A Sickly Descent

[wealthypiano 394]

 

   The city was both desolate and busy. The streets were empty spare a few runners, looters, scavengers, and doctors. But deep underground, men were busy working on a cure. A cure to the plague which had already taken the lives of many.

 

 Of course these men needed supplies for such, including the diseased flesh from which the cure would later be found. Maurice II de Sarkozy found himself doing exactly that. Both he, and the third company which he commanded had been working both against the plague, and alongside it since the start. They'd spared one of their sickly comrades, even letting him continue along on their journey. But, enough was enough. Maurice found himself sick on a run, fighting over a piece of diseased flesh.

 

   His sickness had grown worse over time, thinking it a mild case at first. He was wrong. His case grew worse. He vomited and vomited until the spot he stood flooded with a river of bile. His work would not allow him to take reprieve, however and so his condition had not the ability to improve, and only was to worsen exponentially.

 

  He found himself working through his own home, Hadrian's wall. There, the bile would not stop. It was as if he was drowning in it. He could feel nothing left in his stomach, his feet would carry him no more. He finally collapsed on the ground in his own office, crawling forward to the casket bearing the remains of Saint Adrian. Fearing Godly retribution for his past sins of fighting for Darfeyists, he lurched forward, heaving his upper body atop the casket. He could do nothing more than pray for perhaps forgiveness, or at the least a reprieve for his sins as he took his finals breathes.

 

  No soul would even discover his body for a couple of days, not until another soldier of the third company, sick, came searching for him. His will, written when he took his tenure as Lord de Sarkozy, was to be found in his officer. Several notes serving as reminders of promotions and those to be recommended for medals would be found in his belt, some stain with bile, others written hastily.

 

  Lord de Sarkozy was dead. Maurice the second, named for his greedy Grandfather. The son of Arjen, who had been a savior of Abresi from the evils of the elves. One of the last descendants of Saint Adrian, and possessor of his remains, and commander of the third company, was dead.

[Original 54]

-

[DelaneyG 1279]

Arthal Lowedge's time during the plague consisted of watching for infected, and searching for survivors.

When he wasn't out in Kaldonia searching for healthy men and women, and ushering them to safety, he was in the gatehouse of Hadrian's Wall, watching out for infected.

 

He stayed there during the duration of the plague.

 

One day, he decided to go to the Third Company tower, and take a look from the high vantage point. As he entered, a rotten stench filled his nose.

 

 

He moved towards the source of the smell, and upon entering Maurice's office, his jaw dropped.

His friend was dead.

Arthal carefully dragged the body outside, and shed a tear, as he burned the body.

 

[Helbolt 129]

Jacob Frost sends his condolences to the family of Decurion Sarkozy.  "This plague has taken far too many good men."

[Esterlen 4499]

 

It was so said that the relics of Saint Adrian had seen more travel than the man himself had when he drew breath. It had been forty-four years since his death, and after his burial at Ard Kerrack the war between the Adunians and the Raevir had left his resting place a swamp, a muddy wreck of debris. Still, his faithful nephew Arjen had dug up his skeletal remains on the command of Emperor Sigismund and entombed them at the priory of Cavan, at that time managed by Prelate Zacarias de Mosquera. Before the flood had struck Anthos, Arjen's son Maurice had broken open his tomb at Cavan and placed him in an oaken casket, carrying him on a litter to this new world, where he had died at its side.

 

The legacy of de Sarkozy had been lost to the wind. Saint Adrian's second daughter was Sigismund's empress whose name was lent to the Sarkozic line of Carrion, but other than that the scholarly saint's legacy had ended. Even in Leuvaarden, the memory of the dreaded Maurice the First slowly faded out of the people's minds. Only the bastard son of a bastard son remained.

 

Nevertheless, Maurice the Second found his absolution in death. Despite all his flaws, he died repentant of all his sins. From the Seven Skies, Saint Adrian welcomed his grand-nephew with open arms. Arjen and Maurice had been the dutiful, loyal sons he never had, the sons that his own sickly sons could never have been, and for that he loved them more than anything.

[John Ivory 4547]

"May he rest well in Seven Kingdoms!"

[Birdwhisperer 1174]

Moved to the Great Library. It shall be sorted into appropriate category shortly.