Now's the Only Time I Know [Closed]

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Please identify your neighbourhood location in the Topic Tag: Arata, Deja Point, Hlunn, Cinnamon Hill, The Turtle, Nutmeg Hill, The Gripe, The Pipeworks, Carptown, Windward Market, and Three Flowers.

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Faizra pezre Taci
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Thu Aug 15, 2019 12:32 pm

Evening, 4 Bethas 2719
An Alley in Three Flowers, Thul Ka
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Faizra woke with a slow, throbbing ache through her entire body. It pounded behind her temples, and with each beat rolled through her like a wave, unstoppable and never quite the same twice. The rasp of her breath over her lips cracked and stung.

She had been cold when she went to sleep the night before. Faizra remembered that, and she could feel that the air against her drum-tight skin was cold, but there was a heat, a fire, burning from within her. Faizra shifted against the ground, and a cough tore through her, starting deep somewhere she couldn’t name. The packed earth scraped sharp against her skin, and she coughed again. It was hard to breathe, as if someone was sitting on her.

It wasn’t much, this little corner of a warehouse. Faizra could hear distant shouting, but she was tucked thoroughly beneath a large wooden pallet. For all that she see sharp winter sunlight streaming through the word around her, this little corner was still dark enough. She had wedged herself underneath, crawled and dragged, and wriggled on her stomach until every inch of her was tucked away, until she had enough space to turn herself to face out.

If she climbed out, Faizra thought, blearily, they would find her. She choked back another cough. If she coughed, they would find her. Her teeth were shaking in her head; it hurt, something awful, but Faizra didn’t think it could be heard.

The wick closed her eyes and drifted - not asleep, not asleep, because every time she got too close a cough would seep through her, would need to be held in. She wasn’t awake either; she couldn’t hold on to any of the thoughts in her mind. They drifted like leaves and twigs on the water, bobbing and twitching. When she reached for them, the Turga yanked them from her grasp and she could hear Hulali laughing.

Please, Faizra prayed, please. She couldn’t put the words to what she was asking for; she didn’t dare. Perhaps Hulali heard her prayers; perhaps they were enough, because eventually, blessedly, the world faded into nothingness.

The next time Faizra’s eyes opened the world was dark again. She couldn’t tell, at first, if something was wrong with her eyes, but after a few moments of panic it was clear that it was night. The wick held her breath through the coughs that shook her; her head was aching and cloudy, but she clung sharp to the moments of awareness and listened. Was that the rasp of a sandaled foot against the ground, somewhere out in the distance? Or was it only her own breathing?

The wick couldn’t tell, but she couldn’t stay here either.

Each shift of her body against the packed earth hurt, a dull dry pain as if she was ripping her skin apart. Faizra pushed through it, using all her wiry strength to drag herself free. Her head first - the cold clammy rush of air against her bare forehead, sending waves of shivering through her. Arms and upper body next, and then she was nearly free. Wriggling like a caught fish, Faizra thought, but she was her own hook.

Finally she was free, crouching on the warehouse floor, uncontrollable shakes running through her whole body. She wiped at her forehead with her hand, and couldn’t hold back the flood of coughing that wrecked her, as if all of the ones she had held back so long were bursting free. She coughed until her throat felt bloody and raw, coughed and spat and coughed again, spittle and worse dangling from her lips. Her eyes watered. Through all of it she shook, hot and cold at once.

Water, Faizra thought. She needed water; she needed it more than she needed air, even if her choked lungs were screaming for breath. 

A well - Faizra seized on the thought. A well; she would find a well, she would drink from it. The thought of cool water racing through her ached; she could nearly taste it - she could -

Faizra crouched on the floor of the warehouse, huddled taut together, and she might have cried if she weren’t too dry for it. She couldn’t. She knew; she knew she couldn’t. What if -

Faizra doubled forward, pressing her head to the packed earth. She didn’t know if she was shaking or sobbing. Please, she begged, to Roa for life, to Naulas that he not take her yet, to Bash for the strength of the rock. To Hulali she did not pray but promised; she would not pollute his waters so.

