Chapter 417: Love In The Time Of Llodos

A day passed since the Old Woman's team arrived at Narsis. This situation was tragic.

The epidemic spread so fast that Narsis had pillars of smoke rising from each corner burning everything that thought to be contaminated. The Hlaalu Guardsmen and the civilians were on a survival game against the epidemic.

In this total mess, a team of skillful individuals were taking the lead in the emergency response and enforcing the quarantine on Narsis under the management of the Old Woman of Mournhold.

The first thing they did before they arrive was putting on a plan. Narsis was a medium-sized city a bit smaller than the current Winterhold housing over 20'000 civilians. Controlling all of those is literally impossible and many were trying to escape the town the old woman came with a diabolical idea, she personally summoned a large number of undead skeletons and made them roam around Narsis giving the town the impression of being under an evil attack rather than a punishment from the Gods as some rumors began to spread.

Jon's ideas of the quarantine were mostly new but were not less violent than the Old Woman's undead solution. The city's layout was mapped to him by the clerics of House Hlaalu. He put a plan to block the streets by breaking many carriages and setting them on fire leaving only some routes to be monitored. An angry mob would go through a lot of trouble to break out from Narsis at this rate.

Mirren and Miranda, as well as many other mages, were focused on applying Filter Wards on all the medical gear that was going to be used by the staff. The two High Elves had an excellent aptitude in enchanting and their coordination was top notch.

Galam and Karly were assigned to dispose of and burn anything that is suspected to be contaminated.

The heroes of the day were both Isha and the Old Woman. The two seemed to have been trained on a unique ability to resist poisons and partially diseases which they called the 'Immunity to a Thousand Poisons' aptitude.

The two went and inspected every corner of the town marking the places to seal and the routes to follow while discovering the paranoid citizens who refused treatments for many reasons.

The first day passed like that and the second day arrived. This day was the beginning of the real suffering.

The disease had two known stages this far.

The first stage lasts between five to seven days and starts with a mild fever and random bodily aches and pains. Afflicted also have a terrible hunger that cannot seem to be satisfied.

The second stage is marked by a high fever, overall weakness, and the appearance of open sores upon the body. Pain grips the afflicted, making most normal activities impossible to perform. During this stage of the epidemic, the afflicted's appetite disappears, and it is a struggle to eat and drink sufficient amounts of food and water to maintain their body weight. The Old Woman estimated this stage of the epidemic to last at least seven days. If the afflicted doesn't throw off the disease during this period, a chance of survival may drop to almost zero.

This is the 10th day of the breakout and the situation is looking bleak. Only a handful of Alchemists were working day and night with no real result other than a potion that can prevent the infection and a portion to ease the pain.

Yesterday, Miranda fell to the disease too and was consumed by the terrible hunger. Jon and Isha stood out of her room looking at her wolfing a chicken in a minute.

"Where is my sister?" Mirren came asking.

Miranda tensed after hearing her brother's voice while Jon blocked the doorway and Isha faced Mirren.

"Hey, let's talk outside."

Isha tried to take him out but Mirren carried a strange look.

"I feel something is wrong. Let me see her." Mirren shouted at Jon and the latter only sighed and moved away from the doorway.

"Just don't walk in."

Clearing the door for him, Mirren tried to walk inside but Isha held him.

The Altmer twins stared at each other wordlessly. A thousand thoughts or so were exchanged between the two in moments before a smile appears on Miranda's face and disheartened look on Mirren's. He then walked out and Isha went to comfort him.

Jon followed the two by his eyes until they stood together and Isha pulled Mirren closer and hugged him.

"Oh! That girl is smooth." Jon grinned.

"What?" Miranda asked.

"Just some love in the time of... whatever this epidemic is." Jon replied.

"Love?"

"Yeah, Isha is making an advance on your brother. She is hugging him like a boy who will protect his girl by all costs... Wait! Is he... nevermind." Jon smartassly remarked.

"... Crying?" Miranda asked.

"Eh... Well, yeah... man's tears are valuable you know. Don't underestimate..."

"Brother was always a crybaby." She said.

"... And you are the silent cool beauty?"

"No... I'm the one who likes the weirdest of things."

"Strange! It took an epidemic to make you talk that many words." Jon remarked.

"On second thought, you may be the most terrible last person to talk to."

"God no! I am awful at this. I am very sensitive."

"... Are they still hugging?" Miranda asked.

"I've good news in bad news."

"That's a new way to put it."

"If you live through this, then your brother will lose his virginity to Isha... the wrong one."

"Okay. I see the point now."

"What's with you two anyway?" Jon asked.

"What's with us?'

"You look alike, act alike and dress alike."

"We are twins, we lived together all our lives and we have a reason to dress alike."

"So you dress like a boy sometimes?"

"No. Thinking that a girl will dress as a boy is more believable than a boy dressing as a girl." Miranda gave a hint.

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"I see. So the both of you has some bounty on your heads." Jon concluded

"We're assassins."

Jon nodded but in his mind he was denying the answer. Assassins like those two are ghosts, they don't even have a reputation let alone a bounty. Jon could think of a few answers but he was not bothered that much.

