fandomhigh | Library: Friday [16.11]

"No kidding," Ed agreed. He looked back at Willow thoughtfully. "Nothing wrong maybe but...obviously the wrong way to go here."

He wished he knew medical alchemy. "So, we already did the same thing they did and used magic which made it worse. What the hell, humility and grace? that's no help at all."

Obviously Ed had little of either.

"Can I just point out the irony of being told to use humility and grace by a bunch of people who were too smug to save the original settlers of this island?" Willow asked. "Because I feel it needs mentioning. Possibly because I think the non-savers are kind of jerks."

Karal wasn't...quite glaring at Rodney. "You cannot judge one by all," he said stiffly, hand closing around his Vkandis medal. "I've no idea what humility and grace are, but there's something..." He closed his eyes, thinking, and there it was. "The boat. There was a boat. Bart, the boy who died, Katara told me he found a boat, had been exploring it, before he got sick."

A soft sound, somewhat of a grunt, something of a held-in groan, slipped out of Adah. She would have wanted to believe it was for Karal going back to the source of the virus, after she'd felt it was pretty clear that the cure was not in the cause, but she would be lying if she allowed herself to believe that was it. The turn in her stomach had gotten worse, and she was starting to wonder if the clouds in her head were not from the frustration of the research but something else instead. And she didn't remember it being so hot in here before.

Grace and humility. She blamed, at first, the repetition of it by the others for her focus on it, but then she started to wonder if she hadn't actually...Biting her lower lip as she felt a slight shift in her perception, she leaned more heavily on the bookcase as she shifted her bag, went to retrieve one of her notebooks. She was certain now that she'd come across that before; how many times, after all, do you come across "grace and humility" together when studying virology, biology, pathogens and plagues? You remembered something like that, wrote it down, and then let it go as insignificant. Maybe if she could find it...

Chris was taking everything in and trying to process exactly what it meant. "So... it doesn't sound like there's actually a cure," he frowned. "But... maybe we need to find the boat and destroy it?"

His mind was already searching for words that rhymed with boat for a vanquishing spell.

Zack stared at Chris for a very long time. "Viruses don't work like that."

"We could search the boat for the virus though," Willow said. "Or something that caused it. And if it's a virus, maybe there's anti-virus? And if it's bacteria I vote we douse the whole thing with bleach, gracefully or not."

Ed stared at the ground, opening and closing his right hand as he thought. "No, there is a cure or the guy Smithson wouldn't have bothered to write that note. And he wouldn't know about the boat cause they were stuck on the mainland, they couldn't help. So it's got to something with the grace and the humility. Religion? Or...some type of alchemical reaction?"

"Maybe a task of some kind?" Willow suggested. "You need to be graceful to do it, then humble after? And... then you get the cure? Admittedly we'd need to figure out how to fill in those middle bits."

Grace and humility, humility and grace. Y, til I muh, DNA, ecarg. Where was it? The conversation of the others around her became just a buzz in her head as a louder buzz seemed to take over, her neat little penmanship on the pages of her notebook blurring as she searched through them. The excitement of a realization, blurring her perceptions, catching her breath. She remembered it now; the book had seemed so inconsequential that she wrote her notes and then wrote Poe in the margins to re-engerize herself after such an unsatisfying read. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary...

Herbs. They were herbs, or, rather, herbs going in the disguise of virtue. She thought it was stupid, annoying, more melodrama, forgotten to in the lines of suggestions like magic and burning ships. Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore.

Her breath caught; where was it? And then one realization piggybacked on top of the other as she felt the world around her swaying despite the fact that she was still leaning still. The ache in her head wasn't from the hours of endless research. The spin of her vision wasn't her normal inability to grasp certain things. The turn of her stomach was not a lack of breakfast. While she nodded, her brain nearly napping in regards to the solution, something....something came a'tapping, rapping at her chamber door. Just a visitor, but something more, tapping at her chamber door, of whose demise she had finally found, looking up at her, her week's chore...

"G...guys...?"

Before she could say it, could say anymore, Adah felt a swell. The bastard has sneaked up on her; eyes rolled back in her head, consciousness slipped away. Crumpled, broken, Adah hit the floor. Quoth the raven, nevermore.

By the time Peter realized what happened, Adah was on the ground. He rushed over and checked her forehead, feeling the fever. "We need to get her to town hall."

As the others were focused on the fallen girl, Rodney caught sight of the notebook she had been looking at. It was some kind of entry on herbs with 'grace and humility' at the top.

"Um," he said as he tried to get someone's attention. "I think she was onto something."

Edited 2007-11-16 19:37 (UTC)

Willow looked over at him. "Other than not nearly enough vitamin C, what?"

He took a closer look at the notes. "It seems as though there's some correlation between 'grace and humility,' said with one-handed airquotes, "and certain herbs. Maybe this is part of a cure?"

"Like spell components!" Willow said. "Because dragon's blood isn't always dragon's blood but eye of newt should always be newt."

"It's not likely to be spell components, seeing as they were trying to destroy magic users, but herbs? Glory, that is all we have in my world! Feverfew and willowbark tea and everything healing that is not magic is plants. That, that would make sense, especially if they are from so long ago."

"Herbs make sense," Ed said, shaking his head. "Too bad we didn't have a bunch of herbalists on the island to begin with."

He knelt down and slid his arms carefully under Adah to pick her up. "You guys find the plants. I'm going to take her to the town hall." He figured the others could manage picking a bunch of flowers. "Let them know we might be on to something."

Edited 2007-11-16 20:13 (UTC)

With the most pressing issue at the moment taken care of Peter asked, "Okay, so, how are we going to find the herbs we need without just tearing apart a bunch of plants and doing trial and error?"

"Well, assuming they are on the island, which I think is a safe assumption from that note," Chris said. "I should be able to scry for them if we have a map."

"Truly?! That would solve the problem very neatly. The island's small, but it would take longer than I fear we have if we had to walk all over it. There's bound to be a book on plants so we can find pictures." He looked around Special Collections and shivered. "And I will not be sad to leave this place."

With one last look back, Karal led the way out, carefully locking it behind him.

Library: Friday [16.11]

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