The first in a series of tales describing the seclusion of the Counts of Lanstraad, nobles of Oceanus.
“Why does he not die?”
The question had been lingering on his mind for almost as long as the stench of death lingered in the abandoned streets of Ral Guthay.
Ral Guthay… once proud jewel of the Duchy, now a ruin, decimated by a sickness that killed not just the tribes of Mann, but also livestock, birds, and as it turns out, even the crops.
And yet this Plaguebringer, following his lord Evereater (whoever that is), weaved in and out of the gates of that massive tomb with relative ease, never showing the slightest sign of illness.
Why?
At first Count Morinari would not believe it. This man who had arrived in his lands speaking of oncoming doom was originally a curiosity. Where most would dismiss a madman, Morinari gave him board and charity. But then the plague came, and the citizens who did not die fled, passing their sickness on.
Morinari found use of the man’s courage then. His knowledge of how to identify the plague’s early stages helped Morinari keep his family free of illness. He heated the well water before drinking, bathing, even cleaning. The man claimed the heat appeased the Evereater.
“Give him heat now, or he will bring you heat later!”
The crops were a different matter, but the same. All crops not within enclosed greenhouses, tended by gardeners and their purebred bees, were to be burned. More heat, sacrificed to the supposed Evereater.
And the family lived. As did their aides.
Slowly the methodology spread. At Morinari’s hands. Not the Plaguebringer. The citizens would wish nothing but death on the man, had they found him. Fortunately they did not.
Morinari rewarded the man with a laboratory in the dungeons of the manor. His price was simply that he be allowed to observe the rituals of the Plaguebringer. And he did. He noticed the ritual purifications by fire. The man kept his quarters clean, aside from the ash. The man saved the ash from everything. When he would venture outdoors he would douse himself in it. From head to toe.
It was during one of these outings Morinari decided to follow him. He stayed at a distance, but was well prepared for the event. He kept himself clear of all manner of living thing. He kept his skin covered. And he followed. And he watched.
The Plaguebringer ventured into the dying city. He would return again. As the plague progressed, and as the nobles locked their doors, dying inside, or ran from the city in droves to later spread the plague elsewhere, he would return.
The nobles died. The people died. And he did not.
Why did he not die?
What did he do inside the town?
Would Morinari risk himself to find out? He had no belief in this Evereater, indeed he had little faith in anything he could not see with his eyes and touch with his hands. His family he could see and touch, but finding out may cost him his ability to do so in the future. So far he had been safe, but there was no guarantee of protection were he to enter this infected city.
It was a question of choices.
The Dukes court had already fled Ral Guthay. The city was already dead to them. They would survive and build anew, elsewhere. If they survived. The nobles quibbled about ensuring survival of key vassals. Attempting to hold onto their petty seats of power even as the citizens of the former capital lay dying. Some houses were doomed to die. Others chosen to live. All based on oaths nobody was guaranteed to keep. The plague killed indiscriminately, after all. A foul wind or a concealed truth and the Evereater would create a fire quenched only in death.
Morinari saw cowardice amongst the huddling nobles. He saw into their hearts and it sickened him. Was he like them? He too had a manor. His citizens also were among those stricken. His family kept safe for some unknown reason.
And yet this man, this Plaguebringer, he surrounded himself in plague. He worshipped it. And he did not die.
Morinari had to know why.
And so he followed him, the stench of searing rot thick in the air. His heart beat quickly under his heavy clothes. Sweat drenched the inner layers as he attempted to follow the path of the Plaguebringer, while ensuring he remained unseen.
And that’s when he saw it.
A child kneeled before the Plaguebringer, corpses nearby. She too was covered in ash. And she was not afraid.
But Morinari was. He stared at the child in horror.
He stared at his daughter.
