Chapter 4. Ignorance is not always bliss

A voice woke me up from my peaceful sleep.

"Lady Tuarwen, Lady Aysa, you must wake up !" He said, shaking me awake.

Dammit.

"What is wrong ?" Asked Aysa, now fully awake.

"I am afraid your friend has succumbed to the illness."

My eyes popped open.

We ran at full speed to the inn where Nerewin and Teru already were, with...with Lucinda, who was unconscious on the floor, like the now so many elves surrounding her. Aysa and I kneeled by each of her sides.

"Lucinda ?" I whispered.

"Lucinda, can you hear us ?" Said Aysa with a strong vibrant voice.

Silence.

...

We reunited together in the small room from prying ears.

"We must bring her back to her people." I said.

"Or at the very least, back to Stormind." Said Aysa, nodding.

"No ! We cannot do that. She MUST stay HERE." Said Lyliona, one of the human priestesses we brought with us.

Aysa and I both frowned. "She is SICK, if we cannot find a cure soon, she will be lying on her deathbed- do you not think her family would want to be with her ?" Said Aysa, frowning.

"Do you not see ? Lucinda has been CONTAMINATED. If we bring her to Stormwind, the sickness might spread." Said Lyliona.

"Contaminated ?" I repeated, shocked. "But...yesterday I touched an elf that had woken- why then, am I still okay ?"

"Lucinda had been working on the patients much longer before you. Maybe it takes longer than that to get sick...maybe...maybe, we are all sick and we don't know it yet." Said the other healer, Merryna.

We all exchanged glances with grave looks.

"Only time will tell." Said Aysa.

"In any case, we cannot leave until we know there is no threat to Stormwind." Said Lyliona.

After a moment of silence, I said, "Excuse me but...has any of you heard of the elf that had woken ? I didn't see him anywhere when I entered."

"No, when we came back, he was already gone." Said Merrylin.

Gone ?

I stormed out of the room and went to speak to Nerewin and Teru who were talking, standing at the center of the room.

"What happened to the elf who had woken ?" I said to both of them.

"He has died in the night, my friend. I watched over him the best I could but he succumbed to the fever. I took care of his body, do not worry, he received a proper burial." Said Teru.

"I...I...see...but...how...could it have happened so fast ?" I asked with disbelief, barely able to speak so much I was shocked at the turn of events.

"The sickness is unpredictable. Some die within a day, others last weeks. This elf had survived for three long weeks, but like everyone else, he didn't survive long enough for us to help him." Said Nerewa, her eyes filled with unspoken sorrow.

I laid my hand on her shoulder.

"I do not know if there is anything you can do for us anymore, pandarens." She said, her eyes hopeless.

...

Later on, I pulled Aysa outside, wanting to speak to only her.

"My friend, what is wrong ?"

"Aysa, the death of the elf, I don't believe he died of natural causes." I said, warily glancing around us for spies.

"You mean the sickness ? I too still believe it was caused by someone, Tuarwen."

"No no, I'm not talking about the sickness." She looked at me confusedly. "Aysa, that elf had been sick for three weeks, he had been unconscious for days, and then, suddenly, he awoke from his terrible fever- he was going to survive ! I am sure of it, because yesterday, Nerewin and Teru clearly looked surprised, shocked- which meant this had never happened before, and it meant they had maybe finally a hope for survival !" I said, restraining myself from gripping my hands on Aysa's shoulder.

"Tuarwen, what are you saying ?"

My expression turned dark. "I'm saying somebody here has voluntarily killed the elf and purposely poisoned our healer."

Her eyes widened in shock. She looked around to see if anyone had seen us or heard us, before answering me. "Tuarwen, that is a grave accusation you are making, do you even have proof ?"

"No, not yet. But I do have a lead. The reason why I am saying that Lucinda was poisoned, is because she told me something yesterday, that must have been very important, so important, that whoever did all this, wanted to get rid of her before she could find out more."

"What did she tell you ?" She said frowning, with her eyes wide.

"She told me they had magic in their blood- but one that was not supposed to be there, one that excluded from the magic that flowed in their veins. She told me it was not enough to be a spell or a curse."

"What does that mean ?" Asked Aysa, as confused as me.

"I do not know. But I firmly believe someone here is the cause of all this disaster."

After a pause, she said, "I believe you, my friend."

I softened my angry frown and smiled at her. "Thank you."

...

We went on our seperate ways as we did the other day to search for more leads. This time, I asked the elven people different questions. I spoke to every elf healer and herbalist that I could find. I asked this: "What treatment do you give the sick and non-sick ?", "Who is the one that cares the most for the sick ?", "Have you sensed anything unusual in your patients ?" "What kind of plants do you use and what do they do ?". This were their answers.

"Now that we know the early symptoms, we cast spells and enchantments on the ones who have not yet been struck by this sickness, so that they may not be affected." Said, one of the Lady elves healers.

