Lee anxiously studied his notes while waiting for those who were going to attend his lecture to arrive. It took roughly thirty minutes for the door to the lecture hall to open, revealing Nitis Sindris, along with two other members of the Council of Elders.
Lee looks up and smiles broadly at them, trying to remember their names. “It looks like you’re the first ones to arrive. Thanks for coming.”
Wearing his typical fancy grey scholar robes, Nitis gave a slight nod to Lee and then led their small group to the front-row seats. “I took the liberty to invite the other Elders as you said anyone was welcome.”
Lee nervously nods and welcomes the two others, which he hopes he remembers correctly. “You are correct; anyone is welcome. Thanks for coming, Elder Rowsen, Elder Equitis.”
Elder Rowsen, the female elf with the appearance of being in her mid-thirties, Lee remembers that during the council meeting he had attended, she had asked for a witness to attest to no wrongdoings on their behalf. She dons black baggy cotton pants and a white linen shirt with short sleeves ending at her elbows—very casual attire. Looking at her face, Lee sees something he can’t heal. RBF, also known as resting bitch face. Her uninterested blue eyes wander the room.
The other elder, who Lee hopes is Elder Equitis, as it would be extremely embarrassing to have gotten his name wrong, nods his greeting as he sits next to Nitis to begin a quiet chat. He is wearing a business-like set of well-made black slacks and a delicately detailed red dress shirt, fitting in nicely with his dark red eyes.
Realizing that no further conversation would take place, Lee simply let them be and continued reviewing his page of notes.
Not long after, the doors open again, with Anya leading the group she is bringing from the clinic. Seeing the familiar faces of those whom he has worked with prior makes Lee feel much more comfortable. “Welcome back! I didn’t know if there were any kind of assigned seating….”
Anya sputters as she makes her way down the stair aisle. “No assigned seating, first come, first serve.”
Lee gives a slight nod in reply, then gently waves to everybody from the clinic. They all have looks of interest and excitement.
From there, people begin to trickle in slowly. People from the consortium and people from the streets enter the hall, look about, and choose a seat. Lee is doing his best to welcome everybody and give them his thanks for coming.
A few familiar faces were among the attendees, but most were strangers to him. The priest who had guided Lee through the temple sat quietly with a smile. Kaylith Springs, accompanied by her husband and Nymie, along with some of the patients he had healed at the clinic, have all shown up. Elder Sono arrives with Elder Hethal and sits among the other elders while the eager spell studier, Artus Maiven, walks in prepared with a notebook, ready to take notes. The slowly filling room quickly begins to increase in number as more and more people begin to arrive, as it is nearing the starting time.
Lee summons his watch from his Hidden Cache and checks the time. Ten minutes until the lecture begins.
Looking around the room again, Lee tries to find Ruven and Neia amongst the ever-growing crowd. After searching for a minute, he is confident they are not in attendance. He hopes they will show up soon.
Welcoming those who trickle in as the time draws near, Lee rechecks his watch, waiting for the hand to strike noon.
As the watch strikes noon, a loud bell is heard from elsewhere in the building, causing everyone to cease their small conversations. All eyes slowly turn to Lee, awaiting his lecture.
Now thoroughly nervous, Lee raises a hand and coughs slightly, clearing his throat. “Welcome, everyone. Thank you all for coming. My name is Lee Barnes. I am here today to give an informative lecture about the body, disease, and illness and to explain how this knowledge can lead to creating healing spells.”
Pausing to let everybody settle in, Lee continues. “I want to preface this by saying that this knowledge is from my former world Earth and is based on the Human anatomy. I don’t believe we have too many anatomical differences besides, of course, height and beauty.”
A small round of laughter and scoffs erupt at Lee’s icebreaker.
Glad that went over well.
Lee waits for the room to settle down and continues. “From what I’ve seen, all my healing spells work on Dark Elves. This indicates that my spells, based on the anatomical knowledge of Humans, don’t care whether you’re human, Dark Elf, Dwarf, etcetera, because we are built upon the same things. Cells.”
While pausing to let them take in the information, Lee scans the room for Neia and Ruven once more. They were nowhere to be seen.
A twinge of sadness crept into his being.
I thought they would come.
Realizing the pause went a tad too long, Lee continues his lecture. “Our bodies are made of cells. Cells are the tiny microscopic… This means very small, in case you don’t have that word in El’sidri, building blocks that make up each person.”
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Scanning the crowd, Lee sees confusion and disbelief spread throughout the crowd. Realizing that this probably sounds insane, he decides on an analogy. “For example, the very city we are in, Neldam. Think of this city as a person. The walls are made out of stone and wood, and many buildings are serving many different purposes, each relying on one another to achieve equilibrium.”
Checking the crowd to see if they’re following, he sees they are not quite understanding. “The stone and wood from the mighty Garbola encompassing Neldam are your skeleton and skin. It’s providing defense and your foundations. Within the city, you have all the different buildings, each serving its purpose. This building, the Consortium of Magical Scholars, for example, can be the brain. The cathedral can be your heart, and so on and so forth. When you look at your skin, you do not see any stone or wood, but many billions of microscopic cells act just like it.”
The crowd is catching on. “Each of these tiny parts makes up the whole. Now we are going to talk about specific parts. Let’s talk about bones, the foundation of this city. When you break a bone, you break the foundation. What do we do if the foundation is broken? We send in people to fix it. Your body does the exact same.”
