[Realms #297] Fever! In the Morning...
Sunday, the 9th of Reaping, 1269 AE
Ledare looked down at Vade and her heart ached; he looked terrible. His face was a red that verged on purple and heat was coming off him so fiercely that she could feel it from several feet away. He trembled and started to cry as he looked up at her and saw the worry in her face.
"I feel sick," he said weakly and Ledare smiled, the first she had managed in quite some time.
"Rest now," she said and lightly swept her fingers across his forehead, as she remembered her own mother doing when she was child. And like her mother before her, as she did so, she made a silent appeal for her patient's survival. "I'll get Karak. He might be able to help," she told the halfling and got to her feet.
She crept over to the dwarf's sleeping form and jostled him awake. He sputtered and rolled onto his back, the waraxe he'd been using as a pillow coming up in his hand.
"Wha-?!" he sputtered before realizing that it was Ledare who had awakened him. He sat up, scowling. "What is it, lass?"
"It's Vade," she told him. "He's sick." The dwarf grunted and moved toward where the halfling was leaning against the side of a tree.
Once Karak had moved away, Ledare noticed a strange sensation making the hair on the nape of her neck stand on end. It was as if someone, or something, was just out of sight, watching her. She found herself looking over her shoulder in an effort to pinpoint the unseen presence. The sensation continued, but could not be placed; she felt something lingering by her side. It was not a hostile presence, that much was clear. She had felt that kind of warning go off before and this was quite new and unknown...
"Aye, Vade, let's have a look at ye," Karak growled as he crouched down at the halfling's side. "I must admit, I wish that me chalak were here now for I am afraid I do nae have the skills to cure disease. Shaharizod seems to grant me some o' her powers, but they are powers for the fight."
"I'm tired of fighting," Vade whined and the dwarf harrumphed.
"Ye'll be needin' ta fight yet! This sickness'll nae go away with my help alone!" Kareak told him, probing Vade's neck and belly as he spoke. "So do nae stop yer fightin'! In the mean time, I can try to make you somewhat comfortable."
The dwarf gripped his holy symbol and began praying at Vade's side.
By the time Karak was finished with his ministrations, Morier and Ixin had awakened. Neither of them felt very good, although both were in better shape than Vade. While Ledare made no mention of it, she had begun to feel feverish as well. She kept her own counsel, however, and no one asked.
"The little one is in a bad way," the dwarf announced as he rejoined them, his tone low enough not to carry back to Vade. "It nae be poison, but something is amiss. I do nae know if we others be tainted from the chaos elemental as it did him. It may have affected all of us; I do nae know. Like I say before: I be nae Malak."
"I don't feel very well," Ixin admitted and the dwarf's expression darkened. He checked her followed by Morier and then Ledare.
"It's taken hold of ye all," he said and scowled more deeply, his stone-colored eyes disappearing beneath his shaggy blonde brows.
"Can you heal it?" Morier asked and the dwarf shook his head.
"I see no option but to head as fast as we can to Redwood," Karak said. "I know we leave behind the Black Bishop that once possessed Plonius' body but I say let us follow one trail to the followers of Flor and kill two hyraks with one stone." He mimed the action of hurling a rock at some imagined creature before continuing. "One: complete the mission that the Great Oak put upon us; and, two: cure any who need curing from this disease."
"Will we make it that long?" Ixin asked, her eyes fearful. "I'm getting weaker by the moment, it seems."
"Grisham may have been too gruff but, now that I think to it, he did tell us to follow the trail back to Flavonshire," Karak answered. "We should head there, pick up mounts and go to Redwood with all haste. I also do believe that Chaos now has a powerful tool in its armory with whatever has been stolen from the desecrated crypt. But that must be for a later time."
"Chaos..." Ledare muttered and the others turned to look at her.
"Eh?" Karak asked and Ledare's gaze came into focus as she raised her head to look at him.
"Ruze was always talking about Chaos," she said dreamily. "Soriah, too."
"Aye..," the dwarf added hesitantly. "From what ye've told me, ye've been standing it its way for a bit o' time now."
Ledare got to her feet. "You should cleanse yourselves. Wash off the taint. Perhaps we can seek the help of Great Root in locating a spring or clean water supply in which to bathe and wash your clothing."
"Ye want us to take a bath?" Karak grunted, one eyebrow arched skeptically. Ledare half turned and regarded the dwarf matter-of-factly.
