Twenty-Four
Feb. 18th, 2013 10:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
theonecalledwanderI go back to town feeling stymied once again. I’d expected to come away with something more tangible, some concrete notion of what the matter might be. I’ve gained some information, but no solid answers.
My trip to the pool did confirm that the water is definitely wrong, possibly lethally wrong… it might not be poison, but it is somehow inimical to life rather than sustaining it. Animals know better than to drink it, people feel silly and drink it anyway. They only stopped going to the pool so the wrongness wouldn’t be staring them in the face, but they still use the well.
I spend some time wandering the lanes of Peram, simply observing. Despite my mode of dress I am very good at blending into the background when I wish to. I can disappear into the crowd even when there isn’t much of a crowd, as is the case here and now.
A lot of the people who are abroad during the day look pale or sickly. They shade their eyes from what is a rather mild sunlight. Much of the town seem to be late risers. That’s a contrast to the barflies… possibly because they drink less water? It takes water to make beer, but Peram is a trade town. It might not all be local. It might have been put up before the well went bad. It might be that whatever’s in the water is something that alcohol can kill.
Bel seemed to be in better shape than the late risers, and she said she boils her water. Wherever her family had originally been from, they were ahead of the curve on a few things at least. If boiling can disinfect the water, maybe alcohol could, too.
Of course, it’s still an open question whether boiling makes a difference. I resolve to make a few experiments to try and see.
My trip to the pool did confirm that the water is definitely wrong, possibly lethally wrong… it might not be poison, but it is somehow inimical to life rather than sustaining it. Animals know better than to drink it, people feel silly and drink it anyway. They only stopped going to the pool so the wrongness wouldn’t be staring them in the face, but they still use the well.
I spend some time wandering the lanes of Peram, simply observing. Despite my mode of dress I am very good at blending into the background when I wish to. I can disappear into the crowd even when there isn’t much of a crowd, as is the case here and now.
A lot of the people who are abroad during the day look pale or sickly. They shade their eyes from what is a rather mild sunlight. Much of the town seem to be late risers. That’s a contrast to the barflies… possibly because they drink less water? It takes water to make beer, but Peram is a trade town. It might not all be local. It might have been put up before the well went bad. It might be that whatever’s in the water is something that alcohol can kill.
Bel seemed to be in better shape than the late risers, and she said she boils her water. Wherever her family had originally been from, they were ahead of the curve on a few things at least. If boiling can disinfect the water, maybe alcohol could, too.
Of course, it’s still an open question whether boiling makes a difference. I resolve to make a few experiments to try and see.