NotM - A Strange Fever

It all started with a rather sudden headache. Maggie was not too sure where it came from and either perspective was highly unpleasant. When a numb pain located near the area of her kidneys joined in, she mentally prepared herself for either a heavy cold, or a strong version of a certain monthly issue, or, which was the worst she could think of, a combination of both. Either way, it was going to be a great fun. Urgh... Maybe she should ask Marlena or Nadheera for something that was going to make everything easier. But the captain didn't get that far. The moment she took a few steps, her headache increased rapidly and made dark spots dance in her vision. Immediately she leaned against a nearest wall. A cold shiver ran over her back and left a cold feeling behind, centering around the already slightly hurting area near her kidneys. Maggie was no expert when it came to medicine, but she knew her body and something like that could only mean that something really bad was going to happen. The prickling pain under her skull didn't cease. Immediately, she touched the place where her jaw connected with her throat. Another small pain answered her. Somehow, she had to get back to her cabin and into her bed, maybe finding Diego and telling him she was about to get sick, too. The big question was how she was supposed to do that. Currently, she was somewhere in Urdun, looking at shops of the local lapidaries. The speed which with her sickness came rushing over her confused her, but also made it very clear that she had only little time to get back before things could get really bad. being able to teleport from one place to another would be really handy right now. But since that was not an option,s he had to get back on her own, despite her condition worsening with every step. In hindsight, she was not sure how she managed it to get back to the port or how long it had taken her. She only knew she had made more and more breaks to calm down her hurting head and always kept one hand to a wall while stumbling back home. Thanks to a developing tunnel-vision, she had no idea how many strange looks or comments she had received on her way back, but she didn't care. Maybe she had also ignored some crew mates, but if that was the case, the whole thing could be explained later.
Maggie stepped onto the gangway when she heard someone shouting.
"Capitana!"
It was Diego and the cabin boy rushed to her side, trying to support her. But due to their unlucky height and weight difference, his endeavour was more than a gesture than an actual relief. Maggie appreciated it greatly regardless. They hadn't reached the end of the gangway when someone took over, relieving Diego from his burden, whether he liked it or not. Judging by the silence of the whole switch, Maggie assumed it was Neil who carried her now. It was hard to tell in her state, because now that she had made it back, her attention escaped her quicker than details of a dream after waking up and her memory refused to take in anything at all. As soon as something happened, she had already forgotten about it. The next thing the captain actively knew was lying down in her bed and waking up from sleep that had never been there. Something cold was pressed onto her chest and something else stuck under her tongue. There was light being flashed at her and something clung to her right thumb. The light vanished and the small, hard thing in her mouth got removed.
"Looks like fever to me", Marlena's voice announced.
Something croaked and a green pile hoped onto Maggie's bed and came into her vision.
"You're not a doctor yet, Jason. Come back here!"
The green lump was engulfed by something white and lifted by it.
"This will sting a bit, but don't worry captain, I'm simply taking a blood sample", Marlena's voice told her. Magge felt the sting while not really noticing it.
"What's that?", Nadheera asked curiously.
"An injection to fight tropical fevers like Malaria."
"I have something like that, too. This shall be interesting."
Somehow, the tone of Nadheera's voice made Maggie worry, but she couldn't tell why. Jason the toad croaked again.
"Hey!"
There was another sting that felt as strange as the first one, but a third didn't follow. Maggie felt sweat prickling down her forehead. She blinked several times and her vision came back. She could see Marlena noting something down, Nadheera trying to keep Jason from escaping her again and herself sitting near her bed smiling down at her. She wanted to scream, to shout, to speak, but her tongue was only a useless lump blocking her mouth.
"Ssh, don't be alarmed. You're only dreaming", Maggie heard her own voice telling her, coming from the other her.
"I mean, you have to be. Why else would I be here?"
Maggie tried to clench her fists, but her muscles were too weak.
"Oh, don't give me that look. I'm only here to talk to you. After we made that deal you were so busy to leave Crow Island and get to this... polluted place, we had hardly time to figure out what happened." The fake Maggie paused and smiled.
"That is, you barely had the time. I did. It was quite nice of you to get me some company. Raven is a really nice boy."
Maggie frowned, which only made the fake one's smile even brighter.
"You didn't know he was there? My, and I thought you know what's going on on your own ship. Anyway, I was thinking of naming myself Cuckoo, since all my new friends are named after birds. What do you think?"
Maggie managed to mumble something and Cuckoo's smile disappeared.
"If you think I did that to you, you're mistaken. It's hardly my fault you accumulated so much magic in your bloodline."
"Wha-?", Maggie managed to ask and woke up. Marlena, Nadheera, and Jason were gone and instead, Aurath, Aerin, and Diego surrounded her.
"You had a bad dream, capitana", Diego informed her.
"Do you need something?", Aurath asked.
"Water", Maggie managed to tell her guard.
"Tea's better", Aerin decided and left the room. Diego looked after her, taking breath to shout something, but Aurath simply said:
"I don't think Penny will try any tricks now."
The cabin boy relaxed reluctantly and sat down next to the captain's bed. Aurath gave him a smile that was supposed to be reassuring.
"She's a tough lass, she'll get over it in no time."

