"We're here, Miss Wachlund," Leo said, giving a shallow bow.

The secretary had brought Amy half across the village to a dainty doctor's medicine house, nestled between two homes. If she remembered correctly, the doctor had retired only a few months before she arrived at Triesen, leaving the abode abandoned as his daughter hadn't wanted to take up in her father's footsteps. From the looks of it, seeing through the curtained entrance, thin enough to see through, it was being used as a makeshift ward for the infected.

"I'll leave you here then, Miss Wachlund. Have a good day."

"I'll see you later, Leo," Amy smiled, though that only seemed to make him shiver as he walked away. Maybe the insinuation that I'll be threatening him, well, more like the Mayor, again? I didn't mean to go that far but... Never mind, there's more important things to get to.

When Amy stepped on through into the ward, there was a basket filled with freshly-washed gloves and full face masks to the side, with protective gowns hung up on the side. Beyond that, was, of course, the plagued, writhing in their beds, a single familiar herbalist going back and forth trying to do her best. Amy didn't know her name, but of course she recognised the rival herbalist she sometimes bought from, and the herbalist in turn recognised her, stopping in her tracks in the middle of the ward. Although she couldn't see the herbalist's face through the mask, she seemed relieved at having an extra person to help, nodding to her in some form of respect before moving on to the next patient. So they were fine with another herbalist helping out and preventing a plague, but not me. Of course. Why did I even expect anything else?

Seeing no point to wasting precious mana, Amy donned the mask and gown, and put on a pair of gloves - yet, she casted a Ward over her mouth and nose, just to be on the safe side. Felin, not wanting to enter, jumped down from her shoulder to watch from the entrance, still invisible. Amy gave herself one last look-over to be sure, and then approached the nearest patient, writhing in his bed, half-asleep. He was on the younger side, but still an adult from the looks of it. His skin was flushed red practically everywhere, though there were splotches of his normal tanned skin tone in a few places, mostly around his extremities. No necrosis, or buboes, so that's the actual plague ruled out. There's some residual sick around the mouth too, and I can't check his underwear right now, but he's probably been having diarrhoea too. Looks like cholera's back on the menu; it means I'll have to check the water supplies too.

"Hey," Amy called out to the other herbalist across the room, muffled, "Do you think it's cholera?"

"I thought that at first but when other symptoms presented themselves, it made it seem more like an advanced variant," She shouted back, cleaning some watery poop off of the bedsheets of one of the patients.

"Like the redness?"

"Severe rashes, sores and fever. The sores came later on though, and the one you're at currently is one of the newer patients."

"And no chance of two viruses at the same time?"

"It's still possible but it's extremely doubtful at this point."

"Got it," Amy nodded, turning her attention back to the patient. By his bed was a bowl of porridge, half-eaten and completely cold. Luckily the accompanying cup of water was completely drunk, so his dehydration was being mitigated. "Anything you're giving them in particular? And where's the water?"

"Basic tinctures for headaches, aches and fever. Normal rash creams don't seem to work, same with the sores. Teas help too, and I've found that chamomile is the best," The herbalist described, finishing up with her own patient. "The water bucket's at the back, and we have some girls going back and forth for refills. They don't actually enter though, it's refilled by a pipe."

"Thanks," Amy smiled, about to turn away before asking, "I don't think I ever caught your name, sorry. Mine's Amy."

"Frieda. Thanks for the help, Amy."

Without access to her herbs or ointments, safe back at home, Amy spent the next couple hours going back and forth between patients, helping them relieve themselves whenever, and refilling their water. Sometimes Frieda called her over to help with something in particular, applying ointments or cleaning, but it was quiet for the most part. And she found that there were not just twenty patients, like Kurt had said. In total there were fifty seven in total, the 'twenty' he had saw being the ones you could see in the front room. The others were at rest in the back or in various side rooms. It was in a lull in activity that the pair of herbalists finally found time to rest, taking off their gear, into the wash-bins, and eating the same lunch as the patients out back, Felin returning to Amy's side.

"...-and you're sure the wells aren't tainted?" Amy asked, creasing her brows.

"Unless it's changed in the last couple of days, the wells seem fine," Frieda said between spoonful's of her soup. "The first surge of infection happened after a particularly rowdy party in one of the taverns, and all the water they serve is sourced from the wells."

"It is a variant though, so it could spread through other vectors than water."

