Fable

Chapter Six

"Who's Casimir?" Ella whispered as they reached the door, leaving the Queen behind in the council chamber. Elias opened the door and nearly knocked over a man who had clearly been listening through the door.
"That's Casimir," he said. Casimir, in reply to this, gave the biggest shit-eating grin Ella had ever seen. He bowed deeply and held a hand out for her to take, which she did - tentatively, because she had no idea who he was. Casimir kissed her knuckles.
"Cas, she's important. Please don't disrespect her."
"Every woman is important, Elias. You'd do good to remember that. And I'm not disrespecting her, I'm greeting her." Casimir looked Ella in the eye and winked while Elias grumbled something about women being important under his breath.
Casimir, or Cas as Elias called him, was equally as entrancing as the Queen had been, with the same dark skin and beautiful eyes, only unblemished by age—he appeared to be close in age to both Ella and Elias. His hair was braided back into a small bun, with the underside shaved short. A golden crown embedded with emeralds sat on his head, marking him as another member of the royal family.
Elias took Ella by the arm and steered her around Cas and down the hall, back towards where they had come in from. Cas kept up easily, walking at a saunter behind them with his hands in his pockets.
"Where are you taking her?" he asked. "I have a lot of questions I'd like to ask, if you don't mind?"
"She's answered enough questions already today, I think-" Ella wrenched her arm out of Elias' soft grip and stopped the entire group short in the hallway.
"I'm fine with answering questions, it doesn't bother me. You-" she said pointing a finger in Elias' face. "-don't need to speak for me. I'm lost, not a complete idiot."
Elias turned beet-red and stared, dumbfounded. Slowly, he brought his hands up in a defensive position, and took a step away from Ella. "I'm sorry. I— that's not what I meant. Cas can be a little annoying, I just didn't want him to bother you or upset you in any way."
"Well congratulations, you didn't need his help. You did that all by yourself." Ella wasn't a fan of feeling inferior, and Elias had made her feel small by stepping in and taking control. She was surprised by her own outburst, though. Usually she had a better handle on her feelings. The long day and strange occurrences had clearly taken their toll.
Casimir, on the other hand, was incredibly amused by Ella's outburst. He grinned at her from ear to ear, patting both her and Elias on the back.
"I think we'll all get along just fine," he said.
Elias caught a servant as they passed by, and asked that they prepare a room for Ella. The servant nodded obediently and darted off to do whatever preparing a room entailed. In the meantime, he steered Ella up a grand staircase and down another medium-sized hallway. When they reached the door at the end of the hall, Elias knocked loudly.
The door was opened - or rather flung open - by a wizened old man, who moved rather quickly despite his age and appearance.
"Oh, your highnesses! To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?"
"You owe Ella the pleasure. She fell rather far and hit her head. She's a little worse for wear."
"So a drought for pain, aye? Come in, come in. I'll fix her up. Strange looking creature you are, Ella. Wherever did you get those clothes?"
Elias sternly told the old man "It's none of your concern" at the same time Casimir excitedly shouted "She's the prophet!"
The old man's eye grew wide and he threw himself into a deep bow.
"It's my honor to heal you, child. Please, please, have a seat." He reached out, and taking her hands, led her to the cot in the center of the small room.
"Ella, this is Master Dougall. He's been the family healer for as long as I can remember." Elias said, following them in and shutting the door behind him. He and Casimir leaned against the far wall, taking the same pose and both watching with the same inquisitive eyes - two sides of the same coin.
Master Dougall danced around the small room with as much grace as an elephant - tipping bottles and beakers over, or knocking them off the counter completely. Once, he tripped over his own feet and had to catch himself on the counter to avoid falling. Ella grew more uneasy the longer she watched him work. If he was this clumsy now, what kind of damage could he inflict with his "healing". What if he just made things worse? What if he poisoned her?
He plucked ingredients from the shelf one by one, grinding some up into powders, before combining them with what looked like honey and milk. Soon he poured the combination into a bottle and held it up to the light to inspect. It was a muddy brown, chalky-looking substance that made Ella's stomach turn.
Then, to her amazement, she watched as Master Dougall held the bottle to his lips and whispered an incantation in words she couldn't understand. When he finished, he blew into the bottle, covered the opening with his thumb, and violently shook the bottle once. The muddy liquid had turned a stunning shade of opalescent chartreuse. It swirled around inside the bottle and reflected the room's light in a way that could only be described as magic.
"Here you go, my dear. This should ease your aches and pains."