Outside the cabin, Aerin walked right into Llo and Neil. Both men were waiting next to the door, but with an unusual distance between them. When the gunslinger entered the deck, they both looked at her.
"How's she?", the elf asked.
"Asleep most of the times, sweating and coughing."
Neil stared into a nothingness in front of him only he could see.
"It's the island", he grumbled.
"Makes everyone sick."
Aerin stared at him with her single brown eye.
"The captain is not a magical being, cariad", Llo remarked with a small smile. The bearded man frowned, processing the argument.
"We can't be sure", he decided eventually. Aerin frowned slightly, but decided it was not worth her time to argue with Neil and left for the kitchen. Llo looked at hos lover, trying to read the thoughts going on behind that thick skull. He knew Neil was not stupid. A man who was pretty much an atheist while believing in three religions at once could not be stupid.Instead, Neil had development a strange perspective to look at things and thanks to his stubbornness, it took a lot of effort to make him change his mind - or being Llo.
"What makes you think the little bird has magic in her?", he asked, half curious, half amused.
Neil frowned while he was thinking and his lips moved soundlessly under his beard.
"She got sick because of the island, like you, but worse", he finally concluded.
The elf blinked at his lover, torn between simply accepting this special kind of logic, sighing, and laughing. He settled for the sigh.
"Cariad, I'm way more magical than her", he tried to explain.
Neil shook his head.
"You didn't spent as much time on the island."
It could get really tiring to make Neil see reason at times, even for Llo.

Back in the captain's cabin, Maggie was visited by Cuckoo once again. She was sure it was a fever dream, but her mind seemed to be working better now than when she was awake.
"What are you doing here?", she asked, not hiding her anger. Despite her promise of helping that... thing now calling itself Cuckoo, she had hoped it was sealed behind that shard instead of invading her mind.
"I got bored and it's such a good opportunity to talk to you without making you look like a lunatic who talks to herself."
"You did that to me"!
Cuckoo raised her hands in a playfully defensive manner.
"I already told you I did not. If I knew you had so much potential when we first met, I probably wouldn't have tried to kill you."
Maggie tried to raise from the bed, but a gentle force pressed her down again.
"Don't move so much, you'll worry them", Cuckoo remarked happily and Maggie gave her a stare that wanted to kill.
"What are you even talking about?", the captain finally asked. Cuckoo beamed at her.
"You don't know? Your own parents never told you?"
"What are you talking about?", Maggie hissed angrily.
"For once, your father is not a human", Cuckoo announced. Maggie relaxed.
"I know. He's a selkie. I know that. But I'm a human because my mother - ", she stopped and stared at the person looking exactly like her.
"How do you know that?"
A bloody hard appeared in Cuckoo's hand.
"Your blood told me that. You really should be more careful with that."
The captain shook her head.
"This is not how that works. Marlena told me -", she began, but Cuckoo interrupted her.
"She knows nothing about such ancient and powerful magic. I do and I think Raven's friend among your crew knows, too. I can imagine she was not too happy about what you did when she found out."
Maggie avoided to look into the well known grey eyes.
"So where was I? Ah, yes. For once, your father is a selkie, but I think we can safely ignore that pinch of magic potential you got from him", Cuckoo said, resuming her previous topic, deeply enjoying Maggie's confusion.
"I found something way more fascinating in your bloodline. Say, did you grandmother have such grey eyes, too?"
"I'm not talking to you about my family", Maggie stated. Cuckoo ignored her and started smearing the blood on the shard. It was no longer dried up and brown, but red as if it had been freshly spilled. Also, she couldn't remember having used so much of it. It was flowing over, running over Cuckoo's hand and dripping down onto the blanket.
"Oh, right, you never knew her. It's a tragedy, really. But I can understand why your mother never talked about her. Bad decisions were made, really bad ones."
"Stop that!", Maggie shouted. She didn't want to see all that blood. She didn't want to hear about her family from that... creature! It was not her business!
"But we're only getting to the interesting part. Come on, let me tell you. If you don't know, your doctor will poison you to death."
"What?!"
Cuckoo sighed and the blood and shard vanished. She was no longer smiling as if this all was a great amusing game. She was dead serious.
"Listen up, birdie. When you and I made that deal, I got bound to you. I didn't exactly see that coming, but it was a change to get out of the temple, so I took it. Apparently, that triggered something in you. That doesn't normally happen, so I investigated your blood a little closer. I could do that because I am still trapped behind that shard and within your blood at the same time. That why we can talk like that. Anyway, I found something I had not expected to find there. It's only an echo of very ancient and powerful magic, but it was still inside of you the whole time. I think it follows the females of your family, though in order to be sure I'd need to meet one of your brothers."
Maggie was too aghast to say anything, so she simply nodded.
"I have no idea what that is you have in your blood, but it resonated with me and well, caused all this."
Cuckoo waved her arms around the cabin. Maggie tried to process what she heard. If this was true... Of course it could be a lie, but it made some strange kind of sense, like even the weirdest dreams usually had some twisted logic behind them until you woke up.
"So I can use magic now?", Maggie asked, still perplex.
"Do you know any?", Cuckoo sighed.
"... No..."
"Then you can't. But you can be negatively affected by technology now. So you better get that infusion out of your system and a healing potion if you want to get better", Cuckoo announced.
"It was nice chatting with you, Magpie. 'Till next time", she waved and was gone.