First Impressions

Chapter 7

Elim

I woke to darkness, an unrelenting pitch black that made me believe I’d gone blind. Even a moonless night would have offered stars. I banged into a wall once despite being careful, hitting it side-on. After that, I managed to find my sword with my shin. The next several minutes I spent cursing as I tried to navigate my surroundings.

“For the record, you should have put a hand on a wall and just followed it.” A woman’s voice said, and I froze. It was pleasant yet deeply wrong, like two different women speaking out of sync.

“Am I blind?” I asked, wondering if I’d taken a blow to the head during the skirmish in the mine. I knew a groom who’d lost his eyes after getting kicked by a mule. There was a pause where I wondered if she’d left me alone, but it didn’t last.

I backed up against the stone wall as I heard a muttering of other voices. They spoke too quietly for me to pick out the words.

“Yeah, okay, I forgot about the lighting issue. Cover your eyes, I’m lighting a lantern.” She said, her voice different from before. It had sounded like my old reading tutor and the washing woman, now it was like my mothers and a barmaid I favored. An unsettling combination to be sure. I did as I was told.

“Take your hands away slowly but keep your eyes closed for a bit. You were asleep for a few days. It will hurt otherwise.” She said and I listened, finding the light unpleasant as I removed my hands slowly. My eyes were dazzled when I finally opened them, but they didn’t hurt as much as they might have. A lantern was hung on a hook beside the doorway of the small room and I was alone in it. A backpack full of gear like mine, but too clean, rested against the wall.

“Alright, good to see you up and about kid.” The lady said cheerfully.

“I’m eighteen, two springs a man.” I said, confused rather than offended.

“That’s not even old enough to buy beer where I’m from.” She replied and I heard yapping laughter. It reminded me of dogs but was strange. Like the sound was mingled with the whispering crackle of a hearth.

“Well, I appreciate your kindness to me, madam.” I said, more confused than before. There was no age limit on drinking liquor let alone beer. Not in any place I'd ever heard of anyway.

“I am Elim-”

“Nice name kid. Feel free to keep everything in the room. Your comrades left already, but there’s a hydration potion in the bag. Lasts a week, plenty of time to get across the sand.” The voice said and I was left reeling for several seconds before panic set in.

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

“Eh? What?” She said, her voice no further than before. I blushed in embarrassment but couldn’t afford to let it tongue tie me.

“My mother is ill. Do you have anything that could cure blue vein fever?” I asked, not caring who I was begging for a favor at that moment. Potions of any kind were rare. She’d casually given me at least two which suggested she could make them.

“Blue vein? Uhm…” She started speaking too quietly for me to pick out the words, the other voices also joining in hushed tones. I waited patiently, but it was not a short wait and I chose to sit. I found food in the bag she’d given and decided to eat. I was halfway into the best bit of beef jerky I’d ever tasted before the voices fell silent.

“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 and I sat without uttering a word for a few moments. I’d never heard of any other sickness with such a sign. That she knew of so many suggested a profound knowledge of medicine, compared to me at least.

“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 until it passes. Most adults recover aside from the elderly. Children usually die… My mother caught it looking after my daughter when she had it.” I said, not sure what I else to say to describe it. I’d never had to before, everyone in the province knew what the other meant when the name was invoked.

“My mother’s health is fragile. It will likely kill her.” I said, jaw tightening as tears threatened. I was thankful that Bessy had survived, my only child and keepsake of her mother. Even so, I could not accept trading one of my loved ones lives for another. My last hope was that the disease had not already claimed her life. Weeks between letters wasn’t uncommon and she had to save for postage, so they were rare and precious.

“Okay… Yeah, the sleeping thing is unique to one of them… the most problematic one.” The voice said and I felt a chill run down my spine. If it was “problematic” to someone capable of creating potions, then I could not imagine how terrible it truly was.

“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 said and my heart skipped a beat, leaving me floundering in panic and deaf.

“It then sleeps in the body for a while before coming back in its lethal form.” The lady said and I knew I had missed a great deal of what she’d said. Even so, I was only barely able to process what was happening again. Bloody mana fever was a dread disease. The afflicted would suffer vomiting, diarrhea, and bleed from the eyes.

