Luminescence ✺ Arthur Pendragon

The Fires of Prairene [1]

The council had been summoned to the throne room where the King was to listen to a visitor that has come to seek aid from Camelot. All of its members along with some knights gathered together as a man was escorted into the room, coming to kneel before the king until Uther allowed him to stand again. "What is it that brings you here?"

"My name is Edmund, my Lord. I come from a small town on the edge of the Southern border." The man introduced himself politely before moving on to the reason for which he'd made the journey to Camelot. "It has been struck by a grave disease. Our own physician succumbed to it, and the neighbouring town have refused to provide aid. We are dying and we have no one to turn to."

His words had both physicians stepping up, knowing this would be a matter in which Uther depended on their council more so than any other member. "If I may, Sire?" Gaius stepped forward, coming to stand only a few steps away from their guest as he waited for the King's permission to take charge of this meeting.

And it didn't take long for Uther to nod in approval. He knew this was much more Gaius' area of expertise to ask questions about. And Uther trusted him enough to determine whether it was worth the risk of sending a physician to the town. Which at the moment, it didn't seem to be. Not when it could cost one of them their lives or they could bring this disease back to the city with them.

With the King's agreement, Gaius soon turned to Edmund as he began to ask the first questions rising in his mind. "Would you be able to describe this disease? The symptoms? Who's falling ill?" All of these details could be detrimental in determining the severity of the issue presented to the court.

"Oh, yes, yes. Well, not me myself." Edmund said in an eager tone, clearly happy to not be dismissed straight away but given a chance to share more as he dug through the bag hanging off his shoulder. "But I brought with me all of our last physician's recordings." He said once he pulled out a thin book and handed it to Gaius.

Gaius motioned for Arwen to come forward so she could join his side as they look over the neat penmanship scribbled all around the pages, marking not only the disease, but its progression in the writer himself. Clearest symptoms noted are high fever, an entire loss of appetite or will to drink, those were seen in all patients, but there were other oddities, different all across the pool of patients, boils, struggles with breathing, vomiting, rashes.

As she neared the end of the page they'd been reading through, Arwen's eyes caught sight of a piece of parchment sticking out from between the pages. "What's this?" She muttered out curiously, pulling out the piece and unfolding it to reveal a makeshift map of the town and all of its households. Markings coloured in some spaces, noting down where the sick resided and how many in each household. "Is this map accurate?" She asked, eyes glancing back to Edmund.

"I, uh, I suppose so." Edmund gave it some thought before answering the question. "A few more people have gotten sick since by the time I left. I'm not sure how it is by now." He added quickly soon after, not wanting to seem deceptive if there'd been drastic changes by the time of his return to the town.

"The additional sick, can you point to their households?" Arwen carried the map over to him, watching as he looked over it before starting to point to the small squares which indicated homes of the townspeople.

"Here, here, and, oh, yes, the butcher's place." He said, and each time he pointed to a new place on the map, Arwen couldn't help but notice the clear pattern which she deemed quite useful information. And it seemed to show in her face because soon, Uther spoke up once more.

"What are you seeing?" He asked, brows furrowed as he hadn't yet had a chance to even look at the map while he'd let his physicians do their jobs first. At his question, Arwen walked forward, handing him the map so he could examine it himself while Arthur leaned over his shoulder to have a look for himself.