Waiting
POV: Lucien
I was meeting with the princesses of the Seely Realm and Blake to make plans to send them and the Delnaros off through their portal. We had finished up the talks and were enjoying some tea when Malinus ran into the room. I shot him a glare, “Malinus! What have I told you about protocol when we have such important guests?” He had a look of panic on his face, “You said not to bother you unless it is an emergency. But Your Majesty, I assure you that it is indeed an emergency!” I sighed, “And what is the emergency? Did the chef catch the kitchen on fire or something rather trivial like that?” The whole room giggled from the joke that I had made. He shook his head, “No, Your Majesty. Young Derek pulled up to the castle gates not long ago in the Batiste carriage. He was covered in blood. Alexandra’s blood.” My brother and I bolt upright out of our seats and the princesses followed. I ran out of the room, “Where is she?!” Malinus, who was running after me, yelled, “The guest quarters downstairs!” We all flew down the stairs and to the hall where Derek had his head in his hands sobbing. I went to open the door but it was locked, “What is the meaning of this?!” Malinus explained, “The doctor said that he needed to be undisturbed because he needed to do surgery on her. I assume he locked the door to prevent any disturbance.” I squatted down to Derek, “Can you tell me what happened?”
He looked up at me, his face was smeared with blood and tears, “We…we were coming into town to pick up a package from the shop. I stepped out of the carriage and helped her climb down. I saw something out of the corner of my eye fly out of nowhere. I thought nothing of it until I saw Lex’s hand and she fainted. She had the arrow in her side. I didn’t dare take it out but I knew I needed to get her care. The castle was the only place I thought to go.” I patted his shoulder, “You did well, Derek.” He shook his head, “No, I didn’t. She was injured under my watch. It’s all my fault.” He buried his head in his hands and started to sob again. I turned to Malinus, “I need you to send work to Blackwood. We need her parents and Jess here.” Malinus looked at me confused, “Jess?” I looked down at Derek, “She would know how to help him better than any of us.” Nystasia stepped forward, “I can help him too, Your Majesty. I have certain powers that will help him for now.” I nodded at Nystasia and she stepped forward and pulled Derek up from his sitting position and led him to the study next door to the guest quarters. I looked at Sylphia and she nodded, “She can sense his feelings like Jess but she has this touch thing that she does that will knock him out. She must believe he needs a nap. In his sleep, her other thing is to plant dreams into this mind that will help with the guilt. In truth, I don’t think he should feel guilty. He was doing his job to the best of his abilities.”
Blake was pacing the hall and looked over at me, “How could this happen? We knew The Order was still after her yet we were careless. What will we do if we lose her?” The thought of losing her hadn’t crossed my mind until he mentioned it. This caused nausea in my stomach so I leaned into the wall next to the door but a thought had dawned on my brain. I turned to Malinus, “Doesn’t the doctor usually need an assistant? Who is with him in there?” Malinus looked at the door and looked back at me, “The Befent was with the doctor when Derek came into the castle. He volunteered to assist the doctor.” Theodore Befent was a bit of an introvert much like Jess but he was much more introspective. He was known as a scholar and very smart. They said he hadn’t set his sights on any of the noblewomen to marry much like the other noblemen around his age had. There were rumors that he was into men but nothing was substantiated. The Vellum and Seely Realms heavily embraced same-sex couples in our society. We all felt that a person should always be able to love who they want. That being said, it was still hard in Vellum to come out since we still had The Order floating around. They hated anyone who they deemed different and that was also targeted at young nobles who didn’t naturally produce children. Same-sex couples had the ability to produce children through the magic egg process. I shook my head of thoughts of Theodore Befent and looked at Malinus, “Does The Befent have any medical skills?” Malinus shrugged, “Did Alexandra when she took care of you?” I sighed, “There’s a difference between a bump on the head and an arrow wound, Malinus.”
