Getting to Know You

Chapter 24

“Hi...” I said, as I finished getting my hair out of my face. I could hear the hounds laughing in the hall, but chose to ignore that. Elim looked pale, but oddly composed, once I got a good look at him.

“Madam,” he said and bowed to me. It was the third time he’d done so, but the first time I wasn’t watching him with the security feed. He still looked young to me, but it lent him an air of dignity. Something I envied, after being headbutted unceremoniously into the room.

“So, I’m a dungeon master, and you’re sitting in my dungeon,” I explained. He’d already seen me, so there wasn’t any point in beating around the bush.

“Do you know much about either thing?” I asked.

“Stories,” Elim replied simply. Not a particularly illuminating answer. I waited a few moments, thinking he was going to elaborate, but realized he wasn’t. He seemed to be taking things well, but he looked overwhelmed when I looked closer.

“So what did those stories say?” I prompted. I could hardly blame him for not adapting to the situation instantly.

“That… not much really,” Elim started, looking perplexed as he tried to get his answer together.

“They describe the famous dungeons heroes have defeated, mostly. Only a few mention dungeon masters built them and take power from the lives lost in them, but… they don’t really describe those beings or much else,” he explained.

“Well, that's not really wrong, just kind of simple,” I conceded. Dungeon master makes a dungeon, heroes fight in the dungeon, the survivor writes the story. It made sense that not much would be known in such a case.

“So… moving on,” I pivoted awkwardly. Even if I wanted to elaborate, there wasn’t much I could say. My own knowledge of the situation was rather bare-bones and likely irrelevant to anything he’d care about. It was better to focus on the more pressing issue of his village.

“With regard to your village, you probably have half a year before there's an outbreak of bloody mana fever,” I explained, as I did some crude math while checking my encyclopedia. The incubation period was a year but there was no guarantee of when people might have been exposed, so I was hedging.

“Going by what you said, and how contagious the bastard is, that means a larger outbreak will likely happen around then, which is the bigger problem. You said exposed people were tracked and killed. From when exactly? Is it anyone possibly exposed within a few months before the outbreak?” I asked. I needed to know more to formulate a plan.

“It’s not always possible, but the Earl tries to locate anyone who had contact within the preceding month,” Elim replied and shivered. That was a lot of people, but the timeline was wrong to stop the spread. Well, that wasn’t exactly true if you went fully scorched earth and burned the communities they came in contact with as well. That would have a huge body count though.

“Then your best bet is to cut and run with your family since I can't predict when it will happen,” I said honestly. There wasn’t anything I could do about them getting swept up in a quarantine.

“You won’t be contagious either, so you don’t need to worry about spreading it,” I added, hoping to soften the blow a bit. The kid probably didn’t know anything about the concept of a “Typhoid Mary” but I felt it was worth mentioning.

“You said it was possible the village might be spared if I made a deal with you. I’d like to hear it madam,” Elim said with a determined look in his eyes.

“Points for bravery,” I muttered. It wasn’t likely that meeting my fiery orbs was easy to do but he met them with a steady gaze.

I did some math. Bloody mana fever was bad, but still listed as a non-magical disease. That meant a cheap two-mana potion could deal with it. Given some time, I could build up a stockpile and deal with a small population of infected, but that wasn’t the biggest issue.

“Even if they're cured they’ll still be implicated if another nearby community has an outbreak,” I said bluntly. That was the sticking point in any potential plan.

“Then it’s hopeless?” Elim asked.

“That's a bit of a loaded question kid,” I replied bitterly. I knew a handful of facts about the world and jack about virology. Even if I were an expert, it still didn’t address the quarantine issue. It wasn’t like I could ask Earl Savex to make an expectation and wait to see if the people in question were sick before burning them.

“I apologize, it’s unfair of me to burden you,” Elim said, sincerely apologetic despite his disappointment. Looking at him, I felt something inside of me writhe uncomfortably. He had expressive eyes and it made me feel like I’d disappointed a golden retriever. Monstrous.

Fuck. This wasn’t my problem and could very well land me in trouble if I got involved. If he’d tried to guilt me into it or started sermonizing, I could have flatly said no. Instead, he’d just had to be polite about it.

I wracked my brain to try and think of something I could do with my limited knowledge and geographically locked abilities. Finally, I felt something click.

“Is there any kind of disease they quarantine for but don’t burn the village over? A pox maybe?” I asked as inspiration struck.

“Two I can think of, but why-” he looked thunderstruck as he caught on “you mean to shut the village off before the outbreak?”

“Exactly. It’s the best I can come up with under the circumstances,” I admitted. I didn’t know any political judo or science workarounds, but I did know how to bullshit. I might as well play to my strengths.

“So long as the quarantine is for at least a year, they should be safe,” I added. I was less certain about that part because life was unpredictable. I could say with reasonable confidence if anything did happen it wouldn’t be because Elim and I hadn’t done what we could.

“It’s a clever solution. What might I do to repay you for your assistance?” Elim asked. I gave him a couple more points for bravery, since he wasn’t trying to see if I’d forget to ask for payment. He also perked up visibly, which was frustratingly adorable.