"That too," Frieda nodded, waving her wooden spoon at her. "There's only so much I can investigate on my own, as the Mayor's too stupid and doesn't want there to be a panic, so most of my day is spent here now. It's honestly a miracle I haven't caught anything yet. Especially with how rough the makeshift safety is."

"Could... could it have come from the river, actually?" Amy frowned, deep in thought. "The first infected were children, right? Could they have played in the river, gotten it all over them, and spread the water about when they came back?"

"That's... possible, but that would mean there's a continuous supply of plague coming up-stream in the forest that's not getting washed away. Certainly nothing us two could deal with, and something the Mayor would have to organise if he'd get that stick out of his arse."

"True," Amy snickered, her ideas turning to what changes could happen in the forest for this to occur. "Oh."

"What?"

"No, nothing. Just an idle thought; don't worry about it," Amy laughed nervously, trying to keep her face straight. Mana beasts. They would've arrived due to the mana tsunami, as Felin said. Could a sort of... plague mana beast come? And it's made its home at the source of the stream, polluting it? Turning her head to Felin on her shoulder, she tried to convey her concern to him through her eyes. It seemed he understood though, giving an uncomfortable nod in response. "I... I think I'm going to head off, Frieda?"

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Really? You're leaving me already?" Frieda gaped, stuck between shock and frustration.

"No, no, I'll be coming back, I just want to do some digging on my own. I can even get back to my place and get some of my own herbs to help."

"I suppose that'll be useful. Just try to be quick, as I don't see this plague slowing down, and it'll get hectic for it."

"Got it," Amy grinned, setting her finished soup down on the ground and gathering her things. "See you later, Frieda."

"Come back soon!"

The trek back to her home was awkward, people around the village giving her strange looks all the while, somehow worse than usual. Amy wasn't sure if it was the plague putting everyone on edge, or rumours of what she'd done spreading already, but when the treeline and her cabin came into sight, she couldn't be happier to get somewhere safe. Impatiently quick, she slammed the door behind her as she went in, collapsing onto one of her chairs in exhaustion. It didn't take long for her eyes to begin to water, and a few tears to fall. Felin was there with her.

"Why did I do that?" Amy cried, sniffling. "Why did I have to be so... so short with him? It accomplished nothing but make him angry with me, and sour the only good relationships I have with anyone here.

"Maria probably hates me now. Who wouldn't upon seeing your friend turn into a monster? I even acted like one too! Hah! Isn't it just too ironic too that Frieda was actually kind to me for once? Did she even hate me for being the Witch in the first place? Or was that just anger at me coming in and 'stealing' her business? And the plague, that fucking plague!

"I don't care if Henry had put up a guard or not anymore, I think I just genuinely don't like him anymore. I know I wasn't the nicest, but he was so quick - so quick - to threaten me with the worst, knowing how I'd react. Even Frieda said she tried to get more support from him but he gave none! He's in denial about the whole goddamn thing. It's fifty people, for god's sake. If that isn't a brewing plague, I don't know what is!"

"Amy."

"Was I wrong, doing what I did? Should I have been less hostile?" Amy pleaded, wiping some tears away. "If I wasn't, maybe there wouldn't have been an argument; just like he said. We could've sorted it out like 'adults' and- ugh, I hate that."

"Amy, you have to calm down," Felin said softly, getting up from the table to pounce onto her lap. "You're going to spiral again if you're not careful."

"I know that!" She shouted, maybe a bit too forcefully. More softly this time, she repeated, "I know that..."

"Do you want me to get on with what I found... To take your mind off of things?"

"Please."

"Alright," Felin sighed, stepping back up to the table, but closer to her than before. "I discovered quite a few oddities, only a few which are pertinent to your current situation.

"First, the guard. Henry Peters filled in half of the form to give to the guards before handing it over to, I assume, Leo, where it was left by the wayside uncompleted. I cannot determine if this was done maliciously or not, as when I looked back into the past through the Ocean, the imprints had already faded quite a bit. Any conversations I retrieved were vague. Perhaps this is why Leo was so hesitant around you, as he realised he did not complete the rest of the form, whereas Henry had assumed it was filled in and assigned to the guard. The specifics of this do not matter too much currently, for obvious reasons, so I saw no point in investigating further.

