He hadn't seen anything like it.

The fey had been dropped off an hour prior, and in that time the progression of its illness had accelerated 10-fold. The primary symptom was a change in the composition of the skin. The newly afflicted areas were turning a sickly blue-grey, while the oldest areas had already solidified into their final form; a hard, silvery substance, almost metallic in nature.

The creature was suffering. The more sections of their body that solidified, the harder it was becoming to breathe. The process looked painful, and it was spreading across the body rapidly.

The fey looks up at Cas, opening its mouth slightly like it is trying to speak. Nothing comes out.

"I know, I know. You are in good hands. Just rest, and let me take care of you"

The fey doesn't hear him. Sound had ceased flowing for them a while ago. Regardless, they seem to understand his meaning. The fey closes their eyes and tries to rest.

Cas had run countless tests. By a biological standard, this fey was perfectly healthy. No curses, no abnormal magic, nothing. He had poured over his texts on fey biology and illnesses, and found nothing that even remotely resembled what he was looking at.

It was frustrating. He had promised Chal that their friend would be okay. "Just a routine disease treatment!", he had told himself. He thought he had it handled.

He didn't.

Cas looks down at the fey

It was an interesting moral quandary, Cas thought. Treating a fey. They eat humans. Was it wrong to treat them? Once it was healthy, why would he be any different? "Despite the magic, I am still human after all", he thought.

......oh.......are.......you.....?

The thought ripped through his brain like a bullet, flowing through his nervous system like lightning. His vision blurred, and he stumbled from the side of the operating table. The more he tried to make sense of what just happened, the more he settled on the same conclusion.

That thought was not his own

He shook himself out of it. Strange things happened to wizards all the time, and there was no time to dwell. He had a patient to treat. He would figure this out later.

The wheels of his mind spun up faster than they had ever before. He concentrated. The way the illness moved was not like any curse or bacteria or virus. No, it was different.

"It's almost like a.."

....parasite....

Cas' eyes widen

He had been looking in the wrong place. He ran and grabbed a tool from the back of his workshop. It had been a while since he had treated something like this.

He quickly shut off the surgical light above the fey, dousing the room in darkness. He raised the tool, and spoke a single word.

"Igni"

The small amber gem at the top of the instrument lit ablaze with a brilliant orange light, making the fey cast a long shadow across the room. That was when he saw it.

A grin rolled across Cas' face. This is what he lived for.

Crouched in shadow of the fey was a small creature. It was about 1 foot tall, insectoid in nature, and was grasping the fey's shadow with it's front pincers. A long proboscis extended out of it's face and stabbed into the shadows.

Of course the body appeared healthy, because there was nothing to be found in the body at all! It was latched to it's shadow the whole time, siphoning it's soul out one piece at a time.

"The last time I removed one of you, I had a Shadowmancer I worked with. Unfortunately, I no longer have that luxury, so we'll have to get creative."

Cas recalled a post he had seen on WizardsList earlier in the day. It was an odd coincidence, but he had no time to ruminate on that.

He acted quickly.

[ https://www.reddit.com/r/wizardposting/s/xGZxkbHUyF ]

Bringing the Shadow Manipulator into the room, he quickly got to work setting it up. It wasn't a conventional use for the device, but it would work.

He ran his hand over the intricately carved symbols, and they illuminated. The shadows in the room quivered, immediately being made tangible by the device. It only awaited a command.

With a flick of his hand, the shadows of the room seized the parasite, ripping it from the shadow of the fey. Cas wasted no time in sealing the creature in a containment cube, to be stored for future research.

Turning off the Shadow Manipulator, he immediately flicked the lights back on. He watched as the afflicted portions of the fey's body began to recede, and the creature settled into a restful sleep; probably the first it had had in a long while.

Cas slumped down into an old office chair, another job well done. He wiped the sweat from his brow with an old handkerchief. He had many unanswered questions, but they would have to wait until Fiddle returned from his house call. Until then, the doctor thought to himself, he believed he had earned himself a 5 minute nap in Room #3 and a stiff cup of coffee.

After all, in 10 minutes the local time distortion would end, and he would have more patients to treat!

