thus for the past few months the scriptorium had been in a state of unceasing hustle and bustle historians toiling night and day to find some precedent of the plague in their predecessors writings , healers trying to concoct a potion that might restore the kings fertility ( and possibly save feerien from dying out like a flame ) , and divinators struggling to come up with an ancient prophecy , incantation or enchantment that could help fathom the cause of the shy death and hopefully predict a future rid of it .