Chp.13: Possible solutions

"So magic doesn't work either, huh?"

The members of the Council were somewhat disappointed and worried. Isaac didn't have the courage to look at them and just stared at the floor; he had rushed to them as soon as he could ascertain that not even his best potions had any effect, and after having told them everything, he had remained motionless waiting for orders. She couldn't help but feel guilty even though in fact none of what was happening was her fault. If only he had been a more skilled potionist, or healer, perhaps he could have studied the disease and found a solution... but unfortunately he didn't specialize in any of these fields. And nothing he could provide was enough to counter that deadly evil.

"Really there is no chance?" Leuce asked.

Isaac shook his head. "A potion of healing works as long as its mana surpasses the amount of mana of the disease. And sadly that's not the case. The only solution would be to make stronger potions of healing... but if it were that simple to manipulate magic, then we would have already cured all the diseases in the world"

The Council members sighed. The situation was really critical. "I'm afraid we have to start considering using drastic measures" Tzegorn said. "We should at least try to isolate the infected. We could fence off an area of ​​the village and put anyone showing symptoms there"

The first thing to do when fighting an unknown disease was to separate the healthy individuals from the sick, so as to prevent any possible form of contagion. Putting hundreds if not thousands of people in solitary confinement might seem cruel, but it was the only way to prevent the disease from killing even more people. "We should look for anyone who ate the infected meat" Leuce suggested. "And then we would have to interrogate them one by one to find out who they had contact with..."

"It would be useless" Zamor sighed. "It's been a week since people have eaten the infected meat. People in this village have had the opportunity to interact with each other countless times. Almost certainly by now at least half of the population is infected, and we will never have a way of identifying everyone sick people until they show the first symptoms"

Unfortunately this was true. Given that anyone who had eaten the infected meat was now probably infected, then at least a quarter of the people in the village were already sick. And each of these people had interacted with other people, further spreading the disease. And in turn these people would spread it again, and so on. And until they showed symptoms, it would be impossible to identify and isolate them. "We must at least try" Tzegorn said. "I propose to proceed like this until we come up with a better idea and..."

The door suddenly flew open, making everyone jump. Haku entered the room, and everyone, including Zamor and even Isaac, shivered to see that his muzzle and claws were completely covered in blood. "I have good news. We can fight the epidemic"

That news brought a little hope into everyone's hearts; while many Council members didn't like the dragon's presence, they still knew how clever and intelligent he was, so maybe he really had found a cure. However, that hope was somewhat dimmed by the sight of all that blood. "Um... Haku..." Zamor finally had the courage to ask. "Whose blood is that?"

"Of the kori I was looking for. I found it and quartered it. Then I came back here without bothering to wash, since we don't have much time available" Haku replied, making everyone present breathe a sigh of relief as for a moment they had feared that the dragon had killed someone. "That kori I was looking for… I was right. It recovered from the disease, although when I first saw it it showed the same symptoms as that lionman. I opened its chest and examined its lungs, its heart and its whole cardiorespiratory system, and so I was able to understand how it managed to survive. This disease isn't designed to kill the host"

The Council members fell silent, amazed to say the least. "But we all saw that it killed Alan..."

"That's right: Alan. Because Alan is a lionman. But this disease is made for kori" Haku explained. "Reflect: the ultimate goal of a disease is always to spread. But if too many individuals die in an area, then the disease loses the possibility of spreading, because it no longer has enough vectors available. This isn't a problem for the diseases that you already know, as they are in densely populated areas and may eventually travel to other areas, and thus killing the host isn't a problem… but here, this disease cannot afford to kill beyond a certain limit. We are in a closed ecosystem, if the animal population here drops too much the disease would disappear completely. Therefore, the ideal solution to survive is to keep the host alive and use it only to spread. And that is exactly what this disease does: it uses the kori as vectors to spread, but it doesn't create symptoms severe enough to kill the body, and so it can use the same kori again in the future. To the kori, this disease is like a cold: all they have to do is wait for it to end on its own. And that's exactly what we have to do too"

"But we can't! Maybe this disease doesn't kill the kori, but it kills us!" Leuce exclaimed.

"No, it doesn't. The disease doesn't kill you, the symptoms do it" Haku replied. "The purpose of this disease is to increase the pressure in the lungs and the heart to make the host spit out large quantities of blood thanks to which it can spread. I was able to see this when I checked the lungs of that kori: these animals have in fact extremely strong lungs and resistances that can forcefully push blood out of the body, without risking it getting stuck in the throat or mouth. That's what killed that lionman: since the lungs of your kind aren't strong enough, the blood didn't manage to get out in one fell swoop and then plugged his breathing passages, causing him to suffocate to death. Therefore, if we want to fight this disease, all we have to do is make your bodies better able to fight the symptoms"

From the point of view of the members of the Council, that proposal was not very flattering: said that way, it seemed that Haku had solved nothing. In short, he had understood how the disease killed and that the kori were not in danger of dying from it; and then? But unlike them, Isaac put on a dumbfounded expression and his eyes widened as if he'd had a revelation. "Of course! Haku, you're a genius!" he exclaimed. "I can prepare a potion that makes the blood less thick, so that when you have to spit it out, it won't create a plug. Since this potion won't fight the disease directly, the difference in mana will be useless. We'll just have to administer it at regular intervals and wait that person expels the accumulated blood!"

