Pooling the Resources

[Adnaj]

Adnaj monitored the woman's vitals for a second time. Her heart seemed to flutter upon auscultation. The doctor had never heard anything quite like it. Her worried, struggling face flashed a content smile. All of the worry in her brow turned into reassurance. Her facial features softened and eased. But then, in this moment of peace and tranquility, she passed away.

Adnaj lifted the sheet over the woman's body and pronounced the time of death.
"She has left us," he told Nai'a. "But we need to keep our hearts and minds with the living." His voice showed expressed sorrow over losing a patient and the seriousness with which he tended to his duties. Still, it also expressed his determination to save the rest.

He placed a hand on her shoulder. "Let us continue." He then silently left the room. The rare hint of empathy on his face was meant to convey an encouragement more than a command or instruction.

When Adnaj entered the greater hall of the Infirmary, Mistress Claira would be waiting for him.
"I had that medicine brought to me." She said, approaching Adnaj. "That of your patient with headache pain," she further explained. "There is something in here. Something beyond a simple inflammation slowing salve," she warned. "Have a look for yourself."

Adnaj took the bottle and inspected the label. She was right. He kicked himself for not thinking to check this earlier. The patient was told that he had been taking an herbal remedy meant to decrease inflammation. Adnaj simply believed this information at face value.

While the information was not untrue, it wasn't the full picture. The ingredients were listed as mostly containing a natural anti-inflammatory known as arnica but also contained a "Proprietary Blend" of "the most powerful inflammation calming medicine on Mizahar."

"Amazing! This must be it! You've figured it out, Mistress Claira! I'll have this herbalist summoned at once!"

Adnaj then turned to Nai'a. "If you are able, please come with me. I don't know that I can tend to this patient alone."

On his way to check on the patient, Adnaj stopped one of the interns. "This bottle came from the pharmacy of Dr. Hugh Kelly. I need you to find that pharmacy and summon Dr. Kelly at once. If he is hesitant to come then you must impress upon him the fact that it is a matter of life and death, do you understand?"

The young, male intern nodded and then ran out the door and into the streets.

When Adnaj approached Mr. Wydren, he was surprised by what he saw. The patient now lay in a coma. His vitals were stable but he laid motionless staring at the ceiling.

"This doesn't make any sense!" Adnaj cried out in exasperation. After the outburst he stared at his patient with a pained and frustrated face. He was deep in thought. He was listing every pathology that he could remember. What was wrong with this patient?

"No trauma, no family history of major pathology, he doesn't tend to hit the bottle, there is no hint of infection at his place of work and he lives alone..." The confused healer mumbled. He wracked his brain for every word of clinical history that Harold had told him. Then something hit him. Something that Harold said had struck a cord. "Hol, hol, hol,~wa~wait a minute here...No infection? I may have an idea...Let's see what our friend Dr. Kelly has to say to us."

[Nai'a]

When Adnaj lifted the sheet over the woman’s body, Nai’a’s heart seemed to stop. Once again she was not able to save another patients life, thanks to this sickness that had stricken Zeltiva. She wanted to yell and cry at no one in particular, just to relieve the sadness deep inside her heart. She then remembered the look on the woman’s face; she did seem to go in peace, so that was good. But the fact still remained that Nai’a had failed the woman somehow. She inhaled a deep breath, her confidence in being a healer still remained, but Nai’a did not like death, although it surrounded her daily.

Adnaj’s words rang true, they needed to focus on the living now and not linger on those who passed. There was nothing she could do for the woman now, but there may be something she could do for those who were still alive and fighting the sickness. He placed his hand on her shoulder telling her they should continue and she nodded and followed him out of the room.

She listened to his discussion with Mistress Claira and the intern silently, following him like a silent shadow as he gave his command to the intern to talk to Doctor Kelly. Then they entered another room, the room with the man that suffered from the headaches. The man lay on the bed unconscious; he had slipped into a coma it had seemed. Adnaj burst out in exasperation, saying he did not understand what was going on, going through all that was not wrong with the man in a mumbled explanation, more to himself, then saying to wait for what Doctor Kelly had to say.

”So, is there something wrong with his medication, or do you think there may be an infection that was missed? Nai’a asked the man as she looked over to Mr. Wydern. She approached his bed side, to look down at the man, seeing his chest rise and fall steadily. ”These sicknesses just keep getting stranger and stranger. I do not like what is going on in Zeltiva, and I do not think it is just a bout of bad luck for the city. Nai’a turned and looked over at Adnaj, a slight frown on her face.

[Adnaj]

"Something is affecting his brain functioning." Adnaj answered. "For one reason or another, the layers of lining around his brain have swollen with edema, you know with blood and immune cells. I believe this is due to a virus. Harold told us that he lived alone and that even during the midst of this blight, no one at his place of work was sick. He swears that he didn't come across one single person with an illness."

