Once more I found myself spilling tears. Last time, they had trickled out when a wave of relief washed over me as Sir Nathan had arrived just in time to stop me from ending another boy’s life. He boy was a truly atrocious individual, but still, he was just a boy.
This time, however, my tears stemmed from a different source. The source was the vision I had received in the sanctum.
Was it a vision or was it all just a dream?
Regardless, the being I encountered in that now distant memory had given me quite a bit to think about. Things my heart and mind were still processing. Thus, as I wiped my face, I knew the reason for why my hands were drenched with my tears.
Despite being filled with a fury of emotions, I was also quite comfortable. I found myself snuggled up on top of a cushioned bed and underneath soft and silky sheets while clothed in white robes. Though I still felt quite tired, I forced myself up in order to sit on my bed and get a better look at where I was.
Clearly I was in an infirmary. Dozens of similar beds littered the room with some of them being hidden away by curtains.
“Hello?” I called out. There was no response.
I slipped out of bed, reeling in pain as the cold from the tiled floor greeted my barefooted feet. I called out once more but was again met with silence. I looked around my bed-station for something to slip my feet into but couldn’t find any spare footwear of any kind. Thus, I chose the next best thing.
The warm sunlight just outside the windowed balcony was calling to me. I limped on over with my sluggish legs, each step sending painful shocks through the static numbness coursing through my body.
Pain is good, it means I’m still… alive…
I shook my head, shaking off any further thoughts on the matter. I leaned myself against the balcony’s stone railing to stabilize myself. A warm summer breeze brushed against my face as I took in the sights. A nearby market bustled with life as men and women of all ages went about their daily responsibilities. Meanwhile, on the castle grounds, dozens of maids were hanging laundry on clothes lines while the male servants tended to trimming the grass, plants, and bushes with shears of varying lengths.
I gazed out the window a while longer, watching countless citizens of the Kingdom just living their lives. The sudden sound of a loud snore, however, made me turn back towards the infirmary.
Wasn’t I alone?
I took a dozen steps back inside, stopping in front of a curtained bed-station that sat across from my own.
It's probably terrible manners and a huge invasion of medical privacy to check… but then again, it's not like this was a private medical room.
Despite the moral conundrum, I was already reaching for the curtain when the snore had started to sound very familiar to me. It was the same snore I had heard just a few nights prior when I had been forced to bunk with the girls. Behind the curtain, sleeping soundly in white robes as I stood next to their bed-station, was none other than Alice.
She had her head leaned towards her right shoulder as her snoring, having been slightly muffled by the curtain, began to roar even louder in all its glory. Though she would likely find her current state of existence an embarrassing sight to see, at that moment, he peaceful sleeping state was one of the most precious things I had ever seen.
A small amount of drool began spilling from her lips. Seeing no other option, I pulled my sleeve up to my palm and wiped her drool away. As I was finishing wiping away the drool, I accidentally slipped my hand, brushing it against her cheek. Instinctively, I began pulling my hand away only for her to suddenly start snuggling up face with it, as if my hand was the greatest pillow one could rest their face against.
Although I would have been happy to serve as her pillow a while longer, the sound of a wooden basket hitting the tile floor forced me to pull my hand away and investigate. My small retreat caused a cute little scowl to form on her face as I was forced to leave her side.
“He’s gone?”
“You think he went to go find us?”
“He probably just left to take a piss. He’s been out for days after all, relieving myself would be the first thing I’d do after such a long nap.”
Huddling around my bed with a fallen basket and spilled bundles of flowers were Chris, Mira, and Luke. At the sound of my feet stomping against the tile floor, the three of them turned around and ran towards me.
Luke wrapped his arm around me as Mira tackled me and enveloped both Luke and I in a massive hug.
“About time you woke up man.”
“You should have come and gotten us the moment you woke up,” Mira said as she buried her head in between our shoulders.
“That seems a little unreasonable-ugh,” I was cut off from my slight protest as Chris lifted me into his arms.
“Woah, Chris. I knew you liked Noel, but not to this level,” Luke joked as I was being held by Chris in what could only be described as a bridal carry.
“Noel, you need to rest,” Chris said as he carried me over to my bed and plotted me down gently.
“I’m fine.”
“Not until you’ve been cleared by one of the healers here. Be a good little lad and rest.”
“You’d make a fine nurse,” Mira said as the picked up the dropped basket and flowers. She placed a blue bundle of roses into the vase next to my bed.
“Though his personality is questionable when it comes to bedside manners,” I said.
The others laughed while Chris cracked a gentle smile.
“Regardless, you had us worried. You and Alice have been asleep for about three days now.”
“Three days? It's been that long?”
Mira nodded. “According to what the healers told Sir Nathan, you and Alice suffered from major magical exhaustion. It's the reason why you guys have been in a coma-like state.”
“What about the others? How’s Isa- I mean, how is Father Zander?” I was about to ask how Isabella was doing but felt that asking about one’s former foe before one’s friend wasn’t the right thing to do. That said, I recalled how Father Zander had been closer to the explosion than the rest of us, he had been too far away for Alice and me to reach with our water magic.
