Meesei made sure to keep her demeanor confident, yet calm. She wanted to leave no doubt that the sums of gold she was speaking of were of no great concern to her, just to make sure that there were no doubts in Ariel's mind. "We have purchased properties much more expensive than your business. Taking portions of the required gold from several clans, we can pay any debt you or Rukeewei have with no significant impact to our own operations. We can help pay for an employee if you have anyone in mind that you would trust. Otherwise, every clan has alchemists, and it would be no trouble to assign one from the nearest clan to your shop. We do like to have at least one or two people in every major city, after all. While you are with us, we will take care of your basic needs, like any member of the clan. Members of the clan are given additional allowances for whatever else they wish to buy based on the work they do, and given the importance of your work, you will be given very reasonable payment. Beyond that, I will offer you, or anyone for that matter, a sizable reward for a permanent solution to counter this poison."

"As for Rukeewei, what does he know about us?" Meesei asked, her tone now more inquisitive than confident. 

---

Najan-Ja crossed his arms, still remaining quite defensive of Yizan. "It shall not happen at all."

It seemed that Yizan and Najan were mutually ignoring one another, as Yizan did not seem to react at all to his uncle. Rather, he closed his eyes and let out a long sigh before saying something unintelligible to himself. Eventually, he spoke up more clearly. "Aunt, uncle, I want to go out to the root."

Najan raised his brow towards Yizan in confusion. [i]"What? This is not the time for that."[/i]

[i]"Yizan-Lei, you need to rest. We can-"[/i] His aunt began, but she was interrupted when Yizan spoke up with a surprising strength to his voice.

"I've been resting for months. I want to go out to the root now. I really need to." Yizan said before turning his gaze straight to Gallus. "Will you go to the root with me too?"