The next few months were a whirlwind. I bought a store, hired workers, moved into a rather large farmhouse on a hill with my mother. Everything seemed to be going so well.

The store was doing steady business and was slowly gathering a reputation as the place to go to for traveling soaps. The two monkey Zyanthrope sisters I hired were very kind and picked up the process quickly. Nerilay and Turalee moved into the rooms above the store and after a few months, it seemed like they were the ones doing most of the work. I even gave them permission to hire on another employee if they found someone they thought would suit.

Mom and I bought a house. It wasn't a mansion on a hill like she'd always wanted, but mansions were hard to find in Blue-Palm Bay. We bought a large farmhouse. It was surrounded by orchards. I began to make plans to incorporate the produce into my soaps. We would also have to hire help to harvest the trees when the time came, but I was familiar with seasonal work and knew there would be a few young lads willing to pick for us come summer.

I also attended Marcy's wedding and met with Janette and Maize again. I had been right about Janette being with child. She had a small bump when we all met up and even though she probably could have hidden it, she didn't want to. She was proudly announcing to everyone that she was expecting twins. The healers couldn't be certain of the sexes of the babies yet, but they were certain Janette was carrying two.

I was very surprised to find out that Marcy was in a similar condition. She wasn't having twins, but she was pregnant. Unlike Janette, she was trying to keep her baby a secret. Afterall, she wasn't technically married yet. Janette in some sort of hormonal instinct knew that Marcy was carrying and got her to confess. She too had gotten pregnant on The Island.

I glanced at Maize. Then looked pointedly at her belly.

"Not pregnant," then she smiled.

She had moved in with Janette to help her with her pregnancy and eventually the babies. There had been some sort of kerfuffle after we all left The Island. People kept trying to kidnap Janette. It had something to do with her rather horrible grandparents. Maize stepped in and protected Janette and became the family bodyguard and nanny all on the same night.

I was glad things seemed to be going so well for Maize, but I had no idea that she had the skills to be a bodyguard. She certainly didn't look the part. Considering how often kidnappers underestimated her it was a good thing.

Janette had filed a report with the crown over all the kidnapping attempts. They were due to give their case statements in the capital soon. She wanted her grandparents to leave her alone, but she was worried that once the babies came there would be kidnapping attempts on them. Her grandparents wanted her inheritance badly and would stop at nothing to get it.

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I made her promise to write to me with the details of how it went.

However, with the bright expectancy of the wedding and the impending babies, we all discovered something concerning. Perhaps not as concerning as Janette being kidnapped but still worrisome.

We all had rashes that wouldn't go away. Mine started out as flaky skin on my hip and it seemed to spread down my leg. Most days it was red and sore. The healers couldn't figure out what sort of rash it was and no amount of creams or ointments helped much.

The other girls were having similar issues. Maize had patches of skin on her back that were odd colors. Janette would have hot flashes that would cause red splotches to pop up on random parts of her body. Marcy had a different kind of rash on her feet.

I connected the dots when Marcy finally showed us her rash. Mom had a similar rash forming on her feet and hands. We'd been to the healers so many times. It suddenly occurred to me that these ailments might be island related.

So as soon as I got home I went to the same guard office I'd been to when I collected our things for the trip. I wanted to talk to an island healer about the issues. I knew Marcy, Janette, and Maize would be doing the same thing. I was thinking that maybe whatever vaccines we'd been given hadn't been enough and we had some sort of specialized island rash.

I was surprised when the blonde bearded Healer Morris arrived. I certainly wasn't expecting The Island's head healer to show up in person. I also didn't expect him to do so little.

He took a skin scraping from my mother and I. Then had us provide a small blood sample. Then he gave me contact information and was told that if things progressed I was to contact him again. He left after giving us each a pot of V-laced cream.

It took months, but just when the snow was melting and spring was right around the corner, Mom fell very ill. She quickly became bedridden. I had to hire a nurse to provide care for her while I was at the shop. Healers were in and out of the house nearly every day. I sent word to Healer Morris but never received a reply.

Mom sent word to Cantrel and he did reply. They'd been writing since The Island and he had visited a few times over the fall and winter. His last letter told Mom he felt he'd be seeing her again soon. She seemed to take that to heart and did her best to get better.

I was dealing with my own spreading rash, almost constant pain in my hips and legs, I was doing my best to keep up with the new shop, and take care of my mother. It came to the point where I was in too much pain to walk to the shop.

I made Nerilay and Turalee co-managers of the shop. They had full control. I had taught them what I knew and they could do it. I became just the owner. I made certain the girls had the increase in pay that they deserved and made it so that they had access to the business accounts. I trusted them and I knew they loved the business just as much as I did.

In March, I came down with a fever that wouldn't break.

The healers that came to the house to help with mother took one look at me and decided I needed to be admitted to the temple's hospital. I don't remember a lot about that stay. I know that eventually my mother was brought in as well. Then another girl I vaguely recognized, but I was in so much pain and so fuzzy from the fever I couldn't gather the energy to remember.

A man was admitted. Then another older woman. An elderly man was brought in, but he died later that night. Then two more, four more. More people died. The wing was filled with patients. It was an epidemic. The only connecting factor? We'd all been guests on The Island eight months ago.