Gayyak Saliva Extract Vapors
Researchers at Healer's Hollow had worked for decades on a cure for Blue Breath to no avail. While they found ways to protect and cure those who came into contact with it, no antitoxin or magical purging could remove the original pollen of the nallen flowers inhaled by the carriers themselves. Thus the condition remained untreatable, with the focus drawn to healing the carrier's unintended victims.
That is until a healer named Deshara Whermin looked at the early research into blue breath. At that time, it was believed that the insects that carried the pollen were themselves somehow immune. These insects were captured for study, but as it turned out they never actually breathed in the pollen during transit, and so the research was abandoned.
Whermin, however, was curious about why nallen flowers were so rare and developed a plausible theory. She hypothesized they might be a food source for an animal native to the flower's environment. If the flower had become enchanted by the sun's magic, she reasoned, why then could an animal not be enchanted to safely eat it in the same way? The theory took hold, and the search began for a creature that could safely eat the flower.
Eventually, hunters from the flower's native region brought in an animal called a Gayyak. The creatures are small herbivores that are difficult to catch, but when studied it was found that their saliva neutralized the pollen's magical effects, allowing the flower to be ingested. Whermin headed the research into refining the saliva into a cure. She discovered that mixing the saliva with other oils, heating it, and releasing it as a vapor to be breathed in would disenchant the pollen resting in the lungs.
While the carrier would still suffer a rough cough for several weeks afterwards, their breath did not carry the dangerous enchantment anymore. The carrier would eventually cough up the residue of both vapor and pollen as a disgusting green sludge, but most of the infected people agreed it was a small price to pay to keep their loved ones safe and still remain within the community.
Whermin was proclaimed a hero, and a ward in Healer's Hallow was named after her. A plaque bares her name, written in steel, above the entrance to the ward. She refused to allow the cure to be called "Whermin Vapors," in keeping with the healer profession's preference to remain humble and unbiased.
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