Fire and Trust - A Royal Story

Chapter 1. Intruder

The sound of something bubbling in a cauldron and a strong smell fill the small room. There's a physician tending to what could be assumed to be a potion, his face is focused and partly covered by long grey hair that is starting to grow whiter at the top. He is humming to himself, unaware of the young woman watching him from the open window. Waiting for him to leave before she gets caught, not that she ever gets caught, but one can ever be too careful. She's not there for the potion brewing on top of the fire, no, her sight is on the yellow liquid inside tiny vials on the other side of the room. The antidote to a new flu that's starting to spread around different kingdoms. The main villages, the big ones near the castles, have no problem dealing with it. Their physicians have access to the herbs and other ingredients necessary for the antidote, all of them provided by their kings who order them from far off lands. Smaller villages that are often overlooked by their rulers, don't have the same privilege.

So here Emersyn is, stealing some vials from King Salazar's physician to take to with her to the village of Westbelle. It was the village where she grew up in, the one that welcomed her every time she came back and the one that wasn't wealthy enough to afford a cure for the flu. There haven't been many affected by it, only 5 people so far but with the virus spreading so fast she wanted to get the vials to Westbelle's physician, Milton, as soon as she could. A few of them would be enough, he was talented when it came to rationing ingredients as one has to be when things are so scarce.

The physician Emersyn had been spying on stops humming which makes her focus on him once more. He's putting on green cloth gloves and taking the cauldron out of the fire, setting it aside and extinguishing the flames with a bucket of water. As he puts the bucket back by the barrel of water next to the door, there's a knock. "Lyon? His Royal Highness is calling for you."

"I'll be right there." Lyon says to the guard who had stepped inside the room, making Emersyn duck her head just enough to see but still avoid being seen.

The guard nods and stands by the door as Lyon stirs the potion a couple of times and adds some herbs. "That should do it. Let's go, it needs to rest for two hours anyways." Lyon opens the door and the guard follows, closing the door behind him and giving Emersyn the chance, she was hoping for.

She waits a couple of minutes before climbing in through the window, quiet as a mouse and her steps careful around the many cauldrons the physician has lying around as well as the jars on the shelves. She moves towards the yellow vials, reaching for one but noticing they aren't sealed, so she walks to a nearby desk to look for cork stoppers. "Seriously Lyon, organize your desk." Emersyn mutters to herself, opening drawers, moving papers and opening boxes to find what she was looking for. "Aha!"

In the last drawer there's a clear jar full of cork stoppers, so maybe Lyon wasn't that disorganized. She takes 8 vials, sealing them shut and double checking they won't leak on her way back before carefully placing them in her backpack. Bells ring outside, from the chapel probably, and startle Emersyn who takes a step back and knocks down an empty cauldron. She turns around and is glad that the cauldron barely made any noise, that is until it starts to roll away towards a shelf full jars with ingredients. Emersyn flinches as five jars fall to the floor and break making a racket, then the door bursts open. With a deep breath, Emersyn turns towards the guards by the door and smiles.

"Good morning, boys." She crosses her arms behind her back.

"Let us see your hands, thief! Return whatever it is you stole, immediately!" The guard on the right demands, pointing his sword towards her. He's tall and blond, his eyes are dark brown and determined. The guard by his side though, looks like he's about to pass out by the nervous look in his eyes.