Soraya uncapped the first vial and approached the woman without another word. The time for words had passed. Though she did offer a short prayer to Narcissi in her head. Please allow Your blood to strengthen this woman. Please use Your power to expel the evil from her blood, for she is not evil in her heart. Please strengthen me against my doubts and fears.

Seela opened her mouth, eyes meeting Soraya’s, unwavering. The steel in that look helped to calm Soraya’s nerves, and she was grateful for both these women’s strength. Carefully, so as not to spill any of the precious contents, she tipped the vial into her mouth, holding her chin upwards and steady with her opposite hand until the woman had drunk every drop. “Ahh,” Seela murmured. Even now, Soraya knew she was experiencing that wonderful feeling she’d known almost every week of her life when she’d drunk her own vial of godsblood. The warmth, the energy, the vanishing of all pain as wounds were healed, aches chased away.

“What now?” Sunny asked.

Both women’s eyes were now searching her expression, but she found herself feeling unintimidated by their scrutiny. They felt like more than subjects of her mission, but friends, and for a long second she found herself yearning to stay in this town for a while longer after this was all over. She blinked and the ridiculous idea vanished. “Now we wait,” she said.

After an hour, she gave Seela another dose of godsblood. Between doses, she went to check on Shim, whose condition was unchanged, while Sunny refused to leave Seela’s side for a single moment. By the time she tipped the third dose into the woman’s mouth, the afternoon was well upon them, the sun hidden behind the dark curtains they’d pulled over the window now framing the thick fabric with blazing hues of orange and red. Soraya’s overactive imagination thought the effect made the window look like a magical portal to another place, if there was such a thing.

Which there wasn’t. Probably.

“How can we tell if it’s working?” Sunny asked after Soraya administered a fourth dose.

“I don’t know,” Soraya answered honestly. “How do you feel?”

“I—I don’t know. Strange. Not bad, just different. Each time I drink the godsblood, I get this surge within me, just like the first time. Like I have the energy to run around the world twice and not be the least bit tired. The pain of the ropes fades too.”

“That’s all normal,” Soraya said, feeling relieved she wasn’t experiencing any dangerous side effects. At the same time, she knew she was well into unprecedented territory. Reverse aging might occur soon, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, unless it was too rapid. There were documented cases where high levels of godsblood consumption or immersion had transformed grown adults into infants in mere seconds, before the babies shrunk and disappeared entirely, as though they’d never been created or existed in the first place. This was one of a plethora of reasons why the Forsworn so rigorously maintained and monitored their own use of godsblood.