On the way to Flora's bedroom, the large guard was able to find a random servant girl to prepare Flora's bedroom for her to be treated. She nodded with wide eyes, and rushed to get clean linens and water before the physician arrived. By the time the guard dropped Flora off in her bedroom, the girl had stripped her bedding of its heavy layers and put on linen sheets that would be easy to replace and wash.
The two of them stood around the bed in awkward silence, staring at the princess's limp body. The servant, while obviously bursting with questions, kept her mouth shut. As she reached to wet a damp cloth, Rose came bursting through the chamber door.
"What in the hell happened here?" Rose took in Flora's beaten body and the blood staining the fresh sheets. "I need an explanation," she gave the blood-soaked guard a piercing glare, "now."
"Her highness has been hurt," the guard said softly.
"I did not ask for the obvious, what happened?"
He shuffled his feet as he tried to find the words to say to the irate woman. Uncomfortably, he answered, "I don't know ma'am."
"Well who is responsible?"
"I don't know ma'am," he repeated himself. "All I know is that we were called in to take her away after everything had happened."
"Who called you in?" Rose was getting irritated to the point of violence. Noticing the guard purposefully not responding, she scolded the young man, "you will be in a much worse position if you withhold information from me." Again she stared at him, still as death. "It doesn't matter how important those involved are, if you don't tell me, there will be consequences."
The guard audibly gulped as he looked to the servant girl, who turned away, obviously not wanting to get involved. He turned back to Rose before he whispered, "We were called in by his highness, Prince Felix." He wrung his hands nervously, deciding if he should indulge the next piece of information.
"Out with it boy."
"The only people inside of the receiving room were the princess, the prince, and the king." He let out a deep breath, clearly done relaying information.
"Holy hell." Rose ran her fingers over her grey hair. She looked around the room in exasperation before saying, "where the hell is the physician? At this rate the princess could..."
As if on cue, she was interrupted by short rap on the door, that opened before a response was given. The court physician plowed past Rose carrying a heavy basket to Flora's bedside. Without even looking up, he asked, "what happened?"
"She was beaten sir," the guard responded.
Without replying, the physician opened his basket and began unpacking his supplies. He lined up bandages, salves, and other medicines on the nightstand. Without looking up, he ordered, "girl, get those wet cloths and wash this blood off of her. Rose, I'll need you to hold her like this." He motioned to Rose how to hold Flora so he could inspect her back.
The servant began to quickly work on scrubbing the blood off of Flora. She got about halfway done before she needed more water. The girl turned to leave, but Rose dismissed the guard to get more fresh water, saying that there were more linens in the next room over. When he returned, the two maidens finished cleaning Flora up, and Rose demanded that the guard leave.
Rose had undressed Flora completely so that the doctor could bandage up the parts of her that were cut open, parts of her back, her arms, and her head. He began to spread a potent smelling salve around the already forming bruises across her arms and back. He finished his preliminary treatment, and told them to put a light blanket over Flora.
Rose looked over to the shaken girl, "You may leave now." Without a word the servant vanished from sight. Rose looked back at Flora's body, now blooming with all sorts of nasty colored wounds. "What is the assessment doctor?"
The physician dabbed his forehead with a dry cloth as he sighed, "it's not the worst I've seen." He paused, gently touching her temple. "But, it's certainly not good." Rose shot him a worried look as he continued, "I will stay with her for the night to see how she fares, I'll have my apprentices take care of my duties until I can determine the princess will be safe without medical supervision." The doctor dabbed at his head again. "I trust that this will be dealt with discretion."
"Of course." Rose held eye contact with the physician.
"She will be fine Rose," he said to her. When she didn't look convinced, he reiterated, "I've seen much worse than this. The princess has mostly been hit on her back. The most troubling thing would be her head wound, which while not dire, will need time to heal before she can be up and running again."
The physician stayed at Flora's bedside for the night, and then continued to check on her daily. Rose however, did not leave Flora's side. When she grew tired, she would sleep on the loveseat at the side of the bed. Rose fed her broth to keep her alive as she stayed unconscious. What started out as days turned to weeks, and the physician was at a loss as to why she wasn't waking up. He had told Rose that it felt like something was missing inside of Flora.
* * *
Flora had been in the dark for a while. She had felt nothing for what seemed like forever, no touch, no sight, no emotion. Flora just seemed to be floating in an endless pitch black, and quite frankly, she was fine with it. She didn't know why, but she was tired, and she didn't want to do anything anytime soon.
* * *
Eventually, Flora felt the need to open her eyes. She opened them slowly, squinting at the bright light streaming in from the window. She felt like her eyes hadn't seen any light in months. Flora turned her head to find Rose resting her head on a pillow situated on top of the covers, her hand griping Flora's.
