Completed Poison me, poison you. Aha~~ {Ninus}

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan walked with a purpose through the city streets. He knew where he had to go and headed straight for it. As straight as possible in a city like Syliras. Although not running, he kept up a strong pace, walking past horizontal and vertical rows of apartments and buildings, ignoring everything around him, except for the man behind him. Although you could never be certain of it, it felt like the man wasn't about to stab him in the back. Not that it made Ronan lower his guard even a little. No, never be sure and live longer. He turned around at the question, slowing his pace so he could walk next to the man. He pulled up his nose for a second as he saw the rat nestled on the man's shoulder. "I'm pretty sure it's the poison that robbed him of his breath, not the gods. I'm not sure if he sees visions or if his heart is beating fast but he is very hot, almost feverish, and his eyes are sunken in his skull and surrounded with a dark stain. He looks as if he hasn't eaten in years." Ronan was far from a medical expert and he simply gave his impression of the man, whether it was medically correct or useful was an entirely different matter. "You'll see when we get there." Ronan grew silent after that, picking the pace slightly more and stepping out in front of the man. He took left turn onto a larger street and headed up towards the fortress. He obviously knew exactly where he was going and, unlike his companion, he wasn't bothered in the slightest by the possible presence of knights. From the large road he took a left into a slightly smaller one, but with more decorations and even a few trees alongside it. There was no room for two carts next to each other but the street was almost double in size from most of the lower city ones. With his eyes locked on one suite in particular, Ronan walked straight for it. He took the few steps up to the door and hit his knuckles to the wood, knocking. It took only a moment before the door was thrown open and an obviously distraught servant greeted them. "Master Dugal. The mistress is waiting for you. Is that him?" He nodded towards Aurellius. Ronan nodded back before turning to Aurellius. "Would you mind leaving your... friend outside? And if possible speak plainly. These people..." Ronan shook his head and pointed towards the door, waiting for Aurellius to enter.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus looked at the servant and noted how worried he was. He lifted his hand to Cricet's head, his palm barely covering it. She nosed against his skin, but knew better than to nibble or lick her master's often-toxic skin. Ninus eyed the servant. "The clock waits for no man." he told Ronan, sliding inside the residence. He uncovered Cricet's head and looked at her, meeting her black eyes with his own. "A palace of illness, it wafts down the stairs...the miasma of the dead. A breath, shallowed. A fever burning his heart to ashes." he whispered to her. He sat down on the floor without preamble, settling himself and opening the poison kit. His fingers raked over the bottles, samples, and finally the tattered and stained papers that held the key to curing Ronan's friend. Cricet leapt off his shoulder and eyed him. Ninus uncorked the bottles one by one, letting her inspect them and sniff them. "Find our friend, be he familiar or stranger." he told her when she'd seen and handled many of the fungi and leaves. She looked at him a moment, as if cataloguing the smells, and bounded off into the hallway. Ninus trusted her judgement. He shut the kit and looked at Ronan. "Bring me to the dying. One can waltz with death but it is only your feet that tire, not his. He will drag you to ashes and make memories upon the floor." he told the merchant as Cricet's tail disappeared around a corner.

