Disentanglement - [Luthais, Ouzan]

Within the wide sleeves of his mourning robe, Luthais distractedly ran the seed beads of his rosary-like strings through his fingers. The rest of his family had come on the funeral procession with him, naturally, even Shiyuli popping up back in Miras from who knew where. However, at this moment, Luthais was alone. His parents had gone to check on Ileth, who avoided crowds if she could and thus often wandered away to the edge of the procession. Carayna was no doubt healing blisters of those who were unused to walking for so long. Shiyuli was again, who knew where, and Hanlin was with a few of his military friends. No matter: Luthais did not doubt they would find each other again in time for the end.

His hands moved from the beads to the pouches weighing down his belt. One contained nasturtium seeds, the other of dandelion seeds. They had been full to bursting three days ago, but he had depleted most of his stock now that the last day had come—not that it would be trouble for him to replenish if he needed to. Luthais had spent his time the procession growing and giving out the late king's favorite flowers. Normally he did not appreciate people using dead blooms to 'liven' up their outfits, but this occasion was different. Despite being introverted by nature, Luthais felt compelled to approach strangers to offer what he had. After months in Estraude working on the plague that had Nisalvini in its clutches, Luthais somehow felt guilty that the king had fallen to a different illness while he had been away from Miras. He had not made any significant process concerning the Ash Fever or black thorns either. This drove him to want to show that he had something, anything to offer right now, even if it was just dandelions and nasturtiums. The procession was certainly reaching its saturation level by this point, though; most people had gotten them in the earlier days if they had not had them from the start. Everywhere he looked, there were bright blossoms on lapels or in pockets— someone even had a nasturtium in a pot, and oh, she had almost lost her footing and dropped it. This near accident made Luthais look long enough to realize that he knew the young lady. He had seen her multiple times growing up when visiting Nisalvini and dropping by to see his old colleague Dion, her grandfather. Making his way closer, Luthais said, "Excuse me, Ouzan? Are you all right?"

Luthais's eyebrows lifted slightly at the mention of 'fate' because it honestly was not something he ordinarily put much stock in. Maybe fate was a concept better applied to his siblings, who had known what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives so quickly, but Luthais was the one who had had to put in work to find his own path, decide his own future. He had admittedly been feeling somewhat adrift ever since he had heard the news of the king's death through whisper tree from those of his family who had still been in Miras, wondering if all his efforts in Estraude meant anything, but now that he had spoken to Caleb about the Council of Crossroads, perhaps that was the direction he should go concerning the plague instead. A look of startlement crossed his face when what Ouzan brought up was relevant as well. His doubt regarding fate started to waver; perhaps its wheels really were turning.

"What?" he cried, his voice rising in volume. Fortunately, he was a quiet man to begin with, so loud for him was not inappropriately loud by average standards. A couple of nearby mourners glanced at him briefly but soon dismissed him from their minds. Still, Luthais flushed slightly and cleared his throat to regain himself. "What have you found that might eliminate the black thorns?" he asked in a low, but still urgent tone. "I can spare any time that is needed. I have already spent the past months working on that very problem... to no avail." Shame lowered his gaze temporarily, fingers picking at his pouches, but Luthais soon fixed his eyes and undivided attention on Ouzan again. "Please tell me." He did not want to have to wait in suspense throughout the entire burial. The thought would drive him to distraction, and he did not want to disrespect the late king by thinking about something else during his interment. 

The white thorns-- Luthais had actually attempted to procure a sample during the Leywood Expedition but his efforts had been futile. It sounded like someone else had managed to, and he was extremely curious about how. Unfortunately, the burial started before more could be explained, and he did his best to push the issue to the back of his mind. His family had unerringly found him again, bearing him slightly away from Ouzan for the time being. Among the offerings, Luthais scattered the remaining seeds he had of the king's favorite flowers and invoked them to grow, although he did so more slowly than the near-instant blooming he had done for so many mourners. There was no need for him to expend ether for speed anymore; in fact, a sedate pace felt more respectful.

Sprouts were just poking out of the ground by the time Luthais separated from his family to continue his conversation with Ouzan. He was surprised to hear that it was someone from the Abbey that had managed it. The Abbey was a place of religion, not one which focused on research. Perhaps Luthais should have stayed in Cantor after the expedition, too, but when he had heard a plague had risen affecting the people, rather than one affecting plant life, he had prioritized. The Circle of the Wreath was renowned for healing and so Estraude had seemed like the best place to be at the time. Well, there was no use in regretting now; he could not turn back time. "How exactly did she grow the sample?" Luthais asked.

