Elizabeth’s current accommodation was a cell with a glass wall. There was a wall cot and a bookshelf. A large table was bifurcated by the glass, half in the room and half in the wide hall outside. The hall looked like it belonged to an old hospital, plain and empty. The once-pristine plaster was discoloured and cracking. The tiles on the floor tapped loudly at every footstep.Elizabeth sat at the table on one side of the glass, while Neil, Carlos and Ian Evans-Asano were on the other. Emi’s father had been a doctor when he learned about magic and now had two decades of experience on the confluence of medicine and magical biology. All of them, including Elizabeth, had tablets displaying a diagram of the human body that looked a lot like one from traditional Chinese medicine.“Meridian mapping is imprecise when taken broadly,” Ian explained. “Essence users alone develop different pathways based on the specifics of their individual power makeups. If we’re going to suppress and extract the blood parasites in people, we have to start with being able to detect them without triggering the reaction that Jason encountered.”“What about Jack Gerling?” Elizabeth asked. “I am certain that McKean introduced some manner of parasite into him to steal control from me. Probably some variant of the parasites I had implanted in various people.”“Probably,” Ian said. “I don’t see how that helps us.”“I have samples from Gerling, left behind in various battles,” Carlos said. “Perhaps, between the information we have gleaned from Elizabeth about her blood magic and those samples, you could also map out Gerling’s meridian system. If we can get a framework for how his magic operates, there are options we can explore. I’ve developed targeted weapons before.”“Carlos,” Neil said, his voice a warning. “Do we have to have the discussion about what is and is not appropriate for a priest of the Healer again?”“I am just saying there are options,” (...)