Chapter 9

As dusk fell, the trio settled into an easy silence. Freya was just thinking of how to preserve the herbs that hadn't been used today when the sound of someone banging on her door broke the peace. It was hard to characterize a noise as something, but the pounding was frantic, Freya was sure. A feeling of dread filled her stomach as she flew down the stairs and yanked open the door.

Greeting her was a ragged looking guard with fear in his eyes, "The Princess Lucina has been poisoned, you need to come immediately."

Freya shoved her feet into boots, not bothering to lace them she called up to Evert who was looking down in shock, "Gather an emergency kit, charcoal, lady's mantle, the usual. Meet me in the Princess' chambers as soon as you have it." With that she followed the guard who had come to get her, wishing that her new job hadn't started off with such a terrible event.

Adelbert had always impressed upon his apprentices the need for an emergency kit with the most common herbs for medical usage. It wasn't likely that it would hold everything you needed, but sometimes getting half of the right herbs was enough to buy a patient time. Evert's hands trembled as he shoved everything into a sack, finding himself completely numb with panic. This hadn't happened before, his father had tested them, but there had never been a matter of life or death like this. Stahl on the other hand seemed calm, he knew what was needed and was grabbing all the things that Evert missed with no comment. When the bag was filled, Stahl looked up at his younger brother, hoping that seeming calm would be enough to soothe his nerves. "Let's go. I'll show the way."

When Freya arrived, the chambers were a circus. Courtiers were outside blocking the door as they fretted, and the guard had to shove people out of the way for Freya to get inside. In the bedroom was only a bit more calm, Lissa was checking over the Princess Lucina, monitoring her heart beat with two delicate fingers on the child's throat.

She hadn't seen Sully in what seemed like forever, when the Queen had been so kind as to help her move in. When she had first met the woman, Freya couldn't help but believe that nothing could shake her. This obviously proved her wrong. Like any mother would, Sully was fretting about by her child's bedside, leaning down while holding the girl's hand. Freya couldn't hear what she was saying, but she knew that they were words of comfort for the unconscious child as her mother desperately prayed that the worst case wouldn't come to be.

That made the blue haired man next to Sully, the Exalt Chrom. In normal circumstances, or perhaps even less dire ones, Freya would have bowed and introduced herself. There wasn't time now. She had been told once that first impressions were the most important ones. That how you presented yourself to someone the first time shaped how they would see you forever. She had heard about the Exalt's bravery and kindness for many years now, since Stahl had joined the Shepherds. It had made him seem like some kind of glorious, inhuman being. Seeing him now though, Freya knew what he was. A father who was scared for his daughter. "Please help Lucina."

"I will." Freya wasn't sure how yet, but she would manage. Looking around she saw the nursemaid crying in the corner, "What happened?" There wasn't time to be a comforting presence, and no matter how fast Evert was with the kit, it wouldn't matter if Freya didn't know what the poison was.

The young woman wiped her tears on her sleeve, her voice strained with emotion. "I was playing with the Princess when her food was delivered, she drank some of her tea and then—" there was a fresh batch of tears, and Freya resisted the urge to slap the woman for wasting so much time.

Sully however, took care of that. The queen's head snapped up at the sound of the woman bursting into tears once more, "If you don't pull yourself together, God help me I will give you something to cry about. Now spit it out girl."

The nursemaid, appropriately frightened was quick to dry her tears, "She said she felt strange, and fainted. I couldn't wake her up no matter how much I tried."

"How's her heart?" Freya was already making her way to the tea, holding the cup up to her nose and sniffing it. Nothing stuck out as strange smelling, and if it tasted poorly the Princess surely would have spat it back out.

Lissa shook her head, "Her heart is slowing down, we need to do something quick."

Right on cue Evert burst through the door, with Stahl in tow. Evert looked just as scared as Freya felt, though she wasn't about to comment on it. As long as he could still work, how scared he was didn't matter. "Evert, clear one of the tables and set up everything. Miss-" she directed herself towards the nursemaid, "What sort of tea is this supposed to be?"

"The tea?" she glanced between Freya and the Exalt Chrom sitting in the bed, wondering what in the world the flavor of the tea had to do with anything. "It's rose tea. Shouldn't you—"

Freya smelled the tea again, and then inspected the liquid inside it. "They added something to the tea then, whoever did this didn't make a tea just to poison her." It certainly smelled like roses, but there was another mild, pleasant scent in the mix. That, along with the dark color the tea had become didn't leave many other options. "It's belladonna. Evert, start making a charcoal paste."

He was quick to get to work, appreciative that Freya had such a firm grasp on the reigns at the moment. "We'll need to prop her up to get her to drink it."

Sully was already on it, lifting up her daughter and pushing pillows so the girl laid upright. "What does it mean if it's belladonna? I've heard of it, but can charcoal actually help?"

"Belladonna is a fast acting poison, but it isn't always fatal. Children often poison themselves with it because its berries are so sweet and pleasant tasting. You can cure it with charcoal, especially if you act fast." The second Evert was done with the charcoal mixture, Freya took it from him and settled herself down at the Princess' side. It wouldn't be easy to get an unconscious child to drink this, but it wouldn't be impossible. Lucina's eyes only opened the smallest bit when the paste was tipped into her mouth, and though Freya wasn't sure if the Princess could hear her, she still whispered a single word. "Drink."

