Bab 452: The Cursed Disease
Double Chapter! Daily + Extra
~~~~~~~~~~
(Part 1)
The plan was to take a patch of Prisoners from different races and ages to study the Disease that struck the border area. Due to the variety of symptoms that appeared, the dispatched medics couldn't figure out what sort of disease they are up against.
But when the Dominion Soldiers escorted some of the refugees to a Thalmor camp near the infection site, one of them escaped and the Thalmor sent people after him hoping that the infection doesn't go widespread.
Yet due to the nature of the mission, it was impossible for a normal Elf or a Khajiit to find someone who escaped in the middle of the Scar, the desert in the south of Anequina Kingdom. That's why those soldiers stopped at the nearest city which happened to be Orcrest and looked for any convenient person to grab as a substitute for the prisoner.
And lo and behold, a human. And not just a human, but a Nord, the kind of Humans High Elves dislike the most.
"Catch him!" A Soldier shouted.
"No! They are coming at me!" Jon screamed frantically and started running around aimlessly.
The Thalmor Soldiers gave a chase and surrounded him.
"Now!"
As they hopped on him at once, Jon started waving his arms around.
"Leave me be! Perverts! Help!"
It was safe to say that there was no winning side in the fight. They hit Jon with their batons and Jon punched around like a child. One baton hit Jon's elbow and caused his nerves to react unintentionally, his arm bashed the man that hit him in the guts.
"!!"
The man felt a sweet taste in his mouth as his guts were squished and he fell on his knees with teary eyes. Jon and the others stopped what they were doing and looked at him.
The man felt his image was getting ruined so he smiled casually.
"Just an upset stomach… carry on. Beat him up!"
The fight returned once again with the Thalmor Soldiers running after Jon to beat him with their batons and Jon waving his arms around. Still, many got their guts squished, their balls kicked, their eyes poked, their feet stumped on, and suffered a lot of bruises.
In the end, they caught Jon.
"You can't do this. I have my rights."
"Shut up!"
"My lawyer is called Karen. She will come and deal with your manager."
"Take him out of here." The Captain of the Soldiers said as he locked Jon in steel wagon.
Looking behind him, the captain saw his soldiers lying on the ground in a sorry state.
"Auriel! It is over."
"This was so hard. I thought I might see my ancestors."
"Did we really catch him?"
"I feel like it is the other way around."
"... Stand up, you lazy twats! We are transferring the prisoner back to the camp." The Captain shouted at his subordinates as he tried not to limb until he reached his horse.
***
The road from Orcrest to Rimmen would take four days but as the Thalmor camp was set on the edge of the State of Rimmen near the Scar Badlands, the trip lasted for three days.
Jon was quite the silent prisoner and kept to himself most of the time. The wagon transporting him wasn't anything fancy, he can break its walls with a punch and bend the steel cage surrounding it with a little bit of Aura.
At the sunset of the third day, the carriage passed a bridge over a steep canyon on the road to Rimmen.
"Hey, guard. How long till we reach that blasted camp of yours?" Jon asked.
"Look who is speaking! Why do you care, Nord? You are dead as soon as you arrive. Lady Wendlain is going to dissect you as soon as she gets her hands on you." The wagon driver said.
"True, I once saw her gut an Imperial. She cut his chest and stomach open like a Y letter and took everything out then started studying it. By Mara! It gave me nightmares. Those Justiciars can be weird." Another guard confirmed.
"It is called Forensic Pathology, dimwit." Jon replied.
"Foren- what?"
"Forensic! For your simple minds to understand, it is the science of opening people up to figure out what killed them."
"Humph! Shut up, Nord. What is a northern monkey like you know of the ways of the Elves?" The Captain hit the wagon with his baton to scare Jon.
"You don't believe me, Captain? Fine, if your Forensic Pathologists are as good as you claim then they won't find it hard as they figure out that you died from inner bleeding and that guy over there died from choking."
"... What are you saying?"
"Also, we don't have monkeys in the north."
