The Case Files of Aldicus Vescard by Mark William Chase

Author:Mark William Chase [Chase, Mark William]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-31T22:00:00+00:00

Case File 11:

A Curious Case of Karcistry

The contagion isolation field inhibited the corpse’s rank stench, but did nothing to mitigate the thick fetor of rain-sodden refuse hanging over the 20th District’s squalid slums. I covered my face with a handkerchief as I studied the bloated body, lying half submerged in the polluted gutter water of this star-forsaken sublevel alley. Livid blue splotches and ruptured pustules covered every inch of exposed skin, and the moldering flesh looked ready to slough off the bone like melted tallow. Judging from the advanced putrefaction, I would have estimated the body had been decaying for at least two weeks. However, witnesses claimed to have seen the victim stumble into this sublevel alley just eight hours ago, the welling boils and lesions already spreading.

“No disease works this fast,” I whispered.

But if not a disease, what was it? Sorcery? Alchemy? Karcistry? A rogue artifact of power? Or perhaps something even more sinister.

I looked to the blue and white wagon at the other end of the alley where Keldon and Tibblemond stood listening to whatever hastily concocted drivel the APHID official prattled on about. The Administration for Public Health, Illness, and Disease had been called in the instant an outbreak was suspected, but the department was woefully inadequate when it came to handling ensorcelled maladies. Worse still, APHID was a chronically underfunded adjunct of Corradon’s phlegmatic, bureaucratic machinery, scarcely more competent than the notoriously inept district police.

“Doc says it’s probably a blood contagion,” Tibblemond said, making his way back to where I stood. He held a handkerchief over his mouth and nose, and made a point of keeping his distance from the body. “It’s a good thing we called them when we did,” he added, glancing back to the APHID official following him.

“Doctor Edwell Seltoc,” the official introduced without the slightest hint of inflection.

He was a lanky man with a lean face, dressed in a straight-cut coat with APHID’s blue and white winged emblem pinned to his lapel. Although he wore a low brim top hat, he was clearly bald, and I could just discern some scarring along the exposed edges of his scalp, likely due to a bungled attempt at hair transplantation.

“Detective Vescard,” I said simply, giving a nod.

“Yes, I know,” Seltoc droned, his dull tone matching his dismal attire. He glanced down to consult the report he was holding. “The symptoms match five other cases this week. We must act quickly if we are to contain the outbreak.”

“Let me see that,” I said, snatching the paper away.

I held the paper to catch the light of the hovering luminary orb, a difficult task considering how it kept bobbing about. The report detailed the autopsies conducted on the other five victims. Three were human and two were Dworghs, but all had been found in an alleyway or sublevel corridor along the border of the 20th and 21st Districts, and each had been subjected to accelerated decomposition. Alchemical tests revealed high concentrations of drooka, enraptuphine, and other addictive euphorics, but missing was any definitive diagnosis of their illness.

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