A Question of Time (Caddoc)

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Mim
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A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Mim » November 24th, 2019, 10:28 pm

She could see the problem, and it was worse than annoying. At least, for once, it wasn’t a matter of strength. Nobody, not even the flaming Dragon Reborn, could fix this with the One Power right now. You could go march all over Dragonmount and take all the angreal in the repository, and they wouldn’t do a thing for it. And of course, nobody would care to do that. Nobody ever did, when the patient was just a barn cat. The lot of them, fighting and biting and hissing and shouting, were Liolet’s best friends, and she’d been minding them in secret for as long as she could, as often as she could. They often had the worst accidents. This fool one, a brindle tom, had been kicked by a horse. She’d handled the delicate maneuvers to keep his little furry soul in his body, but he hadn’t perked up the way she sensed he should have.

Sometimes, that meant bleeding inside. That wasn’t the case today. It was more the blood was wrong somehow, her Delving told her. “Too empty,” Liolet told herself, holding the irritated tom, who didn’t have the sense required to know that Liolet wasn’t holding him down for her pleasure or his. He let out a thin, mewling growl, and Liolet rolled her eyes at him. “Not even,” she told the animal, who was thrashing his tail. It was about all he could move, Lio suspected, and that was wrong. She’d done the Healing right. She could not find a kink in his bowel or a break in the muscle under his striped fur. He wasn’t so old that the operation should have tapped his strength like this, and he wasn’t going to be dying on her today.

She just needed to find out how to strengthen him from the inside, rather than pulling all his half-starved weight around and sticking the One Power in it.

What she needed, she decided, was a book. Claiming the struggling tom, who let out a cacophony of dislike, Liolet carried her little prisoner into the kennels, where the dogs barked a the scent of cat and the brindle tom did his best to hiss back. She put him into a cage, which he disliked, and then, she put her cape back on. She’d wrapped the tom in it. The wilder ones would take a pound of flesh from you just because you’d had the gall to try and help them. In that sense, they were quite like humans, in Lio’s experience. No matter how you tried to help another human, you got hurt. This was a fabulous reason to avoid as many humans as she could. Sadly, the Library had many, even on a fine sunny autumn day.

Worse, the Library had one in the very section of books she wanted to peruse, the herbals.

She ignored the fact that he was a pretty one as best as she could. Dark haired, fine-boned, good ankles under the blacks of a Dedicated. He was seated, so she couldn’t admire her favorite bit of male anatomy, but she already knew it was good: she’d seen this one before. Half dandy, half...automaton. All Caddoc Svan. He puzzled the girls - all the girls - and Liolet happened to know he puzzled a good quantity of the men, too. She wasn’t puzzled. Her instinct told her to steer well clear, and the one time she’d gotten a nebulous insight about him, it had given her nightmares for three nights running. All she’d seen was rope, but even now, she had to stop and steady her hands sometimes when she worked with horses if they were on hemp leads. He’d made himself into a black hole as far as Liolet was concerned, and so, it was disturbing to have him this close, pretty or not.

Actually, these days, it was pretty disturbing to be near anyone.

“Illnesses of the blood,” she murmured aloud, looking over the spines of battered herbals. Sometimes you got lucky and the thing you needed was right on the outside, in cobweb-fine script. Often, you had to find a docent Brown. Their categorical knowledge was so deep that sometimes, they’d quote a bit and you’d have to spend all afternoon verifying it because while they remembered the answer, they didn’t remember which journal they’d found it in any longer. And of course, whatever Lio found here, she’d have to take with a grain of salt all the way over to the few books on veterinary medicine, where she would have to guess whether it would kill or cure one of her friends.

Why couldn’t it be easier? How did she not know these things already? “Iron to bind, that’s all I know,” Lio grumbled, and picked up a sheaf of leather-wrapped manuscripts. Choosing a copy book from a table, she sat down across from Svan and turned the first pages, looking for any provocative lead to scribble down. There wasn’t much time, but she couldn’t forget to do the flaming research or there would be no time at all.

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Eve
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Eve » November 25th, 2019, 5:54 am

This was Caddoc’s study time. He spent this portion of the day, after he had taken a swift nap after his night shift, quietly reading. Sometimes it was in his room, but today he had decided to go out some, and the library was normally quiet. Normally. He had been here about an hour, reading through several books on herbal remedies in peace, ignoring the comings and goings of others as no one approached him. He had returned several times to the shelves to retrieve some of the other books, rarely putting one back as he made meticulous notes. As a result, he had almost all of the good, detailed, and trustworthy books spread on the tables in front of him. The more interesting ones he had propped up and held upon to certain pages with strands of air so that he would not lose his place. He went from one to another, gathering notes in straight columns down the pages as he placed them within categories of illness or treatment. He cross referenced, and looked into side effects. He double checked any that would effect Channelers differently, or perhaps would target a single gender of the Power.

