Chapter 7: Chapter 7

ARCHIE

 

Eve’s healing journal for prince Luke lay on my desk. I asked her to turn them in because I wanted to see the records myself as well as the drug samples she used before they were submitted to the healing bank. After what happened last time, we needed to be very cautious.

    As I carefully looked through them, I realised how non-conventional the formulas used were. They seemed practical, but I would have never been able to come up with them. I was certain she hadn’t learnt them in school so how had she come up with something so brilliant.

    Has she seen this procedure used before? If Megan ever saw these, she would definitely want to question the child. The temptation to change what she had written was very strong, but that wasn’t right either. Hopefully, this wouldn’t draw too much attention. 

    There was a knock on the door. It was probably Robert. He was currently a guard at Megan’s household, but he worked for me.

    “Come in.”

    “My lord,” he said as he bowed in greeting.

    “Well”

    “I found something this time.”

Now, that was good news. We have been trying for 8 months now, but the security at her house was second to none. Ever since I came across a file she left at a client’s house, I became very curious about what she was doing in her private labs. I needed concrete evidence to confirm my suspicions before making a case in council, so I put Robert up to the task. I wasn’t proud of my actions and had felt so bad for putting Robert in a dangerous position, but after Megan’s last stunt, I was more than certain I was on the right track.

    He handed a file over to me and dressed back, giving me some privacy. The content of the document got me horrified. This woman was crazier than I thought. What kind of monsters was she trying to create with all this specific genetic modification? How could any of this be authorised by the council and who were her test subjects?

    The file contained detailed information on some experiments she had carried and how her subjects responded to the procedures. There were reports on the ones she deemed successful and modifications she would like to make to the ones she deemed failures.

    “Are you sure you left no traces behind?” I asked.

    “None my lord”

    “Good”

    The ideal thing to do would be to get rid of him. He knew too much already and might already be privy to the content of this document, but I couldn’t bring myself to do him any harm. “You may leave.”

    He heaved a sigh of relief, gave a low bow and left horridly. I watched him retreat and chuckled to myself. He knew I should have gotten rid of him because of all he knew. Hopefully, he’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut and not get caught.

    On my order, an appeal was sent to the 1^st royal requesting permission to visit. Meagan had obviously gone out of control and needed to be called to order. With this evidence, I could prove that.

* * *

    A guard led me to his liege’s private chambers the moment I arrived. My appeal to visit had been approved immediately, and I was given a set time to come. Tightening my grip on the file I planned to submit, I followed along. I hadn’t been here in so long, but everything looked the same.

    His liege stood by the corner of the wall with a filled glass in his hand, gazing out the window when we arrived at the doorway of his chambers. He seemed lost in thoughts.

    “My liege,” the guard that led me in said as he went down on one knee. He dared not proceed further,

   Charles turned toward the general direction of the disturbance and beamed when he sighted me.     

    “Come on in Archie. You haven’t come to see me in a while. I prepared a feast”

    He made a gesture with his hands pointing towards the left. I followed the trail. A long table filled with assorted dishes was on display before my eyes.

    “I had them make your favourites”

   “My liege, am honoured”

    “No need for titles between us. You used to call me Charles.” He said.

    Indeed I did, but that was a long time ago. Taking a deep breath, I walked to the table. Thankfully, he seemed genuinely happy to see me. I had come to report a mutual friend, it was beneficial for me that he was in a good mood.

    Maids rushed in quickly. They pulled out a chair for me, which I accepted then they went ahead to serve the delicious meal.

    Throughout the meal, his Liege kept reminiscing about old times, leaving me with no chance to bring up the reason I had really come. The maids were always present as well, making it more difficult for me to talk. I couldn’t divulge such sensitive information in their midst.

    After what seemed like an eternity, he finally quieted down and emptied the room, his expression suddenly turning serious “I know why you came”

    “You do?” I asked surprised

    “You did the right thing by coming to me directly. You could have gone straight to the council”

    “Why do you think I’m here?” I asked. Charles was the master of mind games. I needed to be certain he wasn’t playing with me.

