Moose.

[Glaw]

Jalin gurgled warm blood and tongued the shards of stone caught in her teeth; the physic's efforts had given the young mother enough sense of mind, at least, to look Fell in the eye while she swallowed down that mouthful of acrid venom. Her sharpening teeth ground into the edge of the vial, and a noise hitched in the back of her throat, she gagged and bit down and broken glass cut into her lip. The sight and smell of her own blood was strangely comforting, given the fact that her limbs were ice-cold and she saw everything now in shades of black and gold.

Even in that hellish saturation, the alarmed desperation on the physic's face was less than comforting.

There were needles in her bones, quickly turning numb, like the time she'd fallen through the ice over the lake. Her brother had come to her rescue, all on fire and bleeding from his eyes with a jackal grin and -- no, that wasn't right. Her memories were playing tricks on her: she saw her house up in flames, she saw her father driving a spear through her daughter's heart, she saw that damned horse galloping away from the flames and growing dragon's wings. She saw Marjorie Fell hovering over her, her skin black as night and eyes glowing like lanterns, and Jalin knew she'd made a grave error when she shared her light in the road. She was suddenly gripped by the realization that this physic had just poisoned her, and she gurgled and sputtered and tried to thrash but her limbs were heavy like a sleep paralysis, and she choked on venom and blood and glass and stone before she forced a swallow.

Rozu, relieved by the Golter's absence, padded closer and knelt before the physic, his back to the fire. He watched with grim interest while Jalin's panicked eyes slowly relaxed and rolled back, her twitching stopped, her breathing grew shallower. The color that she'd regained through that curious stone still shaded her cheeks, though her lips were still tainted blue and a streak of drying blood dripped from the corner of her mouth to her ear. The change appeared incomplete, yet suspended for the moment. He pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to Fell. The Salamander had no idea what to do or say in these situations -- but he found it remarkable that there existed a way to halt the transformation without destroying the host.

The click of a lock echoed through the smoldering clearing; Rozu promptly got to his feet. There, standing in the dark empty doorway of the tower, was a child. He was about half the Salamander's height, skinny almost to the point of malnourishment, with wild blond hair and elegant silk clothes that shone in the dawning sun. He held a black-bladed sword balanced on one shoulder; it glinted with a swirl of fiery colors.

The boy's wide grin faded, slowly, when he spotted what lay beyond Rozu's bowed head. He shifted from one foot to the other, his pale jaw clenched, and he lifted his chin. "You burned the trees down!" he accused the Salamander, who responded only by bowing a little lower. The boy frowned, waiting, but no explanation seemed forthcoming. He pointed at Marjorie with his empty hand. "Who is that?"

"She is Marjorie Fell," Rozu announced promptly, cutting off anything their guest might have begun to say. "A physic."

"Oh." The boy paused another moment, swaying back and forth, before he marched forward. "You are trespassing," he told Marjorie. "Stand up."

[Closetmonster]

The doctor watched as the venom took root. For a moment the laxness of Jalin's muscles made Fell sure she had succeeded in killing the woman but there it was on her lips, a tiny welling of blood, so slow as to be nothing more than an imaginary state. Still - would Jalin remain opaque if she were dead? Would not the caravaner in her have forced her to transparency?

When Rozu's handkerchief appeared before her, Fell took it and gently wiped broken glass and blood from the girl's mouth and cheek in a tender gesture. She took in a deep, settling breath and patted her hands on her thighs. "Now, the herbs," she stated and went to rummaging in her bag for some of the spirits she carried with her. She laid out the spirits, the herbs beside, and with a mutter dove back into the bag when a childish cry of dismay broke the morning silence.

With a glance, Marjorie took in the newcomer. A boy? She considered going back into her bag but was arrested by Rozu's deep bows. The boy scowled down on the Salamander and Rozu kept his silence, did not speak of the Caravan, did not explain about his reasonings. Curious, to be sure, Marjorie's hands stilled.

