Chapter 81: 84.

I have to hand it to marquis Sadoux. Man moves quickly once he's on the familiar ground. It's barely an hour, and we've all been invited and situated into his manor, rooms miraculously prepared within minutes and most remarkably, the dinner magically appears within half-hour. That's one hell of concerted teamwork. Then again, his address to domestics was 'my dears, I need your help for we have guests!'. That man does not operate on fear in his household, no. It is very abundantly clear he is "dear master" for pretty much everyone within. I'm unsure just how close he is to his servants, but they clearly operate on the basis of a loving family model. Then again, do I actually care if marquis is really having carnal relationships with his entire household? Heh, if you really think about it, marquis Sadoux is simply a fellow harem master, it's just that his is more domestic than mine. Good job, marquis. I'm impressed.

My admiration for libertinous household aside, the dinner is over now. Elaine had retired with Madeleine to her rooms, and I've got Bridgit to stay in ours (and unpack a bit). Leaving me, Lemand and Moon Unit standing in front of an ornate door leading towards the bedroom of Lemand's mother. Marisa Sadoux. Much to my surprise, there is a hanger near the door, holding a number of flaxen sheets... Actually no, that's not sheets, that's like... ponchos. With hood and faceguard. Hm... Aaand here's a copper pot that holds a bunch more of those wadded up... Well, I'll be. Marquis actually figured out the protective clothes trick to keep his household from getting TB. Remarkable. Simply remarkable. I guess Sadouxes is where Lemand's intellect really comes from, because gods know Lemarchands aren't long on brains.

I don one, prompting surprised looks from Lemand and Moon Unit. Well, that won't do.

"Suit up, we don't have all day." - I smile at them - "Marquis continues to impress me, I have to note. Those garbs will protect us from the coughs. Should cut the chance of catching consumption from your mother by, like, an order of magnitude. Remember, do NOT touch the outer surface once we enter. When we leave, pull them off by the inner surface and toss them into the pot over there. I am guessing they're going to be either boiled or incinerated afterward. Very clever."

They quickly don their own ponchos. Then, Lemand gingerly knocks at the door. A voice from within bids us to enter. I'm guessing this is Marisa, because I've heard voices more tender from chainsmokers.

"Hello, mother." - Lemand offers quietly, as he enters the room - "It's been a while. Let me introduce my companions... This is lady Alyssa Gillespie, and this is lady Moon Unit Lux. I have much to tell you."

Marisa looks rough... but not as bad off as I was worried. I hit her with the passive scan first thing off, and the results are... eh. She does have tuberculosis, alright. But not an acute version. While she does have plenty of coughs and obvious anemia, it did not progress yet into the coughing blood stage. More to the point, I now have a good measure of mycobacteria signature and can give Lemand the exact formula for detection spell.

"Lemand? Oh, my. It's been a while, yes." - she rasps, smiling weakly - "Companions you'd like to introduce to your mother, eh? And two of them, at that? My, my, your Sadoux blood is shining through, my little weasel."

Lemand promptly pinks so hard I can see his face heating. "Mother!" - he hisses, casting a panicked look at me - "It is not like this! Rather, I have been offered a retainment by lady Gillespie."

She giggles. "My apologies." - she offers to us then - "Lemand's always been a little uptight. I'd like to stand to greet you, ladies, but... sadly, that is not in the cards today. Will you be staying for long? I would love to get to know Lemand's associates a little better, time and safety permitting."

I shrug. "Not sure yet." - I tell her - "It largely depends on your health, to be honest. Speaking of which.. Lemand, take a look at this."

I throw out a formula for detection spell as an illusory projection on the wall. Lemand stares at it intently, and curiously enough, so does Marisa.

"A... detection spell?" - she then mutters - "That would look... for... hm... smaller than small mushroom?... No, mushroomy-like simpler... in the... wet and air and dark and living... Ah. Um... Wait, WHAT!?"

