• Memory • Learning New Skills (Graded)

[Sei'rue]

Learning New Skills

69th Ymiden, 712


Her stomach rumbled with hunger as she took the bowl of gruel she was given, and moved over to the area where the slaves were allowed to eat. The older slaves were already finished with their meager meal by the time she had gotten hers, so there was room for her, and the rest of the slave children. All of them were the children of slaves that belonged to the family rather than ones that had been captured during slave raids, and even then, they were slaves that the masters felt had the potential to be useful to them. Those that did not were sold to the Avriel as soon as it was decided that they weren't anything that the masters could use. For that reason, she knew them all by appearance well. But that was as far as it went.

She knew nothing about the other slave children, nor did they know anything about her. And why would they? They were not real people. They had work to do. There was no time to talk to each other the way the children of the masters' family did. There was only time for work, and for obeying the orders that were given to them.

No. That was not entirely true. She knew that three of the girls who were eating their gruel along side her were born to the same woman that she had been. And that they had been born at the same time. She also knew that the same woman that had given birth to them had had one more girl who was arcs younger than they were. They were often pitted against each other during the masters' dinner entertainment. So she knew more about them and their abilities than she did about the other slave children. But even that did not mean that she knew them. It was not her place to know them.

She dismissed the thought from her mind, and focused on the gruel that she was eating instead. Gruel that was hot when the grown up slaves waited in line for their turn to get their meal for the trial. But by the time that the kids were ordered to line up for their meal, it was never more than faintly warm. And even then, only the older slave kids got warm gruel. Hers was always cold and congealing when it was her turn to get her food. But it filled her empty belly enough that it stopped making hungry noises, and that was what was important. Slaves who were hungry after getting their meal for the trial were ungrateful, and that was bad. Bad slaves were punished.

By the time she was nearly finished eating, even the youngest of the slave children had been given their meals. Hungry slave children were known for trying to take food from the other slave children, so she finished up as quickly as she could. She was not lucky enough to find a spot where she would have been able to put her back against the wall so that no one could try and take her food by ambushing her from behind, and that made her vulnerable to having her meal stolen. Fortunately, she was able to eat quickly enough that by the time most of the others were finished with their own meal and were looking for more food that they could take from others, she was finished with her own food.

She took her now empty bowl to the adult that had served them their food and moved to join the other kids so she could be given her first job for the trial. But she was stopped before she got far. One of the masters approached her, and pulled her aside.

"You are going to help me totrial. Come with me." he ordered her.

She was quick to obey.

[Sei'rue]

Learning New Skills

Master Lars led her to the ship's clinic.

"The slave that usually helps me is too sick to work totrial. That means that you are going to take his place. Do you understand?"

She nodded quickly to show that she did.

"Good. I know that Orik has been having you do some simple things to help him with his research. Has he had you read about any medicinal herbs?"

She shook her head, her heart sinking with dread as she did so. Was she supposed to have? She tried to remember the exact orders she had been given every time that Master Orik had given her a task that was related to his work. She didn't remember anything to do with medicinal herbs at all. Master Lars frowned at her expression.

"If he hasn't, then that's okay. It just means that I will have to find something else you can help me with. Do you know anything about medicine at all?"

Once again, she shook her head. When Master Lars's frown deepened, her breath froze in her throat. Was she in trouble?

"Well...at least you don't "know" anything that is misinformation that you will have to unlearn. So. Medicine is the art of healing wounds and treating illnesses so that the person who has them will feel better. If someone has a broken limb, we set it. If someone has a minor open wound, we clean it out and bandage it so that it won't get infected as it heals. If someone has a larger open wound, we clean it out, and stitch it up so it will stop bleeding. If someone was sick, we give them the right medicine to make the illness they have go away so they will feel better. Do you understand?"

Her head was spinning as she struggled to keep straight everything that Master Lars had said.

"No, Master." she said softly in Dehasin.

Lars frowned as he tried to puzzle out what she had just said.

"Look. I know that you are supposed to speak Dehasin since we're in Athart. But I don't understand it as well as I should, and you understand Rakahi much better than I understand Dehasis. Can you speak it as well?"

She nodded.

"Then do so whenever you speak to me unless we are in the presence of an Avriel, or unless you are participating in one of our dinner entertainments. Can you remember that?"

She nodded again.