Hands at her sides, she rose when directed. Her gaze was far from cowed, but she did take a page out of Rozu's book, unsure as to if he acted the way he did out of kindness or fear. No doubt, this was the master who would have taken the Golter for his own. Those words did not bode well. Beside her, her patient had slid into the slumber of the poisoned, an arrested slumber where time would not drag so heavily on the woman. For the spider, such sleeping victims were well-larded food. For Marjorie, it meant just a little more time. But that time was precious.

She sniffed and then bowed to the boy. "I apologize for my trespass," she said gravely. "My companion is ill and I have been trying to heal her. I would not have left her on your doorstep like a common churl."

Were they too many, the words? Or not enough? She had noted that Rozu used words sparingly and Rozu was the boy's servant. Was he? For the moment, she could do nothing but try and impress on this one the dire situation which Jalin was in and the need for attention to the issue. If Marjorie had to navigate a political water with a child, she might have been hours playing pat-a-cake and Jalin would die.

[Glaw]

"I did not ask for your excuses and explanations." The boy dismissed her apology with a flick of his wrist. "The fact is you are here, taking advantage of my fire, abusing my servant, and now wasting my time with your excuses of moral profession. Rozu!"

"Yes, Master William." The salamander still did not meet the boy's eyes.

"Find this common churl something to eat. She will be our guest this morning. She and her ... patient. What did you say was wrong with it?"

"She has been bitten by a Caravaner --"

"I should hope the physic is perfectly capable of diagnosing her own patient." Master William wrinkled his nose at the woman lying in the charred grass. "She appears dead. Are you a miracle-worker, Physic Fell? Do you hope she will magically hop to her feet and walk away from here?" He watched while Rozu handed Marjorie a bowl of hot chicken stew and a spoon. "I will watch you perform this miracle." With that, the boy threw back his coattails and sat daintily on a log, the shimmering sword on his lap.

[Closetmonster]

Marjorie's mind rushed over what she'd just seen. She gave a bow to the boy, as if he were some grand lord and held her breath. Easily offended, to be sure. Or just always offended. She wasn't sure.

He spoke and while he asked questions, he didn't seem particularly interested in the answer. Still, he was interested enough in the results and she gave him another quick, acknowledging bow of her head and took the bowl from Rozu. She was expected to make a miracle, however and soup was not conducive to such things.

With a small, grateful smile to Rozu, she removed a handkerchief from her blouse pocket and set it over the soup before she went to Jalin's side once more. The herbs remained atop the cloth and she took a deep breath. As she looked over at Jalin, she did indeed seem to be dead. But the poison would do that. Marjorie hadn't time yet to see if she could find signs of life. Instead, she plucked the cloth and herbs up. Just after, she picked up the bottle of spirits as well, then doused the cloth and herbs with it. As the scent of alcohol lifted off of the bundle, she blew on it to hasten the process. A moment after, when she was certain of the herbs, she brought they and the cloth to the fire. There, she laid them out onto the cloth onto one of the wider, closer rocks which ringed the fire. Rozu no doubt had no need for rocks to keep the fire out. He controlled the fire just fine, being what he was. Still, someone, at sometime had thought it necessary.

The alcohol breathed quickly off of the herbs, slower from the cloth, but she had to also ensure she was not going to have them set ablaze either, something far easier with the spirits there. She might have asked for Rozu's help, but he hadn't directed his servant to help her and she knew better, she felt, than to ask. She was, as he'd said, already taking advantage of the fire and his space, as well as his servant. To do more, would be to risk being thrown out altogether.

While the herbs sat on the stone, she returned and carefully unbuttoned Jalin's shirtfront enough to bare the woman's breast bone. The physic then drew out a large and smaller cup with a long, woven tube attached between them both. She held the smaller cup to her ear, then bent her head and set the larger one to the woman's chest. For a long moment, she held her breath. Then she let it out with a sigh of relief.

There was a heartbeat. It was thready, slowed to almost nonexistent, but it was there. It was there, indeed.

