I sat down next to Nurse Trudy. Speaking out so angrily was unlike her. The sailors story had been draining enough for me but I didn’t have her experience of actually caring for children with the Fever.

“The thing that happened to the boy, Jarn,” I said, “Burning to ash after the squid cut him. Is that what happens to the children you lose?”

“It depends. With the younger ones we tend to lose them to seizures early in the progression. The children that require special cooling techniques tend to be older and they either burn up like that or recover. Though they never truly get better. The first time I saw the end stage I was just a child. I’m not from Moonstone. I grew up far to the south of here in Talia. Lots of farms on the flat lands and vineyards on the slopes and a town or village on every hilltop. When the Fever hit us all the children were taken to the nearest town, because that’s where all the doctors and apothecaries were.” She stopped talking and sighed, as if unsure if she wanted to go on.

“Take your time,” I said, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“My parents couldn’t stay with me. They had to go back to the farm. We had pigs and chickens that needed to be fed and cows that needed to be milked. So I stayed close to the children I knew from school. I was closest to the twins. Sally and Mario. They were my age and they were both very bright. They were far sicker than I was almost as soon as they fell ill. Sally particularly. Sally was the first person I saw burn. She was the first person I saw die. I think she was the first person I’d known to die of anything because my grandparents were still alive then. It was horrifying.”

Her grandparents were still alive then? That struck me as odd but I didn’t want to break into her flow.

“Mario’s fever broke the next day but he was never the same afterwards. He remained Fever Touched. He’d been a very active boy but after that he was always breathless. He was underweight. He’d been intending to be a hunter but he switched to more scholarly pursuits. He said the beasts would be able to hear his wheezing a mile off. He made a great success of himself anyway. He went into academia. I think his career is something like Theoretical Mage or something. I still see him occasionally when he comes to lecture at the University. We go out for coffee. He’s a genius. One of the greatest minds alive. Before he studied it Gravitational Magic was barely a school. Only two spells and no real understanding of how they worked. He’s added four spells and a whole framework. He also studied Kinetic Magic. Odd choice for a researcher like him. Everyone thought that was a solved school. Nothing new in a century. Until he added a brand new spell. He named it after Sally.” She seemed to run out of steam and stopped talking to sip at a cup of tea that must have been cold for how long she’d been nursing it.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“You said that your Grandparents were still alive then?” I said.

She nodded and made a vague sound of affirmation.

“So why did your parents have to go back and look after the animals? Were your Grandparents too frail to care for them?”

“Oh no. My Grandparents were still very active then. That’s why my parents were able to take me to the hospital themselves rather than just putting me on a wagon like a lot of the others.” Her voice slowed down as she reached the end of the sentence. “Oh.”

“Did all the parents and Grandparents have a pressing need to not be with their children?” I said. “Was it only the Doctors and Apothecaries caring for you?”

“By the source, yes it was. Our parents just abandoned us. I didn’t even question it at the time.”

“Maybe it was the Fever?” I said. “Maybe it wanted you all to itself? Did any of the other children have their parents around?”

Trudy stared into the middle distance, deep in thought. “No. None of them did. Come to think of it, a lot of the children I care for now barely see their parents after they bring them in. That’s not how it is for other ailments. Parents usually stick around, no matter the length of the treatment plan, no matter the financial sacrifice, if they have other children to worry about then we’ll see more of the extended family, or family friends, but that doesn’t stop the parents from spending time with their sick child. I can’t believe I didn’t notice how weird it was. It’s not like adults can catch the Fever. There’s no reason to fear it.”

“No reason that you remember,” I said, thinking about the creatures of the deep trying to claw their way aboard the SS Idyllic.

Trudy looked at me with dawning horror in her eyes but before she could say anything else Amris returned.

“I brought the Bestiary with the Void Squid for everyone to look at. I had a quick flick through it while the kettle was boiling and I think I found the crab things our sailor was talking about. I’ve marked the pages.” He plopped the book down in my lap. It had a couple of fresh bookmarks dangling from it. The crocheted ones with the beaded ends that Geraldine made for Gertrude and Gertrude handed out to all her friends.