He was deep into his research when the young woman sat herself down at his table. He had not even noticed her at first, so deep into his books that he had deaf to the world. However, he could not help but notice now that the table was being shared. He kept his head down at the moment, trying to block out that he now had a partner at the table. Surely she could have chosen a different table. The library wasn’t that small… Why in the world would she sit so close, unless she was trying to get his attention. He glanced up and, from the poise of her body and the way she muttered to herself, he instantly derived that this was most likely not the case. No, she was trying to be as small as possible, and she seemed more happy to equally ignore him as he was her. He glanced down at her book, to see if the answer lay there. Ah. Yes. She had chosen this table because it was closest to the books that she wanted, and quicker to move back and forth between them. But, in her muttering, she had said something curious.

He watched her for a moment more, not bothering to hide the fact that his eyes were on her. And then his steady voice broke the silence at the table. “’Iron to bind’ what exactly?” He said, those wildly dancing green eyes pinned upon her in interest now, his book spread before him.
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Mim
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Joined: October 15th, 2014, 4:52 pm
PC: Liolet Belwhyn
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Location: State of Insanity

Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Mim » November 25th, 2019, 6:15 am

She felt his eyes on her before she looked up. He'd looked her way several times that she'd caught, but he hadn't spoken and if he had, she intended to tell him that it wasn't his right or his privilege to commandeer the table closest to the books she wanted just because he felt like it was. He was tall enough to reach the top shelves, and from what she'd heard, strong enough to have what he liked from the shelves anyway. Neither was the case for Liolet, and as such, she felt perfectly justified to take the table's other seat. It wasn't a small table. It wasn't like she had her feet under his half of it. Thankfully, he was equally polite. Pretty as he was, he could drop to one knee and swear undying love for her and she'd still say no. While she'd never been rude enough to Delve the man, her intuition told her that something was off about him and she was willing to listen to it.

He'd heard her? She scrolled back the things she'd muttered to herself and frowned. "Blood," she said, after a moment. "Iron to bind. That's why they sign things in blood, in Tear. The iron binds the contracts." She pursed her lips. "I've got blood on my mind," she added, then realized that it was an odd thing to say. But she couldn't explain, either. Svan was aspiring Yellow, last she'd ever been told (and she hadn't asked in the first place.) Liolet had always thought she was earmarked for the Blue, but it was true that the focus of her life had shifted since her first days in the Tower. Now, she wasn't sure where she stood. Yellow appealed. She'd never be much good at a sickbed, but...a sick kennel? She might manage to keep the people she really cared about alive. Well, except they technically weren't people...

"You know, when you Delve, and the blood feels wrong? Too thin. And the patient," so what if he was a cat, didn't everyone deserve a savior? - "is too weak to Heal again, and you aren't certain what's missing? What do you do for that?" She was pretty sure it was herbals, but which, and how much, and how to dose an offended tomcat? "I don't think I have much time to find the answer." Well, she technically had Ages, but her patient did not. She was likely lucky his soul was still firmly in his furry body. Perhaps she should have taken him to someone wiser in the first case, but who was that? The horses had care, and the kennel dogs were pampered, but who stood for the barn cats? Liolet didn't know. All she was sure of was that the furry little bastards had her - for what little that was worth.

And she'd even poke the surly bear that was Svan if there was a chance of finding something for a friend. Also, that furry little monster owed her. What, she had no idea, but she'd get her satisfaction out of his tabby hide.

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Eve
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Eve » November 26th, 2019, 4:31 am

Caddoc’s eyes stayed on her, steady at the moment, not dancing as they sometimes did when his emotions were roiling within him. He listened to her silently, letting her work her way through what she was trying to describe to him. He slowly nodded his head, indicating that he knew what she meant about delving someone and the blood ‘feeling wrong’. He was quiet again for the moment, looking down as he turned in to his thoughts. Perhaps surprisingly, he seemed to take this question quite seriously. He pondered, and then stood from his seat.

