Disclaimers: I do not own anything out of Resident Evil. All of the contents belonged to Resident Evil.
Chapter IV: Discussion
'Now, every word he said was either sarcastic or hurtful. And he had lost interest to everyone and everything he came across in his life. He had lost the passion. Jake had lost... love.' - Gabrielle Muller Wesker
King's Study, Afternoon
The afternoon was bright when King Albert Wesker resided in his study to tend to the paperwork; military reports by the Three Generals of Raccoonia, the credentials of the country's welfare by the Senators, and the formal petitions from his loyal subjects. The quill skidded over several papers in one swift motion without consideration, mostly declining the petitions from the commoners as the King had refer it to 'trivial matters'.
However that was document that stood out the most among all; not by the General nor the Senators, but by one of his servants in the castle: A petition by Jill Valentine to the King personally.
The King read it wryly, it said that The Queen was ill and yet she refused to take any kind of medication other than the medicine which didn't seemed to work too well. The servant requested that The King to convince Gabrielle to at least see Doctor Chambers or Doctor Hamilton. "Hmph. Troublesome woman." Albert scoffed and he slipped another clean paper out from the stack.
It will be your duty to take good care of The Queen as her stewardess. However I will arrange so that Doctor Chambers is to visit The Queen. Tell the Queen that I will visit her not sooner, but I will.
"Excella." Albert called without averting his attention away from the other documents. The sultry stewardess of his came forward instantly and Albert slid the folded piece of paper to his front, "See to it that it will be delivered to my Queen's stewardess."
"Of course, Your Majesty. Is there... anything I can help you with?" Excella suggested with a hint, bending her body more than necessary to just pick up the paper. A good view of her cleavage was exposed to Albert but The King was too absorbed in his own work, "No." Came his curt reply.
Disappointed, Excella walked out his study with a sway of her hips hoping that the King would notice this time. Yet Albert kept his eyes focused onto his desk. Her gestures were left deadpanned just like that.
'Someday. Someday.' She thought as she closed the door behind her.
It was only a matter of time before Excella reached the Queen's chamber where Jill had always been. Two soft knocks at the door and Excella heard Jill responding to the knock. The Queen's stewardess opened the door and from her expression, she was quite surprised to see Excella visiting. Truth be told, Jill didn't like Excella, she knew this woman's immoral intention towards the King. King's stewardess, this woman was just trying to take advantage of the situation.
"Good day, miss Valentine." Excella greeted dryly, handing forward the slip of note left by the King, "His Majesty had ordered me to pass this to you after reading your petition."
Jill had no doubt that Excella had read the note before her on her way here. After observing the note from top to bottom, Jill folded it yet again and slipped it on her dress, "Thank you for the trouble, miss Giovanni. Would you mind to pass along that I am honored to have his Majesty to consider my petition?"
"Certainly."
Valentine see to it that Giovanni had left the hallway before she closed the door again, cursing inwardly, Jill returned to her Queen's side and Gabrielle was amused to see the hostility that Jill showed to Excella. She coughed again, wrapping her fur robe tightly around her shoulders and laughed weakly at her stewardess, whom she considered as her closest companion.
Jill cast a worried look to Gabrielle, her concern toward her mistress was growing as the day passed because it wasn't just the cough anymore, the Queen seemed to grow weaker as well; she noticed how the Queen was losing appetite these days and her spirit was wavered.
Gabrielle pretended that she did not notice Jill's concerned gaze as she walked back to her chair, "Should we discuss a bit further of my intention that I had told you last night, Jill?"
"Of course, your Highness. But honestly my Queen, do you think that it would be a good idea? After all, this is not the first time we had discussed about this matter and neither was our second. We both knew that how our Prince dismiss the idea of having someone on his side. I fear that she might end up the same as her predecessor." Jill's tone was dissuading.
Gabrielle sighed, certainly she remembered her son's deed, "But I sensed that this young lady had something different in her. Certainly you saw how she persuaded the Prince to return to his chamber last night? None in this castle had ever performed such feat successfully in their first try. And it seemed that my son took a small interest in her too; I heard him mentioning about her, another something that I had never heard before."
