When does a Malady turn into a Plague[Gov Anvael Andares]

[Joyau delaLune]

Joyau stopped by her Dormitory room and washed throughly. If what she suspected was true, she might have something on her from treating patients. She didn't know if it could be a bug, or just "vapors" whatever that meant. Anyway she needed to change her clothes. Some patients had vomited on her and because some were filthy from laying in gutters where they had been discovered, she likewise had become soiled and smelly. After she washed, she put on her only other suit of clothes, a pair of green leather breeches, long brown boots, and a white linen shirt. She also put her small fae medical field kit over her shoulder, in case she saw someone who needed help on her way to the Governor's residence.

She had no idea how he would react when he heard of Taralon's and indeed Sherian Provinces' danger. At least danger to over 40% of its population of humans, now, as master Cobalt had explained, the Sherian Serpents.

She flew rather than walked up to the Governor's home. It looked as if she would have to go through the guards surrounding his house. Flying up to a large human guard she said in as confident a voice as she could.

Searle, my name is Joyau delaLune. I am a healer at the hospital in charge of caring for the poor sick citizens of Taralon who have contracted a serious illness. As you know, many human citizens are sick and dying due to a strange malady. I have news for the Governor about the seriousness of the malady and must see him immediately.
The guard would see standing before him a tall, (2'9 3/4 inch) sprite with long blonde hair plaited in a long braid down her back between two wings with four sections. The wings are like dragon fly wings with veins of silver and gold, with tiny marks the shape of butterflies (her distintive mark of Diana).

[Anvael Andares]

„You have news about that illness?“ The guard, a human who was more than twice her height – even though she was tall for a sprite – looked surprised and a little bit shocked as Jouyau revealed why she had come. She had after all mentioned the “seriousness” of the illness. Did she bring bad news? Was this situation more serious than they’d thought?

“Governor Andares will want to hear this!” he decided. “Wait a moment while I tell him that he has a visitor so that he can prepare himself, and then you can go right in.” With that the man disappeared into the Governor’s office – and returned only a few seconds later. “You can go and see the Governor now. He wants to hear more!”

~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~ ~~~~~

Once inside the office the sprite would be facing an Esh’lahier sitting behind a large desk. The Governor of Sherian was little more than a boy, with brilliant white hair, white skin and violet eyes, dressed in a dark suit that fit the current atmosphere in Sherian, dark and depressing. The desk was covered with books and papers.

“Please, Miss delaLune …” He seemed to be concerned as well, just like the guard she’d met. “You mentioned that you have news regarding the seriousness of this strange malady that has been plaguing the human citizens?”

[Joyau delaLune]

Joyau walked into the office of the governor instead of flying. Now that she was here, she had to summon any dignity she could before she presented the governor with her ideas on the malady affecting almost the entire population of humans in Taralon.

She sat on the edge of a chair, prefering a stool so her wings would not be crushed, but perhaps this posture was the right one to have, there was a sense of urgency in her news. Clearing her throat, she tried to think of the words to say which would give him the same sense of urgency.

She pulled her notebook out and then began, her voice a little squeaky at first, "Your excellency, she started, she cleared her throat, "I'm sure you are aware of the human tradegy occuring in Taralon. I am an intern at De"Gaulle hospital and I have been treating the patients. Or at least trying to treat them. We have run out of medicine and the patients are increasing so rapidly, we do not have room for them. There are humans who are being plucked out of the gutters because they are too weak to even make it home or to the hospital. Stretchers line the walls of the corridors, and we do not have enough healers to heal them."She took a large breath and continued. "I have interviewed most of them in the hospital trying to find out, at the very least, what is causing this malady to spread so quickly. I am also a herbalist and I have poured over the books to find hints of where the malady could come from. I have seen treatments for insect and animal bites, which seems to suggest that insects can cause some sort of sickness when they bite someone. This is not proved but the herbal remedies seem to heal the symptoms of certain bites. Therefore, I have asked the patients if they had been bitten by any insect or animal previous to their symptoms. Though few were to weak to answer, most quite clearly said they had not. So I believe an insect or animal is not causing the malady.

She stopped for a moment to get her breath. "Another question I asked was what they remembered just prior to getting the symptoms." She referred to her notebook and the statistics she had computed. "Almost, 80% of them replied that either a family member started having symptoms or they had been in contact with some who had symptoms. Whole families are coming down with the illness, and human business owners who cater to humans, are becoming sick. The malady does not seem to be contracted by other races."

"My master did not agree with me when I suggested that humans seem to be passing the malady from one to another, and I do not know for a fact that it is. I am just giving you my assumptions as there is no science that proves any of my observations. I am also told that the malady has spread to the Sherian Serpents.

She knew that she should stop now, for him to absorb the information she had just given him. She knew the implications of what she had said. If her assumptions were correct, there could be widespread panic, people running away who might infect other cities, or even worse, humans killing humans who had the disease.

