For a moment, Aphenglow panicked. She didn’t recognize the illness from the symptoms she was seeing. This was something new. Her panic was exacerbated by how much she loved him and how desperate she was to do something to help him.

Then she shook off her uncertainty and went to work. She fed him teaspoons of althenin, a nightshade derivative that acted as a relaxant and calming agent. She had Arling bring her cold cloths to bathe his face and cool him down; when she felt his forehead, he was burning up. She dismissed everyone except her sister—including the boy who had apparently returned him to Paranor, flying him home in Bombax’s own airship—wanting to empty the room of everyone who wasn’t necessary to what needed to be done. Arling had worked with her before in Arborlon and knew how to behave. Besides, Aphen couldn’t move about as easily as Arling and needed her sister’s superior mobility to fetch and carry.

When the althenin had taken effect and Bombax had stopped thrashing and was lying in a semi-stupor, she examined his mouth to be certain his tongue hadn’t been damaged and then called up the magic that she hoped would heal him.

She placed her hands on his face, closed her eyes, and slowly, carefully began to probe his damaged body. Using a magic that allowed her to discover the source of the sickness attacking him, she found the residue of a liquid he had apparently swallowed that had robbed him of both his voice and his muscle control. A dangerous side effect, it appeared, was that it was rendering him increasingly delirious and psychotic. She searched for the places where the poison was doing the most damage and slowly worked it out of his body, withdrawing it through his pores and turning it into a fine mist that evaporated in the open air.

She worked on him for a long time, a tedious and thorough cleansing of every part of his body. Arlingfant kept watch over them both, standing close at hand, bringing cold cloths to lay on Bombax’s forehead and feeding him additional althenin when he started to wake and move about. Keeping Bombax still while she worked was crucial to her efforts, Aphenglow explained, and her sister saw to it that he remained immobile.

When she finally finished her ministrations, night was coming on. She sent Arling off to find them food and drink and sat alone beside her life mate while he slept. The poison was extracted now, the thrashing ended, the worst of it past. But she would not leave him until he woke and she was certain he was well again.

She sat with him all night.