Moving her head sent her into a dizzy spell, causing her to grip her head tightly. Flora couldn't think of anything except for the throbbing pulse going through her skull. Her whole body felt heavy as she slowly lifted herself up into a sitting position. Everything hurt.
Rose groaned as she moved to lift up her face. She blinked slowly, taking in Flora's open eyes, staring right at her. Rose shot up, her eyes widening into that of surprise. It was if Rose had seen a ghost. "Flora, you're awake!" Her lips pulled into an unusual grin. Rose wasn't really one to get excited about anything. "How are you feeling?"
"Like trash Rose," Flora muttered looking at her arms. They ached, but there was no sign of any injury anywhere on them except for a few newly healed scars. Confused, Flora pulled of the duvet and moved to examine the rest of her body. This was a mistake; as she twisted her core, she yelped in pain, grabbing her chest.
"Woah," Rose rushed to stop Flora from moving. "You are still in recovery." She covered Flora's middle again with the covers and propped her up on a mound of pillows.
"Rose..." Flora felt as if her mind was wading through mud. "What happened?" She tried to grasp the words but they kept slipped away from her. "How long have I been like this?"
Rose's face twisted into something Flora didn't recognize. She mindlessly toyed with a pillow as she explained, "Flora, you have been recovering from an injury for almost two months now." Flora was too shocked to respond. "You had two broken ribs, a slew of bruises and cuts, a severe concussion, and..." she paused, "something else. The doctor couldn't determine what though."
Suddenly Flora's eyelids seemed extremely heavy. Before she knew it, she had drifted off into a fitful sleep. She went through this cycle for well over a week. Flora would wake up for a few minutes, but then sleep would ultimately pull her down again. As the second week progressed, she was able to stay awake long enough to eat a meal. Her brain felt scrambled, but she was slowly healing.
One afternoon, Flora had woken up and Rose was not around. She couldn't fall back asleep, so she decided to get out of bed and find a book. Her legs trembled as she forced them forward. Flora remembered having something close to her bedside. By the time she settled back into her bed, Rose had returned, a stern scowl covering her face. Flora prepared for a scolding, but nothing came as Rose sat a tray of food down on a side table for her to eat.
"I couldn't fall back asleep, so I got a book to read." Flora reached for a roll on the tray. "It's getting a little boring being confined to this bed all day." Rose sighed as she folded up some blankets at the foot of the bed. "Rose," Flora looked at the older woman busying herself with another useless task, "you should rest. You've been sleeping on a chair for months, and I'm worried that you are overexerting yourself." Rose gave her a displeased look. "I'm serious, you need to watch your health at your age."
Rose snorted, "I'll rest when I'm dead." She shook her head while continuing to fuss over the pillows and blankets. "I'm not that old now."
Flora knew she wasn't going to get anywhere on this topic, so she pivoted, "Did Felix come to visit me yet?" Rose shook her head in response. "Not at all?" Again Rose shook her head no. Flora was disappointed, but she understood that Felix was busy with the war and everything. If anything, the aching of her body didn't allow her to linger on the thought. She looked back at her hand maiden. "Rose, do you know what's going on? I'm so confused."
Rose exhaled deeply as she sat down in the armchair to the side of Flora. Without making eye contact, she asked, "Flora, do you remember what happened?"
Flora flinched, remembering the beating she took. It wasn't a particularly fond memory. "The king called me into his receiving room." She took a deep breath as the memory replayed inside her mind. "Then he told me over and over again to see if Leosta was going to join the war, but-" Again Flora paused. It seemed as if the room was closing in on her. "He said that he knew that I could see into the future... but... but I had no idea what he was talking about." Tears slid down her face as she looked down at her hands. This was painful, but Rose deserved to know after she put so much time and effort into nursing Flora back to health. "He got so mad... and then he started screaming at me and I didn't know what to do." Her body began racking with sobs. "Then my father," she struggled to ground it out, "my father began to..."
"That's enough child." Rose gripped Flora's hand. Her eyes glistened, showing more pain than Flora had ever seen from someone before. Did Rose really care about Flora that much? "It's time that you learn the truth." Flora scrunched up her face in confusion as she continued, "you must know by now, that you have never been an ordinary girl."
"Well obviously, I'm the princess."
"Beyond that Flora." Rose looked out the window before she began, "When you were born, your mother was so excited. She had always wanted a little girl, but as you know, your father's bloodline produces mainly male children. You were the first girl in the Primoni family in centuries. While most queens wanted to have male heirs, your mother wanted nothing more than a princess after your brother was born." Rose gazed off with a distant look in her eyes. "Your mother cherished you so, and since your father loved your mother so much, he loved you as well." Rose chuckled to herself. "You were such a spoiled baby, doted on by mother, father, and brother. You had a few nannies, but the queen wanted to spend as much time with her children as possible. When she couldn't be with you, she would sometimes drop you off to play in your father's study. He never could say no to the queen."
