Gabrio had abandoned his coat for an overcoat. He wore the uniformed garb that he got from Accad and had wrapped himself from head to toe. On his face was a spectacled mask with tube attached to tin canister placed on a satchel strapped around his breast.

This canister was made in two parts. The bottom has activated charcoal which was done by mixing salt and water with charcoal until it became a paste and above the activated charcoal was a stuffing of cotton that he personally acquired. This canister was separated from the mask he crafted by a hose a white latex substance a friend called ‘rubber’ and had it turned into a hose. He mixed fabric and ‘rubber’ by molding a pipe. With the pipe connected to the canister. He could open the canister and stuffed it with new materials since he was sure that prolonged use of it would just leave him susceptible to what he was trying to protect himself from. He used cotton because he had realized that cotton would darken the more he used the canister.

For more safety measures he inserted herbs and aromatic ingredients in the third compartment of the canister.

As for why he was wearing such items. It was for the reason that the stench and rot of the corpses around were starting to irritate the crew. The first one to fall was the Helmsman Baud. He had been taken to the clinic where he had been rested. The one who was handling the wheel was one of the helmsman that accompanied Baud so that they can routinely switch when one gets tired. This helmsman was less experienced, but was good enough to navigate the path cleared by Arkshelled.

The mast creaked and the sails were pushed by the wind. Sailors stiffly moved across the deck while covering their mouths with masks stuffed in an herb left that was provided by the clinic. Each herb was the size of a hand and it is wrapped or stuff in their noses.

Gabrio was allowed to climb aboard so that he can aid the sailors on changing the herbs. The herbs are called orangeroot and the leaves are treated with garlic and honey, then dried, and stuffed inside a charred barrel where they might be preserved. Only the sailors were able to get this privilege while the rest had to endure the incense smoke that are spread inside the Grand-Galleon. Of course, the smoke was carefully watched by soldiers who strictly demands that they will not burn incense until instructed by the Constable and Officer-in-charge that they are allowed to.

Supply was limited and the rest of the Fleet had already sent a missive that they had to care for their own people first if this ‘miasma’ that they are facing is dangerous to the body.

The Grand Admiral, the Admiral, and the Captains were not fools who could not understand the omens that was presented in front of their eyes. The ominous sea itself was enough to make them understand.

Gabrio had them lined up so they may take the herbs. After an hour, he finished distributing the herbs. He waited near the hatchway where his station was. As he sat in his silence, observing, taking notes of the strange air that permeates. He took out materials from his medicine bag to test the air. Rubbing his encased finger, taking samples from his overcoat, Gabrio took the samples back to his bag, hoping he could go to Ristina’s laboratory in hopes he could discover more.

Gabrio heard a clack, as the hatchway leading it pushed upward by a familiar face. It was a companion of Caldor Ando. Her face looked sour as she stares down Gabrio. She didn’t bother to hide her disdain or show any signs of goodwill. Though he was sure that he had done nothing.

“Your mask, miss.”

“I can manage without it.”

She climbed up and shut the hatchway to a close. Felecia Avara crossed her arms. Her chin lifted, showing that she had no desire to talk to him. Gabrio however wouldn’t allow her ‘disdain’ to cause for any worries.

“Wear your mask, miss.”

“Did I not speak clearly?”

“It is for the good of Galleon. I don’t care what you do as long as you keep yourself safe.”

“You have no right to speak to me-”

“As the Physician of Galleon, I have every right. Madam, I don’t know that makes you so unhappy with me. But I plead you to not act without reason.”

Felecia Avara shook her head.

“If you have not remained ignorant, then you would have known what I am. You would be on your knees as well, Quack.”

“Is that so?”

Gabrio shook his head. To persuade a bullhead was not his expertise. He could however guess why someone with blue blood would have a disdain for a physician like him. After all, during that Great war that united Aon. It was a Physician who dealt the blow that proved the end of the dynasty.

“Are you done then?”

“No, you wear that mask and placed the herb inside that mask. Do not be stubborn, Madam,” Gabrio took out the dried herb and spare mask from his medicine and offered it to her. Her mask however swatted that mask like filth-stained cloth. Her boots stomped on the herb.

“That was uncalled for,” Gabrio calmly said. “That herb is precious and for you to do it so easily must because your head. I understand now.”

She snorted rather loudly. Gabrio stared at her through that two glasses of his mask.

“If you have a problem with me, speak it to me. Because I cannot believe that someone would act so irrationally in these times. You would swathe precious herbs instead of refusing harshly. I want to understand WHY would you act like this.”

That seems to have given her a change. Gabrio knew the temper of the blue blood. No, everyone knew the temper and madness of the Dynasty that the Chancellor himself vowed to put down. Gabrio’s educated guess was simply that it was a hereditary sickness of the mind. After all, he refused to believe that such arrogance could come from someone who looks wise enough.