She might have explained that the venom was intended by the spider to keep the victim alive, but in a stasis of sorts, so that the eggs might hatch and feed on healthy flesh. But she doubted the boy (was he a boy, then? What sort of boy had she ever met like him?) would want her explanations. She kept her peace and carefully began to work on the antidote. They would need it and it wasn't simple to activate. There was nothing in what she did that showed rush or hurry. It would be foolish to do so. She would only have one chance at the cure. She only had one bundle of the herbs.

With that, she returned to the herbs, doused them again in spirits and watched as the porous leaves soaked in the alcohol. She again blew on them and returned them to the rock, nearest the fire. She touched the rock with her bare hand to feel the temperature, deemed it adequate, and returned to making the antidote.

This too, took spirits, though a dark blue bottle this time. The bottle wasn't any larger than her small finger and she had a long row of them attached to the inner lining of her pack. She removed one of the tiny bottles and set it atop another rock. She then drew out some small vials and a few powders. She might have told anyone that they were simple herbs and the like, but the truth was far more interesting. The Golter had, in their acquaintance, given her a few substances which she wouldn't have found any other way. Beyond that, she had some bits and pieces of animals which were more in the shadow lands, that world which bridged her own and others, the world others felt the fey and the ill-favored lived in, then they were in her own land. One of these was there, a ground up bone of which she had only an ounce. This, she took a pinch of and added to the small vial. The spirits in the vial hissed and the vial itself trembled with the agitation. She steadied it until it had settled.

[Glaw]

Master William, as he was called, sat in perfect posture with his chin cocked like a bird. He peered down his little nose at the workings of the physic's nimble hands. Occasionally he tapped his foot with impatience, or glanced at his reflection in the blade on his knees. Eventually he pulled a pink-embroidered handkerchief from his pocket, flapped it open with a flick of his arm, and busied himself with polishing the glassy steel.

Rozu, however, was fixated on the physic's mixtures -- so much so that he, for a moment, had forgotten his master's presence. The salamander tread lightly around the fire, so as not to disturb Marjorie's concentration even as he craned his long neck at the shimmer of spirits above the herbs.

"You are the alchemist, Salamander," the boy called out of boredom. "Tell me what it is she is doing."

At that moment, the vial shuddered in Fell's hand; Rozu quietly gave her a cautionary look; William jumped to his feet, the blade clasped easily in one hand.

"This is not alchemy, Master William." Rozu recognized a couple of the ingredients as rarer than the most precious stones -- others, he had never seen nor heard of at all, but guessed at their value by how little of it Miss Fell kept on her person. "It is merely chemistry." Chemistry of an astounding level, using ingredients rarely heard of let alone combined, but only their combination. There were no chants, no magic circles, no sigils or inscriptions to power this cure -- thus, merely chemistry.

Impressive chemistry, should it actually work to cure the incurable.

William wrinkled his nose and leaned forward while trying to appear as if he weren't leaning forward. Rozu's fingers twitched for the chance to take a closer look at these powdered bones and grainy unknown substances -- to even catch their scent -- but he held still and breathless.

"One cannot cure the Caravaner with nothing but chemistry!" William voiced his disbelief. "Rozu. Assist her."

"My craft is in tools and weapons," Rozu quietly replied, still only watching Marjorie. "I have no knowledge of healing. All I can do..." He lifted his thin hand, and the rock beneath the herbs warmed steadily with a gentle heat.

The child frowned, watching the rock as if he could see the salamander's power working. "That is not so much helping as it is a beg for credit should she succeed," he deadpanned.

[Closetmonster]

"While I appreciate the help, Mister Rozu," the physic stated blandly, her attention fully on the vial before her, though her hand reached outward - finger splayed, "the additional change may make my efforts a waste. Please do nothing to hasten the process. Particularly not when I have no second chance."

The physic drew her hands back and shook them vigorously before rubbing her palms together. She gazed at the bottle and drew a steadying breath. "I will explain. The process is truly chemical, as your servant has stated. I have created a type of poison which leaps the heart`s beating. However, like many things even a poison can have a use. With my companion so near to death, it seems to me that if I were to shock her system..."

