Closed The Flu.

[Valerius Nitrozian]

Winter 60, 513 AV

When Valerius Nitrozian woke up that morning, he felt as if he had drunk too much and simultaneously been kicked by a horse, although he never got drunk and had stayed away from horses recently. His head hurt as if somebody was hitting it with a hammer repeatedly, his eyes hurt, and he felt hot and weak, in short, he didn’t feel good at all, and he hated the feeling. Valerius Nitrozian absolutely hated feeling sick, and he hated feeling weak.

He climbed out of his bed, his incredibly comfortable and luxurious four poster bed, stumbled over to the washing stand, washed his face with some water from the day before and stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked even more terrible than he felt. On top of that the few metres to the washing stand had nearly exhausted him. He decided to just go back to bed.

He wrapped the blanket tightly around his body. Despite that he was shivering. By Rhysol, what was the matter with him? Had he been poisoned? He needed his slave – right now! His life was in danger! „Alea Davenport!“ he screamed so loud that she would be able to hear it throught he closed door, and then he abruptly started to cough. „Alea Davenport, come here right now! Help!“

He coughed again and closed his eyes. Even the little light that was coming through curtains hurt.

[Alea Davenport]

Alea had been trying to sleep in that morning, like she did every morning, but invariably, Valerius had some task he wanted her to do well before she was ready to get up. So when she heard him yell her name, she started awake, and then shook her groggy head, assuming he was being his usual, insufferably impatient self. She slowly began to crawl out of bed, taking her time to give herself a chance to wake up before she had to match wits with the man who expected to be able to give her orders and have her carry them out without question. But then, she heard something unprecedented. She heard him call for help.

Knowing it must be serious, she scrambled out of bed, not bothering to change out of her nightclothes, or even to put on slippers. Valerius had never admitted weakness, not once in the time she'd known him, despite being one of the weakest people she'd ever met. Was he being assailed by an unknown assailant? From what she knew of the man, he couldn't defend himself if his life depended on it. She did not have time to speculate more than that, as she threw open the doors and took in the scene.

Strange, there were no signs of a struggle, or of a fleeing vagrant. She was almost worried the attacker had made off with Valerius, but no, he was there, in his bed. She became more worried. She could not imagine what horror had befallen him that he could not even leave his bed. A mage curse perhaps? It was useless to speculate. She had to find out what was going on.

She rushed to his bedside and immediately demanded, "What's wrong? What is it?" Instead of an answer, she got a cough, and the nature of the situation became a little clearer to her. It had only been a couple years since she'd had a coughing sickness herself, and she still remembered the hopelessness and despair that came with it. A well of pity opened in her heart, and she decided to do what should could to ease Valerius's suffering and make him more comfortable. Though a part of her was rather vindictively gleeful to see him suffering, after everything he'd put her through.

She poured a cup of water and held it to his lips after a coughing spell. She was not sure he would accept the drink, but it was the only thing she could think of that would help at the moment. Thinking about it, she wasn't sure what else to do to help him. She felt uncomfortably helpless. She was sure her own mother had been more effective at treating Alea's own youthful illnesses than this, but Alea could not for the life of her remember what her mother had done. Kneeling by his bed, she asked in a gentler tone, "What do you need?"

[Valerius Nitrozian]

As Alea entered his room, Valerius was relieved, but only for a moment. The stupid woman seemed to believe that a cup of water would ease his suffering! His life was in danger! He pushed her hand with the cup away – and coughed again. He really hated that! He felt ugly, weak, stupid and dirty! It wasn’t supposed to be like that! He was supposed to be strong and good looking, and he had always been so proud of his sharp mind, but now forming anything but simple thoughts was a challenge. It felt as if somebody had stuffed … something … into his brain so that there was no room for him in there anymore!

He glared at his slave and tried to sit up in his bed. „Don’t look at me like that!“ he snapped. „I was poisoned. I might be dying. Somebody must have slipped something into my drink last night. Alert my grandfather! Tell him the same that happened to him at the party is happening to his beloved grandson right now! And tell aunt Amanda and Mister Parnell! They need to find a cure before it’s too late. Quickly!“

He coughed again. His stomach hurt, and he felt as if there was something in his throat that really wanted out. He made a face. He really didn’t want that to happen. What was wrong with him? He tried to force his body to behave and act normally again, but it just didn’t work, so he resigned himself to his fate. It was degrading. Why couldn’t he just have fallen unconscious like his grandfather? Why did it have to be so unpleasant? „And get me a bucket or a bowl or something similar. I think I’m going to throw up.“

[Alea Davenport]

Alea looked at Valerius skeptically, feeling less sorry for him the more he opened his mouth. She might not know much about poison, but in her experience, anyone who had this much energy was not likely to die any time soon. "You're overreacting," she said with asperity. "This looks like a regular illness to me. I'll bet you're just sick. You'll get better in a few days." She thought back to her own previous experience and amended, "Well, by the end of Spring anyway."

Still, as much as Valerius got on her nerves, she could not entirely discount the possibility that there was something she did not know about illness and poison, and she did not want her inaction to be responsible for someone's death. Judging the potential for vomiting to be the more urgent of the instructions she'd just been issued, Alea addressed that first. She checked Valerius's chamber-pot, hoping it would be empty. Unfortunately, no one seemed to have gotten to that chore yet this morning, so, holding her breath and grimacing, she dragged it out to the lake and dumped it. Conscious of how time-sensitive this was, she briefly rinsed the pot with lake-water instead of trying to scrub it clean. Odds were good Valerius wouldn't even notice, especially if his nose was filled with snot.

