Aeriphea glowered at the mercenary caring for the patient with the spotted plague. She would have much rather be doing it herself rather than forced into being a mere observer.
She wasn't sure how she ended up in this position. The last thing that she'd said before she was ordered to do this was when she'd been asked if she thought that a treatment for the spotted plague could exist, she said that it was possible, though unlikely. Why she was the one then selected to do this was still a mystery to her. After all, if someone, like the chief healer, who asked her that question and personally ordered her here, didn't believe that the plague could be treated, then shouldn't they be sent here?
Aeriphea knew that the chief healer wasn't the only one who believed that the plague couldn't be treated, which made it clear to her who should have been assigned this post. As it would make more sense, yet she was put here instead.
While she had a feeling she'd likely die from this post, simply because it was known that if you were in close proximity to someone with the plague, that you were likely going to catch the plague. Then even if she turned out to be one of the rare cases where she'd survive the plague, she knew she'd likely have to leave being a healer, since she wouldn't be able to keep up with the demands of the profession.
Yet, what surprised her the most was that the young mercenary, who also wouldn't be able to continue being a mercenary if she caught the plague and somehow survived it, didn't show any hesitation in not only getting close to the patient, but also actually touching him.
Maybe she was using a cloth to wipe him down with the water she'd put that mushroom into, but it was more than Aeriphea would have been willing to do. As it would almost certainly make her catch the plague.
Yet, after a while, she stopped and moved away. Aeriphea wasn't sure why she had but didn't say anything. Even as the mercenary sat next to her, she felt at a loss to say anything. Even asking what the mercenary had been doing in the first place.
"Well, all that's left now to do is wait and see if I need to treat him another time," the mercenary said, closing her eyes as she looked ready to fall asleep.
While she didn't care to be there and already resented the mercenary for being the one to essentially require her superiors to select her, she wasn't going to let this young woman rest like that.
She lifted the young woman up and ushered her towards an open bed. There were plenty of them as there was only one person who had the plague at the moment.
Still, Aeriphea couldn't help but wonder how the patient was able to get in here without anyone else being forced to stay with him. After all, someone had to touch him to bring him in, which in turn meant that they'd be required to be quarantined for just as long as him. Yet, there wasn't anyone else here.
Which made Aeriphea wonder if this happened now, how long this practice had been going on. As it certainly didn't seem like it would have just happened to occur this one time. Plus, she had a feeling the chief healer had to know about it since she shouldn't have been required to come in here if she didn't know there wasn't someone in here in the first place.
Looking at the beds, Aeriphea found herself longing to lay down. While she was supposed to be on duty right then, there wasn't anyone to say she was slacking. Even if she was, no one could prove anything. Especially with the only witnesses asleep themselves.
Yet, she pushed that urge away. She had things that she needed to take care of, even if she wasn't actually treating anyone. She had floors she could clean, she had old bedding that probably hadn't been washed in who knew how long, and she even had that garden she was going to need to tend if they were to have anything to eat. Although, she supposed that the washing of the bedding was something she'd have to do if it hadn't been done by before whoever had been in here last. After all, that was a job that would only be required if there was any used bedding in the first place.
Though, her first task was to see about straightening up the garden. She didn't know much about gardening, but she was at least confident that she needed to pull the weeds out of it.
Yet, when she reached the garden, she felt uneasy. She'd spent so much time working to become a healer that she didn't know the first thing about what a weed looked like or not.
Instead of a garden, all she could see was a bunch of plants that looked like they were all healthy. Even though she was confident that at least some of those plants were weeds, she couldn't say which ones were.
She looked at the quarantine building, unsure what she should do about this, since she seriously doubted that they'd send them much food, given how the other healers weren't pleased with the queen allowing this demonstration to have taken place. Not that Aeriphea expected it to actually do anything to the patient. As she knew many over the centuries had claimed to have been able to treat it, but never had they succeeded when others were present to witness it.
However, there was also a small possibility that she wouldn't catch the plague, which meant that she'd be able to continue on without worrying about having been here. As she wouldn't be surprised if she received some kind of benefit from having taken on this task, even if she had been ordered to.
So, Aeriphea set to cleaning the floors. As those always needed to be cleaned every so often, and it reminded her of the times when she'd first started learning to be a healer. How she'd have to clean things that she thought were a waste of time, that she should let maids to that work rather than do it herself. Yet, each time she'd tried voicing those opinions, she'd get set with more and more work until she learned to keep her mouth shut in the first place.