The physic paused as a small, almost invisible whisp of smoke slipped from the vial`s mouth. Suddenly, her every fiber was focused entirely on the blue glass. Her hand rose and in it she held a series of grains of a pink color. With a held breath, she dropped one, two, three grains in until the whisp went white and was gone. With a sigh of relief, she turned from the vial, leaving it unattended and went to repeat the spirits on herbs routine.

[Glaw]

"A poison to counter a poison..." Rozu pointed out in a thoughtful breath.

"Do you suppose her brilliant, Salamander?" Master William crossed his arms with a smug grin.

Rozu shrugged one shoulder and tipped his head at the processes. "That all depends on whether it works."

"If it doesn't, we shall throw her in the sea." It was uncertain whether the boy was truly joking. The sea was miles away, after all.

After watching with what precision and delicacy the physic had treated the vial, Rozu simply acted out of instinct when her back was finally turned. With a steady and experienced hand, he lifted the vial from its place and gazed at its contents through the light of the fire. He swiftly put it back, all without jostling the contents, and set to examining the patient (an act of which he knew nothing at all), curiously watching Jalin's pupils take on a slitted, catlike quality.

"How long does this stasis last?" Rozu repositioned Jalin's head so the woman was staring straight up at the orange morning sky.

Master William, meanwhile, stepped around the fire with an exaggerated gait, stretching his legs and showing off the sword propped on his shoulder. He paused, mid-step, just before he might have put his foot down on a half-destroyed and partially burnt magic circle drawn in the dirt. It looked almost as if something with huge claws had swiped it away. The boy inhaled slowly and peered into the forest.

[Closetmonster]

Fell shook her head. "Hopefully long enough." Her grim attention to the herbs did not sway once. She had to get the medicines together, and then, in the end, the last of it -

She stared at the herbs. These were of a particular type that did not grow anywhere outside of where the Golter could go. She wasn't sure if that was readily apparent for they looked very much and smelled a great deal like a type of mint. She'd often gotten away with explaining them as a hybridized version of mint and slippery elm, to revive and soothe the very sick. In actuality, it was a touch on what might have been almost a restorative on par with a fabled fountain of life. Would it make of her partner something worse? If only the Golter had managed to remain longer.

No. If he'd managed to remain longer, then this Master William would have no doubt taken him. She was not all too sure how the Golter could be taken, but she did know that he was incurably free and to lose that freedom would be to lose much of what made the Golter, him.

Caravaners, living death - full death with ravenous hunger. If Jalin slipped further, she would be lost to them. Or to her, actually. The girl was strangely important, considering the little time they'd known one another. Marjorie touched the edge of one of the herbs and felt it crackle. A slight skim of oil across its surface began to bead up.

"Now," she said and waving away Rozu, she went to Jalin, scooped up the poison, and stuffed it down Jalin's throat. She was not kind in how she did it. She pushed the vial deep down the girl's throat and worked with her hand to enforce swallowing, to press it down into the girl's body. Then she dropped the vial to the side where it rolled against a rock with a dull tink. Carelessly, she took a great step to the heated rock and scooped up the leaves. She returned to the girl whose body had begun to seize. That was the poison, the sudden reaction against the poison. It would kill her as easily as the others would. Everything she had could kill the girl.

With powerful, blunt fingers, she wedged Jalin's mouth open and grasped her tongue. The physic bent the herbs and they crackled. A pungent smell filled the air which was somewhat transformed by the spirits. These, she bent and folded and pressed under Jalin's tongue, pressed hard as the oils spread out and into the tender flesh there. The base of Jalin's chin bulged from the pressure but it did not deter the physic. The oils were the only thing she knew which could enable the girl to survive the sudden surge of heart palpations. As Jalin's body began to shake more, Marjorie straddled the girl's chest, trapped her arms under powerful thighs, and stared down into those wide, rolled back eyes. She kept her fingers bent, pressing the knuckle of her first finger against the base of Jalin's tongue and the roof of her mouth in a bid to keep the girl from biting down on Marjorie's hand.

