Chapter 23: Deciding about Varian

Unaware, and rather ignorant at what was going on at the castle, old Lady Crowley were on her daily round of sweeping the floors in the castle. She had finished off the upper floors and was about to go down when she heard loud screaming in the stairs.

The old woman frowned. If there was something she hated, it was noise. And if there was something she hated even more, it was a noisy child. And right now, a noisy child in the Castle was the last thing she wanted. She stood still and scowled as a young red haired man dressed in blue came up, carrying a younger red haired one dressed in blue on his shoulder, a young child who was kicking and shouting so much that the older one struggled to keep his balance.

"I wanna go back to Varian!" the young boy cried out loud and kicked with his legs, giving Jonas a hard time holding him.

"That's enough, Daniel!" His uncle got tired of trying to hold him and gave the goy a hard spank on his rear end, making the boy cry out in pain. Then when he stopped kicking for once, Jonas lifted him in a new grip to make sure he didn't lose him. "Look now, Varian isn't feeling well... He must be taken care of by the doctor!"

"But the doctor told me to help him, and we weren't finished! Even dad let me be there!" the boy objected.

"But now you're supposed to take a nap before dinner." Jonas said, calmer now. "The King has to speak with Varian now."

"But I don't wanna nap! And I don't want dinner! I always get vegetables." The boy was screaming loud now.

"Because they are good for you. I ate my vegetables, and I have grown up to be tall and strong. Now calm down..." he spotted Lady Crowley and smiled the best way he could despite the awkward situation. "Excuse me, my lady. Where can I find the guest rooms? I believe there were some prepared..."

"Down the end of the hallway and next corner." Lady Crowley said dryly and pointed it out. "Make sure the kid stays quiet after supper. No noise after six o clock - precisely!"

Jonas chuckled nervously at the old lady's command. "Sure, ma'am. The Majesties won't be disturbed by him, I'll make sure of that."

"Whatever. As long as I'm not disturbed." the old woman said as she grabbed her broom and passed them, without as much as nodding in respect. Jonas looked after her and shrugged, before he kept walking, keeping his grip around Daniel, who begun struggling again.

Around the next corner he was uncertain of where to go next, but he was so fortunate to see the Queen as she came out of one of the rooms. She spotted them and seemed somehow relieved. "Oh thank goodness, there you are! I... eh... I h-have been looking so much forward to meet him." She seemed a bit nervous at sudden, but Jonas had his hands full to pay any notice.

Daniel stopped struggling a moment to take a look at who they met, and when he that it was just another woman, he begun struggling again. But Jonas actually put him down this time to have him properly introduced to Arianna. "Eh... Your Majesty. This is my..." he almost lost his balance again when Daniel tried to escape, and he had to pull him back. "My brother's son, and my nephew, Prince Daniel. And Daniel, this is your aunt Queen Arianna."

Arianna bent a little down to have a closer look at him while she smiled at him. "Hello, Daniel. I am so glad to finally see you. I met you when you were a little boy, but you probably don't remember that, you were so young. I'm glad to see how much you've grown."

Daniel just looked away, frowning.

"Aw, are we a little shy?" she said smiling and bent down and reached out to lift up his chin to have him faced her.

But the moment she touched his face, he turned towards her and scowled at her and cried out loud. "Don't touch me! I hate you too!"

Arianna was so startled that she took a few steps back. Her mouth fell open and she stopped breathing a moment, her green eyes twice as wide.

"DANIEL!" Jonas said strictly, getting angry at him and tightened the grip around his arm.

"I wanna go to Varian! Let go of me!" he screamed loud and started hitting his uncle with his free hand when his uncle grabbed it, the boy got bold enough to actually bite his fingers.

Jonas didn't make a sound, but the face he made and his clenched teeth could tell that the boy had sharp teeth, and likely strong jaws as well. He responded by grabbing even harder at his wrist. "Alright, that's enough!" Then he turned towards the Queen, who looked as if she had been attacked by a wild beast. "I hope you'll excuse him, Your Majesty. It's been too much at one day. I need to get him to his room. May I ask where...?"

Arianna shook her head to gather herself and turned around. "Y...yes of course. Right here." she led the way a couple of doors away and pointed out a pair of doors to her left. "These two are prepared for you and your brother, and this one across your brothers' is for the young boy." She said and opened the door to her right. "We weren't certain if he was to have a chamber with his father, so..."

"I think maybe he should be old enough for a room of his own."Jonas said as he dragged his nephew inside.

"Eh Jonas?" the Queen said. "May I have a word with you?"

