Lady of Magic
Chapter Nine
Stone Man Syndrome? Merlin wondered. But that one is not contagious, nor does it manifest the way Culacians are. Something metabolic?
"So what is Culacia like?" Gwaine was asking Selene, not wasting any time utilizing his charm. Selene, however, seemed discomfited by his approach.
"You will see for yourself, Sir Knight."
"Aw, but the suspense is so agonizing. Surely you can give me some hint? Are all women of Culacia as beautiful as you?"
Plus, Stone Man Syndrome is much much slower, Merlin was still musing.
"You will see for yourself," Selene said again, "And not soon enough." She edged closer to her brother unconsciously. Paris was glaring at Gwaine, though he did not dare say anything.
"Leave her alone, Sir Gwaine," Merlin called out, "Culacia likely has different traditions. You cannot assume the women from Culacia even like your type."
"Only because they have never met my type," Gwaine puffed out his chest.
"Dream on," Merlin whacked him on the arm, "Why don't you wait until we reach Culacia and you can see what other options you have before you harass the poor girl."
"We were just talking! Goodness, Merlin, do assure me you have not lost your sense of humor!"
"Oh, you want me to have a sense of humor, do you?" Merlin suddenly found herself smirking. "Pranks are funny. You like pranks?" She pointed with her finger at Gwaine's hair.
"Oi. Oi! What are you doing? No fair! You are not supposed to use magic! That is not fair!"
Merlin was not actually doing anything to Gwaine's hair; she was just making the hair roots tingle so that Gwaine would freak out. Selene's lips twitched and Paris had to look away to hide their amusement.
"Gah! Roskin, stop her!"
"No way, mate," Roskin pulled his horse aside, laughing, "I am not going to cross Healer Emrys."
"Now this is unfair! I do not have magic!"
"Well I do not have muscles." Fleeting anger flashed through her mind. "You might consider that people like me tend to be at a disadvantage against people like you."
Gwaine was oblivious, still wiping at his hair. "What are you doing to it? Come on, stop, look, I'll behave, promise."
Taking pity on him, Merlin stopped. "I was just keeping you on your toes," She said lightly. As Gwaine continued to brush at his hair, the sorceress mused that even though Gwaine was a shameless flirt, he had never actually hurt any of the girls he had flirted with. He was an immature, but good man, unlike some of the men her patients had the misfortune of encountering. She should not take it out on him.
Her anger cooled, and feeling a little apologetic, Merlin pulled her mount close and bumped shoulders with him. "Relax. Your hair is fine. In fact, if you ever get male-patterned baldness, I will make sure it never rears its head. Deal?"
"Male-patterned baldness? Pfft," Gwaine grinned at her, indicating that they were alright. "As if I would ever develop male-patterned baldness!"
He would not; Merlin was rather certain of this, but she was in the mood to torment him a little once more. "Hm," She murmured, pretending to scrutinize him, and then left it at that.
She practically heard Gwaine gulp. Roskin chuckled, obviously realizing what she was doing.
"Gwaine does have a point though," Merlin pulled close to Selene, "What is Culacia like?"
Selene hesitated. "It is beautiful. It is home. Camelot is different from most kingdoms, but even Camelot tends to be a bit...grey." She looked apologetically at Merlin. "Culacia is golden, like the sun. We all call ourselves, Children of the Sun."
Merlin nodded, thinking about her thick accent. Selene and Paris both spoke with proper diction and syntax, but their pronunciations were occasionally very hard to understand, which made her think of something. "Do all Culacians know how to speak..." She paused, "Will we be able to understand each other there?"
"We can translate," Said Paris, "Most Culacians only speak Culacian. The educated can speak other languages, but they are not the only ones falling ill."
"I see." This was acceptable. "Does your King know that I am coming?"
There was an awkward silence.
"We have no King," Said Paris, "We have a Queen. Queen Aldrea."
"Does Her Majesty know I am coming, then?"
"She was the one who sent us," Selene replied.
"Very good." Merlin nodded. "I take it that sorcery is well-accepted there."
"Most Culacians are sorcerers," Selene replied, eyeing the knights warily. "About half of the population has some form of magic."
Merlin's eyes widened. "How does the other half deal with it?"
