Upon the second day of travel, we arrived at the blockade erected in the middle of a barely noticeable trail. I knew we were tired but this seemed problematic and intriguing to me. The lightly leather armored but well armed men beyond the barricade wore dirty white clothes tightly bound across their face. We examined the dozen road guards as I noted that this was not a band of bandits. My companions looked curious but no tensions came from their stance by me. One moved closer to their side of the barrier without crossing it. This gave me a chance to examine the mask that appeared like the protective face cover worn by healers dealing with virulent patients. This was a land suffering some form of plague they were trying to avoid spreading. It was already too late for this guard if what I saw in his eyes were showing reality.
“Please return the way you came or give our village a large berth for your own safety.” he announced without waiting for replies or counter remarks. He was already half turned away from us when I spoke.
“What ailment is your village plagued with?” I asked in a commanding voice. I had the attention of all the guards but none moved closer leaving the lone man to speak with me.
“It is unknown to us but, some have died already and many are sick. Best to simply avoid us, Sir.” the lone guard sated without turning to face us.
“We are trained as healers and may be able to assist your village.” Meli piped in. She moved to walk pass me but I stopped her with a single hand before her face. I felt her anger seeing my actions as insulting prevent her to help.
“You are already infected and close to the last stages of the disease.” I called out to the guard’s back. He froze as the other guards turned their weapons towards him. “Hold your attack until I can verify my assumption, friends!” I said with authority and command filling my words. I tried to rarely use this verbal power but I feared making a mistake while still weakened from facing off with the shard of the Atlantian Heartstone and what lies within it.His shoulders slumped as he turned back towards us. As he moved to stand before me passed the blockade, I motioned Meli and Sert to step back until I could asses this situation properly.
I starred into his eyes as he stood barely breathing before me. The yellowish tint to the white of his eyes, unevenly dilated pupils, and rings of red crowning and warping his light brown iris told the truth I knew he feared the most. I sighed pulling the mask off his face noting the bluish-black thin lips and marks upon his skin showing he was past saving now. I could feel that Meli had came to the same diagnosis I had as she prepared a mask for herself, Sert, finally myself. She was in the processes of making our face covering protection as I spoke to the guard.
“Return to your family so you may die with your loved ones.” I told him while watching the other guards pale and keep their weapons ready to strike. “Leave him pass, he is no long a danger to others anymore.” I added loudly. Dominance magic filled every syllables of my words to the other guards. They moved away from the first guard’s path lowering their weapons. The condemned guard ran back towards the village as one of the remaining guard moved forward to stand before me. His shoulders were squared and he stood showing bravery and warriors pride with his weapon sheathed at his hip.
“Do you know what is killing my village?” the new lead guard asked quietly. His eyes were clear and did not avoid my gaze.
“I know the signs that they are past both being saved or infecting others.” I told him slowly. I gave him a moment to accept my words. “But the disease itself is unknown to me.” I concluded pensively. Meli was at my elbow with a mask on her face holding one out for me. This was her way to take control of this conversation without directly interrupting me.
“We have extensive knowledge and may be able to to discover the source of this ailment and possibly create a cure.” she told the guard. I felt Sert moving up to my other side as I finished tying the mask upon my face properly. Before the guard could question our reason to offer helping them, Sertian cleared his throat.
“Atlantians cannot turn away from helping those that deserve it.” he bluntly stated to the guard. “I may only be a soldier like yourself but even I willing risk this plague to assist your people.” he told him in a softer more friendly tones. He felt himself pulled back a few steps behind us. I refused to laugh as Meli used her earth elemental ability to separate him from this problem suited for healers better than military men.
“We will find another way for you to assist us Sert.” I told him with Meli nodding beside me. “You do not have a self healing method that can combat diseases unlike Meli and myself.” I explained to him in Atlantian. In my mind’s eye. I saw the electrified healing cloud covering her body matching my nebula healing magic.
“Being a stranger that understands our language, you may be of great assistance by verifying the three nearby villages.” the guard remarked. I could sense worried excitement from the guard. “We fear that this plague came from one of the other villages or they maybe suffering the same illness.” he told Sert more directly. I knew that his fear was that this ailment had been sent unwillingly by one of those nearby villages. I would not change this mission which could protect Sert and possibly find the source or how far this plague had spread before being noticed. The guard moved aside with Sert drawing maps of the area with a stick in the dirt. My retainer studied the map for a few minutes easily memorizing it. He nodded to the guard before moving to my elbow awaiting my orders.
