The Subterranean Fairies

“Thermal bath!”

Milica hopped like a child. The hot spring vapor lulled them with a floral scent. Coralina Crivello nodded as she touched the water's surface.

“It’s the right temperature,” Coralina said, smiling. “You are fortunate for descending in autumn. The water would be too hot earlier. Now, boys, scram and do not dare to peek.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Auntie,” the Physician said, earning a sulphuric pebble to his head.

The wooden gate closed shut. Milica’s exhilarated sound dissipated. The Physician and his disciple stood awkwardly, not daring to make eye contact.

The hole Fritz dug up opened to a subterranean cave of the fairy clan. Rooms sculpted from white-colored rocks extended and twisted downward. The cavernous base of the Misericordia was practically a maze: Coralina had previously opened the wrong door, and they almost fell into an underground river.

Not in a rush to bathe, the Physician led Fritz to the upper cavern. They settled in a ward-like room, the size of an atrium, that hosted many hammocks. They approached the closest patient, who coughed black phlegm.

“Name and age?” the Physician began.

Fritz just stared at the patient. The fairy, a male who could pass between thirteen and thirty, glanced at the two with a confused look.

“Fritz?” the mentor asked once more. “Is something wrong?”

“Nothing…” Fritz grumbled, scratching his head. “No, I meant everything is wrong.”

“Tell me about it.” The fairy coughed up another black mucus. “If you two need an examination, be quick about it. My neighbor will soon go to his usual wailing frenzy.”

The Physician pulled Fritz, preventing any emotional outburst toward the patient.

“Here is fine.” They settled beneath a stalactite hanging above the Physician. “I take it that you are angry.”

“What do you think!?” Fritz yelped, giving in to the withheld emotion. He then inhaled a long breath, calming himself down. “It kinda defeats the anger, having the one you are pissed with confront himself. I think I had in mind how to protest, but now…”

“Yes, I get that.” The Physician smiled. “How about this? I believe I owe you a thank you. For saving us. For trusting Milica. Thank you so much for giving us a chance.”

“That’s exactly it,” Fritz grumbled. “I followed your order to trust Milica, and I did. But can I trust you?”

The Physician considered it. Milica had answered the same question against him, but she was family. Fritz was brought here to learn, and—even though they had warned him before—all he had so far was constant danger. The Physician remembered the first case he owed to Fritz.

“Fritz, you—”

“Don’t say it, because whatever you will say, Mentor, it is wrong.” Fritz pulled the Physician’s robe. “I never meant to protest the journey. I am calling you out for hiding so many things from me, and I dare say from the vampiress too. You saved my life. But you almost cost Milica’s life by not telling me who she is. And that stupid order for me to not use my power.”

The Physician widened his eyes. It was not like he never considered it, but it was the most logical thing at the moment. He opened his mouth, but closed it shut as fast. He let Fritz vent.

“You… Mentor, I know you have an excuse, but you don’t want to speak about it.” Fritz let go of his robe. “I know you hold me back from using my power to prevent that Spymaster from being interested in me, and that’s what makes it so irritating: because you are right!”

Fritz tapped his foot. Roots began to swirl over the stalactite. The Physician kept his silence.

“But the Milica part is unforgivable. She marched to her own death, and I could do nothing, nothing, to prevent it. I watched her bleed while knowing she was still oblivious of her own origin.” Fritz’s roots crushed the stalactites; the pebbles rained down on him, harmless. “I do not want to live that kind of life, having it as an exchange for someone’s death! You took the choice from me!”

Oh… The Physician never saw it that way. He saw the most logical way while avoiding the worst possible outcome. He trusted Milica and Fritz for the process. But apparently, ‘trust’ had layered facets.

“I never thought that way…” He bit his lip. It was true that with that simplicity, he’d almost lost Milica. They were lucky Amalfini was merciful. “I apologize, Fritz. I have no excuses. I just made you follow an order without considering your feelings.”

Fritz lashed a root close to his head; the wind blew the Physician’s hair.

“If you want to plan, state what you had in mind fully, Mentor.” Fritz clenched his fist. “I trust you, but I want you to trust me that I can carry on your trust, too. No more hiding, please. From Milica to Miss Delorefice, even to that Spymaster… I want to know. Or… do you mean to tell me that I have to doubt all that you have taught?”