The siblings shrugged. "Every family has some with magic and some without. We get along, if that is what you mean. There is no shame in not having magic; there are other things to life. It is no great honor to have magic either; we end up getting more work to do."
"I am sure," Merlin nodded slowly, intrigued.
"I am surprised the non-magical folk are not jealous somehow," Gwaine remarked.
"We do have issues with that," Paris replied, "But everyone has a place in Culacia, and a duty."
"Are the non-magical folk delegated to labor tasks, then?" Merlin asked.
"Not necessarily. Sorcerers are often recruited to do the heavy-lifting anyway. Many become scholars and offer insights that sorcerers would not perceive on our own."
"Interesting," Merlin nodded again, "I look forward to seeing this place. It sounds very different from the rest of Albion."
The road to Culacia was smooth, smoother than many of Arthur's hunts. They encountered a pack of wolves who were easily scared away, and passed by what Selene claimed was a troll's cave, but they were never attacked and the journey went faster for it.
Selene and Merlin began bonding as the days progressed. Merlin found it refreshing to talk to a fellow sorceress who was not insane, as it were. The Culacian woman was sensible, if a bit impulsive, and once she felt she had garnered adequate respect, her temper cooled and she ended up having quite a bit of patience to spare. The two of then often rode side-by-side and traded stories; Merlin told Selene about the time a malingerer came to her clinic complaining of loss of vision.
"So I knew there was definitely nothing wrong with his eyes, because his pupils contracted when I shone light into them, so I did a confrontation test, 'can you see how many fingers? No? No? Can you see this? See this?' Then I bit my thumb, and he flinched," Merlin demonstrated, while Selene broke into peals of laughter, "And I said, 'Oh, so you saw that eh? Good day to you.'"
"I cannot believe you bit your thumb at him, Merlin," Gwaine exclaimed.
"That is brilliant!" Selene was still laughing, "I am using that trick next time!"
"Isn't that improper? For a healer to bite his thumb at a patient?" Gwaine was still incredulous.
"Very improper." Paris's shoulders were shaking in mirth. "But that is what makes that work."
"I had a malingerer once," Selene chuckled, "Said he could not move the entire right side of his body. I did a history and strength tests, did reflex tests and they were normal, and then I asked him to turn his face against my hand."
"He turned left but not right?" Merlin guessed.
"Sometimes it is good when patients are not educated. So I told him I could help him, but I would have to stick a thousand iron needles on the right side of his body. He recovered very quickly after that."
Merlin reached out and grabbed Selene in a wrist-clasp and the two grinned.
"Why would people fake illness?" Roskin poked Gwaine, "Normally I try my best to stay away from clinics."
"Depends on the person," Merlin focused back on the road, "Sometimes they want a free bed to sleep in at night. Sometimes they want an excuse to get off work. Sometimes they want attention, the care and comfort people give to those who are actually sick. Sometimes they are just mad."
"Sometimes they are not actually faking," Said Paris, "Or at least, they really believe they have a problem. How do you treat such cases, Healer Emrys?"
"I give them a modified sleeping potion."
"A sleeping potion?"
"Sleep is the best way to heal a mind," Merlin pointed out, "It is the best way a mind rests and recuperates. If the problem lies within the mind itself, the way to help is through sleep as well. Of course, normal sleep is not usually enough, so I add a few, uh, extracts to the mix."
"Unicorn urine?"
Roskin started coughing.
"I actually give those to folks with gastritis." Gwaine started coughing too. "Actually, griffin saliva is good when you mix it with moonflower nectar and sleeping potion. You have to boil it first, though; it is usually quite dirty when it first leaves the mouth."
"How do you even get bloody griffin saliva?" Roskin's voice was high.
"Oh you cast a sleeping spell on a griffin," Selene smirked at him, "They tend to drool by themselves when they sleep, but if they aren't, give them the scent of blood and squeeze their glands, that usually does it."
"I never did it personally," Merlin added, "But I heard their breath smells horrible."
"No question about it, my friend Orphus had to collect some once. He said the smell stays in your nose for hours."
"Ugh," The three sorcerers grimaced at this.
"I would personally prefer the unicorn urine," Merlin muttered.