"Fine, elf girl. I'll find a cure somehow and get you on your feet." Jon said.

"You won't do that from here else you too will get infected." She said.

"I am already infected."

"... What?" Miranda's eyes opened wide.

"I caught up the thing this morning but my inner system is putting on a fight. I have learned the ability to expel any inside harm forcefully so I want to understand what is this illness attacking and how to stop it. All I know now is that this is a microbe that attacks many vital organs. I am having a hard time suppressing it which is causing my body heat to rise and I'm frankly quite dizzy but I think I'll get the hang of it."

"... What..."

Jon's monologue right now made Miranda speechless.

"Let me clarify further. The microbe attacks the body violently but the natural immune system is fairly responsive. The problem is how fast the microbe reproduces and how the body reacts. The reproduction on both sides of the fight causes the body to crave for food on a large quantity to compensate for the loss of energy. Still, the sinister part about the microbe beside its rapid productive ability is how it goes on a war with the immune system not just to suppress it but to wear it off. Once that is done, the next target will be the esophagus which the microbe attacks by inner sores and that is the second stage for you. With the body unable to compensate for the rapid energy loss, things go down fast. If I were to guess, I would say this disease is not something new but triggered to be violent by a certain factor. Sadly, the common cure is of no help. And we don't know who's patient zero."

"... What..."

"Don't worry, I've already shared this with Old Cat earlier this morning."

"... Hold on." Miranda raised her hand. "You are infected too?"

"Oh boy!" Jon held his head, "It is not your fault. It is just that I was a big nerd in my past life."

"Past what?"

"Speaking of which, ever heard about them dragons?"

***

On a later date, Jon was summoned by the Old Woman.

"So we found him?" He asked.

"Yes. The first patient it is. His state is quite bad but Isha is talking to him." The Old Woman replied.

Jon insisted on finding patient zero as a part of determining how to deal with the epidemic.

An hour later, Isha came back with news. Patient zero seems to be a miner who discovered a sealed pathway in the mine he works and tried to discover it only to find it filled with undead. There were some scratches on his back and that seems to be the reason behind the epidemic.

"You were right, Krilon. Finding the first patient gave us a lot to work on." Isha said.

"Got a location on the mine and the other miners?" Jon asked a Hlaalu clerk.

"I'll provide you with records of the place right away, sera (sir)."

"This should work."

"It will."

A few hours later, the clerk returned with an exhausted face.

"I have gone through all the records of the scribes regarding the minor and major accidents. I only found this." The clerk presented his research results to the Old Woman and her party.

"These records go back to 2E 583? That's even before my time." The Old Woman said.

"Almost 950 years ago."

"What does it say?"

Jon and the Old Woman skimmed through the paper then looked at each other and frowned.

"The Llodos Plague? Not the Llodos Fever?" Jon asked.

"The Llodos Fever is an old sickness that appears in the spring all around Dasheen. I've never known there was a Plague by the same name. If it is the Llodos, shouldn't people have at least immunity to it?" The Old Woman wondered.

"I think you are mistaking something here. The Llodos Fever is the watered down version of the Llodos Plague. One is regular while the other is pandemic. Here, there are third and fourth stages as we feared. The note says 'The third stage of the plague marks the beginning of the end for the afflicted. The open sores cover most of the afflicted's body, which burns with such heat that the afflicted becomes delirious and subject to hallucinations. The afflicted refuses to eat or drink, and any kind of movement results in agony. This stage of the plague is relatively short, lasting from one day in extreme cases to as long as five days for those unfortunate enough to hang on'."

"Gods!"

"The final stage of the Llodos plague can take one of two paths. Many of the afflicted simply die an extremely painful death when the plague has run its course. The other path results in the afflicted transforming into undead creatures that are known as [Plague Husks]. These violent creatures become intent on attacking anything they encounter."

"This explains the Undead in the mines."

"So we are dealing with an old disease that was watered down through the ages but had traces in an old catacomb that was used to dispose of the dying patients. That was tricky." Jon concluded.

"The Note mentions a cure made of Kyne's Heart healing herbs, sour milk tea, and dragon scale mushrooms. We need every single piece of those. Krilon, Isha and Galam, you three deal with the undead. I will personally prepare the cures."

"On it."

"I want all the patients distributed to four zones. Those who are suspected to carry the Plague, those in the first stage, those in the second, and those who are nearing the third. But before all, send guards to the Alchemy stores and demand that they hand over their stash of those items before they think of hiding some."

She then turned to Isha.

"Isha, did you ask patient zero about any other miners who may have been with him. We can't miss someone out." The Old Woman asked.

"He said he had two new miners with him that he managed to trick away. Large orcs, that's how he described them."

"Orcs. Not quite common here. Look for the poor souls too. They may have caught something."

The Old Woman took over the situation and ordered everyone around ignoring the Lords of House Hlaalu who all stood behind her waiting instructions too.

By the end of the night, the life started to find its way back to Narsis but none could tell that it was just the end of Round 1. The Enemy was stepping up the game.

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