He had nothing to reply to Fritz. If holding a secret means denying what Master Nazenin had taught him, then he’d rather bare himself.

“No. I trust the disease. And I want you to trust it, too.”

Fritz smiled begrudgingly. “Somehow, it sounded wrong. But, oh, well. I am sorry, Mentor. I am with you, but I want you to see me as your disciple, not as an apothecary carrying your order.”

The Physician closed his eyes. “I will, so don’t apologize. I am the one who is sorry.”

“Milica could bathe for eternity, and our cycle of apology would go on.” Fritz laughed. “Alright, Mentor, let’s prove it so that I know who I am travelling with. What is Milica?”

Now the Physician regretted agreeing to the terms. He tried to speak, but words failed him.

“I will guess for you then,” Fritz said. “Milica was not actually a vampiress. She hates citronella, fears fire, endures sunlight, has somewhat limited self-healing, but wields hemokinesis. If she is not a vampiress, then she came from another mythical creature of the same power… an insect.”

“Don’t say it,” the Physician pleaded. “Her fear of fire came from watching Upior burn, but you got full marks on everything else. Please don’t say it to Milica.”

Fritz never saw such tenderness, so he gave up pressing—except for one thing.

“I heard your banter with Malinconico,” Fritz said. “You said, ‘vampire blood runs in Milica.’ What does that mean?”

The Physician sighed. “That also explains why Milica and I are siblings. She—”

“Who are you two gossiping about?”

It turned out that Milica did not bathe for eternity. She was clean, with her freshly dried red hair tied in a bun. Coralina flew near her, hands on her hips, clearly irritated that the two physicians had left the patients.

“We trusted you to deal with the black miasma, and look what I found?” The ex-Royal Governess crossed her arms. “Just because the fairies are gullible does not mean you should woo any of your patients.”

Milica smiled with mischief. “Relax. Both of them are taken, Auntie.”

“I am not!” the two physicians said in unison, embarrassed. Coralina mimicked Milica’s mischievous grin.

“I can understand Fritz,” she began. “But you, Nipote? I thought only the Gorgon sisters could withstand your denseness.”

“He exchanged handkerchiefs with Savina,” Milica added.

“Returned it,” the Physician corrected. “You might overlook the fact that she just betrayed us.”

Coralina did not take the bait. “Hee. Tell more about it, my nephew?”

“Fritz, run through the patients, please.” The Physician ignored the two girls. “We are getting nowhere gossiping.”

His irritated look refreshed Fritz. “Sure. At least two dozen patients, fairies, mostly males with an increasing number of female fairies—”

“It’s not too late to follow the example of your grandfather and to woo some fairies, Nipote,” Coralina said.

“—with symptoms of shortness of breath, gradually worsening, and a blackening cough. That’s the most common symptom. Around a third of them had hallucinations and… uh, flying erratically. Five patients have discoloration. It had begun one year ago, and the rate only increased ever since, particularly the last three months,” Fritz continued. “I wonder what they have in common.”

“The males are miners,” the Physician prompted. “One year ago coincided with the night of the living dead, which means something happened to the mine that damaged the fairies.”

Milica’s quip broke the ominous atmosphere.

“If Savina was here,” she prompted, “you could tell her, ‘I am going to make you mine,’ Fratello.”

Her brother rolled his eyes.

Case V: The Subterranean Fairies

***

“How did you exactly end up here?”

After twenty patients, the disease sounded more like a fairy tale than science. No two patients shared the same symptoms and severity. One had not slept for days. The other lost his ability to walk. The only similarity was their profession as miners, and even that fact was broken by their wives suffering the varying symptoms.

Coralina turned to the Physician, who had just scraped a patient’s bluish skin. She paused before speaking in a very careful tone.

“It was Lord Friuli’s doing,” she answered. “His edict protected us from living nomadically. There was an open space beneath the kingdom, and he granted us the whole land.”

“In exchange for mining for the rest of your lives.”

“In exchange for not getting executed,” Coralina corrected. “Didn’t you hear what happened to the pixie clan? We are not that stupid; playing the changeling to swap the nobles’ children as retaliation. Even imagining getting inside Amalfini’s household sends terror to my spine.”