    “You are here to report Megan,” he replied.

    What in the name of... How had he found out? My mouth fell wide open in shock. Had Robert spilled the beans?

    “Don’t look so surprised, Archie. I know you are here to make complaints about Megan, I do not know what you plan on complaining about. My seer couldn’t decipher that piece of information. He is an incompetent fool.”

    “Your seer? Didn’t your father ban the practice of using them,” I said, horrified at what I was hearing

    “My father is no longer with us,” He replied calmly

    He was right, his highness was dead. Charles was the Liege now. I had no business questioning his authority. 

    “Forgive me my liege. I was taken aback by the news and lost my sense of reasoning.”

     He waved the air nonchalantly. “Let me see what you have”  

I handed the file over to him quickly and watched his expression as he flipped through the pages. There was no significant change in them, just a casual expression like he was reading the papers.

He glanced up. “How did you get this?”

Was that what interested him? How I found this document?

“I had some help,” I replied vaguely.

Closing the file, he placed it by his side and helped himself to the glass before him. Thankfully, he didn’t press for more answers.

He nodded. “I will look into this.”

With that, I was dismissed. He didn’t return the file to me and I dared not ask.

    Long after I arrived home, the visit still weighed heavily on my mind. I couldn’t quite explain how I felt about it. It seemed his highness already knew what Megan was doing, but I had no way of proving it. He didn’t even seem surprised.

    One thing was certain, Megan wasn’t doing that all by herself. She was at least getting financial help from someone. She wasn’t financially buoyant enough to fund those expensive procedures all by herself. I had had several theories about who they might be, but his highness had never been on my list. Now, I didn’t know what to think anymore.

    The most depressing thing about this was that I had made no photocopies of the documents and the most surprising was his highness admitting he employed gifts of seers. He knew the repercussions of doing that. How could he be so cruel? Was he still the same person I once knew or had the times changed him too? It had definitely changed me.

* * *

    It was finally the day for Charles' annual ball. He has always sent me an invitation each year, so I wasn’t surprised when I received an invitation card three days earlier. I was surprised that I had received two invitation cards with a brief note asking me to bring Eve along. I had pondered on why Eve was invited but concluded he was just being respectful to me. I had never taken an apprentice before, so I did not know how he would treat them. Other promising apprentices must have been invited as well. She seemed excited by the invite and had spent the whole day shopping for the right dress together with her friends. At least she was having a good time.

    We arrived at the ball a few hours late, but I still took Eve around with me to exchange pleasantries. She needed to socialize with as many elite people as she could. It would be helpful for her career. She was doing just fine with the connections she had made on her own already, but this was his Lieges ball. Only the elites of the elites were invited, nothing close to her usual circle. She plastered a fake smile on her face and went along with me as I introduced her to my fellow invited guests. I knew how she felt about the Royals, that was why I had been surprised by her enthusiasm to attend the ball but watching her trying to leave a good impression on these people, I realized she had come for the same reasons I was showing her around; making connections.

   The curious stares she received were not lost on me. They had better be staring because she looked very beautiful in the dress she was wearing or we were going to be having problems. She seemed oblivious to the stares but I knew her enough to know she noticed. She notices everything. She must have just learnt to deal with it, as she dealt with everything else.

    I ushered her to the bar and left for a few minutes to use the restroom. On returning, she was surrounded by a few people. She seemed to genuinely enjoy their company, so I didn’t interrupt. After all, she has proven on too many occasions that she could take care of herself.

     It didn’t go unnoticed that she was the only young apprentice present. I sighted a few members of some sect families more prestigious than mine, but their apprentices or heirs were nowhere in sight. The only heirs present were those of the royals probably because this was a royal ball. People like me were just privileged to be invited.

    Why had his Liege sent her an invitation? I had thought it was out of respect for me, but I wasn’t so sure anymore.