She jerks up on the bed incredulously, as she stares at her own chest for a moment. "Is that supposed to find some kind of... MOLD in the body?" - she half-questions, half-states.

Oh. Oh wow. Lemand's mom is REALLY on the ball. Not sure how she is with the practical side of things, but her theoretical chops in magic are fucking impressive, to read the formula offhand like this.

Moon Unit nods serenely. "We suspect that consumption is actually caused by a particular type of mold invading the lungs." - she paraphrases my earlier explanations on the nature of bacteria - "If this suspicion pans out, it would explain why healers had little luck with curing consumption - even if the scrapes caused by mold are healed, the mold remains and reopens the wounds in short order."

"But if so, there are other types of magic that could be employed to extract the mold..." - Marisa continues wonderingly - "...and if mold is gone, then..." She trails off, caught between sudden hope and trepidation.

"Then you can be cured of consumption, yes." - Lemand confirms with much gravitas - "Which is something I dearly hope for. Which brings us to the main reason why we are here. Mother, will you permit us to try and cure your consumption using our newfound knowledge?"

"Yes!" - she breathes out and starts coughing - "A thousand times yes! I will roll any dice for a chance to be free of that death's shackle!"

He smiles and without further ado lifts his hand, a hefty brass armband with a selection of flowers briefly reflecting light before it starts to shine on its own, as he throws the detection spell. The glow intensifies, as Marisa's body starts glowing in response. As anyone would expect, her chest is the source of the most glow. I can see that there is also some coming from all of the body, which indicates a presence of mycobacteria in blood, but Lemand's eyesight is not good enough to make that out against the luminescence coming from the lung area. Moon Unit does catch it, though. I can see her flinch, and then school her expression carefully.

"Extensive." - Lemand mutters - "Lady Lux, let us attempt the preliminary treatment, as we discussed. Lady Gillespie, please oversee."

Moon Unit moves closer and starts channeling two spells. One for general pain suppression and the other to stimulate regeneration. Lemand, meanwhile, grunts as he throws together several air spells, his free hand pulling out a bouquet of nasturtiums, hyssop and mint out of the holder on his back. It was prepared beforehand just for this use, obviously, because while Lemand is good enough to do a detection via facsimile, he does need a live focus for a much more complicated and delicate hoover spell. Marisa makes an odd throaty noise, her mouth opening wide as she hurriedly turns over to the side of the bed, leaning over it as if she's about to hurl. I stick a hastily conjured glass jar under her mouth as a wad of granulomas emerges. Marisa dry-heaves from the feeling, and I quickly nail her with an antiemetic spell while she's still bent over, while Lemand continues to maintain hoover. It takes nearly a minute of teamwork magic before the air exiting Marisa's mouth is not rife with a horrid mix of dying tissue, mucus and spit. She pushes back weakly and falls on her pillow, panting greedily.

"Mother?... Mother?... MOM, please respond!" - Lemand entreats with growing worry.

"...Aaah!... Haaah!... AAh... Haaah!... Hrrrh... Oh gods, that was horrid." - she whispers, tilting her head as she eyes the mess in the jar with loathing - "That... filth was inside ME!!?" She shudders in revulsion and turns away sharply - "Marra's mercy..."

Lemand immediately casts the detection spell again. This time, it is notably weaker in the glow, but still shows plenty in the lungs. To be expected, really. Lemand nods, as this matches to the plan we devised on the airship.

"Well, the initial stage is a success, I believe." - he proclaims with satisfaction - "I believe your breath should be easier for a while, mother, while we prepare the subtler methods to clear out the remnants."

She quirks a brow, and slowly, experimentally, takes in full lungs of air, then just as slowly exhales... And grins. "YES!" - she shouts - "Much better! I haven't felt my breath ease so much for months!" It is indeed remarkable, because prior to the preliminaries, she would have immediately had a coughing fit after shouting like this.

