Chapter 21: Varian and Karen

While the King and the other grownups were having their conversation in the reception room, Varian sat confused and frightened on the bed, with Ruddiger tightly to his chest as he tried to figure out of his out of place and most awkward situation. He shivered and rubbed his ungloved hand under his nose.

"What are we gonna do, Ruddiger?" The teen bit his bottom lip nervously, trying to prevent it from shaking.

The critter just looked at him, his little brown eyes and chubby face eyeing him up and down. His master seemed more like his old self now, but he was rather upset for the moment, and the King's harsh command had frightened the critter as well.

"His Majesty looked pretty mad, and... " he swallowed. "For some reason, it seemed like it was because of me. I would know if it was my dad, but... What have I done to the King?"

"I don't think the King was mad at you at all, Varian."

The sound of the soft, young voice woke him up and he turned to face Karen.

"Are you still... here...?" The boy blushed at the embarrassing fact that the girl had seen him this vulnerable. He lifted up his hands to his cheeks and wished he could sink into the sheets. Then he turned to her again. "You... You shouldn't be here. His Majesty told you all to..."

"I know, but... " she walked over to him and sat on the end of the bed, facing him. "I couldn't just leave like you that. I feel a little responsible for you being here, and I kind of feel it would be my fault if you got any worse. Besides..." she shrugged while giving a short look at the door. "I think they forgot about me."

"Karen, I..." Varian felt a bit overwhelmed by this concern and felt tears well up again, but he was quick to blink them away and cleared his throat. "I... I don't know what to say... I-I-I still feel like it was my fault. I mean, I-I was the one who scared you, and it was because of that that that..." he cursed himself for stumbling so much, but Karen interrupted him before he could finish by holding up a hand and smiled gently at him, causing him to blush even more and go all silent, something that was unusual for him. But then again, being with girls at his own age were rather unusual for him.

If I blush more now, Ruddiger is gonna take me for an apple, he thought for himself.

"But I can say this for certain; His Majesty isn't angry at you. On the contrary, he was very worried about you. At least that's what he gave the impression of to me."

"He... he was? But then..." he looked slightly up, suddenly a little concerned of letting his eyes face hers, as he feared he would blush again, so he flicked with them as he rubbed his neck nervously. "Why was he so... "

"I don't know. But to be honest, almost everyone have been acting odd today." she said and rolled her blue eyes as she pulled up her legs and curled them up under her skirt so she was sitting up leaning at the bed's end. "At least since these guests showed up. Suddenly we all had our hands full, and then..." she sighed and rolled her eyes. "I guess you can say it's one of those days."

"I guess working at the Castle isn't just anything." Varian replied, still a little nervous.

"If I am to be honest, it's been a couple of odd weeks too. It's been a little odd for while since everyone started quarrelling. Or that day when the King started quarreling with the other king visiting and people were acting like... Well, no one ever act like they did that day. Even the Queen acted strange that day." She chuckled. "I never thought I would hear Nigel laugh hysterically, but he did."

Varian laughed a little at this. "Sounds like it's kind of fun working here after all."

"It could have been. But most of the others are grown ups, and you know how they are at times." she rolled her eyes again and smiled overbearing.

"Do tell!" Varian giggled. "But at least you get to be around when the big events comes up, that must be something."

"Hm..." she have him small eyes. "I'll tell you, I'm actually one of the lowest of rank here. I've just turned thirteen... And I'm still just the scullery maid."

"And that means..." Varian coughed. "For someone who's never..."

"I have the funny job to get up reeealy early to light the fire in the kitchen. And in winter I light the fire in the great hall as well." She blew some locks away from her face. "Quite a good excuse for them to send me early to bed, huh?"

Varian laughed again. "You know, I actually do the same at home, but that's mostly because Ruddiger wakes me up cause he has to... You know."The subject threatened to make him blush again, but she laughed with him this time.

"Same here, with Caterpillar! But what do you do then?"

"Then I finish off the fresh breads , I normally leave them on the bench the night before. But I suppose it's easier with our household than this HUGE castle." he put a little weight on the word as he looked around in the room, which he thought was big enough alone.

"Well, we have a deal with the baker. We get fresh bread delivered every morning from the bakery in town. My grandma has the job of receiving them every morning, and gosh is she strict when it's not right."

"I can imagine..." he laughed. "But that sounds smart. For both parts. At home it's just me and my dad." he said and nodded silently. "Yep. Just me and my dad."