     More worrisome was the fact that Megan was present. I had expected her to be, but after the knowing glare she had given me, I could only suspect she was up to no good. It’s been a week since I visited Charles to make a complaint, but up till now, nothing had been done. I had expected her to be summoned for questioning the very next day and was very disappointed when she wasn’t. It was only confirming my suspicions that his liege was already in the know of what was going on. After all, they were a couple. Should I have gone directly to the general council? That seemed like the better option now that nothing was obviously been done to Megan. The glare she had given me earlier was way too intense. I suspected Charles had informed her of my visit. It was best to stay away from her for now.

    Eve suddenly walked up from behind me. She had company with her, a pretty young lady and Prince Luke. He looked so alive and well, you would never believe he was as good as dead a couple months ago.

    “This is Prince Luke and his sister Princess Isabella,” she said, introducing her companions.

    “Lord Archie,” Luke greeted, extending his hands for a handshake. They were way younger than me, so a handshake was an appropriate form of greeting for my title.

    “You look so much better young prince,” I replied, returning his handshake. I exchanged handshakes with the princess as well, and we soon began conversing about the weather.

    “Archie! You finally arrived” Charles said as he walked towards us with Megan beside him.

    His voice was so loud, it drew attention to my little group. Why did he have to be with Megan? I had been trying to avoid her.

    “My liege,” I said.  

I gave a quick bow, my companions did the same.

    Charles gave me a brief hug before turning his attention to Eve. He hadn’t even paid the prince and princess any mind.

    “You must be Evelyn. I have heard so much about you.”

    She seemed shocked that he had directly addressed her. I heard the gasp from onlookers as well. Had he asked me to invite her for his personal reasons? What did he want with her?

    “My Liege, I’m honoured,” she said with her head bowed.

   Megan's expression was murderous. She wasn’t pleased with Charles's sudden interest in Eve, neither was I.

    “My Liege,” I said, trying to draw away his attention from her.

    He ignored me completely and offered his hand to Eve and asked for a dance. Did he just ask her for a dance? She gasped in shock before covering her mouth with both hands. Giving a morphed apology she ran in the general direction of the restroom. Was she about to throw up?    

    “Did I scare the poor child?” Charles asked aloud, looking intrigued.

    “The offer must have been a surprise to her my Liege,” I replied grateful for the turn of events.

    “I'm afraid we have more surprises, 10^th healer?” Megan said, speaking up for the first time.

    “What do you mean?” I replied.

    Charles glared angrily at her, signalling his disapproval, but she ignored it and stepped away from him

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    “How hypocritical of you to say that after what you did.”

    Charles glanced around to see if anyone had seen Megan disrespect him. They had. Their brief exchange had been on full display. He turned back to me with a diplomatic smile on his face. I knew that smile. He was pissed.

    “What are you accusing me of this time, Megan?”

    “Theft” she replied.

    So, Charles had told on me. I was in so much trouble now. An accusation of theft was pretty serious. If she had any proof that I stole from her, which I did, my reputation would be ruined.

    “That is a serious crime you accuse me of. I let it slide the last time in council. Is this how you express your gratitude, by making another false accusation?”

    The scene had attracted an audience who gathered around us, with varying expressions of shock and dismay on their faces. Was it Megan’s plan to humiliate me publicly?

    “1^st healer, you know the consequences of making false accusations. Explain your actions.” the 1^st leader ordered inserting herself into the conversation. Her two daughters and a few other leaders at the council stood beside her.

When had they all got here? This was bad, really bad.

    “I have proof,” Megan replied.

She gestured with her hands and someone was dragged in. We were at the top of the gallery so it would take them a few minutes to get to us, but I could see it was Robert. I didn’t have to see his face to know that. I glanced at Charles briefly and he avoided my gaze. That was all I needed to confirm that he had told on me. How could he? I came to him out of respect for our former friendship. I felt it wouldn’t be proper to report his woman to the council without informing him first. But I had been wrong. He had collected the evidence and most likely handed it over to Megan.

