Chapter 128: For A While
By the time they docked in Abrese, it was clear that the plague had been strangled in its infancy. It was clear that the health of those they’d rescued on the ship was improving every day, and it was seen as a boon from the Gods. It felt like a real win to Simon, and honestly, he needed one of those.
At least until they reached the city, where he found cases in progress already. That made him sigh. So this was all about the ship, huh, Helades? He thought to himself. It had to be at this point because he knew for a fact that without intervention, the crew sickened, and the thing sank pier side right here.
Simon had no idea what that meant, but he was once again annoyed that the boat, or even one person on it, mattered more than the whole city, and when the captain announced they were leaving as soon as possible, it gave Simon an interesting decision.
When the Sea Seraph left, the gate to the next level would leave with it. That meant that his run was done unless he stayed on for the next leg of the voyage. Only, he didn’t want to.
Simon was sick of running from level to level with no clear purpose, and even if he’d solved this one, he wasn’t feeling particularly inclined to give up on a city of tens of thousands just because she had no need of them.
Still, he hesitated and spent a little time talking to the crew about the route they planned to take before he slammed the door on everything he knew. “We come back this way every year or two,” the quartermaster said with a shrug. “It’s hard to say exactly. It all depends on the price of wine in Vitilay and the price of rice in… Well, then there’s the storm season around the Summer Isles to consider, too. Certain sure we’ll be back someday, but when is anyone’s guess. Not even the captain can say for certain.”
It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was enough. Simon left the boat with his meager possessions and made his way to the inner harbor. Abrese was a town he’d already spent months in already, so he knew his way around, and instead of wandering around, he made his way to the lower temple courtyard that would eventually become a hospital of sorts and got started.
Last time, he’d been here six months in the future, so most of the dying had already been done, and the city was pretty hollowed out. This time, it was only just getting started, though, and thanks to the reduced amount of spread, the healthy still outnumbered the sick. That wouldn’t last forever, though.
The Weeping Pox, as the locals came to call it, because of the pustulant yellow sores and the way the dying cried out in pain wasn’t as deadly as the black plague he’d seen in Hurag. Not by a long shot, but left unchecked, he knew it would still kill half the city. Sadly, many of those deaths would be caused by some of the crazy treatments of the day rather than by the disease itself.