Flora remembered this. She couldn't make out her mother's face or voice, but she remembered the warmth that she got from her. Even playing in the study was calming. She had almost forgotten this love.
"This was fine until you were about three or four. That's when you started..." Rose thought for a moment. "saying strange things. This didn't bother your mother, and your father, quite frankly, didn't have the time to care, but the servants around you began to be afraid." She shifted in her seat, deep in her recollection. "You would tell people of things that had not happened yet. At first, everyone brushed it off, but it soon became something that the servants couldn't ignore."
"What do you mean?" Flora asked. "Do you mean to say that I could see into the future?" She didn't even want to consider the possibility. It was ridiculous, right?
"Yes." Rose cleared her throat. "That is what I mean." Flora stared at her in shock, but didn't interrupt. "You had a habit of telling people of bad things that were about to happen, and no matter what anyone did, your predictions always came true. Unfortunately, if someone tried to stop the future from happening, things would get way worse." Flora looked at her in a silent question as Rose answered, "for example, you once told a guard that he was going to break his leg, so he did everything in his power to stop this from happening. A few weeks later, he ended up with two broken legs and a cracked rib. The castle staff began to fear you. Rumor spread that the princess with the golden eyes could curse you if you spent enough time with her."
Everything started coming together for Flora, the people avoiding her, the lack of invites to social functions, and the isolation she faced, it all made sense. "So people really are afraid of me. Do I really curse people?" She looked up at Rose with a torn expression.
"Gods no," Rose waved her hand dismissing the idea. "You just have the ability to see what is to come; you don't cause any of it. But, nonetheless, there was repercussions to your sight. By the time you were five, you had gone through nine nannies. No one wanted to deal with you."
"You came to take care of me when I was six." Flora was still trying to piece everything together. "If I was close to my father, why didn't I see him for so many years?"
"Well, I wasn't afraid of a little girl." Rose smirked as she said this, but her face quickly darkened as she continued the story. "Your mother was never afraid of your gift Flora. No matter what you said, she would continue to love you. Your father, however, was a different story. When you were about six years old, this was when I first began to look after you, you had a vision in front of your father." She slumped her shoulders forward as if she could avoid this memory. "You told him that the queen was to die in the next year."
Flora felt as if the wind had been knocked out of her. She remembered her mother being sick, and she definitely remembered her funeral. Flora had spent that whole week crying in Felix's room. Since she was so young, the memory was fuzzy, and she couldn't recall the specific details.
"Your father was furious. He confined you to your room and refused to let anyone other than myself see you. Although he was livid, he was aware enough to know that your predictions had always been right. The king then decided to lock up the queen in his chambers, and no one but himself was allowed anywhere near her." Rose lowered her voice. "It was if the king had gone insane. He was so worried about her dying of some foreign threat, that he forgot that he could be responsible."
"The king killed her?!?" Flora couldn't contain herself.
Rose shook her head. "Not exactly, you see, in the time that the king had her locked away, a child was conceived. Your mother, while it was a sickly pregnancy, was able to give birth to a baby boy." Flora had no idea that she had a little brother. "However, neither the child nor the mother were healthy. The king did everything in his power to prolong his wife's life. The boy had been alive for less than a day before the king decided to devote all of his resources on the queen." Rose went still as she sat in silence. Flora hadn't noticed that she was weeping as she told this story. "Your mother was beside herself in grief. She believed that the child could have been saved, but the king decided to pointlessly leave him to die. Your mother never even got the chance to name him." Rose paused to dab her eyes with a handkerchief. The tears continued to roll down her face. "Your father was only prolonging her suffering. The queen lasted a week before she passed away holding her child."
Flora lifted up a hand to comfort Rose, but it spasmed before she reached her. When she looked down, she realized that she had been crying as well. This must have been so painful for Rose to tell her. "Did you know my mother?" Rose nodded silently. "Were you close with her?"
"Her mother and I grew up together in the countryside. When she married the king, she brought me along with her." Rose peered through the window as if she could see her old home. "I owe my life to her. She was the best woman I ever knew." Again she dabbed at her wet face, not caring how reckless the words she was about to say were. "The king made her death as painful as possible; she didn't need to suffer like she did. To be honest, I think the king has always secretly blamed you for her death." Seeing Flora's distraught expression, she countered, "of course it was never your fault, and your mother would be rolling in her grave seeing how terribly he has treated you."
Rose stood up and sniffed her nose. "Anyway, it's about time you get some more rest." She covered Flora in another unnecessary layer of blankets. "I'll be back later to give you your dinner." Without saying anything else, she exited the room and left Flora alone to drift off into another fitful sleep.