Faizra pulled herself to her feet, breath rasping in her chest. She coughed again, shuddering, and did her best to hold it back against her arm. Slowly, she stumbled from the warehouse, bare feet scuffing against the ground. It was blessedly empty. Faizra squinted in the light of the full moon as she emerged, breathing hard.

She couldn’t have said where she wandered; Faizra couldn’t have said whether it was one block or two, or a dozen, although she knew it was unlikely. She kept off the main streets, even in the dark of night. Once she looked up to see shuttered shops around her, and fear tore through her. She turned and staggered into an alley nearby.

Water.

A miserable puddle of it glinted on the ground in front of her. Faizra dropped to her knees before it, and with all the strength she had she prayed. She shuddered, calling the mona to her, and licked too dry lips with her heavy, half-numb tongue. She began to call on them, half-asking, half-begging. Just a sip of water, she asked. Just a sip.

Faizra lowered her shaking hands to the puddle, cupping them together to lift some water from the filthy puddle. It was murky before her, at first, then slowly cleared in the glittering stream of moonlight. Faizra lowered her face to her palms and drank, slowly and gratefully, feeling the water ease down her throat. She didn’t dare try again.

Faizra tried to stand; she couldn’t. She coughed, her whole body shaking, and crawled on her hands and knees towards the wall, pants and skirt in a filthy tangled against the ground. She huddled against the nearest wall. The alley spun around her, a slow circle, and slowly Faizra felt herself sinking – down – down – until her cheek met the filthy ground, her eyes closed, and sleep overtook her once more, closing over her head and dragging her down into its murky depths.

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Water Purification Spell:
SidekickBOTToday at 9:19 AM
@moralhazard: 1d6 = (3) = 3
Last edited by Faizra pezre Taci on Fri Oct 18, 2019 7:01 am, edited 2 times in total.

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Orianna Aubellard
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Mon Sep 30, 2019 12:03 pm

An Alley in Three Flowers, Thul Ka
4 Bethas 2719: Evening
It was ridiculously late.

Anna had been in Thul Ka for a couple of weeks, but she had kept her trips away from her brother's estate to a minimum. While her brother had arranged for a few old family friends to come over, Anna was quick to keep any visits to the barest of socially acceptable minimums and turned down any invitations to parties and dinners outright, stating that she was still recovering from her trip and would gladly receive the hosts and hostesses at a later date if they wished to visit.

The half-Mugrobi surgeon was certain that, if her brother still had hair, he would probably be ripping it out by the handful. He truly wanted to see Anna happily married, with a family that could take over the family business when both of them were gone. But she wasn't interested in going to events where she would be ogled as if she were a particularly fine piece meat on sale to the highest bidder. Her brother meant well, but Anna was uninterested in finding a husband. She was married to her work and she was fairly certain that her brother knew it. He wasn't so blind that he couldn't recognize his own behaviors and beliefs reflected in his beloved sister.

Anna felt slightly guilty about not attending the social events since she didn't want to see the family business die either. But she wasn't lying when she said the trip to Thul Ka had taken a lot out of her. While she had shaken the cough while she was up in the air, the reduced oxygen made it more difficult for her to shake the fatigue that came from being so direly ill. Her fractured relationship with the mona left her slightly depressed and ashamed. She had yet to tell Demkaih about her backlash and, to be honest, she wasn't sure that she would.

So, instead, Anna chose to curl up in Demkaih's library most days, reading books and meditating on her relationship with the mona. But when she received an invitation from the hospital in Thul Ka to attend a dinner followed by a lecture on an experimental surgical technique, she finally found her curiosity piqued. Back in Brunnhold, her jobs kept her too busy to go to anything more than the required lectures and she had truly missed them.

The lecture ended up running late, as these things usually did. Putting a group of doctors in a room often would lead to hours of talking shop as they discussed everything from difficult cases to new surgical discoveries that hadn't quite been perfected. Anna got in a heated argument with another surgeon about different approaches to help people who were severely burned, then turned around and had another argument on how to treat someone who was drowning.

By the time the after-lecture discussions and arguments had dwindled down, it was well past 26 o'clock. Anna had enough money for a coach, but she decided to wander the town, taking a few shortcuts to her brother's estate. She was walking down an alley when she saw a woman collapsed next to a puddle.

