The Comatose Countess

A doctor of the Chantry of Tranquility, of the Comatose rank, which is the tier the order keeps for its chief and magically-trained physicians below the two Drowsy seats. She served under Müde, the Drowsy Duke Hospitalar, and it was Müde who had to be talked into parting with her. Baku asked for one of his counts and then for the countess by name. Behind the mask he could be felt to frown, and he offered a night. Baku answered that the patient was Gwenivere Velmont and that a Velmont was what they were discussing, and he gave way.

On the ride south she was the capable one. The Duchess is only passable on a horse and set the pace of the whole party; the countess could have ridden ahead of all of them. When Koa explained on the road what had been wrong with Gwen and mentioned that they had once thought it a pregnancy, she swore under her breath without using any of the words.

At The Crack she took the withdrawal. She worked with Professor Ashanti al-Hassan to compound things more complicated than what the Chantry had carried down with it, and was plainly impressed by what the camp had: a capable alchemist, books of lost alchemical lore, and somebody able to read them. She kept the doses mild on principle. She reached into her own pack unasked when Gwen would not settle, and offered to look at Ashanti afterward. And because nobody had ruled out a child, she held a protective bubble over the bed for days to carry one safely through, which is why everyone who came near that room found their thoughts pressed down into a fog they had to fight out of.

It was still up when the Slumbering Queen came. Koa opened the door on the countess flat on the floor and the Queen standing over the bed with the vial of souls uncorked in her hand. When it was over and Baku had come in to hear the account, she stopped to check on the countess, who had not stirred and did not stir. She had spent a great deal of magic, Baku said, and that could be a concern.