Chapitre 416: The Plague (1)
"Narsis, Morrowind*
In the middle of an encampment stationed in the main plaza of Narsis, a lot of people and Hlaalu guards were running in and out carrying other people and medical supplies.
"Krilon! Krilon! That girl is dying!" Mirren ran in carrying a small Dunmer child.
"Dammit! Put her down. She needs cold water... Cool down the fever at all costs. Use Frost Spells on the water and then put the girl in slowly. Listen, Folks, your top priority is to cool the damn fever down. Until we know what we're dealing with, no one leaves the quarantine zone."
"Sir Krilon. We're having a situation." A Hlaalu Guard came running.
"Out with it."
"Some people inside the city are trying to break out?"
"Sick or not sick, no one goes in Narsis and no one goes out. If a single rat sneaks out then the whole damn Morrowind is fucked." Jon shouted.
"But Sir... These are Hlaalu Family members." The Guard said.
"Mirren, leave the girl to a nurse and go break their noble legs."
"Sir..."
"On it." Mirren didn't even argue.
"Galam, what the fuck are you doing?" Jon shouted.
"I... I think I'm sick too." Galam, who was lying on a mattress, said with a weak voice.
"Do you want to eat so bad or not to eat all? Do you have sores on your body?"
"No... but I feel like shit."
"Then don't lay your ass down here. You have a Filter Mask and if you feel ill, drink up a Prevention Potion. I want all hands on deck!"
Jon shouted in the people helping him take care of the ill and kept checking a tent after tent.
"Krilon!" Isha came running to him.
"How can I help?"
"Krilon... this is terrible. It's Miranda... she fell ill."
"Dammit."
***
*3 Days Earlier - on the road to Narsis*
A Carriage pulled by four Guars traveled on the road to Narsis surrounded by a number of guards on guarbacks and horsebacks. Jon rode on Joergen near the carriage and greeted the ladies inside. These were Old Cat and her granddaughter Karly as well as Nefertiti taking a nap on the Old Woman's lap.
"Must be nice going out of Mournhold, Old Cat." Jon spoke to the women in the carriage.
"Yes indeed, my friend. The road to Narsis in this No Man's Land now became like that time when Potema Septim waged war on the Empire all by herself. The girl was maddened by the loss of her son to the point that she cursed the very life itself... What others don't remember was how she forbade death on her bones becoming a Lich. One woman carried by all the rage and envy in the world could do the same damage that was caused by two whole nations in a war. Gives you something to think about." The Old Woman said.
"You've seen the Wolf Queen of Solitude?"
"I fought against her and her son. Poor child was driven by that bad envy of hers. The Ruby Throne... that's what she wanted all her life. Once her son was burnt to death and she fortified herself in Solitude, I was sent to her as a peace envoy. I offered her everything but a cornered wolf who lost her cub hears anything but reason. And for ten years we fought. Ten bloody years that would make the Planemeld and the Oblivion Crisis look like amateur works."
The Old Woman's tone was very remorseful.
"... Wow!" Jon was heart and soul focused on the story.
"You like my tales, Krilon?" Old Cat asked.
"They are actually great. I've recorded them by magic just now."
The Old Woman smiled.
"All is left with for me now is nothing but old bones. If I were younger, I wouldn't have stayed in one place like I do now."
"You are not called the Old Woman of Mournhold for no reason..."
"Aye. That's true." She agreed bitterly.
"... But I tend to disagree." Jon added.
The Old Woman and her granddaughter curiously looked at him.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
"Ever heard of the Placebo Effect?" Jon asked.
"No."
"It is when you are suffering from a mild pain for example then I give you some water with lemon on it and tell you this will cure you while in fact, it is just juice."
"I understand now. I did that a lot with my children... hehe. Once..."
"No stories for now, please. Opposite of the Placebo Effect is the Nocebo Effect like when I give you some sour juice and tell you this will make you vomit so you do vomit."
"Aha."
"In both cases, the mind has the power to create its own reality and an effect will appear on the body. Studies show that it appears naturally mostly due to stress as some physical symptoms. But most importantly and like any disorder, it can be contagious.
Of course there are many factors to consider but what we know that in some communities under certain circumstances, an involuntary behavior developed by one person can go viral. Think of something like a Mass Laughing Hysteria or what happens when some bird flocks do some very unnatural but perfectly coordinated movements in the air that researchers can't explain. In the end, it will spread from person to person until the entire community is infected.
By that, if an idea can become an illness and the illness becomes an infection. Think of this... From the Dawn Era to the Fourth Era and throughout the communities of Tamriel, what else about our reality is just an Illusion?"