Anna's medical training kicked in immediately. She hurried over to the woman, bending down and moving her a bit to ensure that her face wasn't fully in the puddle. Then she checked the woman's pulse, which was fast and thready. The woman's flesh was burning, though that didn't surprise Anna at all.

"Well, I suppose I should get you to the hospital," the half-Mugrobi said after a few moments before examining the woman, frowning. The woman looked malnourished, but Anna wasn't sure she could fully lift her without asking the mona for help. She was still repairing her relationship with the mona and wasn't sure it would be a good idea to ask it to help with something like this when she could just flag down a carriage. She crouched down, pulling the woman up to a standing position, supporting the woman's weight as the two of them hobbled towards the street.
Last edited by Orianna Aubellard on Fri Oct 18, 2019 7:00 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Faizra pezre Taci
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Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:24 pm

Evening, 4 Bethas 2719
An Alley in Three Flowers, Thul Ka
Faizra was burning; she remembered burning. She remembered a cool hand on her forehead; she remembered her daoa leaning over her, her voice low and soft, crooning. “Hama,” her daoa whispered. “Come back, hama - ye’ve gone too far.” And then she was gone, drifted away like a gust of smoke.

If she listened, if Faizra really listened, if she strained herself against the powerful headache throbbing against her temples, she could hear her da’s voice. It was somewhere in the distance, far away; she couldn’t make out the words. But he was speaking; he was speaking, and then he was gone, and she could hear nothing but the desperate gasping echo of her own breaths.

And then the world snatched closed and swirled away. Faizra could feel the heat clawing at her; she crouched numb on the seat of the boat and watched as the world turned to fire before her, the flames licking out over the waters beneath, reflecting against the darkness. They reached for her; she could see them like fingers, arching out over the Turga to drag her back inside them. Her skin was hot and dry to the touch; the searing heat sunk into it and crackled into her core. It dried the tears on her face, left them nothing but faint traces of salt.

Faizra felt the smooth wood of the paddle in her hands. She turned her back to the fire and began to row - away, away, away, deeper into the darkness beyond, until the flames were but a distant memory, a roar in the night time.

Faizra’s eyes flickered open and she groaned, softly, shifting against the hard ground. Thul Ka, she thought. This was Thul Ka, and she was alone. Someone was there, was talking; Faizra heard a messy jumble of words, hospital half lost among them. She felt a stranger’s touch against her, gentle.

There was an arm around her, a sensation of moving upwards; Faizra went with it, shuddering and coughing, wrenching wet sounds that tore through her chest. Her breaths rasped, shallow, as if she were too full to breathe. Somehow she was upright; she took a slow, stumbling step, and then another, and another - and then she stopped.

Hospital. Faizra knew that word, hospital. A place of sickness; a place of weakened people. People. She would not bring this to them; she could do nothing for this woman who had already touched her, and she was sorry for it, but she would not go.

“Ne,” Faizra choked out, her whole body tensing against the weakness that she had thought might drown her; hard cords of muscle stood out on her arms, and she pulled away from the other woman with what felt like the last of her strength.

Faizra could not stand, but there was a wall, blessedly cool, and she caught herself against it. She coughed, shivers wracking her whole body, her breath slow and shaky, rushing over too-dry lips. Give me your strength, she asked of Bash; let me be as stone. Guide me on your currents, she begged of Hulali; let me not pollute your waters.

“Ne hospital,” Faizra half-slurred the word; it felt strange and awkward on her tongue. “Epa’ma. Ne hospital,” she said again, stronger this time, and held fast to the wall. “Ne,” she said one last time, her voice collapsing into a thready whisper and she began to cough once more.

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Orianna Aubellard
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Wed Dec 04, 2019 5:37 pm

Thul'Ka: Making a potentially bad decision
4 Bethas 2719: Evening
Anna's heart sank as the girl came out of her daze long enough to protest Anna's plan to take her to the hospital.