Giving them another pause, he sees that many consortium scholars begin to understand. Artus is writing down in his notebook rapidly, awaiting the next set of information. The average citizens and those he has healed seem to understand a little, but not entirely. “We have in our bodies a circulatory system. Veins and arteries bring blood all around our bodies, bringing with them oxygen, which is in the air we breathe. As people who live underground, I'm sure you’ve heard of people who fall unconscious because of ‘Bad air’”
Many nods and gentle sounds of agreement come from the crowd. “That’s because that air did not have oxygen. You need oxygen to survive, and this is why you can’t, for example, breathe underwater. Your cells run on oxygen, food, and water. This is also why YOU need to breathe, eat, and drink water.”
Having them on a hook now, Lee carries on. “You can die from blood loss, as I’m sure all of you are all aware. This is because the blood carries oxygen to your many cells, and without it, your cells start to suffocate.”
Lee is completely aware that this is not exactly correct, but it is simple enough so that everybody can understand.
The scholars and everybody from the clinic are enraptured in the lecture now. The others are mildly interested. Lee grabs the glass cup on the podium and casts Create Water to fill it. After taking a sip, he continues. “To heal a broken bone, your body sends specific cells to start repairs. This is why you must set the bone in place as soon as possible. If this is not done, your body will attempt to heal it in the wrong position. If the stone bricks used to make the streets broke and ruptured and you didn't set the stone bricks of the streets in their correct position, how would it be repaired correctly?”
Now everybody seems to understand the analogy. Lee gives a small, uplifting smile. “I see most of you understand now. Your body has many cells, each having its own jobs and responsibilities. They work seamlessly with one another and make up you as a person. You eat food, and your body has ways to make this work. Your teeth chew and break down food, and you swallow the food, using your muscles, and send it to your stomach, which also digests food. From there, your body sends the digested food into your intestines, which suck out the nutrients from the food and give it to your cells. Your body is just like a perfectly made city, made to run efficiently and solve problems when they arise.”
Getting into his groove, Lee happily continues his informative lecture. “Now that we have a general understanding of what cells are, we will move to another topic. The problems that often arise for our bodies, Illnesses, and disease.”
Lee takes another sip of water from the glass cup before he begins his next segment. “Let us begin with a disease. There are many types of disease, but let us start with one a few people here have had, myself included… cancer.”
The faces of almost everyone in the crowd fell slightly upon hearing the disease. But some look surprised. They are are surprised by the fact that Lee himself once had cancer. “Cancer can be caused by many different things and can be in many different forms. I myself had cancer of the heart. Cancer is a mutation of your cells that causes them to replicate and grow uncontrollably. This is why they often cause tumors, the lumpy growths that appear on the patient. As it is your own cells that have gone rogue, your body doesn’t recognize this as a threat….”
Looking around the room, Lee decides to take a risk.
“... Imagine a leader of a city. This leader usually does well by their people. But, this leader is cancer. Your body, or the city he governs, does not see this as a threat to its existence. So it lets him do as he has always done. Even if this leader decides to do outrageous and atrocious things, harming his people and threatening the city. Your body will see it as the leader doing his job.”
At that moment, everyone in the crowd knew that he knew their past. The reference was one specifically for them. Some faces look ashamed, and some faces show anger. Lee continues forth. “One of the most basic ways to try and get rid of cancer is to cut it out from the source. I would be surprised if you as a people have never attempted that.”
Scanning the clinic personnel in attendance, he saw confirmation in their emotions. Lee gives a slight nod. “It is a correct choice if the cancer is in an easily accessible area and there is no risk of death. In my case, you cannot cut out a heart and hope to live.”
Lee takes another sip of water before he continues. “Cutting it out does not always work, as cells are microscopic and unable to be seen with the eye, you might leave some of the cancer cells behind. This causes those leftover cells to start growing again. If cancer grows too much, it can get into your bloodstream, causing the cancer to spread everywhere in your body.”
Looking directly at Kaylith, Lee makes eye contact. “At this point, without a cure, it is a death sentence. With my understanding of how cancer works and what is needed to be stopped, I created a spell called Touch of Remission. This spell gets rid of cancerous cells and regenerates new cells in their place. Cells without cancer. Effectively eliminating cancer from the patient.”
“But this is not the only type of disease. There are much more. Almost innumerable.” Lee takes a deep breath as he removes his gaze from Kaylith. Kaylith, with a stone face mask, has tears running down her cheeks, “Diseases can be hereditary, which means that a parent can pass them off to their child. Most types of cancer are not, but some indeed are. If you believe you have a disease and you have children, make sure to keep an eye out and be aware.”
Taking in the many faces in the crowd, he sees a bit of worry and apprehension. “It’s OK to be worried, but this is information that will save the lives of those you love. So remember and tell those who did not attend.”
Lee receives many nods from the crowd. “The next disease we will talk about is called Alzheimer’s. I am not sure if this disease only affects humans, so I will ask you all a question. When Dark Elves grow old, do some of them have trouble remembering? Or perhaps they forget who someone was?”
For a moment, nobody spoke. Slowly, Nitis Sindris raises his hand, waiting to be called upon by Lee.