A New Sickness

Leo bawls as Maya starts to suck the magic away from him. His figure for a moment shimmers few times between corporeal and incorporeal form until Leo finally takes physical form with his body, revealing Leo's human skin with black seals of the corruption. It seems like Maya's attempt is having the effect. But as she was not fully concentrated, Dark Leo uses the opportunity to set himself free. He trips Maya and as she falls, he grabs Fey Warrior for arms and kneels up, lifting Fey Warrior from behind above his head and throws him in front of himself. Leo bawls again in random direction and then spots Nadin. For a moment it seems like Leo could recognize his friend with his sad eyes. But Maya failed to finish the process, an the black seals on his skin start to grow again. His skin wooden, and instead of his hair to shift into grass or flowers this time, it turns into short branches and tentacles with thorns. Creepy and fallen Lyon in form of corrupted plant lifts the halberd from the ground with his foot and catches it with one hand, then slowly, and intimidating starts to walk towards Nadin, dragging the halberd behind him. Nadin witnessed the process Maya tried to perform, his mage skills would see solution in this by removing all wards of divine power from Dark Leo. Once there is no divine magic on Leo, there will be nothing for the sickness to devour and Leo would regain his consciousness. Leo is not incorporeal anymore, but his wooden skin is very hard to go through. If Nadin brought cold iron, it should be much easier to trap Leo.

When Mordenkainen's Disjunction starts removing all divine magic from Leo, the corruption did not have what to feed on anymore. Leo stands in the spot, looking the changes on himself. His unpleasant wooden skin becomes more natural green, his thorn branches and tentacles disappear. Leo looks in his claw hand that shapes into normal human hand, and slowly wooden skin becomes to fade as human skin color is taking it over. There are still some black traces on his skin, but he is now very recognizable as Leo Lyon. He regains his consciousness, but feels tired and breathes heavily. He leans against one tree with one hand to hold himself to not fall. "Nadin ..." Leo calls for Nadin's name, the pain is still in his voice, but also full with sorrow. He obviously remembers everything he did even if he did not have control, but is not even capable of saying full sentence of how sorry he is, he is easy to be trapped now, and would have no chance if Bigby Grasping Hand was used on him. The third attempt was successful, thanks to Nadin who came to help. It would be good to isolate Leo now from others until the corruption retreats from him to minimum and finally diapers. Binding his hands for now would do good by stopping him to use hand and finger work for casting any divine spell that would return him to dark shape again. He would need to be tied for one day at least.

"Do ... do what is necessary ... I don't want to hurt anyone ... my mind is still not fully clear ..." Leo offers his hands to be tied and wants to cooperate while he is still himself. His hands are trembling. "I saw ... through connection with the grove ... there is still hope to stop this ... I saw where is the cure for all this ... it was a vision." Leo speaks up some words that are not well connected, and perhaps do not make a sense. "But the future ... it is unclear ... it ... it ... shows me an image of us ... all need to be together in this ... to beat the corruption ... must work with our enemies ... to forget our differences or the price will be heavy." Leo looks at Nadin with tired eyes. "I did not want to ... I didn't ... want to become mindless hand of Talona ... the bear was right ... I am sorry ... we must find the Sleeper." He looks at Maya and then back at Nadin with worried look. "Did I hurt you?" He keeps examining Nadin with sad eyes and hopes that Nadin is okay.

Maya approaches. "I will be fine." She feels relief. "Thank you Nadin, I don't know what I would have done without you." Hugs Nadin if he allows. "He should not use any divine magic until he is fully recovered. And don't use any healing magic on him either. He needs to recover naturally. That is what I saw. He is not animal, he can beat this and he will."

After day stopped to use any divine magic and with strong immunity system, Leo fully recovers from the sickness because he was humanoid and not animal. He is healthy again, returned to normal, and can access his magic without risk anymore. He is hungry and thirst, and needs to be released or be fed while still tied. For those who know Leo, his friends, they know well that he is only Lyon who is mainly carnivore.

Leo is tied on the bed, unable to move his hands and legs. Leo's nose catches the scent of the hot broth long before Aerul enters the room. He smiles a bit, happy to be finally fed. But he is curious who would bring him the food, so he keeps staring at the door. And when they finally open, it was his friend, Aerul. He smiles pleasantly. "Yes I am afraid you missed the party again. But I am glad you did, I don't know would I handle if another of close people to me would put themselves at risk." He glances at the food first then at his ropes. "Yes, I feel much better, but I am starving. Although I can't blame elves for avoiding me, I was far than myself. If there was no Nadin to save me, to stop me, I would probably be dead, and maybe even kill someone along the way. I don't feel the presence of the sickness anymore. It was devouring divine magic, but it finally disappeared when I was restrained from using it." Leo nods to Aerul. "I am skilled healer enough to know if something is wrong with me. I am myself now, you can still keep me tied if you wish so. I will not leave the room without Nadin's or any defender's approval. They respected me enough by not caging me in their cells." Leo's eyes fall on the milk and then looks at himself. "It can be tested by using a spark of divine magic. If there is devouring detected on me, then the corruption is still present. If there is not, then I am fine. Feel free to try lesser divine magic on me."

Leo closes eyes as divine spelling is being used on him. When the spell ends, he opens one eye to see if anything changed. But nothing happens. There are no black traces on his skin nothing. Mind Blank is not needed. Leo smiles as he sees that his healing skills did not let him down, and that he is fine.

As Leo is being set free, Leo sits up and takes the food. He "attacks" the bowl of broth, starts eating like animal. In less then a minute the bowl already was empty. He grabs the bottle of milk and drinks it one attempt and as he was drinking it he was still looking at his elf friend. Huge appetite this Lyon has. Some may wonder how much he could still eat. "Thank you my friend." Leo pats Aerul on shoulder as he speaks with elven tongue. "This is exactly what I needed. Now I can be of use to nature again, and to Myth Drannor. My spirit is strong, and now my physical form is recovered too." Leo flexes his biceps and then cracks neck few times, preparing to work out, obviously his stomach is not full enough to stop him from exercises.

Couple of months later:

A pleasant energy wave could be felt in the air. Those skilled in magic could recognize the act of forest guardians and high magic that could be done only through a ritual restores the land from Talona's blight, and that if any being is still infected by this is no longer capable of devouring any magic, and became subject to healing. The source of blight is destroyed, and so is now its influence upon the land. Animals do not mutate anymore, their rage disappears as they return to their natural form, and flora regains its natural colors as it is being healed. The Circle of Nature took the final measures in its hands after discovering about the ritual, and performed it in the grove before the Great Tree. New Sickness and the Blight era is now over.