She brought it back to Valerius and set it beside his bed, positioning it so that he merely had to lean over if he felt the need to empty his stomach. After waiting about half a tick to see if he had any new instructions for her, she went to Tuuli's room. Given how demanding and paranoid Valerius was being, keeping him comfortable and happy (well, as happy as possible under the circumstances) was going to take more than one of them. "Tuuli, wake up!" she said in a no-nonsense, let's-get-down-to-business tone that held more confidence and authority than she was consciously aware of.

The dark-skinned slave rose her head from her pillow, resentful at having been awakened by a slave she did not respect. Alea did not wait to be verbally acknowledged. She only said, "Valerius is sick. He wants someone to tell his grandfather and aunt." She wasn't sure who Mr. Parnell was, but that wasn't important right now. She hoped. "So either you can do it, or you can stay here to see if he needs anything else. A fresh bowl in case he throws up, or clean sheets or something."

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„This is not a regular illness“, Valerius disagreed and coughed. He couldn’t breathe through his nose, and everything hurt. This was definitely not regular in any way! „I never get sick. I want this to be gone! I’m not supposed to be like that! Somebody is trying to hurt my grandfather by targetting me!“ As she told him that he would get better by the end of spring he glared at her. He had plans for spring! He was not in the mood to spend the next season coughing and feeling sick, ugly and disgusting! Why couldn’t it just go away?

He had told her to get a bucket – a clean one – so when she went to empty his chamberpot instead, he looked as if he were ready to hurt her. Fortunately he felt the need to sneeze just then, and Alea was spared some kind of severe punishment. „I’m not going to use my chamberpot for that!“ he informed her, but his body apparently disagreed. He felt a most unpleasant sensation in his throat before he abruptly bent over the chamberpot and coughed and coughed and coughed. Afterwards he felt even more disgusting than before.

„Water!“ he demanded and shuddered. „I need to get rid of that terrible taste!“

~~~

Tuuli wasn’t in a much better mood than Valerius. As Alea informed her that their master was sick, the girl made a face. How dare Alea wake her up? Couldn’t she just take care of Valerius on her own and let her sleep? She didn’t like the idea of bothering Lord Sitanos because of something as simple as an illness either. Sitanos was old and needed his sleep!

She was about to tell Alea that she could go, but then the other slave mentioned throwing up. „You can watch the master throw up and bring him clean sheets!“ she told her. Tuuli hated sick people as much as her master, and as much as she tried to please him otherwise, when he was sick she just wanted to be far away from him.„Have fun! I’m not interested! I’ll tell Master Sitanos and Mistress Amanda!“

[Alea Davenport]

Alea hid a smirk at her correct prediction of Tuuli's preferences. Alea wasn't particularly keen on dealing with vomit herself, but she had spent several seasons shoveling manure, not to mention a lifetime before that cleaning fish guts, so it wasn't as though she were squeamish.

She brought the water as requested, trying not to smack Valerius for being a brat about it. Really, he was a brat about everything, so she was almost used to it by now. Besides, even if it wasn't going to kill him, sick people were allowed to be a little extra obnoxious. Not to mention the closer she stayed to him, the more dirt she'd have to hold over his head later. When the illness faded and his image returned to being more important than breathing, then Alea could consider negotiating for favors.

She stayed with Valerius, not doing anything except what he asked, trying to juggle the simultaneous and often conflicting directions as best she could. With an extraordinary effort of will, she managed to keep her mouth shut through most of it, the only sign of her thoughts a small, crafty smile. She wondered if Tuuli would ever bother to come back with useful things. It really would be best if one of them could stay with Valerius at all times while the other fetched supplies.

OOCYes, Alea now has blackmail material, and she's not afraid to use it

[Valerius Nitrozian]

„Are you sure that this is water?“ Valerius complained as he drank from the water Alea had brought him and made a face. „It tastes like vomit and metal, not like water!“ Despite the fact that it tasted so horrible he drank it all. If nothing else, the water would dilute whatever unnatural substances were in his stomach somewhat and make everything a little easier to bear. If only this terrible illness would go away again right now!

„And now wash my face! I’m really hot. And I feel disgusting!“ he ordered her. He felt so dirty and miserable that he had forgotten that he didn’t like being touched by other people. He had also forgotten that his reputation was supposed to be more important than anything else in the world, and he wasn’t in the least worried what his slave would think about him.

He only wanted to feel human again!

He was so hot and sweaty that he kicked the blanket off. Alea got a glimpse of his pale, naked legs before he abruptly grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around his body again.

Now he was suddenly cold!

[Nemesis]

Alea Davenport

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Cleaning	+1
Medicine	+1
Observation	+1

Lores

*Valerius Nitrozian: Overreacts

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*None

Loot/Expenses

*None

Valerius Nitrozian

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Intimidation	+1
Observation	+1
Rhetoric	+1

Lores

*Symptoms of the Flu

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*The Flu: Healed within fifteen days

Loot/Expenses

*None

____________________________________________

Notes

*I do love to see Valerius being himself. He's so green it hurts <.<

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