Chapter 4: Princessia in the snow

To her dismay, Gaius practically held her captive in the castle for the next few days at the suggestion of the healers. He had even sent someone to check out of her lodgings at the inn while attendants waited on her as if she were an invalid. There was barely any chance for solitude let alone escape.

While in bed, she went over the grim details of Wingul's side-effects noted carefully in his journal. She wondered if he had intended for someone to read his words after death claimed him. If so, he was more morbid than she presumed.

A certain passage gave her pause.

"My loyalty to my friend Gaius is unwavering. I must outthink Ilbert one last time if I am to pave the way for Erston and let him fly. He is most beautiful and most magnificent when he is undeterred. I will be his strength so he can move forward for Auj Oule. He will make my dream a reality. I wish I could stay with him to see it."

She felt she was intruding somehow by reading his intimate thoughts. His blind devotion to a cause made him devoted to the man he believed would bring the results. Gaius had, after all, risen from nothing to take over an entire kingdom and managed to rule it were rivals and they were friends. Elize imagined a relationship between them that needed no words and yet nothing was left unspoken. She found herself a bit jealous of the closeness of that bond between two warriors who had fought side by side for a long time. She wondered if Gaius ever thought himself to be lonely now that the Chimeriad were gone.

Wingul's written words would remain as a memorial to a man who burned his life quickly and sacrificed everything that he was for his beliefs and his friend.

Having made up her own mind to not waste time, Elize snuck out and located the library to brush up on herb lore. No matter how attentive the servants and healers were Elize knew her symptoms were getting worse, just as predicted. She hoped she would still be in time to help the others.

As she was searching the pages of an ancient medical text in the archaic script of the tribal ancestors she heard the sound of determined footsteps behind her. She did not need to look up to know who it was. They had gone through this exchange at least once a day since her stay began.

Those boots took long strides across the breadth of the patterned library floor only to stop abruptly next to her. Elize looked up and saw the king staring down, arms crossed with an extremely displeased expression.

"They tell me that you will not stay in your room and rest," he frowned. Elize couldn't help but let out a little laugh at his perturbed reaction to someone who willingly disobeyed him.

"This is no laughing matter. If you become worse Rowen will never let me hear the end of it. As king of all subjects of Auj Oule, I command you to return to your room."

Standing up straight from her comfortable lounge chair, Elize craned her neck upward to look at his face, unflinching. "I am no longer a registered citizen of Auj Oule. I am a member of House Sharil in Rashugal. I do not think you have any sway over me as the defunct king of Auj Oule." Elize put her hands on her hips and smirked at him defiantly.

"So you are only a citizen of Auj Oule when you want me to do you favors but you are no longer my citizen when I give you orders?" he asked incredulously.

She grinned.

"How vexing," he concluded, admitting defeat and standing down. "I suppose Rowen has taught you all his annoying traits of verbal sparring."

She beamed. "That is a compliment."

"Vexing, indeed," he sighed. "Then as king of all Rieze Maxia and her subjects, I order you back to your room," he said with a smug sense of satisfaction.

His brows furrowed again when he saw she was still in her nightdress wrapped only in a shawl.

"Why are you parading about the castle with nothing on?" he demanded. "You will certainly make yourself worse and it is unseemly to run around in a shift." Gaius took off his cape and securely wrapped it around her for good measure. Elise blinked in silence and found him rather old fashioned in a strangely endearing way.

"Come," he commanded once again and he headed for the same side passage she had used to keep away from any onlookers, and expected her to follow.

Since he was so much taller, the cape pooled at her feet, making it difficult to walk. In exasperation Gaius went back to her side, picked her up and carried her in his arms as if she weighed nothing, walking briskly back to her room.

Too shocked to comment on the sudden proximity of his face Elize could only quietly look forward.

Becoming more and more discomfited by the feel of her soft form against his body with each step, Gaius hurried to her room and gently set her back down in it.

The sudden change in position made her accidentally drop the book she was holding.

"If you need books I will have them brought to you," he said, picking it up and facing the window but not looking at her directly for some reason. "You can read this?" he asked incredulously as he casually flipped through the dusty tome.

"At Talim I learned the ancient script so I could read the older medical texts from Auj Oule."

"Impressive." He looked down at the open page showing a delicate pink flower with a voluminous bloom.

"The princessia," he mused. "It is an herb of superior medical value and extremely rare in Kanbalar."

"It grows in the Silent Cave," said Elize softly.

"Does it? I had no idea," he answered honestly.

"The flower is difficult to find but there are many things you can notice if you would only take the time to look."

"You positively sound like Rowen when you say things like that," he smirked.

She laughed, "I suppose I do. But I had previously overlooked the princessia as a possible remedy for upper respiratory symptoms. The extract, in the right quantities, would probably be of use to me."

"I will direct the Minister of Healing to assist you and allow you access to the royal supplies."

"You are a very generous sponsor," she smiled. "Thank you."

He put the book down and walked over to her. Reaching out his hand to touch her forehead he noted that her fever was gone. His hand slipped down to her cheek before falling away. He turned to leave and called out behind him, "Back to work I go. Try to stay in bed for at least five minutes." She smiled wryly at his teasing manner and watched his back disappear through a doorway.

Not long after he departed another rap on the door revealed the messenger who had located Belburu. He returned with a list of people the old man could remember having been freed from the Labari Institute. There were nine total, and next to their names was written their last known location. The first was in Kanbalar, coincidentally.