Eventually she began to realize the importance of keeping a clean area, especially when the maids refused to do the work themselves, given their fear of illnesses that, while treatable, could still impact their own jobs if they came down with them.
For Aeriphea, catching an illness didn't always mean that she'd lost time with her profession, but rather gave her more of an appreciation for being a healer, since she then knew what her patients were going through.
When a pair of feet entered Aeriphea's view, she at first was stunned. There shouldn't be any other people present, yet she could clearly see someone had broken into the quarantine area. Meaning they'd have to stay…
The words Aeriphea was about to lash out at the person with died on her tongue as she looked at the person and saw the mercenary she'd helped into a bed before.
Aeriphea then looked out the windows and saw the sky so full of stars that she hadn't realized she'd been working for so long.
"You probably should get some sleep," the mercenary said, helping her up from the floor. "I'll wake you if there's any change in the patient. He's sleeping peacefully right now and I'll heat the water in the morning and give him another treatment then just to be safe."
Aeriphea nodded slowly, feeling like she wasn't sure what was going on. Though, while she felt like she'd hardly cleaned any of the floor, as she looked back, she could see that she'd nearly cleaned the entire floor, even around where the patient was located.
"What if both of us catch the plague while we're in here?" she asked, too tired to keep her fears to herself and to keep her thoughts to herself.
"Then I'll ask for another mushroom to treat you," the mercenary replied. "From what I understand, you can't catch the plague a second time if you survive it, right? Well, I've already had it, which is how I first learned how to treat it."
The reasoning made sense to Aeriphea, though for some reason, the words didn't quite connect to anything that she recognized. Maybe she was just too tired to understand, but at the same time she felt like she should at least finish cleaning the floor.
"If you want, I'll finish cleaning for you," the mercenary offered, seemingly able to read her thoughts. "You really need to get some sleep or you won't be good to anyone."
Aeriphea wasn't sure how to respond, so she just knelt there, unable to decide what to do. As what the mercenary said made sense but at the same time, she'd never heard of a mercenary doing something they hadn't been paid to do, or at least didn't benefit in some way from the action.
"Oh, by the way, I'm Jenn," the mercenary said with a smile. "What's your name?"
"Aeriphea," she answered before she even realized her lips were moving.
"That's a pretty name," Jenn said pleasantly.
Though, while she didn't say it out loud, she couldn't help but think that Jenn's name was rather strange. It certainly wasn't a name she'd heard before this.
"Well, you better get to bed then, Aeriphea," Jenn continued, as if they were having a conversation and Aeriphea was contributing to it as well by responding to whatever it was that Jenn said.
While she did give her name, that was in a manner of introductions rather than conversing. Something completely different. Though, at the same time, she found herself moving towards a bed, even though she had been determined to finish cleaning the floor before she did that.
Yet, before she knew it, she was pulling a blanket over herself and closing her eyes, her head resting against the straw-filled pillow.
While it wasn't as comfortable as the down pillow she had in her own quarters in the healer's wing of the palace, it seemed almost better than that pillow with how tired she was at that moment.
Then the next thing she knew, the sun was rising and she could smell something good in the air. She didn't know what it was, but it pulled her out of bed faster than the sun did and drew her over to where the kitchen was.
When she reached the kitchen, she was surprised to see Jenn boiling water at the fire stove and putting in chopped vegetables in the pot.
For a moment Aeriphea thought that the hisusi mushroom was in there and Jenn was planning on feeding it to her patient and then both of them. Though, before that thought took on a life of its own, she saw the mushroom on the counter on top of the bag it'd been brought in. Then, after the vegetables wer put in, Jenn turned and stopped abruptly, surprised at Aeriphea's presence.
"Sorry, didn't know you were up," Jenn said, sounding startled. "Well, I made some stew, since we didn't have anything else to cook. I hope you weren't hoping for something else."
"Was that the pot that we- that you used to put the hisusi mushroom in to treat the patient?"
Jenn glanced at the pot, looking a little surprised for a moment. "Oh, yeah, It is. I just rinsed it out afterwards. It should still be good since the mushroom isn't in there. It's not like we were given much to work with when it came to cooking."
Aeriphea nodded, not really surprised that this place was given less funding than any other place in the palace. For one thing, she knew that every other place had down pillows rather than straw ones. For another, she knew that no one really cared what happened to people sent into the quarantined area, since it was well known that death awaited them more often than not.
"Anyway, after breakfast, I thought I'd start tackling the garden. I'm hoping to find something I can use to cook with that'll be better than what they gave us."