The disease was a terrible ordeal but that was not what made it a bane to be rooted out with fire. That laid in the trait that had given it its name. Something about the sickness perverted the bodies mana, making it impossible to heal.

“There are a hundred souls in that village, what must I do?” I asked, knowing that the price would not matter. Once an outbreak occurred the village would be put to the torch but that would not stop the spread. Others would be killed punitively to halt the spread, sick or not.

It was a cruel thing, but the fever had been the death of kingdoms in the past. Earl Savex would not hesitate to trace every merchant and peddler who came through them. Then he'd burn every village along there route. He’d done as much ten years before and his had been the only fief spared from a full outbreak. The lives of my people were important, but avoiding that slaughter was paramount.

“It’s not simple… this thing is a nasty bastard.” The lady said and I agreed with the description. Silence followed for a brief while as she conferred with the other voices. It was a short while after they came to some decision that a contract appeared. To proceed I’d keep her secrets. In exchange, I'd receive a preventative for myself, a potion for my mother, and ten gold. A deal that was more than fair and I agreed to quickly.

Even so, I felt a shiver run down my spine as I did. I felt certain I already knew what I was going to hear. She’d spoken of my age as a trifling thing which meant she certainly wasn’t human. Her voice ruled out the other more grounded races leaving the least desirable two.

Demons and Fey, the most feared of beings to encounter. A demon was always fearsome and cunning but between the two most would take a demon over one of the fey. A demon’s grudge would abate with its death no matter how terrible. The fey could twist gifts and make curses that lasted generations. Curses known to swallow kingdoms and cast over petty slights.

“Right, hang on while I…” She said then fell silent again. The other voices speaking in urgent tones before one growled.

“Okay! Okay! Ripping the band-aid off…” I heard the lady say. In the next moment, she entered the room, and I wished very dearly that I had been dealing with a fey. Sliding or gliding just above the ground her form was a shadowy imitation of a woman. Green orbs of fire for eyes and a featureless face gave no hint of emotion as she moved silently toward me. Only a slight tilt of her head suggested something like curiosity.

“So, I’m a dungeon master and your sitting in my dungeon.” She said and I nodded, wondering what game I was being made a pawn in.

“Do you know much about either thing?” She continued and I shook my head.

“Right… Moving on.” She said and I nodded for want of any other idea of what to do.

“Full disclosure, you have a year before the disease manifests again. If you want, you can cut and run with what I’ve already given you. No one will know that you were exposed, and you wouldn’t be contagious. Able to spread it, I mean.” She said but I shook my head, not needing time to think about it.

“No, tell me what has to do and I will.” I said and she nodded. My faith coming from the fact that contracts were created through the power of the gods. Even a being such as her could not violate one.

“Making the cure’s simple for me, it’s the spread that’s the problem. Its root is in contaminated water. Biting insects spread it from there. It spreads to other bodies of water because you still throw your shit in the streets and rivers.” She explained and this time I didn’t move. Bad water, it was the fear of every village. I couldn’t understand how that had come to pass or what where we put our shit had to do with it.

“It’s in the water?” I said, not able to accept that part easily.

“Yeah. So, I can cure the people affected now, but it will come back.” She continued, overlooking my stupid question.

“You want to stop it coming back?” I asked, disbelieving. She was a literal shadow woman spawned of purest evil. She should have been spreading pestilence, not annoyed it existed and trying to figure out how to stop it.

“Yes?” She said in a queer way, like a question instead of a statement.

“It’s just… your kind thrives on death. More so than monsters or demons. Why try to cure a disease?” I asked, unable to hide my confusion or opinion of her.

“Your right, I need to kill people to live.” She said with a shrug of her shoulders.

“The thing is, I don’t feel like I need to be an asshole about it.” She finished and I could only nod. She was being helpful because she didn’t feel like she couldn’t be despite what she was. I couldn’t have been more confused. Not even if the moon grew to the brightness of the sun or the rivers of the land flowed backward. I was however bright enough to know not to count the horse’s teeth and waited for her instructions despite my fear.