Our mother had been rushed to the medical wing of the castle to be looked over by Mara's mother, Keyara, as my brother and I sat outside her door waiting for news and hoping the news would be good. We didn't speak the whole time we were there, we each were too lost in our own thoughts. We waited for what felt like forever, but what must have been only hours for the door to open. When it did we both jumped to our feet and turned our anxious eyes onto Keyara.
"Well, how is she?" Azreal asked despiritedly.
"Will she be all right? What's wrong with her?" I asked, to which Keyara smiled sadly and sighed.
"She's very ill. I'm sorry, I can't say weather she'll be all right or not. I've done all I can and shall continue to do so. We can only hope that that will be enough." She said somberly. Her words didn't give me any hope though, and by the crestfallen look on my brother's face I could tell he was thinking the same thing.
"Can we see her?" I asked, trying to cling to a shred of hope. But Keyara frowned and shook her head.
"Not at the moment, she needs her rest. I'll call for you when she's up though, for now you two should go and try to relax. I doubt your mother would want you to worry over her."
"All right then." I said, my voice sounding so defeated, as my brother and I left with our shoulders slumped and heads cast towards the ground. Once again we didn't speak, too lost in our own thoughts and unsure of what to say as we headed towards our rooms and waited for Keyara to call us.
Once in my room I crawled into bed and hugged my pillow to my chest, trying not to fear the worst. All I could think was 'will she be alright?' and 'how'd she get so sick?' I wanted to get my mind off of those thoughts as they only hurt, but the thoughts wouldn't leave. The more I tried not to think the more my mind persisted.
I thought back to the past few days, to every moment I'd spent with her, trying to see if there were any signs. Five days before, during mine and Azreal's lesson on royal magic, she's been swaying slightly. It was like she was dizzy or something, but I'd thought nothing of it.
During dinners for the past week she'd been eating less and less, saying that she'd lost her appetite, or that she wasn't hungry. Neither I nor Azreal questioned her. Only as I thought of it did I realize that she'd been getting paler than she used to be, and she'd been sneezing regularly. She'd also had two or three coughing fits, but when asked about it she'd said she was fine.
When the realization that there had been many signs hit me I broke and cried into my pillow. There was too much worry, too many signs. I cried myself to sleep that night. The next morning Azreal and I were told that our mother was awake and could be seen. We rushed to the medical wing and ran right to the bed she was still lying in.
"How are you feeling mother?" asked Azreal. My mother smiled at us, but it wasn't a happy smile. It was sad and tired. She wasn't feeling any better, she was still sick and she knew it. She'd known for a while she was sick.
Why hadn't she told anyone that she wasn't feeling well? Why did she say she was all right when she wasn't?
Despite the fact that we could tell she wasn't feeling any better she put on a brave face and said that she was. We knew she wasn't being honest though, we could see it in her eyes. "Children, please don't worry, I'll be out of here in a few days, no need to fret." But that hadn't helped ease our worries, if anything, it made them stronger.
From then on we stayed by her bed side as much as we could, only leaving to do things we needed to or when Keyara shooed us away saying that we needed our sleep too. Days passed. We had hoped that she would get better, like she'd said, but she only got worse. She was sleeping more and more, and eating less and less. We could see her fading.
Not too long after she'd first fainted the rest of the royals had heared of her illness. As it progressed they had started making frequent stops to see her, though the older royals didn't really stay in the room for long. They would stop by and watch for short periods of time, wishing our mother to heal fast, then leave to another room, leaving their children with Azreal and I.
Skye would sit next to me and place her hand on my shoulder, her way of saying that she'd been there for me whenever I needed her. Barron would also be there, but for once he wasn't his normal self. He'd sit quietly next to my brother with an arm over Azreal's shoulder for support. Azreal would usually grab his hand and hold it tight, but Barron didn't mind. That was his way of showing support.
Though through this I gained a bit of respect for Barron, I also gained a lot of hatred for Raina. She no longer made me sick, but instead made me furious. It seemed that she was under the impression that Azreal would somehow like her more while our mother was sick, and so, under this ludicris impression, she would flirt mercilessly with my brother. It got almost to the point where Azreal was about to hurt her, but Barron beat him to it by telling her off. She had run away crying and hadn't come back.
Barron and Raina had never gotten along, most likely because they both had a crush on my brother. It was painfully obvious though that Azreal prefered Barron to that twit, but I quess she was just too dense to see that. Oh well, it's not my concern, I was just thankful to Barron for finally making that attention seeking, know nothing leave.
A few days had passed since Raina was chased off. No one had shown up to visit during the time our mother woke. She smiled at Azreal and I, and we smiled back. But our smiles didn't reach our eyes and died quickly as her eyes shut again, but she wasn't asleep.
"Mother?" I said, my voice slightly trembling as I looked at her still form. She'd been lying still for days, but at least then her chest would rise and fall with her breath. No, this time nothing was moving. "Mother?" I said again, hopeing she's wake. I stretched my arm to grab her shoulder and lightly shake her, all the while my brother watched with wide eyes. He too was hoping for a miricle. But one never came.