"Never say that at least things could not get any worse. The world will conspire to find a way to prove you wrong." - saying attributed to the Silver Maiden.

Ancestral Assembly Hall

Central section section

Shadow Forest / Ævietønavæel

7th day, 4th week, 6th month, year 80 VA.

Weeks had passed since the arrival of reinforcements from Ptolodecca, and just three days ago, yet another batch of healers and guards for them arrived. The added manpower helped, and although they had yet to make headway in curing the plague, they at least managed to halt its progress in most cases.

Except for those elves who had the death affinity. The plague took to them with hideous rapidity, and they rarely lasted more than a month even with multiple healers always looking after them. It was a scary prospect that made Aideen worry about her sister in law and niece in Tohrmutgent.

Those with derived affinities from death also fared badly, but at least they managed to halt the progress there, even if it took serious effort. As for those of other affinities, some elven healers had caught the plague, and continued to work even while holding it off themselves. She respected those dedicated men and women.

Aideen was in the midst of work, mostly helping maintain the condition of the worst off patients, when an agent of the Death's Hand came to find her. She bid him to wait until she was done with her work, and did so. It was not until another hour had passed before she finally finished and sat down with the agent, at the man's insistence.

"What is wrong?" Aideen asked the agent. His serious look made her worry for the worst, and had given her some trepidation by now. Generally nobody bothered the healers at work… unless something was truly important for them to hear.

"I'm afraid I bear bad news from Tohrmutgent, young lady," said the therian man. He was a sleek-furred panther therian, which reminded Aideen a lot of Myrddin in his youth. A far younger specimen though, still at the prime of his life. "Elves in Tohrmutgent had fallen ill of this plague… and madams Kestera and Éirynn are amongst them. Young lady Mimia as well."

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"Oh gods…" said Aideen as she buried her face in her hands. Part of her wanted to run back to Tohrmutgent right that instant to aid her ailing sister in-law and niece, yet a more rational part of her pointed out that it was at least a two week journey, and that they were definitely getting the best of care there. Her presence would not have made much of a difference either way. "Is that… all?"

"We also have a suspect we strongly believe might have been responsible for engineering this plague," said the young therian man as he nodded. "His name is Aegon Rowliss, a decently known Rot affinity mage in the empire, who had lost his hometown to an elven raid while he was away at war in the western isles over a century ago. We only lack the knowledge of where he is located at the moment, and are working on it as best we can."

"Thank you… for letting me hear of this," Aideen said after she gathered herself. "Please let me know if you found out where the son of a bitch is. Should it be possible, I want a piece of him."

"Understood, young lady. Also, please take care. Just this past week we have had four assassination attempts on our wards in this very city," said the agent as he rose and bowed to her. "The enemy had some good, and very determined assassins amongst them."

"I will keep that in mind… and thank you again," said Aideen in reply before she slumped down in her seat after the agent departed. The decision to post agents of the Death's hand to guard healers had been fortuitous it seems, considering the attempts. Aideen was the only healer who went around without a guard detail these days, because they trusted she could take care of herself.

And she could not die anyway.

She rested for a while in her temporary residence. Even though she no longer truly needed sleep, it remained one of the more effective ways to recover from excessive spending of mana, like she had been doing of late, busy healing from dawn to dusk, and often again in the night.

When she woke up, it was late in the night, and most of the healers other than those on the night shift were resting. It was early for her to help out now, so she walked around on the branches for a bit, breathing in the cool nighttime air, and sighing at her powerlessness to change the situation they were embroiled in.

It was while she was contemplating what, if anything, she could do about it when a hand grasped her mouth from behind without her noticing. Right afterwards the cold steel of a blade sliced through her throat. A smooth movement, the assassin well trained.

Training had not prepared the assassin for a target he had just slit the throat of to suddenly grab his arms in a vice-like grip, however, and then to just overpower him and twist his arms until they broke at the joint. He had thought of escape, but a kick that shattered his knee cap made that mere wishful thinking on his part.

The assassin's pained screams had attracted the attention of a Death's hand agent from further away, but by the time he arrived, they found that the assassin had taken his last breath. Apparently he had a pill of poison hidden in one of his teeth, and bit down on it when he realized he was being captured.

Aideen sighed once more at the fruitlessness of it all, handed the dead body over to the agent just in case something incriminating could be found on it - a very unlikely case - and went to the assembly hall to get back into healing after she healed her cut throat.

It was another five days of busy healing work, before the same therian agent who had passed her the news found her again. This time, the news he brought her was a positive one. They had located Aegon Rowliss… and he was located not too far from the shadow forest.

At the headquarters of the empire's Rangers.