Elize hurried to her closet to change.

-000-

She snuck past the guards in the hall and out the gates in search of the first name; Edgar, whom she vaguely recalled as a dark haired, pale boy with a marble always in his hand.

Asking around for the general direction she was led down an alley that opened up to a back lot house in a small corner. The house seemed deserted as the windows were shuttered and there was no signs of water jugs or laundry or any other indicators of everyday life. Going back the way she came she happened upon an old man. Asking if he knew Edgar, who would have been a child when he lived in this neighborhood, the old man answered that a childless family had adopted a sickly boy who loved marbles in that house. He had heard the boy passed away years ago and the family was long gone.

Elize meandered back slowly the way she came. Her heart beat with a dull ache and she sighed, looking upwards towards the midday sky. They had all been orphans, children whom no one would miss. That fact made their slavery at Labari even more pitiful. Some would not have even remembered what it was like to have a family.

Perhaps Edgar was happy before the end, and she prayed silently for it to be true before referring back to the list.

There was another resident of Kanbalar. Deliah, a girl from Rashugal, whom Elize remembered had red hair and long lashes. If she had grown up, Elize was sure she would be stunning.

She walked back into the main square and into the inn. Taking some refreshment and her midday meal, Elize asked the local tavern keep about Deliah, since red-haired people were rare and extremely noticeable in the capital. A nearby porter had overheard their conversation and interrupted. He introduced himself as Lohwan.

"My fiancee fits that description," he said. "Del works at the potions shop but she's not there right now. She's been sick lately and we're wondering if we should move to a warmer climate to help her recover."

Convincing him that she was an old friend, Elize convinced Lohwan to their flat. As she walked into the apartment she heard the sound of coughing and a raspy voice asking for him. He carefully helped Deliah sit up and Elize was taken aback at how sickly and wan a once pretty face had become. Elize waited in the doorway until she was noticed.

Deliah's brows furrowed thoughtfully. "Who might this be?"

"Her name is Elize. She says she knows you from when you lived together as orphans."

The red headed young woman's eyes went wide. She looked at Elize again and smiled in recognition.

"Hello, Elly."

"I hope you don't mind but I came to see how you were," she said shyly.

Deliah let out a little self-deprecating laugh. "As you see; I'm an invalid at the ripe old age of twenty-four." Elize went over to sit down on the chair beside her and held her hands. She asked Lohwan if he could make some honey tea for Deliah and he went off to the kitchen to comply.

"You're so warm," Deliah smiled. "Fate has been kind to you."

"Teepo and I… we found some really great people who did some amazing things…. We destroyed the Schism and saved the world."

"Wow. You did all that?"

"I did. I wanted to be useful so that…our suffering was not for nothing. Teepo was really strong. All that research had made him so strong."

"Then it was not for nothing," Deliah nodded.

As Deliah went over her symptoms and what experiments she could recall Elize took copious notes. Her pen paused when Deliah described an implant surgery that all inmates had to undergo when they first arrived.

"Implants? We had implants?"

Deliah shuddered. "I remember I was awake when they put it in. Here," she pointed at the base of her neck. "Later, Nihl's recommended the kids be knocked out beforehand. You came a few years after so maybe they sedated you. You were also really young."

"I don't remember that part," said Elize, wondering if moments had been too traumatic for her young mind to recall everything exactly. She felt the back of her neck and true enough a small, hard metal object was there, under her skin.

"I remember them calling you Spooky Girl, or Child of Darkness since things used to float around you and you only spoke through Teepo. I remember you mostly stared at us with your big, round, soulful eyes."

Elize smirked in spite of herself. "Conversation was not my forte. You were one of the only ones kind enough to talk to me."

"I had a feeling you were a sweet kid," smiled Deliah.

"Maybe you should undergo some scans at Fennmont or Trigleph to see if the implant is interfering somehow," Elize thought aloud.

"We don't have gald for that," she responded, shaking her head.

"King Gaius is my research sponsor," smiled Elize. "He's willing to assist any citizen of Rieze Maxia who was at Labari. I can ask his Ministry of Healing to accommodate."

She nodded in hopeful acquiescence. "I guess I'm lucky you have powerful friends then, Elly," Delia laughed, for the first time in a long while.

-000-

Elize set off in the direction of the Silent Caves as the sun was setting, content she had found at least one of her kindred.

Using her powers to vanquish the small nuisances in her way, Elize made it to the crawl space she knew so well inside the icy cavern. In the clearing, to her relief, her garden was still there, growing more abundantly across the field than she remembered. Though the house was gone, the echoes of her childhood still seemed to reverberate against the cavern walls.

Plucking a handful of princessia flowers she held them close to her heart and said a silent prayer. Elize never had desire for vengeance but the pain only dulled over the years, not disappearing.

A sudden fit of coughing overtook her and she used the king's handkerchief to cover her mouth. Again, the scent of lavender filled her mind and calmed her. Elize looked down and frowned at the new blood stain.

Fate was cruel to her after all.

Her body suddenly swayed and she lost balance, collapsing amid the flowers.

I'm not ready to die yet…but perhaps just a little rest…Mama…Papa…. Her mind grew hazy as she found it difficult to breathe.

Elize thought she heard concerned voices calling her name, beckoning her back to her senses. A soft hand cradled her head and a pair of strong arms lifted her off the ground. Rowen's voice hovered over her.

"I am...home," she whispered weakly before it all went dark.