"Hulali's tits, girl," Anna muttered, rubbing her forehead. The half-Mugrobi doctor knew patients who were so insistent on avoiding the hospital would leave as soon as they were able to walk. Anna also knew that, with the heat radiating off the girl, she didn't want this girl wandering around town. Fevers like this usually came from something contagious. Anna had just left one outbreak and she sure as hell wasn't going to let another one begin.

It was a split-second decision, but once it was made, Anna was committed. She knew her brother would probably hate what Anna was about to do, but the girl had to be isolated from the community until she was better. Demkaih had a guest house that wasn't being used right now. She could plant this girl there and, hopefully, having access to regular meals and medicine would keep the obviously homeless girl in place long enough that she would get out of the contagious stage before running away.

Anna opened the window and gave the cab driver the address to her brother's estate, and then sat back and mentally went through the things she needed to gather to help the girl, and the rules she would have to put in place to keep whatever the girl had from spreading. She just prayed it would be enough.

Lost in her lists of supplies and plans of action, Anna was surprised when she felt the cab roll to a stop. When the driver asked her where she wanted to go on the estate, she directed him to the guest house. The man tried to help Anna with the girl once they got to the guest house. Anna waved him off after she paid him for the ride, including a healthy tip in case she had exposed him to whatever disease the thin, willowy woman had.

"I don't know what she has, and I don't want you to get it," she said fiercely. The man backed off as if Anna had said that the girl was pure poison and Anna nodded to him gratefully.

It was a struggle, but Anna managed to get the girl into the house and to the master bedroom on the first floor. She unceremoniously dumped the girl on the bed and tried to catch her breath, talking to herself as she ran through what she needed.

"Okay. She's not going to stay if I'm in another room, so I need a cot. She's thinner than me, but some of my clothes might fit," she muttered, her eyes flickering over to the girl and taking in the girl's obvious social status. "Nothing expensive, though. Can't have her selling them once she's out."

"I need to send a servant to get some supplies," she muttered under her breath, her mind fully in doctor mode. "I can pull this off, as long as Demkaih doesn't evict the girl."
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Faizra pezre Taci
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Tue Dec 31, 2019 2:04 pm

Early Morning, 5 Bethas 2719
Demkaih Alkrim's Estate, Thul Ka
Faizra drifted on the tides. There was a strange, swaying, rocking motion, like a boat but somehow wrong. She was moving again, half-upright, but she did not know where she was or where she was going. She followed the current, because she could not fight it. There was something soft beneath her, and fire burning through her veins, and coughs that wracked rasping through her.

For a moment, just a moment, Faizra stretched her head above the river and breathed deep of the fresh air. But the waves shifted, and she was pulled below once more, and lost to the dark depths of the water.

She dreamed.

Faizra walked through the streets of Thul’Ka, hand-in-hand with her Da. She looked up at him from below; he was a tall tree, and she was safe from the heat in his shade. She heard her own voice bubbling like a spring with laughter; she heard his voice too, the low soothing rumble of it. There was a sandstorm, rushing all around, but Faizra was not afraid. Her Da pulled her through it, laughing, and they crouched together to hide, his arms around her.

When the storm cleared they began to walk once more. Faizra took his hand in hers, and led him on. She had to show him, she thought; she had to show him. She glanced sideways over her shoulder, and now they were nearly of a height, and he was smiling at her, following behind. It was nearby; it was so close. He pulled ahead again, through a narrow passage, sandstone walls rising smooth on either side of them.

His fingers slipped through hers like smoke. Faizra was running, then, running – the passage was thin and growing thinner, and she was crawling on her hands and knees. She couldn’t see him before her, but she knew he must be there. She crawled, and when it grew too narrow she was on her stomach, wriggling across the ground, pulling herself forward with bleeding fingertips.

And then Faizra knew she was alone, in the dark; and she knew, too, that she could not go back.

She drifted.

Beneath her through the darkness she saw Thul Ka spread out below; she saw the winding, shining waters of Hulali’s Turga, and she knew what awaited her at their end. She saw the buildings and the hills and she heard distant voices calling, busy and loud. She was flying above it like a bird, and from the air it was like a patchwork blanket. She knew how to fly, so long as she did not think about it; but once she did, she could not remember, and she was falling, falling – tumbling through the air –

Faizra woke in a harsh gasp of breath. She was lying on something soft, too soft; it was trying to swallow her up, like quicksand. Faizra cried out, involuntarily, and scrabbled off it; she landed on something hard with a thud, her vision blurred, and crawled on her hands and knees to a wall, pressing her back against it.