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan walked in after Ninus and watched him as he promptly sat down in the middle of the hallway. Whereas others might get impatient with a man like this, especially in the face of possible death, Ronan had grasped a little onto the man's essence. This was just one of those things he did. Ronan did not understand why but he let the man do his thing, let him talk to his rat and mumble about stairs, miasma and ashes. He was a little upset that the rat had to be brought in the suite. He was sure the maid wouldn't be very happy with that when she found it. Ronan looked down at the man who was supposed to save his friend. "Follow me, then." Although a little irritated by the man's commanding tone in his voice, Ronan walked him to the patient. From the entry hall, Ronan walked up the stairs, where each step creaked of new wood and the soft carpet running down the steps muffled the heavy thumbs of his boots. Once he reached the top he followed the quite large hallway to the end, which ended in a half circle room filled with windows, all currently closed and covered by curtains. The only light in the room came from the candles spread out among the walls and furniture. He motioned for Ninus to wait a moment outside and stepped towards the woman standing next to the bed. He spoke to her in soft tones, casually resting his hand on her shoulder. After a moment of speech he turned back to Ninus and waved him in. "His name is Turan." Ronan nodded towards the man lying in the bed. His state was mostly like Ronan had described earlier. His cheeks had sunk in, together with his eyeballs. There were black circles around his eyes. The one arm that was resting above the sheets was barely skin over bone and the man did not look like the healthy young man he had been two season ago. "I'll be back in a moment." Ronan softly but sternly guided the lady of the house of the room, leaving Ninus alone with his patient for a little while. While he guided the lady of the house to a little study room a few doors away from the bedroom, Ronan continued to speak softly and reassuringly with her, trying his best to comfort her in this difficult time. Whatever the outcome, she would hopefully remember his part in all of this and reward him for it. Ronan couldn't help a quick smirk at his own thoughts. After he made sure that the servant who had opened the door for them was with his mistress to take care of her, Ronan removed himself and joined Ninus once more, having only been away for a good ten minutes. He let the man work, keeping his own thoughts to himself as he watched. "She said she'd pay you anything if you could help him to live."

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus looked quietly at the patient, and touched his cheek with a hand. "Were that her eyes were your eyes, her cheeks your cheeks." he told him. "I the killer have come to you to heal that which was paid to destroy. Blame not the toxin. It was meant for birds and beasts, never man." He sat quietly on the bed and rested his cheek on the man's sunken chest. He closed his long lashes, feeling the shallow breathing and poor heartbeat below his cheekbone. The heart was weak, as were the lungs, the man had been poisoned over a long period of time, as opposed to a single dose. Over several seasons... "No serpent nor worm nor fungus has come to you." Ninus whispered, his head still on Turan's chest. "A tree...bark or sap has wound her roots around you. She is powerful, yes, and old. To cause such destruction over such a period of time...trees are patient...they stand for centuries. It is this, the nature of your affliction." But no trees, at least the ones in Syliras, were poisonous. Ninus smiled and kissed the skin under his cheek. "She thinks she is clever. But I know her. Oh how I know her." he looked down at the man. "She and I first embraced in a garden ten years ago. The fruit lulled me, I bit into her sweetness and knew rapture. The flesh was harmless, a gift from her. But her heart was hard as ironwood, hard as stone. I bit too deeply and too harshly, my lust for her drove me." He rested his hand on Turan's cheek. "She bit me. Bitter she rested upon my tongue and made me give back her gift to the earth as payment for my greed. She bade me lay in the orchard and waste away, bade me to lay as you do. But I only ate once of her. You have not stopped kissing her." Ninus told him. "Her fruit is all you crave, and crave it you shall until death." He left the bed then and approached the fireplace, lifting a foot and rooting in the ashes until he found a piece of charcoal. "Fire stops her kiss, but only for a little while." he bent down and picked up the blackened wood, returning to the bed. "I shall give you a kiss warmer than hers." he pushed the blackened wood into his mouth without preamble and chewed the crumbled charcoal to paste in his mouth. He bent over Turan then, and kissed him deeply. He moved the paste from his mouth into the mouth of the poisoned, his tongue pushing it toward's Turan's throat. Charcoal would absorb some of the poison, and give him more time to come up with an antidote. He would have to know the specific fruit Turan had been eating, or been persuaded to eat, but once he found it he could counteract the poison. The charcoal, while administered in an unorthodox fashion, would improve Turan's health.

