Chapter 12: Leave behind the Prison of the Distant Shadows of the Sinking Sun (5)

1

Henrietta woke with a start when a hand covered her mouth.

She opened her eyes abruptly but didn't feel scared. She was half convinced it was a dream. As a Princess, she knew how valuable her life was, as well as her death. She knew she had enemies, both those who wanted to control her and those who wanted to get rid of her.

But here?

In the heart of the palace, so easily? It had to be just a nightmare. Soon she would finish waking up. It wasn't even the first time she had thought she saw strange things on the threshold between sleep and wakefulness... It was normal. But this time it was real.

"I'm sorry, Princess. Don't scream."

That voice. She hadn't heard it in a long time, but that voice was definitely... The hand withdrew.

"Louise?"

How on earth had she managed to sneak not only into the palace but all the way to her room? Clearly, there were many people she needed to fire and replace if a girl (with or without magical difficulties) had somehow eluded them. Now it was Louise, but if it had been an assassin or kidnapper, they would only discover what had happened in the morning.

Henrietta trembled from head to toe. She sat up in bed.

"How did you manage to sneak into the palace?"

"That doesn't matter, Princess. I'm here for a very good reason."

"If you want me to try to get you readmitted to the Academy..." —I'll do it gladly, she was going to say. In fact, she had already planned to do so, just as she had planned to visit Louise, but she was always so busy.

In any case, Louise didn't let her finish.

"That doesn't matter now. In fact, I don't want to go back there for anything in the world. I can't. I'm here for another reason."

"Okay. Tell me. You can tell me anything. We're friends, aren't we?"

Her best friend, even if by default. Well, the same went for both of them. They were united by the same loneliness.

Henrietta lit the lamp so they could talk more comfortably. Louise was over her, close enough that she didn't really need light to see her, but it was better this way anyway.

"I have important information. About Reconquista."

"Reconquista? How?"

"They want Wales's head, and they will soon put their plans into action."

Her heart nearly stopped. No, it did skip a beat or two for painful seconds when she thought it wouldn't start again.

"How do you know that?"

"Because my ex-fiancé Wardes is a member of Reconquista."

"And he told you everything? Just like that?"

It was hard for her to believe that Viscount Wardes was a traitor. But even if he were, would he be so stupid as to reveal his secret to a girl? It didn't fit.

"You don't believe me."

It wasn't a question.

"Louise, we're friends, but... Well, yes. It's hard to believe. That he would tell you just like that, risking everything."

Louise looked away.

She was very calm and serious. She wasn't as Henrietta remembered her and, judging by what she had heard about her, not as she had continued to be either. She had always been full of life and energy, but that change could be explained by her expulsion from the academy. The information she claimed to have didn't have to be the explanation.

She hoped.

Besides being a bit implausible, she didn't want to believe that Wales's head was at stake. Naturally.

"Okay, you don't believe me. It doesn't matter, I can prove it."

Louise looked her in the eyes. And in the next instant, her face was no longer hers. It was Wardes's face.

Henrietta swallowed.

This wasn't any magic she knew. If she could appear to be Wardes, what told her that Louise was Louise? Henrietta grabbed her wand with trembling hands.

"Princess, don't be afraid of me. Please, I just... I just came to help." —Brimir, even her voice had changed!

"How can I be sure you are who you say you are? And not some abomination trying to deceive me."

The face of... whatever it was, became the face of her friend Louise again.

"An abomination," she said, or it said, her voice barely audible. "Yeah, of course. What else would you think? That's what I am."

Louise began to cry. Even though Henrietta wasn't even sure it was really Louise in the first place, seeing that broke her heart. Henrietta swallowed and extended a hand to her shoulder. She wanted to comfort her, but in the end, all she did was let it drop.

She simply didn't dare, even though part of her recognized that whatever was in front of her, if it had bad intentions, she would already be dead.

"I just want to help you, Princess. I can give you all the information you need. Reconquista's bases, its members, its spies, all the information Wardes had."

"How is that possible? If you are Louise, what happened to you?"

Louise began to tremble, crying silently, but with increasing intensity.

"I don't know, I... Please, Princess, don't judge me, but..."

"But what?"

Her heart was pounding harder and harder. Each beat was painful. It was more painful than the few seconds her heart had stopped, fearing for Wales's life.

"Wardes started saying strange things and wanted to take advantage of me. Before I realized it, I had killed him... And I think... No, I absorbed him."

"Holy Brimir."

Henrietta wasn't sure how she had the presence of mind to say anything at all. Now she was convinced that Louise was who she said she was, but that wasn't a good thing. Quite the opposite. She wished that girl were anyone or anything else.