The by-plays sufficiently distracted Merlin from thinking about Culacia's current problem, at least until nighttime. She would stare at the stars for hours, thinking, thinking, because there were exceptions to every rule and things change and diseases change but none of this made any sense. She thought of Uncle Gaius and his laboratory, bubbling solutions and flipped open books while yelling at her to be careful and wished he were still here to give her advice. Intellectually, Merlin knew that she could probably cure more illnesses with brute force alone; sometimes she could just will a disease to go away, but Gaius remained on that high pedestal of the greatest healer she had ever known, and she worried that Culacia sought the wrong healer for the job.
Look in the books, it is somewhere in the books. Certainly, Gaius did not know how to solve everything, and had to refer to the books from time to time, but it was not until Merlin started looking at them herself that she realized how creative Gaius had to be. He had to know what he was looking for, and he had to know how to compensate if there was nothing to find. All things that required years of experience to master, and Merlin had only been a healer for five years.
"You alright?" Gwaine whispered to her one night, when the campfire had gone low and everyone else was asleep.
"Why are you still awake?" She hissed back.
"I can hear you agonizing over this."
"I didn't make a sound."
"You didn't have to."
Merlin sighed. Gwaine rolled over; he was lying above her, but had rotated his body so that they were head to head.
"Didn't think you'd be this nervous. Isn't this what healers do from time to time?"
"Well, yes, but you of all people should know that they don't always have a happy ending."
Gwaine paused. "You're going to save them, Merlin."
Merlin sighed again. She did not know how to express just how useless such platitudes were when they came from someone who knew nothing about the situation. "I miss Gaius," She said at last. "I keep wondering what he would do. What he would say. Should have paid more attention to him when he was still here. Every time something like this happened, I just trusted him and focused on my own tasks. I use to think that I had enough on my plate as it was, making sure Arthur did not get himself killed while keeping my magic and...me, secret. I was not even really interested in what Gaius was doing when emergencies arose. Figured, looking things up could not be that hard. Tedious, but not hard. Now I wonder how many times I should have stayed and helped him. Would have learned a lot more...would have spent more time with him."
"You spent a lot of time with Gaius, as I recall. And you were his apprentice. If he thought you were supposed to do more, he would have sat you down and forced you to."
"I kept begging off work," The stars were starting to blur, "He was my uncle, you know. I sort of treated him that way too. Like a surrogate father, of sorts. I knew he would love me as his niece even if I were a lazy brat. If he had been a stranger, I would have been a much more attentive student, but he was my uncle and he let me get away with things he would not have."
"You worked hard Merlin. You were posing as a boy. You were doing all the boy stuff that girls would not even try, and you had to pretend that you had the muscle and the bones for it. If Gaius worked you any harder than he did you probably would have died from exhaustion."
"I had magic."
"That you couldn't use most of the time. And you're now the best healer in Albion."
"I'm the most famous. Not like I actually had a chance to compare myself with anyone else."
It was Gwaine's turn to sigh. "Merlin, no one is perfect, and nothing short of perfection will satisfy you. Some Culacians are probably going to die. Some might die on your watch. It happens with other healers too. Even Gaius lost patients."
"I know. I'm just scared that I won't be able to help at all. I have no idea what this is."
"We're not even there yet. How about we leave the worrying for when we get there, hm?"
Merlin sighed and rolled over, curling up.
"I cannot believe you bit your thumb at a patient."
A grin split Merlin's face and she curled up even tighter to suppress her giggles.
Culacia was, indeed, a land of gold. The trees were still leafy, but interspersed with golden blossoms. It rested on a plateau on which there were clusters of farmland that cleared the forest. Much of the crops were withered and unwatered, as inhabitants flocked to the city for the clinics, but it was clear that this was once a prosperous kingdom, however isolated it had since become.
Selene and Paris led the way now, urging their mounts to go faster. Gwaine and Roskin kept behind Merlin, who was stretching her senses out to her surroundings. The air had magic in it, though not thick, and for all the sickness taking over the people of Culacia, the rest of the environment was quite healthy.
No one killed unicorns here, obviously.
The city had tall walls, but the main gate was left open. There were no guards in front, but Selene and Paris seemed to expect this. As they approached, Merlin saw something shimmer, and realized there was a magical barrier in place of normal doors.
The siblings drew to a halt in front.
"Alemang iso," Selene called out.
The barrier shimmered again, and Paris turned around on his horse to wave at them to cross quickly. Merlin kicked at her horse's flanks and they trotted through. The barrier shimmered behind them, and she sensed something seal in place.
