yes, Master has same color hair."

Jewels was excited about the development and created a color palate to show the shadows  and point to the color when she asked her question.

"Does your master have this color eyes?"

"This shadow does not understand."

"You see how the color of my eyes are different from her eyes," Jewels said comparing her eye color to Fenghuang. "And they are different colors to theirs." Jewels said as she stood by Nemean and Roc. "See how the color is different?"

"This shadow understands."

"Then what color is the color of your master's eyes?" Jewels asked as she pointed to brown. "Is it this color?"

"No."

Jewels proceeded down the color palate pointing to each color until the last color. 

"Yes." The shadows said.

"So your master has black hair and black eyes. Your master is a woman."

"Yes."

"Is she old or young?" Jewels asked.

"This shadow does not understand."

Jewels had to make a picture book of a young lady, a middle age woman and an old woman.  All of them had black hair and black eyes.

"Does your master look more like this?" Pointing to the young lady."Or like this?" Jewels said as she pointed to the middle aged woman."Or like this?" Jewels said as she pointed to the old lady.

"The first one."

Fenghuang motioned Jewels and the rest to come closer to her as she put up a sound barrier to protect the words she was going to say.

"My human," Fenghuang started saying. "I might have a general idea narrowing down who it might be.  But you might not like it."

"Just say it." Jewels told her.

"Only the Osamu Clan are humans that can have black hair and black eyes.  Just like the Rowen's Clan are the only humans that can have blue violet eyes.  Their master must be someone who has the Osamu Clan's blood in them."

"What if the shadows are lying?" Jewels asked.

"Shadows don't know how to lie.  They only know how to tell facts and know not to talk.  That is all." Roc told her.

"Uncle Jude and Raiden wants to interrogate the shadows, if I bring the silver cage out, would they stay caged in the silver cage?"

"They will stay in the silver cage, however they would be able to call out to their Master for help. The reason why they aren't able to call for help because of the Infinite Galaxy." Fenghuang told her.

"I'll be right back. Keep asking them questions."  Jewels said as she went back.

When Jewels came to, Raiden's arms were around her, embracing her in his arms as her head rested on his shoulder.  Uncle Jude sat across from them and as she saw her open her eyes, he jumped up to see what she had to say. Jewels lifts up her head and looks at them.

"Fenghuang says that if I were to take them out, they would call their Master.  We would need to come up with a story about the Infinite Galaxy."

"Why were you there for so long?" Raiden asks her. 

"My animals have been questioning them when I was a sleep.   To get them to talk, they had to put the shadows through torture.  Five of them died." Jewels told them. "They are unable to contact their master because of the Infinite Galaxy---"

"What have they said so far?" Raiden asked cutting her off.

"Questioning them is like questioning someone who went to a different world.  They know nothing about where they are, what places are called, what colors are. They know very little about this place. Other than the fact that their Master is a woman, with black hair and black eyes." Jewels said as she stared at Raiden. Raiden's eyebrow twitched as his jaws locked.

"Are you sure."

"Yes."

"What if they are lying?" Uncle Jude asks.

"Roc says that Shadows only know how to speak facts that they know.  They don't know what lying is because maybe they don't know what the word means.  They only speak facts or nothing at all." Jewels informs them. " To get them to start talking, it took my animals six hours to get them to talk and to just get the facts that their master is a woman with black hair and black eyes took over ten minutes."

"What should we do?" Uncle Jude asks.

"Keep them in your bracer for now, have your animals keep questioning them.  We will say that your animals to call will be questioning the shadows for they speak another tongue that we do not understand.  In the mean time, we will write a set of questions to give to Nemean, Fenghuang and Roc to ask the shadows.  A report with updates on the situation would be made two times a day for my eye and General Jude's eye only.  No one is to know of your Infinite Galaxy and where you put the shadows.  I will investigate all my female relatives." Raiden said.

"Oh , I almost forgot, the shadows said that their master is a young woman. Hopefully that narrows it down more for you."

"It does, thank you." Raiden said.

The three of them walk back to the infirmary where everyone waited on what they had to say. Raiden let Uncle Jude take the lead.

"After conferring with Lady Jewels's animals, they informed us that the shadows do not speak our native tongue so us interrogating them would be a waste of our time."

"So are they dead?" One soldier asked.

"They are dead." Uncle Jude confirmed.