Eban

11 - Elaine

***Author's note: Considering the current oubreak in China and growing number of cases across the world, I'm putting a warning up before this chapter. If you remember, the last time we saw Elaine she had just discovered an outbreak of disease - in this chapter her story will be continuing. Nothing here is graphic or what I would consider to be mature, but I'm aware that there may be increased sensitivity to this topic at the moment, so please only read on if you're okay with it! If you need to talk afterwards, please PM me. Feel free to PM me if you need to skip the chapter but want to know what happened as well :)

Okay, now on with the story. Hope you enjoy!***

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Never had a day's ride felt longer to Elaine. Every step brought fear, fear she forced herself to control. The Fade had not been seen in Ferann in over a decade. Last time... She pulled her thoughts away. Last time did not matter.

Why does it appear now?

Cassil was a small village, with a chief alderwoman who was, thankfully more than willing to listen to Elaine's warning. With her help, Elaine was able to screen every man, woman and child who lived in the village. That screening was met with complaints, threats and, as her search started to bear fruit, poorly disguised panic.

She discovered eleven patients. Six were already showing the first signs of the Fade - convulsive coughing, dizziness, and, in some, a tingling in the finger and toe tips. They were more than happy to seek her help and answer her questions about who they had been in contact with. Five had yet to show symptoms, but all bore the tell-tale trace of infection in their lungs.

All, thank the gods, were at an early enough stage that it was a simple matter for her to eradicate the virus before it could cause more damage. With rest, her patients would recover.

It took her two days to complete the screenings, to heal her patients, and to recover from the exertion of so much magic usage. Two days, on top of the day lost through travel. By the time she reached Bambridge, four days had passed since Keir's appearance at the Keys.

Four days.

Bambridge was worse than Elaine had feared.

Bambridge had always been a prosperous town, lying as it did on the borders between the duchies of Serral and Brenin and enjoying the trade that came as a result of that location. It was also the largest town in Serral, excluding the ducal seat of Serrant. While still untouched by the war, Bambridge lay close enough to the Agaithian border to be a prime waypoint for Ferann refugees searching for safer ground. As the wars continued, and the fighting grew worse, the number of refugees fleeing the warzones had increased, putting pressure on the town's economy and increasing its population. With the orange flag of quarantine raised above the walls of Bambridge, those refugees were nudging the pressure towards bursting point.

Ramshackle huts hugged the outermost wall, like crow's nests clinging to a tree's thinning branches. The debris of everyday human life lay strewn across the ground around, lost or forgotten by those who had once laid claim to it.

Every hut was empty.

Elaine's stomach clenched. If the gods were kind, those people were in Bambridge now. If they were not...well, the god's only knew where those refugees, and potentially the Fade itself, were now.

The gates were closed when Elaine arrived. It took ten minutes of banging on the door and yelling until someone finally came to the guard door. It only took three words to convince them to let her in.