The city was empty, and the clip-clop of horse hooves echoed eerily in the barren streets. Shops were closed and dark, ravens flocked the roofs and sidewalks. The place was like a ghost city.
Are we too late? Merlin caught up with the siblings, who had kicked to a canter. Gwaine and Roskin looked about uneasily. They turned along the streets and came upon an incline. A dog started barking as soon as it saw them coming.
"That is the main hall," Paris pointed after they climbed for a while, and Merlin beheld a great marble building with arched gates, situated behind other houses. "All the sick have gone there."
After riding a little longer, the buildings in front parted and Merlin saw that the main hall was surrounded by tents. Flashes of magic twinkled, and there was a low murmur of people talking, groaning, children wailing. The feeling of illness was strong, and the healer pulled her horse to a stop. She instantly began casting prophylactic spells over herself. Paris and Selene halted when they saw this and began casting their own as well.
Airborne, contact, aura, visual..."Gwaine, how many spells was I supposed to cast again?"
"Uh...eighteen."
Six, seven, eighteen. Merlin cast the same spells over Gwaine and Roskin, the latter knight blinking as the lights flashed around him. Merlin then kicked her horse into a run, rushing past Paris and Selene.
Magic, but does not feel like a curse. Merlin ran through the possibilities in her head. Heads rose as she approached, and she swung off her horse before it came to a full stop. Seems more like a magical toxin, contaminant? Crops? Infestation?
Paris and Selene pulled up next to her and both dismounted.
"This way, Healer Emrys, the Queen would want to see you."
"You," Merlin ordered Paris, falling into healer mode instantly without even remembering that she was a guest in another country, "Go tell the Queen I am here, but I'll see her later. Roskin, go with him. Selene, take me to whoever is in charge here. I want to know the most recent updates. Who is running this place?"
Paris and Roskin had already withdrawn. Gwaine was standing by her side, looking around him in dismay. Though there were tents, most of the patients were lying on old blankets on the ground, several family members tending to them with miserable expressions on their faces. It seemed like the whole kingdom was here, and nearly three-quarters of them were sick and dying. There was persistent coughing all around, sneezing and groaning and delirious wails. Several healers passed by, hardly giving the newcomers a single glance. It was easy to see that the people of Culacia had the same gold-toned skin as Paris and Selene, but many of them were so sickly that the color had gone grey, and some looked like there were pieces of bone precipitating on their faces.
"Healer Phaedrus," Selene replied, "He should be inside the building, I do not see him here. Cassia, is Phaedrus inside?"
The girl she stopped nodded before walking briskly past. "Last I saw he went to the herb stands."
"Come," Selene beckoned.
Healer Phaedrus was a man who looked almost as old as Gaius right before he died. He was taller than Gaius, with a balding head and a thick beard as white as snow. He wore beige robes lined with white and brown, and on his belt hung several large pouches. He was not plump, but he was broad and looked like he could swing a sword if he had to. When they found him, he was pouring a vial of solution and holding it to the light to check its colour.
"Phaedrus," Selene called to him.
He jerked his head around. "Selene!" His eyes traveled to Merlin and he paused. "You must be Healer Emrys." He spoke with the same exotic accent as Selene and Paris.
Merlin was shrugging off her cloak. "What's the situation?"
"Selene gave you a run-down beforehand?" His eyes went to regard Gwaine for a moment.
"Yes, but I want to know if there's anything new you've learned."
"Only what doesn't work."
"Tell," Merlin ordered.
"Surgery continues to prove to be fruitless. Cutting off healthy tissue only makes that tissue grow back as cartilage and bone. Children suffer worse than adults, the greater the age the slower the growth, but the disease kills earliest in the elderly. We tried using controlled toxin, mix of spider and viper venom, those seem to slow down the progression but coupled with the side effects, it does not seem to be acceptably effective."
"Have you determined how it spreads?"
"Airborne. Everyone was put on airborne protection spells."
"Anything else slow down the progression?"
"Nothing so far. Heat, cold, fasting, cold medicine, infection medicines, poultices, none of them work."
"Spells?"
"Stasis spells only freeze the person, not the path of growth. Cartilage continues to form even in stasis, in real time."
Merlin swore. If the illness could cut through stasis spells, that meant brute-force strength on her part might not work.
