4 A Glimpse of Strange, Distant Lands

Saiph's dad took a casual stroll over to the silo, striding past the two Mages comfortably. Upon reaching the edge, he took a glance over and inspected the condition of his only son.

"He ain't dead, is he?" he spun around to the duo and asked.

The scarred one stayed silent and the relatively normal Mage just laughed awkwardly.

"Sigh, he better not be or it'll be your heads."

The scarred one ignored his dangerous comment and said, "That'll be all from us. Where are your papers?"

Saiph's father chortled a bit to himself before smacking his own forehead lightly.

"Oh, how silly of me. Of course, the papers, the papers. Come right this way gentlemen."

The trio moved inside by the father's steed and stayed in for a few minutes. The two Mages left the house and started heading down the road to the next farm without a hitch.

A few moments after their departure, Saiph's father made his move. He went over to the silo and gazed down at his boy.

"Saiph, you alive, buddy?"

After receiving no reciprocation or sign of life, the older man steeled his nerves and decided to go get the kid. His old bones were failing him these days. Working a farm for about half of his entire life did him no favors, so climbing down the long silo ladder might have proven troublesome for him.

He slowly descended the ladder while thinking about its circumstances. The silo was certainly deep enough that anyone who fell in would be permanently stuck if it was during an empty time of year. It would have been flat out irresponsible and thoughtless of the Academy to not put a ladder inside every one of these things.

The older man soon touched down on the bottom and went to inspect his son's condition. While he didn't like the kid all that much, he did truly wish for him to become a Mage one day. If Saiph did, then he, as his father, would receive a decent chunk off of his semiannual quota- maybe up to 60% since Saiph was his last child. Plus, if Saiph graduated from the Academy and became a truly powerful Mage, then a single wave of his hand and his father would be free from working for life. At least, that was what the older man had heard from his few acquaintances.

Saiph's condition was stable enough, the older man reckoned. He'd live. The internal scar tissue and probable bone malalignment may prove for some lifelong ailments, though. Well, not that it'd matter all that much. You either have the talent to become a Mage or you don't. Having some stiff movement wasn't going to get the kid kicked out of the Academy if he was to truly become a Mage.

Now, for the hard part. The older man through his child over his shoulder, knees buckling under the added pressure. He grit his teeth and grasped the bar of the ladder and started to make his ascent.

Each step was difficult for the older man. He could feel his knees grinding together like rusty cogs at every bend and his back start to separate at the vertebrae.

Still, he continued on, determined to get the kid up to at least see his mom. If he couldn't take a bit of pain at his age then what had he done all of those thousands of hours of physical labor for? He was experienced enough that he could remove his natural sense of danger from the sensation of pain for a period of time. Thus, while he was painfully aware of his body giving out while climbing the ladder, it didn't feel urgent even though it very well may have been.

After leaving the deep dark pit and rising up onto soil, the older man tossed Saiph off his shoulder and sprawled out onto the dirt. Saiph already probably had enough broken bones as is, so who cared if he got one more at this point?

"Wow, he sure is messed up." A feminine voice belonging to someone relatively older rang out from the direction of the house.

Saiph's mother took ahold of her son and dragged him inside while his father laid out in the yard, regaining his breath and soothing his aching joints and bones momentarily by not putting any pressure on them.

Inside, Saiph was laid out on the only table in the house which was just barely long enough to fit his extended figure. The woman tending him went around and lit a few more reserve candles to get a better view of the situation at hand.

The wounds very grievous indeed, just as much as one would suspect. He most likely ruptured a few internal organs and broke most of his notable bones.

"Sigh, I don't think he's gonna make it no matter what I do." The woman pondered for a bit and tried to critically think about the best course of action to save her son's life.

"Hmm," she idly verbalized. "Aha!" She cheered slightly and jogged out the door over to her husband, who still laid out on the ground by the silo.

"Honey," she called out to him. "Where's that weird herb you got around? I think Saiph needs it or else he's a goner."

"Argh, fuck," the man moaned and groaned. "I got that from Dave a few years back for emergencies. While this is an emergency, I meant it for myself, not this stupid kid. Well, I suppose I'd be in a worse situation than he if didn't take the fall for me. Ugh, fuck it. It's buried around back, I'll go get it. Start boiling some water."

The older man got up, joints creaking and all, and went around back. He dug up the vial he had buried a few months back with his bare hands with only a bit of struggle. The soil on Orion was soft and fertile; on top of the fact that there was no grass in the yard, the vial was only buried a few inches beneath the surface, so it didn't take long at all.

After coming inside, he walked past the boy on the table and went straight for the house's one pot, which was currently being heated by a fire.

"I can't remember what the guy said, hmm." Saiph's dad scratched his head and tried to recall the instructions that went along with this magical herb to no avail.

Sighing, he decided to wing it and see if it works. If Saiph really did die then he could claim he tried his best and stipulate some form of reconciliation from the Academy.

Thus, the slow wait for the water to boil started. After it did so, Saiph's father gently opened the glass vial containing the magical herb and plucked it out by its stem.

The herb was quite fantastical in appearance; a milky white texture in the form of spider webs was wrapped all around the base leaf which, without said spider web design, would look very normal- much like any other herb or plant.

The process to distill the ideal solution was none too tricky. First, the leaf was put gently on the surface of the boiling water. If it sank, the whole thing would be ruined. Then, the water was simmered down to just under boiling. By this point, if the milky spider web texture wasn't dissolved off the leaf by this point, something was done wrong. Then the leaf was retrieved from the water and put to the side and the remedy was left to cool off to a consumable temperature.

Saiph's father completed these steps but was still somewhat worried whether or not he had even gotten the steps themselves right, let alone the timing and numbers involved. Still, it had to be better than nothing albeit not optimal.

The now-milky water was brought over to the Comatose Saiph, whose faint breaths were slowly getting softer and softer.

All the while during the remedy creation process, Saiph's mom had been wrapping and setting any major bone breakages she could find on him but there wasn't anything she could do about the internal damages with her low expertise with medicine.

Saiph's dad brought the frothy broth up to his son's mouth and force-fed him it, coaxing the liquid down his throat by way of relaxing it. Next, the herb itself was brought over and placed on Saiph's tongue, closing his mouth afterwards.

That was all, as far as Saiph's dad recalled. The "white spider-web flak" was a magical herb that was great for all sorts of ailments, so now all they had to do, was wait and see the result of this magical herb.