Water's Care

"Are you sure this will work?" Aurora swallowed hard. She looked down at the tub before her.

The metallic bath was big enough to contain her body with her legs slightly bent, and filled nearly to the brim with clean, glistening water. It seemed to be both inviting her and warning her all at once.

Two similar baths had been specially constructed on either side of her current position for Nanny and Hanna to be treated as well. The task had taken two days, but it was deemed the safest way to monitor the results.

In the elven palace, this room had been cleared of all other furniture to keep it as free from outside influence as possible. Whatever happened, Phileas wanted to know the exact cause and effect of each action.

"We do think this is the most promising option," the doctor assured her. "Unfortunately we have no better way to test it other than directly on you."

"It is just water from the land of magic. What is the worst that can happen?" Hanna chimed in. The water and land were probably the only things older in the world than her. Other than the Maker, they were the only constants on which she could rely.

Phileas stepped forward and tested the water with his finger. The temperature was neither too warm nor too cold. He nodded approvingly.

"We got the most potent water we could," the doctor added. While some of the elves made the tubs and prepared the room, Zan had gone on an expedition as far north as he could toward the edge of the wild lands to get the strongest water possible. "I do think this will make a significant difference."

"Let's just get it over with," Nanny fussed from a cot off to one side. "Just throw me in and if I don't die, then the other two of you can try it."

The thought was morbid, yet Nanny was quite serious.

The doctor denied her. "Your injury is worse than the Empress, so your results may be different. Which brings me to the most unpleasant part of our proceedings. I need to complete a last examination before you go beneath the water."

The ladies groaned. They had hoped that there would be no need for that step. Yet it could not be avoided. The most effective way for the physician to know the change was to have notes of before and after the procedure.

"Just this once, Doctor, I will oblige, but try anything funny, and I will turn you to dust," Hanna warned the physician.

Phileas pushed his bushy eyebrows together and nodded seriously. "Of course."

Nanny went first. Her wounds were covered in purple and although the deep gashes were sewn shut, they had not ever truly closed. The woman's injuries seemed neither to get better or worse, stuck in an endless cycle.

The doctor marked down his observations and made some sketches. He moved on to the Fate. Making sure no one else could see, Hanna revealed her back.

Having not seen the lady's injuries since right after they occurred, Phileas was shocked by what he saw. The lacerations made by the wolf's claws were still there, yet they had been altered.

The Fate's bluish skin looked like it had closed and reopened dozens, perhaps hundreds of times in a struggle to be made whole. Even now under the scab, Phileas could see a faint rippling as it threatened to rip open all over again.

Since Hanna would not allow the healers to clean her wounds, streaks of purple dyed her back in a hideous bruise-like pattern. Yet even in the carnage, the doctor felt that Hanna's body might win the battle against the strange poison if given enough time. Perhaps the water would give her the edge she needed to finally prevail.

"It is your turn, Your Majesty," the doctor notified his final patient.

The Empress winced. "If you want to know the true difference, Doctor, I should probably remove this." Aurora ran her fingers along the Fate's chain at her neck. Pulling it from her shoulders, she handed it to the physician. "Would you give this to Nurlan? I know he will take good care of it for now."

The doctor accepted the chain. Even without putting it on, he could feel his fingers tingle with whatever strange power radiated from the necklace. Immediately, Aurora looked paler and more frail.

"Hurry, please!" the Empress pleaded, her voice strange. The doctor hurried to comply. It only took a moment to give the general the jewelry. The man was pacing unceasingly outside. The physician spoke a couple of words of encouragement to the waiting group and excused himself.

When Phileas returned, he caught the end of Fate Hanna's words. "I was wondering how you were holding up so well when I am barely keeping myself together. You are only human after all. At least Nanny has a drop of magic in her lineage to help her heal."

"I told you! Didn't I tell you I had fairy blood?!" Nanny announced triumphantly from her cot. She seemed imbued with energy at the confirmation of her heritage.

"I never doubted you," Aurora gave a weak smile. The doctor looked on her transformation with horror. The Empress's skin was no longer the healthy warm glow that usually graced the monarch. Instead her skin was pallid and seemed to be draining more every moment. More than that, it seemed to have gained a...purplish, or maybe grey?...tint to it.

The woman appeared emaciated and seemed to suddenly be in great pain. The lines caused by the furrowing of her brow made her age years before the doctor's eyes. Phileas tried to hide his concern, but his eyes betrayed his thoughts.

"The chain was helping keep the sickness at bay," Aurora admitted.

"How long have you known?" Phileas asked.

"I suspected it all along because I always feel better when wearing it. It is why I never take it off. But when I took it off, I could feel its protection leave. I feel...tired. Make sure you write it all down, doctor. I would hate for you to miss a thing." The fiery-haired smiled weakly.

The doctor paused, looking up from his pad of paper. He hadn't even noticed when he went from observation to his note taking. "Forgive me, Your Majesty." Phileas finished writing and placed the paper down. He proceeded to examine the wounds of the human Empress.

The doctor pulled back the soaked bandage on her leg, careful not to let any of the liquid touch his own skin. Underneath, the wound looked worse than it ever had. Without the protection of the Fate's chain, veins of purple reached out from the lacerations, snaking their way beyond the original wound. The other two injuries told the same story.

Aurora's arm was turning a deep purple and her cheek looked like a spider web of purple veins. If left unchecked, the doctor feared that her whole body would be covered within the next hour, if not sooner. After a week of being held back, the purple sickness was quickly making up for lost time. He made another observation that he hoped was unwilling to speak aloud.

'Most concerning,' Phileas thought. If his plan did not work, he only hoped the Fate's chain would return the Empress to her former state. If not, he had made a grave error.

"Let's get on with it," Hanna grumbled, crossing her arms. She hated feeling exposed. She was supposed to be powerful and the last week of not using her power in order to allow healing had been miserable.

Once Métis had contacted the other Fates, many of them had tried to sympathize, but none of them had any real solutions except for possibly getting in the pool at the top of the Mystic Spires. But as they were unsure what would happen, they were unwilling to risk an unknown result on such an important, hallowed place. This bath was the next best thing.

On the edges of the makeshift bathhouse, Bukuri and a couple of the elven healers stood waiting for the doctor's orders. They, too, had scribbled notes for their own records, but tried to stay out of the way of the human physician. As the elves had even less knowledge on these injuries than the human man, they respected his authority in the matter.

Phileas nodded decisively. "We shall begin."

Bukuri and another elf moved forward in unison to aid Nanny. They lifted her from her cot and brought her to the warm water. At the same time, Hannah stepped into her tub unassisted. The third elf had offered to help her by holding out her hand, but the Fate had nearly thumped him on the head to force him to back away. "Don't touch me," she warned him.

Draping Aurora's arm across his shoulder as he supported her back, Phileas pulled the Empress from her chair. She was lighter than he expected, which only deepened his concern. He needed to act quickly. With her permission, he lifted her from the ground, clothes and all, and hovered her over the waiting water.

Then, with a deep breath, he released the Empress into the water's care.