794.II, 6 Meoii: The Hospices

The ruins of lost hope

    Heading north from the centre of Lanten, and after crossing large unsafe neighborhoods, I reached the hospices. These buildings, hastily made to accomodate for immense misery, look like a somber and hideous village, which years of desertion have turned into a ghost menacingly slumbering besides the city.

    The hospices were founded to bring emergency aid to all the injured who had come as refugees. How many thousands came in these from Faarie, Espliin, and of course Berneem, and how many managed to come out? I felt nauseous, remembering that I once was among the same people who hoped to find rescue here. But we all know how it went. The squalor, the congestion, plague was inevitable.

    It took a month to start from an invisible murmur to a wave of blood spreading like wildfire. The dust had barely settled on the refugees. Disaster following disaster. Before we were even aware of the disease's existence, thousands were already dying in these structures.

    The Red Death. Disaster following disaster. Death added to grieving families. I remember its gruesome effects. I remember the images of blood spitting out of people's eyes, skin, mouth, ears. The smell was filling the air all over the city. In weeks it affected hundreds of thousands. It would take my grandpa, it would take half a million lives, a third of the city.

    The hospices were abandoned in haste, the sick were left behind to die, suddenly deprived of any support. Now it is only wild plants and animals living in these grounds, living on their remains. I've had talks with a city representative about this place, earlier this day. They are talking about burning the whole area to the ground. Purification by flames, is a hope to make this area habitable once more. Because the disease may have disappeared from the city for now, but in the people's minds, it still may be deeply rooted in here.

Leen