The hope of being able to save Oliver Kadar at the end of this impromptu journey had become a sprouted seed within Shinsou, but this new, terrible situation was utterly deflating. The entirety of everything the boy had said was frustrating and completely logically sound. Now, with a nightmare scenario encapsulating not only the two of them but the kid’s sister, the question that continued to ring in his ear was why. This no longer concerned Shinsou’s involvement with the Brotherhood. Someone had been very patient, very skilled, very opportunistic and very callous to undertake an attempt at a mass poisoning like this; one that, if done correctly, could probably have finished off Crossroad’s minimal population.

Ramius has set me up, the shit, Shinsou convinced himself, and now I have this poor kid’s sister on my conscience as a result. How many more will get caught up in this before its done?

He stood silently as the boy and his family frantically tried to revive the girl. Angela, as she was called, was breathing; but barely. Rubbing his chin as his eyes glared down at her form, Shinsou was struggling to accept what had transpired but then something caught his eye. It was something he had seen before, a day earlier, in the corner of the girl’s lips.

Foam.

Polonia poisoning? It seemed plausible, given all of the other symptoms that Oliver Kadar had been displaying in the Brotherhood’s medical wing twenty four hours prior. As the Telgradian knelt, jerking her head to one side, he inspected the lips and throat for similarities to his Brotherhood agent.

“This is what happened to Kadar,” Shinsou explained, dabbing at the brownish froth bubbling from the corner of Angela’s mouth. “It has all the hallmarks of Polonia, alright. The one thing we have going for us here is time – we’ve caught it early. I’m not a medical expert but my friend started suffering organ failure two days after ingestion.”

It was strange. Shinsou’s immediate focus was on the situation of a girl he did not know, in a town he would struggle to find on a map most of the time whilst on a mission to save a friend from death. Kadar’s odds for survival, given both the length of this scenario already and the fact he was likely being cared for by the very man who had orchestrated his assassination, were lengthening beyond reason. Shinsou thought upon this as he waited for someone, anyone, to say something. It was one of his fifty thousand problems, or so it seemed. Whichever way to tried to reason, Osiris had come to the glaringly obvious conclusion with a heavy heart.

Oliver is going to die, if he isn’t dead already, and there is nothing I can do to stop it because I’m all the bastard way out here.

A moment of sadness overtook the Telgradian. Kadar was a friend. There was no doubt that he was a loyal member of the Brotherhood but firstly and fore mostly he had always been there for Shinsou personally. It made his gut wrench to think of the man dying alone and in pain amongst the very people who had put this treachery into action. But, even as a small tear welled up in the corner of his eye, Osiris knew what Oliver would say to him, were he here now.

Yeah. “This is what I signed up for”. That’s what you’d say, right? That this is the risk we take every day. Shinsou lamented, looking down once more at the terrified expressions of the boy as he looked for answers. You’d tell me to take care of this girl first. She had nothing to do with all this baggage that followed me from Whitevale.

Everything around the Telgradian seemed to be moving in slow motion. As people scrambled for what meagre medical equipment they had, and hoisted Angela onto the bed, Osiris stood there in a trance. He hated the fact he had been so blind to all of this; that as a consequence of a lack of his own understanding, he would lose a friend and soon be solely responsible for the death of this poor girl and possibly countless others who may have drunk the water. That it had taken a child to point this out to him; at this very moment, a very distraught one at that, was beyond humbling.

As Shinsou had gathered himself, a moment of acceptance arrived. He knew Kadar was dead. When he got back to Whitevale, the Telgradian would have every bastard up against the wall until he found the people responsible. Ramius would be first to feel his wrath and Shinsou would make sure that Oliver Kadar would be avenged in the most creative of ways. But, for now, compassion, intuition and haste were required in equally large amounts for those outside of that murky life and for those who just wished to live in peace.

”Do you have any idea what could cure this?” Shinsou, now placing his faith in the pale boy, asked. “We have two days to find an antidote, and whilst I don’t know the first thing about herbs, I have a fast mount and a strong arm. I’ll do what I can to help your sister. Also…”

Shinsou felt his blood race and his heartbeat quickening as the vision of Kadar’s wasting body came back to him.

"I'm sorry that I brought trouble into your household. I promise you I’ll find the people responsible for this.”