Chp.12: Try a healing potion

A person's life was always very chaotic, and that was why each person prepared specific programs for his day. Generally these were simple plans: wake up, have breakfast, go to work, lunch, more work, go home, dinner, possibly a meeting with friends or a visit to a tavern in the hope of finding someone of the opposite sex to spend the night with, and finally a good sleep until the next day. Unfortunately, fate often got in the way, making the days more complicated and adding things that hadn't been foreseen in the program. Sometimes these changes were pleasant, sometimes annoying; and sometimes, there were changes that made that person regret all of their life choices, even those that had nothing to do with the matter.

Isaac had started that day in a splendid way: he had gotten up early, had a frugal breakfast, got dressed and then headed to his laboratory which, moreover, was practically behind his house, and started working. Obviously he hadn't forgotten the promise he had made to Maldor about building a school of magic there too, but since the situation was still too precarious at the moment and the members of the Council had better things to do than authorize the building of a school of magic, let alone designing and erecting it, such a building plan could wait a little longer. Isaac at the moment had to play more important immediate roles, that is to produce magic potions that could help in any context and to research new fertilizers and in general anything that could help with the total colonization of the oasis. Even though he wasn't exactly thrilled about the job, he knew that he was the only one who could do it being the most experienced mage in the whole village. At least it was a quiet job. Or at least, so he had thought until then: Isaac had not in fact realized that his position as the most experienced mage in the village automatically qualified him as the one who had to deal with all problems relating to magic or mana in general. So when Darbi showed up in front of his laboratory, Isaac was instantly snatched away from the peaceful day he'd planned for himself and dragged to some random spot in the forest to inspect the corpse of a lionman who had died in a way nothing short of awful.

"What do you expect me to do with this!?" he exclaimed as soon as she saw the dead body, trying not to vomit.

"We just want you to look into it and tell us everything you can find out" Zamor answered. "Haku told us you're safe as long as you avoid getting your skin, eyes and mouth dirty. Put on a pair of gloves and you'll be fine"

Isaac let out a gasp of disgust. While he was in no danger as long as he was careful, the thought of touching a dead body with his hands, even when gloved, was enough to make his whole breakfast boil up in his stomach. "Do I have a choice?" he asked in an almost imploring voice.

"No. I'm sorry, but this is a security issue that concerns all of us" Zamor replied sternly. "The whole village could be on the verge of a deadly epidemic, so this is not the time to be picky"

Isaac sighed. In fact it was true: if no one had done anything and everyone had simply turned a blind eye, thousands of people would have died as soon as the epidemic broke out. All those lives were enough price to touch a dead person's body in person. "Okay" he said walking towards the corpse, then he was shivering and he turned towards Darbi exclaiming in an almost hysterical voice: "You come with me! Dragons are immune to diseases, you can touch it!"

"Hey, look, just ask politely!" Darbi replied annoyed.

"Ugh... yeah, you're right... sorry..." Isaac murmured mortified. "Come here... please... and help me with... with this..."

The dragon ignored it and approached the lionman's body, waiting for the mage to give him instructions. Isaac pulled on a pair of thick gloves and then, most reluctantly, reached over to his mouth and opened it. The blood inside was thick and compact, and appeared to be quite old, as if it had accumulated over time. Isaac let out a disgusted noise and looked at Darbi, who had remained impassive. "Seriously, how can you not blink at this… this stuff?"

"I've eaten things that were more rotten than this" was the dragon's flat reply. "So? What do you need me for?"

"Oh yeah...right" Isaac mumbled trying to compose himself. "So.. if it's a disease, and not cancer or something, then it must have affected one of the organs in particular... given the location of the blood and the violent way it emerged... I assume they are the lungs or the heart... Darbi, would you mind...?"

"I get it, don't force yourself" the dragon said, then dug one of his claws into the lionman's sternum. In a fraction of a second, he broke the bone and split his chest in two, moving the skin like a drape and pulling away the ribs, exposing the underlying organs clearly. "Here's the lungs, and here's the heart. And from the smell, I'd say you've got it right. I can clearly sense that they're sick"

Isaac did his best to keep from throwing up, but he couldn't keep his eyes from watering. Judging by the face Darbi was making, he must have been looking particularly pathetic at the moment. "Okay... would you mind taking out one of the lungs and...?"

"No problem" Darbi replied before he could finish the sentence, and with a jerk he pulled out one of the lungs and deposited it on the ground, where he opened it as if it were a bag. Isaac couldn't help throwing up this time. "Do you need a break?"

