"Preposterous! That idea flies in the face of all known healing knowledge!" The fight between the mages tasked to find the cause of the plague had been going on for what seemed like hours. Camilla's head hurt from all the arguing, and the terms being thrown around made her head spin.
"I'm telling you though! It's not being spread through the air! The idea that "clouds of illness" make people sick is ridiculous! If that were the case then the disease would be spreading much farther and faster!" The other mage countered. "Look!" He unrolled a map for everyone to look at. "This is the area where the disease has taken root." He pointed to the red circle, a large area around the Broad Manor. "But there are places closest to the manor that aren't affected! Take the brewery!" He pointed to a green circle a little ways away from the manor. "That family has been unaffected, and they've still been walking around and making deliveries all over the village!
"And here!" He pointed to a house circled in green, on the other side of the manor. "The work house, where many of the field laborers live. None of them are sick, but they pass by the manor every day! If it really was the air then we should expect these people to be sick too!"
"So what's your suggestion? A curse?" The first mage scoffed.
"A curse would no doubt affect the whole village, not just this area." Camilla pointed out, analyzing the map. She was certain Leo would have found the pattern already. "And it certainly wouldn't be skipping over brewers and farm laborers." She rested her chin on her thumb in thought. "But if it's not the air, then what's causing it?" She turned to the second mage.
"I don't know." He admitted. "Not for certain. I'd like a team to conduct interviews of the area, to see if there's a link that can be established between these cases."
An apprentice walked in with a stack of papers. "More death certificates." The circle of mages and priests groaned as she dropped them on the table. "Do you want the death collectors to bring the bodies for study?"
"An affront to the goddess!" One of the priests protested. "You would butcher these dead?! And what if in your butchery you expose MORE people to the illness!?"
"Are the addresses listed on those certificates?" Camilla cut off the priest's protesting and reached for the pile to examine them herself. The apprentice nodded. "I'll start with these then. I like Dr. Snow's idea, it's far more reasonable than forcing everyone to wear flowers around their faces."
The second mage, Dr. John Snow, sighed in relief. "I would suggest that you bring someone along with you. Perhaps one of the students helping Ms. Florence? Please ask about the day to day routines of the homes you visit prior to the deceased catching the illness, and if any others in the home have caught the illness ask how recently and about their routines too." Camilla nodded in affirmation.
The Broad Manor, named for its broad size, seeming to be the epicenter of the outbreak in Conrad had be turned into a makeshift hospital. The largest room on the upper most floor had been turned into a war room of sorts. Tables and chairs were littered with papers and maps and pens and tomes and mages and priests who were exhausted trying to find a solution. The basement of the manor had been turned into a temporary home for the dead. The rest of the manor held the living, the sick and the healthy and the gracious owners of the manor.
Camilla shouldered her bag and flipped through the papers as she made her way to the lower floors, searching for Ms. Florence. The sound of the nurse's gentle but firm voice made Camilla's ears perk up. "No, we can't use that water Dimitri. It smells awful, I don't trust it to be clean. I'm sorry, you'll have to get the water from a pump other than the one nearby."
Ms. Florence, as kind and compassionate as they came, had trained many of the nurses working in the hospital. She insisted on cleanliness, strictly enforcing that everyone was to wash their hands and keep their clothes cleaned. She demanded things be cleaned in lime and bleach and boiling hot water before they were to be used again. Beds were routinely remade and rewashed. All of the cleaning created a considerable amount more work, hence the need for plenty of extra hands.
"Ms Florence?" Camilla called. "May I borrow one of your volunteers? Dr. Snow seems to have an idea of where to start, but I'll need some help."
"Of course." She smiled warmly. "Dimitri why don't you go with her? Maybe one of the locals could tell you where to find another water pump while you're out? There must be another one close by, other than the main one."
Camilla waited for the young prince to follow, giving Ms. Florence a warm smile. "Thank you. Take care."
Once outside Camilla filled Dimitri in on their task. "We're going to interview the families of the deceased to start. I'll need some help taking notes. Dr. Snow wants to know what the sick were up to before they got sick, and if anyone else in the home has gotten sick what they were doing before hand too. We'll report back after we go through these five, he may have another idea by then."
@areadboar