Faizra looked around. It was a room; it was only a room. She had been on a bed, with a thick, full mattress of the sort she had never known. She was dry and rasping with fever; she felt the coughs rising up in her chest, and she could not help them. There was a cot on the floor, and another woman lying on it, and they were all bathed in the pink-gray morning sun.

Faizra coughed, her knees pressed tight to her chest, straining against the confines of her body. Her eyes watered; she tasted bloody mucus. She coughed, her arms wrapped around herself, until panic rose up inside her, until her head was light and swimming and throbbing. Finally, the fit stopped, and she shuddered, all the bones of her back pressed against the wall still.

Faizra opened her eyes, and wiped the moisture away. She looked at the woman on the floor; she only half-remembered her, from the alley, like a dream – like a nightmare, Faizra thought, glancing around, her heart sinking in her chest. She did not know this place.

“Where ‘m I?” Faizra asked. Her voice was a hoarse, strained croak, and she watched the arata with dark, suspicious eyes. Her gaze flickered to the door, and then back to the other woman. She coughed again, shuddering, and did not try to move.

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Last edited by Faizra pezre Taci on Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Orianna Aubellard
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Wed Feb 05, 2020 4:12 pm

Demkaih's Guest House
5 Bethas 2719: Early Morning
At Faizra's waking gasp, Anna jolted awake groggily. She was used to taking naps in the hospital when it was quiet – all the doctors did that when necessary. It still took her an extra moment to recognize the bedroom she now occupied with her patient.

She had slept restlessly, her dreams plagued with patients lost. If you had asked the surgeon why she had brought Faizra to her brother's guest house, she probably wouldn't have been able to admit that the outbreak of whooping cough in Brunnhold and deaths of her patients had weighed heavy on her soul. She was no more capable of leaving Faizra alone in the alley than she was of bringing her lost patients back to life.

But, deep down, she wondered if she could maybe redeem herself by helping this patient.

Anna straightened her nightgown as she stood and watched Faizra's coughing spasm dispassionately. Once it had passed, Anna moved over to the dresser, where a stack of old rags and handkerchiefs laid. She picked one up and walked over to Faizra, handing it to her. "You're in my brother's guest house. I'm Dr. Aubellard," the tawny-skinned woman said curtly, her voice all business. "I know this isn't ideal, but I couldn't leave you out there to spread whatever it is you have. You came out of your fever long enough to beg me not to take you to the hospital. It probably wasn't my smartest idea to bring you here, but I just left one epidemic and I am not risking another godsdamned epidemic."

The curly-haired galdor checked the clock. "Lilabeth will be in with breakfast soon. I took the liberty of having her make some bland food for you. You'll need your strength and you'll be less likely to vomit it up if it's bland. If you hold it down, I'll try to get something more flavorful for you for lunch."

"There's clothing for you in the dresser if you'd like to change. If you sweated through the sheets, let me know and I'll have Lilabeth bring new ones," the half-Mugrobi doctor said as she walked over to the wardrobe and pulled out one of the simple dresses in it, clothes a doctor would wear if called to an emergency – quick, easy to clean, and easy to put on and take off. She eyed Faizra for a moment, evaluating the street rat's ability to try to escape. She waved a hand lightly, dismissing the girl as she walked over to the bathroom, leaving the door open while she quickly changed.

As she changed, she spoke to Faizra, making sure her voice was loud enough to be heard through the distance between the two of them. "Feel free to take a bath if you feel the need. You'll stay here a couple days, until you seem to be in the clear, and then you're free to leave and do whatever you wish to do. I'd like to examine you after you eat and run some diagnostic spells to pin down what you have. If it's nothing more than a case of the flu, I'll let you go once your fever breaks. Unfortunately, I suspect that, by the blood you coughed up, you have something worse."

