TELOS TOU KOSMOU // Callahan X Reader

2

"Just try to drink this for me, alright?" You asked, passing the steaming herbal tea to the boy you were kneeling next to, urging him to drink. "It'll help you get some sleep - you need to rest if you're going to heal."

The boy reached up, shakily taking the ceramic cup from you and sitting up somewhat to tip it towards his lips, some of the liquid dribbling out from the side and onto his tunic. You did your best to help him drink, keeping one hand on the cup to steady him as he drank.

When the cup was empty, you helped him lay back down on the bedroll, giving him a smile. "Get some rest now." You said. "I'll be back later to check on you again."

The boy nodded sleepily, rolling over on his mat and closing his eyes - the blankets pulled tight around him even though the room was sweltering from all the bodies inside. He had come to the clinic with his older brother. His older brother hadn't lasted three days - you were surprised that someone so young had outlasted someone more grown. He was growing more feverish by the day though - it could be any moment now that his eyes rolled back into his head.

You were just trying your best to alleviate the pain.

The herbal mixture you had given him would alleviate the symptoms for a while - enough for him to sleep without waking up to puke every hour. It was something you had been mixing up a lot lately. It was one of the only things that really helped with the illness at all, and it wasn't even close to being a cure.

Taking the now empty cup, you made your way through the rows of bedrolls towards the back room again, keeping an eye out for anyone that needed your assistance. It seemed that the other healers had things under control though, settling most of the patients down for bed with the same tea you had given the boy.

Slipping into the back room, you went to place the dirty cup with all the others, only to almost run into someone you hadn't seen before. One of the city guards - a younger man with a strong jaw and hooked nose - stood near the door, in the midst of a conversation with Zahar.

Zahar's eyes darted to you as you walked into the room. "Y/N." It was only your name, but the way he said it made you hesitate - they had definitely been talking about you before you had walked into the room.

"Did someone die?" You asked, glancing between the guard and Zahar. A city guard in the healing clinic could only mean one thing - he was here to help haul a body out of the way to make space for more sick citizens. You had never seen more city guards than you were seeing now, at least four or five were in and out of the clinic each day.

The city guard shook his head, glancing back to Zahar. "Not exactly."

Your eyes found Zahar as well, confusion flooding them. He sighed, running a hand over his head, smoothing over the tattoos on his scalp. That difficult expression came over his face - the same expression he wore when you would discuss how many people were dying, and how impossible a cure seemed for all this.

Something was going on.

"Zahar?"

He pursed his lips, dropping his hand back to his side. "The caesar has requested we send one of our healers."

Your eyes widened at the news. "What's happened?" If the palace was asking for a healer, surely something terrible had happened. Someone in the caesars closest council had come down with the sickness - or maybe even Vesapasian himself. Your stomach dropped. Surely it wasn't the caesar...

"Ceres caught the silver death." Zahar continued, voice grave. "Vesapasian sent word that we're to send our best to the palace immediately."

Though some of the panic that had flooded your system vanished, a new sort of dread set in. Ceres was the champion of champions - the colosseum's most prized fighter. They were almost singlehandedly responsible for the attempt to try and cut down on some of the overpopulation in the city - and now they had fallen ill. Part of you wasn't surprised though - with the amount of people that came into the colosseum off the streets, you were sure the prison underneath the sand was full of the silver death.

"And you're going to send me?" You asked.

Zahar nodded solemnly. "I'd hate to lose you around here, but it's urgent." He said. "Vesapasian placed the utmost importance on Ceres survival."

"But we don't have a cure." You said.

Zahar just looked at you. "Someone has to go. And if anyone was going to find a cure for this thing, it's going to be you Y/N."

You looked back to the guard, patiently waiting a few feet away. "Will you be alright here without me?" You asked, turning back to Zahar.

"We'll be alright." Zahar said. "It's about time the apprentices start becoming real healers anyway - and we'll need to take on more apprentices too."

You knew he was probably right - at the rate this illness was tearing through the city, the clinic was going to have to pump out apprentices as fast as they could - but you were still loathe to leave. You had patients here, and a responsibility to them. You had a larger responsibility to your caesar though, and if he had called for a healer with urgency...

"I'll go." You said, both to the guard and Zahar. "Just give me a moment to gather some of my things and I can head to the palace right away."

Zahar gave you a thin smile, reaching forward to squeeze your shoulder. "Thank you." He said. "Both for the caesar and from me."

"Of course." You said - and you meant it. This was your duty to the caesar after all.