The Old Woman looked at Jon as if no sound other than his was in the world. She pondered over it and tried to answer his question but wasn't really able to pinpoint a certain idea. In the end, she gave up.
"What is do you consider an Illusion?" She asked.
"Hehe! You know, a Dunmer should answer this Question before any other race on Tamriel just like that." Jon said and snapped with his fingers.
"Then give me time to think." She said.
"As you wish."
"What is that about anyway? How could you put together those ideas?" She asked.
"I'm writing a book." Jon replied.
"A book?"
"Yes. A book about the Magical Psychology. The logical lies and the daring ideas about the magic and the world." Jon said.
The idea of a book written about some crazy obscure subjects like these will be crazy. Knowing that Krilon is Jon Dare, Winterhold's College prodigy, the Old Woman thought of something right away.
"Finish that book before your Labour ends, show it to me, and I'll put you in the Central Hall of Shad Astula Academy to give a lecture and make a discussion about the book with the High Mages over there."
"... Shad Astula Academy... Well, I'll take you up on that."
"Humph! You have to worry about your end of the bargain first. Finish that book, my friend."
"Without you saying."
Shad Astula Academy is one of the most important schools in Morrowind which is considered a gathering for free thinkers just like the College of Winterhold. Also, it is one of the places where the old Ebonheart Pact used to train its leaders, mages and high officials and is still used for the same purpose to this very day.
Jon wouldn't miss the chance for the world. But...
"The book I am writing will be published under my real name. Won't that attract bad attention?" Jon asked.
"Remind me what was your surname again?" The Old Woman teased him back.
"Oh! I see... I just got the 'D' word in a very indirect way. Seriously? Fine. You got me there, Old Cat." Jon laughed and rode ahead.
In the carriage, Karly looked at her grandmother with strange eyes.
"Quite the guy that one. What is his real identity?" She asked.
"I don't disclose information about my friends." The Old Woman said.
"Friends? Aren't you too old for friends? And I thought most of those died a long time ago."
"Some still are alive. The old playboy around Vvardenfell and my friend who sends me gifts from Akavir."
"Hahaha! You really an impression on some strange people despite how wrinkly you've grown."
"What should I say, granddaughter. When I was younger, I was good... very good."
"Hmm... About how many hundred years ago... Why are we stopping?"
The two looked around to see themselves still in the middle of nowhere. Jon's voice sounded talking to someone in the front then he came to the carriage with a Dunmer man.
"Old Cat, this man is Hlaalu Guard. He's carrying a message to you." Jon said.
Beside Jon appeared a Dunmer who seemed to have been through Oblivion.
"Speak, son. What's going on?" Old Cat asked.
"My Lady, thank Azura you're here. Narsis... there is an epidemic taking over the town."
"An epidemic?" The Old Woman tensed all of a sudden.
"What epidemic?" Karly asked.
"We don't know." The man said.
"Tell them the symptoms." Jon urged.
"Yes, around a week ago, some people became very hungry all of a sudden. They ate like pigs and developed a mild fever with slight aches. Four days after, that fever became very high and they refused to eat at all. They also developed some open sores and fell to extreme pain."
"Oblivion!" Karly was horrified.
"I don't know what epidemic is that but you may have just described the Llodos Fever. It should just go with some local herbs and would take weeks to develop a second stage. It is not that contagious either. How on Nirn did a Spring Fever become that violent?" The Old Woman self monologued.
"What should we do? We can't enter an area with such an epidemic." Jon said.
"Too late. You just came across someone who came from the place." Galam said pointing at the man.
"Galam is right. We need to rush to Narsis at this rate."
The Old Woman made a decision and the convoy moved. Narsis was about to witness the harshest spring on Tamriel.
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Chapitre 417: The Plague (2) : Love in the Time of Llodos
A day passed since the Old Woman's team arrived at Narsis. This situation was tragic.
The epidemic spread so fast that Narsis had pillars of smoke rising from each corner burning everything that thought to be contaminated. The Hlaalu Guardsmen and the civilians were on a survival game against the epidemic.
In this total mess, a team of skillful individuals were taking the lead in the emergency response and enforcing the quarantine on Narsis under the management of the Old Woman of Mournhold.
The first thing they did before they arrive was putting on a plan. Narsis was a medium-sized city a bit smaller than the current Winterhold housing over 20'000 civilians. Controlling all of those is literally impossible and many were trying to escape the town the old woman came with a diabolical idea, she personally summoned a large number of undead skeletons and made them roam around Narsis giving the town the impression of being under an evil attack rather than a punishment from the Gods as some rumors began to spread.
