Bedbugs
With Aithorn assisting with alchemy and procuring materials, Noah secluded himself in his home, writing out runic equations and sketching molecular structures. The memory tea had succeeded in bringing back old formulas from his past, and now he just had to fiddle with them a bit and experiment. With each new drug he created, he would expose it to bacterial samples and observe their reaction under the microscope. These diseases were formidable adversaries, but with the combination of elvish and modern medicine, the tide of battle was turning.
After burning the morning hours looking through his microscope, he took what he had and went to see his patients. However, as he and Aithorn made the walk, they encountered three different fistfights between the citizens, and parties screaming about offenses and long-buried grudges, ruining what was supposed to be a city of quiet serenity.
"Is Sylphtoria usually like this? I didn't think elves were so prone to random acts of violence and anger." Noah asked.
"I don't know what's going on, I've never seen it this violent here. I heard that things have turned utterly chaotic while we were gone," said Aithorn as he and Noah watched soldiers arrest the brawlers.
"Maybe it's fear of the epidemic making everyone crazy. You normally see this kind of behavior during famine, economic struggles, and political polarization."
"Things don't change here as rapidly as they do in human societies."
"But clearly, something has."
They reached their destination, but there were even more sick people now than the day before, all at different stages of infection.
"What is this?" Valia asked as she watched Noah mix white powder into a glass of water.
"These are called antibiotics. If this medicine doesn't cure you, it'll at least get the bacterial count so low that your immune system might be able to fight off whatever remains." He handed her the cup, and she took a deep gulp, but nearly spat it out. "Yeah, I added some sugar to make it sweeter, but I imagine it still tastes pretty awful."
"You got that right," she said with a grimace.
"Even if I can cure this, unless we figure out the source, it's just going to keep happening."
"Maybe Balil isn't the original source of this disease," said Valia. "Maybe he caught it from someone else. Unfortunately, we can't exactly ask him about it."
"Either that, or the source is somehow environmental, maybe in the water, or...."
"You! Human!" Noah turned, seeing a male elf pointing to him, his face covered in lesions. "You did this to us!"
"I'm the one trying to cure you."
"Liar!" He charged towards Noah, reminding him of Clemens, but this time, when the punch came, Noah grabbed his arm, twisted it, and brought the man to the ground. The disease had robbed him of most of his strength, but hysteria had amplified everything he had left.
"Calm down!" Noah barked, but the elf was howling profanities. Aithorn helped tie the man up and return him to his bed, but he had to be gagged to stop his screaming.
"Damn it, this city is coming apart at the seams," said Aithorn. He then noticed a peculiar look on Noah's face. "What is it?"
"All those people fighting before, I think they're infected."
"But they weren't showing symptoms."
"Yes they were, at least they were showing one symptom, but the rest are sure to follow. Muscle pain and spasms, nausea, dizziness, skin lesions, and psychosis; these are all symptoms of ergot poisoning."
"Ergot poisoning?"
"It's the result of eating wheat and grains infected with mold. In various world histories, those suffering from ergot poisoning have believed themselves the victims of witchcraft or demonic possession. This world must have something similar, where the mold carries these bacteria. It's possible that each symptom is the result of different kinds of mold contamination in Sylphtoria's bread supply. Maybe Meralda and I succeeded in curing Balil, but every time he ate contaminated bread, he just made himself sick again."
"Is there any way to prove this?"
"Using alchemy and the bacterial samples we've collected, we can test the bread to see if any contamination is present. We just need a large sample size"
"You don't understand. The wheat for our bread isn't grown in large fields. It's grown in gardens spread across the entire Anorvan forest. Even if you can prove its contaminated, there is no way to isolate the source."
"But if we can find the contamination and prove the theory, then that'll be enough for the queen to order the burning of all the bread and wheat in the forest. You guys are surrounded with food and can use druidism, so this isn't exactly going to cause a famine."
"What do we do?"
"I'm going to back to the house and write out the formula. I need you to get some soldiers and collect bread from every home in Sylphtoria."
Before, Aithorn would have insisted on keeping Noah under watch, but he just nodded. "I'm on it."
Thus, they split up. Noah returned home and began working on the test, while Aithorn and several soldiers went around the city, gathering as much bread and grain as they could find. They arrived at the house with carts, wheelbarrows, and sacks full of suspected food. Noah and Aithorn spent the rest of the day testing the bread and continued their work long into the night.
