Iftia: Iftia-Rivia Border

• Elianna •

They finally arrived at the border after four days of arduous travelling.

It was as per Tristan's report. The death toll had been increasing and there was widespread paranoia. When they requested to be shown around, the villagers refused, they did not want to travel out of their houses for the fear of contracting the weird disease.

Elianna followed Professor Hamley as they arrived at the bridge separating Iftia and Rivia with Matthias and his knights. A messenger from Rivia greeted them and signalled for Matthias and his knights to follow him to further discuss about the situation. Professor Hamley then hurried her back to Iftia grounds to head towards the designated quarantine area.

"Professor Hamley, I'll be stopping by the local hospital for a moment," she pointed towards the medical facility that was not far away from the quarantine area.

"We'll follow you," Kaylon said, pointing towards himself and Tristan

"Please go ahead," Professor Hamley nodded in approval and they separated ways at the next intersection.

The hospital was in a devastated state. Even through their face covers, the hospital reeked of waste and decay. The hospital beds were filled with dead and decomposing patients. Doctors and nurses must have abandoned their duties and fled from the hospitals.

"Shit," Tristan remarked.

"Literally," Kaylon added.

This is worse than I thought. Elianna immediately moved Tristan and Kaylon out of the hospital. She handed both of them a vial and pushed it near their mouths, urging them to drink it.

"Elianna, what's this?" Tristan asked.

"It's a vial I made to grant immunity to most sickness. I'm not really sure what's going on but I need you guys to be safe," she frowned because she started to doubt if she'll be of any help to the people here.

"Don't just give us, have one for yourself," Kaylon attempted to return the glass bottle back to her but she immediately reached out to stop him from giving it back.

"Please drink it, Kaylon. I made enough for everyone," she made sure they drank it before they made their way back into the hospital. With the help of Tristan and Kaylon, they flipped over one of the corpses as she did an initial autopsy on the patient.

Severe dehydration and malnourishment, with signs of vomiting and diarrhoea. When she looked around, the signs were consistent for almost every patient and it made her wonder about the situation because none of them showed any indication of an infectious disease. Eventually, they left the hospital because the stench was unbearable. She decided to head over to meet with Professor Hamley and other medical officials.

The quarantine area was the saddest thing she had ever witnessed in her life. Before the arrival of medical officials from the Royal Grounds, there were no doctors or nurses to provide medical aid to them. People who contracted the disease were left there to die.

"Professor Hamley, how's everything here?" she asked.

"It's not looking good," he sighed in dejection. "When I asked those who were sick, they said that the first sign was nausea and dizziness, followed by constant vomiting and diarrhoea."

"Vomiting and diarrhoea? Did the patients rehydrate?" Elianna couldn't make sense of the situation. Although it was widely known for people to die out of dehydration after constant vomiting and diarrhoea, with enough water, everything shouldn't be a problem.

"They ended up becoming sicker than they were," Professor Hamley muttered but his head shot up suddenly as he turned sharply to face her. "Something is wrong with the water."

They immediately halted all the staffs from giving more water to the patients as they went to the barrels to inspect further. Clear and odourless, the water seemed fine as it was. However, they held confidence in their assumptions. Together with Professor Hamley, she divided the water into various bowls and conducted tests on them. It took many trial and errors to realise that there was indeed poison in the water.

"If this isn't an infectious disease, how do we explain that this is also happening in Rivia?" One medical official questioned.

"Water poisoning is a convincing conclusion," Tristan stepped in and everyone turned to look towards him before he continued, "Iftia and Rivia were divided by River Olun. The villagers from both sides relied on this river for water and food. If the river water had indeed been poisoned, it will definitely affect both sides."

Coming to a conclusion had been a promising start for everyone but being poisoned by water was the last thing that Elianna would expect. Commoners had knowledge of basic water purification magic, and being poisoned by water sounded counterintuitive. She folded her arm and began pacing as she went deep in thought. However, Tristan stepped in front of her and stopped her from taking another step forward. It was as though he read her thoughts because he explained, "Commoners were indeed taught about water purification magic. However, due to their low magic energy, it is highly possible that they weren't able to remove the poison."

The report was immediately sent to Matthias to explain to the Rivia's representative. A reorganisation of manpower was also done to rotate officials to purify the water to be sent into the quarantine area and distributed to the villagers.

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They worked together these few days and the situation began to take a positive turn. Patients recovered and regained their health. The tension among the villages also quelled as they volunteered to help out by clearing up the hospital facility and slowly moving patients from the quarantine area back to the local hospital.

When the day's shift finally ended, everyone went back to rest. Elianna returned to her tent to find Thunder deep in his slumber. The panther had also helped them out a lot these days by running many errands. Elianna sat at the edge of her bed and petted his head which she was rewarded by a low purr as the corner of his lips lifted into a satisfied smile. Chuckling silently, she stood up and removed herself from her medical garb. She changed into a simple dress before grabbing a thick coat and headed out of her tent.  

Elianna intended to check the river out because a feeling of unease simmered within her. The villagers had inhabited this area for long enough and the sudden water poisoning simply sounded off. 

Something was definitely wrong.

She popped the cap of the waterskin open before sinking it into the water to gather samples for her to test on later. Her eyes stayed locked on the bed of contaminated water in front of her and knowing that with the commoner's amount of magic energy, they wouldn't be able to get rid of the poison in the water. 

Without second thoughts, she crouched forward and submerged her fingers into the water. Shadows seeped out from her fingertips and mixed into the waters of the river. Soon, the whole river was inked in black and she commanded a string of Thethiac which released a soft glow of amber rippling through the entire river. Cold sweat forced their way through her skin, making her body shake involuntarily as a wave of dizziness rushed into her. Yet, she forced herself to focus her magic energy towards the river.

Then, her shadows returned slowly to her in wavelets, following the rhythm of the gentle waves rippling on the water surface. She slowly pushed herself up and staggered her way back to her tent. The exhaustion must've caught up to her because the overexertion and lack of rest had forced her to cough out a mouthful of blood. Her world spun in her vision as she staggered forward and fell to the ground.

Thunder was startled awake by the scent of blood and the loud noise. He pushed himself up with his forelimbs to look at her before he jumped off the bed and rushed towards her. With Thunder's help, she dragged herself onto the bed and the moment her head touched the pillow, her heavy eyelids forced her eyes shut and she drifted off almost immediately.

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