"Yes. This is the only thing I can give her and the yarrow flower to lessen discoloration..." he breathed and before he could continue, he saw a maid by the door holding something in her hand.
The three looked at her waiting for her to say something.
"I got dried henbane and hemlock from the temple for the lady."
"... and, henbane and hemlock. But! After she rests here for a day, you have to bring her back home." Yefel finally continued but his words were somehow ignored for the cousins were baffled hearing the servant's words.
"Hold on, you said what?" Iulian although heard the maid very clearly, he wanted her to repeat herself.
"Henbane? uhm herbs?..." she said pondering what mistake did she do this time, "... from the temple?" she continued almost stuttering.
Lord Phraselm and Iulian's shock robbed them of speech.
"Who told you to do something you weren't commanded to do?" Phraselm stood as he sternly scolded the maid who did do what was asked of her. Except she did more than what she was told.
"Dumb servants, am I right?" Yefel mumbled while opening the wooden box with the opium. "Oh, I shouldn't say that. I forgot I'm as lowly as her."
"Forgive me, Lord Phraselm..." the maid kneeled scared and confused. She questioned her sanity as he tries to glance at the fuming Lord who can punish her by death in this instant.
"Iulian," he called for his cousin and went back to sit beside Radelaine again. He can only handle one thing at a time.
Iulian exhaled thinking how Sir Herelph might do if the people in the temple starts to babble about, "Follow me," he said and left the room with the lowly maid.
"Pour her a glass of water," Yefel said to Phraselm and gave the tablet to Radelaine's hand. "Milady, take this opium. It'll relieve your pain."
Radelaine felt the tablet in her hand and wondered what it was for. She never really processed what was going on in the room. It's not a surprise she's not aware it's medicine she's holding.
"Here," Phraselm ended up helping her take the medicine along with the glass of water he was carrying.
He tried to be as gentle as he can. She looked at him and figured this is the cure for the scrutinizing pain.
She took the opium and drank the water. Although she was gentle in gulping, the friction in her muscles and joints around her shoulders still send her bolts of prickling needle-like sensation.
She is feeling all sorts of pain ever since she got her consciousness back and she wondered when will her body gets weak enough to bring her back unconscious. She wants this to end.
"What was it you were saying earlier?" He asked Yefel as he wiped her sweat and tears with the towel he asked for from a servant a while ago. He parted her hair to the side that trails down to her shoulders and back.
He remembered he had to draw up a new contract for mercenaries that are to be deployed in Acaire for the Cartephian Code. It's not to be prioritized by Lord Phraselm as the lady he likes hearing stories about is in a terrible state.
He always wanted to hear directly from her but here they are now in the least expected encounter.
"I was saying that it will be better to bring her home after she rests for a day or two," Yefel responded deflecting the tone he had when he said it the first time. It was said in a way that would be deemed suspicious.
The opium Yefel gave to Lady Radelaine is given for surgical analgesia so she won't feel pain for the time being. It won't stop from making the rest of the years as miserable as it is though and Yefel knows it very well. He could feel it in his gut.
His wisdom travel across mountains that he is also definite about what's to come to the lady. The fate of the witch is set to end like lightning by the time it comes to light. It has already rayed its light like a new dawn.
Slowly her shoulders felt light. Her neck felt stiff but the prickling sting and the throbbing pain like being hammered in the nail were almost nonexistent.
"I'm afraid I have yet more responsibilities in Trom. Good thing I was not halfway to the town when a knight in a horse delivered a message to me." Yefel stood and fixed his case to a close.
"Wait, where are you going?" confused by his quick departure, he suddenly felt uneasy.
"To Trom Town, milord," he curled his brow and acted like he was being sarcastic.
He glinted at his sarcasm. He wasn't asking for his destination but rather the reason he was trying to leave. It felt like she needed more than opium or some herbs.
"That's not what I was asking," he said as he is peeved and getting suspicious.
"You need not worry about the lady. Her family would know better what to do with her than me." some lies from the wise Yefel.
"Will she be alright from now on?" Lord Phraselm asked as he started walking out of the room.
"If it comes back. Give her this opium again." He handed him a folded parchment with the tablet, "Give her only a quarter of it. We don't want the same thing that happened to Klay when he was bitten by a blister beetle."
"What happened to him?" curiously he asked.
"Oh, he died in his sleep." like what he said is nothing, Yefel walked himself out of the manor house escorted by the same servant that led him to the room.
Lord Phraselm for all the years that he knew Yefel, still can't get used to his unforeseen remarks. His wisdom got him apathetic.
Hardly amused by the sight of Yefel walking in the hallway, he sighed and went back inside with the door closed.
The room became too silent.
Lady Radelaine's wails and sobs turned her back to a peaceful sleep.
And finally, he also felt peace as he sat on the chair beside the bed and leaned his head on the top rail of the chair. He then faced the ceiling. His deep sigh exhaled some of his worries. He can finally do his contract task tonight.
He looked at her and said, "You'll be fine from now on," his commanding assurance is only a mere prayer of Lord Phraselm, "You have to be." he continued assuring himself knowing that his intuition is saying otherwise.
Never knowing what Yefel knew and hid from him, he also hid his doubts deep in his soul not wanting to pull them back as he continued to wish in his dreams a life he longed to have, and then he drifted off to a nap.
Lord Phraselm was certainly exhausted from a long day of no rest. They had to prepare for the banquet, get away from the palace without letting the nobles in the feast know that they are re-routing Lady Radelaine to their town, and the draining agony as soon as she woke up.
"You could've told me earlier." Iulian felt like the maid who brought herbs from the temple is trying to get under his skin.
"I- was-," frustrated as well, the maid lamented at her own slow-wittedness. "... I honestly didn't know what Lord Phraselm and you were angry about. Forgive me, I know I can be slow on the uptake." the maid said as she turned her face down feeling remorse.
He took a sharp breath, "Not entirely, I guess," he said hinting that what she did in the temple was smart.
The chagrined maid kept silent not really knowing what to say. If only she realized why they were angry about earlier, she would save Iulian some trouble.
"Get out of my face," he said and walked inside the manor, "Don't forget to give the herbs to Lady Radelaine," he yelled by the door and the maid is still in her stance.
Just as Iulian said, she's not entirely a fool as it would seem from the grave mistake everybody thought she did. She rather did a right-minded decision when she went to the temple covered in sweat from running all over town looking for henbane and hemlock for her ill mother. Not for a sick lady in the manor — the manor doesn't have any lady, to say the least. Lord Phraselm's mother, Sir Herelph's wife has passed away ten years now.
She was relieved however that she only received an earful from Iulian. If it were Lady Nemago, she would've humiliated her in front of other servants.
Lord Phraselm is feeling sore in his neck that was leaned on the top railing of the chair for about some time now. He felt uncomfortable in the chair he fell asleep on.
He opened his eyes and all he sees are the rays of the full moon from the open window he is facing. He fixed himself in the seat and for god knows what came into the mind of what he is seeing, he jolted in his seat.
"By my bones! Lady Radelaine is that you?"