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The moon hung high overhead when Elisandra woke up with a start, lying in bed with her hands tied to the headboard. She could see Noah standing over her with a twisted grin and a sadistic gleam in his eye. After all of her earlier dreams, his presence should have set her ablaze with lust, but her mind was clear, as though coming out of a haze. Now, all she felt was primal terror and anger towards Noah. Her instincts were telling her she was in danger.
She tried to activate her magic, but felt it being jammed. A metal collar was secured around her throat, enchanted to seal away the magic of whoever wore it. These were typically used on prisoners of war, criminals, and slaves with magical abilities, and now the queen was feeling the bite of the cold steel.
"Good evening, Your Majesty. I've come to service you again. Only this time, it's not a dream."
Elisandra felt her blood run cold. "What is this? What do you think you're doing?"
"Taking my prize. All those fantasies you've had before, I implanted them in your mind, grooming you to be a proper toy. I taught you to crave my touch and to shamelessly offer yourself to me." He slid his hands between her legs, molesting her with his slithering fingers. She tried to fight back, but her efforts failed. "See? Regardless of what you may think or feel, you got wet as soon as you saw me. Your body is now my property, even if your mind doesn't accept it. Now it's time for me to break you in."
"I will have you executed for this!"
"You expect your guards to execute their new king? Scream all you want, they can't hear you. Nobody can save you from me, and that collar has sealed away your magic, so I'm free to violate you however long and perversely as I want. By dawn, I'll be God in your eyes, and you will beg me for my touch, beg me to be defiled. Your subjects will see their slut queen submitting to their new lord. They'll see me sitting on your throne as you ride my cock."
He then ripped off her nightgown, exposing her naked body. Elisandra wanted to cover herself, but there was nothing she could do. Noah roughly grabbed her breasts and slapped them, making her wince. "Goddamn, look at this body. It's like you were made to be my fuck slave."
He began sucking on her tits voraciously, devoid of all the grace and gentleness he'd shown in her dreams. He'd bite down on her supple flesh, making her scream in agony and covering her breasts with deep teeth marks. While he chewed on her areolas, his hand was busy between her legs, violently fingering her, and filling her with rage and disgust.
She cursed him with every foul word she knew, but he seemed to enjoy it. He punished her when she tried to resist, forcing her legs apart and smacking her clitoris. The sound of his hand bruising her soft skin and her cries of pain echoed through the palace, but were heard only by them. He raised his hand, drenched with her feminine essence, and jammed his fingers into her mouth.
"Sweet right? Your filthy whore body submitting to me."
He then disrobed, exposing his member, which pointed at her like a blade. He climbed on top of her, hefting it in front of her face. She tried to turn away and keep her mouth clenched shut, only for him to grab her chin and flash a knife in front of her eyes. "One of these is going to go in your mouth, depending on how well you behave. So, are you going to be a good pet?" She glared at him with eyes full of hatred and refused to nod, but she slowly opened her mouth. "Wonderful, you know your place."
Noah then forced his cock into her mouth, and the taste of man, which had once tantalized her, now made her want to retch. She didn't pleasure him as she had in her dream, and just let her jaw and tongue go limp. Noah grabbed his head and brutally skull-fucked her as punishment, shoving his cock down her throat and making her spasm and choke.
She could not think of a worse experience in all her life. She glared at Noah with unbridled hatred, using all her self-control to keep her gag reflex from going off. She pulled at her binds, realizing that one wrist wasn't as tightly wrapped as the other. She put all her faith in that opening, supporting herself as Noah raped her mouth. He finally pulled out, leaving her gasping for air and crying.
"I thought that you were a kind man, but you're just as much the monster that Leuca said you are. Death is too good for you."
"You'll learn to love me."
With a scream of fury, she pulled one arm free and tried scratch Noah's face, instead ripped out a handful of hair. In response, he smacked her across the face, bruising her cheek and leaving her stunned as he wrapped the ropes around her wrists even tighter than before.
"You're going to pay for that." He flipped Elisandra onto her stomach, taking a few moments to slap her ass raw, then once more getting on top of her. "I was going to fuck you the usual way and save this for the coronation, but you need to be thoroughly broken."