"I did too, your Highness. The Prince said something about thanking her. But..."
"There's no harm in trying, isn't there, my dear Jill?" There was something more in the Queen's smile that made Jill surrendered easily. Jill saw the hope brimming in her eyes, maybe the Queen will be right this time? That she had finally found someone to revert the Prince back to his cheery original self?
Bowing slightly, Jill smiled back to her beloved Queen, "Very well, your Highness. I shall make the arrangements."
Servant's Quarter, Evening
Later that evening, the maids gathered around the mess hall on the servant's quarters to have their dinner. Chatters were all around and the topics mostly revolved around what happened in the castle. Some prefer to eat their dinner quietly and some were just overly chatty.
"Haven't you heard, David is about to be promoted soon! His rank was about to surpass Kevin!"
"Which David?"
"David King! Kevin's best friend. You know, that guy who rarely speaks. Kevin said that General Kennedy issued the promotion as soon as he saw how David handle his sword. He must be really good, huh? For someone who don't like to talk."
"Yeah. Unlike Kevin, all he ever had was his smart mouth."
And that's how the conversation went round and round the mess hall. Sherry was sitting on a large table with only her roommates and the most chatty on the table all was none other than Deborah (although Sherry had expected it to be Sheva), her mouth was exploding with words. The grumpy Alyssa did say something but all of it was just to complain about something.
Sherry chewed her food quietly, then she finally gathered her nerves to ask her friends, "Can you tell me more about The Prince?" Soon as she asked that, almost everyone on the mess hall stopped to look at her. Sherry blushed, had she said something wrong?
"I always forgot that you are new here." Alyssa was the first one who spoke, "There's nothing more to say about the Prince. The only thing we know is that his name was Jake Muller Wesker, twenty-three this year; and the rest were all questions."
"None of us had ever met his Highness, or, we don't know if he was the Prince at all even if we did met him. He was not the kind of royalty you will expect. The older maids at the rear castle said that he looked more like a mercenary."
"He's everywhere in the castle. He never stays in one place long enough unless he fell asleep or he had a bottle of ale in his hand. He lived like an outcast more like a Prince."
Their description of The Prince wasn't at all helping. In the end, Sherry still couldn't make out an exact image of the Prince since what her table mates said was too ambiguous. All she had learnt about the Prince was that he was a mystery. A shadow in the castle.
As mysterious as the man by the lake last night.
"Sherry!"
Everyone came to a stand when they noticed the person on the door. Claire Redfield, the head of all maid in the castle, she was only one rank below Jill's and she was Jill's best friend. Sherry's heart was pounding in her chest when Claire walked to her with a serious expression. Was it something that she had done? Claire said in a very formal tone, "The Queen had summoned you, dear Sherry. Please follow me."
All the others eyed to Sherry and to Claire curiously, trying to comprehend what was happening. For a new girl to meet the Queen on their third day after the first wasn't a common situation and whispers began lingering around as Sherry mouthed shakily, "Why would the Queen wanted to see me?"
Claire shrugged, spinning back to the door and began making her way out from the mess hall. As shaky her as her throat was, Sherry forced herself to follow after Claire.
As they were making their way to wherever Claire was taking Sherry, Claire keep reminded the latter to stay calm and everything will be alright. She reassured the younger woman that it would be nothing bad because Sherry had did nothing wrong in the castle.
Hopefully the bad feelings quelling in her stomach was just another bad feeling.
The Queen's Hall, Evening
Instead of bringing her to the Queen's bed chamber where Gabrielle always had been, Claire brought Sherry to another room in the rear castle where people dubbed it simply as 'The Queen's Hall'. Sherry had heard Sheva mentioning about it last evening while they were cooking and it was the only other place that the Queen might be if she was not in her room.
Queen Gabrielle was by far, the easiest person to search for in the whole palace.
Even outside on the hallway, Sherry's ears could heard a beautiful piece of melody playing so fluently inside whatever hall the Queen was in. So enchanting, that Claire hesitated to knock just so she will interrupt the flow of the music. But the melody stopped briefly, followed after by a series of coughing. That Claire instinctively knocked, "My Queen, are you alright?"