“So,” he said in his steady voice. “You have already attempted to Heal your patient once, and you were unable to find the problem. Delving has exposed a certain sensation, but you cannot put your finger on what it is…” That was common enough for younger Healers, or even experienced ones when they came upon a new malady. “And the patient is far to weak to attempt another Healing.” He inhaled quietly, “As well as the fact that, if your Healing did touch upon whatever is wrong you cannot Heal the same problem twice… So you are looking for an herbal remedy to assist you…”

He moved back to the table and began to flip through one of his books, leaning over the table as he was far to lost in thought to sit down at the moment. “What are the patient’s other symptoms? Not only what you have seen through Delving, but also what you have noticed with your eyes. Are they nauseated? Are they weak? Feverish? Short of breath? Pale? Cold? Are they unusually angry or irritable? Any of these things can assist in giving a diagnosis even if Healing has not led you in the correct direction….” Moving from the table, he went to the shelf and retrieved a tomb. Turning, one could see it was titled "Maladies of the Blood". He was slowly flipping through it, licking his thumb occasionally to turn the page.
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Mim
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Mim » November 27th, 2019, 8:13 am

When he put it that way, she sounded like an idiot. Not unsurprisingly, this made her want to bridle, but she was desperate. When you were desperate, you had to be willing to find answers in unexpected and even unpleasant places. Damn that cat. And damn the horse, and while she was tossing blame around, she might as well take a portion. There were an awful lot of barn cats now that she'd started working with them and feeding them scraps, and perhaps if she hadn't made their lives so easy, they'd not have begun...Well, no, that was fool's talk. Cats always congregated in the Stables before the snows started, and her kicked tom wasn't the first one to ever end up that way. He probably wasn't even the first one to have an amateur Healer after him, either. Some of those cats had to have survived the experience. She was going to make one more, even if she had to pick Caddoc Svan's brains for a solution.

"To be frank," Liolet said, her lips pulled together in a thin line, "my patient is always quite surly. Fancies himself invincible, he does. He's weak, he's much slower than he should have been, he's cold. Gums are pale." You couldn't really assess a cat's skin without paring back their hair, and as that was pretty much the best part of a cat, Liolet wasn't about to damage the brindle tom's fine fur. "He's listless, but he's still got a bit of fight in him. But not as much as I expected." She frowned. All those symptoms together suggested something - the word she wanted was dancing on her tongue - but what? What was wrong with the cat? "He ate a bit, though, and I'm relatively sure his stool was normal." She hadn't found any, actually, but what she had palpated of his abdomen had been neither turgid nor hard.

These were good questions. Liolet eyed the Dedicated, who held a book she hadn't been able to find (likely because he'd had it.) Did she tell him now that his patient was a barn cat, or did she let him give her some answers that she might be able to use to narrow down solutions that wouldn't kill the poor thing? "I don't think he's still bleeding inside," she said, "but maybe he's not got enough blood? Or is it missing something?" Liolet was pretty sure the usual order of blood donation around a cat was she gave the blood and the cat caused her to: it'd be funny to try things the other way around. But when you had limited time and a life on the line, maybe "funny" was just another concept you had to toss out.

"I'd almost think he needs the tonic the girls use," Liolet said, aloud, pondering, "but that's for women." And human ones, at that. "He's not female. And it might take too long to work." Not to mention, she had no idea how much of it to dose a cat with. "What's in that tonic, anyway?" But of course, Svan wouldn't know that: he was male, too. He didn't have any weaknesses associated with his blood, because he didn't spend a flaming sevenday at it every turn of the moon! Which meant he was useless - then again, what males had a purpose, anyway?

She heaved a sigh. It had been the best part of an afternoon, and she was no closer to a solution, even with help.

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Eve
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Eve » November 28th, 2019, 5:03 am

“I did not ask if he was surly.” He said. “I asked if he was more surly than usual. If you are unable to tell, I would assume that the answer is no.” That was all he said upon this, however, as she began to list her patient’s symptoms. He picked up a pad and began to make notes, taking this as seriously as if the patient was sitting in the infirmary before him. He did not ask her why she did not take him there. He did not care. He did not even ask if the patient was real, or a report she was supposed to do. Again, he did not care. All he cared about was the symptoms in front of him, and what they might mean. The fact that herbs could potentially be used to assist this was fascinating, and just the sort of practice that he needed.

Internal bleeding was doubtful, but not verified…not enough blood? “Did he suffer any recent blood loss, or is this a symptom of an improper diet?” he asked. “Do not let it fool you, such a thing is very threatening if it has gone on long enough. Deadly, even. A man may have all the vegetables he needs, but still starve to death, with a full stomach, without meat.”