With the last word he spoke, Jon's staff appeared on his hand and spells started flying in every direction. The Captain got paralyzed as he fell from his horse with his face twisted with pain, his second in command started choking, the wagon driver bled from his everywhere, another guard turned pale as he started freezing… so on and so forth until every Thalmor Soldier died to a different cause.
"I will be very interested in seeing your Forensic report one day." Jon said as he walked out of the wagon by teleporting.
"I don't think they will examine some low leveled soldiers, especially when they are short on hand." A voice replied from the end of the bridge.
Jon turned around to see a brown-skinned woman in a hippie sense of fashion and a girl in a gothic black dress. It was a weird combination but a welcome one nonetheless.
"Isha, Nefertiti. I assume that your journey was fast." Jon said.
"Faster than you at least. We have been here for a day and reconned the area." Isha said.
"Sorry for being late then. I was extracting some information from those… dead gentlemen."
"That's an understatement. You overkilled them, man." Isha said while poking a corpse with the end of her spear.
"Did you catch the infected man who ran from the Thalmor?" Jon asked.
"Yes. He was dying but we managed to get some answers from him. I put him to mercy afterward." Isha replied.
"So what did you find?"
"A few Thalmor camps packed with infected refugees. Imperials, Khajiit, Orcs, and Argonians with a mix of other races in small numbers. The disease seems to have come from outside Elsweyr through the borders which explains the number of Imperials and Argonians. The nature of the disease is still unknown." Isha said.
"Hmmm… interesting!"
"What are you interested in? Did you find out something?"
"Nope. Absolutely nothing." Jon replied with a psychopathic smile.
"..." "..."
Isha and Nefertiti felt something was going wrong.
"What is going on?" Isha asked.
"Hooman and I are connected but it is a pain seeing through his head lately so I don't know." Nefertiti replied.
"Why is that?"
"He was going through some anxiety lately."
"Anxiety?"
Jon looked at the two and smiled.
"Don't you get it? After eight months of silence, there is finally something." Jon explained.
"What do you mean?"
"My Labour. It was on hold for a long time. Eight months with no accidents, no trouble, everything is peaceful and no problems at all…"
"Isn't this a good thing?" Isha tilted her head.
"What? No! I have been stirring up trouble for eight months straight for my Labour to continue and finally… a sign."
To the overexcited Jon, Isha let out a deep sigh.
"Cat, do something to your Hooman or whatever."
"Leave me out of it. In these times, we better watch from afar as he does his thing."
As the two started complaining about him, Jon butted in.
"Ladies, focus. We have a Disease outbreak. We need to investigate. I have too many plans and expectations so let's work hard." He said.
"Do like me, Isha. Yay! Go for it, Hooman." Nefertiti said.
"Yay! We believe in you." Isha copied Nefertiti.
"Fine. I don't want your help. Where are Miranda and Mirren?"
"With the rest of the Adepts in Rimmen. They investigate in secret as their usual." Isha said.
"Good, Rimmen is our next stop then."
***
Rimmen is found in the greater region of Anequina, which is known for its harsh deserts and dry savannahs. However, Rimmen is found in the Rim Territories, where the grasslands are more somewhat vibrant and lively.
Rimmen is a large walled-off city with water canals and domed buildings built from ivory-colored stone and lush tropical greenery. The canals get water from the aqueducts that span across the Kingdom of Rimmen. In the city, they empty in the town square, into relaxing pools of water where several people pass the time to relax and meditate. However, today was no such day.
It was said this morning that a lot of refugees are trying to pass through the borders as a disease outbreak happened to the east. By the orders of the Royal Family of Anequina, all those who passed the borders during the past week were to be brought to the central plaza alongside anyone who came in constant contact with them.
The rapid response resulted in a fast containment of the situation and everyone who was suspected to be infected was quarantined right away. The Federal Thalmor Embassy of the Aldmeri Dominion was mobilized in order to identify the disease and find a Cure. Mercenaries and Adepts were called to help with the jobs the government was short on hand with.