Jon's ideas of the quarantine were mostly new but were not less violent than the Old Woman's undead solution. The city's layout was mapped to him by the clerics of House Hlaalu. He put a plan to block the streets by breaking many carriages and setting them on fire leaving only some routes to be monitored. An angry mob would go through a lot of trouble to break out from Narsis at this rate.
Mirren and Miranda, as well as many other mages, were focused on applying Filter Wards on all the medical gear that was going to be used by the staff. The two High Elves had an excellent aptitude in enchanting and their coordination was top notch.
Galam and Karly were assigned to dispose of and burn anything that is suspected to be contaminated.
The heroes of the day were both Isha and the Old Woman. The two seemed to have been trained on a unique ability to resist poisons and partially diseases which they called the 'Immunity to a Thousand Poisons' aptitude.
The two went and inspected every corner of the town marking the places to seal and the routes to follow while discovering the paranoid citizens who refused treatments for many reasons.
The first day passed like that and the second day arrived. This day was the beginning of the real suffering.
The disease had two known stages this far.
The first stage lasts between five to seven days and starts with a mild fever and random bodily aches and pains. Afflicted also have a terrible hunger that cannot seem to be satisfied.
The second stage is marked by a high fever, overall weakness, and the appearance of open sores upon the body. Pain grips the afflicted, making most normal activities impossible to perform. During this stage of the epidemic, the afflicted's appetite disappears, and it is a struggle to eat and drink sufficient amounts of food and water to maintain their body weight. The Old Woman estimated this stage of the epidemic to last at least seven days. If the afflicted doesn't throw off the disease during this period, a chance of survival may drop to almost zero.
This is the 10th day of the breakout and the situation is looking bleak. Only a handful of Alchemists were working day and night with no real result other than a potion that can prevent the infection and a portion to ease the pain.
Yesterday, Miranda fell to the disease too and was consumed by the terrible hunger. Jon and Isha stood out of her room looking at her wolfing a chicken in a minute.
"Where is my sister?" Mirren came asking.
Miranda tensed after hearing her brother's voice while Jon blocked the doorway and Isha faced Mirren.
"Hey, let's talk outside."
Isha tried to take him out but Mirren carried a strange look.
"I feel something is wrong. Let me see her." Mirren shouted at Jon and the latter only sighed and moved away from the doorway.
"Just don't walk in."
Clearing the door for him, Mirren tried to walk inside but Isha held him.
The Altmer twins stared at each other wordlessly. A thousand thoughts or so were exchanged between the two in moments before a smile appears on Miranda's face and disheartened look on Mirren's. He then walked out and Isha went to comfort him.
Jon followed the two by his eyes until they stood together and Isha pulled Mirren closer and hugged him.
"Oh! That girl is smooth." Jon grinned.
"What?" Miranda asked.
"Just some love in the time of... whatever this epidemic is." Jon replied.
"Love?"
"Yeah, Isha is making an advance on your brother. She is hugging him like a boy who will protect his girl by all costs... Wait! Is he... nevermind." Jon smartassly remarked.
"... Crying?" Miranda asked.
"Eh... Well, yeah... man's tears are valuable you know. Don't underestimate..."
"Brother was always a crybaby." She said.
"... And you are the silent cool beauty?"
"No... I'm the one who likes the weirdest of things."
"Strange! It took an epidemic to make you talk that many words." Jon remarked.
"On second thought, you may be the most terrible last person to talk to."
"God no! I am awful at this. I am very sensitive."
"... Are they still hugging?" Miranda asked.
"I've good news in bad news."
"That's a new way to put it."
"If you live through this, then your brother will lose his virginity to Isha... the wrong one."
"Okay. I see the point now."
"What's with you two anyway?" Jon asked.
"What's with us?'
"You look alike, act alike and dress alike."
"We are twins, we lived together all our lives and we have a reason to dress alike."
"So you dress like a boy sometimes?"
"No. Thinking that a girl will dress as a boy is more believable than a boy dressing as a girl." Miranda gave a hint.
"I see. So the both of you has some bounty on your heads." Jon concluded
"We're assassins."
Jon nodded but in his mind he was denying the answer. Assassins like those two are ghosts, they don't even have a reputation let alone a bounty. Jon could think of a few answers but he was not bothered that much.
"Fine, elf girl. I'll find a cure somehow and get you on your feet." Jon said.
"You won't do that from here else you too will get infected." She said.
"I am already infected."
"... What?" Miranda's eyes opened wide.
"I caught up the thing this morning but my inner system is putting on a fight. I have learned the ability to expel any inside harm forcefully so I want to understand what is this illness attacking and how to stop it. All I know now is that this is a microbe that attacks many vital organs. I am having a hard time suppressing it which is causing my body heat to rise and I'm frankly quite dizzy but I think I'll get the hang of it."