"Our next piece of... incriminating evidence, once could say, are tax reports. You may wonder why this is relevant to the situation but that will become clear when we get to the next subject matter. Henry Peters had been committing embezzlement of government funds. Small sums of money taken away, enough that they can be reasonably written off as regular expenses and taxes by Leo, who I believe is unaware of the fraud. It's not severe, and any effect it would have had on the prosperity of the village is minor, so in isolation this would be safe to ignore. Not when considering the next point of interest, however.

"Your transfer requests."

"Wait... you're not saying-" Amy muttered, putting things together.

"I found every single transfer request you have ever filed tucked away in a locked and hidden filing cabinet, unsent and unsigned by the Mayor. Due to the magical nature of your seal and signature, they could not simply destroy the requests as that would alert you and possibly the authorities also. Hence, they must've kept them to themselves. I believe only Henry Peters is complicit in this, and Leo is unaware. A 'response letter' to your most recent request before your ascension was found already drafted up by the Mayor in the same filing cabinet, which he would have given to you when the right amount of time had passed for a response to reasonably arrive in.

"Admittedly, I believe the first transfer request and rejection letter you sent and received were genuine, and Henry simply saw a possible problem with your continued requests and mitigated it by faking the letters based on the one he already had. I imagine his fear was that if you kept sending transfer requests, the authorities would get suspicious and look into your situation more. Likely, this would've brought Henry's embezzlements to light and gotten him into trouble.

"A lot of that is conjecture, however, as I cannot peer that far into the past in my current form and with such an continuously disturbed Mana Ocean. A large part of that disruption I surmise actually came from the Tower's shield breaking, as there are only two Mages in this village, you being one of them; not enough for such disruption."

"...Oh," Amy said, eyes unfocused and staring into the distance. Tears began to fall again, unknowingly. "All of this... All I've gone through... was because of money?"

"I... believe that would be correct to say, yes," Felin grimaced, looking away.

"All because that slimy bastard wanted more money. Hah! That's just... fitting..."

"I know this seems like the worst thing in the world, Amy, but you have to focus-"

"Focus? How can you expect me to do that when you just told me all of that?"

"Maybe... perhaps I shouldn't have done this now, but it felt important for what I believe is to come next."

"And that is?" Amy scoffed, which came out more as a sob.

"You have a path ahead of you, my Apprentice," Felin smiled kindly, staring her directly in the eyes, his own Fae-green. "It is the only path you believe you have available to you. It is full of hardship, thorns and hurt. But, it is a familiar one. One you've kept walking since the day you've stepped foot in this village. You will keep on going as you are, alone, bearing all of this burden and making yourself a martyr no one here will recognise as one. You will try, and fail, to solve this plague on your own, as your magics can only go so far. Even if I teach you everything I could to help, you would still have too little time. This situation will crash and burn around you, because there's no one you can get help from but yourself. I'm guessing this other Mage isn't an option either, from the sounds of it?"

"...Yes, he's... he can't do much, anymore." Amy murmured, guilty.

"So you think yourself stuck, forced to walk the same lonely path. Except, you haven't realised there is another path. Only it isn't one in front of you, rather to the side; invisible before now, because your beliefs were built on lies and fakery.

"You can contact the Empire. You are a ward of a village. You are not the sole protector of Triesen. And when things get out of hand, the government would not expect you to deal with this on your own. In fact, I reckon it would reprimand you for doing so. In contacting your superiors, you can get this help you never thought you had. This plague issue can disappear from your mind, and with how the village treated you, you can get reassigned."

"But... What about the Tower, Felin? Wouldn't they notice?" Amy asked, still wiping tears from her red face.

"They could notice it. It wouldn't surprise me, my Apprentice. And yet... does it really matter?" Felin said, looking sorrowful.

"Of course it does! It has all of the things you said I could investigate, it has things you care about, from your last contractor, and-"

"That's all in the past now, Amy. He... that man is dead. He is no longer my contractor. You are, Amy. And I have to prioritise your feelings over a dead person's ones. What master would I be if I didn't? Everything in that Tower are things I can teach you myself, albeit at a slower pace. Everything left in there is replaceable... except maybe one thing we can get later. At the end of the day, that Tower is a ruin. And some ruins... are best left forgotten about.

"So make your choice, my Apprentice, and know that you'll always have me by your side to help you. Know that, for truth, Amy. I swear upon my name that I do so," Felin said, his voice becoming strange when he said 'name'.

"Alright... Felin," Amy whispered solemnly. Puffing herself up a little, she said, "I'll... I think I know what path I'll choose, but... I'll think about it."

"That's all I ask for, my Apprentice."