Gareth Ironheart's Arc

Chapter 5 of 5

The corruption spread faster than he expected. By morning, three more blooms had pushed through the skin along his forearm, small metal petals that caught the firelight when he moved. The stranger's condition had worsened too—the flowers now covered most of his chest and neck. A knock at the door interrupted his inspection of the newest bloom. Gareth opened it to find a man in a dark coat carrying a leather case and a thick blue book with gold medical symbols on the cover. "Dr. Francis Tumblety," the man said, studying Gareth's wrapped wrist. "I've treated this infection before. I can cure you both—but I'll need the flower and those tools from the lodge to prepare the remedy." Gareth looked past him at the wrapped flower on his workbench, then at the tools still glowing faintly beside it. The doctor smiled like he'd already won. "Without treatment, you have perhaps three days before the corruption reaches your heart." Gareth stepped back and opened the door wider. "Come look at him first," he said, nodding toward the stranger in the corner. The doctor set his case down and examined the dying man, checking his pulse and lifting one eyelid. "Advanced stage," he said quietly. "Too far gone for my methods." He turned back to Gareth. "But you—you're still early enough." Gareth watched the doctor's hands, steady and confident, then looked at his own wrist where the metal petals had broken through. The pattern he'd learned from the flower was still clear in his mind, the formula for forging protection against exactly this corruption. If he gave up the flower and tools now, he'd lose the only reference he had. The armor would never get made. But if the doctor was right about three days, he wouldn't live long enough to forge it anyway. "Show me proof," Gareth said. "Show me you've cured this before." The doctor opened his directory and flipped to a page marked with a red ribbon. Names and dates filled the columns—patients treated, infections removed, all signed and dated by various medical colleges. Gareth read through them twice. The signatures looked real. The dates were recent. But none of the entries described what the infection actually was or how it had been cured. "These could be anything," Gareth said, closing the book. "Prove it works." The doctor's smile faded. "The flower and tools are proof enough of what you're dealing with. My credentials should be sufficient." He reached for his case. "I don't treat the ungrateful." Gareth didn't move from the doorway. "The lodge sent me these tools for a reason," he said. "They wanted me to understand the corruption so I could forge armor against it. If you can really cure this, why didn't the lodge send you instead of a dying man and a set of glowing instruments?" The doctor's hand stopped on the case handle. Something shifted in his expression—not anger, but calculation. "Perhaps," he said slowly, "the lodge doesn't know I exist. Perhaps I've learned to cure what they can only study." He stood and lifted his case. "Keep your tools, then. Keep your flower. In three days, when the blooms reach your chest, you'll wish you'd been less careful about proof." The doctor left without looking back. Gareth closed the door and returned to his workbench. The tools still glowed beside the wrapped flower. His wrist ached where the metal petals grew, and three days felt like no time at all. But the pattern was still in his mind, complete and clear. He'd learned it at the cost of infection—the lodge had known that would happen, had sent him everything he needed to understand the price. A cure would erase that knowledge along with the corruption, leave him clean but empty-handed when the woman returned for her daughter's armor. He unwrapped his wrist and studied the blooms in the firelight. They were part of the formula now, growing proof that he'd earned the right to forge protection against them. The doctor's offer had been a test of what he valued more: his own safety or the work he'd been chosen to complete. He picked up his hammer and turned toward the forge. Three days was enough time to start.