Awkward Introduction

Chapter 23

Elim woke to find himself in pitch blackness. Thinking he might have gone blind, he struggled up only to bash himself on a wall and cry out in pain. The jolt of pain brought a little clarity and he ceased to panic, carefully finding the wall with his hands and staying still.

“Hello?” he called out. The last thing he could remember happening was being shot with an arrow. That didn’t explain his blindness, but suggested someone had helped him. Particularly after he inspected himself and failed to find the arrow’s shaft still sticking out of his shoulder.

Strangely he didn’t even find evidence of a wound. He couldn’t help but shiver at that, wondering if he’d been bedridden with fever long enough for it to have healed. That would neatly explain why he’d lost his sight. It didn’t happen often, but he’d heard of such things.

“Uh, you should probably sit down. You might be a little weak,” A woman’s voice said. Elim froze, the voice was pleasant yet deeply wrong. Like two different women speaking slightly out of sync.

“Am I blind?” Elim asked, that worry overriding all others.

“What? No, why would you think… Oh! Oh shit,” the woman said. Though hers was the only distinct voice, he felt like he could hear others speaking quietly. It seemed she was not alone.

“Okay, yeah… I didn’t think about lighting. Cover your eyes, I’ll light a lantern,” she said. Elim did as instructed. There was a bit more low conversation before a clink of metal on stone.

“Alright, lanterns lit. Go slowly so you don’t dazzle your eyes,” she added. This time Elim felt like her voice sounded like his mother’s and a barmaid he’d once favored. It was an unsettling combination, to say the least.

Once he opened his eyes and they adjusted, he found himself in a small stone room. To his left was a stone trough of water large enough to lay in, and on his right a bedroll and his pack. Or at least a pack that looked like his old one, it was too new.

Right ahead was an empty doorway. The lantern hung beside it on a peg and spilled a bit of light into the darkness beyond. It revealed a stretch of stone floor, but nothing else.

“Good to finally see you up and about, kid. You’ve been asleep for nearly two days,” the lady said cheerfully.

“I’m twenty, four springs a man,” Elim countered, confused rather than offended. You couldn’t enlist until you were.

“That’s not even old enough to buy beer where I’m from,” she replied. Yapping laughter accompanied her words. It sounded like dogs but not quite, as if the sound were mixed with the whispering crackle of a hearth.

“I appreciate your kindness to me, madam,” Elim said with false cheer, more confused than before. There was no age limit on drinking liquor, let alone beer.

“I’m Elim and I believe I owe you my life,” He still bowed as he spoke. His mother had taught him manners and he wasn’t shy about using them.

“Let's not do the owing lives thing,” she countered. Elim blinked, uncertain of her reasoning. A life debt wasn’t a small matter but she sounded uncomfortable at the prospect.

“So uhm… It’s lovely to meet you. Now, if you’ll promise not to hurt me then you can go. Sound good?” she asked. It was a favor she needn’t ask for even if she hadn’t saved his life. Elim had never raised his hand to a woman let alone a benefactor.

“Madam-”

“I’ll throw in a hydration potion so you can get across the sand easier,” she offered hastily, cutting him off.

“Your comrades already left, but I spotted some horses in the valley so you should be able to make it without a problem… I’ll throw in a potion for the horse too,” she continued when Elim failed to respond.

Elim said nothing as he took in her words. He had only a vague notion of what “hydration” meant. The word with his full attention was ‘potion’.

“You have potions?” he asked flatly in disbelief.

“Yeah, that's why you're not dead. I can make a few different kinds,” she replied with a cheerful bluntness that left Elim speechless.

“Uhm… Take your time to think about it, maybe have a walk around and stretch,” she continued nervously. Dumbstruck, Elim stood rooted to the spot until finally, his mind started moving again. Several moments had passed since she fell silent.

“Wait!” Elim shouted, hoping she hadn’t gone far.

“Eh? What?” She said, sounding no further away. Elim blushed in embarrassment, but couldn’t afford to let it tongue-tie him a second time.

“My mother is ill. Do you have anything that could cure blue vein fever?” Elim asked. Between the voice and her scorn for his age he knew he wasn’t dealing with anything human even before potions were mentioned. She’d even offered him one for his horse of all things.

“Blue vein? Uhm, hold on…” She started but her voice dropped. Elim could still make out the faint sound of conversation in hushed tones. The strange hearth-like voices were back and he waited patiently.

It was not a short wait. After a while he sat down and started rummaging through the pack that looked like his, looking for food. Though he hadn’t felt anything when he woke, once he thought of it he felt ravenous.

Elim dug out jerky and what looked like hardtack. It wasn’t until the bread gave way slightly at his touch with a crisp sound that he realized it was something else. Hardtack would do for a doorstop in a pinch and had to be soaked in water to be something close to edible.

Taking an experimental bite he found the dry crisp herb bread tasted good and could be chewed without tooth damage. He stuffed it in his mouth greedily and checked what was else in the bag. He found a few bags of dried herbs and spices but nicer than his own, roasted nuts, and palm-sized wheels of cheese with thick wax rinds.

Feeling as if he’d been starved for weeks rather than asleep a few days, Elim stuffed himself like a chipmunk. Ears ringing with the sound of his own chewing he lost track of time and didn’t hear the quiet conversation outside come to an end.

“So, I know of… six diseases that might be called that. What are the symptoms- I mean signs of it? Aside from the veins bit,” she asked. Elim almost choked as he swallowed a mouth full of jerky in surprised haste. After a heavy swig from his canteen and some coughing, he could breathe freely again.