"But don't your mom do the bakery?" Karen said.

"Yeah... My mom, she... died years ago. I barely remember her, but I bet she... would have done so." Varian's smile faded at sudden, as he didn't really like the direction the conversation was going.

Karen too lost her smile. "So did mine... and my dad... Years ago..."

Varian watched at her pale blue eyes were filled with tears at sudden and became insecure of what to do. If only he had an handkerchief to offer her , but all he had found in his pockets so far was food scraps, which were still a mystery to him. He didn't even know her, so how could he offer her a shoulder to cry on, least of all in his rather smelly condition? Being reminded of his dreadful state in her presence as well didn't actually help either. The sudden insecurity made him feel like a coward, and all he could do was to lower his head.

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As Fredric listened to what the physician had to say, he recalled Karen's tale from just minutes before, about Varian not remembering how he got there. He had failed to believe this was all true, but now he begun to understand that there might be some substance in it.

"N-n-nothing?" He stumbled as he finally managed to speak.

The old physician shook his head and remained calm. "Nothing! I fear he don't even remember his father's... so called state. And I will prove it to Your Majesty if He allows me. But I must warn; we cannot utter a single word about this to Varian. We cannot let him know any of his previous deeds, or about his father. Not to mention the actual reason why he is here. At least not until I am done exmaminating him."

"But why?" Fredric asked. "He has committed treason against the Kingdom itself! He... he kidnapped my wife... That is such a huge matter that it cannot..."

"Your Majesty, If I may?"

The King turned towards the blacksmith again, who bowed a second time before he took a step forward. "I must agree with my friend here. Such a severe case of memory loss could be dangerous for the one it matters. Especially for one so young. I know a story of a man who were once struck with such a case when he were part of a tragic accident that caused him to lose his family in a terrible fire. They found him alive, but he did not recall anything of the tragic happening. In his mind, only the house was gone, and they were still alive and had yet to return from a visit to his wife's parents, and he was concerned over what he would to when they returned to the house that was no longer there."

He paused a moment to see if His Majesty followed, then he kept going.

"The locals did not know how to tell him simply because they felt sorry for him, but then there were a careless soul who reviled the whole story to him, and all of a sudden he could recall that the accident with the fire had been all his fault. It had been nothing more than a torch on the wrong place, but it was enough for him to lose his family. The shock and realization, not to mention the guilt he felt that it had all been his own fault, was so grand in fact that it became too much for him to bear, and..." Xavier drew his breath.

"And what?" the King asked feeling frustration grow, clenching both his hands and panting of impatience. "Tell me what happened?"

Xavier got a sorrowful expression on his face as he spoke again. "The poor man lost his mind completely. He lost himself to madness. Not only did he lose touch with his surroundings, but everytime he sees a fire, just the light of a match, he will ravish and scream and make such commotion that he'll be a danger to others as well as himself."

"My word, what... What happened to him?" Fredric stared at him in disbelief and worry.

"He was brought to a convent where he must have help with everything he does, from eating to sleeping to..." he arched an eyebrow. "Well, everything. He is simply gone, Your Majesty. He is, what they call, a living, walking dead. Only when he sees a hint of fire, he reacts the way I described, and he will act this way until he faints of exhaustion."

Fredric stood still and listened with horror. He was too stunned to reply, so Phineas continued where Xavier stopped.

"Sire... Xavier and I have already discussed this, and after what I have just heard from your Majesty, I am more than convinced it would be a horrible idea to revile too much for him at once. Or else, there is a chance we would lose his wits completely!"

Fredric didn't notice that his mouth fell open and all color faded from his face. He were a moment brought back to the garden where they were discussing Varian's mental state. They had all believed he had lost touch with reality already then, but it was difficult to say if he had or not. But now there appeared a chance that he would so if they...

He shook his head at the thought and blinked before looking up at him. "But... What do you mean with 'reveling too much at once'?"

"I mean that it would be dangerous for him if we simply just threw in his face the very reason why he is here, and even worse, what has happened to his father. "

"You know of... Quirin's fate?" Fredric asked.

"Like I've said, I met Xavier in Old Corona. I have seen the amber... and it's content." The old physician said calmly, but as he uttered the last sentence, he closed his narrow eyes and wrinkled his forehead. "And after thinking about this, I have come to the conclusion that Varian's memory... It occurs to me that these are subjects his mind has most likely... chosen to forget."