Ella took the bottle timidly, as if it might burn her or disappear altogether. She stared at it for a long time, trying to wrap her brain around what she had just seen. It's magic, she thought. The word magic echoed around in her head, bouncing off of all the other ideas she had cemented in her memory about the way the world worked.
"What's wrong? Haven't you ever seen medicine before?" Casimir asked, pushing himself away from the wall he had been leaning on. "I'll taste it first, if you want. No one's going to hurt you here. You have my word."
"No... no... it just... medicine looks different where I'm from. That's all. There's no magic. It's all just..." She trailed off, not sure what else to say.
Ella sniffed the medicine, and after deciding that it didn't smell particularly bad, she downed it in a gulp. It tasted sweet, like the honey, and tickled her tongue as she swallowed. As promised, the aches in her head and back ceased almost immediately as the medicine seemed to spread from her stomach and warm the rest of her body.
Master Dougall then turned his attention towards her scraped hands. He tenderly cleaned them with fresh water and a rag, wiping away the dirt and mud and blood that caked her palms.
"Your right palm should be okay. Your left palm is worse, though. I'm going to wrap it with some gauze and ointment to fend off any sort of infection. You should be able to remove it tomorrow morning."
"No magic this time?" she asked. Master Dougall smiled a toothy smile, revealing a gap in his two front teeth that Ella found somewhat endearing.
"Only the magic of medicine, my girl!"
The ointment smelled like an earthy antiseptic, and cooled the sting in her palm. When he was finished wrapping the gauze around her hand, Master Dougall offered her his hand to help her off of the cot.
"Good as new!" He exclaimed, patting Ella on the shoulder. The boys removed themselves from the wall and thanked Master Dougall, who simply bowed in return. As they left, the healer winked at Ella and smiled one last time.
The same servant Elias had stopped on their way here was waiting outside the healer's door as they left.
"The chambers you asked for are ready, your highness," she said. The girl led them down the hallway they had already traversed and back to the stairs they had already climbed, only this time she took them up another level. This floor had fewer doors—less than a dozen—and they were spaced far apart from one another. The hallway seemed longer, and the beautiful carpeting on the floor seemed less-traversed. This wasn't a place the public saw, nor was it a place the council convened in. These were the private chambers of the royal family.
The girl stopped at a room that sat near the middle of the hallway and opened the door.
"I hope this room will suffice," she said. "My master told me that the guest rooms would be ill-fitting, so I thought one of the private chambers would be appropriate."
The interior of the room took Ella's breath away. It, of course, matched the opulence of the rest of the palace, but the idea of sleeping in a room like this all because she had fallen from the sky in this strange kingdom... it was too much to comprehend.
The floors were a lovely worn oak, covered with lush floral carpets. The walls were lined with gilded accents and the most realistic landscape paintings Ella had ever seen. The creamy white curtains were drawn away from two massive windows that looked out into the palace's inner gardens—private, lush, and hidden from the public's eye. A large, inviting set of love seats sat around a wooden coffee table, and there were another set of plush armchairs in front of the lit fireplace across the room.
Ella could see that the open doors beside the fireplace led to an equally lush bedroom, decorated in the same style.
"This is beautiful." Ella mumbled, unsure how anyone could live in such beauty and be unfazed by it all. Both Elias and Cas seemed to shrug her amazement off.
"We'll have dinner brought up for you shortly. And some clothes for you to sleep in." Elias motioned to the room in all its splendor. "Please make yourself at home. The bedroom has a few shelves of books that you might find enjoyable. The bathroom is also through those doors, feel free to take advantage of the amenities. It should be fully prepared for you."
"Wait—where are you going?" Ella sputtered, suddenly nervous to be alone in the big, gilded room.
"Casimir and I need to go over the details of getting you home with the Queen. It won't be a short meeting, so the sooner we can discuss things, the sooner we'll all get to sleep and prepare for the journey ahead."
Ella wanted to fling herself at the pair of princes. Suddenly the room wasn't inviting at all, but felt more like a prison. Was this how the princes felt every day of their lives? Trapped inside these lavish rooms with nowhere to go?
Elias could clearly read Ella's discomfort, because he smiled gently and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder.
"You're a guest here, Ella. No one is going to hurt you. You're not a prisoner, either. If you'd like to stroll through the gardens or explore more of the palace, just let one of the guards know. They'll be posted outside your door. They can take you themselves and they'll ensure you won't get lost."
Ella breathed a small sigh of relief. When Elias's hand left Ella's shoulder, Casimir's replaced it.
"If you need me, I'm right next door. I'll come by and check on you when we're done."
And with that, the pair of princes left her in that golden room to consider everything she had seen that day... everything that had happened... and everything that would happen still.