‘The tonic girls use?’ He did not look up from his pad as he made notes, having set down the book he had held before. “Corenroot.” He stated casually. “One tablespoon of dried corenroot in eight ounces of tea, administered each morning. It helps them to keep up their strength during their moon days.”

He looked up from his notes and eyed the woman in front of him. “If that is what you think is wrong with him, then I would suggest anemia. If you have time, attempt to raise the vitamin C with a more balanced diet. If you do not, then I would suggest a fast diet of lean, red meat to increase the iron in the blood. Nettle tea can also assist with this, raising several other vitamins in the blood stream. And it only takes 2 teaspoons in eight ounces of water. Drink as often as you can, at least two times a day, and add honey if you need a sweetener.”
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Mim
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Mim » November 28th, 2019, 6:28 am

"What?" she asked aloud, as Svan wondered about recent blood loss. "Yes, he did lose some blood. He was kicked by a horse. Bled inside." It was a common enough injury, with the Drin forever teasing the horses, but of course, her patient wasn't human. Nor had he been teasing the horse that kicked him: he'd just been in a bad place at a bad time. But Svan wasn't done, it seemed: the man said one of the things that had been dancing about on Liolet's tongue, pinning her mind in place.

What?

How could he just spit that sort of information out, like he had any idea what moon days were like? She realized she was gaping at Svan (not something he'd be unused to, pretty as he was) and struggled to shove herself back into that impenetrable Aes Sedai calm that everyone insisted was so bloody instrumental to the turning of the Wheel or whatever nonsense ascribed to it today. Suddenly, she cared far less about everyone's determination that she needed to be as calm as a painted lake and a lot more for the thoughts percolating in Svan's pretty head.

"But that's for stones of weight," Liolet finally managed. "At least five stones. And my patient is only perhaps two stone." Still, corenroot was a place to start. Or finish. And nettles? She was certain there was a good patch of those in the sparring arenas: the boys loved to throw one another into them and then cry about the stinging welts for days. But good meat? She had already paid handsomely for a good cut from the cold pantries, and put up with the inevitable teasing that some man would be eating well that evening. Paying more was a burden. Still, if you wanted a cure, you couldn't skimp on it. She'd already started the work to keep the brindle tom from dying: why quibble about the price of meat?

"Perhaps you'd like to come and see...my patient," Liolet said. "If we work together, we might manage to find the right amount for his weight." Hah, and it would likely be the first time that Svan had gone in a stable for anything but the hayloft! "I know where I can source nettles and meat," she said, "and you can bring corenroot." It certainly sounded like he had some, and Liolet wasn't about to ask why. She'd likely not enjoy hearing the answer.

"Perhaps we'd do better trying it than simply discussing it. Meet me at the stables."

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Eve
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Eve » November 29th, 2019, 4:27 am

Caddoc did not lift his head to watch her, though he could see her out of the corner of his eye. He shook his head to himself, finding it ridiculous, as he always did, that people forgot that he was a Healer. Where did they think people went when they were having problems with anything internal? And it wasn’t always feasible to get a female Healer. Any male Healer that found himself stepping around such a thing was an amateur, no matter his experience, at best. Still, he ignored her as he flipped through the books, jotting down notes and thoughts about this problem.

He did look up when she stated the patient’s weight. 2 stones? Was this an infant that she was administering to? His eyes narrowed thoughtfully, some of the only emotion he had shown during any of this, and now he was fully focused upon her. From the blank look of his face, and the dancing emotion in his eyes (the only place one could see what he was thinking) it was a gaze not many truly enjoyed. He cocked his head slowly to the side, and then nodded his head. Yes, seeing this patient might be very good indeed. He stood up straight, closing the books but not reshelving them. That would take too much time. He did, however, swiftly stack them in order to at least make that easier on the Browns that would tidy up later. “Very well.” He stated, his eyes narrowing further when she mentioned the stables. Livestock? Was he administering to livestock? That would, possibly, explain the weight but…what animal in the stables would only be 2 stones?