Knowing that his patient was stable, Adnaj turned his back to him and faced Nai'a. "The blight created the perfect environment for this coincidence. It carefully set up the dominos that spelled Harold' tragedy. You are right about the blight. This blight can't be an infectious pathogen. It makes no sense. It would seem that this blight is defined more by poor fortune and unlikely coincidence. By all appearance, Harold seems to have had his own confluence of misfortunes. So when our patient tells us that he lives with no other humans...who is left to infect him?" Adnaj asked with a smile that showed he had finally figured it out.

[Nai'a]

Nai’a listened intently to Adnaj’s detailed information. The man had no one living with him or that worked with that was sick, though he had somehow become infected. This was rather peculiar to Nai’a, she knew that people were getting sick by simply having low immunities. But Adnaj did not mention this, so the man must of believed him to be a healthy man until this.

When Adnaj asked who it was that could of infected him, it seemed he knew the answer already. The only person that Nai’a could think of to give him any sickness would be this Dr. Kelly that gave him the medicine. Nai’a did not know that she was right about this, since people were getting sick by not coming into contact with sick people all over.

But she voiced her answer in a question form, ”Could it have been this Dr. Kelly, that gave him the medicine?” Nai’a asked with a slight tilt to her head. She was not sure if she was right, but that was the only person that she heard of the man being in contact with since the Infirmary. So by observation and listening, that was the only answer she could have come up with.

Adnaj was so intelligent and such a good healer, she felt a little in adequate and dumb working beside him. Even though she felt this way, she was honored to have the opportunity to work and learn beside the man, it seemed she had learned a couple of new things today, and that pleased her. She could only hope that she was actually helping him, and not being a novice burden.

[Adnaj]

"Brilliant thought,"Adnaj smiled. But I believe the good doctor, Kelly, has another role to play in all of this. I believe that if Dr. Kelly had been infecting people than we would have seen the pattern of his patients emerge by now. No, I was thinking something a little different. He turned to face her so that he could be more clear. Although he was being polite, the impassioned and thoughtful look on his face might truly bring forth a certain grittiness to his embalmed, Nuit skin.

"No, Harold may have denied any family but he told us that he lived with pets. There are still pets to lovingly gift him with disease. This was the most joyous that Adnaj had been in days. Maybe it was the overwhelming grimness of the situation but he was almost inappropriately happy. His reaction was exaggerated like one finding rest after a long journey. It was as if he had come up for air and took in loud, raucous gasps of air instead of breathing normally."This is what makes this profession worth it, eh, Nai'a?" he cheered, smiling at her.
His celebration, refreshing as it was, would not be nearly long enough. "Oh no," he suddenly gasped, his face finding that struggling quality it bore not long ago. He heard some yelling come from the sectioned off area for the bacterial meningitis patients. "Come quickly, they need us!" Beckoning his fellow healer, he took off toward the tiny ward.

The two healers were greeted with the sight of a young student in the midst of a convulsive seizure.
"The infection has spread upward and into his brain..." For the first time, Adnaj's booming exasperation sounded hopeless...not frantic.

All of the pressure was too much for him. He was frozen in the moment. It wasn't so much that Adnaj had forgot his training but in that moment he had no idea what to do. He stood there, paralyzed in the midst of Zeltiva's struggle and paralyzed before the young, dying man.

[Nai'a]

When Adnaj told Nai’a it was his pets, she could not help the small gasp that escaped her mouth. She did not know that this man had pets, but since the rats in the city was infested with disease and sickness, it would make sense if one of those pets ate one, or even sunk its teeth in one, that they too would be sick. Nai’a nodded at Adnaj words; this did make the profession worth it. Solving the mysterious cases of ‘why’ the patients became sick. But also it was rewarding to see their faces change from one of pain to one of happiness. To see their eyes change from dull and lifeless to bright and gleaming with life.

Though this moment of happiness at figuring out what happened to Mr. Harold was quickly dampened, as a new horror arose in the Infirmary. Adnaj and Nai’a rushed out of the room and down the hall, to where those with the meningitis were quarantined. As they reach the room, there was a young student in the midst of a convulsive seizure. Nai’a was shocked, and it seemed Adnaj was too. They both stood there for a moment. Nai’a rushed forward to help the young student, but the convulsions were weakening now, and the man was dead. Nai’a sunk her head low and looked at the man. So much life could have still been lived, if it wasn’t for this damn sickness. Nai’a sighed heavily and covered the man up with the sheet. The sight of foamed slobber coming from his gaped mouth tinged with blood was a sight she really did not want to see.