    The leaders were present. It would be impossible for Robert to deny his involvement with me if he was questioned. Besides, Megan wouldn’t choose such a place to make a scene if she wasn’t certain she had everything under control. Robert must have already confessed. He was badly bruised. This was the perfect way to humiliate me. It would definitely make the headlines by tomorrow morning.

    I kept my expression as neutral as possible. Looking guilty would mean I was admitting to the crime. I couldn’t afford to do that. How do I get out of this mess?

    Someone suddenly bumped into the guards as they approached. I looked closer and sighted a very familiar red bun. It was Eve. What was she doing? The alteration lasted a few seconds as Isabella ran over to pick her up from the floor where she had fallen. She looked really confused as Isabella carried her away. Everyone turned their gaze back to me soon enough. The brief scene had only been a minor distraction.

    The guards finally arrived and Robert was thrown to the floor mercilessly. He gave a painful grunt upon landing, but lay very still. If I hadn’t heard his grunt, I would have thought he was dead.

    “This is your proof? He is barely alive,” I shouted, infuriated. How could she hurt Robert like this? 

    “You seem to care so much for this thing Archie, do you recognise it?”

    “Of course,” I replied. “He was once a member of my household.” I couldn’t lie in front of the Leaders. Thankfully, the answer to that question wasn’t so implicating.

    “He just admitted his connections with this thing, 1^st leader,” Megan said with a wicked grin on her face.

    “That wasn’t an admission of a crime, Megan. For your own good, I hope you aren’t wasting our time and disrupting this beautiful ball with this mess on baseless theory such as this,” the 1^st Leader chided.

    “This parasite have admitted to being the 10^th healer’s little thief when I questioned it,” she replied defensively.

    “Then we will have it speak,” the 1^st Leader responded.

    The entire hall went silent as everyone waited patiently to hear what Robert had to say. I glanced upwards towards the ceiling briefly, then glared at Megan. She had a huge grin on her face. I looked away immediately. She had really got me this time and had gone out of her way to have as many witnesses as possible.

    “Parasite, what have you done?” the 1^st leader asked.

    Robert remained silent. Poor man, with what had been done to him, he could barely move more so speak.

    “Compel it,” the 1^st Leader ordered her eldest daughter.

    This was bad. Compulsion was the scariest gift the Leaders possessed. It’s what had earned them their position as second in command to the royals. They could compel you to speak the truth. It was different from detecting lies because that only involved reading your pulse to gauge when it was behaving abnormally. I was told that the truth had a certain pulse range. Under compulsion, you would be forced to answer whatever question was asked truthfully. It was impossible to fight it. The only time a compulsion could be resisted was if the person being compelled was stronger than the compeller. The royals were naturally immune to compulsion, they were the only exception to the rule.

    “I stole it” Robert admitted.

    Lady Arya gave me a snide glance then continued her questioning.      

    “Who ordered you to?” she asked

    “No… one my Lady, no one. I needed some money, so I stole it to exchange it for some cash” he replied.

    Wait a minute, this wasn’t right. I ordered him to steal those documents.

    Megan staggered backwards in shock. She glanced at me accusingly before shaking her head aggressively

    “That’s impossible. It can’t be. It’s lying” she screamed hysterically.

    “Just shameless! How dare you imply my compulsion was ineffective stupid woman” Lady Arya chided

    “No, no, no, you don’t understand,” Megan insisted. “He has already admitted it to me”

    Poor Megan. She looked so confused. I was just as confused, but I kept my expression neutral.

    “Am not surprised it did,” lady Arya’s younger sister chimed in, “just look at what you did to it, it would admit to any crime just so you could leave it alone. You know very well it’s impossible to lie under compulsion or has your foolishness gotten to your brain”

    “That’s enough!” Charles said. He had been quiet the entire time.

    He met my gaze for the first time, then turned over to the Leaders. “The misunderstanding has been cleared already. There will be no more drama.”