[Ronan Dugal]

As Ronan walked through the straight hallway from the study room back to the bedroom he saw the man knelt in front of the fireplace, picking up something from the ashes. As Ronan walked in the room, the man put something in his mouth and chewed on it. The soft cracking and crunching from his mouth told Ronan that whatever Ninus was eating wasn't supposed to be eaten at all. Ronan watched as the man bent over his friend and kissed him. It was a good thing his wife hadn't seen this happen. Ronan wondered how the man must feel to have to kiss a man, although at the same time he wondered why the man didn't use more conventional methods, like his fingers or a spoon to get whatever it was into the man's mouth. Ronan stood silently in the opening of the door, observing the man as he sat up from the kiss, his lips covered with black streaks. From seeing the black on his lips, Ronan's mind helped him to connect the dots. The only black coming from a burned out fireplace was ashes or charcoal. And the crunching noises couldn't come from ashes. The man had eaten charcoal and kissed Turan. A look of disgust flashed over Ronan's features as he realized what the man had done. Pushing himself away from the door opening, Ronan walked in the room as quietly as possible given his boots on the wooden floor. He stood opposite of Ninus, the bed occupying the space between them. "Would you like some water for that?" Ronan looked at Ninus' lips for a moment. "Any idea what has caused it?" Ronan asked quietly, a hint of not so convincing worry in his tone of voice as he changed the subject back to the problem at hand.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus held Turan's cheek in his hand, gently, his eyes strangely soft. "A doctor would be baffled by her. He would try to bleed the poison from his veins, feed him quicksilver or mint, but she would have killed him if you had not come to me. She holds fast to him, he's eaten too much of her. A week or more sitting in her garden, draining her fruits of their bounty...her punishment is swift and sharp." he said quietly, looking at Ronan. "I must get her to let him go, but what man would continually seek her bite? Men eat thousands of her fruits every day and feel nothing." He swallowed the dregs of the charcoal, knowing it to be gritty and smoky but completely harmless. It stained his teeth grey, as well as Turan's mouth, but now he knew what he had to do. Or at least a good suspicion of exactly what had caused Turan's illness. It would have had to have been someone close to the man; tree poison was slow, agonizing, but easy to come by if one was simply told where to find it. One could go to the Bazaar and gather a supply for months under the pretense of buying groceries. "Come, I have to find her." Ninus told Ronan, rising to his feet and heading out of the bedroom. He wasn't surprised to see Cricet sitting on the floor in the hallway waiting for him. "I am sorry my lady for sending you on such a fool's errand." Ninus apologized to her, kneeling and offering his elbow as if to escort a woman. Cricet leapt onto his lowered shoulder and settled there, and Ninus slowly rose so as not to dislodge her. If it had been some hidden thing, some fungus ferreted away at a great cost and slipped into Turan's food, she would have found it. Ninus followed his nose to the kitchen. Cricet grabbed his ear gently and he patted her. He knew she was restraining herself from simply robbing this family blind. His eyes scanned around for fruit.

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan watched and listened as Ninus explained what was happening, in his strange way. Slowly mulling over the words spoken, Ronan managed to find some form of sense in them. By the time Ninus swallowed the charcoal, Ronan had realized that somehow Turan had been poisoned by something he had eaten, possibly a fruit of some kind. Ronan wondered what fruit could do something like this. And who would feed it to Turan? Although the man probably didn't mean it, Ronan couldn't help but feel irritated at the way the man ordered him around. He followed Ninus out of the bedroom where he started talking to nobody, as only Ronan was there and Ronan was not a lady. When Ninus bent down and offered his arm, Ronan could see the rat crawling up his arm and settling on his shoulder. Ronan shook his head. The rat thing was upsetting. Ronan followed Ninus down the stairs and through a set of smaller hallways, ending both men up in the kitchen. As Ronan had no idea what they were looking for, he continued his stay out of sight, letting the man and his rat do their work while he focused on something he could help with. Curious about the earlier question he had formed, Ronan let his mind wander freely over the problem. Someone had been feeding Turan something that was poisonous, a fruit or something akin to it, and had almost succeeded with it on top of it all. But who? Ronan let his mind break on the subject. There was the maid who they hadn't seen yet and the servant who had opened the door. Besides those two only Turan and his wife lived in the suite. They did have friends and family over quite often for visits. "How often would he have had to take this poison to get to this state?" Ronan tried to form some sort of timeline in his head to help him with the problem. Depending on the answer more people could be the culprit. Annoyed with his lack of knowledge on the subject, Ronan followed with another question. "And what kind of poison is it? Some kind of fruit or something? Or was it mixed in with his food?"