"Ruze had some test he performed back in Barnacus," she said. "A Chaos check or something, but I don't know much about it. I know it involved getting naked and that Finian didn't care for it much."
"Chaos check?" the dwarf harrumphed. "I've nae heard o' such a thing. Perhaps yer friend was 'avin' a bit o' fun with ye."
The cleansing didn't help, and by midday it was painfully clear that everyone save Karak was suffering from Red Ache. The dwarf did what he could to aid the others, but even with Ledare's help (she had learned a bit of healing in the Janissary Academy) only Ixin seemed to benefit from his aid. Before long, Ledare was obliged to join the others resting on the ground, and Karak was left to his own devices.
The temple stood silent and serene in the distance. Ledare became suddenly aware of tall grass brushing her legs as she moved effortlessly at its invitation. She felt the draw, powerful and without room to question. And she answered with her soul. There was no door, but only an aura of smooth, cool serenity which washed over her as she moved forward. The pain in her heart was left at the threshold of this place.
She paused a moment to look around her. There were others inside - peaceful faces just out of focus, that she felt she should recognize but could not place. One thing she knew for certain - they exuded the same sense of presence that Ledare had felt in recent days. The blurred images seemed aware of her but did not speak. They moved slowly, attending to their own rituals. Even the rhythm of their movement was soothing.
From where she stood, Ledare could see an altar, clear and distinct in the front of the room. Its image was sharp and precise, glowing in a wash of pure white light. Ledare moved to it and, without thought or pretense, knelt down before it.
In a flash, the weight of her past came coursing back through her. She struggled momentarily with the burden of it all, but then was instantly stilled by a presence much greater than her own. It was a sensation unlike anything she had ever experienced. And she dared not breathe, for fear that the feeling would leave her alone again, as she had been her whole life.
She would have stayed that way, holding her breath, tipped on one knee forever if allowed. But there came a warm ripple - almost of laughter - and an urging that she heard not with her ears, but in her heart to breathe. Immediately she complied.
Ledare sensed she was not alone anymore. Her doubts... her fears were still there ever-present in her mind... but there was something... else... just out of reach - just out of earshot. Something... there. For a moment she thought she'd pinpointed it, but, no. It was gone, slipping between her grasping fingers like the wind. But it was there. She felt it. She knew it. There was a seeming stir among the leaves, a movement of the moss beneath her feet.
It was something she couldn't feel, taste, touch, or smell yet she knew it to be. At first it had frightened her, but upon continued reflection it did not. She has been through too much, seen too much, lost too much to be afraid of what was not there.
"Have I done mad? Am I tainted with Chaos. Am I communing with my God?" she wondered "Is this what Soriah and Ruze felt?"
She didn't know, of course. She couldn't know. Not yet. But that seemed right to her. Timing, she thought. It is everything.
"Who are you?" she asked and was surprised to receive a response.
"It's jus' me, lass," Karak answered, his gravely voice very close to her ear.
Moonsday, the 10th of Reaping, 1269 AE
She awoke to find the dwarf bent over her, examining the swollen lumps that lined her jaw as the Red Ache worked itself through her system. She felt worse than she had before unconsciousness had taken her; she barely had the strength to push herself to a sitting position. Nearby, she saw that both Morier and Ixin seemed to have recovered from their own bouts with illness. Vade wasn't moving at all, and only the rising and falling of his little chest indicated that the spark of life remained within him.
"Ye should jus' stay flat on yer back, lass," Karak urged, pressing her down to the ground with one hand. She was in no condition to resist. "Ye're feverish. Talkin' in yer sleep."
"Vade..." the half-elf sighed and Karak's face darkened.
"He's worse," the dwarf told her. "He's too weak to move, an' the fever's workin' on 'im same as you. I'm doin' for 'im what I can." Ledare started to force herself up, but Karak held her down easily.
"I should help you..." she managed but the dwarf shook his head.
"Ye should rest," he commanded. "Ye'll do the lad nae good if ye do nae get well yerself."
She couldn't argue. She didn't have the strength. So she lay back against the cool earth and let the darkness take her again.
So it was that she was asleep when Great Root's voice thundered through the forest later that day, shattering the quiet. His words were familiar and their implication seemed particularly dire given the VQS' present condition.
"Stopping you will now, unwanted visitor!" the treant bellowed. "None allowed be here! Return you will or made one with the earth you shall!"