Jonas got a little insecure, but desired to give it a try. He pushed Daniel inside the room. "I'll be right there, so don't try anything." Then he hurried to close the door before the boy reached it. They heard him cry loud and furiously and hit his fist against the wood and kick it so hard they both feared a moment he would get through.

Arianna stood a moment in shock over what she had just witnessed, and Jonas looked terribly embarrassed.

"What a... lively little fella..." she said to break the awkward silence between them, if one looked away from the shrieking screams from inside the room.

"Yeah... It's never boring with him around." Jonas cleared his throat. "Has... Annabelle taken a nap?"

"What?" Arianna blinked. "Oh... Oh yes, she were rather tired, so... she's asleep."

"Good... I hope she'll feel better. They day didn't go like she planned, so..." Jonas chuckled nervously. "So... Your Majesty wanted a word?"

The Queen woke up from her shock and cleared her throat. "Yes, I... I thought I heard him, Daniel... mention... a certain name?"

"A name?" Jonas asked, and suddenly recalled. "Oh right. Your Majesty probably mean Varian. The King too seemed rather interested in him as well."

The Queen froze a short moment when the name was mentioned, but she tried to her best not to give herself away. "Yes, I... I got the impression that the boy- Daniel I mean... Has he... met with him?"

"Yes, they were in the same room, so I presume they've been introduced somehow." Jonas responded.

"Down in the sick room?" Arianna widened her eyes. "Was he the wounded boy? This... Varian, I mean?"

"I'm not sure." Jonas shrugged. "Although it was difficult to get a clue of the situation. All I know is..."

He didn't get to finish off the sentence before they heard something smash from inside the closed door, followed by another loud, frustrated cry from the furious boy inside the room. Jonas gave nervous laugh. "May I be excused, Your Majesty?" he said and pointed towards the door, needing no words to explain that he needed to check on the boy in there.

"Oh I... Sure. You go to him." she hurried to say.

"Thank you." he said short while he bowed quickly before he hurried inside the room. Arianna could hear him raise his voice and the boy kept screaming things like 'I hate you!' and 'You're a dumb donkey!'. The Queen felt rather disturbed after witnessing this, and needed a moment to gather herself, walking away from the guest rooms as fast as she could.

As soon as she was past the corner, she let out a frustrated cry herself and grabbed her head in her hands. Daniel had obviously had some kind of interaction with Varian, but how? And why did he give the impression that he wanted to go back to him?

As she kept on walking, she found herself pondering over Daniel's firely appearance, which had also disturbed her. Nigel hadn't overrated this time; the young boy had terribly many likenesses with the young alchemist. Somehow she began wondering if keeping Daniel in the castle was going to be a worse task than keeping Varian there.

The thought of Varian made her hurry up. She was worn out of concern by now, and needed to know what the situation was about him. She had to go and see for herself. Only by doing so, she would be certain. So she lifted up the skirts of her dress and made a gentle run.

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Meanwhile, one floor below, Millicent had her mind troubled as well. Worrying about Karen and then getting hit down by the Captain and Nigel was such a dreadful experience in once. As she half ran through the corridor, she found Mrs. Crowley as she had begun sweeping the first floor. She walked right towards her, ignoring the dust she swept towards her.

"Mrs. Crowley? have you seen..." She didn't get any further as a sudden sharp cent made her sneeze. "What... Who had spilt pepper in the hallway?" she asked as she wiped her nose.

"How am I supposed to now?" Lady Crowley said as she kept sweeping, ignoring Millicent as she sneezed three more times.

"Bless you, dear."

Millicent got herself a shock as she rose and suddenly stood face to face with the Queen herself, just approaching down the stairs. She quickly wiped her nose before kneeling."Oh... Your Majesty!" Pardon me for asking, but I must find Karen. She..."

"Look, Millicent, I understand you might have things to do, but I would really appreciate of you could hurry up to Princess Annabelle's bedroom and... tend to her needs?" the Queen gave her a rather excusing and begging look with her green eyes. "I would really appreciate it."

"But Your Majesty, what about Karen? I have to find her before that horrid prisoner..."

"I assure you that I saw Karen not long ago, and she was perfectly fine. And I have just been informed that this... prisoner is under control. Y-you have nothing to worry about."

"Oh, what delight!" Millicent gave a relieved sigh. "Ehm... May I ask, Your Majesty. Was her ladyship satisfied with the room?"

"Eh, she hasn't paid too much attention to it yet. She's tired from her journey, and has fallen asleep." Arianna said with en excusing smile, not mentioning the fact that Annabelle had cried herself to sleep. "But I can say it was an excellent choice and I am certain she will appreciate it. And I am sure, once there is time, or course, that she will love to have some flowers brought up. The best you can find."