"No, no... I'm fine" the mage replied trying to safeguard the little dignity he had left. He took a good look at the now open lung: inside it was full of black and congealed blood, clearly not normal. Despite the awful sight, he concentrated and expanded his mind to see if there were traces of mana. In fact, he found quite a few, albeit very weak ones. However, the fact that they were still around so long after the body died meant that the disease must have been particularly mana-rich.

Being a mage, Isaac knew something about healing magic, and therefore knew that it worked as long as the healer's mana amount was higher than the disease's. Because even diseases had their own mana, so much so that some scholars considered them real concentrates of mana that acted to move between living beings. Whatever their nature, however, as long as the healing magic, whatever it was, was powerful enough to displace the disease's defensive mana, it would be destroyed with absolute success. But if not, if the disease had more mana than the healing magic... then the magic would have no effect. As a result, many of the world's deadliest diseases still lacked a cure; in many of them, the amount of mana was too high. Others, on the other hand, became incurable only after the symptoms manifested themselves. All Isaac could do was brew his best healing potions and hope they were enough… but if the body still had that much mana left so long after his death, then it was likely that the disease was particularly bad. strong. This made Isaac swallow: very hard times ahead. "Okay, I'm done. Put it back" he said to Darbi. The dragon looked confused at the lung on the ground, then took it and put it back as best he could inside the lionman's body. Isaac didn't see any of this: he just walked without looking back and without trying to imagine what those strange noises were behind him.

Zamor narrowed his eyes at his worried expression. "Please, give me good news"

Isaac shook his head. "This disease has a large amount of mana. I believe it kills by raising pressure in the lungs and heart, so symptoms should be fever, cold, nose and mouth bleeds, chest pains, and difficulty breathing. I can't be sure until I try it on a live subject but... I'm not sure our healing potions will be able to counter it"

Zamor closed his eyes and inhaled deeply. Evidently he was already expecting that answer. "Return to your laboratory and prepare all the best healing potions you can produce. I will issue an order throughout the village for anyone showing similar symptoms to come to you. As soon as you have tested your potion on a live subject, inform me of the results"

Isaac nodded. He was about to leave, but Zamor stopped him by holding him by the shoulder and approached his ear whispering: "Please, you must succeed in this work. When we are against enemies, monsters or armies we can always fight. But against this... if the healing magic doesn't work either... we can only dig graves"

Isaac heaved a sad sigh. That wasn't a threat or an order: it was the words of a desperate man. He could see it clearly: he knew that even if the healing magic failed, then nothing would save those affected by that disease. Zamor probably couldn't bear to lose more of his people... also because his wife could potentially be among them. After all, illnesses could affect anyone, even emotional ties. "I'll do my best" he replied. Zamor nodded and let him go, and he left and returned to his laboratory.

Isaac spent the rest of the day brewing every single healing potion he could remember. He had also prepared some for regeneration: if the infection affected the lungs and damaged them, then once the disease was eliminated it would be necessary to repair them immediately. As he worked he tried to avoid thinking that those potions he was creating could save lives… or not. He tried to think positive: maybe everyone was getting alarmed in vain. Maybe that had been an isolated case, and no one would ever get sick again. Maybe within a few days he would find himself looking at the numerous healing potions he had produced and laughing at the thought that in the end it had been a useless job because no one had ever had to use them…

But sadly fate could be a real bastard at times. Or maybe some evil god had decided to target that little village they had just built. Or maybe the aforementioned god simply enjoyed seeing Isaac hope incessantly and then seeing those hopes shattered before his eyes. Because towards late afternoon, by which time Isaac had really begun to believe that no one was going to show up, there was a knock on the lab door. And opening it Isaac found a female lizardman who was coughing, and in her hand she held a handkerchief stained with blood. "Excuse me... they told me to come here if... if I start bleed from my mouth..."

Isaac inside his mind let out a cry of anger mixed with despair, but he didn't show it; he wasn't a healer, but he was smart and mature enough to understand that this was not appropriate behavior to encourage a patient. "Please, come in. I'll see what I can do"

The woman entered the laboratory, coughing with almost every step. Very little blood came from his mouth (only a few drops and only once in ten coughs) but Isaac knew that this was probably only the beginning of symptoms. He took the most powerful healing potion he could produce and poured it into a glass. The moment of truth had arrived: with some reluctance, he handed it to the woman who drank it all in one gulp. There was a moment of silence, then the woman coughed again, this time much louder than before. "Ugh… it didn't work?"

Isaac bit his tongue. "No, no... you just have to wait for it to take effect" he replied, but it was a lie. The healing potion hadn't worked. And as a result, Isaac didn't have a way to cure that disease.