"Marisa? What is the matter!?" - inquires marquis, as he throws the door open. He has the protective poncho on, but it is clear that he had thrown it on in a hurry. Behind him, I can see Elaine holding another one and pulling it apart slowly, seemingly in the process of figuring out how to put it on.

"The matter, Donatien, is that my brilliant son and his companions had devised a way to ease consumption!" - Marisa retorts jubilously - "I can breathe again!"

Marquis claps his hands under the poncho in delight. "Stupendous! Incredible! MIRACULOUS!" - he thunders - "This is above and beyond all that I could have hoped for, Lemand, and I have already had high hopes for you!"

"We're just getting started, uncle." - Lemand retorts with a grin - "The cleaning, so to speak, was simply to prepare mother for more intensive cures. They will require more preparations, I'm afraid, but with this treatment, I daresay we bought enough time to make it happen."

I snap my fingers - "While we're on the topic, marquis, let me commend you on your clever idea with protective garments. That was inspired. Do satisfy my curiosity, however. What is that do you do with the discarded ones?"

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Marquis blinks. "Oh? Oh, those." - he repeats - "We just burn them in the furnace, lady Gillespie. Why do you ask?"

"Effective, but somewhat wasteful." - I agree - "Just so you know, you can reuse the garments if you place the used ones into the water, add some lye or soap, heat it to roiling boil and keep it boiling for an hour. Then just rinse them out in clean cold water, and they're safe again. The same treatment can be used to clean up the utensils and cups."

___

Marisa takes full advantage of her sudden relief and demands a meal. She's not in the shape for delicacies just yet, but we all agree that plenty of stiff beef broth and some soft bread is the best meal option. While she is happily occupied with soup, marquis organizes a couple of manservants to bring in the chair from the airship. It is situated in the middle of the room, and we all take a breather while Marisa takes a short nap after the meal. While she's at it, I show the jar of sputum to everyone, eliciting a number of groans and shudders, then prepare a smear and place it under the microscope. Donatien and Elaine are flat out flabbergasted, taking turns peering down the ocular.

"THIS is the cause of consumption?" - marquis grumbles - "People have been dying to a gods-bedamned MOLD!?"

Elaine, however, has a different question. "How did you find out?" - she asks.

"The short answer is that I'm defiled. The long answer is that the exact circumstances of my defilement had garnered me some knowledge of otherworldly alchemy and medicine." - I give them the public explanation - "I already knew that most diseases that can be passed from person to person are caused by minuscule parasites like these. So when we arrived, I've simply scanned lady Sadoux for lacerations within her lungs. I suspected the lungs as being the infected spot because consumption comes with an incessant cough, so it made sense to start looking in the lungs and throat for the causes of it. Once I found those in the lungs, I simply focused on what was nearby and wrote the signature out for Lemand to pinpoint at."

Lemand continues smoothly - "Lady Gillespie had conferred to me the knowledge that diseases are caused by minuscule parasites, pointed out that lungs are the most likely body part to be affected and tasked me with devising a spell to remove the most egregious of them via air magic. Since I had a clear goal, devising a spell to do that was merely a matter of mathemagical prowess."

He gestures grandly towards Moon Unit, who blushes, but picks up the topic - "While I was tasked with using my tried and true spells for pain alleviation and restoration to make sure Lemand's efforts in removing the mold did not harm lady Sadoux excessively. The crumbs that this mold forms are surprisingly hard, much like grains of sand, and without a dedicated healer numbing the pain the extraction process would likely be excruciating."

"So..." - Elaine hums - "The gist of it is that Alyssa was pointing out the mold, Lemand was removing the mold and Moon Unit was smoothing out the wound left after the mold was pulled off?"

"Essentially, yes." - I agree - "This is the initial stage of treatment, mind. Now that lady Sadoux is fed and rested, we will move on to the second stage. Deep scrubbing. We will be doing essentially the same thing, only much more meticulously. Since this is going to take a while longer and cause significant discomfort, we will be using Lemand's Serenity chair to take the edge off it. I'm not sure how long it will take, to be honest, my best guess is anywhere from a half-hour to three hours. We will not do this for longer than an hour at a stretch, with a mandatory resting period between each hour of treatment. No need to spoil the treatment by needlessly rushing."

