Suur Maltha

Context and Role

Suur Maltha is the physician for the Concent (walled mathic enclave) at Orithena. When the occupant of a newly landed probe is brought out by other avout (cloistered scholars), Maltha conducts an immediate assessment at the scene.

Actions and Observations

• Uses a stethoscope to listen for vital signs and reports no detectable pulse, noting only faint internal sounds consistent with gut activity.
• Directs helpers to roll the patient and cuts away clothing to inspect wounds, revealing many large, round punctures across the lower back and up the left side. Others present infer this pattern as a close-to-medium range firearm blast; Ganelial Crade (“Gnel”) explicitly characterizes it as a shotgun injury.
• States to arriving soldiers that the casualty is dead and declines the need for a medic.
• One of Maltha’s assistants measures body temperature and suggests death occurred only minutes earlier.

Description

Maltha is portrayed as calm, clinical, and decisive under pressure. She works hands-on in a chaotic environment and becomes visibly blood-stained while performing the examination.

Relationships and Affiliations

• Affiliation: Orithena’s Concent (walled mathic enclave); member of the mathic community.
• On scene with Cord, Yulassetar Crade (Yul), Sammann, Fraa Landasher, Fraa Orolo, and others from the Concent, as well as soldiers of the Sæcular Power (civil authority).

Current Status

During the evacuation that follows, Maltha and one assistant are last seen in the back of Gnel’s fetch (utility truck) with the body. The narrative does not show her departure or destination; her immediate whereabouts remain unspecified.

Notes

• Naming: “Suur” (honorific) is used as part of her name in all references here.
• Terminology: “Geometer” (offworld visitor) refers to the probe’s occupant examined by Maltha.