141 CXLI. Phase 1

"Dag! Good morning!" said the grey-bearded old man.

"Good morning!" replied Dag, approaching him.

Before the man could say anything else, Dag interrupted him: "Tonight I thought about what to do with the riches we have taken from the bandits. We will take a part of them, only the things we can carry on our horses without weighing them down too much".

"And what about the rest of the loot?" the old man naively asked, already knowing the answer.

"The two horses that drive the wagon... if well fed and cared for, they will soon be in full force. We will leave you both of them and the wagon so that you can trade with the nearby villages. You won't miss the trade, I assure you" Dag continued, winking at the old man.

"Why do you do all this for us? No one has ever treated us so kindly" he asked, looking Dag in the eye.

"I don't know why... I just do it. The case brought us together and from the first moment, I felt inside me that you needed help" he replied.

"I believe that was not the case. I think the Gods have something to do with it" smiled the old man, as Dag walked away, walking toward his teammates.

Reidar was alone next to the horses.

"Where's Karl?" asked Dag.

"Try to imagine" Reidar replied, in a tongue-in-cheek tone.

"Hahaha... well, I think it's right that he and Agnes say goodbye" said Dag, who approached Aslan to caress him.

Waiting for Karl, Dag and Reidar began to take some of the goods contained in the wagon and put them in the pockets hanging from the saddles of the horses.

They took some gold items and some fur, which would have come in handy if the temperature had dropped.

Dag grabbed a large gold bar, trying to feel its weight, which was around 2 kilos, and tucked it into his horse's bag.

"Hey, brothers... what'd I miss?"

Karl had just come out of Agnes' hut, with his usual post-sex disheveled hair.

"Hahah! Nothing, come here and choose what you want!" said Reidar, as Dag laughed, touching his belly.

When Karl also chose his personal loot, the three friends found themselves in front of their horses.

Karl opened his healer's chest and pulled out one of the needle-like metal tubes.

"Then, Dag. Let's try. Sit here" he said, asking Dag to sit on a nearby log.

"Wait... I can help you in some way" said Dag, who pulled a snare out of one of his boots and tied it tightly around his arm, as if it was a tourniquet.

The veins of Dag's arm swelled, becoming easier to identify.

Karl, without saying anything, slowly approached the small tube on Dag's arm and trying to be as precise as possible, he slipped it into the thickest vein of his arm.

As soon as the needle entered his arm, drops of blood began to pour from its extremity and Karl gathered them up in an empty ampoule.

"I think your blood should be about twice as much as the purple blood, so I can mix it perfectly and it shouldn't be harmful to your body" he said.

Dag looked into his friend's eyes, while he was focused on drawing blood.

The progress Karl had made in such a short time was mind-blowing. Thanks to the almanac that Egill gave him, he had quickly been able to understand the main mechanisms of medicine and herbalism.

He only knew the basics, but it was still a satisfying result, Dag was proud of him.

During the withdrawal operation, Reidar looked at Dag with a disgusted air.

Dag tried to hold his arm still, despite he felt every drop of blood leaving his body, being the diameter of the metal tube much larger than a modern needle.

The Temporum came to his mind: he remembered when those big stings entered his flesh.

The pain he felt that day was not comparable to the discomfort he was experiencing at the time.

After about 5 minutes, the bottle that Karl held under the needle filled up completely.

After the last drop fell inside, Karl immediately pulled the pick-up tool out of Dag's arm, which began pressing with a clean cloth on the small wound.

"All right... let's proceed with phase 3" Karl thought aloud, raising the vial with Dag's blood towards the Sun, studying its color and density.

Dag didn't say anything.

Karl poured the contents of the two vials into a small glass bottle and sealed it tightly with a large cork, pressuring it not to let air in and out.

All three companions observed the inside of the bottle: purple blood initially floated on human blood, but after a few seconds, it began to assume a swirling motion, like a reel in the middle of the sea.

Under the astonished eyes of Dag and his companions, the purple blood entered the red one, mingling.

The optical effect was astounding: while the two blood types were mixing, the glass bottle seemed to be flashing.

The reaction took about 30 seconds, after which the resulting blood was as black as night.

"It looks like the fluid coming out of my arms when I use my powers" Dag said, looking at the contents of the bottle.

"It's true. I think it's finally ready. I warn you, Dag: from this stage on, no manual explains how to do what we're trying to do" Karl said, trying to raise the questions of Dag about the risks he might take.

"Go on" said Dag in earnest, who sat back on the trunk and tied the lace around his other arm, trying to show his veins.

"All right. I think I'll just put one end of the needle in your arm and leave the other one soaked in black liquid to inject it into your veins" Karl continued.

"Yes, the pressure difference should be able to carry the liquid inside the arm" confirmed Dag, who agreed with Karl's hypothesis.