The galdor reentered the bedroom and sat at the desk. "I'm going to make you a cough syrup to help with that cough. I don't want you doing permanent damage to your lungs. I can't get the ingredients myself– I've been exposed to whatever you have, you see. But we have the whole house to ourselves, so I can whip up a good cough syrup up no problem. Lilabeth will make sure that I get the ingredients I need."

Anna finished making her shopping list and looked at Faizra. "It's just you, me, and Lilabeth until we're all healthy again. I'm sorry for the necessity, but you did ask that I not take you to a hospital. If you prefer that I take you there, I will happily do that. But you're not going to be allowed to re-enter the city until you're better, either way."

Anna stood and walked over to Faizra. "Would you like help back to the bed?"
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Faizra pezre Taci
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Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:26 pm

Early Morning, 5 Bethas 2719
Demkaih Alkrim's Estate, Thul Ka
Faizra’s back was against the wall, still; she stayed curled against it, breathing through the rasp in her throat, trembling. Her clothing was caught up against her, wrapped around her, too loose, and the brushing of it against her skin ached; she felt as if it would leave her bloody. She shuddered.

The arata had risen, and was watching her. Faizra watched her too, chin tucked against her knees, bare, dirty feet propped against the floor. She did not shift her gaze as the woman came over with a square of cloth, and extended it to her. Faizra watched her hand for a long moment, unsure. She reached out, slowly, and took the cloth, frowning faintly; she was not sure what to do with it. There was no dust in here; she could not tie it over her face to keep from coughing. Without water, she did not see how she could use it to clear herself, if that was what the arata wished.

Faizra had spoken Estuan well enough as a girl; she had learned more since coming to Thul Ka. But the arata – Aubella? – spoke it with a fast, accented clip which Faizra could scarcely made sense of, and peppered it with all sorts of words she had never heard, or which at least she did not recognize. Her head was throbbing, and she could scarcely hear anything about it and the heartbeat in her ears, and the Estuan seemed to flow in and out like the tides of a river. She clutched the handkerchief in her hand, mostly because she thought the other woman must have had a reason for giving it to her.

Faizra’s eyes flickered to the dresser, then back to the other woman. She coughed again, pressing her free hand to her mouth, shaking, palm covering it. She felt something come loose in her chest; her eyes swam with each cough. She buried her face in her knees, her shoulder blades shaking; she wiped the tears on her sleeve, panting softly for breath, and looked up again when the arata came out.

It was a struggle even to stay half-upright against the wall. Faizra did not understand much, but she thought she understood enough. Sick, the arata had said, and then – staying here, something – not back to the city. Hospital, again. Faizra shuddered; she closed her eyes. She flinched at the feeling of the arata’s field, when she came close, and shook her head at the offer of help. "Ne," Faizra said, hoarse; she looked down.

Like Bash’s stone, Faizra prayed, feeling heat behind her eyes. Let me not waste Hulali’s waters; let me be like Bash’s stone. Her field was a weak flutter in the air around her; something like fear, something like shame, shuddered through it, and pressed hot against her skin.

Faizra knew little enough of arati; she knew not why they did what they did. She didn’t understand why this woman had brought her here to die; she did not know any difference between dying here and dying on the street, crawled into some sewer hole beneath the streets.

Back to the bed, Faizra thought, blearily. The arata wanted her on the bed. She opened her eyes; she found it, then, fixing her gaze against the odd, soft thing. She did not see the necessity of sleeping off the ground; it frightened her, the thought that she might roll off at any time, might fall. How could they let children sleep in such things?

Faizra stared at the bed, and willed herself to move. She shuddered; her shoulders jerked, and she buried a few more coughs in her hand. Not a fit, this time; they passed, though her head felt even lighter than it had before. Faizra pressed her hand against the wall; she left a smear of blood and dirt in her wake. She rose herself up; she shuddered, and stumbled, and nearly fell, all the lines of her swaying like a tree in a storm.

One step, and then two; she felt the coughs shuddering up through her throat. Another step, and another, and Faizra sank slowly down onto the bed. She closed her eyes; the room spun about her, even when she could not see her. She felt the softness of it wrap around her, pulling her deeper beneath; she let it take her, and did not try to fight.

