Chapter 161 --161
## Three Floors Below: The Investigation
The war room that had once been Demerti’s study now looked like a alchemist’s nightmare.
Every available surface groaned under stacks of books, loose parchments covered in desperate scrawls, and glass vials arranged in color-coded rows that had long since lost their organization. The air hung thick with competing scents—purification incense, chemical reagents, the acrid bite of failed experiments, and underneath it all, the sour tang of exhausted panic.
Demerti stood at the window, one hand braced against the frame hard enough to make the wood creak. His reflection in the darkened glass looked haggard—white hair escaping its tie, eyes sunken and red-rimmed, jaw clenched so tight a muscle jumped beneath the skin. He’d aged a decade in six hours.
"Report," he said without turning. His voice was flat, scraped raw from shouting earlier. Now only cold exhaustion remained.
Master Cullens shuffled papers with shaking hands. The elderly physician looked ready to collapse, but fear kept him upright. "We’ve tested seventeen different antidotes, Your Grace. Broad-spectrum toxin binders, magical purges, divine blessings from three separate temples, even a blood-cleansing ritual from the old texts." His voice cracked. "None have reduced her core symptoms. The fever drops slightly, then returns within the hour. Her cognitive state remains... impaired."
"Impaired," Demerti repeated, the word like ash on his tongue. "Define that clinically."
The younger healer clutched her notes, knuckles white. "She can’t focus on complex thoughts for more than a few seconds. Her short-term memory is compromised—she forgets what was said moments before. Visual processing is severely affected. When we tested her, she couldn’t identify faces of people she knows well, couldn’t read text, couldn’t—" Her voice hitched. "Your Grace, it’s like the poison is specifically targeting higher cognitive functions while leaving base instincts intact. Possibly enhanced, even."
Silence fell, heavy as a executioner’s blade.
"Weaponized," Demerti said quietly. "Strip away her control, her intellect, everything that makes her ’her’, and leave only..." He couldn’t finish.