"We healers, try to heal them the best we can while the herborists give them different cures made of plants. As for the ones who are unaffected, we cast protection spells, and the herborists give them plants that will hopefully prevent them from falling sick." Said a male elf.

"I believe the one that spends the most time with the sickly would be Lady Teru, she has been very dedicated to help ever since the sickness started."

"That would be Lady Teru. She cares for the sick more than she cares for her own life, we all are very grateful for her efforts, but we believe there is not much to be done anymore..." Said a feverish elf.

"Why would you ask such a question ? This is not some kind of competition- how insensitive. My people are dying and all you care about is who uses their power on the sick the more ? If all pandarens are like you, then I am afraid you have just lost an ally." Said an elf who had recently lost her sister.

"Anything unusual ? Hmm...I cannot say, my friend." Said one of the maiden healers

"No, besides their incurable disease that hunts us down one by one, every single day, not really." Said the inn keeper.

"I wouldn't say unusual but rather strange...most of the times, the concoctions of plants I give them...disappears, as if they hadn't even drank any."

"Oh yes, there are ! The plants they drink suddenly vaporize or...it's as if they burn as soon as they touch the blood. It's very strange." Said one of the female healers.

"The plants we use are mostly, all those that surround us, and they are supposed to slow down the process but it never really has any influence on the sickness." Said a female herborist.

"You see that purple flower over there ? We mostly consume it in a tea, and it used to help the fever settle down for a little while, though now, it is of no help at all against this curse." Said a servant.

"Yes, the plants once had a use but ever since this mysterious sickness appeared, they no more have any effects, whatsoever."

...

An hour later, after getting the answers I needed, I headed to the one person whom I haden't yet questioned. Teru. She had been the one who stayed all night with the elf before he died, she was also the one who spent the most time with the sickly and from the very beginning, when the sicknes had barely started to spread, she was already trying her best to heal the sick elves, according to the elven people. If I didn't know better, I would say she was an accomplice to the one who caused all this. But even so, I couldn't exactly be sure.

When I entered the inn, she was kneeling by Lucinda, giving her something to drink, medicine perhaps. When she heard me arrive, she turned around, giving me a small smile.

"How is she doing ?" I asked softly.

"Not better. At least, she hasn't yet worsened. It doesn't go like that nornally. First your body aches and by the days passing, sooner or later you won't be able to move at all from the pain and once the fever settles and it is too much too bear, you lose consciousness and never wake up again." She said, her expression grim.

"Thank you for caring for her."

"Not at all my friend. You were gracious enough to come help us, it is the least I can do to help."

"Teru, your people have told me you have been quite gracious to them yourself, even before the sickness was to spread. They are very grateful." I asked, waiting for her answer.

"Yes, as I said, I try to do everything I can."

"You already knew this would be an epidemic ?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"No, but I realized the sickness was spreading quickly, though I didn't think it would actually be this grave..."

"And...you were the only to help...?"

"Yes, the others didn't think it was something so serious- but I don't blame them. Though, I saw something coming and so, to make sure that the situation didn't get any worse, I prepared concoctions of plants for everyone, so that the sickness wouldn't reach them too, but to no avail..."

I stared at her. Something wasn't right, there was something fishy, my instincts were telling me so. And I believed them.

"Teru...have you heard of the magic Lucinda was talking about...?"

"Yes, she had explained to me when she was healing our friend."

Did she ?

"Oh...oh, Teru, had you given Lucinda one of your concoctions, perhaps ? If she survived this long it must be because of one of your potions, I assumed, since she had so many interactions with the sick." I said, playing innocent.

"Indeed I did, yesterday evening after you left actually, though I am afraid it didn't do much."

"I believe it delayed the symptoms for a little time. Even a little bit more time, is precious."

"Then I shall prepare some for you and Aysa." She said, smiling.

"Thank you, that is most kind. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Aysa." I said before leaving.

I learned everything I needed to. Now I only needed to find Aysa.

...

I searched the house where we had slept then the temple of the sun where she meditated for answers but still no Aysa. I headed to the port, hoping to see her there, but to no avail. She wasn't in the inn where Teru was or anywhere else in Darnassus, for that matter. What if something had happened to her ? Where could she be ? There were a thousand places where she could have gone to. I doubted she went back to Stormwind or anywhere out of Teldrassil. She would have told me, if that was the case.

I decided to go back to the inn, to ask Teru where her sister was, maybe Aysa was with her, I hadn't seen Nerewin for two hours now, so the possibility was high. However, when I went back to the inn, what I firmly did not want to happen was about to happen, right before my eyes.

Aysa was there, holding a green, round little bottle in her hands, which was handed by Teru. To my horror, she was about to put it to her lips and gulp down the liquid.

"NO !!"

To be continued...