Princess Millerna Aston Fassa of Austuria followed the petite little maid through the halls at the pace the girl set. She wished, not for the first time, that she dared wear her skirts as short as Hitomi did, and cursed herself for not bringing her riding pants on this trip. She was also certain that the maid could have gone faster, but not nearly so certain that she could keep up in the full skirts she was wearing.
That Hitomi had returned was a miracle worth witnessing, something that they had all prayed for Van to have, but that she had returned in such a state of injury was twice the tragedy that it would have been if she had never returned at all. Millerna was certain to the core of her being that she was here to save not just Hitomi's life, but Van's as well. If she died, he would be not long after.
That seemed to be the true curse of Fanelia's royal house. To love someone so much that you were nothing without them. To fade away into nothing when they were no longer there.
On the heels of that rather dark thought they arrived at the room where Hitomi slept, and she was admitted without challenge. She didn't dwell on Hitomi's appearance, meet the worried eyes of the warriors in the room, or let herself see the hope of salvation in Merle's eyes. She simply stepped to the side of the bed with neither worry nor haste.
Being a doctor, she had discovered, was much like playing politics. If you were too quick to the bedside of your patient then those around you began to think that the situation was hopeless, but if you were too slow then they thought that you didn't care at all. So she put on her best political act and never betrayed the worries that she felt.
And worry was what she had now in plenty. Hitomi's breathing was shallow, her eyes beneath their lids glazed and dilated, the inside of her mouth dry, and her fingers and lips slightly blue in color.
She leaned down and sniffed the girl's breath delicately. As she had thought, someone had poisoned the Seeress. She spared a moment to indulge - very privately - her distaste for this side of politics, then casually tossed the water at the bedside out the window, bowl and all.
"Merle," she said softly, "Please go and bring fresh water and a cup."
Merle bounced out of the room, tail flying in all directions as she banished Allen and Reyan from the room. She watched them go, her thoughts idling.
Once she had thought that she loved Allen and had been ready to give up her entire life to be the wife of the true Knight of Heaven. It had taken her a long time to realize her heart on that score.
Nonetheless, she had watched him in the years after Hitomi's departure from Gaea. More and more often his eyes held a strange new look that had never really belonged there. A look of helplessness and despair. Time went by on Gaea as it did on the Mystic Moon, and more and more Allen had felt like a relic of the past, an instrument of war as newly useless as his gymelef.
She turned back to her work, pulling a few herbs from her bag and crushing them together. They weren't the herbs that would rid the Seeress of the poisons in her system, but they would relieve pain and grant Millerna the time she needed to find out what had been done.
She couldn't think of anything to say to Van. What words could she use that would ease his pain, his fear?
The truth was that she didn't know if she could fix this. There were more factors in this than even Dryden would be able to track down, so many bits of information that were missing. The only thing she did know was that Hitomi would not give up that easily. She could not have changed so drastically in the last ten years that she was no longer as stubborn as she had been.
"She'll make it," she said finally, as much to herself as to Van, "She'd never lay down for this."
Van's silence was eloquent. The way he held her hand to his lips, the way he closed his eyes and leaned toward her all spoke so loudly of his pain and fear. Like Millerna, he was uncertain of the outcome of this.
He had once told her that they shared their thoughts across the distance and stars that separated them, that they unity of their thoughts cradled the dreams and wishes of Gaea and all the peace of the future. After all the things she had seen during the war, after all the impossible things that Hitomi and Van had done, she believed it. She believed with all her heart that as long as they were together there would be peace on Gaea.
"Can you hear her?" She asked, suddenly needing to know that they were still united.
"No." Van responded softly, "I can't hear her at all."
Millerna felt cold all over. Even though she believed in the power of the love that the two shared, she had told herself so often that she did not believe in fate, did not believe that the future could be set in its path. She didn't want to think of the future as something she had no hand in, just as she didn't want to think of Gaea being deprived of the great love that held these two together.
Silently she rose and went outside, sending Merle in with the clean water and instructions as she looked at Allen and Reyan. The two were looking at her patiently, watching and waiting as if she were all that held the future in place now.
"She was poisoned," Millerna said softly, "I didn't tell Van, didn't want to add to his worry. No one goes in any more except for myself, Van, Merle, and the two of you. No servants, no visitors, no one."
They nodded, and the look they shared said that there would be other measures taken as well, possibly involving the business end of a sword. Millerna wasn't worried about that, however. She was only concerned for saving Hitomi.
"If you find the person who did this," she said, "find out what he or she used. I'll be looking this up with Dryden's help, but the faster we know the better, and there is always a chance that the book can be wrong."
The two nodded shortly, and Reyan made his way off down the hall with a black look in his eyes. Millerna was not far behind, desperately hoping that Dryden had more than her best guess. |
