As morning came he regretted his wishful thinking. His entire body was trembling softly and was running a fever. He felt a dull pain in his entire body that almost made him feel nostalgic. He really wished he could go back to sleep but the banging on his door would not stop. He could hear Marith shouting something but did not catch what he said. He heard Marith speaking to someone then there was a light coming from the door and it swung open. Marith walked over to the bed and his scowl turned into frown as he saw the sweaty Morgan who was now almost as pale as Louie.
“In the name of the gods are you alright?” Louie who came in after looked at Morgan in shock.
“I-I’m… I’m fine… I’m used to it.” Morgan tried to raise himself to a sitting position but fell back down.
“Dude you're not fine, I’ll go get a healer.” Marith turned and was about to leave.
“It’s not something new… There is nothing the healers can do.” Morgan reached out and grabbed Marith's sleeve weakly. “I have been like this since I was a child.” He gave a weak smile. “I will be better by tomorrow, if you really feel like helping would you mind getting me something cold to drink and maybe a bit to eat? I am unable to get to the cafeteria like this.”
“I will bring a healer.” Marith said with a snort and turned on his heel and left. “We can talk about food after.” Shout back as he exited the door. Louie just shook his head and looked down at Morgan with a deep frown.
“Does this.” Louie gestured at Morgan. “Happen often?” He sounded worried.
“... umm not very. This is the first time since I entered the Academy.” Morgan reached for the pitcher of water on his nightstand but Louie grabbed it before him and filled the cup as Morgan spoke. “When I was little it happened maybe once or twice a month, thanks…” He took the cup and raised himself enough not to spill
“And the healers didn’t know what was wrong with you?” Louie took the glass back, looking even more worried.
“No… at best they could ease the pain.” He groaned and Louie watched him with wide eyes.
“The pain?” Louie said slightly alarmed.
“It’s not very bad… it’s slightly worse than a bad workout burn.” Morgan shifted slightly and let himself sink deeper into the soft pillow. Unsurprisingly it did not take long for the Marith to bring back the healer since the healer's wing was connected to the massive build that housed the dorms along with the offices and apartments of the staff. The healer’s wing had been built here to ensure that the healer’s had easy access to the students’ quarters. This also meant that since the dorms were built in the central part of the Academy the healers could easily reach any part of the Academy in case of an accident.
Surprisingly the oldish man with greying hair and small spectacles that sat at the edge of his nose spoke first to Marith not Morgan.
“May I ask how you entered this room?” His words were sharp with accusation as he glanced over the pale Morgan and then narrowed his eyes at Marith and Louie. The healer must have noticed that there was no key in the door and since the Academy had rather strict rules about entering a room without permission Marith and Louie became a bit alarmed.
“Well… umm…” Marith stumbled.
“I am not a morning person.” Morgan said, getting the attention of the healer. “So they used my spare key to wake me up and found me like this.” Morgan answered and grimaced as his body hurt from talking too quickly. The healer snorted but did not press further. He placed his hand on Morgan’s forehead and murmured a spell under his breath. Soon Morgan could feel a gentle warm spread throughout his body. It was a familiar feeling. After a moment the healer frowned and removed his hand.
“Boy, this is nothing new is it?” He was rummaging around in his bag as he waited for a response.
“No… it started when I was little.”
“I see.” He finally found what he was looking for. “Ahh, there.” The healer pulled out a small leather-bound book and a quill and with a practised hand he jolted something down. “I take it you have seen a healer for it.” He looked down at Morgan who nodded. “More than one?”
“Yes about half a dozen I think.” At this the healer started rubbing his unshaved chin before turning to Louie.
“Get me another pillow, tell the manager in charge that it is for Igor and they won’t make a fuss.” He then turned to Marith. “You go get me some cold clean water.”
““Yes sir!”” The two said in unison and ran off.
As they left the healer yawned deeply and sat down on the sole chair in the room. He scribbled some more in his book and tore out the page before mumbling a spell. Immediately after he finished the page folded itself into the rough shape of a bird.
“Eve get the blue pouch and come to the third floor of the boys’ dorm room…” He looked over at Morgan.
“37” Morgan said with eyes sparkling causing the healer to roll his eyes. After making a hand gesture the paper bird flew off. After that he closed his eyes once more and leaned back as if to sleep. Morgan had so many questions he wished to ask, he had looked forward to today’s lecture on magic as it was the first time he would have an adept as a teacher instead of an apprentice. There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask that the apprentices had been either unable or unwilling to answer and now he was bedridden. But before him was a healer that was obviously a mage of considerable skill. So even if hurt a bit he would have liked to peppered the healer with questions but sadly it was obvious that the healer was not interested in conversation. When Louie came back with the pillow Igor the healer opened one eye and took the pillow and to the boys’ obvious surprise he put the pillow in between his head and the wall. After he made himself comfortable he spoke in a tired voice.
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“You can leave now.” At this Louie just looked at him confused. Since Louie did not react he continued. “You have morning class so run along.” He made a shooing motion with his hand.
“Umm… I’ll be back later than…” Louie said while glancing at the healer.
“No need, there won’t be much improvement today. You can come back tomorrow.” His tone made it clear that Louie was no longer welcome.