“Dude, take it easy. I’m not in a hurry,” the lady said anxiously. Elim nodded as he took a few moments to regain a semblance of composure. Ordering his thoughts took longer. Had he said “blue veins” to anyone else they would have immediately known the scourge he was referring to. He pondered the lady’s choice of words as much as his own answer.

“It comes on like a cold, but then the veins in the arms begin to color first. It spreads to the body and the afflicted sleep unnaturally long until it passes. Children usually die… My mother caught it looking after my daughter when she had it,” Elim explained with a heavy heart. He was grateful for his daughter's recovery but stricken that his mother suffered for it.

“My mother’s health is fragile. It will likely kill her,” he added. It should have been him looking after Bessy, but his enlistment wouldn’t end for two years yet. He had to go where he was ordered or face the noose. It had been bad luck to be selected for the inspection. He’d already been gone for a month before Bessy started showing signs.

“Okay… Yeah, the sleeping thing is unique to one of them… the most problematic one,” the lady said, then sighed. Elim felt a chill run down his spine at “problematic”.

“The veins part isn’t the sickness itself, it’s an immune- It’s your body fighting it off. Others only seem to catch a cold, but it’s the early stage of something you probably know as bloody mana fever,” she explained. Elim felt the chill from problematic spread in a shiver through his entire body as his heart pounded in fear. It left him deaf to all else for a long while.

“It then sleeps in the body for a while before coming back in its lethal form,” the lady continued.

Elim knew he had missed a great deal, but could barely process what he’d learned. Blue veins was an unfortunate affliction, but bloody mana fever was a monstrosity. Those who came down with it would suffer vomiting and diarrhea before beginning to bleed from the eyes. Healing magic would only make it worse, the body’s mana perverted by the disease in some way, which gave it its name.

“My mother has bloody mana fever?” he asked, needing to hear it said clearly.

“Yes, but she and your daughter fought it off. It won’t turn into bloody mana for them. That's what getting blue veins means,” The lady explained. Elim felt relieved but his solace was short-lived.

As terrible as the condition was, death wasn’t uncommon in the lands. What made bloody mana so feared was how contagious it was. It had decimated entire regions before when rulers failed to act quickly. Earl Savex was not a man prone to indecision.

“Lady, you are wise in medicine and can make potions. If an outbreak occurs the village will be burned and everyone who came in contact with it killed… Do you have a means of stopping it?” he asked. The lives of his mother and daughter were his first priority but he wouldn’t ignore the village.

Even if they were strangers rather than the people he’d grown up among, he couldn’t knowingly stand by and do nothing. At least not if there was anything within his means to be done. Death wasn’t a stranger to him, but slaughter on that level was something else entirely.

“I… this thing is a nasty bastard,” The lady said nervously. Elim nodded in agreement with the description. Silence followed for a brief while as she conferred with the other voices again. Without any appetite left Elim waited silently for her decision.

“Fuuuuck...” She muttered after a while. Elim laughed, feeling as if he could sympathize with her distress. He got to his feet and bowed in the direction of the doorway. No matter if she could see it or not he would show her respect.

“Lady, no matter what you decide, you have my solemn promise I’ll work no harm against you. You're my benefactor and I’m not so ungrateful as to scorn someone who has shown me kindness,” Elim said calmly. He’d been too surprised by the mention of potions to answer her earlier request for a promise. Now he was giving it late, but it was no less sincere for the timing.

“And… No matter what you decide about the village you have my thanks. It’s not my place to ask more of you. Though, if you are willing, I will gladly take what you offer,” he added. Why someone chose to help or refrain was a personal decision he didn’t feel he had a right to judge. Particularly when dealing with magical matters. Even if something looked easy, that didn’t mean it came without any cost.

“Kid, the answer is maybe but it means making a deal with me,” she said finally, sounding vexed.

“I assume you're about to tell me why I should have a problem with that,” Elim said with a raised brow. He’d loved stories as a boy, the stranger and more gruesome the better. There were plenty of things other than humans walking the skin of the world.

Some were mortal beings, little different aside from a few quirks of their form or a talent or two. Then there were things more other in nature. Those had always been at the center of his favorite tales. Supernatural beings who bestow curses and blessings. Which of their gifts was a blessing and which was a curse was a matter left up to one's own judgment.

He’d never thought she was human in the first place and had prepared himself mentally to make a deal. He didn’t feel any particular fear at the prospect. Once he got past the strangeness of her voice, he found she seemed little different from a mortal being.

Instead of alien logic or unfathomable intent, she sounded like she wanted to help, but didn’t know if she could or possibly should. It might have been naive, but he felt even if she was something beyond human understanding, he needn't fear this lady.

“Well, showing would probably-” She paused and he heard a scuffle “-seriously? Just let me- Hey!”

“Okay! Okay! Ripping the band-aid off…” the lady said. Elim looked to the doorway but saw nothing. Something about that was odd but it took him a moment to figure out what. The lantern's light should have still illuminated a patch of barren stone beyond the doorway.

Something shifted in that deeper darkness. A suggestion of form.

“Madam-” Elim started only to be cut off by a deep growl. A moment later something dark entered the room, blocking the lanterns light fitfully. A pool of deeper shadows collapsed at his feet.

As he studied the strange patch of darkness a long thin arm emerged from the shadow then another. Pushing up from the ground, a tail unfurled and a body was revealed as a creature with a vaguely feminine shape began to rise up silently. Finally, the hands made a slow flipping motion and something like hair was thrown back to reveal a pair of flames where eyes ought to have been.