Mirren was walking on a street surveying the poor slums and looking for those who didn't submit to the check-up.
{Thalmor, Ten o'clock.} A voice rang in his head as he was walking.
Mirren nimbly walked to the shade of a wall and hid his presence.
As the Thalmor patrol passed, he returned the Telepathic call.
"You're starting to talk like Jon, sister."
{Less words, more meaning.}
"You… sigh!"
Mirren could only ask a little as his sister wasn't really a great person to have a conversation with.
{Why did you hide?} She asked.
"Thalmor."
{They don't know you.}
"... I guess old habits are hard to get rid of."
No matter what, Mirren was always suspicious of Thalmor and hated walking across them. He and his sister are talented in hiding their presences, sneaking and teleporting short distances making them ideal assassins but all these skills were honed only to shake off their true enemies, the Thalmor.
The Altmer Twins and their family were a target for the bloodline genocides that happened in Summerset many years ago in the name of getting rid of lowly bloodlines mixed with other none Altmer. Despite the young age of the twin, they were very aware of the dangers they are facing and never revealed a hint of their existence to the Thalmor, which includes not running into them and or leaving witnesses.
{Three patrols around you. Proceed with caution.}
Mirren turned to look to the high tower in the middle of the district.
"You seriously need to stop talking like that."
{I like it.}
"No, you like him."
{...}
"He is married and basically a playboy, sister. Don't get mixed up with that."
{... When did you know?}
"Please! You are not giving him a cold shoulder, that's enough to know."
{Roof watchman, two blocks ahead.}
As the two kept arguing through Telepathy while sneaking around the city, they managed to find a few people who were afraid of the general check-up and hiding in their houses. What Mirren needed to do was to attract the city guards here by any way available like burning something or breaking a wall.
Soon after, their patrol was over and they returned to the Elder Adept in charge of them to report then got dismissed to rest.
**********
(Part 2)
Mirren and Miranda sat on the rooftop on the higher part of the city of Rimmen in their rest hours.
The two always have a secret strategy discussion for themselves during every situation as two fighters who are mostly dependant on one another.
"Doesn't this situation bring back awful memories?" Mirren said.
"Narsis." Miranda replied.
"Yes, our last Labour. It was a terrible plague so let's hope this one doesn't turn into a disaster."
"It won't." She said.
"And how do you know?"
"This is different, not much infection but the disease is severe."
"... I don't think I know much about infections and disease but those Thalmor are dissecting living people to get to know the disease, it is barbaric!"
"Life."
"You were to eavesdrop on them, did they find anything out after this many deaths?"
"Yes." She nodded, "Organ failure, Necrosis, slow death."
"That's terrible." This was supposed to be Mirren's reply but someone else said it.
Mirren turned around with a pale face to see someone familiar but in a strange appearance.
It was Jon but not exactly Jon. It was a ghost that looked exactly like Jon.
"What is going on?" Mirren asked as he jumped on his feet.
"Guess what!" The Ghost of Jon acted as smug as his owner.
"You are dead and the world is finally at peace but you will haunt me for life." Mirren guessed as he was told.
"TaDaaa!" The Ghost of Jon didn't deny it.
"What?" Mirren freaked out.
"He learned the [Astral Projection] spell." Miranda interrupted.
"Oh! You scared me. I thought I'll be haunted for real."
The [Astral Projection] is an Expert level Mysticism spell that allows the casters to project spectral holograms of themselves and do various things through it. The real Jon, who is miles away outside Rimmen, can use the Astral Projection to scout, communicate and even cast some spells.
"What do you want?"
"Meet me outside the city to the south at the border pass, there is something you need to see." Jon's projection said then disappeared.
The two siblings sighed as they knew deep inside that things are going to get noisy from this point on.
***
A few hours passed until Jon and Isha met up with Mirren and Miranda.
The four briefed themselves with the situation on all fronts and made a plan to look around.
"So, you said you found out something." Mirren spoke to Jon.