"Yes, I read about that," he said regarding the white thorns in Nisalvini. His family had once again repeated that he was forbidden from going, though. Luthais's eyes grew wide at the news that the white thorns had beat out the black ones, and a bright smile, usually rare for him but especially so these past few days, crossed his face. It disappeared as quickly as it came as he considered possible implications. "That is extraordinary news. However, there are indeed many factors to consider. First and foremost, we must make sure we are not trading one infestation for another. The basis behind journeying into the Leywood was that there was an identical problem with white thorns instead of black thorns in Cantor in the past, after all." He wondered if he could get back in touch with the historians of Nisalvini he had been in contact with during that expedition to find out more. "Balance may be the key. If we could possibly grow white thorns to precisely negate the black thorns so that neither survives..." Luthais ground his foot slightly as he thought. "Yes, checking how they affect Nisalvini's native flora will be crucial as well. When two great powers collide, there is often collateral damage. We need to be sure that pitting the black thorns and white thorns against each other will not bring about a more devastating effect than either alone." To others, it may seem a baseless comparison; it was not as if these were two bombs that could cause a bigger explosion when thrown together. But although it was not a conventional battle, it was a battle nonetheless. "The two thorn strains could drain the resources of the island while trying to outcompete each other, nutrients and necessities that other plants will have need of," he explained aloud. "Did you check the quality of the soil after conducting the black versus white thorn experiments?"

"We would be greatly interested in working together with the Abbey and Nisalvini on this," Luthais said, thinking back to what he had discussed with Caleb regarding the Council of Crossroads. "If either could send a sample of the white thorns to the Academy, I can assure you we will do everything we can to find a solution. While the black thorns are connected to the Ash Fever, there is no solid evidence that it is the disease's sole cause or that eradicating them will heal the sick." Luthais was blunt about the facts as usual, not thinking about how this might be dampening Ouzan's clear hope. "If possible though, I will bring in my sister Carayna, a member of the Circle of the Wreath, to collaborate with the Academy's research with a focus on a cure. Wait... did you just say Dion is one of the ill?" He had been so caught up in thinking about finally being able to advance against the plague that it took a moment to register. "I am so sorry to hear that. How is his condition?" he asked worriedly. Luthais had wondered when he had noticed Dion had not sent a letter in a while. Since Dion was half-wood like himself, Luthais had thought that the chances of him being afflicted were low, but it seemed like his family had been right in keeping him away from Nisalvini after all. At least Dion was still alive, and hopefully his diluted light-elf blood meant he was not yet at the coma stage which had preceded every death so far.

"I see," Luthais said, nodding. It was certainly understandable that Ouzan would wish to convey the sample to Nisalvini as fast as possible, especially given her grandfather's state. "If you are going to the Abbey to find out more, then I would like to accompany you, if you would be all right with that. I want to hear all the details personally as well, although I would be stopping by the Academy first to check in on the progress our researchers are making with regards to Nisalvini's plague."

"Yes, at this point, any measure that we could possibly take would require massive effort given the scale of what we are combating. That is understandable," Luthais said regarding their hesitance in experimenting on their native flora, "and I only wish that I could come down to help. Given one plant, I can make more of the same through accelerated growth to produce seeds, which can then be used as stock to continue the cycle." That was basically what he had done to get so many dandelion and nasturtium seeds in the first place and why he would have had no trouble replenishing if he had needed to. However, his family would certainly never let him go, as mentioned before. Even if Luthais was the disobedient type who could sneak away-- which he certainly was not-- there was no way for him to out-sneak his eldest sister; Shiyuli was a resourceful Marauder who somehow managed to keep tabs on her family while being hard to keep track of herself.

"Small sample sizes can be misleading. Especially for something that, if promising, we intend to employ on nearly all of Nisalvini, conducting experiments of greater size will certainly be necessary to ascertain that this method will beget no further destructive side effects. Excellent," Luthais said when Ouzan mentioned sending white thorn samples to the Academy. "If you could also send relevant samples of flora native to Nisalvini to test with, that would be helpful as well. I have some reserves of my own from past visits that I can use in the meantime, though I will put some aside if necessary to reintroduce to the island should some species have been lost to the plague."

"I have not either," Luthais admitted. It was painfully frustrating to get almost nowhere in his research about this problem. He had tackled many difficult projects in his long academic career but none of them had been as unfruitful as this had been. At Ouzan's mention of the White Oracles, Luthais recalled the one he had met himself-- it was still incredible to think that the girl he had chased a goose with was now one of the blessed of Aurea, especially since she was human rather than a light elf-- but right now he was completely concentrated on the plague rather than on future sight. "Yes, if Aurea has endowed youths with clairvoyance, perhaps she will aid us in this as well, or we might pray that Therras may be the next to bless us." His expression became slightly awkward and even a little sad when he said, "Yes, we have been friends for a long time, but he did not tell me." Ouzan's following words seemed to console him that it was not any fault in their friendship. "I see. It is good to hear that he is not one of the worse cases."

Indeed, Luthais would be far from surprised if his family came to snatch him back up again; they did always treat him as the baby of them all. "You are by yourself, are you not? It may be safer for you to check in to the same inn my family and I will be in. That will make it easier for us to touch base as well. Believe me when I say there are a number of others at the Academy who are invested in helping Nisalvini. I do not mind giving you my address, but I believe it would be more efficient for you to go through the Academy to find me." The renowned school was certainly easier to find than his home, and if Luthais was out of his house, there was nobody else in it to forward letters to his actual location, whereas there would be others at the Academy who could do so.