A distant voice was heard from the inside, "Is that you, Claire? Come in."
The red-head placed her hand on the knob before turning back to warn Sherry, "Just stay calm, okay?" She whispered. Sherry nodded slightly out of fear.
The Queen's Hall, as everyone had dubbed, was one room that Sherry thought to be very distinctive that others. Unlike The King's gloomy and tense atmosphere main hall that she had seen when she first joined the castle, this hall was a lot brighter with the light colors on the wall. It was not be as well furnished as the King's main hall but the fresh floral all around it emitting a peaceful aura to the room. And it had a faint sweet scent to, must be from the flowers.
There were two red couches with golden lining on the side and a glass table. Sitting in the middle of the hall was a grand piano, the source of the lovely melody that Sherry had heard prior entering the room. And there was Queen Gabrielle, playing the instrument so fluidly that her resplendence resurfaced. Even in her forties, the Queen still looked so beautiful. Gabrielle stood from the piano bench and greeted the two guests with a warm motherly smile, "Why hello again, Claire. And Sherry."
"Greetings, your Highness." Claire and Sherry inclined slightly and bowed.
Gabrielle nodded, then she looked at the timid Sherry observantly. After making sure that she was the one, Gabrielle then smiled to Claire, "Thank you for bringing Sherry, Claire. You may take your leave, I have something to discuss with our dear Sherry." She said. Without further question, Claire bowed again and turning for the door. When she was side-by-side with Sherry, Claire squeezed her hand and whispered, "Stay calm." Warning one final time before releasing her grip and walked out.
Sherry didn't want to let go of her hand.
The Queen then approached the blonde who had her head lowered, afraid to make eye contact with the Queen. Holding her hands up just like the time when they were in the King's main hall, Gabrielle noticed that Sherry's hand was shaking violently, "Don't be afraid, my dear. You had did nothing wrong and I am not going to hurt you." the Queen reassured with a grin.
"My apologies, your Highness. I am just..." Sherry finally had the courage to look into the Queen's blue eyes, "...surprised."
"I am sorry too, dear Sherry, for giving you a fright. But there is a matter that I must discuss with you. I need your help."
"Is there anything that I might be of assistance, my Queen?" Now Sherry was even more afraid, for a Queen to ask for her help.
Gabrielle then sighed in relief, and lead Sherry to the couch where she took a seat. They sat next to each other (after much persuasion by the Queen to the poor Sherry who insisted that she should stand) and Gabrielle still had one of Sherry's hand grasped by her two.
The Queen began, "It's about... my son, Jake."
"The Prince?" 'What coincidence. I was just talking about him on the mess hall.'
"Yes, the Prince. Had you heard about him?"
Sherry shook her head earnestly. But Sheva's warning to stay away from the Prince rang in her ears. What she had heard from the other maids was just mysteries.
So Gabrielle carried on, "You see... My son. He used to be a very lovable boy. His words were sweet and earnest and his actions was loved by most. Jake used to love meeting new people and was intrigued to everything. But... he changed." A soft sigh, "Now, every word he said was either sarcastic or hurtful. And he had lost interest to everyone and everything he came across in his life. He had lost the passion. Jake had lost... love."
The beautiful Queen was on the verge to tears as she continued her tale, "I don't know where or when did he change to become... like this."
"I believe the Prince will understand someday, your Highness." The consolation was useless, but Sherry felt that she must do it.
"Yes. Well, you do met him once last night, do you? I saw you through the window of my chambers."
Sherry was astounded, "I...I had never met The Prince in person before Your Majesty."
"Oh, yes, you did. The man you talk to last night on the lake."
"The lake?"
"You may be the one."
Before Sherry had the chance to say anything else, another set of knocking came to the double door and Gabrielle responded.
There stood Jill Valentine, the Queen's stewardess.
And Jake Muller Wesker.
A.N: Know what this hints? Sure you do. :)
RFF! :)