“I can smell your schemes, Quack. I know that you are trying to change the perception of these people into your favor, but you Quacks have done nothing but fraud! You call yourselves with the title of ‘Doctor’ and yet your brand of people do nothing but cause death with your primitive medicines! My father, my brothers…they would have been!”

And he found a crack between that exterior.

“So you believe that all of us are guilty of the crimes of undeveloped medicine? Surgery is far more developed, and yet the two focused on knowledge about the internal body. Surgery focuses on understanding and fixing what is destroying the body. Internal medicine is to prevent them. To blame Doctors who could not improve on their methods is purely bias. ”

“And there is a reason we do not trust the mixing of herbs like the pagans do!” she growled. “They poisoned the body, and it does nothing but harm.”

“Then you think that the medicines that have saved the lives of others are nothing but fraud?”

“I don’t,” Felecia shook her head. “Alchemists have done better to create these medicines.”

“Those are still medicines proven to work on the internal body. I understand that your grievance comes from the wrong medicines used, but to blame us Doctors, who have recently improved our medicines in hope we can prevent instead of fixing it when it is too late. I find it unreasonable.”

“It may be because I cannot trust those who would do nothing but administer medicine, hoping that their ‘medicine’ would work. ” she said truthfully. “Truth be told, I simply don’t like your brand of people.”

The mask cracked, revealing another mask.

“That is truthful of you to admit.”

“I unshackled my temper. I shouldn’t have done that, I understand that it is precious, but I will not apologize. To apologize to the Ravaian, no, to a student of the Butcher’s line is something I will not do. That is why I believe that to speak with you would end up like this.”

“If you were looking for fresh air, I doubt that you could find it here.”

“The smoke below belowdecks is terrible to the point of suffocating. They open the galleys chimney just so the smoke could get out.”

“We have the blasting ports opened as well. It traps the smoke, which seems to be a sign of how tightly sealed the hulls are. We added some fragrant flowers to it, yet it looks like it isn’t working.”

She looked away to the other direction.

“The Sea of Reeds, in the charts that my father had, differed from this.”

Gabrio listened with his hands on his writing stick.

“It was a place of wonders with reeds growing as tall as towers. Each reed was used to survey the seascape, watch the horizons so they could locate the Icean Spine, the world’s spine that called to be the spine of world itself. Not this rotting sea, filled with the dead. Beyond the Icean Spine, how can we reach it? I have dreamt that one day I would reach the Sea of Reeds itself, and that I would climb of the Reeds. Seeing the Sea of Reeds become rotten breaks my heart.”

“I don’t think we can fulfil that dream of climbing the Reeds, Miss. But know that with our compasses, and the signs of wind flowing in this Sea. That we can get out of this rotting sea of carcasses and bones. At the moment we cannot rely on the Astronomers with this kind of sky polluted with rotten smoke. Right now we can rely on the sense of direction and the path we have trudged to get out of this mess of a place.”

Miss Felecia Avara gave Gabrio a look of dismay. It was a look that Gabrio couldn’t figure out. A look that made him think that she did not truly enjoy a dialogue with him. Seeing this, Gabrio let go of all his thoughts about the Miss. His mind turning cold and objective as he opened the small book he have in his medicine bag.

“Doctor,” she said. Her hands on the hatch’s handle. She still did not wear the mask nor does she plan to put that around her mouth. “Let us not speak when we can.”

She opened the hatchway and disappeared below the decks. Gabrio wrote on his note the words ‘one passenger has a case of mental illness that needs looking out for’ and closed the book. Gabrio took a long look at the herb stomped by her boot. Then, he noticed it, the maggot-like creatures that were crawling on the herb.

Gabrio squatted on the ground with his glassed eyes staring at the creature that resembled maggots, but are many-legged and many-limbed enough to make Gabrio feel disdain at such creatures.

He took out a flask from his bag and slowly placed the creature infecting the herb. With the scissors, he cut off the piece of the herb and stuffed it tight with a cork inside the flask.

“This is not good.”

With deft hands, he plucked the rest of the herbs from his bag. Inspecting the herbs, he found out that there were no maggot-like creatures on the herbs. With a click of his tongue, he placed one herb on the floor. Waiting, observing, he saw the creatures crawl to the herb within three minutes on the floor. Displaying the rest of the herbs, he took note of how long does it take for the maggot-like creatures to infest the herb.

All of the maggots infested the herb within three minutes. The rest of the herbs who were held in a holder did not have the maggot-like creatures on it.

“I need Ristina’s opinion for this,” Gabrio took the samples and entered the hatchway.

His thoughts only on this discovery.