Aldrich woke up with another loud coughing fit. The sounds alone made it seem as if his throat was tearing itself apart with all its might. "Help!" Someone on the outside of his fairly large room yelled. The person was most likely a maid who had decided to wander the mansion halls at the right time.
The harsh coughs continued with much more. Aldrich, who had sprung to a sitting position when his coughing fit woke him up, hung his head over the side of the bed, the action causing his long straight hair to hang over his shoulders.
He heavily coughed and a mouthful of blood found its way to his light grey carpet, dying a spot in its dark red colour.
Aldrich was extremely handsome. He had pale skin that was on the verge of becoming unhealthy due to his many losses of blood but that didn't hinder his beauty. He had long black hair that fell loosely to his lower back when it wasn't pulled into a tight bun and distinct and delicate features that threw him on the border of looking like a female.
His bedroom double doors were thrown open and a worried, ageing lady ran inside, almost tripping over the tail of her dress. She lifted the dress and hurriedly made her way over to her son, a man looking at least 10 years older than her following behind.
"My sweet pumpkin!" The woman yelled as she gripped Aldrich's face in her slender hands "Are you okay?"
"Mom…" Aldrich started weekly with a small smile. "I'm fi-" COUGH. Just in time Aldrich reached up and clasped his hand over his mouth and coughed into it, when he moved his hand, a large pool of blood could be seen in those weak, slim hands.
More people had assembled into the room, grim expressions on their faces.
"Get that doctor, NOW!" The man yelled, his eyebrows furrowing together in worry. He paced the room, his hands rubbing his temples as he wondered what else he could do to help his son.
Not soon after the doctor who had attended to Aldrich multiple times was pulled into the room by a guard, a terrified expression on his face. "Severus." The doctor's head snapped to the voice that had called his name and saw that same stressed out, greying old man.
"Yes sir?"
"Limir, please calm down." The old man's eyes flickered towards his wife's and after a while he heaved a sigh.
"Please check on my son again, he's only gotten worse." The doctor, Severus, did his usual routine of feeling around Aldrich's pulse and checking his breathing. Severus reached out and clasped his fingers around Aldrich's wrist, slowly a humming sound was being released by him.
He was using his gift.
Slowly, Severus's hand left Aldrich's. He turned to look towards the Duke and Duchess with a sullen expression. "My answer is the same as every other." He sighed as though the words that had not yet left his lips were the heaviest burden to carry. "There is nothing medically wrong with him."
The Duchess snapped. "How can there be nothing wrong with him when he's coughing up blood?!" Her warm and worrying eyes scanned her son, the future Duke. "I can't help but think that he's… he's-" She broke down in tears before finishing her sentence but everyone knew what her last word was. Even Aldrich knew
She felt like he was dying.
"I said that there was nothing medically wrong with him, not that there was nothing wrong with him." The Duchess glanced up hopefully.
The Duke, however, gave him a wary glance. "What are you implying…?"
Severus glanced out the window and watched as the heavy snow fell and coated the grass and flowers that the gardeners had been trying their best to groom all spring. "I know a seer." The Duchess grasped and another in the room spoke up.
"I thought those were extinct." The one who'd spoken up was Mirabella, the Duke's sister. She had a teenager standing by her side and looking worriedly over at the king sized bed. The person laying on the bed seemed to not have the energy to pull himself into a sitting position anymore and just laid there staring at the ceiling and hoping not to suffocate on his own blood.
The teenager by Mirabelle's side was Alexander, Mirabelle's son and Aldrich's cousin.
"They only went in hiding in fear of being hunted and manipulated." In the past many hand hunted down seers, the ones who knew all, saw all and had all answers. With a seer in possession, one could be almost invincible. "If your Grace was to promise to keep her existence a secret she would love to come and check on his highness."
Isabelle, the Duchess flew to her feet from Aldrich's bedside table and rushed over to Severus. "We swear on our house's honour, no harm will come to this Seer, so please call her over."
Naturally, the Duchess knew the seer was female as there was never a record of there existing a male seer.
Severus nodded and pulled out his phone. He moved away from the crowd and whispered into his phone. Around five minutes later he returned to the tense family. "She has agreed on the condition that you send a drive for her."
"That's simple." Limir said and quickly pulled out his phone. He muttered a few words in the phone and then pushed it back in his silk pajama pants pocket. He nodded to Severus.
The family waited. A lot had gotten up and retreated to their rooms and the only ones who remained to sit by a sleeping Aldrich's side were his parents and his cousin, Alexander. The only people who seemed to actually care about him.
It was dawn before the seer arrived, this was the fastest she could arrive for someone living so far away and having to travel through the heavy snow. She took off her fur coat at the door, she wore a black turtleneck blouse with black jeans and a fur boot matching the coat.
The butler, Vincent, had been waiting for her at the door and when he saw her he heaved a sigh of relief and led her up to the marquess's room.
[Dukes are brothers of kings or queens and the highest position below royalty though they can sometimes have more power than royals. Marquess is a title given to a Duke's son if he is the next in line, it is the highest among titles given to sons of Dukes.]
Aldrich had woken to the constant muttering in his room and glanced to the side to see an unknown woman enter his room. His long hair was scattered all over the pillow and his eyes were drowsy with sleep, the white shirt he wore to bed was unbuttoned at the top by three. This was quite a tempting scene.
"Son, this is a seer. She will take a look at you." Aldrich's eyes shone with hope when he heard a seer had come, there was nothing that they didn't know.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Livia."
Livia stepped forward and kneeled down at the bedside, gingerly taking Aldrich's hand in her's. She closed her eyes and started humming, this was to amplify focus when using a gift. Her head was thrown back and when she opened her eyes they were grey, it looked as if she had lost her sight.
She got up and her eyes went back to normal. "Your son is cursed by an enchanter."
"An enchanter? Cursed?" Isabelle worriedly asked.
"Yes, enchanters usually keep to themselves and they're no secret to mankind. A human usually gives up a part of them, usually the soul and asks for a curse on someone."
"Yes, I've heard of them." The Duke said
Livia nodded. "Enchanters are very powerful, but this one is on the extreme, most likely the monarch of enchanters. He knew I was looking at him."
"So how do we break this curse?" Isabelle asked.
"Usually when enchanters curse someone, they create a condition. If you figure out this condition you can break the curse. The only other way is to kill the person who asked for the curse."
Isabelle sobbed. "Who would do this to my boy?"
Livia continued. "You only have at most a year to live, boy." She dipped into her bag and pulled something out. "This will keep the curse at bay for a month, within that month you must find the enchanter and figure out the condition. If not, ask for the name of the person who did this, and kill them."
Isabelle hurriedly grabbed the vial from Livia's hand and supported her son's back, emptying the blue liquid in his mouth.
"Can I go?" The Duke asked.
Livia shook her head, "Only the ones cursed will be able to find the enchanter that cursed them, if you went and asked around. You'd find all sorts of enchanters and wouldn't know which one." Livia frowned. "Someone must have really wanted your son to die for them to visit the monarch."
"I'll go," Aldrich said, finally having the strength in his body to sit up.