Aeriphea sighed. While she had thought that this would be a boring stay, she supposed the surprises this young mercenary would bring her might make this more entertaining than she'd expected. Especially considering how she wasn't sure what this mercenary would do at any time.
"Shouldn't you be checking on the patient?" Aeriphea asked, wondering if Jenn was just that confident in her treatment that she didn't need to do anything more to the patient.
"Relax. I'll check on him later. I figure if he needs another treatment, that it'll be around a full day after the first one. Though, the spots already came off, so that's a good sign for that."
Aeriphea rolled her eyes. Of course, the spots came off… she stopped herself as that thought hit a nerve. Something about the spotted plague that was well known: the spots disappeared when it was close to the end. Never had the spots 'come off' before. When she was rolling her eyes, she'd first thought that Jenn had meant that the spots had disappeared, but 'coming off' was another matter altogether.
"What do you mean 'come off'?" Aeriphea asked, not sure she should be taking Jenn's words seriously or not.
"Here," Jenn said, holding out what looked like an orange spot to her.
Aeriphea didn't reach for it or attempt to take it, or be handed it, because she recognized it as the color of the spots the patient had. The spots she had been able to easily see from a distance when she'd first arrived here.
"Don't worry, it's not gonna bite," Jenn said, amusement clear in her voice.
Aeriphea still didn't try to take it. She couldn't be sure that she wouldn't catch the plague from touching the spot and even if Jenn lucked out in successfully treating this patient, that didn't mean that she'd be lucky enough to treat her as well.
After a minute, Jenn merely shrugged and set the spot down on a pile of the orange spots. "They're pretty much like dead skin at this point. They're not much different from your skin or mine. They just have a different color. Nothing really that special about them."
Aeriphea wasn't sure she wanted to even accidentally brush against them. As she couldn't be sure that they were healthy to touch.
"Anyway, care for a bowl of the stew? It should be done by now," Jenn said after a few minutes of silence between them.
While Aeriphea thought the silence was tense, Jenn sounded as if she was comfortable with it. As if there wasn't any problem present between them.
Yet, as she thought about it, since she was going to be stuck in this quarantined area for at least a week, likely two, she supposed it would make things easier for both of them if she tried to get along with the young mercenary. Even if it wasn't possible, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to try.
"Might as well get a bowl," Aeriphea finally grumbled, not happy with the way things were turning out right then.
While she supposed she should be happy that a treatment, even if it wasn't reliable, had been discovered for the plague, she wondered if there was either more to the treatment than she saw or if there was something that was going to happen as a result. After all, if it really was a source of divine punishment, then she had a feeling that goddess wasn't going to take this lightly. Especially since so many believed that the plague was just that.
Jenn however, was either completely oblivious to it or was unaware of that fact. Making Aeriphea wonder which was actually better. As it wasn't something that she herself could have believed was possible. Although, as she thought about it, she didn't know what the lower peasantry thought about it, so she couldn't say if they'd have been worried about it. So, if Jenn came from that class, then she wouldn't be surprised if Jenn really wasn't that aware of what was going on in the palace due to her 'demonstration'.
Glancing at the patient, Aeriphea wondered if maybe the patient wouldn't survive long after the quarantine was over. As those who didn't like the idea of a treatment for the plague would want to claim that either it just killed him later or that he died because of the hisusi mushroom and therefore the treatment was just a farce or something like that.
"Are you going to take it or not?" Jenn's voice pulled Aeriphea out of her thoughts. As she looked back towards Jenn, she saw the young woman holding a bowl of the steaming stew out to her.
"Sorry," she said, accepting the bowl, using the spoon Jenn provided with the bowl to start eating.
She wasn't sure the flavor was as good as the food she'd gotten in the kitchen of the palace, but it certainly was much better than anything she'd expected to be given in this place while she waited in here. She couldn't say what she expected, just that it wouldn't have tasted anywhere near as good as this did.
"Oh, by the way, do they allow visitors to this area?" Jenn asked, sounding curious.
"Visitors? Who'd want to visit someone who's caught the plague? No one wants to be around here if they can help it."
"So, visitors aren't forbidden, then?"
Aeriphea shrugged. She wasn't sure what Jenn was getting at, just that she doubted she'd care to think too much about it.
"Sure, I guess. Though, if they come in through the gate, then they wouldn't be able to leave until they'd gone through the quarantine time as well."
"Yeah, that won't be a problem," Jenn said, sounding oddly confident.