The Thunderbird

“Identity?” The Physician wore his gloves.

Cosimo was wrinkling his nose at the alum-smelling air. “Tutu, a thunderbird,” he said, flipping through pages. “His age is never stated.”

“Most likely because Tutu was ancient.”

Tutu’s golden plumage was rising; arcs of electricity shot continuously into the air. His gargantuan talons screeched the glass. His beak, twice the size of a ballista, launched at the nearest mountain of olive seeds. Then Tutu choked. A tsunami of bird’s saliva and olive-seed gruel ricocheted onto the Physician’s robe.

“Symptoms and onset?”

The Physician did a ward round—literally—around the containment. There was no carrion around. He saw a huge pipe sticking out from Tutu’s cervical spine.

Cosimo was following the Physician’s gaze.

“Frequent twitching and clawing around his glass. Movements that we suspected as seizures, at least once a week.” Cosimo’s face darkened. “The symptoms began around four months ago. Before you complained, we only siphoned his electricity one month ago. I thought it served as a channel to let out extra electricity. Sort of cupping, but with elect— Senior!”

Tutu just swatted the Physician with his wing as the Physician approached the beast. Tutu’s vomit cushioned the Physician.

“The brain is not the sole electricity-generating organ.” The Physician spat out some seeds. As Cosimo searched for a bandage, he sneakily drank a jar of karkadann’s milk. He could feel his broken bones mend.

“We need to bring you to a physician, Senior!” said Cosimo hurriedly.

“We are physicians, Cosimo.” The Physician stood up. “I am all right. The hurled olive seeds softened the fall.”

“That still did not explain the swatting damage.”

“I got stronger this past year,” he lied. “Or Tutu weakened. If my eyes were not tricking me, you did not feed meat?”

“Consequences from the crown.” Cosimo was checking the Physician’s wound anyway. He looked at the Physician’s three different veins with curiosity. “The first was the war; then food was rationed.”

“Nico sounded as chipper as ever the last time I saw him,” the Physician noted, gently pulling his sleeve.

Cosimo’s eyes stayed on his senior’s hidden veins. “Yes, because the Royal Court decided food portions based on your position. The nobles are getting the most.”

“Friuli?” The Physician guessed. Cosimo nodded, so he sneered. “Must be fun when you have the power to decide reality.”

They proceeded; Cosimo administered sedatives, letting his senior examine Tutu more closely. Nothing worth noting. The Physician climbed onto the sleeping bird’s chest, measured the beast’s heartbeat, and finally dove his head inside the beak.

Ignoring his junior’s panicked yell, the Physician noted severe dehydration from the dryness. Extra layers of what he suspected were spores invaded its throat. Quickly, he opened up another bottle of karkadann’s milk and shoved it down Tutu’s throat. Could a bird accept a rhino’s milk? He did not know, but if Cosimo could gamble Tutu’s life by extracting more electricity, an experiment with a high-calcium solution was beyond ethical question.

He felt Cosimo pull his feet.

“Don’t ever do that again, Senior!” Cosimo’s honey perm glowed with fury. “I know you are unhinged, but I never knew you were this unhinged!”

“You sound like my sister, seriously.” The Physician wiped away Tutu’s saliva, pondering his sister’s situation. “First, I trusted your sedatives. Second, the whole Court was the one being unhinged, torturing such a beast for so long. Third, thank you for finally speaking your complaint.”

Cosimo shifted his weight. “I find holding back feelings turns me into you. It helps nobody.”

“Then you will be fine.” The Physician winced as he tried to pat Cosimo’s shoulder. “Tutu suffers from hypocalcemia, as a result of a meatless diet. Infection or the other thing were the other possibilities. Those scenarios would have made this incurable. Well, not like I can cure Tutu’s exclusive seed diet, either. It has to be you, Cosimo.”

Cosimo looked relieved. The Physician knew his junior was imagining the guillotine. “If this is hypocalcemia, we can treat Tutu. People have been saying that Tutu’s disease is linked to Nive—to La Principessa’s seizure.”

The Physician let Cosimo mull on his own world. Ever since he was banished, Cosimo had become the sole physician attending Nivena di Canossa, one of the crown heirs. Since the twins had inherited the Thunderbird’s lineage, it was difficult not to make a connection—and blame Cosimo for everything.

“Release Tutu,” the Physician advised. “You couldn’t provide him with meat. Olive seeds depleted him of calcium. Tutu becomes a liability rather than an asset. It is time to end our Kingdom’s power dependence on an illustrious being.”

Cosimo closed his eyes. “That, I can’t abide. Tutu is how we can hold for so long against invasion. He empowers so many factories.”

Yes, the Physician finished in his head, aside from my sister and Adelasia back then.

“It is your choice.” He suppressed his bitter tone. “You underestimate humans too much. Including yourself.”

Cosimo looked at him with irritation and wonder.

“I will order as many high-calcium solutions as possible for Tutu’s treatment.” Cosimo sounded like he was suppressing his emotions, too. “I will abide by my promise to show you the Royal Library. This way, Senior…”

The Physician glanced at his left arm. The fourth vein, a golden one like a vine made from electricity, had extended. He covered it.

“After you, Cosimo.”

***

The claustrophobic sensation from the containment chamber turned into nostalgia once the Physician entered the Royal Library. Revisiting the library cured a bit of his regret.

“What kind of book exactly are you looking for?” asked Cosimo, sorting the keys.

They stood before a grand, rusted door. Despite the ominous feeling that ‘restricted section’ gave, the banned books were here only for political reasons. The Physician had been here once to find a list of Maniattania’s victims.