"... What..."
Jon's monologue right now made Miranda speechless.
"Let me clarify further. The microbe attacks the body violently but the natural immune system is fairly responsive. The problem is how fast the microbe reproduces and how the body reacts. The reproduction on both sides of the fight causes the body to crave for food on a large quantity to compensate for the loss of energy. Still, the sinister part about the microbe beside its rapid productive ability is how it goes on a war with the immune system not just to suppress it but to wear it off. Once that is done, the next target will be the esophagus which the microbe attacks by inner sores and that is the second stage for you. With the body unable to compensate for the rapid energy loss, things go down fast. If I were to guess, I would say this disease is not something new but triggered to be violent by a certain factor. Sadly, the common cure is of no help. And we don't know who's patient zero."
"... What..."
"Don't worry, I've already shared this with Old Cat earlier this morning."
"... Hold on." Miranda raised her hand. "You are infected too?"
"Oh boy!" Jon held his head, "It is not your fault. It is just that I was a big nerd in my past life."
"Past what?"
"Speaking of which, ever heard about them dragons?"
***
On a later date, Jon was summoned by the Old Woman.
"So we found him?" He asked.
"Yes. The first patient it is. His state is quite bad but Isha is talking to him." The Old Woman replied.
Jon insisted on finding patient zero as a part of determining how to deal with the epidemic.
An hour later, Isha came back with news. Patient zero seems to be a miner who discovered a sealed pathway in the mine he works and tried to discover it only to find it filled with undead. There were some scratches on his back and that seems to be the reason behind the epidemic.
"You were right, Krilon. Finding the first patient gave us a lot to work on." Isha said.
"Got a location on the mine and the other miners?" Jon asked a Hlaalu clerk.
"I'll provide you with records of the place right away, sera (sir)."
"This should work."
"It will."
A few hours later, the clerk returned with an exhausted face.
"I have gone through all the records of the scribes regarding the minor and major accidents. I only found this." The clerk presented his research results to the Old Woman and her party.
"These records go back to 2E 583? That's even before my time." The Old Woman said.
"Almost 950 years ago."
"What does it say?"
Jon and the Old Woman skimmed through the paper then looked at each other and frowned.
"The Llodos Plague? Not the Llodos Fever?" Jon asked.
"The Llodos Fever is an old sickness that appears in the spring all around Dasheen. I've never known there was a Plague by the same name. If it is the Llodos, shouldn't people have at least immunity to it?" The Old Woman wondered.
"I think you are mistaking something here. The Llodos Fever is the watered down version of the Llodos Plague. One is regular while the other is pandemic. Here, there are third and fourth stages as we feared. The note says 'The third stage of the plague marks the beginning of the end for the afflicted. The open sores cover most of the afflicted's body, which burns with such heat that the afflicted becomes delirious and subject to hallucinations. The afflicted refuses to eat or drink, and any kind of movement results in agony. This stage of the plague is relatively short, lasting from one day in extreme cases to as long as five days for those unfortunate enough to hang on'."
"Gods!"
"The final stage of the Llodos plague can take one of two paths. Many of the afflicted simply die an extremely painful death when the plague has run its course. The other path results in the afflicted transforming into undead creatures that are known as [Plague Husks]. These violent creatures become intent on attacking anything they encounter."
"This explains the Undead in the mines."
"So we are dealing with an old disease that was watered down through the ages but had traces in an old catacomb that was used to dispose of the dying patients. That was tricky." Jon concluded.
"The Note mentions a cure made of Kyne's Heart healing herbs, sour milk tea, and dragon scale mushrooms. We need every single piece of those. Krilon, Isha and Galam, you three deal with the undead. I will personally prepare the cures."
"On it."
"I want all the patients distributed to four zones. Those who are suspected to carry the Plague, those in the first stage, those in the second, and those who are nearing the third. But before all, send guards to the Alchemy stores and demand that they hand over their stash of those items before they think of hiding some."
She then turned to Isha.
"Isha, did you ask patient zero about any other miners who may have been with him. We can't miss someone out." The Old Woman asked.
"He said he had two new miners with him that he managed to trick away. Large orcs, that's how he described them."
"Orcs. Not quite common here. Look for the poor souls too. They may have caught something."
The Old Woman took over the situation and ordered everyone around ignoring the Lords of House Hlaalu who all stood behind her waiting instructions too.
By the end of the night, the life started to find its way back to Narsis but none could tell that it was just the end of Round 1. The Enemy was stepping up the game.
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