Page 164 of The Exquisite Torment of Loving Your Enemy
Possibility that the regular seith infusions are also helpful?
Examine seith “dosing” strategies & evaluate exposure response
Residual biological activity of seith infusion is not known; suggested 29-day period is theoretical and entirely arbitrary.
Importance of time and place: unclear; suspected; further study required.
Overall, this case study suggests that long-term exposure to Haelan seith may elicit an exceptional therapeutic response, allowing for regression, and eventually resolution, of the disease. However, further research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of treatment. Methods undertaken in this case study not acceptable from a regulatory, ethical, or clinical standpoint.
Interdisciplinary collaboration was crucial (see acknowledgements).
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank first and foremost the patient, whose insistence—and steadfast belief in theprovider’s skill—culminated in discoveries with significant implications for treatment of seith rot and other degenerative diseases. If it hadn’t been for his stubbornness, these advances would not have occurred.
Thanks also to Haelan Belladonna Xanthe, who played a pivotal role in initiating the project and supported the author throughout.
The author would like to acknowledge the silent contributor to this study: Professor Widdershins, formerly of Aynsworth University, Wessex. His work on the translation of the Monafyll Stone was of immense assistance in determining place for the monthly seith infusions. Professor Widdershins’ whereabouts are currently unknown. Any information would be gratefully received by the author.
Quincey: please remove from final draft; Acts of Warranted Brutality decided to tip over my inkpot and have the final word.
33
Epilogue 3: Lovers under the Loving Moon
Osric
September fluttered into October. October dripped into November and December. And at the solstice, the year flipped, and dark gave way to light, and before Osric knew it, it was spring again.
Of the ten Tiendoms, the seven not involved in the Pox conspiracy were quick to condemn the three that were. Wessex promptly went to war with Dumnonia, Mercia, and Kent. She was aided greatly, on her western border, by the fact that the Warden Order abandoned Dumnonia entirely, and regrouped in a secondary keep in Wessex. They were courted by Strathclyde and Northumbria, who offered their kingdoms’ most impressive fortresses to serve as the Warden HQ. The Kentish queen died of her mysterious ailment, courtesy, perhaps, of the Hedgewitch Order. The line of succession was disputed; a civil war followed in Kent. The Mercian king waged war not only with Wessex but also internally as a cadet branch attempted to usurp his throne. The King of the Danelaw, seeing his neighbour thus occupied, went to war with him. The Tiendoms would not know peace again for a long time.
The Orders were in chaos, solicited from every quarter by the Tiendoms, asked to save lives, to end lives, to attack, to defend, to help, to sabotage. Every day brought some new crisis, some new decision, a side to choose, a stance to take, principles to uphold or destroy. The Bright Paths gathered into a coalition, into which, despite the Haelan Order’s protests, the Fyren were not invited; the Dusken Paths regarded the Fyren Order with suspicion and disgust; the Hedgewitches floated in their neutral way. No one gathered at the Stánrocc again.
Osric and Aurienne were together when they could be—mostly by prior arrangement, brief and bracketed by other obligations, which left Osric dissatisfied.
One didn’t time longing. Kisses oughtn’t be scheduled.