“Well, he’s like Father Albert in that regard,” Chris said. "They're both incredibly tough. Apparently he took the blast head-on with some magic crystal he pawned off the Empire girls.”
“I see.” I recalled how Kenneth had taken one of the crystals, the crystal Father Zander had accidentally dropped, in order to protect himself from the blast. I supposed that Father Zander managed to hold onto the second crystal and did the same.
“Still,” Luke continued for Chris, “he took some damage in the form of second degree burns, mostly to just one of his arms. According to him, he’s happy and considers the fact that the burns weren’t as severe as they could have been as a blessing of the gods, or something along those lines.”
“I suppose so, especially after how one of the girls ended up,” I said. Isabella’s burnt state came to mind, her cries of pain still echoed in my head. Hopefully she’d find peace in the next life, after all, her injuries seemed far too grave to be healed.
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“What do you mean?” Mira asked. “All of the girls were arrested after being checked on by healers, none of them had major burns or injuries.”
That can’t be right, Isabella was at death’s door. “How-”
“It seems you all have the poor boy confused,” Sir Nathan said as he appeared at the infirmary’s entrance with three others alongside him. Father Zander stood next to him, his right arm heavily bandaged, while Zoe and Kat poked their heads from behind the two men.
The moment Kat spotted me she ran over to me and hugged my arm with her whole body.
“Whoa. What's this all about?” Kat shook her head at my question, rubbing a bit of snot on me.
“When they said you weren’t going to wake up anytime soon, I-I got so scared,” Kat said, her entire body trembling as she spoke. “But I knew you’d wake up, I just knew you would.”
Zoe stepped towards us, placing her hand on Kat’s shoulder. “Lady Kat was inconsolable for the three days both yourself and Lady Alice were unconscious.”
“Zoe! You promised you wouldn’t tell them,” Kat said with a whine as she slightly pulled her face away from my arm to give Zoe a pout. Zoe took the opportunity to pull out a handkerchief and had Kat blow her nose clean with it. Kat thanked Zoe but still kept her pouting lips plastered on her face.
“Katherine, I do believe that Sir Noel would have known how you were feeling regardless of whether or not anyone told him what transpired,” Sir Nathan said with a chuckle.
“Really?” Kat turned to me with wide puppy-like eyes.
I gave her a soft pat on the head. “I’m happy that you cared so much for my well-being and I’m sorry for making you worry.”
Kat smiled and then jumped onto my bed to give me an even bigger hug as if to make sure I wasn’t about to disappear into thin air right in front of her.
“I understand being worried about the young ones, but isn’t anyone worried about me?” said a voice tucked away behind a curtained bed-station in the corner of the infirmary. Following their words, a long pole made of stone appeared atop the rod holding up the curtain that kept them hidden away. The person behind the voice used their stone creation to pull the curtain wide open. With his leg trapped inside a cast while being held in the air with some kind of contraption, Caleb revealed himself as he let his stone cane crumble to dust.
Sir Nathan shook his head. “Father Zander made it very clear that your wounds were closed and non-life threatening. There was no worry of if you would fully heal but rather a question of when.”
“Perhaps, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t appreciate some flowers for myself,” Caleb said in a slightly pitiful voice.
Mira, Luke, and Chris gave each other playful side-eyes before walking over to Caleb with their basket of flowers. Kat gave me one last hug before hopping off and running to catch up to Mira and the others, shouting about how she wanted to pick the prettiest flowers to give Caleb. Zoe bowed, giving me a warm smile as well before retreating with the others. Sir Nathan gave Father Zander a slight nod which Father Zander took as his signal to leave us for a moment.
This left only Sir Nathan by my side. We watched everyone huddle around Caleb before turning to each other. “I’m sure you have some questions, questions that you’d rather ask privately.”
I nodded. “What happened to Isabella? I thought she was a goner.”
Sir Nathan stroked his chin. “Well, to put it simply, you happened. It was your doing.” I gave Sir Nathan a confused look which made him continue his explanation. “As you were losing consciousness in my arms you spoke with a woman’s voice, uttering a single word, a chant really.”
“I did? I don’t remember that happening.”
“After consulting your fellow heroes, Lady Mira and Sir Luke mentioned a similar occurrence happened when Sir Chris first awakened to his powers.”
“Well, that I do remember. So the same thing happened to me?”
Was it perhaps her? The one from my dream?
“But what does that have to do with Isabella?” I continued.
“That’s the thing, what you chanted was the spell Remeura. The moment you spoke, the cave glowed a brilliant silver before our very eyes. When the light finally dissipated we saw that all of Isabella’s injuries were gone. Your use of the spell was so powerful that it was like Isabella had never been harmed in the first place.”
“I find that almost impossible to believe.”
“Almost?”
“The only reason I can believe it is because you’re the one telling me.”
Sir Nathan smiled, placing his left arm over his chest. “I’m honored that you have so much faith in me.”
“So, if it's the case that Isabella is fully healed, where is she?”
