"Kernos."

Leareth frowns. "I am not sure of His attitude to me, but certainly He did not interfere in my murder, though it would have been centrally His territory. Then again He is smaller and weaker than the Star-Eyed and perhaps could not. Nonetheless, I think better not to risk it." 

"Well, let me know if you get bored enough to change your mind." She writes the names of pieces on bits of paper, uses a book as a straightedge to grid out a board. "Chess?"

Leareth would very much enjoy playing chess with her! 

It turns out that he's still foggyheaded enough that he keeps forgetting what move he wanted to do next, or struggling to predict board positions more than one or two turns ahead. She is solidly beating him. 

"It doubles as a patient assessment tool," she says, the second time she's won. "One more or do you want to go to sleep now?"

"I think I want to sleep before you embarrass me any further." Leareth doesn't actually look embarrassed, it's not an emotion really in his repertoire. He is yawning, though. 

She sets aside the paper chess set and kisses his head and tucks him in and decontaminates and goes to bed Companion.

Amshalan makes for a very patient, warm, and snuggly bed, if not the most comfortable shape for one. 

Patience is an irregular quality for a bed but Belrun'll take it.

Amshalan cuddles her and keeps her warm and no one wakes her up all night. Amshalan isn't even waiting anxiously in the morning. 

:No bad news this morning?:

:No! Rolan and the other Heralds are making good time, Rolan is in my Mindspeech range now and said they ought to arrive by late afternoon. We'll have one of Leareth's Healers take over from you then. Oh, and according to Gemma the other two Healers who were ill are nearly well again, though they probably should still take today off: 

:Oh good: She fixes Amshalan's braid, and gets breakfast and goes to work.

A number of households in town are ill now, but most don't seem to have cases as severe; it's just a few elderly villagers who've been transported to the infirmary. 

Gemma asks Belrun if she'd be willing to make the house call rounds in town. 

"Amshalan'd like that, I bet. Uh, is there any public sentiment I ought to worry about?"

"Not that I know of? People are scared, obviously, but they're not blaming us at all - why would they, we all got sick first and we lost people - and they know Leareth donated all the Healers who were making rounds to them last night, they're very grateful to both of you." 

"Okay, then yes, I can do the house calls, where am I going?"

Gemma gives her a very hastily drawn map of the town on a scrap of paper, the relevant houses circled. 

:Hey Amshalan, wanna go for a ride?:

Amshalan is already prancing about in her stall. :I would love to!: She gets the attention of the stablehand and gestures impatiently with her muzzle at her saddle, hanging up next to the stall. 

She's saddled up and ready by the time Belrun arrives. 

Belrun shows her the map and they can start the rounds of housecalls.

Amshalan frisks and prances and is generally delighted to be out in the fresh air with Belrun on her back. It's a nice day, too, sunny and clear. 

The households are really glad and relieved to see her. Most of them have several family members sick to varying degrees; several came up with the idea of quarantining their more vulnerable elderly relatives in different houses or at least confining the sick to one room. A few people are vomiting and dehydrated, and one six-week-old baby is in fairly bad shape and struggling to breathe. 

Oh boy. She can try to address the symptoms of the baby, since not breathing is the thing that'll kill you fastest, and she commends the smarter quarantine logistics on display, and she'll hydrate people, and in general throw Healing-energy around.