    “My Liege, aren’t you curious to know what was even stolen,” the 1^st leader asked

    “There would be no word on this incidence anymore. No one will speak of this in and out of this hall ever,” He said in a loud authoritative voice. Everyone got the memo and dispersed.

    “Archie, this is just a little misunderstanding. You would not take it to heart”

    So he was protecting her. I wasn’t stupid enough to push my luck.

    “Of course, my liege. I was shocked she would accuse me of such a thing.  I’m just grateful I have been vindicated from all of this.”

    Turning to the leaders, I gave them a slight bow then then glanced at Megan. The poor woman was still in shock. I glanced down at Robert who lay lifeless on the ground. He needed to be treated immediately. I could sense he was dying.

    “Take this parasite to the harvesting grounds,” Charles ordered, disrupting my line of thoughts.

    “My liege, please show mercy,” I pleaded.

    “I won’t have you beg for it.  It admitted to stealing from its owner, it will die.”

    “But...”

    Suddenly, the sound of something crashing caught my attention. I traced the source of the sound to a little group not too far away from us. To my dismay, Eve was at the centre of the group. Isabella held her up with a worried expression on her face as a couple more people fanned her.

I ran over to them immediately. “What happened?”

    “She suddenly collapsed,” Isabella replied frantically.

 I checked her pulse. It seemed fine. She must have fainted out of shock.

    “Take your ward home. She must have been frightened by all of this,” Charles said, coming from behind me.

    I glanced back at Robert one last time, then did as I was told.

    This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have gotten him involved in the first place. Now, I was the reason he was going to be killed.

* * *

    Eve's eyes flipped open the moment we returned home. I had been so worried on the drive home, I called home and ordered a bowl of hot water and some towels to be placed in her room, I guess those were no longer useful.

    She walked straight to her room the moment we arrived. I choose to take a walk around the house to calm myself. I never acted out in anger. When I was certain my rage was under control, I walked to her room. She sat on her bed with folded hands, face turned to the window.

    “Explain yourself,” I bellowed.

    She snorted. “Explain! I had to get you out of there. What were you even thinking?” she gave me a chiding glance before turning away from me.

    “I was pleading for Robert’s life. How could you have put up such an act to interrupt me?”

    “The moment he admitted to the theft, he was already as good as dead. In case you have forgotten, he is a parasite. How could you possibly think he would be allowed to live? Even if his liege speared him because of your plea, Megan would not let him off for making her look stupid.”

    She was right. I knew all of these, but I had hoped for a different outcome.

    “The least you could have done was get rid of him after using him. You could have made it painless. Now...” she stopped abruptly.

    Did she had just insinuate she knew Robert had done something for me?

    “What are you talking about?” I asked innocently

    “You know what am talking about.” She replied. “I was in your private library when he came to see you the other day,” she admitted.

    Sounds from my study can be heard in the private library because they were linked together.

    Megan’s name hadn’t been mentioned that day, but she must have put two and two together when she saw Robert being dragged in.

    Wait a minute, is that why she bumped into them? Did she have anything to do with Roberts’s strange testimony?

A guilty expression suddenly appeared on her face and she looked away.

    “What did you do?” I asked.

    “I altered his memory a little.”

    “A little?” I asked, astonished.

    “What else could I have possibly done? He was going to die anyway regardless of his testimony. I just made sure he died alone. Don’t you know the implication of what could have happened if he mentioned your name?”

    Her logic was right, but what she had done felt so wrong. I taught her to erase memories, not alter them. Where had she learnt this altering thing she was talking about? I have never tried to alter a memory before. I hadn’t even imagined it to be possible. The leaders had also been present when she had done this. Why hadn’t they sensed it? She was in contact with Robert for just a few seconds when she fell to the floor. How had she done that so quickly? This was the second time she escaped the leader's radar undetected. It couldn’t be a coincidence.

    “You...”

    “What? What?” she replied defensively?

     Nothing. I had nothing to say. Her actions left me dumbfounded.

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