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus set Chicet down on the kitchen floor so he could look easily. She gave him a look, but found an empty basket and settled up in it. She knew she was not allowed to steal from these people as long as her master was working, but that didn't mean she couldn't look wistfully at the pantry. She sighed and clutched the edges of the basket, twitching her ears and watching Ninus. The poisoner moved throughout the pantry, his eyes scanning over the food there. He didn't dare touch anything, as his fingers were often stained with toxins that could harm or sicken someone. "A little a day, every day, until her seed took hold inside of him." Ninus answered Rowan, and finally rested upon what he sought. He picked up a peach from the small basket on the shelf and took it out into the kitchen, picking up a knife. He sheared the fruit away from the pit, and catching Chicet's eye threw some to her. She wolfed it down gratefully, cleaning her whiskers clean of the sweet fruit. Ninus cleaned away the flesh, feeding it to the rat. "Her heart is hard, and most men never bite through it." he said, lifting up the wrinkled, hard pit. He sit it on the table and set the point of the knife carefully in one of the grooves. He pushed down powerfully, putting all of his weight on the quaking blade. For a moment he thought the steel would bend, but a loud crack sounded and the peach pit split. Ninus set the knife aside and dug out what looked like a tiny, squishy almond. "This is the poison. Easily come by...but not easily rid of." he told Ronan.

[Ronan Dugal]

Ronan observed the man move and noticed his fingers always almost grasping but never touching anything. Until he picked up the peach from a basket of fruits. So the man was thinking along the same lines as Ronan. Someone had been giving Turan the poison for quite some time now, a little each down, letting Turan eat himself to death. He watched as the man started to cut away the fruit from the pit. The rat didn't seem worried about any poison what so ever as it quickly ate the fruit that was thrown to it. Ronan sighed. Perhaps the peach could be considered a tip from the lady of the house. With a slight shake of his head Ronan walked closer as the pit split open and revealed its contents. Ronan stood perplexed. Someone had been feeding Turan something that was inside of the hard shell of the peach pit. "How? Why would Turan even attempt to get inside of the pit to eat... that. What is that?" Ronan waved towards the small almond thingie Ninus was holding. The two halves of the pit lay forgotten on the table. "How did it get in there? Did someone... put it inside?" Ronan had trouble wrapping his mind around this one. There were a lot of things he couldn't grasp about Ninus' explanation. Turan had eaten the inside of the pit, which had required Ninus to use his full body weight and a knife to open, which had been put inside of the pit by someone else? Ronan shook his head and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting his thoughts wander away from the problem, preventing a headache. "Explain." Ronan used the same commanding tone to his voice that Ninus had been using until now.

[Ninus Aurellius]

The Prince of Rats Ninus couldn't help but chuckle at the man. "This.." he laid the small almond-like seed on the table. "Is her child. When placed in the ground the armor shields it from those who would do it harm, but even the strong who can crack her shell find only pain in the child itself. Men harvest her for the gifts she provides, the sweet meat she gives to nourish the seed within. Only a man desperate by hunger could crack the armor, as I was when she first gave me her bitter bite for daring to harm her seed." Ninus explained. "This was not accidental, no, Turan has never wished her harm nor tried to consume her child." He picked up the knife again and a small spoon, slitting the seed open. A clear, slightly greenish fluid flowed from the seed and spilled into the metal spoon. Ninus carefully set the empty seed aside and lifted up the spoon. "Her protection for her child is enough to kill a child of man, and enough to make a man ill. Once, he will simply think her gift has rotted inside of him. But if it is mixed in water, or his morning meal, he will think nothing of the illness until he lays as you see him now." he said.