Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 86

"I do not know... I cannot know if this might be related or not," Khumdar said cautiously. "But there is something hiding.... I do not know the kind of secret it might be. Be it person or condition, but I became aware of it shortly before it was noted people fell ill."

"Do you know where it is?" Don asked.

The cleric shook his head. "It comes and goes; or that is how it seems. At times, no matter how hard I search for it, I cannot sense that secret anywhere. Then, it will be so clear I will be incapable of not being aware of it, and yet still unable to locate it." He closed his eyes. "I cannot sense it at this time."

"You said shortly before this started. Any idea how early?"

"Unfortunately no. I am also unaware of how it came to arrive. Secrets are not as the sun shining its light down on us. They do not blind with their arrival."

Don became thoughtful. "Tibs, how was the people's essence before the sickness was made official?"

Tibs shrugged. "I didn't pay attention to that. To many people around, and it's already so faint I can't tell them apart in a crowd."

"What are you thinking?" Kroseph asked.

Don tapped a finger on the table. "It's the rare sickness that strikes hard. Most of the ones I read about build over time. It can be days, if not weeks, before an afflicted person shows signs. It's what makes the contagious kinds so dangerous. By the time the first person falls from it, entire neighborhoods are afflicted."

"Are you thinking it's what happened here?"

"The guards noted a rise in fighting in the days before the first case was recognized. There were also more people saying how tired they were. Considering how Tibs senses the sickness acting, it seems the two can be connected."

"I get the people being tired one," Jackal said. "But fights are always going on."

"Not like this. The guards know the most likely spots fights will start because they track them. They don't know about the pit, you don't have to worry about that. What's changed was how spread the fighting became. Over ten days before that first case, fights started in parts of the city that had never seen them, and over things that were mostly meaningless. Enough, most didn't understand why they got angry over them. When asked to describe the reason, all they could say was that they just 'lost it'."

"People lose their tempers all the time," Mez said

"Yes, and it is prevalent enough that many scholars studied what cause it to happen. What kind of person is more likely to lose their temper, what types of situation are more likely to make someone who isn't prone to anger get angry. There are a lot of them," Don said, shaking his head. "And over the books I've read, some contradict each other. But one that comes up nearly in all of them is how being tired, how a loss in vitality, leads to an increase in loss of temper. Which is what the sickness seems to be causing."

He rubbed his temple. "Next time we're allowed to travel, I'll look for books that are more detailed on the subject. Those were just generalized compendium I looked at as part of figuring out what interested me."

"You read the strangest things," Mez said.

Jackal snorted. "It's just strange that he reads. And guards' reports? If you are so bored, I'm sure Khumdar will be happy to include you in his staff training."

"No," The cleric stated.

Don shook his head. "Your attempt at getting me to endure pain has shown that putting myself in such situation is not something I care to do."

"You don't always have a choice," Jackal pointed out.

The sorcerer's nod was confident. "And just like I did then, I will deal with those situations. But I feel my time is better spent learning, instead of suffering. I can learn how to use my essence more efficiently, both as attacks and defense, and support."