Lilac Serum
Notes extracted from the inventor's journals.
196 Spring of Notige. First quarter of day 26.
I was wrong about the symbiosis. The Mirosas are still thriving but they won't bloom, while the White Quives seem to be infested by fungus and their flowers are light purple instead of white. —x Investigate the fungus. Research on White Quives’ diseases (but how? I've lost contact with Subi)
? plants that won’t flower 52tiarkoC15.288, 458suaC2.36.4...¿or is it C3?, maybe 12Notige156.
—x
196 Summer of Notige. First quarter of night 9
(...)It’s not a fungus. (...) If I didn’t know better I would think it’s part of the plant. (...)
As expected, the flowers are not useful to weave masyú. First it took like over a hundred flowers to make a single yarn ball (lilac yarn!). Soon the weaver noticed it was wet, and left it in the sun, and by the last quarter of the day it had turned into a sticky mass. The weaver’s assistant thought it was a golosine and tasted it. I can only hope it’s not poisonous, because the poor guy is afflicted by desidia.
The Mirosas are still thriving. After harvest! Instead of dying as usual, they grew new leaves. (...)
—x Consider mutation? (...)
196 summer of Notige. Third quarter of day 12
That boy, the one who ate the defective quive’s yarn, he was here.
He kept eating it. He’s convinced that that hideous thing helps him heal normally, and he begged me to provide him more to fix his eyes (I suspect the yarn is to blame but his current blindness. The healers told him the same.)
—x Is delusion a symptom of Desidia?
If not, maybe the yarn caused that too. It has to be the parasite in the quives.
196 summer of Notige. Fourth quarter of day 13
I was wrong. The boy is healing normally, just like he said. His sight is back to normal now too (I didn’t give him any more yarn. Maybe that’s unrelated. If the loss of sight was indeed caused by the defective white quive’s yarn, it was temporary).
But there is no doubt that he’s healthy now.
But this needs to be investigated.
196 summer of Notige. First quarter of night 17
The white quives in the North Sample show exactly the same light-purple pigmentation. I'm sure the seeds didn't carry the parasite. (...) I need better equipment to do some tests, but the mutation is the most likely explanation. Not white quives, then. Lilac quives.
196 autumn of Notige. Second quarter of day 1
The plan is ready. I even have a few possible volunteers in mind, but I have to be careful to select them. People infected with Desidia are extremely fragile.
The study on Effects of lilac quives consumption will be noted in 196NotigeC10.
1st Sowing
198 Sowing of Notige. Third quarter of day 11
I've been ordered by the Hais government (which now includes Notige) to increase my efforts in the production of a cure. They will provide the resources to produce enough Quives for the new experiments, and the equipment I need to distill a serum. I think that is the answer to the problem of quantity.
They also have volunteers to test it.
I believe this may actually work. And one of these guys I'm working with, thinks that we can reduce the secondary effects.
198 Spring of Notige. First quarter of day 21
They are gone! They died! Hais' botanists are working hard in understanding the disease that ended every plant overnight. I'm more worried about how I'm going to produce a new specimen. I brought every single one of the Lilac Quives from my greenhouse and, as I mentioned in previous days, some seemingly unrelated events had destroyed the rest of them.
If my theories are correct, there was an unexpected element in the experiment with white quives and Mirosas.(...)
198 Summer of Notige. Fourth quarter of day 2.
(...)
3 autumn of Krasol. Third quarter of day 18.
The serum has been distributed as far as possible (transportation of the serum or the flowers is still a challenge) and new plantations are being conducted all over the nation. Krasol himself is seeing to it. Another member of Hais' Quartet is taking care of spreading the word and helping the other nations to grow their own Lilac Quives. Everyone who wants to plant them in their own garden has access to the seeds.
My job is done and my last discovery has also been my best. I was ready to end my days in a lovely garden back at Toudme, but I had been entrusted with a new, interesting task, that may keep me busy for a few more decades unless I manage to find a good apprentice. (...)
Access & Availability
While the transportation of the serum itself it's quite difficult, both the procedure of extraction and Lilac Quive seeds are available for everyone. Governments do their best to distribute them and help to grow them.
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Author's Notes
There is another version of this development, in a short novel where Jogara is a secondary character that appears only... once. It was fun to write his version of the events. And I'm just noticing that Krasol appears only once in this.