"Excellent. As for everything I just said, well, you will learn it as we go along if you keep helping me in the clinic. So. The next thing you need to know about medicine is that not everything can be cured. People die of old age when it's their time, and no amount of treating the symptoms that come along with old age will stop that. Not all diseases have cures. And sometimes a wound can be so severe that there is nothing that anyone can do to save you. Or you are in a position where you could treat an injury or illness and save a patient, but you do not have the tools or medicines you need to do so. When that happens, you do what you can to make your patient as comfortable as possible, and you move on to the next one. Save who you can, and don't think about the ones that you can't so much that it prevents you from saving the ones that can be saved. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"That's the basics of it. There's a lot more that goes into it, of course. Different medicines, and different methods to heal different things. But that is the most fundamental heart of medicine. The next thing you need to know is that diagnosing a patient is the first step in treating them. Diagnosing a patient tells you what is wrong with them, and without knowing that, you won't know what you need to do to heal them...or even if they can be healed at all. Since you don't know anything about herbs, you are going to help me to check the slave we have in the hold. Three of them came down with a fever last night, and we need to know if any of the others are sick before we sell the lot of them to the Avriel later totrial."

Master Lars stopped speaking, and looked up when Master Korin brought one of the masters' family's children into the clinic. The young boy's arm was bleeding heavily, and he was crying hysterically in pain, and fear. She shrank back into the corner so she wouldn't be in the way as Master Lars jumped up to tend to him.

"Ziric was learning how to fish. I didn't see how it happened, but the hook got caught in his arm somehow when he tried to cast it, and..."

Master Lars nodded absently as he examined the boy.

"Ziric will be just fine. It's a nasty scratch, but it isn't deep enough to have damaged the tendons in his arm. He'll need some stitches, and he'll likely have a scar he can show off to his friends, but he'll be just fine. he said reassuringly.

In the absence of any orders, she watched as Master Lars dipped a clean cloth into some water, and used it to clean Ziric's wound. Then he rubbed something onto the skin around the wound and told the boy that it would numb the pain. After that, he sewed up the boy's flesh as one might mend a torn outfit. Once that was done, he bandaged the wound, and told Master Korin to put the boy to bed.

"Were you watching?" he asked once they had left.

She nodded nervously. Was she in trouble for watching him? But rather than Master Lars punishing her, he gave her a satisfied look.

"Good. That is what we call stitching up a wound. You will learn how to do that some trial if you start helping me in the clinic on a regular basis. Stitching up a wound like that is a form of surgery. Surgery is any method of healing that involves going beneath the skin of a patient. That could be as minor as stitching up a wound, or as big as amputating...cutting off someone's arm or leg if it is necessary."

She listened to Master Lars with wide eyes. She didn't know if she could do something like that...but if she was ordered to, then she would have no choice.

"Back to diagnosing patients. When you need to diagnose a patient, you use all of your senses. Are they bleeding? If so, are they bleeding heavily? Is their skin tinged blue? Or grey? Or yellow? Are they shaking? Are they pale? All of these things and more are symptoms to a variety of problems, and they are all things that you can see with your eyes if you are observant enough. There are other symptoms that you can pick up on with your sense of smell, touch, and even taste at times. And of course, listening to what your patient tells you is also crucial. You can also listen to the way they are breathing. All of these things will tell you what you need to know about what is wrong with your patient if you know what symptoms are associated with what injury or illness. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

"Excellent. Now for totrial, since we will be looking for signs of fever, I will tell you what you need to look for. Sweating, chills and shivering, headache, muscle aches, loss of appetite, irritability, dehydration, and general weakness are all possible symptoms of a fever. Sweating and shivering from chills will be visible symptoms. The others are things that you can ask your patient if they are experiencing. A patient with a fever will feel hot to the touch. You can test this by feeling your own forehead with one hand and feeling your patient's forehead with the other and comparing how hot they are. If you are experienced enough, you will be able to tell just be feeling your patient's forehead. Do you think that you can remember all of that?"

She considered the question for a few trills. It was a lot to remember, and she knew that if she forgot, she would be punished for her failure. But there was only one right answer here, so she nodded.

"Then it's time to go check the slaves in the hold. Come with me."

[Sei'rue]

Learning New Skills

Master Lars led the way to the entrance leading down into the hold, and she scrambled to follow as quickly as she could. She knew the way well. All of the slaves did, grown ups and children alike. It was a common thing for a slave to be given the task to care for the slaves that were being held in the hold until they could be sold. Giving them the task meant that the masters didn't have to do it unless they wanted to. It also served as a reminder to the slave that had been given the task how lucky they were not to be among the slaves waiting to be sold. Those slaves were kept chained up in the dark until it was time to be sold. Worse, those slaves had no idea what awaited them. The uncertainty of not knowing who their master was and not knowing what they would be used for was far worse than knowing who they belonged to, what their place was, and what was expected of them. At least, that was what it seemed like to her.

