LAYLA: PROPHECY OF THE HERMITS

PALACE EMERGENCY

As soon as Layla heard the nature of the emergency, she jumped out of her bed and hurried to get ready. In no time, she was done and rushed out into the carriage that had already been prepared.

Layla was surprised to see the people who were in the carriage. They were her mother, her father, and a senior physician. She wasn't expecting to be the only one to respond to the emergency, but all four of them was perhaps too much. Besides, the palace had a lot of expert physicians.

Might be something big, she thought.

The journey to the palace was short and quiet. The palace was like its own city. It had numerous buildings all with exquisite designs and architecture. It was home to the immediate and extended royal family and numerous workers.

After going through security, they were finally admitted into the palace. A middle aged man received them and explained the situation.

"We suspect it's a poison case. Symptoms are nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting."

Poison huh, probably something they ate, Layla thought.

"What did they eat before these symptoms occurred?" It was Layla's father who asked.

"We are still investigating that. We still don't know what the poison is."

"Discovering what the poison was will help with the treatment. Other things can come later. "

The attendant nodded and excused himself.

In the palace, attendants were moving around helping the physicians with the treatment. Layla recognized all the physicians who were there. They had trained along with her. Her family had pretty much monopolized the physician profession in the kingdom and probably even the world. Almost every physician was related to their family.

Her father requested to speak with the person in charge of the physicians who were handling the treatment. She was a girl named Eve. She was Layla's mentor even though she was just a few years older than Layla was. She had been transferred to the palace because of her exceptional skills.

They had already managed to stop the spread of the poison, but it wouldn't be safe until the poison had completely been dispelled. They needed to identify the poison they had ingested.

Soon enough, a maid brought the meals the affected people had eaten. Layla's eyes twitced as she saw the contents while the others gave resigned sighs.

Apparently, a foreign emissary had brought some mushrooms claiming it was safe. Layla didn't know if it was accidental or planned but she didn't care. That wasn't her job.

From their earlier reactions, Layla could guess similar incidents like this had occurred before. This was Layla's first time attending to a palace emergency so she wasn't familiar with things like this.

People really needed to be careful about what they ate, especially mushrooms.

'Well, at least now, they'd be used as a warning against eating this type mushrooms. ', she thought as she noted that in her pad.

She sighed again. Her patient was a child and was refusing to take his medicine because it was bitter. His condition was less severe compared to the others because he had barely eaten any. After performing a magic trick, he agreed to have the medicine.

'Always works. ', Layla smirked.

Layla looked around, the situation had already been mostly deescalated. Honestly, the four of them didn't really need to be there. Proof of that being the fact that she was attending to a less severe case. They had just been dramatic by summoning all four of them here. With the four of them currently missing from  the physician's office, things must have become very hectic.

'Stupid nobility and their stupidity ', she thought angrily to herself.

"Friendly fire, huh."

Layla turned to see Eve standing behind her.

'Did I say that aloud!', Layla thought as she quickly covered her mouth.

Honestly, she was lucky it was only Eve that heard her. If it were someone else, she'd have been in big trouble. She would still get punished, albeit less severe.

Layla looked away guiltily as Eve leaned closer with a cheeky smile on her face. After Eve backed away, she said in a rather too happy voice:

"Layla, go get me this. I really need it."

Layla could practically hear her snickering. She knew Eve didn't need the drugs - they already had everything they needed. It wasn't much of a punishment and it gave her time to cool off, so Layla wasn't really complaining.

The building they were in - the actual palace itself was large, too large. If Layla hadn't visited countless times, she would have gotten lost.

She stopped to observe a wall lined with portraits. No matter how times she was there, she would always stop to observe the portraits and their beauty. The portrait closest to Layla was that of the current immediate royal family.

In it was the empress, the mother of the current King, the King, the Queen, the crown princess and the prince. All of them had similar appearances - blonde hair and blue eyes. All except the prince who had white hair and icy blue eyes, indicating he was a mage.

Every one of the portraits was the same with everyone having blonde hair and blue eyes. Only a few of them were dark haired or brown haired or an unusual color.

'They are really keeping the bloodline intact, huh.' Layla thought. Did they go around looking for blondes to fulfill these requirements? Layla shook her head as she dismissed the silly thought from her head.

Layla arrived at her destination - a drug storage room. It was an impressive one, containing many drugs all well arranged.

'Probably Eve's work. '

Layla was so engrossed in the place that she nearly bumped into someone. It wasn't until someone held her back that she realized what was happening. Quickly stopping, she offered to make a small apology to the person she had nearly bumped into. It was the boy in the picture, the Prince. She hurriedly curtsied and offered a small apology. Nodding in response to her greetings, he turned and returned to what he was doing.

Layla had seen him many times, but this was the closest she had ever been to him. She offered a small bow to the guard who had stopped her before leaving.

What was the Prince doing in the storage room? Was he perhaps interested in medicine or was he looking for something to use for magic spell?

After learning some drugs and herbs were used in spells, Layla had taken a little interest in magic. But that quickly disappeared when Layla realized magic couldn't heal. She knew she wasn't a mage but she hoped she would be able to find something useful there. After that day, Layla had lost all interest in magic. No use learning something that wouldn't be of any use to her.

Layla found the drug she was looking for and made to leave when she noticed something. Someone had joined the Prince and was saying something to them.

"It was Lady Kiara from Rose who sent the mushrooms. "

From the way he spoke, Layla could guess that sending poisonous mushrooms had to have been intentional. Layla turned and left the area to avoid hearing anything else. Moments like this were common, where one would hear something that they shouldn't have. Her parents had always warned her sternly:

'Hear nothing, see nothing.'

Layla returned to where the treatment was taking place. They were already finished and were getting ready to leave. Just as she had suspected, Eve didn't need the drugs at all.

Layla gave her a small glare as Eve waved her goodbye. After realizing she had taken the drugs into the carriage, she thought to return it. She hesitated thinking it was a good way to get back at Eve. The drug she was with was a rare one and would probably be hard to replace. It wasn't like she really needed it, their office had many of these, but...

'Eh, I guess I can take this home as a souvenir. '