what am i supposed to do, haunted by the ghost of you

Cleanliness made sense. She'd seen and smelled infection before - there had been so many burns in the wake of the fire that was she intimately familiar with that particular kind of stench and pus. Theory pricked her ears forward and listened carefully, glad to see her father slipping back into some semblance of normalcy. She wanted to give him her full attention. His words about the sky soothed her somewhat, although it was difficult to imagine clear skies again. Ash had been pouring forth for so long that it was becoming difficult to imagine a time when the air was clear and fresh. Surely it wasn't that long ago, right?

"Alcohol, hm?" Theory mused. "Is it so easy to come by?" It wasn't something she had much experience with. She wasn't even sure if it occurred naturally or something you had to craft. There was so much she didn't know. The weight of everything she didn't know suddenly seemed crushing. Knowledge was power and she was pitifully weak. Theory took a deep breath and turned her eyes towards the sky, still so dim and grey. Ash fluttered down like winter's first snow squall even though she kept telling herself it was spring. "Cauterizing... that sounds painful," she added. A healer's job seemed much more complicated than she had originally guessed. The road to wellness was a tightrope between causing more pain and alleviating symptoms.