Thalia was still having visions of other worlds, a corporate newsletter, a group of people motorcycling up a mountain, a mother and baby changing room - fortunately empty, a game of football, an attack by bird-like aliens, the war in Vietnam being motivated by the rescue of mothers, a father-son shopping contest, a history teacher trapped in a painting for disrespecting taboos in their own art, a church that uses the dead as sports equipment.

Finally she settled on something that should be from this world, the ice dungeon had somehow tapped her visions and was trying to work out how to incorporate narrow mountain ledges appropriately within its challenges - a short fall to the previous level was what it settled on.

She experienced the sensation of having a man's belt buckle in her mouth even though she knew of no such occurances, a consequence perhaps of others on the psychic plane. It was very similar to a sore throat but with a metallic taste as if she had bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood.

Thalia was suddenly feeling hot for no apparent reason, she must have a fever. She saw what she thought was an apparition until it spoke. "Thalia, it's Rajesh, the system alerted me to a claim you had Covid. Thought I better check for myself since there should be no way that could be true."

"Feverish, throat sore, tasting blood." She replied.

Rajesh looked at her "Not Covid but not good, I'd like to take you to a physician but we don't really have any. Actually, better to bring them to you. I'll summon Olia if I can, get him to give you a full physical."

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Thalia closed her eyes in a fit of coughing, when she opened them again there was a man standing there. She vaguely recognised Olia but couldn't make him out properly.

The man began to examine Thalia in the manner of what was known as a general practitioner. "Sorry, I'm unable to identify the exact type of influenza but a targeted disease curing spell should be within my abilities. I recommend quarentining the three of us until the issue is sorted and we know it's safe."

----------------------------------------

The core of the ice dungeon was feeling guilty. It wasn't exactly sure how it had caused the influenza that Thalia was suffering but knew it had. It decided that adding medicine to its rewards would help it feel better though it was going to have to be done in a responsible way that prevented children getting it without supervision. A voucher that would turn into the medicine when it was presented to an adult and the recipient was ill seemed like the best solution.

Now that was resolved it contemplated what other rewards should be in the treasure pool. It wasn't allowed to give random items, Sarim forbade that and it agreed, but it contemplated whether personalised rewards were permitted. It checked the codes of Astria, realised that they didn't apply to the circumstances and decided to pray for divine guidance.

No answer came, it had expected at minimum a confirmation of its understanding of the rules, maybe it could improve a Skill related to the question - Theology (Sarim) seemed appropriate - maybe it could improve beyond the base Red it had. Yes, it had an answer, Sarim was against random with the goal of a surprise, he was also against surprises in general. It turned out that the question was enough to improve the skill to Yellow Red and was likely to keep improving.