"Right. Here, take a look." Jon passed his spyglass to Jon.
Their location was on a hidden area near the mountain range that separates Elsweyr from Cyrodiil south to Rimmen. They had a great view of the encampment of the Thalmor blocking the road to the border pass.
"What am I looking for exactly?" Mirren asked.
"Do you see the refugees imprisoned in cages?"
"Yes."
"Did you notice what they are?"
"Diseased poor folk?"
"Come on, you can do better."
Mirren looked once again but didn't spot anything strange.
Isha used her Aura to look further while Miranda took the spyglass from Mirren.
"Aha."
"I see."
"So I am the idiot here." Mirren was dissatisfied with Isha's and Miranda's responses.
"I was just teasing you. I don't know what's wrong either." Isha said while winking at him.
"Thanks… that sure made me feel better." Mirren said in self mockery.
"There are Argonians." Miranda said.
""Hm?""
"There are Argonians and they are very sick." Miranda said.
"Bingo!" Jon agreed with her.
"And?" Isha questioned.
"Argonians have a natural resistance to all sorts of Diseases, they even carry diseases without noticing." Jon said, "The main reason why no one really wanted to invade that infested land of Black Marsh was because of the Hist and their use of Biological Weapons to fend off the invaders. Wasn't the Hist of Tear the reason behind the Plague in Narsis?" Jon said.
"I see. So the Argonians are making everyone sick." Mirren said.
"Nope. I just said the Argonians are sick which is a very rare thing to happen. With that number of diseased Argonians, there is one assumption we are safe to consider."
"Which is…?"
"This is not a Disease."
The four remained silent for a while.
"Not a disease? People were working hard to find a cure for this thing and you're saying they were wrong all along?" Mirren asked.
"Yes. The main symptoms are Organ Failure and Necrosis. These are endgame symptoms and appear with the highly contagious disease in most cases. This thing is not contagious but only to a very low extent. More so, there is an obvious state of madness that doesn't fit in with the whole thing." Jon explained.
"People are getting mad too?" Isha asked.
"I know it is nasty but something is really wrong. So, based on my educated guesses, I would say it is a Curse." Jon said.
"Why?" Mirren asked.
"Because no mage is infected. Mages have better resistance to Magicka in general." It was Miranda who replied.
"Right. I didn't see any infected Mages who are supposed to be people with low physical constitution."
"So that sums everything up? We are up against a curse that can go viral?" Mirren asked for confirmation.
"Indeed. And a very weird one at that."
The four returned to silence once again. The situation was now more outlined than before.
"But a curse can't go viral." (Miranda)
"Indeed." (Isha)
"Then how is this happening?" (Mirren)
"Maybe it was cast with the condition to go viral." (Isha)
"That's way too advanced. Let alone the skills required to do so, Curses need a medium. If I want a curse to go viral, I would cast on a Rune Spell to work as a trap and have a better result." (Jon)
"And what about the madness?" (Miranda)
"No idea." (Jon)
"Let's get our own test subject then." Miranda said, "We won't know much this way."
To her suggestion, the others started thinking about it.
"Okay." Jon agreed.
"You are considering this?" Isha was not approving.
"At least it is something to do."
***
And so they had their Argonian test subject.
"The 6th of First Seed (March), year 200 of the Fourth Era. I performed a magical examination on the subject: Ja-Meen, 37, male, infected with a mild curse that developed through the innards and the outer limbs. Halting the curse was successful but reversing it is impossible until the Medium is broken. No traces of the Magicka causing the curse were found but the subject's mental health is degenerating due to unknown reasons as the brain is intact as far as I can tell. Record, over."
Jon finished his examination on a victim and turned around.
"That was brutal." (Isha)
"Stone Cold." (Mirren)
"Sexy!" (Miranda)
"What?" (Mirren)
"I like… the systematic way." (Miranda)
That was a lie, she was imagining herself tied to a bed with Jon holding a scalpel over her and saying mad researcher words.