“Well, I’d like you to work for me,” I said reluctantly. It was a big ask, so I expected some push back. I intended to stand my ground though.

“In this place?” Elim asked, expression going pale. Not the worst possible response.

“Noooo, that wouldn’t be terribly useful to me. What I need is a personal shopper… Right; probably not a thing here,” I trailed off at the end. I didn’t actually have too solid of a picture for what I wanted him to do, other than buy stuff for me to tinker with.

“Let’s just get the basics out of the way for now,” I said as I opened the contract interface.

[Pact Terms]

[You agree not to cause harm or incite others to cause harm to (Name Pending) known to you as ‘The Lady’ through action or words.

(Name Pending) The Lady agrees not to cause harm or incite others to cause harm to you and your family through action or words. Protection extends to the family up to the generation of your grandchildren so long as they uphold the terms and do not attempt to cause harm to (Name Pending) The Lady through actions or words or incite others to do so.]

[Payment]

[Healing items required to identify and cure your mother’s condition]

[10 gold]

[Agree: Yes / No]

Elim was shocked when the contract appeared in front of him. He stared at it for a few moments before he actually started reading it, going by lack of eye movement. I didn’t comment though, it was a weird-ass thing to have happened the first time.

“What do you mean by identifying her condition?” he asked.

“You said your mother was sickly even before she came down with blue veins. As a gesture of good faith, I’ll fix the underlying problem if I can,” I explained. I couldn’t guarantee anything, but my stable of potions gave me a fairly profound sense of confidence. Elim seemed more troubled by what I said than he had been by the appearance of the prompt.

“What do you mean by ‘underlying problem’?” he asked.

“Well, without knowing more, I can’t say what's causing it, so I left that part a bit vague. I didn’t want to say I’d give you something to fix her lungs, then have it turn out to be something wrong with her other organs or thyroid,” I explained and winced afterward. Thyroids were probably a foreign concept, unless the field of anatomical study was more advanced than the state of things suggested.

“Does the cause matter?” Elim asked.

“Well, yeah. You wouldn’t treat a broken leg like you would a cold,” I said then felt like an ass. It wasn’t such an unreasonable a question since magic was a thing. Also, it wasn’t like I was even pretending to be a doctor.

I’d probably assume RPG rules and that potions were cure-alls if I hadn’t already read their descriptions. They still kind of were, but they had types and strengths to consider.

“You think it isn’t a sickness?” Elim asked in surprise.

“It might be, but it’s also possible something is wrong with her… constitution?” I said, struggling for a description that would make sense, “Or a dysfunction of the organs.”

“Wouldn’t those have claimed her as a child?” Elim asked, confused more than anything.

“I don’t know for sure since I can’t assess her from here. It could still be a disease, but if it’s not, then there are plenty of reasons it might not have shown up until she was older,” I said with a feeling like I was moving into murky water. I didn’t honestly know that much about medicine.

What I could come up with felt like the sort of stuff gleaned off the odd online article and half slept through biology class rather than dedicated learning. Despite that, I didn’t think I was likely wrong, especially since I was only addressing general concepts instead of specifics.

“It might have been there when she was younger but wasn’t as severe. Or it could have been aggravated by some change in her lifestyle. Those only apply if it is inborn. If it isn’t, something could have caused it later,” I continued. Everything I’d said could be summarized as: It could be just about anything.

Despite how little I’d really said, Elim had been nodding along as if I were dispensing great wisdom. That made me feel a bit uneasy. It was possible what I was saying was advanced compared with local medical knowledge, but that did not make me competent.

“When you say it, it seems simple,” Elim said morosely, “yet even the divine healers said nothing of the sort. Only that she was beyond their help.”

“Well, what happens when divine healing fails? Do they get… a revelation of why?” I asked. I knew absolutely nothing about divine magic.

“No… they do not,” Elim said, expression hardening.

“Uhm, how does divine healing even work? Do they have to ask for something specific or does it heal anything wrong?” I asked.

“They pray to the gods for a type of healing of a certain strength… so if it’s wrong or too weak, they wouldn’t know?” Elim asked rhetorically.

“Gods be good, could she have been cured if they had checked first?” Elim looked furious.

Fuck. It seemed like I’d accidentally touched on a sore spot. It was a little late to think of it now, but I’d probably turned his worldview upside down a time or two.

It didn’t help the revelation was a shitty one. A good number of people had probably died because they asked for or were offered the wrong type of healing in the past.

I knew from personal experience sometimes you needed space to process things. Trying to be considerate, I waited a couple of minutes while Elim fumed. Despite my intentions, I found the way he was hatefully staring into the middle distance a bit unnerving.

Agony had helped me out and I felt like I should try to do the same. I reached out to pat Elim on the shoulder. I knew I’d made a mistake the second my hand touched down, which was far too late. Agony was tiny and adorable, whereas I was a big-ass shadow monster.

Elim’s eyes went wide in surprise as he threw his body to the side in shock. He lost his footing in his attempt to escape and hit the floor, then scuttled back until he hit a wall. Surprised, I’d reared up until my head struck the ceiling.

We just stared at each other, him breathing hard and something inside of me racing in panic.

Shit. I was probably looming. No, it was a high ceiling, I was definitely looming. Fuck.