All right. She consults with DZ: We can show you where you'll be, and my assistant will show you the rest of the fort in the morning.

She nods. 

They can head back towards the command center, then. 

You handled that well, I think, Stormsinger comments, pleased by how the situation had turned out.

Thanks.

The arm surprised me - I don't think of kolto as high tech but I guess the prerequisites are.

Kolto? He asks, Some kind of medicine? There are, or were, medicines which he knows of, even if most people go to healers for injury, sickness is much more complicated. 

I wouldn't really classify it with other medicines - do you not have antibiotics, wow. Germ theory?

Yes? I believe I know what you mean by it, but most often lesser illnesses can be dealt with by simply applying immune boosting Life spells to the sick person. More serious illnesses are directly fought by more skilled healers. 

He thinks back to the time before the Seal. 

The Mana Plague was something completely out of any of the masters experience, however. Boosting the immune system made it worse, and there didn't seem to be anything to fight - and trying simply harmed the patient.

- I don't think you've mentioned that yet.

Yes, I suppose I have not. 

He organises his thoughts, mood turning grim at the topic. 

The Plague struck out of nowhere some fifty years before the Sealing. It spread rapidly, and only some rare few managed to survive it. People died in droves. Half a city could succumb overnight, it was so virulent. 

Nothing anyone tried seemed to help, either. The Plague attacked any mana which entered the body, damaging the surrounding tissue. This included a person's mana pool. Their own bodies would fight their mana. 

His horror at the memories of the disease cannot be overstated. 

Yikes. She spends a second or two wondering about the nature of it before returning her attention to him. Sith don't get sick, mostly, and I expect I could figure out what to do about anything strange enough to get past my automatic defenses - I can shut down my immune system, if I absolutely have to.

I'd have to know more about it to know if I could have done anything for anyone else.

I am not certain it still exists, he muses, thinking back over what little he had seen while bound to his first wielder after the Seal. 

...That 'Mana Sickness' the general mentioned while explaining our options for winning the war, he considers, It does sound familiar. 'An inherited disease which causes extreme sensitivity to mana'. After the first wave of deaths, those who had the disease but survived it would often have children with a non-contagious form of it. It sounds as though the time the world spent Sealed did not solve this problem entirely, if some still carry it. 

We'll have to look into that before we get me mana - it could be that it's still contagious, and everyone has it but isn't bothered by it, and what's being inherited is a weakness to it. That's not uncommon, with regular diseases. They come to the command center and DZ leads them inside. I can copy someone else's resistance, if that's the case, but better to do it beforehand.

Yes, he agrees wholeheartedly. 

Maol is nowhere to be seen inside the war room - he's up in his quarters at the moment, enjoying the running water. 

Deskyl points Coen out to Sana, and then they can head upstairs. I'm not sure who you'd usually have handling things for her, she points out to Ilek. My robot can handle most things but she won't always be available.

"The servants will clean her rooms if they're asked to. The commander will likely asign her a guard when you're not around - one who speaks imperial, hopefully." 

All right.

You can talk to my assistant if you need anything, she directs at the younger woman. Mornings are best for that; I keep late hours, and she doesn't sleep.

She nods, and when they get to the room assigned to her, steps inside hesitantly. 

"...This is very nice," too nice, really. 

She turns back to look at them. "I... Thank you?" She's very overwhelmed, and still scared, and just generally confused. If it had been the empire to capture an enemy wielder they would have killed them by now.

There's just a hint of a smile on Deskyl's face. We'll leave you to settle in. My assistant will be by later with a change of clothes.

And we can catch the end of the sunset and wait for your brother to get back, she adds, to Ilek.

She nods, and then steps up to the door, closing it gently. 

"We can watch from the roof of the gatehouse, or one of the watchtowers," he suggests.

(Stormsinger is in favour of this plan.)

The gatehouse sounds nice.

It is pretty nice. Especially with someone to share it with.

I should talk to you about that advice from earlier, she says eventually.

He looks over at her from where he's leaning over the parapet, "What about it?"

The Blade says it'll hurt you, the way you're doing it. I'm not sure if explaining how I do it will help, you might just need something different.

"Maybe explaining will help," he says after a moment of contemplation. "I... didn't like doing it. He's probably right that it isn't good for me." Pushing aside half of himself to fit in with others' expectations... yes, that probably isn't healthy.