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Last edited by Faizra pezre Taci on Wed Apr 08, 2020 7:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:23 pm

Demkaih pez Alkim's Guest House
Early Morning, 5 Bethas 2719
Anna gave the slightest of frowns at Faizra's confusion when she handed her the handkerchief. She mimicked coughing, pulling part of her blouse up as a proxy for the handkerchief. "Cough into it," she said in Mugrobi, her words slightly accented as her mouth tried to form words that hadn't been used in years.

It was clear the girl couldn't understand much of what Anna said in Estuan. As Anna stepped away from the woman and watched the sickly waif make her pained way to the bed and collapse into it, she swore at herself internally. She could have made the situation much worse by not communicating on a level the girl could understand. It was likely that the girl's first language wasn't even Estuan, which probably confused her even more.

Anna desperately wanted to use the mona to break the fever, but she didn't know whether it would be a good idea. Her relationship with the mona was still shaky, and any backlash could easily kill the girl by cooking her alive. Luckily, she knew that Demkaih kept his kitchen stocked well in both culinary and medicinal herbs. She would just have to ask Lilabeth to get her some.

While she waited for the servant to bring breakfast, the half-Mugrobi went to the bathroom while the girl rested, filling a washbasin with cold water and grabbing some washcloths. She carefully made her way to the bed and put the basin down on the nightstand next to the table. She dipped a washcloth into the water, letting it soak up the icy water as she spoke to the girl in Mugrobi. "I'm going to put a cold washcloth on your head. It will help the fever," she explained slowly. Part of her slow speech was to ensure the girl understood her, but part of it was because her Mugrobi was so rusty. She slowly, gently placed the cold washcloth on the girl's forehead, letting the water drip down her head into the pillows below.

Once the washcloth was in place, the doctor pulled a chair over to the bedside, taking another washcloth and washing the girl's hands gently. "I'm Dr. Aubellard. You're in my brother's guest house. You'll be safe here," she told the girl in Mugrobi. "I am going to make you well." Anna fell silent after a few moments, then started humming an old lullaby her father used to sing when she couldn't sleep.

After a little while, there was a quiet knock on the door and Anna ceased her singing. She went to the door and opened it, smiling at Lilabeth as the servant started to push the door open. The doctor shook her head and opened the door just wide enough to take the tray. "I don't want you coming in until the girl's gotten at least somewhat better. Can you get me some willow bark tea, please?" she asked before closing the door. She laid the tray on the sideboard and then carefully took the chicken broth that Lilabeth had brought for her patient and sat down again. "I have broth," she said simply in Mugrobi. She wasn't sure if the girl was asleep, but she suspected that the smell of the broth might wake her up a bit if she were.

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Faizra pezre Taci
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Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:59 pm

Early Morning, 5 Bethas 2719
Demkaih Alkrim's Estate, Thul Ka
Faizra woke to the cool feeling of water her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open; she blinked, blearily, and shifted. A droplet shifted and trickled down the side of her face; her vision blurred, and, slowly, the arata’s face swam into view above her. “Hulali’s tears,” Faizra murmured in rough Mugrobi, her throat hoarse. She shuddered, and closed her eyes once more.

Doctor, the woman said, the Estuan title tucked amidst city-accented Mugrobi. It sounded funny; rusty, Faizra thought, like old metal. Faizra tried to nod; the movement throbbed somewhere in her head, and she twisted her head to the side and coughed, shuddering, beneath the wet cloth.

The woman was washing her hands, slow and careful. Faizra closed her eyes again; if she kept them shut, she could almost pretend she was at the riverbed, dipping closed hands into the Turga and pouring the water over herself. More cool droplets rolled down her face, some from the washcloth.

There was a strange, soft humming. The arata, Faizra thought. She didn’t know the song; she didn’t understand. It wasn’t any kind of casting she’d ever heard of. The wick’s glamour was curled close to her skin, pulled back against her, wrapped all around her like a blanket. It pulled away a little more from the arata and her song.

Faizra reached into the river once more; there was sunlight gleaming through the trees and she was alone. Something splashed in the distance; a fish, sunning its belly towards the sky.