“In the castle’s dungeon, along with the rest of the co-conspirators, including Kenneth. Separate cells of course.” I couldn’t stop myself from frowning to which Sir Nathan’s face slightly darkened in response. “You have far too noble of a heart, Sir Noel.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You wish to know what will happen to her, to see if you can help lessen her punishment.”
I gave a half-hearted nod. “Yes, though that wasn’t just my desire alone,” I said as I glanced towards Alice’s bedstation.
“I see. Before we get to her situation, I’ll give you a quick rundown of all of them as a whole then. First, all of the conspirators will continue to be held in the castle’s dungeon while we allow the Empire’s embassy to send word back to their home country, sending word to the houses involved. I’ve also been the one tasked with leading their escort once the terms of return are established.”
“In other words, punishment won’t be coming directly from the kingdom.”
“We’ll make sure to keep the Empire accountable, but yes, they will be the ones ultimately dealing with the matter of punishment. Kenneth will likely be kept under house arrest for years, that’s as severe as the personal punishment that we’ll be able to hold against him, considering his position of as the chosen heir of House Thornewell and whatnot. We’ll also be in a position to extract compensation for families of all the Holy Knights that were slain under his orders.” Sir Nathan gave pause to look at Caleb.
“That’s it?” I asked, watching as Caleb noticed Sir Nathan’s gaze on him. Caleb gave a cheerful smile while he gave a little salute.
“Mhm, their lives were worth more than any amount of gold the Empire can offer, yet, it will at least be something of use to their families. Those knights would have wanted their families taken care of after all. As for the ladies of the Empire, their punishments will allow more room for discussion. Raina and Zaria, despite also being nobles, come from lower houses and thus, House Thornewell will demand the daughters of those lower houses to take their equal blame for these incidents.”
“In other words, Kenneth will be throwing them under the bus to save himself once more,” I muttered to myself. It seemed that Kenneth never truly saw them as anything but pawns in his terrible little game of power.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. I was just wondering where that left Isabella? Will her house also force her to suffer in Kenneth’s place?”
Sir Nathan shook his head. “Isabella is nothing but noble in name, her house fell over a decade ago. According to reports, Isabella was taken in by Kenneth’s father when she was just a little girl. Since childhood, she has been trained and prepared, for most of her life, in order to become the ‘perfect’ wife for his future heir and nothing else. She will likely be the only one we will have the most authority in choosing her punishment. You and my niece will hold the most sway in the final say of her fate.” I raised my eyebrow at Sir Nathan’s conclusion to which he raised his hand in order to let him finish. “When we questioned Sir Kenneth, he revealed to us that Isabella had been the one to gravely wound you, which your fellow heroes all corroborated. He also claimed that had it not been for you stopping Isabella, my niece wouldn’t be here."
“With that information in mind,” Sir Nathan said before lowering himself down and onto one knee, crossing his left arm across his chest and bowing his head as he continued, “I wish to thank you with all of my being. Thank you for protecting one of the most precious people in not only my life but one of the most precious people in the lives of all members of the royal family.”
I was flabbergasted, watching a proper adult in noble clothing bowing to me was just unreal. It just wasn’t something I was used to and so I hastingly tried to get Sir Nathan to stop, urging him to stand up. The sudden appearance of Father Zander’s hand on Sir Nathan’s shoulder was what finally caused the knight in noble clothing to stand and accept my plea to raise his head.
“Come now Sir Nathan, we should allow the boy to rest.”
Sir Nathan hesitated before nodding in agreement. “Like usual, you’re right Father.”
As it came time for all those who came to visit those of us in the infirmary, as they all began to say their final goodbyes, Mira took a moment for herself, picking out a bundle of flowers to put in Alice’s vase. As she finished her fixing her chosen arrangement, a beautiful bundle of white lilies, and placed them inside the vase, Mira took a single one of the lilies out of the vase and carried it back to my vase of blue roses. She slotted the single lily front and center of my bundle of flowers before turning to me with a smile and mischievous wink, returning to the others as they all left the infirmary together.
With the doors closed to a complete shut, I was alone once again with only the sound of a snoring Alice to keep me company. Eventually, Caleb joined Alice with some snoring of his own.
As I began to feel myself join them as well, as I started drifting off to sleep, my gaze stayed glued to my vase.
That lonesome lily is truly beautiful.
When I opened my eyes once more, although I wasn’t certain how much time had actually passed, I was at least sure that time had passed for the room, instead of being lit by sunlight, was flooded with moonlight. Just like the light of the morning sun had led me out of bed, the alluring light of the moon at night forced me out of bed and onto the balcony, leading me to where a lonesome figure stood. Her silver hair and white robes made her the shine under the moonlight, lighting up what was otherwise a beautifully dark horizon. As I got closer, and my footsteps louder, she parted some of her hair behind her ear as she turned her head to look at me.
Alice.
We both stared at each other, basking in the silence as we watched to see who would move or speak first. In the end, we both approached the other, responding not with words but with smiles. The moment we got close she jumped into my arms and I held her close to my chest. Our beating hearts were the only thing making sounds on the castle’s grounds to which we both let out small whispers of happiness as we stood in each others’ embrace well into the night.