Louise didn't deserve this. Besides, as much as it embarrassed her, she wasn't only scared for her friend. She swallowed. She felt like she had done it too many times in the few minutes after waking up.

"Tell me everything you know."

Henrietta got out of bed, sat at her desk, and took out paper and a quill. She was used to having everything written for her, but she wasn't useless. Of course, she could write it herself for a change. Louise remained silent for a while but eventually began to speak, her gaze fixed on her own lap.

Henrietta wrote everything down quickly and attentively, without asking questions.

"Thank you, Louise," she said at last. "I don't know if this will be enough to take down Reconquista, but it's enough information to cut off their arms, at least."

Louise nodded slowly.

"Are you afraid of me?"

Henrietta decided it was best to be honest. If she lied, Louise would realize it anyway.

"I'm afraid for you, but also of you. I don't know what's happened to you. I don't know what might happen to you, if this is over. Do you understand me? We are friends, we will always be friends, but... Yes. Yes, I am."

She couldn't tell how Louise took her honesty. Her expression barely changed.

"I'm scared too," she said simply.

Henrietta stood up and approached her old friend. Although hesitant, she dared to hug her. Instead of relaxing, Louise tensed in her embrace. It should be the opposite, Henrietta thought, but she didn't pull away. Slowly and after a while, the poor girl returned the hug.

"I want to go back to those days," Louise said, her voice on the verge of breaking.

"Me too. You're going to make me cry if you keep this up..."

After a long time, they separated. Henrietta wiped Louise's tears with her fingertips, then, following an impulse, kissed her on the forehead.

"Take care. Please."

Maybe she shouldn't let her go, not after what she had shown her. Not when things could easily get worse, somehow. But even if she forced her to stay, even if she tried to investigate what was happening to her, it would lead to nothing. She wasn't a queen. The Princess had no real authority. If it were known what had happened to Louise, what she was now, they would demand her head.

So she could do nothing. Only this. A kiss, a hug, and her best wishes.

But she knew very well that life was cruel. If this had happened in a few years, when she took the throne, things would be very different, but it happened precisely now. When it had to happen.

Well, the ways of Brimir were inscrutable.

2

Louise returned home, if it could be called that, as quickly as she had left. She arrived before dawn and no one noticed her absence. However, that didn't mean nothing had happened while she was away. She received an unexpected shock as soon as she woke up and left her room.

Cattleya was lying on the floor. Maybe she had come to visit her, maybe she had simply passed by on her way to the living room for breakfast. In any case, she was lying there. And there was blood on the floor.

Louise fell to her knees and screamed for help.

It never stopped. It was one thing after another. It never stopped. Rationally, she knew this had happened before and would happen again.

Her condition had ups and downs, like anyone with an incurable disease. It would be like this forever, and she wouldn't die of natural causes, but that her condition worsened precisely now felt like divine punishment. The last nail in the coffin.

Help arrived, responding to her screams. Her parents ensured that the nearest doctor arrived as soon as possible. That still meant a four-hour journey. Four hours too many.

Even if he had arrived in the first second, nothing would have changed. The verdict was very clear.

"There's nothing I or anyone else can do."

He told them in prettier words that they could do nothing but watch her die, helpless. Mama withdrew to cry in her room as if she couldn't admit she had a human heart, despite the concern she had shown for her just yesterday. Louise supposed that at least tha hadn't been a public spectacle. In any case, she didn't care. Mama was who she was. She wouldn't change at this point.

As for Louise, of course, she remained sitting beside Cattleya, waiting for her to open her eyes. If she did so before dying.

Watching her breathing weaken. It was clear that the healer was right. Cattleya had reached her limit, and there was nothing to be done but watch her go. At least with human abilities.

Louise suddenly realized that she could fix this.

When she transformed, she had become stronger, faster, more everything. Well, no, not everything. She had lost many things too, and perhaps Cattleya would choose to die rather than discard her humanity if she could respond.

But she couldn't respond, so the decision was in her hands.

The problem was that Louise didn't know what had happened to her, so she couldn't know how to transmit this condition. Louise tried cutting herself to test it. If it was like some kind of disease... The thought was cut short when she saw what had come out of her body, splashing her sister's clothes.

Dark red blood, only it didn't seem like blood. It was something different and strange. I can't even bleed like a normal human being, Louise thought.

She shook her head. That was the least of it now. If she did nothing, Cattleya would die. It was better to live in any way than to die prematurely.

She hadn't asked her, but she knew Cattleya would agree with her.

Louise cut herself again and let 'it' fall onto her sister's lips.

The blood that wasn't blood moved on its own, entering Cattleya's mouth.

Leave behind the Prison of the Distant Shadows of the Sinking Sun (5): FIN