The symptoms began with the heat…
What was odd was that it wasn’t an overall sort of heat. No, it was almost like… how to explain it? Her insides felt exactly the same.
No, it was her skin.
Her skin was unusually warm.
And this, to be sure, was a strange sensation. Because it was, in fact, only the skin. Not the muscle beneath, not the bones, none of that.
Only the skin.
And it wouldn’t go away, either. In fact, it just kept getting worse. Ever hour or so, it seemed like her surface temperature would raise a degree. And by the end of the night, what had started out as a mild curiosity had become nearly unbearable.
It was a fire she couldn’t escape, and it was merely the beginning.
The brain was next. And at first, she could explain it away as distraction. The skins situation was, of course, a very distracting occurrence. Still, whatever the underlying cause was, the results were the same:
She was forgetting things.
Tiny things, to start. Her car keys, a name here and there.
But these little blips of forgetfulness, before long, started to feel different. Not like a gap in recall, but holes.
She started to feel like there were actual holes in her brain.
The tests all came back negative, which was no relief. Something was wrong. And through the fog of whatever was happening in her rapidly diminishing mind, she tried to recall when it had all begun.
It was the party.
That night at the party.
Cassandra Weybourne had come from from… one of those countries… where just being there does more harm than good for the locals. And she brought back gifts.
It was, the legend said, brewed from a extremely rare, nearly mythological plant. Which, we had all guessed, was exactly the sort of thing you tell tourists get open up their wallets just a little bit further.
There was more to the legend, of course.
“Whomsoever drinks from this brew, if they are pure of heart, will experience great bliss and fortune. If they be unpure of heart, then sickness shall follow them for all their days.”
Well, what was she supposed to do?
It was a gift…
Pryorball. 