"I admit that at first we had our doubts on the veracity of the rumors, but really, it didn't take long to see the truth behind it. Sure, the propaganda keeps blaming our necromancer neighbors for the plague and all, and it did come from their direction… but when you see who gets hit the worst by the plague? Nobody would believe the propaganda, because there ain't any fucking idiot out there that unleashes plagues targeted at *themselves*." - Caius Markus Aurelius, governor of Itiskra region to the south of the Second Elmaiya Empire, later known for being the first region to openly rebel against the empire's authority.

Palace of Bones

Tohrmutgent

Lichdom of Ptolodecca

4th day, 2nd week, 10th month, year 80 VA.

The past couple of months, Aideen had allowed work to take over her thoughts, which at least helped her put some of the guilt and failure she felt behind her. She still didn't feel completely well, and often turned to the bottle when she needed to rest, but at least her mind was occupied by work to the point that she had no room for other worries.

Despite having the cure to the plague, it only halted the patient's conditions from worsening, and what damage the plague already inflicted was left behind. Healers were busy at work keeping those who haven't received their dose of the cure alive, as well as fixing the damages of those who had been cured.

Even for those who had been cured, the damage the plague wreaked on their bodies was severe, and even with the best healers it took multiple treatments to properly fix the delicate mana conduits ruined by the plague, mostly due to the difficulties involved.

The past two months, she focused on fixing the damages the plague had wrought on Éirynn and Mimia's bodies by day, and helping out other healers with still-suffering patients at night.

They had to take the treatment slowly, bit by bit, to ensure that nothing went wrong while they were fixing it. Mimia, on account of her affinity, had suffered less damage, and had asked Aideen to prioritize Éirynn first, who had suffered far more extensive damage. In fact, she suspected that the only reason her niece had survived the plague that took her mother was her half-human nature, as the plague struck elven halfbreeds with less intensity.

Aideen spent hours each day repairing wrecked conduits with extreme care, pursuing nothing less than perfection because this work demanded it. More than a few of the survivors of the plague that were healed more hastily had experienced severe losses to their magic capabilities due to the wrecked conduits, and she was loath for her niece to suffer that.

All in all, it took her over a month before she finished treating Éirynn, and another half a month for Mimia, who suffered far less damage from the plague. It was the evening after she was done with Mimia's last treatment that she first heard of the news.

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Two fellow healers were speaking while they were taking a quick break and a meal to recover some mana after a day's work, not far from her, so she easily heard their conversation as she was having her own meal at the cathedral's mess hall.

"I bet the Empire's gonna collapse at this rate," said one healer to his friend. "And did you believe their gall? To insinuate that we unleashed that plague on their fucking asses?"

"I don't know whether to be insulted for the false accusation more, or to be angry over how stupid they think we are, to be honest," replied his friend. "What? Us make a disease that preferentially targets death affinity? How stupid must one get to even consider that a possibility?"

"The Hand's rumor mills already disseminated the truth anyway, and heard that's been causing some serious unrest over there," answered the healer. "If they weren't all too busy fighting off the plague it wouldn't surprise me that they'd be fighting civil war instead over that."

"Excuse me," interjected Aideen as she approached the pair of chatting healers. "What plague?"

"Oh, evening, young lady," greeted the healer as he noticed her intrusion. To most everyone in Ptolodecca she remains the "young lady" due to her status as one of the Bone Lord's favorite "grandchildren", so by now she was used to the address. "You haven't heard the news?"

"I'm afraid not," she replied with a shake of her head. "Been too busy at work these past couple months that I haven't got any time to catch up on news much."

"It's just the Elmaiyans getting a taste of their own bloody medicine," commented the other healer nonchalantly. "Last I heard, the plague has reached even the western regions of the empire by now, there's widespread panic, and some places have instituted draconian measures to deal with it."

"This plague…" said Aideen with some dread building up in her heart. "The same one we've been dealing with?"

"Oh no, it's that mad dwarf's final gesture, young lady, since it supposedly first spread from Fort Asconix," answered the first healer. "That curtain of death you ordered raised was inspired, and it's definitely saved us from catching the damned thing ourselves, so thanks for that!"

Aideen absentmindedly thanked the two, before she left the mess hall, and looked for Myrddin for more information. The old therian was still the man in charge for the Death's Hand's activities despite his advanced age, and she soon found him in his office.

There, she received confirmation of the news she heard straight from him. The agents that were in Elmaiya were reduced in number, as they had hurriedly withdrawn all agents who had death affinity or a derivative of it early on, with the remaining agents, half or so of their original total, being all volunteers.

From these agents, they received frequent reports that a plague - Aegon Rowliss' last act of defiance - had spread from fort Asconix into the hinterlands of the empire. Like the previous plagues, it was most severe on those with death affinity or its derivatives. Unlike the previous plagues, it did not differentiate based on race, and people from all races fell like flies before it.

Ironically, the best treatment for this version of the plague seemed to be a thorough dousing of Death magic. The empire has nowhere near as many such mages as the lichdom, however, and the few they do have, tend to be the first ones to succumb to the plague, leading to its unchecked spread.

There were propaganda from the empire that the lichdom had engineered the plague, trying to shift the blame, but the agents present in the empire started their own rumor, that the plague was made by the empire itself for use against the lichdom. Given how the plague preyed on those with death affinity first and foremost, most people quite naturally took the rumor to be the truth.

Unrest was widespread, both from the ongoing plague, and from dissatisfaction at the emperor, the pot simmering and only the fact that everyone's efforts were focused on fighting the plague prevented it from boiling over. Even so, such a status quo would not last for long...