The Physician clenched his fist. He understood pragmatism and survival instinct, but he still could not accept the clan’s treatment. Perhaps he was biased towards Friuli. He needed to return to the symptoms.

“One year ago, you moved here,” he noted. “Nothing of the sort of symptoms we saw now?”

“No…” Coralina saw that Fritz was struggling with a piece of fairy wing, so she switched her scalpel for a little torch. “Here. That should shine for you better.”

Coralina had crouched too close. Fritz was blushing. Milica threw a cringing look.

“Magnetism, perhaps?” the Physician prompted. “That trick you just displayed… You used metallic dust to swap things, right? Maybe the fairy miners use the magnetism mechanic, and some metals loaded into their bodies…”

“Not very romantic, are you?” Coralina put her hand on her hips. “This is fairy dust. Don’t destroy the hopes and dreams of children.”

“The disease will destroy the children first,” the Physician countered. “But fine, fairy dust, it is. I guess there is no way to solve this without going inside the mines.”

“Ugh,” Milica groaned. “Guano incoming.”

“Nothing of the sort, Mil,” her brother reassured. “Bats only make nests in abandoned mines. But if they do, I think the miners would be grateful. Guano contains—”

The Physician stared at the fairy wing, shined by torchlight. He compared it to the bluish skin sample. Of course, he had gotten used to light sources aside from the sun, so he took the discoloration at face value. But if it was that metal, the remaining symptoms did not match…

“It’s been a while since Fratello did not go to a private lecture session inside his head.” Milica sighed. “I was so sure he’d say something like guano containing chocolate, or something. You got anything, Leafhead?”

Fritz bashfully chatted with Coralina, and he scowled at Milica’s question.

“The black phlegm was caused by iron.” Fritz narrowed his eyes; Milica smirked. “It was common to the miners, but the rest of the symptoms… hallucination, limping, and skin turning blue… they don’t add up.”

“That’s because iron was not the only metal responsible,” the Physician finished. “Did you say the rate increased around three months ago, Fritz? What happened to the Kingdom three months ago?”

Coralina blinked. “The civil war ended.”

“Because the Kingdom ran out of funds,” the Physician finished. “Something happened to the Royal Treasury, right?”

“Because the alum veins dried up.” Coralina crossed her arms. “Someone from the Court ordered us to mine deeper, and we believe his theory that silver is bleeding beneath the mountain of alum. What they found was more interesting. One of them was the thermal bath.”

Milica hugged herself, remembering the bath water. “Tell that earlier!”

“Relax, relax.” Coralina waved a hand as an apology. “None of the thermal regulars suffered the same diseases. The second thing above the thermal veins, though…”

“And so we found the culprit,” the Physician exclaimed. He turned to the other three. “I am going to make you all mine.”

They passed through the mining chamber directly atop the thermal veins. The stalactite inside the cavern glowed with a wine-red hue. Just when the Physician imagined they were entering the maw of an ancient beast, the first skeleton dropped in front of them.

“Not to worry,” Coralina said cheerfully. She picked the cranium, brushed the crimson dust, and buried it once more. “They happen all the time. I think we are passing beneath a grave. It’s alright.”

The Physician winced. “From the night of the living dead? How is that alright?”

“Because it could be bandits or a remaining raid party from Zangiyoujanakustan,” Coralina explained. She opened the last iron door. “Perhaps wanting to scavenge the civil war spoils, they raided this mine, hoping for gold. The fools. What we have is not gold, but better: this.”

A room full of crimson and metallic gray crystals lay before them.

“Dark ruby silver,” Milica said, mesmerized. She earned collective surprised looks. “You all must think I am an idiot. Upior recorded silver mines because they were used against us. It is not lethal at this volume. Perhaps for coin minting.”

“Precisely,” Coralina agreed. “Only one visitor ever said something interesting, though. Instead of the riches, he said that these crystals are a breakthrough in medicine. Funny, because now we suspect they brought us the malediction.”

Fritz sneered. “Who could have said something like that?”

The Physician answered for Fritz. He used Coralina’s pickaxe to pull one particular stone formation. Fritz’s eyes widened when his mentor raised it.

It was a chunk of brownstone.