”The sickness has taken him. There is nothing more we can do for these patients but give them medicine and care, and pray to Rak’Keli that they are healed.” Nai’a said solemnly and looked at the young student. ”Will you give the other patients there medicine, it is time for them to receive it. Just look at the dosage amount on the bottle, and be sure to follow it, or you risk over dosing them and that could leave adverse side-effects.” The young student nodded his mop of brown hair as he went over to the bottles. There really wasn’t much else Nai’a could do, and she felt bad for that.

Nai’a walked out of the room, a little saddened that she had lost another patient. It was how this worked though; a healer had to accept the death of others. Nai’a should be used to it by now, she saw death daily, but the feeling was still the same. Her heart ached for those who lost their lives. Nai’a needed to focus on those who were still alive now, and she turned and glanced at Adnaj over her shoulder.

”Let us continue to heal those who are alive.” She told Adnaj with a weak smile.

[Adnaj]

"I suppose you're right," he responded, mournfully, to Nai'a's beckon. Now the younger healer was leading him. "There is, yet, much work to be done. Though compliant, on the outside, Adnaj was positively flagellating himself for not acting sooner. The infection had unexpectedly spread to the patient's brainstem and Adnaj had completely froze up.

""Adnaj! Nai'a!" a voice suddenly rung out. "Dr. Adnaj, Dr. Nai'a, I've summoned Dr. Kelly!" Eager to leave this scene behind, Adnaj turned on his heal and quickly rushed toward the voice.

"Dr. Kelly!" Adnaj cheered. "Thank you for coming on such short notice!"

"Oh, of course, of course!" The pharmacist responded. Dr. Kelly was a tall, blonde haired man who walked with a long, self-assured stride. He wore a white laboratory coat over a sky blue dress shirt, brown waist-coat and tie. "Now I hear that one of my patient's is in trouble?" He asked, a look of worry sweeping his face.

"Yes, in the last hour he has passed into a coma,"

"Oh my," Dr. Kelly looked genuinely concerned learning that his patient didn't have the simple headaches that he had originally assumed.

"We have deduced that the key to this mystery lies in the ingredients within your medication," Adnaj held up the bottle, gesturing to the exact medication to which he was referring.

Dr. Kelly looked offended here. "I assure you that I only use the most pure ingredients and the safest remedies! I have never put anyone into a coma nor do I ever plan to!"

[Nai'a]

As Adnaj and Nai’a were walking out of the room their names were being yelled down the hall. Nai’a turned and looked down the hall, Adnaj rushed ahead and Nai’a walked briskly to see what was going on. When she arrived there Adnaj was talking to Dr. Kelly, and the Doctor looked a little arrogant to Nai’a. He walked with such a stride that spoke that he knew what he was doing, and no one could tell him differently. Nai’a looked him up and down, he wore a white long coat, a light blue dress shirt, and a brown waist-coat and of course a little snazzy tie to go along with the ensemble.

Nai’a stood slightly behind Adnaj as the blonde haired man began to speak, asking about Mr. Harold being in trouble. When Adnaj told him that the ingredients in his caused Mr. Harold’s problems, the man did not seem too happy. She knew it would be slightly difficult to make this man see a mistake, he probably never made very many to begin with. Plus one could tell from his body language and the way he spoke that he was one of those Mr. Right fellows.

Nai’a breathed out an exasperated breath, and spoke in a calm and soothing voice, ”Now, Now Dr. Kelly calm down. Let Adnaj explain to you what he means. We are not blaming you for the patient’s coma techinically, just open your ears and listen to what he has to say, please.” Nai’a did not but the comment in question form, because she was not going to deal with a prudent man.

Either he listened or he could leave, she was not going to put up with rudeness or a Mr. Right today, she was too tired to deal with all that bull. Nai’a gestured with her hand for Adnaj to explain what he meant to the Dr. Kelly, whether the man agreed to hear it or not.

[Adnaj]

"Thank you, Nai'a. Adnaj smiled. Dr. Kelly, no one is suggesting that you have poisoned our patient. In fact, no one is really suggesting that you made a mistake. I am less interested in questioning your clinical aptitude and more interested in these 'proprietary' ingredients."

Dr. Kelly's reaction, here, was less indignant but far more shocked. "Dr. Adnaj!" He shouted with a surprised look of concern as if Adnaj had just broken some social etiquette like eating with the wrong fork or not excusing himself after a belch. "Surely, you understand that, as proprietary information, I am unable to reveal my patented formulas! If my unique remedies were to become common knowledge, then my entire business model would crumble!

Instantly, the smooth, cordial demeanor vanished from Adnaj's persona. In the amount of time passed in a single blink, his entire presence had shifted toward a more combative presence.