The girl's blue eyes were quickly closed again, though by some small miracle Freya was able to have her drink the concoction without having to force it down her throat. She could feel all eyes on her, when there was no discernable difference in the Princess' condition. "Why isn't anything happening?" the Exalt's voice was terse, appropriately on edge as he waited for his daughter to show some sort of noticeable improvement.

Freya frowned, she ought to have explained this earlier. "Charcoal is the cure, but it isn't immediate. It will take at least a few hours to soak up the poison in her system. However, since she didn't drink much of the tea—" she glanced back towards the nursemaid for confirmation, continuing once she saw a nod. "Then she will make a full recovery. Once she gets some rest she will be back to normal. It won't do any lasting harm."

The relief that swept through the room was palpable, as both parents' shoulders sagged while a long held breath left them. Lissa's hand left its position at Lucina's wrist to Chrom's shoulder as she gave her brother a small squeeze and a smile.

The Exalt took several deep breaths, seemingly pulling himself together before looking back at Stahl, "I want you to get the courtiers to leave and go back to bed. Then I want you and Frederick to start looking into whoever might have done this. Check with the kitchen staff first."

Freya worked her way over to the makeshift work station as Stahl left the room, gritting her teeth as she looked through the herbs Evert had brought over. Sure, the Princess wasn't going to die, but belladonna was known for causing terrifying hallucinations, and Freya was hoping that she could find something that would keep that from happening. A sedative would be the most obvious answer, but if she gave a sedative to an already sedated patient things could go terribly—

"You said lasting harm."

The Exalt's voice rang out like a bell in the chamber, and the young woman's heart clenched in her chest at the tone. It was almost as if she'd lost her ability to think for a few moments, and was only able to turn around and face the man. Evert, thankfully, was somewhat quicker on the draw than Freya was, though his reply didn't help much. "What?"

"What do you mean by lasting harm?" his question was simple, and the cogs in Freya's mind began to turn once more, thinking of the best way to word this without causing panic. Adelbert had always stressed the importance in keeping a patient's family calm, when possible.

Sully's face was hard, and suddenly Freya knew all too well why people found her frightening. "Tell us the truth, Freya."

'Hells bells', Freya thought, briefly wondering how Sully knew exactly what was on her mind. She didn't hold onto that for long before speaking,

"She'll be sick for a couple of days, at least. The charcoal will only suck up enough poison to keep her from dying. She'll still be sick. Her heart rate will go up, she'll stay sedated for almost the whole time, she won't know what's going on, there will be a great deal of vomiting, she won't be able to speak and will have trouble swallowing…" her voice trailed off, as she motioned towards the herbs on the table, "She'll be extremely distressed—more likely than not she'll hallucinate to some extent. While there are some ways to calm her down, I don't believe that should be the main focus. Making sure she keeps water down is the most important thing, so I plan on treating the vomiting which will happen. "

A frown came onto the Sully's lips, looking down at her husband, before looking back down at her little girl. A calloused hand brushed the hair out of Lucina's face, "Do what you have to do."

The next few days passed in a blur of screaming, crying, spilt tonics and elixirs. Soon enough it was the middle of the night, three days laters—Freya was dabbing at a stain on her sleeve that was either garlic juice or vomit, unable to tell the difference at this point. Chrom and Sully were dead asleep—the exalt was asleep on the floor in the corner, surrounded by state papers and important documents. This bedroom had turned into his office the past few days. Sully was sitting in a chair next to the bed, slumped onto the comforter next to her daughter, in a position that Freya refused to believe was comfortable. Evert was back in the tower, probably asleep after being worked so hard by Freya.

The apothecary hadn't been to her tower since the Princess Lucina had fallen ill, Adelbert had always preached staying by your patient till the end, and it was what Freya intended to do.

She could hear the child stirring in her bed, Freya's hand snatching up the nearest bucket to catch whatever sick Princess Lucina spat up. Surprisingly, when she turned around to dash towards the bed, she was faced with a slightly confused, but not vomiting, little girl. "I don't feel good." The child's voice was hoarse, not shocking considering all of the screaming and throwing up that had happened the past few days.

"I know you don't." Freya kept her voice soft as she set down the wastebasket and sat down on the other side of the child. "You've been very sick the past few days, but now that you're awake you should start to feel better, Princess."

The blue haired child shook her head, the spitting image of her mother for that moment, "Just Lucina, please." Obviously, she had inherited her parent's disregard for proper titles. The little girl rubbed her throat, grimacing as she did so. "What's your name, Miss?"

She was certainly a serious little child, Freya thought. Quite proper too. "My name is Freya Bauer, you can call me Freya, if you would like." The apothecary rested her hand on the child's forehead, happy that her fever had gone down. "How about this, I'll make you some tea for your throat, and I'll answer any questions you have. Does that sound alright?"

"That sounds very nice, thank you Miss Freya."

Briefly, Freya wondered what sort of upbringing a princess might have, to result in such a grown up response in a child that was almost certainly feeling sick and confused. Instead of asking such a question, Freya simply smiled, and spoke softly, "Just Freya, please."