The Princess' Harem
Chapter 108: The Weight of Renewal

Chapter 108: The Weight of Renewal

Viana knew. Every day, she visited Rissa’s lab, finding her hunched over her work, often not having slept for days.

Rissa was driven by an almost frantic energy. She tried endless combinations. She experimented with different light sources for extracting essence from the Desert’s Embrace.

She tested various dry substances as carriers for the glowing dust. The unique essence of the Desert’s Embrace was potent, but also fragile.

One afternoon, Viana entered the lab to find Rissa humming softly, a rare sound. The air was thick with a sweet, almost metallic scent.

Rissa gestured to a series of shallow, wide dishes. Each dish held a fine, iridescent dust, shimmering with a faint green light.

"I’ve found it," Rissa, said, her voice tight with a strange mix of exhaustion and triumph. "A way to stabilize the essence. The Moonpetal Flower extract is still needed, but I’ve found a way to use it more efficiently. And I’ve discovered a rare mineral, found in the northern mountains, that can serve as a carrier. When ground to an extremely fine powder, it absorbs the essence without destroying it."

Viana stepped closer, her heart pounding. "So we can reproduce it?"

"In limited quantities, yes," Rissa confirmed, her eyes bright. "Each leaf from the Desert’s Embrace can now yield enough active ingredient for a few dozen doses of this new powder. It can be mixed with more of the mineral to create a larger volume of a less concentrated, but still effective, cure. It’s not enough for the entire kingdom, not yet. But it’s enough to start. Enough to save a village, or a small section of farmland."

She pointed to a small, sealed glass jar. "This is the first batch. I call it ’Sunstone Dust.’ We can apply it by scattering it carefully, perhaps by hand, or from above, but it must be done when the air is still, to avoid wind scattering."

Joel, who had followed Viana in, bent closer to examine the glowing dust. "So, we have a way to make it. Now, how do we get it our there quickly?"

Rissa picked up the jar, her hands almost reverent. "That is the next great challenge. This dust must reach the blighted soil directly, without moisture. It needs to be spread over large areas. And we need to protect the Desert’s Embrace. It is growing new leaves, slowly, but it is still out only source of the core essence."

Viana looked at the shimmering dust in the jar. It was not the sudden, explosive miracle she might have dreamed of, but it was real. A tangible, reproducible cure.

***

Spring arrived, though the land of Elysia still felt trapped in a harsh winter. The air carried a chill, but the days were longer.

March brought a subtle change in the light, a gentle warmth that promised life, yet the blight held the kingdom in its grip. The earth remained parched, and the familiar signs of new growth were absent.

Viana was to busy to notice the exact shift in season. Her days blurred into an endless cycle of meetings, reports, and visits to Rissa’s lab.

The palace halls buzzed with a different kind of urgency. The small jar of Sunstone Dust was a marvel, but if felt like a single drop in a vast, empty ocean.

"The initial applications are promising, Princess," Joel reported, standing before a large map covered in tiny green pins, marking the spots where the Sunstone Dust had been spread. "The blight receded in those areas. The soil shows signs of life, the plants start to regain color. But it’s so slow. And the dust disperses easily if there’s any wind."

Reyes nodded, his hand on the hilt of his sword. "We need more people for the spreading teams. And we need to secure the supply routes for the raw mineral from the northern mountains. Arin’s scouts are likely watching."

Prince Rayne had taken on the task of coordinating resources from Valendale. Caravans of Moonpetal Flowers, carefully packed in airtight containers, began to arrive, along with other rare reagents Rissa requested.

He worked tirelessly, his face often as tired as Viana’s. "The supplies are flowing, Princess. But the quantities required to treat the entire kingdom are immense. Even Valendale’s resources are not endless."

Rissa, pale and think from her continuous work, still spent every waking hour in her lab. She was attempting to refine the Sunstone Dust, to make it more potent, or to find a way to make the Desert’s Embrace plant yield its essence faster.

"The Desert’s Embrace is regenerating its leaves," she told Viana one morning, her voice hoarse, "but it is agonizingly slow. We cannot strip it too quickly. It needs its time."

Viana understood. Their single source of the core essence was precious.

They were trying to cure a blight that spread like wildfire with a remedy that bloomed at a snail’s pace. The sheer scale of the problem weighed on her.

Her own birthday, the start of spring, passed by unnoticed. No one mentioned it.

She didn’t expect them to. Her mind was filled with cracked earth, withered crops, and the gaunt faces of her people.

Personal celebrations felt distant, a luxury she could not afford. The threat of Arin, though quiet for now, was a constant shadow in her thoughts.

He would strike again, she knew. When Elysia was at its weakest, when hope is thin. This blight was likely his doing, a deliberate weakening. They had to push back, fast.

That night, Viana lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling. The sounds of the palace were muffled, but the heavy silence of the blighted land outside seemed to press in her.

Sleep would not come. She felt the weight of her responsibilities, the quiet despair of her people. It was her birthday, a day for joy, but there was no joy to be found.

Suddenly, a faint shimmer of light appeared at the foot of her bed. It was soft, like moonlight through mist, and it coalesced into the familiar, ethereal form of Eryndor.

He did not speak with words, but his presence filled her mind with an ancient, calm urgency.

"The path is open. The seed has been sown. Come," he said with a smile.

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