XXXIV

INTERLUDE—A MASSAGE OF THE TOES AND A TONIC OF BEETROOT

Parchment Fragment Recovered from the Kitchens of the Priests Who Guard the Oracle:

The creation of this excellent soup is as follows: Into a copper pot put crushed chickpeas; when well boiled, add oil and cut green herbs. Of thyme there should be plenty, fresh picked and well chopped. Add broth to taste.

Parchment Fragment Recovered from the Library of the Priests Who Guard the Oracle:

Yesterday morning when the oracle and I bathed at the stream and the setting moon and stars still shone on the waters, in the reflected light I saw a vision of a man. He appeared to lie beneath the water, and he raised one hand to me as though I could rescue him from the deep. Hurry, hurry, the stream seemed to murmur. Or, perhaps, I remember. But when I, seeking to take the man’s hand, reached through the water, the vision sank into the dark and disappeared.

Though I still search everywhere for a sign of the twins, I see nothing but woolly snouts and hairy muzzles! It is maddening!

From the Histories of Vily:

Those who claim to have known the governor-advisor of the king in the years before he rose to his vaulted position tell a story that runs thus: They hold that, as a boy, the governor-advisor was son to a merchant, well known by all to possess a rash temper and an even rasher fondness for gambling. They claim that when fortune once turned on him in a rough game of dice, the merchant gave his son as payment rather than lose a shipment of linen. Others, of course, dispute these tales and avow the merchant never had children, nor ever spoke of mourning children he had lost, and the governor-advisor is too fine and civilized to have come from parentage so low.

From the Extant Works of Medic Circumforaneus:

Should bile, stirred by great excitement or fear or physical strain, build too much in the head, an attack of apoplexy may occur. In this event, a person may become immobile and the mind become insensible. Thus paralysis of a limb or part of the face may occur and reason be lost. The face of one afflicted may contort, so that one cheek and one brow and one half the mouth become still while the other half moves to smile and frown as normal.

If the attack is not so severe as to stop heart and breath, life may continue; however, whether sensibility of mind and mobility of limbs return depends on the quantity and color of bile. Bile in a younger body is less viscous and easier to drain so that younger victims are more likely to recover. Nevertheless, all patients would benefit from vigorous massage of the toes as well as tonic of boiled beetroot.