“Remember that they might be innocent or in the grasps of the same illness.” I whispered to him in Atlantian. “Keep the mask ready if you notice anything out of natural order there.” I added giving him a final nod. Sert smiled under his face cover and silently gave me a crisp salute before heading out towards the closest of the three neighboring villages. My attention now turned to Meli. I warned her of the signs in in the eyes and other potential warning reactions.
“These are the signs that our patient is beyond our help but no longer a risk to infect others.” she concluded for me. She turned toward the guard who started escorting us toward the village centre. “What are the signs that show they are infected already noted?” she asked the guard already in professional healer mindset. The guard stopped us at the first roughly made house.
“Some have coughing fits with blood and breathing issues, other show blights on their skin, and a few, like our captain, have no signs until the ending moments.” he explained looking from her to me as he spoke. His eyes looked haunted, tired, and exasperated from this sickness. He kept the mask tightly on his face as he spoke to us. “We can only detect those that show signs of infection.” he added darkly and quietly.
“Check for mild discoloration of her skin by their nails, eyes, or mouth with the spectrum crystal.” I commented to Meli. I was not absolutely sure but it was a good starting point to detect the smallest possibility of infection. “It should be most visible on their fingers tips and palm of their hands, but check the skin by their eyes and mouth if you doubt what you see.” I added knowing she understood why I was being thorough in this case. We might be able to resist getting infected but it was not a perfect protection if we missed infected villagers we were unknowingly exposed to.
Meli simply nodded as she withdrew the spectral crystal from her healing kit at her hip. The guard slowly nodded holding his hands out for her inspection. She smiled as she noted no changes upon the skin seen through the crystal that heightened the smallest color change. She explained how this inspection worked sending him to check the guards manning the barricades isolating the ill village from outsiders. He thanked her before rushing away with the crystal in a tight grip. A second matching spectrum crystal was in her hand as she looked at me ready for us to enter the village proper. With a nod, we stepped in sync forward towards the center of the village.
“I take the houses on the left while you do the ones on the right.” I ordered as we reached the first set of doors. “We send the infected to the center of the village where we will set medical tents to house them.” I continued before moving from the dirty street. “We will be repeating this verification daily to assure the source is not within a household.” I added softly. She knew these procedures even if it was never needed upon Atlantis. My words were just a reminder which she nodded to me grimly. We separated and quickly identified the villagers that were infected sending them ahead of us to wait.
A quarter of the village was infected with only a few beyond hopes of saving. Our tents where going to be filled with more sitting outside. The villagers were scared but oddly calm with our humane treatment towards them. They were humans and not plague bearers to be shunned and ignored until they died. By nightfall, three more join the ranks of those beyond help and were returned to their family to end their days in familial love and caring. I escorted them myself to verify that no other family members were ill. The next infected victims arrived the next day just after the noontime zenith of the sun.
Both Meli and myself followed the villagers’ normal life to find what morning activity could be the source of this illness. Water sources, fields where their food grew, their herd animals, and their feed was all tested finding neither virus nor bacteria that could cause this plague with mixed symptoms. We questioned the villagers about strangers or new trade products that entered the village before the first victim became ill but it was a vain path of research. By the second day of searching was nearly done, word arrived from one of the outlying farms to verify their animals once more. I left Meli behind in the village to visit the farm that I did not think would help our investigations, but I was mistaken. Half their herd of animals had developed ulcerations on their skin which concerned their owners. These infected animals showed disorientation in their movement which match the symptoms to those infecting the humans of the village.
“Herbivores, yes?” I asked the farmer while verifying his hands with a spectrum crystal. He was fine but his animals were not. “What field do they usually feed in?” I added before he could respond. The animals were beyond our talents if we could not isolate the source of this illness. I rushed to the field the farmer let them feed upon hoping a clue could be found to save this village. Meli had, with my minor help, to reduce the progress of the disease with Atlantian knowledge but we still could not stop them from eventually dying so far. I prefer waiting giving advice to the farmer other than separating the sick animals from those that were still appearing healthy and having him avoiding the field. A farm hand with a kerchief covering his nose and mouth came with me to the designated field.
“Any odd signs from the herd other than the spring heat prior to the sickness appeared in the village?” I asked my companion. He shook his head while still looking pensive over my question.
