Esulri has been having a rather terrible day. He's running a fever - everyone is - but he's one of the few still on his feet, a young constitution and a good self-mastery helping him there, so he's been drafted as a nurse.
It's exhausting work, especially sick - but just about the entire valley's got whatever this is, and there's no relief coming from Overlord Imara. At least, not in time, and the outside world clearly knows about this mess, since the roads out of their little valley have all been shut down.
They've quarantined the worst cases, and he's just finished washing off after one round in that ward, stepping out to stare at the sky in his few moments of break. The rest of the village looks deserted, the usually sleepy streets now empty. Things are starting to look run down, too, and no one's done anything about the house that burned down at the end of the road... They're going to need water from the well - he should get that, but his head's throbbing and his hands are shaking and it's unbearably cold out here despite the hot summer sun -