"I will see to it, Your Majesty." Millicent replied, not as enthusiastic though. "But is it too much to ask Your Majesty if someone would please inform my mother in the kitchen about Karen? She's worried and won't be able to concentrate on the dinner."

"Don't worry, Millicent. As long as you deal with Princess Annabelle, I will take care of everything else."

The Queen seemed to be in a hurry, but Millicent trusted Her Majesty would to as she promised and knelt before she went on with her new task of tending to the Princess. But halfway up she got reminded of whom she was attending to, and frowned. "Although, I would rather handle the prisoner than that dainty snob."

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Fredric remained quiet as he pondered over the newly arrived issue with Varian. He was already moving through a rather tight passage, but now the Physician had him trapped in a corner. Nevertheless, he had to move on to find a solution to this issue.

"You might be right about his... condition, but... Enough of that now! Tell me instead; what am I supposed to do with..." the King finally uttered, but were interrupted by the physician.

"I am not fully done with my analyses on him, and until I am, I won't have him leave that room." He pointed towards the doors leading to the sickroom. "There is one more rather vital detail I need to figure out of, and I won't make any decision before I have figured out of that part. But we must not rush this. Until we know how much of his memory that is really gone, we must take cautions. Mentioning too much will cause him to ask questions and become worried."

"But there are too many issues connected with this. I... I can't just ignore them!"

"With all respect, Your Majesty, while Varian is under my treatment, I allow myself to be the one deciding what would be safest for him!" Phineas said adamant, giving him small eyes.

Ferdic felt how he had to put a hold on himself. It wasn't the first time he had to quarrel with the foreign physician. He could easily remember the time with the horrible rash he had mentioned, and his techniques had been questioned more than once. Sure, he had never failed on giving a statement of illness, but his treating could be a little too special at times. Nevertheless, he wasn't certain it would be possible to allow what Phineas demanded. He knew how difficult it would be for the whole castle staff to have him this close, not to mention how hard it would be for the Captain to not have him locked up. But deep inside Fredric knew that Phineas was right. If there really had been caused so much damage to Varian's head as he said, then would it really be a good idea to revile too much at once?

All Fredric knew for certain was that the last thing he wanted was for Varian to suffer more than he already had. So he faced the Physician and spoke. "How long do you need?"

"For his body to recover, I would say at least two weeks, to feed him properly and for his head to heal, regularly sleep and so on. He has a concussion as well, but that won't take more than three days approximately if he remains calm. But when it comes to his memory... I must come back to that."

"Don't you think there is a chance he'll... remember things by himself?" Fredric asked carefully.

"That is a chance, yes, but it's difficult to say. Like I've mentioned, the human brain is rather complex, and I prefer to be careful with such a young, sensitive mind. Especially since he seems like a rather bright lad, if not a little eccentric, and that kind are often more... how should I put it... delicate than others. But it would be a shame to lose such a good potential." He looked at the door and smiled. "Not to mention such an amusing character."

"I agree." Xavier said, behind him, and Pnineas gave him a short, grateful smile.

Fredric closed his eyes and frowned. "As much as I agree with you there Phineas, I..."

"He got so desperate he didn't know what else to do..."

The sudden sentence made them all turn around. They had all forgotten about Lars while they discussed Varian's situation, but now they all turned their attention to him where he sat on one of the bench by the wall, resting his head in his hands while he mumbled with trembling voice. They had forgotten him for a while, but he had most likely heard everything that was said.

"My father..." he gasped. "H-he wouldn't have hesitated to chop his head off."

"No, I..." Fredric begun, realizing what kind of a shock this alone must have been for Lars, considering he had let his son be so close to Varian. "I suppose that... would be an option for many, but..."

"If it hadn't been for mother..." His voice broke in a sudden sob, and his shoulders begun to shake where he sat.

The sudden sentence made Fredric raise an eyebrow at him. "Lars, what do you..."

"Why didn't they realize..." he sniffed and swallowed. "He wouldn't have gone that far if they hadn't..." His voice broke as another sob escaped his throat. "Father, why couldn't you see... All of you fools!" He cried the last words out and he covered his face with his hands, his shoulders shaking even harder along with his hitching breath.

Xavier and Phineas exchanged confused looks while Fredric walked over to him and touched his shoulder gently. "Lars what... who are you talking about?"

Lars took a deep breath and found his handkerchief to wipe his eyes and nose, but before he managed to give a reply through his gasps, the door to the sick room were flung open. Everyone turned to face Karen's frightened eyes.

"Phineas, come quick! Something is wrong with him!"

Behind her, they heard Varian's chocked scream.