“It’s my room though?” Morgan thought and despite his poor condition he felt a pleasant warmth in his chest as he realized that there were people at the Academy who cared enough about him to be concerned when he fell ill. He smiled a bit thinking that if this had happened a week ago there would have been no such person, it was a very warming feeling. “Hell if it had happened three days ago no one would have cared.” He smiled despite the pain at the thought. Soon Marith arrived with the water and much to his annoyance he too was promptly sent away by the healer.
Sometime after Marith had left, a tall woman in her early twenties arrived. With dark bags under her eyes and her dark hair in a complete mess she glared balefully at Igor before offering him a blue pouch. When Igor made no effort to take the bag from her and instead opted for keeping his eyes closed and resting on the chair she hissed and walked over to Morgan. She placed her hand roughly on his forehead and Morgan could feel her magic pouring into him. It was not like the gentle warmth of Igor’s but instead was a bit cooling and he could sense that she had to force her magic through unlike Igor. It took her a few moments longer than Igor but once she was done she exhaled heavily and removed her hand.
“So what do you think?” Igor said, voice full expectation.
“It is…” The woman wiped away the sweat that had formed on her forehead and spoke hesitantly. “Is it not Sylthian disease?” She was rather doubtful but when Igor said nothing she kept going. “Seems to fit perfectly, can’t think of anything else.” She gave Igor a questioning look clearly waiting for his verdict.
“So it was worth calling you over.” Igor said this and smiled. He stood and walked over to Morgan and helped him to a semi seated position with the help of the pillow he had been using. Igor looked down on Morgan then shook his head slightly and turned to the woman.
“I will say that I thought the same, however you seem to forget something.” He smiled at the woman.
“...” The woman was quiet for a while as she thought before speaking. “What have I missed?” She said begrudgingly.
“He is alive.” He said this with an air of superiority.
“Well of course he…” The woman did a double take. “He is alive…” She scanned Morgan with her eyes, her fatigue all but forgotten. “Is it something else than?” She spoke excitedly.
“No as far as I can tell…” He paused, shaking his head. “It is the correct diagnosis. Still…” He looked at Morgan and fell silent.
“How old are you and when did you get the first symptom?” In the silence the woman spoke with a serious voice.
“I'm turning sixteen in the spring and this started when I was four maybe?” Morgan was taken aback by how close the woman got in her excitement.
“That is somewhat old for the initial starting point but within known possibilities.” She stood back up rubbing her chin. “However I have never heard of anyone with Sylthian surviving past the age of eight…” She turned to Igor. “Master, have you?”
“No. That is why it is both strange and fascinating.” He turned to Morgan. “How badly does it hurt?”
“Umm a little worse than a bad muscle burn… I guess?” Morgan felt unsure under the gaze of these two.
“Interesting.” Igor wrote something down in his book before closing it. “Well then let's do the standard procedure for the pain then.” The woman nodded and began casting a pain relieving spell on Morgan and then fed him a small foul smelling concoction that soon had Morgan’s eyelids drooping. His body relaxed with the pain dampened and as the fever receding he was soon asleep. As the two healers left the room they stopped and outside the room the two spoke in hushed but rather excited voices.
“Master how is this possible?” The woman said as she looked back at the room with an expression of wonder.
“Humm… hard to tell…” His eyes gleamed with anticipation. “But he only described what is known as unbearable pain as a bad muscle burn.” He grunted. “He might simply have an incredibly high pain threshold…” He sounded doubtful. “Yet that is not the full explanation, but I suppose ‘that’ must be a part of it.” He closed his eyes and fell into thought.
“… ‘That’, Master?” The woman said in a confused voice.
“Ahh yes. You were probably not sensitive enough to notice.” He gave a dismissive wave of the hand at her pout. “He was channelling a minute amount of mana around within his body constantly.” He looked back at the room with a thoughtful smile. “He seems to be doing it unconsciously but it felt structurally similar to a pain dampening spell even if it feels quite a lot more complex.” He gave a wry grin. “Still, he has such a small mana capacity that I doubt that he gets much effect from it at all, even with the most precise of control the effect has to be relatively minor.” There were a few moments of silence where the two thought before the woman asked the question the two had been considering.
“Could that really be enough to allow him to live, even as his very nerves slowly burn out?” She sounded doubtful. “I mean it has been common practise for decades to cast pain relieving magic whenever the Sylthian gets worse in a child. So if it was that simple would healers not have been able to save at the very least some children from the Sylthian disease?” She said in a troubled voice.
“Yes… if that was all we would be able to save most of the children, in fact…” A sorrowful expression flitted over his face. “Yet even if this was enough to keep them alive, it would not cure them…” Giving the boy a pitying look he did not continue his sentence as the two already knew that this boy was in no way cured. “Well anyway, this is beyond me. I will go and inform the headmistress and ask the historians if there is any precedent at all of children surviving Sylthian.” He took out the small book he carried with him everywhere. “You go inform Grandmaster Hypocra.” He sighed. “I would like nothing more than to find a cure for Sylthian myself but I am not willing to lose the opportunity to save the lives of children due to my selfishness.” He gave a deep sigh feeling a bit of regret as he walked off while furiously scribbling in his book.