Lord Rockson gave a slow nod, and looked at the guards, then at the adventurers.

"Well. I'd like to get the guards cleared up right now, if thats fine by you good people, and if you don't mind working a bit late, you can teach my hedge wizard and whichever students he feels are up for it the spells... and then we get to the serious work tomorrow?"

The group looked at each other; Kylie gave a nod; the devil a shrug; and Praxius turned to face him. "Well then. We're in."

The noble gave a low sigh. "Fine then. Paul. Could you go get the gate guards, and spot them for the next few hours? We'll see if they can get back to work after being cured."

The man looked down at Deacon, currently lying limp on the floor, and grimaced. "Yes, milord. If they're all like that after.... we might have problems." The guard then turned, heading out the door at a fast walk, muttering something to himself.

"Hmm. And.... Gene. Get the old bat. Tell her to get her writing equipment and get down here, there's a spell she needs to copy. Once she's on the way, get the priestesses as well. We'll do it all here in the jail so our Devil friend here can make sure none of them escape. If they're obedient up until they know we know the truth, we might be able to handle this all quickly, cleanly."

Praxius watched them head out; the guards looking energetic and anxious compared to how they'd looked when first met at the tavern.. and nodded. "If we're lucky... extremely lucky... whatever this is isn't too bright. The ones that were controlling corpses... they had a source. An original infection point... it was in a high magic area, and had a glowing green gem. Derek, have it on you?"

He chuckled... and glanced at Terra, before holding up a leather pouch. "Stuffed in a bag of salt, and yes."

"Given this any thought, wizard?"

The boy looked down at the bag, nodding. "Its been months since this started, and these things haven't been spreading from person to person, or the wives would all be effected. Which means that the fungus probably needs a high-magic area to grow, and all of these men have gone through wherever it is and picked some up; it could have just crawled onto them, or into their food or drink. So. We've got that big rock spire. Any places on it that the men who got infected all go?"

Lord Rockson frowned at him, and looked at the wall, clearly thinking. "Everyone goes to the wells, and through the gates. Tons of people, infected or not, go to the tavern; I go there myself almost every day. But none of those is in a high-magic area."

"I suppose we just have to search for it, then. Though.... two fungus-related infestations in such short order... there's most likely someone toying with us. There may be more of them, scattered around. You should contact the baron. there may be some darker forces at work here."

Praxius shook his head, slowly. "Unfortunate. We need to search the whole high-magic area; hopefully it isn't buried somewhere; that would turn this into an even more miserable slog."

***

The infected guards were, unsurprisingly, perfectly obedient. It seemed that, without some sign they'd been discovered, they went along with anything they were told to do. Fortunately, there were only about thirty total guards; and eight of them were infected. Simply being told there was a meeting with Lord Rockson at the jail was simple enough...

And so, the small facility was crowded in. Over twenty guards, a fairly bedraggled-looking woman who was probably already in bed when called that was likely the 'Hedge wizard' that taught classes, Praxius, the lord, the kids, priestesses of light and darkness... aside from a handful of guards they knew weren't infected, everyone was here that could matter.

The guards were split off into groups... and made to stand in formation by the nobleman. The uninfected seemed ill at ease. Confused. The infected... simply stood shoulder to shoulder, unconcerned. And when she saw Derek cast his spell, Terra was... a bit horrified.

Grandfather had his chains, ready to grab... but the moment the wizard finished his spell, the men simply gave a groan... and collapsed. Six of them simple fell flat, laying helplessly in the dirt... while one struggled to his knees, and the last barely avoided a fall, struggling to stay upright... as all of them started the now-familiar routine of expelling the fungus from their flesh, as Kylie and the two other priestesses got to work.

Terra started burning the errant patches of fungus, as some of the unhurt guards scooped it together; Derek already had a sample of the dead stuff, and while he'd asked them to help him collect a living sample of it as well if the chance came; he didn't want to risk this turning into chaos to do so.

When it was all said and done, the infected guards all cured... most of them were simply gone. Completely mindless, driven mad by months of agony. Her grandfather seemed curious about the process, and Terra was a bit herself.... but mostly in that she wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened to her.

She wasn't sure if this problem could really be solved. They'd saved nine... sort-of. Only two seemed as if they could recover, unless the local priestesses had something special they could do. She'd learn the plant-killing spell, sure. An easy way to stop these things. But.... there were probably going to be hundreds of corpses, unless... She ran her hands down her belt thoughtfully.

Her mother was primarily focused on nature magic. Growing plants. Helping animals. She had a bit of fire, and of course curse magic... but when she was asked to solve problems she had all sorts of things she used. Potions, insect venom, friendly pets, spells, curses....

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The problem wasn't that they were genuinely broken. The problem was that they'd been hurting for so long, so badly, that it had driven them mad, that a mind simply couldn't comprehend that much pain for that long.

As the group started to break up, going their separate ways; a few guards staying on duty, the hedge wizard going over the spell with Derek so she could teach her students in the morning... Terra opened up her bag and sorted through her mother's notes; she'd made a copy of the old tome that the people of their village had kept for centuries.

Had she ever made someone forget something?

Derek had started to call her over to learn the spell herself, before noticing her engrossed in the notes; which turned out to be fortunate.