He angrily wrenched Dr. Kelly by the elbow and marched him into the room of Mr. Harold Wydren. Dr. Kelly came willingly, Adnaj's actions were not that of a brute, dragging a weakly. Instead, they were more like a frustrated parent scolding an embarrassed child. In the same way that a mother pinches an ear and leads by it, not pulls upon it, Adnaj led, not pulled, Dr. Kelly to the correct room. "Look," he grunted. I have been working, in this infirmary, for almost an entire day straight. I have already lost two patients and I will not ...Dr. Kelly... lose a third. While you are out there toying with herbs and mixing chemicals, I have been in here fighting my urge to mourn my failures so that I may better serve those that I haven't yet failed. I don't care about your formulas. I don't care about your patents. I don't care about venturing into the business of pharmacy.

This man," Adnaj pointed to Harold. "The one lying right in front of you, is in a coma. He lies there, depending on the efforts of everyone in this building. Look at him. Look him in the eye and know, doctor, that unless you help him then his blood will be on your hands for the purpose of some trade secret!

Dr. Kelly was not angry at Adnaj for accosting him the way the healer had. In fact, he was too busy being shell-shocked to think of much else. He had the look of a man witnessing a great calamity and searching for the courage to take action. His was the look of a man who had realized that he was in over his head.

"He's...he's in a coma?" Dr. Kelly whispered. Adnaj let the silence do its work as Dr. Kelly struggled to find speech. "Okay, well we found that the pain relieving herbal formulas were great but adding components from real, living tissue boosted the effects.

"What did you do?"Adnaj asked.

"Anti-inflammatory, that's the ticket, right?" Dr. Kelly tried to force a smile as a way to cut through the heaviness of the moment. "Well, what is inflammation but a targeted immunological response? So we decided to add a little something extra. Something that would help to dampen that localized, hyper-focused, immunological response.

Adnaj stared at Dr. Kelly with a look of fascination. The wheels in the Nuit's head were starting to turn.

"We used pigs," Dr. Kelly continued. "Only the finest, most clean and sanitary pigs, I assure you! he suddenly shouted. "Pigs who were healthy, in the prime and meant for the dinner plates of Zeltiva's finest. Its the adrenal gland. It produces a substance that dampens the immune response.

"Therapy using targeted hormones," Adnaj mused. "Well, I will give you, Dr. Kelly, that its quite creative.

"But a coma doesn't make sense! We tested those formulas again and and again and again to make sure that they were safe! Even if they had somehow become tainted, the formula couldn't have caused this kind of swelling in the brain!' Dr. Kelly's objection sounded more like a plea.

"You are correct, Dr. Kelly, but I fear that your immune-suppressing remedy was just the thing that was needed for Harold to become infected from a loving pet.

Dr. Kelly twisted his face into a thoughtful stare... "The only possibility..." He had put all the pieces together. He has contracted a feline illness!"

[Nai'a]

Nai’a stood there looking between the two as the events started off with them being slightly pleasant with one another. Then Adnaj whole demeanor changed completely. No longer was he the patient, kind, and calm healer. No, he changed into an aggressive, demanding, fighter. Nai’a was slightly shocked at how fast he changed; it was in a blink of an eye. Her eyes became big and bulging, her hand instantly going to her mouth to hide the gasp of shock. Adnaj grabbed the blonde Dr. Kelly and half drug him to the room where Mr. Harold lay, in a coma.

Nai’a followed and watched as the two started to exchange words, realization dawning on Dr. Kelly’s face. One point Adnaj, Dr. Kelly zero. The kelvic thought with a wide smile, proud at how Adnaj had taken control of the situation. She had to admit that she was slightly shocked that they were using pigs adrenal glands to help the man. Even if they were tested, treated, and looked over multiple times, they were only looking to see if it would damage humans, not other animals. Plus the fact still remained that this sickness that had fell upon Zeltiva could take a healthy man in a blink of an eye. Though in reality the sickness probably worked its way through the person’s body in a couple of days, the person only feeling its effects within 24-72 hours.

This change of events were really interesting, but Nai’a felt pushed in a dark corner. What could she do to help? She wasn’t mad about standing on the sidelines watching though, knowledge was power after all.

Nai’a cleared her throat, bringing the two men’s attention to her.”Sometimes the wisest decisions we feel we are making, are in reality the stupidest.” Nai’a said in an almost whispered voice, as she looked between the two men, ”Now that everyone knows what has caused the problem, can we please work on the solution to said problem, instead of standing her baffling like mindless idiots?” The pink haired woman did not mean to sound rude or cold, she was ready to get to what healers did best, healing. She did not want the man to lay there suffering any longer then he really needed to, they needed to get to the solution and heal him as soon as possible. No human deserved to be in pain longer then they really needed to be, and Nai’a was tired of standing here talking, she was ready to take action.