This time, he was not sure what to look for.

“Crivello’s guide… about wilderness, probably?”

Cosimo heard his doubt and raised an eyebrow. “The one that traced fantastical lineage up until the ancestors who made their way by breeding with monsters? I thought it was fabricated.”

“N-no,” the Physician said, panicking. “The ex-general Crivello’s tale about fantastical places across the Tsukicanese Continent, I meant.”

They took different shelves to browse. Lies About Miasma by Ernesto Bizio… The Bigallo and The Misericordia by Alesso Bicknor… Humoral and Serum Kinship by Kaffel Ruzgar… Convent and Kingdom for Woman by Matilda di Lunati… The books, the Physician noted, were not sorted by any discernible order.

“It’s unusual for you to know an obscure general like him.” Cosimo peeked behind the other shelf. He, too, complained about the shelves. “Are you two related?”

Unicorn Hunting Methods by Tarragon Micallef… Last Sighting of Doppelganger Clan by (author’s name was redacted)... Ledger of Moonchild Convent by Drusilla di Scaletta… Peace Envoy for Maniattania and Zangiyoujanakustan by (given name was erased) Calatabiano… and, surprisingly, City of Heiress by Savina Delorefice. The last one was the most interesting, and the Physician wondered if it was too late to change his wishlist.

“He was my grandfather,” he decided to reply, since Cosimo had been patient waiting for an answer.

“Come to think of it, Coralina has the same surname. Doesn’t that make her—”

“Found it.”

And the Physician did find it. Funny how one can find the things one does not actually seek. The book sat among banned children's books with cross-breeding innuendos. With this, their mission in the Kingdom was complete.

“What exactly will you do with that book?” Cosimo prompted.

“I am still searching for the Plague’s cure,” the Physician said, staring at Cosimo with straight eyes. Cosimo flinched. “If conventional medicine does not work, it is time to look for legends. My grandfather was known for his eccentricities in odd places.”

The Physician did not blame Cosimo for looking conflicted. Cosimo must have regarded him as foolish for curing the Kingdom that had banished him. Or Cosimo wanted to ask whether the Physician ever knew how his ancestors made their way by breeding with illustrious jellyfish.

“Do you think you could cure Nivena’s illness?” Cosimo’s tone dropped suddenly. “If Tutu’s condition really was related to her…”

The Physician answered after he saw Cosimo’s expression. Even with the room’s dimmed light, this time it was a border between two seas of hope and desperation.

“Cosimo, what happened to Nivena was not your fault,” he replied bluntly. “I don’t think Nivena contracted the Plague. I never examined her exactly…”

The iron door creaked once more. The Physician reached for his bow. Cosimo was about to throw his body into the Physician’s shooting path, but a flash of lightning deterred him.

The one who threw the lightning was sitting in a wheelchair. She had white hair with remnants of her original golden locks. Her silver eyes peered at the Physician with interest. The only clues that signified that she was royalty were her lavish cape and a Queen of the Night flower’s silver trinket. Behind her, a hooded figure stood, whom the Physician suspected was the girl’s handmaiden.

“Stand back, Cosimo,” the girl ordered. “You never told me my ex-fiancé came here.”

Cosimo looked hurt.

“Fian… oh.” An understanding crossed the Physician’s face. “You look older than the first time I saw you. Not that we ever speak.”

His exhaustion had drained his courtesy. Cosimo signalled, bow, bow, bow. The girl in the wheelchair laughed.

“Thanks to you, I saw many sides of Cosimo all at once.” The hooded figure pushed the wheelchair closer, then she opened the window. The girl in the wheelchair looked at Cosimo with equal concern and petulant smugness. “Tampering with Tutu’s leash again, Cosimo? Lord Friuli was elated that the amplifier worked on time.”

Cosimo pleaded, “My lady, please. Night wind is bad for you.”

“I have had my share of seizures today. Pay my health no mind. They let me glimpse an interesting… view.”

Her silver eyes locked on the Physician. That made him put down his bow.

“What an honor to meet you here, La Principessa,” he began. “I wish you well.”

Nivena smiled, noting the irony. “A wish from a wail-wisher,” she mused. “Cosimo already told you, then. If his theory about me connecting with Tutu was true, perhaps what I sensed was your help to Tutu.”

“I apologize for interrupting.” The Physician raised his hand, ignoring Cosimo’s angry look. “But I could explain that your seizures were not a divine revelation. It was a medical condition.”

“Yes, I believe you.”

The Physician blinked. “You do?”

“I do. It was a shame we never met before my father died. Then I’d know his decision to marry me off to you was not arbitrary.”

“...something about a medical condition, my lady?” the Physician reminded. He felt uneasiness wash over him. Something was happening. Something was stalling.

Nivena di Canossa enjoyed Cosimo’s reaction. It took a while before La Principessa answered:

“Something is eating Tutu, and his condition affected my blood,” Nivena stated. She winced, as if straining from a headache. “I could protect Cosimo should he be accused, but the Kingdom needs somebody, anybody to point its finger at for the recent deaths.”

La Principessa glared at him ferociously before her eyes flashed.

“Run.” Cosimo rushed to Nivena’s side. The princess blinked rapidly. “She has already made up her mind.”

The Physician felt wobbly. His body moved in a reluctant way to approach Nivena, a reflex honed from seeing so many seizures. His mind raced. Who was ‘she’?

Then, from the open window, the Physician realized a beat was playing. A rhythm was amplified. A lulling rhythm. A music.

If I were really using my power, you’d be the one falling for it.

The Physician’s mind drifted—