Potenkiah, the deathgiver

Chapter 6.2

On the fourth floor, where the guest tower joined the main tower, a medical center offered its services to the entire complex -inhabited by over one thousand, five hundred souls, between ministers, guards, employees, and visitors. However, Bridget was carried to the Britter’s apartment, and the medic went up to her room.

Motivated by curiosity and gossip, the girls followed the retinue, but they were not permitted access to the residence; not even Paty and Annie were allowed to go in. Within ten minutes, the group standing before the tenth floor balcony had attracted dozens of curious onlookers.

Elisa remained in the back, chewing curses, for the Eloahn students kept looking at her in contempt, as if they blamed her for the situation. One of them, Paterinet, was looking at the ProCom with suspicion. At first, the human had hesitated about taking it to Missing Objects, or handing it to the professor to expose Bridget. Now she thought it would have been better to just throw it out, and get rid of the problem.

A little while later, the doctor stepped out, and made his way through the crowd.

“Nothing to see here, ladies. She fainted, nothing else,” he announced. Then, when he walked past Paty, he said, “A little anemic and low on defenses. She caught an ear infection in the lake. She will miss class for a few days.”

Paty snorted in disbelief, and stepped away from the onlookers. She crossed her arms near the edge of the balcony.

“What’s wrong?” asked Annie.

“Can’t you see? They’re hiding something. No one passed out from a high fever.”

“Something like what?”

“I’ll figure it out,” Paty said.

“I’ll see if we can go in now.”

Annie walked away, headed to her room; people were already losing interest and returning to their activities, passing on the gossip in their different versions. A female scream broke through the chatter. Annie turned around, looking in all directions.

“Paty!” screamed Tiffany, pointing at the balcony. People ran over to look. “She fell!”

Annie ran, too. Her friend was on freefall.

“Open your wings, open your wings,” mumbled Annie, her heart racing. It was forbidden, but if Paty did not unfold her wings right then…

In other floors, people looked outside when they heard the cries of anguish. Some guards took off to intercept her. Annie ran to the elevator, even if it was senseless.

***

It was a fall ninety yards long. Paty had no choice. To be honest, from the moment she felt she was being pushed to the abyss, her instincts took control of her body, and started to unfurl and revive her wings for an emergency landing.The ground was coming closer at an alarming rate, but first, she would crash against the one hundred feet statue in the middle of the main square. She flapped with as much strength as she could, just in time to avoid the bronze Elohí, but too close to the ground to land gracefully. Her dress, fluttering freely, did not look good either. Inertia threw her against some flower pots; at the last moment, she remembered the exercises she was taught during training, and rolled to avoid getting hurt. When the movement ceased, she was surprised to see that she only had a bloody scratch on her arm from a flower pot breaking under her weight.

Now it would be her who needed a quick visit to the medical center… and become the target of gossip, she realized with a nervous giggle and budding tears.

Several guards were by her side helping her and asking about what had happened. Paty didn’t know how to respond. She was still a bundle of nerves, and her knees trembled because of the adrenaline.

Someone had pushed her, and she had no idea who it had been, nor why. With so many onlookers present…

Well, if she had been looking at the hallway, probably she wouldn’t have been taken by surprise in the first place.

So, while she decided how to respond to the uncomfortable question without sounding like an idiot, suicidal, or attracting more attention than she could handle, she took refuge in silence. She flapped her wings a couple of times to settle her feathers, and folded them back inside the erolas.

“Paty!” she heard Annie’s unmistakable voice. Her friend was about to take her hand to help her to her feet, when she saw the blood on her arm. Next, dizziness took over the greenhead, who stumbled and found support on a column.

It’s barely a scratch! Paty didn’t want to imagine what would have happened if Annie had fallen instead of her. Her friend was practically hemophobic. If she saw blood, she got inevitably dizzy, even if it was fake blood on television. Would she ever get over witnessing the unfortunate episode where her mother had almost bled to death, due to the torn placenta that took her real baby sister?

***

William arrived a second later, inspected Paterinet from head to toe, and turned around without a word, in search of the Queen. Knowing Paty the way he did, he was convinced the fall was not an accident. Someone had tried to send a warning to the Obriens. Either that, or they had tried to rule out that her great grandniece was not, in fact, the Princess.