"Nobody wanted to interrupt you in the first place, Father," Tabletina muttered.
I barely heard her, excited by my findings.
"The Paleness had anemia-like symptoms, affected only pupae or bees without the thick skin gene… I *should've* put it together earlier that it was some sort of blood-sucking parasite! These mites were sucking the blood and nutrition out of their hosts!"
I looked at Ambrosia.
"When I heard about Worriesgone's dream, it reminded me about mosquitoes, and they reminded me about lice and other parasites. Then, I realized that Paleness could be a parasite infestation as well."
"I feared it might be some gut worm—because I have no idea how to deal with *that*—but the sick people didn't have any digestion problems, and Worriesgone described being pricked, so I hoped for the easier option. An option we can try to drown, at least!"
"So these things were sucking blood out of our daughters, and we never noticed them?" Ambrosia looked at the half-dead mite dubiously.