“Why d’ they d’ ‘t, da?” Faizra asked; she was small, then, crouched on the edge of the riverbank with a net in her hands, and her da sat behind her, smiling, weaving river fronds together with easy movements of his hands. “Sun like that?”

“Hulali tickles ‘em,” her da said, grinning. She heard the whisper-quiet drop of his basket being set down. Faizra shrieked; she flailed – her da had a hold of her then, and he was tickling her sides. Faizra shrieked, dropping the net onto the bank, crying with laughter, wriggling back and forth.

“See?” Her father said, kissing her head, firm, stroking her back with his hand. “Jus’ like that.”

“ – broth.”

Faizra’s eyes opened; her face was wet. She shuddered; she sat, up, slowly, pressing strangely clean hands against the damp sheets. The washcloth slid from her face; she caught it, in one hand, and set it aside on the bed. She looked at the arata, and then down at the bowl on the tray before her.

“Ent sure I can do yats,” Faizra said, her throat rough. She closed her eyes, swaying slightly, and steadied herself, one hand pressing into the soft bed. She looked up at the arata again. She could see the woman clearly now; she didn’t quite look Mugrobi. Not dark, like most of them, like the ones Faizra saw in the markets with their fields all strange and organized, but she was an arata; there wasn't any mistaking it.

“Why?” Faizra asked. “Why’re ye doin’ this? Domea, ea, bu’ – why?”

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Orianna Aubellard
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Wed Jul 08, 2020 5:49 pm

Demkaih Alkrim's Estate, Thul Ka
Early Morning, 5 Bethas 2719
Anna sighed as the woman sat up shakily. “Well, I suspect you probably won’t be able to keep much of it down, but you need to try anyways. If you get too…” she paused, tilting her head as her brain stuttered, trying to retrieve the Mugrobi word for “dehydrated”.

After a handful of seconds, she gave up, giving the waif a self-conscious half-smile as she slipped into her half-forgotten home language. “Sorry, I’ve been too long away. Forgot some of the words I need,” she said sheepishly. “Anyways, we all need water to survive and your body is probably running low on it because of your fever. Getting some of this broth in you will help your body keep fighting whatever it is you have.”

She gave Faizra a sad smile when the darker girl asked why Anna was helping her. “I’m a healer. I lost too many people recently – there was a nasty wave of whooping cough back in Anaxas. I wasn’t going to let another die, even if she was a stranger. Plus who knows what you have? You could get others sick and I just will not have that happen,” the surgeon said, her voice touched with fierceness.

As she continued, she held a full spoon out for Faizra to take or not take as she would. “You said not to take you to the hospital, so I suspect that if I had ignored that wish, you would have left as soon as you were able. I won’t say you’re not a prisoner here because, quite frankly, I’ll tie you down if you try to leave before you’re less of a danger to other people.”

With those words, the weight of what Anna had done to Faizra finally settled in, horror touching her field for a moment before she tamped it down. “Oh, Hulali’s tits,” she muttered to herself. She knew that the law wasn’t going to care about a galdori who kidnapped a wick to nurse her back to health, but that didn’t mean that what she had done was morally correct. The moral reaction would have been to drop the girl off at the hospital against her wishes, instead of bringing her to her brother’s estate. Anna knew that she was probably a good enough of a doctor to save the girl, but that didn’t mean that she was as well suited to helping the wick as a hospital would be. And she wouldn’t have had to worry about legal repercussions if she had just dropped the girl off.

It finally registered to Anna how far she had gone astray from her path. Somehow, it had become more important that she save lives and she hadn’t even noticed. Perhaps that’s why the mona was angry at her.

Anna snapped out of her thoughts and looked back at the wisp of a wick laying on the bed, sighing. “Okay, maybe I wasn’t thinking this through. I just didn’t want another person to die and I panicked when you told me to not take you to the hospital. I’m not going to tie you down or anything, but please… just stay for a while? Until you’re better?” the surgeon asked, her voice sad and quiet, the hole in her heart evident in her voice. “I promise, nobody here will harm you. And once you’re well enough to leave, I’ll make sure you have some nice clothes and a good bag of coin for your troubles.”
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