The Drying Sickness
The cracking, festering, and fever that take a Thaluren kept too long out of water, and in lesser measure a Kavari kept from the river.
Overview
The drying sickness is what air does to a body built for water. A Thaluren can breathe air for some hours and speak with land peoples on a quay, but dry air and sun crack their skin within a day, and a Thaluren kept from water for longer sickens fast. Every land people that deals with them learns, sooner or later, to keep a trough or a wet cloth to hand.
Cause
A Thaluren's fine-scaled skin holds water only while it is wet. In air, and faster in sun and wind, it dries, tightens, and splits along the folds of the joints, the fin edges, and the webbing. The gill-slits along the neck and ribs dry and burn. Through the cracks foulness enters, as it would into any wound, and the cracks fester. Breathing air for too long also tires the body, and a dry, weary Thaluren takes fever easily.
Kavari breathe air and live on land as well as in the river, so they do not suffer the same way. Kept dry for many days, in drought, in a city, or in prison, their oily skin cracks and sores open, and they grow listless and sick, more slowly but in the same way.
Who It Strikes
It strikes Thaluren above all: those who come ashore to trade or treat, who are carried inland on journeys or escort duty, who are caught in the shallow reaches of a river ascent when the water falls, or who are held captive. Kavari take a slower form. The land peoples, including the river-going Reedfolk, whose skin sheds water rather than needing it, are not touched by it.
Signs and Course
After some hours in air a Thaluren's skin dulls and tightens, and the colours fade towards grey. They grow short of breath and thirsty. By the end of a day in dry air or sun the skin splits at the joints and webbing, the gill-slits are raw, and every movement hurts. If water is reached now, the cracks close within days. If not, the cracks weep and fester, a fever rises, and the sick grow confused and weak; after two or three days dry, a Thaluren may die of fever and exhaustion even if brought back to water. Healed cracks leave pale seams in the scales.
Contagion
The drying sickness is not contagious.
Treatment and Its Limits
Water is the cure. A Thaluren put back into clean water, salt or fresh, recovers from all but the worst cases. Where no river is near, the sick are wrapped in soaked cloth, kept in shade, and wetted again and again; land peoples who host Thaluren keep troughs and tubs at the meeting house. Oil on the skin slows the drying for a while. Festering cracks are cleaned with Cleanse Wound and closed with Close Flesh, which works poorly from a healer of another people and best from a Thaluren healer (see compatibility bands). In dry country Draw Thirst can gather enough damp to wet lips and gills, though little in desert noon heat.
Mortality
Few die of it when water is near, and many who are kept from it for days. Captivity and journeys inland are where it kills. Kavari seldom die of it, but long drought leaves them scarred and weakened.
Lore and Belief
Thaluren speak of the drying as a falling-away from the water that is owed to them, and a Thaluren left to dry by another people takes it as an insult to the whole of their kin. Land peoples who know little of them call it the sea-scale, and some think it catching and will not touch a cracked Thaluren hand.
In the Medieval Era
The drying sickness is met wherever Thaluren come into the world of the land peoples: harbour towns of the Tidebound Reaches, shallow river ascents, and the rare inland journey or escort. Hosts who know their business keep water at hand and set meetings at the waterside; those who do not learn by losing a guest. Blightward custodians at their freshwater watch-stations (see The Blightward Keepers) are safe while they keep to the water, and suffer when a watch takes them overland.