The room erupted in a cacophony of voices, of disgusted faces and shocked reactions.
In all honesty, Devorah hadn’t expected leprosy. It was highly contagious, and extremely stigmatized in the majority of Earth cultures. Furthermore, most of the cast members of this game came from time periods where people with leprosy were ostracized, and often forced into isolated colonies are killed. Knowing this, Devorah wasn’t surprised Mathilde had tried to hide it. But in all honesty, her presence in close quarters had put the whole cast at risk.
Devorah couldn’t abide by anyone putting Anna at any kind of risk.
“Leprosy?” Georgie cried, and renewed wiping her hands on her apron with a deep fervor.
“Mathilde was a leper?” Faith exclaimed with a look of glee.
“Poor Mathilde,” Budi sighed.
Tiberius slammed a fist on the table. “No, none of this ‘poor Mathilde.’ She was stricken, and should not have been allowed among us. Mathilde was wrong to not disclose her illness and put the rest of us at risk.”
Devorah noticed Georgie shift uncomfortably in her seat. Gabe rubbed her back. Devorah didn’t blame her- she had tuberculosis. If they started a witch hunt for the sick, she would be next.
“Things are different now, Tiberius,” Jacob spoke up. He looked at Georgie, who shook her head, then turned back to a frowning Tiberius. “We can treat diseases like leprosy with modern medication. And wearing masks, like Nour has, can help stop the spread of diseases.”
Nour stroked their beak.
“What, Jacob?” Tiberius slammed his fist down again. “Have you and your friends caught it? Are you trying to save yourselves, like the cowards you are?”
Georgie shot up from her own seat, previous discomfort shed like molting snakeskin. Viper-like rage overtook her soft features, even angrier than she had looked when Nour literally accused her of murder. “Shut your damn mouth, lemon boy! My boys are no lepers, and if you keep spreading this filth I’ll knock your teeth out myself!”
Lemon boy. Lemon boy! Devorah laughed, and instinctively turned to meet Anna’s eyes. Anna just continued to stare ahead. It suddenly didn’t seem funny any more.
Tiberius rose to match Georgie, one of his hands at his side moving to his hip to clench for something that was not there. “You dare speak to me like this, woman? In your uneducated, slavish tongue?”
“Don’t you talk to Georgie like that,” Gabriel said, voice uncharacteristically raised.
Tiberius said, “I can speak how I wish-”
“Tiberius, Georgie, please stop!” Budi said, then shrunk back as everyone turned to look at him. But with a shaky thumbs up from Brad, Budi nodded and continued. “We need to focus on Mathilde. For example, did anyone know she had leprosy? Anyone?”
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“No,” Georgie coughed, then sat down in a huff. She was still glaring at Tiberius, who returned the look tenfold. “I wish she had been able to trust us, but I get it.”
Lupe looked exhausted next to Tiberius, but she said, “I think it’s been confirmed that no one knew.”
“Actually,” Faith said. Then paused. He waited, ensuring all attention was on him, before grinning like a fox that found its way into the henhouse at night. “I think there is someone who knows. Sushruta, Georgie. Nour. Anyone- where was the leprosy on Mathilde’s body?”
“Oh, hey, let me,” Xiao Li said, then drew a quick outline of a human body on the map. “Uhhh here, Sushruta, you have a good memory. Go ahead and shade in where you saw the lesions.”
She slid the map and a pen towards Sushruta. Ever so carefully, he shaded along Mathilde’s limbs, then paused. He looked up at Nour and Kefilwe, then began to fill the rest of her torso with color. “Please know I did not take any liberties with her person, but based on the pattern of the lesions, it is likely that there are patches all over her body.”
“Sushruta, what exactly is leprosy?” Xoco asked. “I understand it’s some kind of illness, and causes… Injury? But I don’t believe we have it in my part of the world.”
Sushruta looked up from his reverent shading. “Nour would do a better job explaining than I would. Or perhaps Lupe, as she is from the most distant of our futures. I just knew enough to identify the beast.”
“In all honesty, I don’t know much about leprosy, or any kind of medicine. My guess is it’s long been eradicated from my time,” Lupe said. “Besides, just because we have more treatments and cures and such, it doesn’t mean I know what they do exactly, or how they’re made. I can pilot a ship, but I don’t know how the engine works. It’s like, Xiao Li can code but probably can’t do computers. Or more accurately, like how Budi can assess and use porcelain but doesn’t make it himself.”
“If I was from a time with such miracle cures, I would want to know how they worked,” Xoco said. “I lost many siblings to illness when I was just a child.”
A flash of annoyance showed on Lupe’s face before she quickly tampered it down.“Then after this, we’ll see about getting you into medical school,” Lupe said. “So, Nour. If you please. Leprosy?”
“It is a progressive disease of the skin, turning good human skin to that of the elephant. This transformation causes lack of sensation, as well as complications in the victim’s ability to take in air,” Nour said. “Though it is agreed that it is caused by disruption of the balance of the humors, scholars are in disagreement as to whether or not one can become afflicted as a result of the corruption of their personage and soul.” They paused. “I am not inclined to believe that those who suffer, suffer because of any innate immortality or because of any cruelty they exacted on others. We must treat those who are ill with kindness, but we must also be careful. Leprosy spreads very quickly and very easily.”
“That’s not so bad,” Brad said. “Like, it’s most unfortunate that it makes your skin look weird, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore people that are hurting. Mathilde was such a babe, I know her soul wasn’t demonic enough to like, throw her out like trash. And I know Mathilde totally would have taken care of any of us.”
“You’re right, Brad,” Kefilwe sniffed. Speaking up for the first time in a while, she shakily smiled at Brad. “Even if Mathilde was sick, we wouldn’t have isolated her. And hey! We could have helped her, Nour. Right?”
“As a physician, I would have done my best to help Mathilde. Of course I would have,” they said.
Georgie coughed. “That’s noble and all, yeah, but you said breathing issues. I don’t need more breathing issues, thanks.” Then she looked around with wide eyes. “But! Er, yeah, we shouldn’t lock her away. For being sick.”
Nice save, Georgie. Ignoring that tuberculosis was much more dangerous than leprosy, too. But Devorah imagined the people behind the Champions’ League wouldn’t agree. Tuberculosis was dramatic, romantic. Leprosy would make you less pretty for the cameras. A beautiful death was better than an ugly life. At least to the people ruining all these lives. Devorah would have rather had fifty skin conditions over being a ghost.
Was being incorporeal a skin condition? Much to think about at a later date.
“I don’t know,” Lupe said, hesitant. “Xoco, for example, said there wasn’t any leprosy where she was from, so she’d have no defenses against it. I doubt they inoculated us in here.”
Gabriel bowed his head. “And my ancestor’s on my mom’s side, they were folks like Xoco’s. They didn’t do so well when the Europeans brought over the pox.”
Xoco blinked. “Gabriel, what do you mean by that?”
“Uhhhh,” he stuttered out.
Thankfully for Gabriel, who was getting redder and more flustered with each second passing, Xiao Li intervened. “This is great and all, 10/10 on ethics and conversation, but I want to loop back to something. Faith.” Said man, who was resting his chin on the back of his hand, lazily looked in Xiao Li’s direction with only his eyes. “You said there was someone else who knew Mathilde had leprosy. Are you talking about yourself? Or someone else?”
Faith made a show of considering this, of hmmming and looking around the room, before blinking innocently. “Oh, I would never hide something so serious. Think logically. Mathilde was speared through the shoulder. According to Sushruta, the leprosy affects Mathilde’s arm and torso, obviously covering her shoulder as well. So, who would have seen her shoulder?”