But more importantly, Jon returned the subject back to consciousness.
"Ja-Meen, looks like you are fine. How do you feel?"
Ja-Meen opened his eyes to see himself in a cave surrounded by lights made magic and bring looked at by four strong presences. Anyone in their right mind would be nervous but Ja-Meen was frenzied.
"He is close! Close by! Troll Head! Troll Head is coming! He will come and eat us. Troll Head eats us! He is eating us! Now he is eating me! I am being eaten."
Ja-Meen kept going in a frenzy and Jon wasn't being able to calm him.
"As you can see, he is having fantasies about that Troll Head thing. This madness is not natural." Jon said.
"Meaning?"
"According to what I know, the madness that gives such a deep insight is not some mental failure. They were driven mad but that is not a part of the curse. Whoever it is, he is my Uncle's favorite errand boy."
"Oh, please! Don't remind me." Isha said as she massaged her head.
"Troll Head! He is eating! I am eating! No! Being eaten. I am scared! Mommy! Help me! Help…"
Seeing an adult cry for help in such a desperate situation, even Jon felt sympathy for the Argonian.
The Curse and that Madness are making each other worse.
"Hey, Ja-Meen. When did Troll Head find you for the first time?" Jon asked.
"Troll Head? You know him? You are his friend? Please, I'll tell you all I know…"
After a few attempts of making heads and tails of what the Argonian was saying, Jon came to the conclusion that Troll Head is the person who cast the curse.
The purpose is unknown but the suffering is real here.
There were also more details. According to Ja-Meen, the Troll Head came out from an old ruin and wherever he passed, the curse followed.
"So it was undead that appeared first in Black Marsh." Mirren concluded.
"Or a Necromancer. Who knows!" Jon added.
"The important thing is the whereabouts of the one behind all this no matter the identity." Isha said.
"Mad people can't answer too complicated questions." Miranda said.
In this investigation, every step they took was hindered by more mystery and would take too long to figure out what to do next.
But Jon had the right idea on what to do next.
"If you want to understand a madman, you need a madman who can understand madmen." Jon said.
Jon stuffed his hand into the Cube and recovered something. He did so then ran to the forest beside the cave they stayed in followed by his companions.
"What are you doing?" Mirren asked.
"He is here. Watch but never learn." Jon replied as he looked with excitement around the forest.
What he held in his hands were yarn rolls with various colors. He took the end of each yarn and started throwing them around all over the place.
The scene was strange but it wasn't the first strange scene today.
Anyway, the yarn rolls went deep in various directions. Jon sat in front of them and patiently waited.
It was a minute later when a yarn thread reacted. Jon held if right away and started pulling.
"What is that?"
"I am fishing... or catting. Oh! Catting is a really nice verb.."
As he said so, the yarn thread came to an end and what Jon catted appeared.
It was a cat… or rather a Khajiit Alfiq with grey fur and black stripes. The Alfiq was entangled in the yarn thread in every impossible way.
"What is that? The yarn is coming to life! My oh my… this is a new one! I am excited! So exciting... let me hold you. Here! Here! And here too! Oh! It is everywhere! If feels weird... and nice! Weird and Nice. I like it! Hey, stop dragging me." The Alfiq Khajiit said in a dramatic tone.
Jon looked at him and coughed.
"Hm? Is it you? Who are you to summon me? Wait..." The cat looked at Jon with curious eyes, "Aren't you this mortal! MY MORTAL! Wait! What are you doin..."
Jon walked forward and held the cat up from its fire like a little cub.
"Hey! What the Fluff? Put me down at once." The Alfiq became annoyed all of a sudden.
"Hey..."
"I said put me down. This is when I should smite you. Give you a serious smiting. Completely smitten. You know that move, don't you? The third move of the Meowjestic Paw Art, Mighty Paw Smite!" The Khajiit started throwing a tantrum while waving his paws but not reaching Jon.
Jon sighed before calling the man.
"What's up, Uncle Sheo?"
~~~~~~~~~~
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