"The insects were acting strange. They weren't feeding at all and at first, I thought it was mating season. The females usually lay eggs and die immediately, but even that wasn't happening. They just died all over the place within days of arriving and doing nothing."

"So you thought it was similar to the way that the crazy man had died. He started acting strange, stopped eating, and passed away close to the insect graveyard," Syryn concluded.

"Yes. Do- do you have something to do with all this?" The healer asked with a tremble in his voice.

"No. We just want to find out what's going on. It's an interesting phenomenon. And Dinah wants to save the villagers from certain death." Syryn summed up their feelings for the healer.

"Is that true?" The man stood up from his seat like he had received a shock.

"What did you think we were here to do?" Syryn raised his brows at the healer.

The man sheepishly looked at Dinah and back at Syryn. "I dont know. You're strangers. Who knows what business you have with village folks like us. I didnt know if I could trust you."

"And that's why you followed us?" Akida asked.

The healer nodded as he sat back down. "We don't get a lot of visitors who aren't merchants. It's a rare sight when outsiders who aren't our regular merchants and avians stay longer than a day at this village."

"So how did you get the laceration on your back?" Syryn asked the man who seemed more forthcoming now.

"Wh-what? It was an animal attack." The healer truly was a bad liar.

"And we're back to lying." Syryn traced the rim of his cup lightly with a forefinger.

"Ok it wasn't an animal attack but I wasn't doing anything illegal.."

"Why can't you tell us how it happened if what you were doing was perfectly legal?" The alchemist said as he noticed Dinah draining her cup. He wrinkled his nose disgustedly at her and she shrugged in response.

"I just can't, okay. Please don't press me like this. I'm just a healer who-"

"I noticed that you have some Salmon Iris growing in the yard. It would be a shame if someone informed the village headman about its use as an undetectable poison."

"He knows! I'm growing it for him."

"Oh?" Syryn smiled widely. "Do the other villagers know about it? And do they know that you're an idiot?"

The stupid healer was digging a deeper hole for himself. "I fell down a slope and cut my back on a sharp bamboo stump. If you dont believe me, I can take you there. I lost a lot of blood on the bamboo."

Syryn glared at the dumb healer. "I don't understand why you couldn't just tell me that. What were you doing on the slope? You should come clean about it because I'm not letting you off today without finding out everything." Syryn needed a drink of something that wasn't thistle tea. He handed the man some of Alka's rice tea powder for boiling.

"I wanted to have a look at the body.." the healer confessed. "I had to investigate it."

Syryn suddenly felt that the man was no longer an eyesore. He had found a partner. "You wanted to dig out the body and examine it."

"I thought I would find something on his body that would give me a hint about what was going on." The healer started heating water on a kettle. His shoulders were drooping. "In the end, I didn't do it."

"Because you cut yourself like an idiot. You could have bled to death by waiting till morning for help," Syryn admonished the man. He was dumb but his heart was in the right place.

"I applied some potion on it to hasten coagulation. It's a good thing you and your avian assistant were around. I'd have had to rely on the seamstress to stitch up the wound."

"Let's dig up a body," Syryn spontaneously suggested. "We'll see if the bodies have the fuzzy fungus-like growths on them."

"Whose body?" The healer asked.

"Not sure. Were you there when the builder died today?" Syryn asked the man.

"Yes, it was a strange death. He had an anaphylactic shock and it killed him within half an hour of its onset."

"An anaphylactic shock? What was he doing?" It sounded like the builder's death had nothing to do with the strange sickness. But then Akida had seen him holding his head and looking pained. Were they wrong? Likely. But the coincidence didn't sit right with Syryn.

"Going to work as usual when it happened randomly. I checked his body for allergens but nothing. I don't know what's going on anymore."

"Go speak to the village headman and tell him you suspect murder," Syryn suggested. "Then maybe we'll get to carry out an autopsy."

"A murder? Who would believe that?" The healer jumped when his kettle whistled loudly.

"Suspicious villagers, that's who. Can you imagine what they'd have to say about a man dying with no rhyme or reason? Add fire by saying that someone poisoned him."

The healer stood up to pour in the tea powder in four cups. "But I'm no good at autopsy."

"So tell that to the village headman. Mention me and request my services. All you have to do is stand beside me while I conduct the autopsy," Syryn suggested.

"Are you sure about this?" The timid healer asked.

"What's the harm in trying?" Dinah told him. "The worst that happens is he denies your request."

"But what if the builder isn't a victim of the sickness? We'd have just cut him open for no reason!"

"It's too coincidental," Syryn told the healer. "For all of this to happen around the same time. I think we'll definitely find a hint in his body."

Akida sniffed at the cup that had been offered to him. A tiny sip of it brought relief to the guard's eyes. He approved of this one.

"We should hurry before they bury him," Dinah suggested.

"I'll speak to the headman." The healer sighed and put away his cup. He was too stressed to drink the tea.

-------

Syryn, Dinah, and Akida returned to the cabin home. The guard made preparations for dinner while the alchemist checked on both patients. Lucien was sleeping as usual. It had Syryn wondering how much longer the boy would remain in this condition.

When dusk arrived, it brought with it a group of people. The village headman, the healer, and five more villagers arrived wearing grave expressions on their faces. The Valley of flowers had lost not one but three members of its population to strange deaths so it was no wonder every one of them wore grim faces.

"Distinguished guests, I hope your stay so far has been enjoyable," the village headman smiled at Syryn.

"It has been a comfortable stay," Syryn replied. "To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"

The headman cleared his throat and stepped forward to speak in a low voice. "Forgive me for getting straight to business but it's an urgent matter and we cannot waste time. There's been an incident in the village. I dont know if you've heard about the man who passed away today."

"Yes, I did. I heard he died of asphyxiation. Very dreadful business."

"Well, the circumstances of his death are strange and we think that an autopsy might be in order. Our healer is a talented man but he cannot do justice to the person who was unfairly killed-"

"Get to the point," Syryn interjected. He was impatient.

Taken aback but recovering quickly, the head man got to the point as Syryn had demanded. "If you would aid us, we require the expertise of someone who can do an autopsy on the body. We will pay you handsomely-"

"I'll do it," Syryn cut him off again. "There's no need for payment. Consider it my way of showing gratitude for how welcoming the village has been to us."

Relief flooded the headman's eyes. "Good! Good. Let's go now and have it done quickly so he can be buried before dawn."

Syryn furtively smiled at the healer who had accomplished the task set for him. The man nervously ducked his head and walked behind the head man with the timidity of a mouse.

----

The body of the familiar builder was laid out on a table before Syryn. Rei stood to his left and the village healer was at his right.

The corpse had been stripped naked and was covered in a sheet from head to toe. Next to the body was a table over which was arranged two scalpels, scissors, forceps, a ruler, a chisel, and a saw. Next to Rei was another set of tools which included several long knives, more scalpels, and scissors. Syryn even wore a pair of gloves that he coated in a hydrophobic extract. It was the only barrier between him and the sickness if the dead man had it.

"Rei, stay at a distance and watch. You don't want to come in contact with any fluid. You too," Syryn turned to the healer. Pass me the tools when I ask for it but that's all you have to do."

The two assistants backed away wisely when Syryn violently threw off the sheet that covered the man.

Rigor Mortis had set in and the corpse was stiff. His skin was a pale grey colour that purpled at the parts touching the table.

"Let's start with an external examination of the body," Syryn spoke through the mask that covered the lower half of his face.