"It is some form of magic," Phaedrus went on, "There is no doubt of that at this point."
"You have a list of known petrifying spells and illnesses?"
"None of them fit, but you are welcome to look. All spells are far more immediate, and don't initiate with cold symptoms."
"I'd like a list of colds, spinal cord irritations, petrifying disorders, and all their variants, if you have them."
"Done."
"Good. I am going to take a look at a patient and see how this illness responds to me. Is anyone here still in the early stages of the disease?"
"There are several outside. The ones who are coughing and do not have the rash are still in stage one."
"I want to go take a look. I'll be back, should be when the books are ready."
"Very good, Healer Emrys." Phaedrus turned away to shout orders to his assistants.
"Sir Gwaine, come with me." Merlin headed out of the building without even checking to see if he followed. Selene led the way, and they followed the sound of someone coughing and found a huddled man in his thirties, his wife handing him a mug of water. There were four young children surrounding them. One was curled up next to her father, very still and pale. They looked up when the three of them approached.
Selene said something to them in Culacian. The wife, looking worried, murmured something back.
"I told them who you were. She said you can take a look," Selene told Merlin.
"When did the symptoms begin?" Merlin asked.
After an exchange in Culacian, Selene replied, "Three days ago."
"Any rash?"
"Not that they know."
Merlin reached out with the back of her hand to feel the man's forehead, and also felt the child's. The girl was cold. She looked down, touched the child's cheek, and was startled to realize it was hard. Her face showed no bony plates, but bone had formed on the inside, sealing her jaws shut.
The mother said something with a wavering voice.
"She said that Aria fell sick two weeks ago. Same symptoms as her father. She was still awake yesterday, but hasn't woken at all today."
"She's breathing," Merlin noted, and pressed a hand against the stiff neck. "Pulse is very shallow." She opened the collar of the girl's shirt. There was a thick rash along the girl's torso, a neat line that ended right in the middle of her chest. It was very angry and red. She had a hard time imagining it was not painful or itchy.
"She said the healers tried using spells but Aria did not improve."
This is good. Old disease and new disease side-by-side. The father had a little more time, so Merlin focused on the daughter. She picked up the girl's wrist, wincing when she realized the elbows had completely locked, as was the shoulder. The girl did not wake, but she rolled the child so that she would not be in pain.
"Does she have magic?" Merlin asked.
"Yes," Came the answer after an exchange.
"Do all patients have magic?"
"No."
"They all have the same symptoms?"
"Yes."
What in the...Merlin frowned. The only sort of illness that had the same symptoms for everyone was non-magical, because magic always reacted differently with other magic. It could be minute differences, if the offensive magic was strong enough, but there were always differences. "No difference at all? Not even between the rash patterns?"
"We tried looking. It all seemed random. Left sides, right sides, face, torso, legs, arms, multiple bands, single bands, there is no pattern to see."
"What about time duration?" Merlin asked.
"...We did not look at that. They all progress at different rates, but we were more focused on trying to stop the illness than measuring the times."
"Sir Gwaine, if you don't mind, please get Healer Phaedrus to add any records he has to that list he's supposed to prepare for me. I want to take a look at the disease progression rates."
"Right." Gwaine left.
Merlin looked back down on the child and murmured a spell. Her eyes flashed gold. The girl glowed as well, lit up from the inside, and the mother and siblings gasped as they saw the black shadows that represented bone. The ribs were starting to net together, and there were patches that definitely did not belong to the original skeletal architecture.
Merlin murmured another spell, a disease-begone spell. She was not entirely surprised that it did not work. Deciding to focus on small areas for now, she went to the ribs and tried to undo the growth there. The tissue was stubborn, but to her gratification, she sensed it fight back.
"It's an infection, not a curse," She announced.
Selene's mouth dropped open. "How do you know?"
"Curses don't have survival-instincts," Merlin dropped the frail wrist. "Infections are living things. Could be magical in nature, but they fight back and you can sense it if you know what to look for. I don't know what kind of infection it is, however."
"It's an infection. That narrows it down from 'we don't know'."
"It is a start," Merlin agreed, "Seems to be within the growth though. Something that is airborne, enters the respiratory system, goes to the nervous system and starts stimulating bone growth." She looked at Selene. "Let's hit the books."