“Then I shall meet you there, with the Corenroot.” He said after only a minute’s hesitation. This settled, he did not wait for her to bid him farewell, but strode silently from the library and towards his rooms, where he kept a little Corenroot for some of the girls he had slept with that were to ashamed to go to the Infirmary with their problems.
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Mim
"The Great Hunt"
Posts: 57
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PC: Liolet Belwhyn
SC: Sarkaska Jinlo
Location: State of Insanity

Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Mim » November 29th, 2019, 10:37 pm

The nettles were easy, the meat less so. It took a lot of coin to adjust the Tower's menu when you were only one of the ersatz children, and while Liolet had a little, most of what she had was being held in trust against the day she was raised. That didn't seem to be a day coming any dawn soon, as her father had died a decade before. The Aes Sedai had seen to the sale of the inn that had been his pride and joy, and that was the coin she had, or so she had been told. She didn't believe she'd see a penny of it, of course. Every so often, she was called to an office here or an office there, and told about trusts and fees and taxes and hedged bets, but she didn't understand. Well, bets she understood. Liolet had a fondness for taking a flutter on the ponies. She doubted the Aes Sedai were betting on horses with her father's bequeathment, but who knew, with the Aes Sedai? At any rate, she had little personal coin, most of it off doing odd jobs for the Asha'man, who seemed to understand that a girl sometimes needed a bit of coin to clink about in her pouch in a way their fellow Aes Sedai never did.

Armed with a rather fine cut of beef and a handful of noxious weeds, Liolet arrived at the Stables out of breath, and only a few moments before the calm, staid Dedicated. She considered explaining as she led him around to the side, where the whelping kennels were, but what was the point? He'd likely scoff and walk out. Then again, he had come this far. Perhaps he'd offer her some kind of ratio for the corenroot. Or help her gavage the charcoal down the tom when she made a mistake. There was really no predicting Svan, so Liolet guessed she might as well be optimistic. For a given value of "optimistic" when the outcome had an expensive steak and a handful of nettles involved, anyway.

"The horses have Falala Sedai," Liolet said, finally, as she led him through a low doorway and into the row of cages within, "and the dogs have an Asha'man. But the cats," she said, pausing in front of her listless tom, who greeted Caddoc with a thin growl disguised as a mewl, "well, they've no one. This fool," she said, setting her waxed-paper packet and odd bouquet to one side as she unfastened her cloak in preparation for going after the brindle tom, "had an accident. I know his soul's still in his hide," she said, covering her arms with the blue wool of her cloak and opening the cage latch, "but he's not perking up." She wrestled the unwilling tom into her arms. "I know he looks lively," she said, darkly, "but he's not himself."

She righted the cat and stuffed his large body fearlessly under her arm, then used her freed hands to part the beast's jaws and show Caddoc his pale gums. "He's not running. He sleeps even more than he ought to. He fell off a beam he's walked a thousand times. His gums are pale and his coat's dull. And I am certain," she said, refusing to fall back on the comforting term "think," "that it's his blood. It's just too thin. So how do you dose a cat with corenroot?" She nodded at the top of the cage she'd put the steak down on. "I brought the nettles and he'll have a fine feast - finer than I'll have for the next few sevendays, at least. Show me how to mix it up for him."

And Creator forbid she had to get it out of her sodding flaming white dress again right after he did!

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Eve
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Re: A Question of Time (Caddoc)

Post by Eve » December 2nd, 2019, 4:06 am

Caddoc saw her as he approached, the small pouch of Corenroot tucked into his belt pouch. He moved to meet her and then, as she led him around the stables to the kennels he listened. At first his brows were ever so slightly pulled down, just on the insides, as he considered her words. When she revealed it was a cat, though, his brows lifted slightly in…surprise? Incredulity? Something, at least. He was silent as she explained all of this, letting her wrestle the cat into the cloak, not moving to assist her only because he had not been asked too. Often, the desire to help only got in the way.

However, when she opened his jaws, he did step forward to take a look. He looked thoughtful as he studied them, and nodded his head seriously. He reached out as she mentioned his coat and touched the male, only to test this himself, and nodded again. Then he looked at her. “First of all.” He said. “Why do you not subdue him with the One Power? It would be much easier, and safer, on the both of you?” he said as he watched her.

He turned away then to pull the kennel door closed behind them, indicating that he wasn’t leaving, at least, and that he was still willing to assist. “His will cause his heart rate to sky rocket, adversely effecting his condition. He could also sprain something, or even break something if you hold him to tight while he tries to escape. And you, he may only be a foot and a half tall, but those claws could easily nick you in just the wrong place. And a cat’s claws and teeth are specifically designed to hold disease, so that even if their prey escapes, they may later be hampered by illness and be more easily caught.” He moved forward to crouch down, taking the corenroot out of his pouch. “You brought water?” He asked as he studied the root. “With his weight I would say only a teaspoon instead of a full table spoon. I will know by the smell of it as the tea is brewed. Hand me the nettles, and I will crush them.”
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