Haku nodded: that was exactly what he had thought about. Kori lungs were able to expel blood because they were stronger, and thus could generate enough energy to send the blood out without risking it pooling in the airways. But of course, Haku couldn't replace the newcomers' lungs with kori's. The solution was simple: if he couldn't make what he pushed harder, then he just had to make what he pushed weaker, so that it resisted less. Newcomers' blood was normally too thick to spit out all at once, but if it was made less viscous and more liquid, then that might have been possible. "We can also do other things. By learning from nature we can devise methods" he said. "For example, we can strengthen the lungs by increasing the strength of the diaphragm using potions designed for that purpose, so that the rejection power is greater. Or we can even prevent such rejection from occurring simply by removing the blood before it accumulates excessively in the lungs. Using some tools we can open holes in the lungs and suck out the excess blood and then sew it all up using a regeneration potion. It will certainly not be a pleasant process for the people who will undergo it... but at least no one will die"

"In fact, in fact!" Isaac exclaimed smiling like a child who had just been offered a cake. "If it really is enough to reduce symptoms to save life, then we can do it! Of course, we will have to experiment a bit ... but we will almost certainly be able to avoid further deaths!"

"Um… I don't think I understood much, but I think you can cure this disease now, right?" Zamor asked looking at them very confused, as well as all the other members of the Council, who had generally understood one word out of five of what the mage and the dragon had said.

Haku shrugged slightly. "It's not really a cure... it's more about surviving until the disease passes. The important thing is that there will be no more deaths" he replied. "This is my proposal: Isaac here has already understood my intentions and probably at this moment he is also thinking of further methods to counteract the symptoms of the disease and avoid further deaths, so let's give him half an hour to put them all in writing. We will then read them out loud and approve those we deem less dangerous and invasive"

The Council members nodded. After all, it was known that there could be many practices to reduce the symptoms of a disease; the best choice would have been to approve them all, but given the scarcity of resources and healers at their disposal, it was much better to be able to know all the various solutions and approve only those that had the greatest probability of success and the least negative consequences on the patient. One by one, all the Council members approved Haku's proposal. "In this case, we'll meet here in half an hour" Haku said as he turned to the door. "In the meantime, I'm going to take a bath. I want to get this blood off me"

"Wait!" Tzegorn suddenly exclaimed as he stood up. "There's one coss I'd like to add to the list of possible cures... dragon's blood"

Haku stiffened and turned around. "Sorry?"

"Isaac said that a healing potion works as long as the amount of mana it possesses is greater than that of the disease, or something like that" Tzegorn said. "Well, then shouldn't we use the most mana-rich substance we know of? Everyone knows how wondrous dragon's blood is. Right, Isaac?"

Isaac felt a little uncomfortable being called upon, but he said sincerely: "Well... indeed dragon's blood is a prodigious force. The amount of mana it contains is unsurpassed, which is why dragons are immune to any disease"

Haku narrowed his eyes slightly. He knew that Tzegorn aimed to use dragon's blood for other reasons as well: after all, it could bestow prodigious strength. Tzegorn's hostility towards dragons was not unknown, so it was likely that he wanted to use the opportunity to force Haku to supply him with large quantities of blood and covertly use some of it to strengthen the soldiers, so as to be better prepared for an eventual fight. Haku obviously wasn't willing to allow it: he didn't want his siblings to supply their blood even to their closest friends, let alone to mere allies and potential adversaries. Fortunately, he didn't lack the inventiveness to think of an excuse. "If you want to try it, do it, but I strongly advise against it. Trust me, I've seen what dragon blood does before. Yes, it does provide more strength... but it's a horrible process. For several hours the person who even drinks a drop of it goes through the worst pain you can imagine. It's worse than torture, worse than giving birth. The only person I've ever given my blood to is a perfectly healthy ogre with level silver strength, and I was amazed from the fact that he survived. If you tried to give it to a weaker person and already in compromised health... most likely all you would get would be to kill them in a more painful way"

Tzegorn remained silent, and with him the other members of the Council. Obviously they couldn't know if Haku was lying or telling the truth, but given what was at stake they would hardly have approved the use of dragon's blood. Perhaps Tzegorn would have tried to hold his ground, but all the others would have flinched. "Well, it seems we cleared up. Isaac, get to work. And Zamor..." the dragon glanced at the lizardman. "... could you accompany me? I would like to talk to you about something"

The expression on Zamor's face became harder, because he knew that if Haku wanted a rehearsed interview he certainly wasn't intending to have a simple chat between friends. But he also knew that such private talks were often important, so he nodded and followed the dragon out of the Council Hall.