If you don't agree with me also, then I must ask you if you can get medicine to the hospital. We have run out of everything needed to treat the people.

[Anvael Andares]

„You should have told me earlier.“ The young elf was shocked as he heard that they had run out of medicine and were about to run out of room for the patients as well. While the entire situation in Sherian had begun to frustrate him, he didn’t want to see people suffer, even if they were humans rather than his own race. “I would have given you money, even from my personal savings. I would have given you buildings where you could put those that are suffering from disease. I would have tried to get medicine for you. I can still do that if you want.”

He listened to what she said about the illness. It was disturbing, an illness that seemed to have no cause and only struck members of a certain race. “Did you investigate other possibilities?” he asked. He hadn’t had any idea that he would have to deal with so many terrible things when he had become Governor, that there’d be a war and a mysterious plague striking the citizens of Sherian. There was enough work for a dozen Governors, nobody seemed to care, nobody seemed to have any sympathy for him, and he was underpaid as well …

“Did you ever consider that arcana might be the cause?” It sounded stupid even as he said this. “Maybe a mage – or maybe some kind of alchemist made this if it only strikes humans. What are the symptoms? How many die?”

“And how much do you need? Which medicine do you need and how much money shall I give you?”

[Joyau delaLune]

Joyau blinked a few times when she heard the governor talking ... blaming her for the bad news. Was that all he cared about, the thought of every human in Taralon dying was abhorent to her. How could she answer his charge.

"I don't think you understand the ramifications of what I'm talking about, your excellency, we may need to round up every human and keep them someplace safe. Yes, if you could put them in public buildings that would be good. Also the sick people need to be isolated from other humans. The Sherian Serpent humans must be isolated from the other humans in the regiment also. Perhaps the non-human Serpants can round up humans.

As you may or may not know, I and my master have never known of a disease which could be transmitted from human to human, so we had no idea what was happening. Even now it is hard to believe.

As far as medicines go, we must send someone to other cities to see if they can get the medications we need. The medications just treat the symptoms, not the disease. We do not know how to cure the disease. I am merely here to give you the facts as I understand them.

The symptoms of those affected were fatigue, malaise, fever, perspiration and sometimes convulsions. In the Hospital, most of those affected recovered in about one cycle but about 5% of those affected died within five brightenings. The survival rate for those hospitalized was much better than for those who did not get medical attention.

But now, there are so many ill, it is going to be hard to handle them. The herbs we need are to control the fever. If the fever could be controlled it is a good chance that we will not have problems with the other symptoms. I have looked up the herbs in my herbalism texts and they are: alamet, borage, and bark from the ash tree.

She realized she was putting her whole career on this to help the humans of Taralon, but she did not know what else to do. Hopefully he would understand what she was trying to say.

[Anvael Andares]

It wasn’t just the fact that she hadn’t come to him earlier – even though they would have been able to save more lives and find out what had caused this plague sooner. He felt sorry for all those humans that were suffering, he just didn’t know how to act in such a situation. Before he had come to Taralon he had never seen war, he had never had to deal with such a terrible disease firsthand. Even when the Pox had swept over the Empire, he had never been personally affected. Those he had cared about had all been safe …

He didn’t know what to say. They were human – there were those among his race that argued that humans were a waste of time, that one should not become too attached to them, but then the woman he was talking to was not human either, and she cared about them. He found her attitude admirable. She was willing to sacrifice everything for the humans of Taralon.

“I do understand”, he argued with her. “I know exactly what this means. We need to protect those that are not sick yet. I will send messengers to a couple of other cities today and order them to buy what you need, in whatever quantities you need. And as I said, I will let you use buildings that are currently empty so that you have room to treat those that are sick. And I will personally contact healers from other provinces and ask them for their opinion, if you think that would help. The guards will also assist you, those that are not human at least.”

“Please be assured that I will do what I can to help.”

[Joyau delaLune]

"The humans are in your debt, your excellency, I will return to the hospital and arrange for orderlies to take the necessary steps to transfer those humans coming in to the government buildings. We will set up field hospitals there, as we do in war. I will ask you to send non-human guards to help them, for there are too many patients now for our orderlies. I will need to use any you can spare to help me nurse the sick, and to go through the streets finding any sick humans. The families of the sick should be taken with the sick humans to the government buildings and kept in a separate area unless they too come down with symptoms. It is a huge task, but if we implement these procedures we can at least organize the epedemic .... if you could tell the soldiers at the gates to not allow any humans in or out during this, we hopefully can keep the malady being spread to other cities. Hopefully with these safeguards, we can stop it from spreading so fast.

When the medicines get here, bring them to the hospital and I will coordinate its distribution."

Joyau stood up and walked over to the governor. She held out her hand in friendship. "I hope this matter will soon come to an end."