“Nothing until now, healer.” he answered looking simply tired and scared. A young boy rushed towards us as we reached the edge of the field. I had seen the boy upon my arrival and he was healthy, but now; his yellow tinted eyes, deformed dilated pupils, and red rimmed irises showed him in the final stages within less than an hour. He held up a tightly clenched fist towards me shaking on unsteady legs.
“I think it’s between the field and barn.” the boy stated breathing hard. His small hand open to show the remains of a dead insect or spider mostly crushed by his little fingers. I scooped the boy up as he collapsed into unconsciousness. I lay him upon the ground and told the farm hand to send word for Meli to come quickly. I pulled out the amplifier stone which was a piece of the Atlantian Heartstone to hold it tightly in my hand. I could not allow the one that brought the only clue to this illness to die. I was overstepping my boundaries set upon when I was birthed into this world but this was my only hope to save him.
The farmer with his workers rushed to my location believing they would find a dead or dying boy. What they found was a sight causing awe and terror beyond the stories of their gods and goddesses. My electrical nebula of healing spread visible to their eyes until both the boy and myself were surrounded by sparking cloud. They heard words nothing living, neither deity nor mortals within this world, poured from my mouth as tendrils of blue-white light waved around the child’s body mixing flawlessly with the cloud of sparkling energy. The farmer’s household stepped back from us as they saw my eyes turn into black orbs with twin stars spinning wildly. As I stood with my free hand gathering the ends of the tendrils and became the source of lightning sparks. The child’s limp body rose towards my outstretched hand that was shaded in aspects on liquid night skies.
Meli arrived at this time to the spectacle of healing magic beyond anything known in Atlantis itself. Her gasp told the farmer and his household that this went beyond the knowledge of Atlantis and this world. A litany of mysterious words that she could not follow or understand echoed in a deep resonate tones from my mouth to wrap around the floating boy and myself. Multi-colored ribbons of light shot from my hand to entwine around the child. Spasmodic tremors suddenly wracked the boy’s body which echoed in my own human form. Meli’s earth sense had a pillar rising to meet the boy’s back before he fell. I was not as lucky since the area around me refused her call letting my fall upon my side to the ground harder than any would have expected. My last memories was slipping the stone back into the silken pouch with archaic glyphs older than the Earth itself before darkness slowly claimed my vision as a soft but deep humming touched my ears.
Meli rushed to the child as his eyes opened. The boys brown eyes were clear but bore a mark of this event in the form of three bright blue circles in his iris forming a triangle around his pupil. With a deep breath, the boy twisted to see what had happened gaining a shocked scream from him seeing my collapsed and partially broken form.
As I was told later by Meli, my body was still spasming uncontrollably in the dirt. She grabbed the child using her body to hide me from his view. She checked his hands finding him fully healthy as his family starred stunned by this event that reclaimed him from death’s embrace.
“His eyes were the eyes of the dead before your master acted.” the farmhand told Meli. She handed the boy off to them saying he was find and he must not have seen what he believes he saw. The family moved aside while I body was wracked with spasms for the next hours. The hand that I had used for healing appeared shredded showing raw meat around displaced bones. I did finally regain a semblance of consciousness at this point fully feeling the effects of my actions. Nothing living upon this world could unleash the power I had used now twice to save others. My thoughts were still muddy as Meli finally came to speak to me as I lay upon the ground now soaked in my sweat.
“What was that?” she asked with wide eyes. I was too drained to even hazard a look inside her mind choosing to glance over her shoulder towards the Farmer and his wife holding their living child. I looked at my ruined hand which I finally felt pain from.
“I asked for help in saving the boy from the highest power that ever existed.” I half-lied to her. Could not change the memories of this event nor touch their mind to see what they perceived because of my weakened state. The Heartstone shard could not help me as my spiritual pool had been emptied drawing forth the power of my true bloodline channeled through the Ley’รค’Luna into healing one child that walked the edge between life and death. “And I am nearly powerless because they answered my request.” I explained failing to rise in a sitting position. Meli assisted me to my feet allowing to hang off her shoulder like an ancient great-grandfather barely able to move by himself. The gratitude of the farmer and family received a weak wave of my hand. “I did nothing but allow the ones above me to use me as a conduit to save him.” I stated with a weak voice. I would never tell them that their child must live for another more important event. Meli moved me to a log to sit and regain enough strength to stand on my own. I thanked her as she bandaged my ruined hand as I realized that the true damage I had suffered was much deeper than simple bodily wounds.
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