___

In the end, it takes two hour-long treatments, interspersed by half-hour pauses for Marisa to catch her breath and eat more soup, as consistent regeneration she's being kept under is taking its toll. The third treatment is merely ten minutes long, and consists mostly of us scanning and rescanning the lungs to make sure all granulomas are excised and the lesions healed up. By that time, the rumors of consumption being cured are all over the household and there is a crowd of concerned servants peering from beyond the doors as we check Marisa out for the umpteenth time. Unfortunately, just as I suspected, it's not enough. While the intense glow from her lungs had faded, Marisa still gives off a full-body shimmer that implies that there is still mycobacteria in her blood.

Even with that in mind, the household and marquis loudly celebrate the achievement.

"You will be remembered for ages for this." - exults Donatien - "To think that consumption can be kept at bay like this. You are heroes!"

I share a glance with Lemand. He turns to smooth Marisa's hair lightly, and offers - "How are you feeling, mother?"

Since she's in the chair, Marisa is very muted in her response. Even with that, she is clearly happy. "I feel clean. I feel healthy." - she offers back - "I have more years to live than I hoped for. Cleaning myself out periodically is a small price to pay for years of life you've given me back."

"There is actually the third stage of treatment, mother." - he proffers - "And it is a different one."

Everyone hushes up. Then marquis pipes up - "The third stage? You mean..."

I nod at him. "Eradication of disease, yes." - I confirm - "We have excised all that could be excised, the remainder of mold is just spores in the blood. If left alone, they will eventually make their way back into lungs or other body part and start multiplying again."

"But... how would you clean the blood?" - marquis asks uncertainly.

"Have you ever heard the maxim - every medicine is a poison, marquis?" - I ask. I was not idle, a number of my eyespiders had been prowling all around seeking the appropriate materials. While it will be a while before antibiotics are properly a thing, I can fudge the thing with alchemy to be of passable efficiency. So as I say this, I place a bottle of murky white liquid on the table with a thunk.

"It is common knowledge, I believe, that the bigger the body, the better it resists poison." - I proffer - "This is what those medications use. They kill the parasites while not being potent enough to kill the human."

Marisa pipes up from the chair - "So... the plan is to give me just a little poison so that I don't die, but the mold does?"

"I am not sure about this." - marquis objects - "That sounds risky."

"Which, marquis, is why we will be doing this slowly and cautiously." - I tell him - "We start with a singular drop of this. I have fed a drop of poison to the mouse this morning, and mouse is still alive." I hold up the aforementioned mouse in a conjured cage. The little guy was nervous for a while, but then settled to nibble on the corncob I put in and lost interest for the surroundings.

He purses his lips, but then sighs - "I shall trust you, lady Gillespie. The precaution of trying your medicine on a mouse first does assuage my fears. Mouse does seem to be quite alright."

Moon Unit chuckles - "Not just that, the mouse does not register to poison detection spell either. It's no longer poisoned, per se."

As a coup de grace, I drop a single drop on the smear we prepared earlier, and gesture to marquis to take a look. He peers into the ocular and gasps after a few moments of intense scrutiny. "The mold is still..." - he mutters - "I withdraw my objection, lady Gillespie. You have clearly considered this in depth."

The admission that we would introduce the medicine directly into blood stream does bring a bit of trepidation back, I surmise, but Marisa firmly puts an end to all vacillations by demanding to be treated with the poison right now. As such, Lemand (under my careful supervision) pokes Marisa's arm with a lancet, wipes off the resulting welt of blood and carefully drips the medicine into the wound, which is then immediately sealed by Moon Unit. He throws the detection spell again, and wouldn't you know? The glow in this arm is dimmer than the rest of the body.

Much jubilation ensues.

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