See, you helped there too.
I needed to balance out the "aha, that character wasn't dead after all!" with a substantial character death.

So much of this story has been "solved" (usually inadvertently) through reader comments!

As for the toxin... Lucil was not only injured and lacking medical treatment for 3 days, she was also dealing with (or failing to deal with) the pain of being responsible for several Crusader deaths including Elma's. At least, she thought Elma was dead. Being catatonic was probably a mercy!