I had left Aeris with a promise to return with food and as I make my way through the halls at this late hour on my way to the kitchen I decide to check on Father first.
Guards are stationed more frequently than before which is only to be expected. They nod in acknowledgement as I pass and make my way to Father's rooms.
The guards open the doors and I walk in, low light fills the dark space and I see the healer near his bed.
"Your Highness," He bows.
"Oenus," I nod in return. "How is he?" I ask, walking further into the room.
"He is the same Your Highness, he is in no pain and resting as comfortably as I am able to allow. His mind will take some time to recover from the attack." He answers with a small bow. Oenus, our Head healer is older than my father and has started showing signs of aging, but no one would be able to guess he was over 700 years old. His dark blue robe falls to the floor as he stands back from the bed and turns towards me.
"Thank you Oenus, I just wanted to check on him." I say looking at my Father. I knew there was nothing I could do for him, that Oenus would do everything within his power to make sure my Father was comfortable, that it would just take time.
"Of course Your Highness, I have also checked on the Queen, she is still sleeping, the massive release of magic has drained her, but I expect she will wake up much sooner than the King." He nods slowly as he makes his way to the door.
"Thank you again, Oenus." I wait until he has left and move closer to my father. He looks like he is sleeping and I suppose he is, only it was induced. If he was awake he would probably be screaming in pain right now. My Mothers dark magic wreaking havoc on is body as he lie paralysed in pain.
I can still see my Mother, her arms turning to black, as her face remained impassive. I had never seen her use her magic before, she had stopped before I was born. Demwyn said he had seen it but never spoke of it. I knew it was a dark magic, as was custom in her family line. But she chose to restrict herself, going against her very self, her own magic that lived in her blood and flooded her veins. It was slowly killing her, to restrict her own abilities, but it was a price she had accepted. And after all of it, all of the years she had refused to use her own magic, for this to happen, for her to attack her own husband. It was nonsensical. Impossible. Unimaginable. She wouldn't attack anyone let alone her own husband.
And the words she had said, they were not her own.
In the hours I had sat by Dae's side I had thought over and over of what had happened. Every moment replayed in my mind, it had come without warning, just the sudden scream of pain, mother gripping her hair before her eyes turned black and she attacked.
And then Dae had screamed and my heart had stopped. When she had collapsed to the floor and started fitting I could barely breathe.
And now, now three of the people I loved most in this world were unconscious and I knew there was only one person to blame. Arden.
I grit my teeth as I make my way out of Father's room's, seeing Arden's smiling arrogant expression in my mind over and over was making it difficult to keep my anger in check. I walk towards mothers rooms, wanting to check on her before heading to the kitchens.
I walk into the low lit room, I see her form under her covers on the bed, her white blonde hair spilling out on the pillow.
There is a chair close to the bed and I pull it to her side sitting down I let out a heavy sigh.
"I'm sorry I didn't come sooner, but, you weren't the only one attacked, and I knew you would be okay, that you just needed time to rest. Dae, Dae is different, we are waiting, waiting to see if she wakes up, she has to, right?" I say softly, wanting to talk to my mother as if she was awake.
She wouldn't be mad if she knew, wouldn't be upset if she knew I had stayed with Dae instead of her. She just needed rest, Dae had needed something else and even now, we didn't know if it would work.
"Mother will be fine." Demwyn's startles me and I sit up. Gods I must be truly exhausted if I hadn't sensed him in the room when I walked in. I see him in the corner, a small flame lighting up his shape on the arm chair.
"What are you doing here?" I ask quietly.
"Same as you I guess." He answers with a shrug looking at Mothers shape.
He had wanted someone to talk to? Someone to assure him he was making the right choices? He always seemed so sure of all of his choices.
"How did the council meeting go?"
"You're actually interested in the affairs of your Kingdom now?" He returns dryly.
"You might not understand our actions, but that doesn't mean they were mistaken." I say with an exhausted sigh. "Wanting to make sure Dae was safe does not mean we do not care about our Kingdom."
I can sense him wrestling with his response and deciding on his own.
"The council could not come to a conclusion on what provoked the attack, there were many ideas and theories thrown around, but nothing is decided." He eventually answers.
"We believe we know who it was. Our dear cousin Arden."
"What?" He sits up straighter.
"The second Healer, Quirin, said what attacked Dae was nightmares, that it was within the realm of possibility that Arden could have planted them in her mind before he left. They were a foreign element that he couldn't breach, there is only one we know with that kind of magic, and he just so happened to be staying with us these last few days."
He is quiet as he takes in my words. I lean my elbows on my knees, pushing my fingers into my hair as I rest my head in my hands. The pads of my fingertips massage my scalp as I try to ease the tension there.
"And you think he did the same thing to mother? That he made her attack father?" He asks leaning forward in his seat.
I nod slowly. "We know he didn't want us to select wives from the human offering, that he was against the idea of it. What better way to make sure it didn't happen then to cause the entire selection to go into bedlam?"
"How could he possibly know who we were going to pick?" He asks angrily.
"Dreams." I answer simply. "He can access the dream world if he is close enough, and we gave him perfect access by letting him stay here with us. Whoever you intended to choose was safe because you didn't dream of them. Dae however was not so safe."
Demwyn stands suddenly, pacing back and forth in the shadows, his large frame making imposing monster like shapes around him as the light hovers and flickers around the room.
"I never trusted him, not for a second." He mutters darkly.
"I know."
"And now what?"
"Now we wait, we wait until Mother wakes up and tells her side of what happened, and then we wait until Father wakes up and makes the final call." I answer, letting my hands fall into my lap.
He turns, looking at Mother in her bed then at me before returning back to pacing.
"We need to have another council meeting where you can tell everyone what you just told me, and bring Quirin to attest to the nightmares that attacked Daella." He says sternly.
I shake my head slowly. "It won't make a difference until Father wakes up, we can't retaliate or make any final decision until he is there so it is best to wait. Just make sure the palace is secure as I'm sure you have already done with all the extra guards around and wait."
"I don't want to wait!" He snaps suddenly, before turning to mother and looking at her expectantly, she doesn't move or make a sound.
I stand, tired of this discussion and wanting to get back to Dae.
"It doesn't matter if you want to or not, hold all the council meetings you feel the need to hold, it won't change anything. No final decisions can be made without the King, and while you may be acting king that isn't something you can do. Get some rest Demwyn, we will all be told if one of them wakes, until then, we all need to wait." With that I leave the room, nodding at the guards as I leave my parents wing and head towards the kitchens.
Whether Demwyn listened to me or not would be his decision, sitting in council meetings and making future plans wasn't going to change anything. I would rather spend my time with Dae then in a useless council meeting or pulling my hair out with all the unanswered "what if's?" and "what could have been?".
We knew the truth of what happened, that was what mattered, and until a final decision could be made we would all need to have patience, no matter how difficult it may be.