Malinus looked up to think and snapped his fingers then started to walk off. I called out to him, “Where are you going?” He turned slightly back to me, “I’m going to get his scribe dossier. I was going through the achievements of each candidate so we could announce the assignments. I was considering The Befent as our choice for Royal Scribe.” The fact that Malinus was not considering his own cousin was both admirable but also infuriating for me personally. We got one candidate to choose and one that would be assigned. A short while later, Malinus came back with a folder with Theodore Befent’s name on it. He opened it and started to read then started to nod his head. He looked up after a while, “It says here in his interview that his goal is to intern specifically for the castle doctor as Royal Scribe. His ultimate aim is to become a doctor himself. He’s proficient in both fire and water which is very rare. Given that, I would think that the best person to be in that room with the doctor is Theodore Befent.” A person proficient in water was always best to take on the medical and potion maker roles. Given that Theodore was known as a genius in many of the subjects he chose to partake in and with his proficiency in water element magic, I did not doubt that he would be the best person to be in the room with the doctor. Blake was mumbling about how he failed her and how he would make The Order pay with their lives once he got a hold of them. Malinus was assisting Nystasia as much as he could. Sylphia had gone out to the garden to assist with picking herbs that the doctor and Theodore might need. My mother, who had heard about Alexandra, was stroking my back and telling me that things would work out. We were just waiting…waiting to hear from the doctor, waiting to see if Nystasia’s magic had worked on Derek, and waiting for Alexandra’s parents to show up.
Reggie had run into the hallway and up to the door. He started to jiggle the handle while Talia had quickly approached Malinus, “How is she? Any word yet?” He shook his head, “No, the doctor is in there performing surgery with the assistance of The Befent.” Reggie turned to him, “The Befent? Talia, I believe now that she is in good hands. No offense to the doctor but I have seen The Befent treat a pretty large wound with water magic. It was well-sealed after he took care of it.” Talia sighed, “He can heal a wound all he can but you know very well that if she lost a lot of blood, she will need to revert temporarily.” When a pyrio lost too much blood, they had to make up for it elsewhere by reverting to their original form. Once a pyrio was reverted naturally, it was very hard to get them to convert back to being a food eater. If Alexandra had lost a lot of blood, it would take a lot of rehabilitation to get her back to eating normal food. Suddenly her father had collapsed to his knees, “Goddess Aphrodite, I pray to you that Alexandra does not have to go through the pain of blood rehab.” Aphrodite appeared in front of Reginald, “Unfortunately, Reginald, I cannot help with that this time. It is all about the fight within her. She’s already lost enough blood that she will need to revert.” Talia started to sob at the declaration and I clenched my jaw. This would likely mean that Alexandra would have to drop out of the Queen competition because she couldn’t be in society. Aphrodite sighed, “You didn’t let me finish. The amount of blood she would need to revert for depends on her fight like I said. She could have lost a whole lot of blood but if she has the fight within her, the cost of her modern behavior would lessen. You understand?” I said, “So you mean that she will need less blood if she has the biggest will to live.” She smiled and nodded, “If I know our girl, she won’t let someone trying to kill her deter her from being around for those she loves. Her fight to live for love is what will drive her.” She looked at me, “You are going to be her biggest why. Trust me on that Lucien. You just need to speak to her when the doctor is finished…that is if she survives.”
She looked down with a sad look on her face, “Unfortunately, I have to go.” She disappeared and silence set into the castle that usually was full of life and noises. We sat there for what felt like hours while we waited for the doctor to come out of the room. Finally, Theodore emerged and bowed to me, “Your Majesty, The Batiste is now stable enough to be seen. She is calling out for you in her sleep so the doctor believes you should go in alone.” Theodore started to walk away when I called out to him, “Theodore, wait!” He stopped and turned to me and set his grey eyes on me, “Yes, Your Majesty?” I inhaled sharply, “Will she survive?” He looked down at his feet and then up at me, “Hard to say, Your Majesty. As of right now, I would say it is iffy. She’s lost a whole lot of blood so even if she does survive it will be a long process to get her up and going to normal. It is really all up to her now. She has to fight to live at this point.” With that, he whipped around and retreated from the castle. I turned to the door of the room and sighed then opened the door.
