Reflections of Mist

Microscope

Travis's senses came back on line just in time for him to hear Evelyn cussing the seven hells out of whatever she was doing.

"Bloody... Mother fucking... Son of a..."

"Hey, Mater, are you okay?"

"Just peachy. Juuuust peachy." She hissed angrily, glaring at something through what looked like a microscope, except with all sorts of strange attachments and devices fixed on, obviously of Evelyn's own invention.

The place was full of experiment equipment, devices that Travis didn't even know the use of.

He groaned, pulling himself up off the ground.
"Any way I can help?"

"Yes. Freeze time so I can take as long as I need to do this. I've been working on this for so many goddamn years, and I'm nowhere!"

"Wait. Years?"

"Yeah. I seriously picked up the research after the Draught epidemic."

"You were researching it before?"

Evelyn rolled her eyes. "In the book, remember?"

Travis thought about it. "Oh, yeah. So... Can I help in some way?"

"I'll let you know."

She took a drop of something in a pipet from a bottle, and dropped it onto a small piece of her sample, before placing it back under the microscope, and frowning.

"Okay, explain to me this." Her voice cut the air like a knife, not that she was​ really asking Travis, just voicing her frustrations out loud.
"What kind of germs infect Downworlder blood indiscriminately, but does nothing to Mundanes? Most Downworlders have higher immune systems, for crying out loud! And surely it would be better for survival to infect everything and anyone! What in the hell? This is like... Really dumb bacteria!"

"Well, it's dumb bacteria that's turning the closest thing I have to a mother into a living corpse, so are we anywhere near a cure?"

Evelyn groaned. "I thought so. But it didn't work. God's sake! I don't know what's different! What's it...  what's it feeding on that Mundanes don't have? Cause if I can find that out..."