Hi everyone. Sorry for the super-long delay, school you know how it is. A while ago somebody pointed out that I got Wendell's age wrong. Oops. Out of laziness, I'm going to leave everybody's age alone. Also I have left many of you unthanked. I want you all to know that you are amazing to even bother to read this, especially when there are soooo many stories on fanfiction. So once again thank you and I look forward to any reviews or criticism you have.
Wendell had raced down the hall to get to the Duchess's sickroom. However now that he was here, he didn't quite know what to do. He hesitated at the door.
"Alright look at the positive," he told himself, "Duchess Olga is alive. A major crisis has been averted. I'm sure that Mistress Yaga will be able to revive Rose,".
"Besides better for the kingdom that Rose dies instead of Olga," he hated to add. He was king now, that was how kings thought. It unsettled him. It was so much easier when he was a spoiled, shallow prince. Even when he had thoughts like that in back then, they didn't bother him.
"What a time to grow a conscience," he muttered. He took a breath and opened the door. Surprisingly Olga and her parents were not there. Only Mistress Yaga and Rose were there. Mistress Yaga was alternating hovering over Rose and hovering over her herbs. She was cutting things up, mashing things together, shaking up liquids and looking as if somebody had threatened to take a whip to her. For a while all he could do was watch as her deft hands worked. He stepped back into the shadow of the door when she took a pot to the fire. He expected her to see him, how could she not? It seemed however that she was too involved in her work to notice anything. He was uncertain as to what to do next. He was torn between leaving Mistress Yaga to her work and asking for some sort of progress report. He didn't have to make the choice.
"Your Majesty may come in if He wishes," Mistress Yaga said without diverting her attention from Rose. Wendell felt a blush rise in his cheeks, another thing he must learn to control. He realized that Mistress Yaga had known he was there the whole time. This woman was very adept at making him feel like a nosy little boy.
However he did his best to regally step into the room. Rose looked even worse than Duchess Olga had. Even with all of Olga's cuts on her face, she didn't look like… well death. Rose's face was so pale and chalky that it was hard to believe that she wasn't already dead. Her lips had turned from their delightful pink hue to a sickly lavender. She was also sweating, a lot.
"I don't see how she can possibly survive," he thought as a wave of nausea swept over him.
"As Your Majesty can clearly see, we are having some trouble. My apprentice is, it seems, lost in the spirit world. Since I myself am not an empathic healer it may take me a while to figure out how to bring her back," Mistress Yaga said without waiting to be addressed as she timed Rose's pulse.
"Still too fast," she muttered to herself.
Wendell tried to ignore the fact that the mature healer was treating him as a nuisance.
"I presume that it will be too dangerous to move her," he said. Mistress Yaga simply nodded. She must have changed her mind because she quickly turned around and addressed him once more.
"Your Majesty," she said while looking him straight in the eye, "I think that I should be completely honest about the danger that my apprentice is in,". He could see Mistress Yaga's sadness, weariness, and frustration on her face.
"Rose is caught in the Spirit World. Her whole Spirit, her whole consciousness, is separated from her body. She wanders in the place of the dead. That is the ability of Empaths, they can experience the feelings of others, and they can walk in the domain of spirits. But it is dangerous, a body can't live long without its soul," she said.
"Duchess Olga survived for hours in the spirit world," Wendell told Mistress Yaga. It was close enough to a question to prompt Mistress Yaga into an answer.
"The Duchess' situation was different. All of her spirit was not in the OtherWorld. Yes she was lost, but at first it was if she were sleeping. A part of her spirit was in the realm of spirits, just as it is when she, when everybody, sleeps. The danger for her was in the fact that as time went on, more and more of her spirit departed. Her soul was slowly drifting away from her body. That is why Rose was needed," she explained.
"Rose's whole spirit at once went into the spirit world," Wendell said, more to himself than to Mistress Yaga.
"Yes it did Your Majesty. She has much less time, and nobody to pull her out," finished Mistress Yaga somberly.
"Please let Thomas know if there is anything we can provide you with," he said awkwardly, he didn't know what else to say. She only nodded again. Having never felt so superfluous he left the room, again trying to keep his dignity.
His next step was to visit the duchess and her parents. Thomas informed him of their location. Though he wasn't nervous, he was jittery. He was full of adrenaline and energy. Briefly he wondered if he would feel like this every time he had to face a crisis. Probably. He would gain experience with time of course, but this energy was for the good. It kept him alert.
He arrived at the Duchess' chambers. He knocked and was given permission to enter. The Prince and Princess were waiting for him by a window in the room's antechamber.
"Princess. Prince," he said while greeting them with a bow. The Prince returned his bow, and the Princess gave a curtsy.
"Ah good King Wendell," Princess Laetitia said warmly, "how nice of you to come and see us,".
"The Duchess' health and comfort is of the utmost importance to us," he said using the royal "we". He was meant to say "of the utmost importance to me," but using "me" felt too…intimate. It was strange how he dissected everything he or anybody else said now.
"Our daughter is resting in her bedroom," Prince Adrien said with a motion towards the door behind them.
"I would not wish to disturb her," Wendell said. Truly he did not want to see the girl. He just came to acknowledge her recovery. He had done that.
"Now what do I do?" he thought to himself. Surely there must be something, this was a kingdom after all! Things always needed doing. Paperwork. Yes he would do paperwork. So once again he headed to his study.