"Fifth Princess!" Petra gasped, probably holding her chuckles.
"I… sorry," I rested my hands on my knees, as my body shook with livid laughter. "You said… covered in… shit?" I can even keep my eyes open or keep them from tearing up. "Shit? Malachi is… covered in shit?"
The girl turned red, "Fifth Princess, please. Mother Empress gave me the other to tell you and bring you to him. Seems like he's also with a fever, as he's burning up," what?
My smile faded. "Is he really sick?"
A nod, "He is, Princess. Josef said he fainted."
Malachi fainted? Malachi? "Take me where he is!" I exclaimed suddenly serious and as I followed the kid, Petra followed behind me. And the more I ran, the colder I felt, given how I had almost drowned to death minutes ago.
"My dear," an elderly female dressed in fancy clothes came to me, worry all over her face, and I realized she must be mother of the Emperor who likes me. Or at least who I was when I lived as a mortal. "Nico must have fallen pray to one of my mischievous grandchildren's schemes again," I wouldn't be surprised. "I called you because you are the only one who can handle that stubborn husband of yours, and also because you asked me to always call you if something like this happened."
Did I? Seems like I didn't genuinely hate him. "I'm sorry to disturb you with all of this, Your Majesty," let's be respectful. She takes care of me after all.
"I've told you countless times to call me Vera, Angel. Come my dear, let me take you to him. Ignore the smell of shit, he was covered in it. I hope you can give him a bath," what?
Me? Give Malachi a bath? I know that we are married and all, but isn't that too much? Am I supposed to take off his clothes and… Gods be merciful. I have never seen the naked body of a male, and definitely not his. At least, I do not have memories of it. "Yes, Your Majesty!" I said before she could find my reaction weird.
"As you know, it's the fourth time he has had a fever like this one, my dear. Just like you have too, but I'm starting to worry. It's so high that it hurt to even touch his skin, while you have a cold fever!" Wait, what?
Could this be a Qi deviation kind of fever? Leo has Yang energy, and his main element is fire, while I have Yin and my main element is water in it's ice form. When you have a enormous amount of Qi in your body, and you don't cultivate it, it'll case a Qi deviation. Give that we are blessed by having immortal bones and we both don't cultivate, that could be it.
And that's bad, as a fever like this can only subside if you put your Yin or Yang energy in contact with its opposite, in a similar amount. Which can be dangerous if you've never done it before.
I've gone through it, but I've never done it with anyone else, as the immortals in Heavenly Soul Recesses always helped me out in a mastered way. A way that I cannot perform here in the mortal realm, without all the techniques used by my people. Meaning, this is dangerous.
"I'll take care of him, Your Majesty, don't worry. Give us three days in seclusion, only bringing us food, and I'll help my husband heal that fever," I sounded so convincible that I almost believed myself.
Nodding, she petted my hair, also being taller than me. Everyone here is tall and taller than me. "I'll do that. Anything you need, call us."
"Thank you, Your Majesty!" I bowed softly and she left me with Petra as we entered what seem to be my wing with Malachi. "Petra, when he got a fever like this before, did I also happened to fall sick at the same time Malachi did?"
"Did you remember that, Princess?" Ugh, that's a yes. "Yes. Vice-versa. You would always help each other on it, away from everyone else. If he had it first, you will get it when you got in contact with him. If you had gotten it first, than be would get it too after getting in contact with you."
I was right. It is a Qi deviation. All because we didn't cultivate.
As we entered our chambers, the pungent smell of shit hit my nostrils and I had to bit my bottom lip with all my strength to hold my laugh. "Josef," I looked at the tall mortal who was near the door, "I need you and Petra to help me putting him on the bathtub," I genuinely hope there's one. "I'll do the rest."
"Yes, Fifth Princess!" He nodded calmly and went to where Malachi was laying down with his tall huge body that definitely didn't show any physical weakness.
Thankfully, I almost can't see him as he's really covered in shit, except for his face that is barely cleaned and his black hair that he probably did his all to the excess from. If his personality is anything like the Leo I used to know, than he must still be crazy for his appearance and full of vain. Hah, he's always been quite narcissistic.
Not like I can say much about that, as it would make me a hypocrite.
"Josef, what happened to him?" I asked when they successfully put him on the bathtub. "Was it the 3rd bastard Prince?"
"No, Princess. Though the 3rd Prince did come after him afterwards, it was not him who did it. It was the Crown Prince's doing. He beat the 5th Prince to unconsciousness, and threw him on the stables."
Oh. "So, he got his lackeys to cover him in horse shit?"
"Yes, Fifth Princess!" He nodded vehemently.
"When did the fever start?" I asked, touching Malachi's forehead with the back of my hand softly, and feeling how burning he was.
"Twenty minutes or so. It started after he fell unconscious, but little before that, he complained about an acute headache that made it hard for him to even keep his eyes open," headache?
Sigh, "Got it. You can go now."
Nodding, they both left the bathroom, then our chambers, leaving me alone with my nemesis unconscious and sick. And before I could hold myself, I gave a hard slap on his face, then another, and one more just to release the anger I've been feeling since I woke up in here.
"Fucker. I'll kill you if you go stray again, you son of a bitch!" No offense to Queen Alina, but ugh. "Look at what you are making me do, you little shit," I cursed and began to strip myself from my dress, then from my underdress, shoes, and only stayed with my lilac satin bra and shorts-ish panty. "Damned Qi deviation!"
Before doing what I'll need to do, I stripped him from his clothes, gulping and doing my best not to pay attention to how ridiculously sculpted he was even though he's a shadow of what he'll one day be. As expected, from the moment I touch him, his Yang Qi deviation ignited my own, and I began to feel the fever slowly take over me. Leaving him only with his underwear for security, I gulped as my eyes traveled through his entire body on the full bathtub.
Swallowing my pride, I gave him a bath, scrubbing his skin with a lot more strength than I should, purposely, to hurt his skin and clean all the shit. He'll owe me forever for this, and I'll make sure to remind him for as long as I let him stay alive.
I took a special time cleaning his hair, not because I know he would be crazy about this, but because I've always wanted to touched his hair. It's always looked so soft and fluffy with the dark waves that it was hard to resist. But I kept it quiet as if he knew, it would inflate his ego forever, and I could never let that happen, given his egocentric narcissistic nature.
When he was scrubbed clean of all dirty, I washed him one more time just to be sure, but I did it softly given that his fever seemed to be rising higher, in the same pace as mine. It was embarrassingly hard to do all of that with my body almost trembling with the pain from the fever, but I did it either way. There's no way I would lay with him covered in shit like that. Hah, that Crown Prince is a crafty bastard, he'll have to pay for this later.
Believe me, I was also surprised with myself when I managed to change the muddy dirty water of the bathtub for another clean one. Only then, I poured all the healing powders I found in the bathing chambers, with some scented bathing natural bombs I also found on the left side.
The water that was burning because of his body temperature, turned cold when I came inside, sitting in the middle of his open long legs and resting my back on his chest, feeling everything hurt. And as my body laid on his, the water began to wave from burning to freezing in seconds, a result commonly seen in treatment for Qi deviation.
Closing my arms on my chest, and keeping his arms open on the sides of the bathtub, I refused to let our bodies touch more than necessary to take care of this devilish situation. But it was the only thing I could come up with, before being overwhelmed by my fever and losing consciousness just like he did.
Too weak to resist it.