The Plague

I did not realize that we had been gone for more than two months. After all, there isn't much telling of the date in the lonely mountains. We came back to the clan to find grandmother torn between sending someone to fetch us or keeping us away for our own safety. As she filled me in, when I sat with her in her tent, I realized that the guarding Termuzin mages had brought a plague from their clan into Hakorhi.

"How come?" I asked, "what kind of plague?"

Grandmother explained that the symptoms were going into an haze and refusing to eat, leading to starvation of the infected.

"I have sent someone to Iriadne with the news, and she said to have you create an antidote."

"What about the Termuzin mages?"

"She's forbidden them to step into Hakorhi,"

"That won't go down well with them," I warned.

"It didn't. Their clan prince has been rumored to have gone to meet Iriadne at the battle front."

"With your authority, why must you rely on rumors?" I asked.

Grandmother sighed.

"I was busy trying to keep the infected away from the healthy clansfolk and was not ready to know where the clan prince of Termuzin was,"

"Fine. Don't worry, I'll find an antidote. But I first have to know the origin of this plague. If I can't know from the infected, I'll have to visit Termuzin myself,"

"You--"

"There's no other way, grandmother,"

I visited the seclusion camp the next day with my disciples. About fifty clansfolk had been infected and would have been more than that if grandmother had not secluded then in time. Among the infected was Lena's father, which was why I forbade her to come with us.

He was the first person I examined. His eyes were unfocused, dreamy. His breathing came in short infrequent rasps. I covered myself in a protective layer of pure energy and pushed myself within his mind image, or his haze, whichever it was.

It was full of stinging, biting, scalding things!

I withdrew immediately and rose from his side.

"What is it, teacher?" Mel asked worriedly.

"It's a parasite. A parasite from Termuzin. We'll have to go there and destroy their base. Only then will we be able to find the antidote."

We returned to grandmother's tent and told her what we'd found out.

"I won't let you go down to Termuzin without word from your sister," grandmother said sternly. Calling to Shaw, a messenger bird Iria was gifted by Samahan, with the ability to teleport, she relayed the message in a piece of parchment, rolled it up and put it in Shaw's beak.

With a snap, it vanished.

Iria sent back word with Shaw within hours. She permitted me to go to Termuzin, asked after grandmother's welfare, and told us that the war was proceeding in a draw. The Grihame mages were almost no match for the Savitro Zhan force, who were all now present at the war-front. She acknowledged the Blood Clotting Pill I sent and let out that it bugged the Valencian troops how soldiers they had fatally wounded yesterday could return to the battle field today.

Iria's way of putting humor in everything.

I packed up at once, much to grandmother's disgust, to make the trip to Termuzin. I decided to take only Rudolph and Mel with me, providing the rest with a pill formula that would keep the infected alive until we found the antidote.

That was how, within days of arriving Hakorhi, I left again.