Chapter 28 - Divine Revelation

The dawn broke over the horizon with a soft, silky light. It glinted off of the rain-soaked rooftops and puddled cobblestones on the quiet street on the eastern outskirts of Noga. A warm light shimmered off the rain, which had calmed to a light drizzle. A fresh scent carried on the gentle morning breeze.

The small clinic was quiet and at peace, with most of the occupants asleep. The events of the previous night had left those in charge exhausted, and so at the break of dawn, only three people were awake. 

The first was Josie, the petite nurse with her brown hair worn in a bun and light blue scrubs. She was the younger of the nurse sisters, and had more delicate features. She made her rounds, reading the new patient chart outside of room six. It was left by Dr. Ilec on the girl who had arrived in the dead of the night. A victim of a wolf bite. No outstanding complications. Check periodically for fever and pain. She returned the chart to its folder outside the door and entered, confirming that the girl was fast asleep with no issues.

She left the room, closing the door gently, and nearly bumped into a teenage girl in a hospital gown, who had just emerged from room seven next door. The girl’s long blond hair hung down to her back in loose curls. She had plain features, with a teardrop face and large expressive eyes. She had numerous red sores all over her body, some of which had a dark discolouration to them.

“Oh, Lucelle!” Josie said, startled, “What are you doing up so early?”

“Where’s papa?” Lucelle said, rubbing her eyes as she looked around. She had a dazed look on her face, as if she wasn’t fully awake yet. 

“We’re still looking for your papa, Lucelle.” Josie said, “But why don’t we put you back in bed so you can rest up for when he gets here?”

“Where’s papa?” The girl repeated, her face scrunching up as tears began welling up in her eyes. She began scratching anxiously at the sores on her arms, leaving long scratch marks on her pale skin.

“Oh, don’t do that honey-“ Josie reached forward to stop the girl from harming herself.

As the nurse touched Lucelle, the girl suddenly screamed, a shrill jarring scream that caused Josie to jump back. 

“Papa!” Lucelle cried, continuing to scratch at her arm as she wailed. Blood began to bead at the sores. “Papa!”

“Lucelle, my dear, Lucelle it’s okay-“ Josie lunged forward to try to grab at Lucelle’s hands, but the girl pushed her away as her cries became more and more shrill. Josie stumbled backwards into the wall, knocking down a framed painting that clattered and smashed against the floor.

Suddenly, Lucelle stopped screaming and her face relaxed. Tears continued to pour down her cheeks as her hands dropped to her sides. Her breathing calmed. Josie looked at her with wide, frightened eyes as she pushed herself back to her feet.

Josie became aware of a figure that was in the doorway two doors down. He wore a dark linen shirt with a high collar and black breeches. Quiet, light grey eyes watched the girl, his angled eyebrows giving him a cold, stern look. Josie hadn’t met this man before, but his cold demeanour intimidated and frightened her.

Reid continued to soothe Lucelle’s emotions using his Hunter abilities. The action took a portion of his concentration, but no physical gestures, and so to Josie the hallway fell into a tense, unnatural silence. A thin line of blood drizzled down Lucelle’s arm to her finger tips, where it gathered before dripping slowly onto the tile. 

The door next to Reid opened roughly as an exhausted looking Hakuya stumbled out. The sudden, slightly clumsy motion startled Lucelle out of her daze.

“Where am I?” The blond haired girl asked quietly, her eyes looking around but not focusing on any particular person. Her face was flushed. “Where’s papa?”

“It’s okay, Lucelle. Go back to sleep.” Hakuya said, quickly surmising the situation. He caught Josie eyeing Reid carefully and nodded at her with a reassuring expression. A nervous smile flickered on her lips in response.

“I’m really sleepy.” Lucelle mumbled, her shoulders drooping as she wiped her tears off her face. Josie quickly stepped forward, gently taking Lucelle’s hand.

“Let’s get you back to bed, dear. You need to rest so you can be all better when your papa comes to pick you up.” She said, leading the girl back into her room. 

“Confusion, fever.” Hakuya said softly, voicing his observations.

“The sores look ready to bud.” Reid said. “She’s not far off from the state her mother is in.”

Hakuya frowned, “I brought her in yesterday and she was already looking ill. Her brother and father are missing, I was going to try to find them at their cottage in the forest today.”

As they were talking, a voice called from the front lobby and the sound of a bell chime rang through the hall. A moment later Josie left the room and headed out to greet the newcomer.

Reid stepped into the doorway of his room to let the nurse pass. His eyes read Hakuya’s expression as he asked, “Do you want me to come along?” 

“It seems appropriate, especially since you’ve already encountered this life form.” Hakuya nodded.

Josie returned from the front lobby, holding in her hand a small envelope. Her eyes locked onto Hakuya as she walked over briskly.