As they descended into the hold, Master Lars turned to her.

"When we get down there, I'll start at one side of the hold, and you will start at the other. Check every slave to see if they have a fever or not. If they do, let me know, and I will deal with them. Do you understand?"

She nodded.

They reached the bottom of the stairs, and Master Lars turned to the left as the moved to the far side of the hold. That left the right side of the hold for her to do. When she reached the first of the slaves she was to check, she ran through what she had been told in her mind before getting started. Feel your forehead with one hand, then feel the other person's forehead with the other. If the person you were checking felt hotter than you did, then they had a fever.

So she did just that. It took her several bits to check the first slave to see if he had a fever. Did he feel warmer to her than she did, or not? Was she sure? If she was wrong, then she would be punished. After a while, she decided that the man did not have a fever, and she moved on to the next slave. This time it was an old woman. She too did not have a fever, so she moved on to the next. And the next. And the next after that.

As she worked, she kept an eye on Master Lars to see if he was doing the same thing that she was. When she saw that he was, it told her that she was doing it the right way. Each time she checked one of the slaves to see if they had a fever it took her a little bit less time to make her decision because she was getting used to the process of checking them. And each time she checked one of the slaves, she grew a little more confidant in the task.

She was nearly finished with her side of the hold when she found a slave whose forehead felt hotter than hers did. It was a small boy who looked to be a few arcs younger than she was. His forehead felt hotter than hers was and he was sweating, but he was shivering as if he was cold. Or he might be trembling from fear, she couldn't be certain. She looked around to see where Master Lars was so that she could tell him about the boy only to find him standing in the center of the hold next to her. He was watching her. She flinched a bit under his direct gaze, but aware of her orders, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Does the boy have a fever?"

She closed her mouth and nodded.

"Is he the only one that you found with a fever?"

She nodded again. His order had been to tell him if she found a slave who had a fever. She knew better than to disobey an order.

"Good. We seem to have caught this early, then. I only found a couple of slaves that had fevers myself. Still. Three slaves is more than I want to try and handle on my own when two of them are adults. Go find Lysar and Larik and tell them that I need their help down here.

She scrambled to obey.

[Doran]

Sei'rue:

Knowledge:
Medicine: not every injury and illness can be cured
Medicine: diagnosing a patient tells you what is wrong with them, and it is the first step in treating them
Medicine: how to diagnose a patient
Medicine: the signs of a fever
Surgery: any method of healing that involves going beneath the skin of a patient is considered to be surgery; including stitching up a wound

Loot: -
Lost: -
Wealth: -
Injuries: -
Renown: -
Magic XP: -
Skill Review: Appropriate to level.
Points: 10

- - -

Comments: Poor Seirue! When I checked your CS, I noticed that she was only ten in this thread, and what more, the 69th of Ymiden is her birthday!

I wonder if she knows that it was her birthday ...

You described what life was like for Seirue and the other slave children in detail which is something that I appreciate. I found it interesting that the children didn't consider each other real people and didn't seem to be interested in each other.

Their masters sound quite cruel!

I was a bit surprised that Master Lars asked Seirue, a girl who is barely ten arcs old, to help him in the ship's clinic. Was a little girl really the best help he could get?

It sounds as if there were a few slaves on that ship. At least I had the impression that this thread took place on a ship. At the beginning, I was a bit confused, but in the second post, you mentioned the ship's clinic.

Seirue's dread was described well either way though!

From the way you described Master Lars, I have the impression that he is one of the nicer masters. He didn't punish Seirue when she admitted to not knowing anything about medicine, but commented on her not "knowing" anything that is misinformation that she'd have to unlearn.

You created an interesting NPC in my opinion!

And what more, he was quite thorough when he taught Seirue. I wonder how much she'll actually remember from his teachings though, especially since he has 0 Teaching.

I also appreciate that you only had her do simple things, such as checking if the slaves have a fever. That's something she should be capable of in my opinion at Novice Medicine.

You should definitely have added a warning to the review request in my opinion though as it involves slavery - and child slavery on top of it And what more, the slave children in this thread aren't treated very well!

Please remember to do so next time!

That being said, enjoy your rewards!

P.S.: I might have added "Detection" to the list of skills used in the review request because that definitely plays a part in noticing if someone has a fever, for example. Discipline might have played a part in this thread as well.