"I don't understand..." the King said. "Are you telling me he has chosen to forget this himself?"

The physician rose his head and face him, this time with a certain pride in his small eyes. "As you may have heard of me before, Sire, I am studying not only the human body, but the human brain as well. The brain is a complex and rather sensitive object that is far too often taken for granted, and it has more effect on our body than we believe. It tells us to eat when we're hungry, take a nap when we're tired, put on warm clothes when it's cold and remove out hand from the fire when it causes us pain. But there are times when we do not listen to our head, and therefore it makes the body react in different ways to help us tell something is wrong. Does Your Majesty recall the times where He got the rash after the Princess returned? Well, that was simply a reaction of your brain telling your body that you were worrying too much. It went away right after you admitted what worried you; the safety of Princess Rapunzel. This is how it works. The brain tries to protect the body by making it react in different ways."

"But how does that..." the King asked, but were interrupted by Phineas holding up a hand to silence him before he continued.

"The man in the story, Sire, had forgotten about a tragic happening. Varian too, has forgotten about tragic things that has happened. And of all his deeds as well. In his mind, his father is still alive, and everything is alright. Well, he has unfortunately become aware that something is wrong with his hometown, but except from that, he recalls nothing of why. I have a feeling if the boy hasn't gone completely mad, he must deep down inside feel a hint of guilt for what he has done. All criminals do, but they cover it by blaming others. So was it with the man; he forgot that the fire was his own fault because that was a fact that was too painful for him to accept. As we all know, Varian is under age, and a natural reaction for a child doing something wrong would most likely be to deny it."

"That is in fact correct." the King said as he begun to realize the substance in the old physician's words. "All the way, Varian has put the blame on others for everything."

"Aha! There we can see. This becomes more and more obvious."

Fredric didn't say this out loud, but he also recalled that Rapunzel too had been recurrent of telling about her new grown hair and the black rocks in the beginning. There were times when Fredric had trouble seeing his daughter as a grown up, simply by the way she acted. Although, his poor daughter hadn't actually been taught to become a grown woman, as her kidnapper had always intended to keep her locked up, and therefore would never need her to act like a grown woman and stand up to what she had done. "But why is his mind doing this to him?" he asked to get his mind of Rapunzel.

"Because these memories are causing him mental pain, and the body will try to shield him from it. The human mind will always do what it thinks is best for the body, and right now it seems like forgetting is the best way for his body to recover."

"Recover?" Fredric blinked again.

Phineas' eyes grew small again as he looked him in the eyes. "I will not lie, Your Majesty. The boy's condition is... dreadful. He carries traits of lack of right food, lack of sleep and of stress over a long, long time, far from fitting for a young boy still growing."

"He... hasn't ate well the month he's been in the cell..." Fredric admitted. "He's been there for about a month and a week..."

"Not a month, Your Majesty. In this case we're talking months!" Phineas wrinkled his eyebrows. "I took a look at the boy's tongue. It's the worst case of neglection I have seen on a child in years. I cannot help but ask so boldly, but has Your Majesty any idea of how the lad has been doing the last quarter of the year? Because it's obvious that it hasn't been good!"

Fredric found himself unable to answer. It had never occurred to him that while he was trying to receive help from others after Rapunzel failed so, and while he himself had sent out guards to hunt his daughter's so called attacker down and search for Quirin's scroll, Varian had most likely not been feeling safe anywhere, and been forced to hide. Who could tell what kind of condition he had been under during those months. He couldn't help but suddenly feel cold.

An awkward silence fell in the room as he pondered over this, and all of a sudden he felt his heart sink deeper and deeper. He had promised Rapunzel he would help him, but in the end, Varian had to come to terms with what he had done. But how could this be done now?

Was it really a chance that they would lose him forever if they told him the truth? The horrible truth that in the end could not be avoided?

I can't actually remember it be mentioned that Varian was hunted down for 'attacking' Rapunzel, but I have a feeling Fredric would do just that to keep his daughter safe. After all, he had been known by Nigel, so clearly he had been told about him. So therefore I put that in to strengthen the whole 'everyone turned their back on me' issue. I hope people don't mind the liberties taken.

And many of you might have guessed by now that Phineas is of chinese origin, and I have taken liberties of studying chinese medicine for this purpose. They could easily find the state of a person by checking his or hers tongue, and this is what he's been doing with Varian.