Was that a release? She wasn't sure. Then again. The girl's body jerked and held, then relaxed some. Jerked, relaxed. Held, a breath, stuttered into lungs which had almost stopped functioning, and then relaxed again. Marjorie drew her hand out of the girl's mouth and then cupped her head. The physic leaned over closely, stared into the girl's eyes as she used a hand, untainted by the oils, to pry open lids. The entire ordeal had seemed to her, to last for ten minutes or more, though she knew it hadn't been more than a full minute or even half of that time. The body, so close to death, had welcomed the poison, but had fought off the oils once the heart had begun to spread hot blood through the girl's veins - most of all, into her mouth where everything was so easily taken up and into the bloodstream.

Fell took a breath and held it. "Jalin," she whispered, not expecting an answer, but watching the girl's pupils to see if they were going to respond to the growing light of day. They had looked oddly when she'd begun her treatment, now they stood, wide and dilated. Death? or a response to the treatment?

[Glaw]

The sun peeked around the masonry of the tower; Jalin's brown eyes, cleared of the fog, constricted. They stared through Marjorie, deep into the gray smoky sky. She shuddered with a weak chill. Her jaw trembled but did not close; she breathed between daggered teeth; her mouth stank of blood and bile and poison. Claws traced lines, back and forth, in the dirt.

Rozu exhaled a breath he had been holding, and he leaned forward on his knees to see what it was that Miss Fell had struggled to return to this world.

Jalin's chest worked, but for a moment her throat was constricted -- and then she breathed quietly and slowly began to relax.

Color had returned to her skin, though it retained a haunting ghost of translucency, as in an elderly woman; her eyes had lost what animal qualities they might have gained, and now were fully and undeniably human. Her teeth were still sharp, as were her claws. She was warm to the touch -- and as Rozu removed his fingers from her wrist, he decided that was what mattered.

"She is alive," he announced for the boy's benefit -- but Master William was no longer standing where the Salamander had left him. Instead, the wizard boy was snooping at the edge of the half-burnt trees where the Golter had last been seen, poking the stiffened bushes with the broad edge of his shining sword. After awhile, a little grin crept upon his face. He stared long and hard into the deepest of the wood, then turned away to return his attention to the miracle at hand.

"Miss Fell," the boy raised his voice. "You've managed a triumph no one in the world has before seen -- you've a steady hand and a quick mind. I see no reason you should be permitted to continue ... setting bones and treating coughs like a common quack. I see by the way you dress you're no one of particular value to anyone of any importance. You shall be my court physician, henceforward."

Jalin closed her eyes, winced, and forced her mouth closed to swallow a nasty mixture of poison residue. Her tongue hurt; her jaw popped; her limbs screamed; her head was caught in a vice and being torn wide all at once; she heard voices in a distant fog, saw shapes moving against the haze. She tried to call her daughter's name, but it only came out as an unintelligible moan before she slipped into an exhausted sleep. Her breath was deep and clear.

[Closetmonster]

Jalin was alive and changed. Marjorie carefully climbed off of the girl's chest and ran a hand down the girl's face, then pulled back and wiped her brow. She glanced up at the boy as he approached her, his high and mighty tone did not herald good, she could tell by the way Rozu stiffened almost imperceptibly.

"Thank you for the consideration. However, it was sheer luck, Master William," she sighed wearily. "I am of little use outside of those few times I have luck. Otherwise, I manage bones and a few wet coughs." Beyond that, she would not have managed it without the Golter and he had gone. He would not come back either, she felt certain, until she was free of this one. He hadn't any bodies to leave any longer - outside of his usual one. He really only had nine lives and he'd used up eight of them.

She looked over at the vial and began to clear up the mess of her "chemistry" as Rozu had called it. The poisons would not do well to escape in any form and so she stoppered the vial for later, when the Golter was in residence, so that she could dispose of it all correctly. It was dangerous, she was sure, to even intimate that she would not follow the laws that Rozu's Master William had set down, and so she did not turn her back on him, but remained very aware of him as she kept to her side and went about the business, as if she had no other choice but to do so.