"Are you the one that visited the sick family?" He asked Syryn.

"Yes. What of it?"

The healer took a step back involuntarily. "What did you see?"

"The same thing everyone else saw," Syryn answered. The man was acting suspicious, likely hiding something.

"So you think that the man was possessed?" The healer asked.

"Is it not possible?" Syryn wasn't sure what answer the man was looking for so he gave vague replies.

"You're right," and he was back to smiling with insincerity. "Forgive me for disturbing you sirs. I'll go back where I came from."

Syryn gave Akida a one-sided smile when they were alone again. "I know you don't fuck whores but do you fuck men?"

"Would you like to find out?" Akida narrowed his eyes dangerously at Syryn.

Was he actually threatening him with a good time? Syryn thought as he raised his hands peacefully. "I was just asking, not volunteering."

"Finish up soon. I wanna go back," Akida told him. The guard recalled the scene with the builder and felt uneasy.

"Go back if you're antsy. I'll spend some more time searching."

"Half an hour," Akida told him. "Let's go back after that."

"The sun is still up. There's enough time-"

"I saw one of the builders clutching his head in pain. Call me paranoid but I have a bad feeling about it," Akida confided. "Half an hour." His dark eyes held Syryn's, "and we go back."

This time, Syryn didnt argue.

-----

When they returned, the builders had made good progress on the construction. They were fast and efficient.

"Which one?" Syryn asked Akida.

"Butt chin over there," Akida indicated. "He doesn't look too hot."

The man had a frown on his face while he worked. His face was pale and he kept wiping his forehead with the back of his hand.

Syryn needed to know if the man had come in contact with the sick family since it wasn't possible to confront the builder without knowing for sure that the man really was suffering from the same sickness. Such an action would only result in blind panic and suspicions.

"Syryn," Rei called out from behind him. "You had a visitor while you were gone."

"Who?"

"Dinah. She said there's been another victim and that you need to find her as soon as possible. She's waiting at the inn."

Syryn turned to Akida knowing that the guard would have something to say about it.

"How contagious do you think it is?" Akida asked him.

"The ghost? I'm not sure. We'll know in the next few days."

"You could catch it if you aren't careful," Akida frowned as he looked Syryn in the eye. At least he wasn't insisting on detaining Syryn in their compound.

"Maybe." The probability of it being a possession was falling lower and lower as Syryn's certainty of it being a contagious disease solidified with each incident. Even so, he had to be careful of something that was as mysterious as it was horrifying.

"Come back before nightfall," Akida said before turning away.

-----

"Dinah," Syryn greeted the grim-looking priestess. "What's going on now?"

"A dead man," Dinah replied. "Found not too far from the spot where the first one had died."

"No reports of his falling ill?"

"Complained of a headache to his wife a few days ago. The man then went hunting and turned up dead at the edge of the forest. He was found by some children who were catching grasshoppers around the area."

"So he died not too long after contracting the disease," Syryn slowly said to himself. "It doesnt make sense. The time of incubation does not match. Could it be that something else happened to him?"

"Let's go talk to the wife," Dinah suggested.

"When did they find his body?"

"In the afternoon."

"They'll be busy preparing for his funeral. We should probably visit tomorrow."

"We have to hurry, Syryn. Maybe she could give us information that could prevent more deaths," Dinah urgently told him.

Syryn wasnt as concerned as Dinah was about the people dying. As long his loved ones didn't catch the disease that is. "You lead the questions," he told the priestess. The alchemist wasn't in the mood for grilling a grieving widow. He'd had enough of the villagers for one day.

"I don't know where her home is," Dinah sheepishly told Syryn. "And I've already acted nosy enough for the day by asking the innkeeper too many questions. It's your turn."

Syryn wasnt sure how much help he could get from a man they'd bullied. "I dont think he will be forthcoming about it. Might give me an excuse about how he can't divulge personal information to outsiders."

"Why dont you ask his daughter," Dinah mildly suggested. "She seems fond of you."

"Are you asking me to seduce an innocent maiden?"

Dinah looked at Syryn like he was a scoundrel. "I just asked you to question her."

"Suni, can I speak to you for a moment?" Syryn called out to the teenage girl who was passing by with a bucket of water. He had heard her being called that by another villager.

Blushing, she shyly nodded at Syryn. Dinah raised her brows a fraction when Syryn turned on his charm and smiled brightly at the girl.

"I heard about a widow whose husband just passed away today. The healer that was recently injured requested me to send her some herbs that will help calm her mind after such a terrible loss. Can you point me her way, Suni?"

The young girl's cheeks were red when she nodded and looked away from the violet eyes that were too beautiful for her to look at directly. "Aunt Farah lives at the house next to the village headman's home. Just look for a hackberry tree. It's in her garden."

"Thank you," Syryn unfurled the ribbon that held his hair back. "A token of my gratitude." Syryn still had one more and he could ask Salem to make more.

The young lady's mouth dropped open and she received the ribbon with the wonder of a child who had just gotten a birthday present. "Thank you," she breathed out softly.

This time, Syryn smiled without any artifice. "Have a good day, Suni."

She beamed at him and skipped off happily with her bucket of water.

"You're actually a good kid," Dinah commented with a teasing smile. "Soft spot for the ladies?"

"Just feeling generous," Syryn replied. If he was being honest, Suni's clear eyes and innocence was refreshing to him. One day she too would be corrupted by the world but until then, Suni could stay sweet like the yellow buttercup flower that was tucked behind her ear.

--

Syryn and Dinah didnt have to look far from the headman's house. A crowd of people was milling into a cosy little home that couldn't possibly fit all the villagers that had arrived to console the widow.

"How are we getting past that crowd?" Syryn asked Dinah.

"By acting like we know what we're doing." Dinah confidently stepped forward and Syryn followed her lead.

"Excuse me, let us through," Dinah said to the outer line of the crowd. Her businesslike demeanour had the crowd parting even as they stared with suspicion. Many of them had heard about the 'fake' priestess and the nosy healer. Neither were looked at kindly by the more guarded ones.

When the duo finally got through the crowd, Syryn saw the widow sitting beside her husband's body which was placed on a stretcher and covered up to his chin with a white shroud.

The widow looked up and saw Dinah walking towards her. Confusion etched her features but she graciously spoke to the priestess. Even in her sorrow, the woman did not forget to pay her respects to the priestess. "Honoured one, are you here to send my husband off to the afterlife?"

Dinah knelt beside the woman and held her hand. "Moira's fire will guide his soul across the river of the afterlife," the priestess told the grieving widow. She then looked towards the corpse and offered a short prayer.

"Mighty Goddess, healer of souls, relieve us all. From life's beginning to life's ending, in suffering, in grief and weeping, lead us to the house of your peace this night."

Syryn recalled that Rowan never prayed for anyone despite being Eos' champion. Was it only the priests and priestesses that prayed for the worshippers? And what if Rowan tried to bless him? Would he burst into flames?

"When did he fall ill?" Dinah asked the woman in a low voice. The woman was being given time to grieve while the other villagers carried out funeral preparations.

"Four days ago. He drank a cup of rook infusion for the headache he had been complaining about. After that, my husband left for a hunting trip. There was no news about him for days and then he was found dead inside the forest." The widow's eyes watered as she recounted her husband's final days. "We were ready to welcome the birth of my baby." Her hand protectively cupped the slightly bulging stomach.

Dinah put an arm around the widow and held her as the woman cried on her shoulder. The priestess' amber eyes looked straight at Syryn and there was determination there to get to the end of whatever it was that had killed two men and was about to claim the life of a little girl.