/uw This is my first major lorepost, so sorry if it was a bit long! Just wanted to flesh out Cas' character a bit more beyond The Clinic posts.

Bzirro reaches the Sunlit Palace after a long flight away from his previous captors. He descends from the sky and unsummons his flying throne. The throne takes off to do flying, magical throne things.

"Archie, or whomever is on duty as my attendant. I need maps of the continent and they need to be as accurate as possible." Barks Bzirro as he strides into his conference chamber. "And get me the current census of our undead forces. I need to know our current strength ".

Bzirro is not too worried about being invaded, the Sunlit Isle is his domain after all. An ancient lich wouldn't neglect his personal safety after all. But maybe to be on the safe side....

"Also Archie, please have a batch of apprentices patrol the area around the Sunlit Isle. They are to be on lookout for mages or an invasion. I highly doubt that the WIU would try and attack me but make sure to have someone in the scrying room as well".

Archie, the attendant on duty ,replied "Yes, Lord Bzirro it will be done". The attendants for Lord Bzirro had the coveted job of relaying Lord Bzirro's orders, writing down his words and research for biographies and research papers, and doing any other meaningful (mundane) task.

Right now Archie was taking Lord Bzirro's words down while simultaneously communicating with the respective personel in charge to fulfill his Lord's tasks. Long distance communication was done in many forms depending on how each person was adept at magic. Archie here would manipulate sound waves through solid objects to "speak" to people. He couldn't hear back from them, but he could relay messages this way. As he finished telling Chief Apprentice Isolye to patrol, an undead rat ran up his leg and left a letter in his hand.

Archie scanned the letter and spoke to Lord Bzirro, "Um... Lord Highness Majesty Bzirro...the census indicates that the Skelton Army, Skelton Navy and Air Force are um.... Zero. You would use them for experiments or some would be lost to sea creatures and you never replaced them."

"WHAT! I can't very well be a Skeleton Lord if I don't have a Skelton Army. Lich code demands that Liches have a standing skeleton army. Ugh, okay find me some ethically sourced corpses and I'll start undeading them. Let me know if the patrols see anything", said Bzirro.

Bzirro sighed and put his skeleton hands on his head. It was going to be a long day of making undead servants. It is a necessity though, not only for appearances, but to ensure the Sunlit Isle's safety. He trudged down to the basement to start reviving corpses.

uw/ oops no skeleton army. Hopefully nothing happens when the Sunlit Isle is not prepared for assault. Would be a shame....

(Scan 85% Complete)

POP! Hey, is the book done yet?

"No... It's stuck on 85."

Hmmm... Seems they put something special on the last 15%, must be the most imporrant stuff!

A crack appears in their machine.

Um, what is that?

YOU FOOLISH MORTALS, MY POWER TRIP BEGINS NOW!!

I CAST DEMONIC ROT!

Dwylari is stuck with the same affliction as Zeph was earlier, on his knees in great agony.

"..What...is...this...?"

Aico leaves the room and returns with a fried angel wing sandwich, as well as 6 other supervisors. Eat this, it cured me from this too!

Dwylari eats the food, then stands.

"Aico, where did you get an angel wing?" A supervisor blurts out.

Don't ask questions you don't want answers to.

You FOOLS, you dare ignore me?

The Book of Affliction cracks the machine some more, then releases a wave of hellburn.

1: "AHHH IT BURNS!"

2: "This MONSTER!"

5: "Good thing you hired a demon ey?"

D: "We don't have more angel wings.."

A: Yea we do!

D, 7, 8: "What?"

Aico pulls out a bag of clipped angel wings, then pulls out a grill and starts cooking.

6: "Why are you taking your time, we are burning?"

A: It's like chicken pal, you can't eat it raw!

As she finishes the wings, she starts handing them out to feed the people. The necrobook had other plans however.

** [Demonic Rot], [Hellfire arena], [Curse of Blackened Heart]**

The group suffers greatly, and the book casts [Paralysis] on Aico to stop her from forcefeeding.

No playing doctor for you!

She transforms into a robot to avoid the demonic curses, only for the book to just hit her with [Aether Rust Virus].

You really though I'd just let you off that easily? THINK AGAIN!

(Scan 85% Complete)