Terra found, over hundreds of pages, three that mentioned forgetting. One included the bare basics of a spell that made someone forget something. It was a second-circle spell, and blotted out... a few minutes of memories from an unwilling target, or a day or two from a willing one. It would take time... it wasn't like Derek's neatly organized and meticulous spellbook that told you exactly how to do something, she'd be essentially building her own spell using it as a base... There were also notes about a fifth-circle spell that was far more significant and capable. It was complicated, but more importantly, it was well beyond her. It required threading together more patterns of energy than she could actually form, by tenfold at least.

And of course... there was a potion that she'd made, tried, and abandoned when a young man wanted to forget a woman he'd fallen in love with. It had worked... mostly... but gave terrible nightmares for weeks, he'd swapped almost smoothly from loving the woman to hating her on sight... all sorts of nasty side effects. It had notes about suggestions for a second attempt... but that attempt had never been made.

Still. Horrible nightmares, short-term hallucinations, and a fear of the things trying to forget? Probably worthwhile, if they could bring one of these people back from this terrible madness. And perhaps having a healer on-hand afterwards could help further.

She wrote down the recipe, copying it from her mother's notes onto the back of a wanted poster left on the desk, and looked up at the closest guard. "Excuse me, sir. I have something that might help your people. The ones who... can't deal with the pain. Can you help me get some things for a test run?"

The guard was staring at the limp, groaning, helpless forms that were now laid up on bedrolls in one of the cells, and snapped to attention. "Oh? Oh! Well. Of course! We'll get anything you need. We might even be able to get some of these infected to help with it, without knowing!"

She nodded. "Perfect. Most of it is pretty easy. I've got one of the parts already on me. But the key part is a certain kind of spider venom... though there's also a few kinds of snakes, and a kind of frog, whose venom makes similar effects that might work. Any of them you could get would be worth trying; there's gonna be some nasty side-effects no matter what, but if it makes them forget the nightmare...."

***

It would be hours into the night; but fortunately before midnight, for those who had magic to use the next day; before any of them got to sleep. The devil was still guarding the jail, just in case, and the three youths; offered a stay in the luxurious keep, had elected to stay in the Laughing Lass instead; just outside the edge of the high-magic area, wherever the fungus was growing, it probably wasn't there, while it was possible, albeit highly unlikely, to be in some guest room in the keep.

As much as Kylie had been looking forward to getting Derek alone, in a proper bed, she was too tired, and too anxious, to do anything other than hold into him and drift off to sleep... waking up anxious, sweating, and miserable a few times during the night; and she could tell Derek wasn't much better from the way he held her, and the sweat soaking his form.

When the sun rose the next day, she felt better; saying her usual morning prayers to the goddess, asking for truth, light, and good health; and it was time to start the next step of the plan. They would be starting the 'Serious work' today. Which probably meant that they'd rely on Derek, Terra, and the local spellcasters to purge the fungus from as many people as possible at once... and then try their best to help them recover.

As she rose to her feet, and started dressing, she gently nudged Derek awake with a foot... and after a bit of grumbling, he rose as well, mechanically going through the process of getting ready for the day, tying his properly, using a minor spell to clean himself; and then her as well. One of the fringe benefits of having a wizard around was feeling magically fresh to a point no bath could achieve. Though baths still had their place.

As the two headed out the door; meeting up with an equally grumbling Terra; she glanced at the sky.

Just after dawn. Still enough time to perform the dawn healing ritual with the goddess... but only if they hurried. They had at most an hour for that particular blessing to work.

When they arrived at the keep, there was a small crowd of about a hundred people; some clearly infected, some not; waiting their turn to get inside; with the murmur of conversation a bit subdued; none of them knew quite what was going on here; and a bit more irritation after the strangers were allowed through the gate, while they were still forced to wait.

Inside... there were eight kids... teenagers younger than Kylie and Derek... talking to a much better put together hedge wizard wearing a sleek grey outfit; some sort of odd fabric rather than robes. Kylie had never caught her name, but she had a bit of grey in the long black hair, and seemed far more agreeable now that she hadn't been dragged out of bed just as she tried to sleep. They were going over, practicing the threads of magic they would need to weave together for the fungus-killing spell; each of them could only do it once or twice, in a day, but that would be eight, or sixteen, more people to save today.

As the guards started letting the crowd in, they were separating them out; the ones who had emotional reactions, confusing, murmuring, in one direction; while the infected in another... and got everyone sorted neatly into rows. This would only be the first day; if the spellcasters could do this without having to rest and prepare, in between, it could be handled all today, but... well. There were hundreds of infected, and less than a dozen spellcasters that they could trust, so far.

Kylie watched as everyone got into position. Derek and the hedge wizard each waiting by a clump of the infected... each of the kids with their own one-off, waiting.. and Lord Rockson at the front, seeming about to give a speech. He glanced down, looking over the preparations.

None of them, infected or not, seemed to notice the chains running through the courtyard they were gathered in; just lying, seemingly randomly, on the ground... and her grandfather was waiting against the wall, ready to perform crowd control.

The noble looked at the preparations... took a deep breath... and announced, loudly; a magically augmented voice hopefully drowning out any shrieking, as he gave the signal to begin; the opening words to a complete nonsense speech. "I'm sure you all wonder why I've gathered you all here today, but I have wonderful news; a new opportunity for work, well-paid from the Baron, I'll be sending you off on..."

As he spoke, ten people started casting the same spell, just putting different amounts of power into it, simultaneously; all of them praying that they were able to pull this off; hundreds of lives were at stake.