“It’s a telegraph for you.” She said.

“That was fast.” Hakuya mumbled to himself as he received the envelope. He opened it and pulled out a small, plain handwritten note as Josie returned to her duties tending to the patients.

Divination Recommends Fungal Treatment
Sender: A. Ramie

“What is it?” Reid asked.

“A letter from my colleagues. I sent a telegraph to them yesterday morning, asking for advice. They wrote ‘Divination recommends fungal treatment’.” Hakuya said, preempting the obvious question.

On the other side of the hall diagonally across from Hakuya, Char Char had her ear against the door. Her brows knit in thought as she eavesdropped in on their conversation. Divination? As in, an answer sent by the gods? 

Her heart fluttered with excitement as she continued to listen in.

In the hall, Hakuya’s mouth had curved into a small frown. This was not what he had expected. His biggest hope was that they would send someone over, perhaps Fumu, who held power over creatures and plants. Or even the sender of the message, Asuna Ramie, who was a more competent healer than Hakuya. It upset him that there was no mention of any help coming.

Second, what was with this advice? It was so vague, to the point of being useless! He kept a thoughtful, neutral expression on his face as he fumed inwardly at the “advice” his colleagues had offered. The length of the letter was a quarter of the length of his own! It wasn’t like they were hurting for money!

“Not helpful?” Reid asked, his eyes piercing into Hakuya, reminding the Cleric of his companion’s sensitivity to emotions.

Hakuya shrugged, sighing, “As always, it’s too vague. Fungal treatment... There are many medicines created from fungus. I even have a few on me, but nothing I would consider useful. Anything I use to bolster Anabelle’s strength would likely be sucked up by the parasite.”

“Perhaps you don’t need medicine for her, then.” Reid said thoughtfully. “Maybe you need to kill the parasite itself. Many mushrooms are deadly, after all.”

“You want me to poison her?” Hakuya scoffed, “You’re a hunter, but you should understand the basics of medicine. It defeats the point of killing the parasite if the host dies as well. It’s not like you can kill the parasite faster than the host-“ 

He paused as a light suddenly flickered in his mind.

“What?” Reid prompted.

“Biltricide.” Hakuya said, stroking at his goatee thoughtfully, “It is a poison made from a pasty, yellow fungus called Biltishroom. It causes paralysis and cardiac shock, killing the victim through heart attack. However it has another side effect. Blindness.”

“The majority of the lethal components come from the spores that are embedded in its body, but if you have the skill you can isolate the flesh, making it less toxic but still retaining the blindness - well, and nausea, vomiting, and other pleasant things.”

“You want to attack the eyes of the Devileyes.” Reid noted succinctly, “By blinding the patient as well?”

“The blindness isn’t permanent - well, that’s assuming the victim lives, which isn’t often.” Hakuya said, “It has the unique property of also attacking a person’s metaphysical bodies, specifically their spiritual sight. This parasite subsists off of spiritual energy. Such a poison should have double the effect on the parasite, especially since it seems a good portion of its life energy is devoted to producing the eyes.”

Hakuya mulled over the idea for a bit, then sighed, “For a fungus based “treatment”, perhaps it’s the best approach. The problem is finding the whole mushroom. Biltricide itself is hard enough to find. There are more potent and easier poisons to make out there. Biltishroom only grows in hot, arid climates and has no other practical uses.”

“Put a request into the import shop?” Reid suggested the place that they had met. He couldn’t think of any contacts of his own that would be of any use.

“Maybe.” Hakuya nodded, “That’s probably my best bet... If I had any money.”

“Get the client’s family to pay.” Reid said simply. “Oh, right. You said the father is missing?”

“They have a cottage in the forest. I was going to investigate, to see if they had any ideas about the source of Anabelle’s ailment.”

“The forest, huh.” Reid muttered ominously.

“Don’t say a thing.” Hakuya said. “You always think the worst has happened.”

“It’s my job.” Reid stopped leaning against the wall, “More likely to survive if you always expect the worst.”

The Hunter disappeared into the room to gather his belongings. Hakuya followed suit, gathering his sword, hat and cloak. He left his sack with the various vials, ingredients and implements under the desk. 

The two men said their goodbyes to Josie and left shortly thereafter.

Once the clinic was quiet, the door to room number six opened quietly. Two amber eyes peeked out, checking to make sure the hall was empty. Once she confirmed that Josie was in another patient’s room, Char Char left her room, silently shutting the door behind her. She was wearing a warm dirt brown woolen coat that was several sizes too big for her over a light blue cotton hospital gown. In her hands she held her boots, still muddy and damp from the previous night. 

With quiet footsteps she flitted down the hall and slipped out of the front door.