It seed like even this path was a dead end.
However, Riku did not want to give up. "Let’s try a different approach."
He gently went to Elara. "Elara, how are you feeling?"
She blinked sleepily. "A little tired. But nothing serious." The earlier feelings of fear had receded after the afternoon’s lighthearted monts, so she was not as distant from Riku as she was a while ago.
Riku held out the vial. "This is the Sunpetal Draught the Church gave us. I want you to take it. Tell exactly how it makes you feel."
Elara nodded and carefully drank the contents of the vial. She sat quietly for a few monts, her expression thoughtful. Then, a slight flush rose to her cheeks.
"Well?" Lila prompted.
"I... I feel a bit warr," Elara said slowly. "And... less tired. Like I have a little more energy." She flexed her fingers.
However, she looked at the crimson marks once again. They hadn’t changed. "I don’t feel much different. Maybe the drug will take so more ti to show its effect?"
Riku nodded, processing. "A burst of energy, so pain relief, but no direct effect on the blight itself." He paced the small room. "It’s a stimulant, a palliative. It boosts the body’s own reserves, helps it cope with the symptoms, but it’s not attacking the root cause."
He thought back to his own healing spells on the dwellers of the Underbelly. His ’Advanced Heal’ had produced a similar, but much stronger, effect – alleviating pain, restoring energy, making the patients feel significantly better, but the crimson marks, though lightened, had remained.
"This Sunpetal Draught," Riku concluded, his voice tinged with worry, "it’s like a weaker version of what I was doing. It gives the body a temporary lift, makes the patient feel better, but the Creep itself... it’s still there, still active."
His earlier hope that the Church might have a genuine counter to the blight began to crumble.
If this was their best solution, they were just masking the symptoms, not curing the disease. From all he had seen, there seed to be no direct way to do anything to this creep.
"So, the Church isn’t really curing anyone?" Lila asked, her voice heavy with disappointnt.
"It seems they’re managing symptoms, at best," Riku said grimly. "Which ans this blight is probably spreading unchecked, and people are being given false hope."
"Then what do we do?" Elara asked.
’"No, maybe there is sothing else. Maybe as Elara said, it takes so ti for the drug to fight the creep?"
Riku needed more information - firsthand accounts of more people who had used the drug.
"This isn’t working. I need to talk to people who’ve been taking this draught for a while. See if their condition improved over ti, or if it’s just... this." He gestured to Elara, who, despite the small energy boost, still looked undeniably afflicted.
He turned to Lila and Elara. "I’m going out again. I need to find so of those people from the queues, or perhaps try the Underbelly again. I need to know the truth about this ’cure’."
"Alone?" Lila asked, concern in her voice.
"It’s better this way. Less conspicuous." Riku reached into his satchel and pulled out two familiar communication stones. He handed one to Lila and one to Elara. "Keep these with you. If anything happens, if you need , just speak into them. I’ll hear you."
Lila took the stone, her fingers closing around its smooth coolness. "Be careful, Riku." Elara nodded, clutching hers tightly. "Please co back safe."
"I will," Riku promised. "You two rest. And stay hidden." With a final nod, he slipped out of The Respite, disappearing into the streets of Luxia.
----------------
Riku slipped out of The Respite. He needed people to open up to him, and he felt that the best way to interact with the people would be to disguise himself as a mber of the Church of Light.
"Skill activate: Disguise."
System, one generic Church Acolyte, please.
Ding!
[Skill activated]
[Goodwill Points remaining - 1012 points]
The familiar shimr enveloped him, and when it faded, he was clad in the simple, clean robes of a low-ranking Church of Light acolyte. His features were unremarkable, easily lost in a crowd – perfect for gathering information.
His first destination was a large, repurposed warehouse near the eastern gate that he’d heard whispers about. It was now serving as a makeshift overflow hospital for Creep patients who couldn’t afford the fees for the Church’s own hospital set up.
As he approached, the scene was heart-wrenching. Dozens of afflicted lay on crude pallets, the air thick with the scent of sickness and despair. A few overworked volunteers, their faces etched with exhaustion, moved among them, offering sips of water or words of comfort.
Posing as an acolyte sent to gather feedback on the efficacy of the Sunpetal Draught and assess patient morale, Riku began to speak with the victims and their families. The stories were depressingly similar.
"The draught, Brother?" an old woman with crimson patches on her hands rasped, her voice weak.
"Yes, it helps for a bit. The burning eases, and I feel a touch of strength. But then... it fades. And the Creep... it just cos back, angrier than before." She sighed.
"And to get another dose from the Church through the Supplicant’s Path... we must wait fourteen days. Fourteen days! As if the Creep waits for us to get the dose before flaring up again."
A younger man nearby, cradling a child with faint crimson marks, overheard and added bitterly, "Fourteen days for the free path, Brother. But if you’ve got coin, the black marketeers outside the city walls will sell you a vial for two hundred silver. Two hundred! For most of us, this is the amount we earn in an entire month."
A young man, tending to his feverish child, shook his head. "We’ve had three doses for little Aria here. Each ti, she perks up for a day, maybe two. Then she’s worse than ever. It’s like... like it’s just teasing us. And each ti, we have to queue up and prove he’s worsened enough to even be considered again before the fourteen days are up."
Riku listened to tale after tale of temporary relief followed by a relentless decline.
The Sunpetal Draught was, as he suspected, a cruel illusion of hope, made even crueler by restrictions and the church preying on the people’s desperation.
He saw the suffering in the eyes of the people here - the way parents clutched their sick children, family mbers comforting their loved ones, old people being taken care of by drained-out volunteers.
He couldn’t just walk away.
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