The idea of physically coercing Idunnir was laughable. Reason wasn't working, understandably. Caius had no good ideas for dealing with the situation. What he did have was a bad idea that might temporarily help and probably make things worse after.

  Digging out Marcus' box of dried herbs, Caius examined it very closely. He angled his body so that he could see the treeline, hopefully he would spot the movement if anything else approached.

  Caius knew some things, just from seeing Marcus make the tea. In retrospect, watching as closely as he had was probably rude at the time. There were six ingredients. And Marcus hadn't spent a great deal of time examining the quantities.

  Either Marcus was so practiced that he could gauge the amounts at a glance, or the recipe had a generous amount of leeway. Probably both. Caius didn't know anything about whatever alchemy this was. But he had seen experienced professionals in other fields doing their thing and it was usually both.

  Ten compartments in the box. Four small ones lined up at the side where the hinge was, and six big ones in a two by three pattern. The spoon that went with it had a long stirring side and a tiny scoop on the other, Caius had seen Marcus use it.

  Caius dug the pretty rock out of the heat-proof leather pouch he had been keeping it in and dumped it into Marcus' pot. He didn't know how much water to use, but there was a faintly visible blue line around the inside. Good enough, he added snow until the water reached the line. Then he remembered the rock was in the bottom.

  Fish the rock out, fill to the line, put the rock back in. Scan the treeline, didn't look like any more zombies were coming. Yet. Back to the box. Six ingredients, six large compartments. Marcus made this every day, he'd need plenty of them. Good enough.

  Humans were fallible and, to an extent, lazy. Caius squinted and examined the box as closely as possible. There! Tiny little notches in the wood. Well, the box had some that must have been from normal wear and tear. But on the inside edge of the compartments, in the top-left corner, were neat little notches.

  They all had a single notch, except for one compartment that had two. Maybe Caius was grasping for patterns here, but the notches were all the same distance from the corners. And the two-notch compartment was visibly emptier. Good enough.

  He carefully dumped a scoop from each compartment into the now boiling water, with an extra scoop from the two-notch compartment.

  Closing his eyes, he prayed both that this would work and that this was an acceptable thing to do. When he opened them, he found that the mixture was indeed glowing a bright blue. Almost done. He scooped the rock out, cleaned it was well as he could and put it back in its pouch.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Alright, tea or whatever you are. I need to do whatever you do very, very thoroughly. And please help dull the pain and despair Idunnir is feeling for a while?"

  A golden glow bloomed in the liquid, the combined light actually a bit uncomfortable to look directly at. Somehow the colors of light didn't mix, both equally visible. Which didn't seem possible, but it was literal magic.

  Caius collected the bowl he had made, the one that held more than it was supposed to. He poured the tea inside and added snow until he guessed it was cool enough to drink. He didn't want to touch it.

  Remembering how Idunnir had tried to punch him the last time, Caius decided to circle around and approach from where the man could see him.

  "Here, I hope this works." He held the bowl out in both hands.

  Through the eyeholes in Idunnir's helmet, Caius could see the dull eyes turning to the bowl. Then sharpen. "Is that..."

  "I think it might be, but I did add some of whatever it is I do." Caius said honestly.

  Shrugging, Idunnir pulled his helmet off and reached for the bowl with a sort of quiet desperation showing in how his hands shook slightly. That was a feeling Caius knew well. Putting something, anything, between you and the pain. Even if you knew it was bad for you. Even if you knew it would make the pain worse later.

  Idunnir took a sip. Then his eyes went wide. "Do... do you have more of this?"

  Well, the bowl was actually smaller than the one Idunnir normally used. Caius knew that feeling too. Unexpectedly missing some of what you were counting on to get through the day.

  "The bowl is special, there's a whole pot in there." Being this blunt was such a relief. No need to mince words here.

  After visibly processing that, Idunnir started throwing it back with a purpose. "Something's different. You did that?"

  Caius shrugged. "I tried to make it better. I'm not sure how it works, but it does."

  "Is that how you walk on top of the snow?" Idunnir asked when he had to come up for air.

  "Yes." Caius confirmed.

  After nodding at that response, Idunnir didn't stop drinking until the bowl was finally empty. In retrospect, the number of bathroom breaks the three had taken the day before made sense. Caius stayed well-hydrated as a matter of habit, because back home he would be sweating most of the water out.

  Meanwhile Idunnir was downing A LOT of liquid between Marcus' tea and the water the older man made sure he drank.

  There was a brief pause after the armored man set the bowl down. Then he shot to his feet like a lightning bolt had hit him, so quickly his feet actually left the ground for a moment. He landed and proceeded to fall over, stiff as a felled tree.

  For a second, Caius was concerned that he might just have given his best hope of survival an overdose. But a few seconds later, the prone form of Idunnir went limp and let out a moan of pleasure.

  Ah. Well, the tea seemed to have worked. Judging by the day before, Caius had a while before Idunnir snapped out of it. He set about getting everything packed. Not as neatly as it had been originally, but it would be fine.

  Inspired, he Requested both sets of baggage to be as light as possible. It worked, afterwards he could lift his own basket and satchel with one hand.

  Hopefully, Idunnir would be ready to travel soon.