Garcia put on her armor and grabbed her sheathed sword. She left the room to the training camp.
She walked up to her friend and guardian Schmidt.
"Do you care to spar with me?" She said not noticing the grim look on his face.
Schmidt was deep in thought and hadn't heard what Garcia had said. After a while, she didn't get a reply and looked up at Schmidt. His expression wasn't good.
"Schmidt?" Garcia called. Schmidt was pulled out of his reverie.
"Garcia." He exclaimed. "Sorry. I was lost for a moment."
"Hmm, I see." Garcia said and sighed. "Do you care to spar with me?"
Schmidt looked at her first in surprise and then his expression normalized.
"You haven't replied. What are you thinking?" Garcia asked again curious.
She hadn't been too well for the past few days. So she took days off. She didn't come out, so she didn't know anything happening outside her home.
"This is a secret between the higher-ups, but I trust you, so I'll tell you." He said and paused creating suspense.
"Schmidt talk quickly. I don't have time for this." She said growing impatient.
"The King... he's weak." Schmidt messaged her in her head and said no further.
Garcia who had heard it immediately understood. She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest. Her heart hurt terribly. She held her chest gasping. No. It couldn't be. He was the King. The most powerful being. How could he be weak?
She turned around and opened a portal. Schmidt grabbed her hand.
"Garcia I know you like him but you can't do anything rash." Schmidt said in a warning tone.
Garcia shook off his hand fiercely and walked into the portal. She appeared in front of the Royal Infirmary. The entrance was unusually heavily guarded.
She walked to them but she wasn't granted entry. Her guess was confirmed. Her heart panged in pain.
She fell on her knees. Her tears fell uncontrollably. For him to be this sick to be considered weak meant he could probably be dying. She stood and went into a portal.
She appeared on a mountain and sat on the bare ground. Her tears were flowing down her face. She remembered the first time she had seen him. It was on this mountain. He was with Tristan. They were sparring with each other. His sword skills were so sharp and his movements were very clean and fast. He was winning. And winning with grace. His every move exuded grace. And his handsome appearance made her fall for him at first sight. That was why she had spent centuries training to join his army. She wanted to be by his side at all times.
She let out a heart wrenching cry. But why was she crying? He wasn't dead or anything. Why did she cry so much?
She realized that she cared about him too much. She had fallen too deeply. She didn't just like him as Schmidt had said, she loved him. She knew she'd be crazy to fall in love with a King. She was just a soldier from an unremarkable background. She wasn't exactly pretty neither was she a scholar, but she still loved him.
"Xavier, I love you." She said in a teary voice. "I really love you."
...
He lay on the bed. His eyes were shut and his pale lips were drawn into a thin line. His brows were furrowed.
Elder Lorenzo walked into the room. The Royal Doctor stood in front of him, examining him.
"What is the situation?" Elder Lorenzo asked.
"His internal organs are all fine. There was only a little bleeding. The problem is well... How do I put it? It's not very suitable to say." The Royal Doctor said.
"Speak." Elder Lorenzo ordered him.
"His Majesty has a mate who he does not seem to want to have. The bond with a mate is usually directly attached to the soul. Breaking such a bond would do... well, a great deal of damage to his soul. So, he chose the alternative. If his mate died, then there would no problems. The bond would break on her end. That would certainly work for ordinary mate bonds, but his is not ordinary."
"That is what he didn't know. His Majesty's bond with her is attached to the essence of his soul and spirit, the bare foundation of his life and death. Her death would dictate his death and her life as well." The Royal Doctor explained.
"So, the mate is dying somewhere out there, right now?" Elder Lorenzo asked the obvious question.
"Yes."
"If we do not find his mate and fix the damaged mate bond, we might be unable to wake him up."
"Is there no other way?"
"I'm afraid not. His connection with her is very strong. He truly is powerful to have withstood it." The Royal Doctor said in amazement.
There was a knock on the door.
"It is I, Ferlin." He said from behind the door.
Ferlin was Xavier's most trusted soldier.
"Come forth, Ferlin." Elder Lorenzo said.
The door knob turned and Ferlin walked in. He looked at Xavier. He wondered what had happened to him in such a short time. And why it happened soon after killing the human. Was the human of any importance to His Majesty Xavier? He was a soldier and didn't have any right to interfere in His Majesty's decisions. His only job was to follow. Besides, his mere presence here was already very disrespectful to him. He just had to deliver the message and leave.
"Elder Lorenzo..." He began.
"His Majesty must have sent someone to kill her." The Royal Doctor intercepted unintentionally.
"Yes. Ferlin, were there any soldiers sent out today on any special missions."
"No, there were not any." Ferlin replied. He didn't think the assignment to kill the human was anything special.
"Go. Summon Army Commander Park immediately. And tell them, they are not allowed in here." Elder Lorenzo said. The 'they' were the ministers of the Upper Chamber, who wanted to know the situation with the king. But because Elder Lorenzo didn't want word getting out, he sealed it to the most trusted of people in Aysha. He wanted it to remain in a circle of four to five people at most.
Ferlin left and a minute later, returned with Army Commander Park. He stood outside while Army Commander Park went in.
"Elder Lorenzo. My greetings." Army Commander Park bowed and said.
"Rise." Elder Lorenzo said and he stood up straight.
"Were there any soldiers Xavier called out today?"
"Only Ferlin was called out today."
Elder Lorenzo frowned at those words. Hadn't Ferlin said that noone was called out, when infact he had been called out. Was he now so loyal to Xavier, that he wouldn't tell him this.
"Leave." He said to Army Commander Park.
"Ferlin, why were you sent out by Xavier today?" He messaged Ferlin through the mind link.
"His Majesty assigned me to kill a human."
"A human?" Elder Lorenzo asked in confusion.
"Yes, Sir."
"Is it a female?"
"Yes, Sir." Ferlin didn't understood where this was getting to but he replied regardless.
A thought quickly zoomed past Elder Lorenzo's mind, which he quickly cancelled. No. It wasn't possible that the mate was a human. The Royal Doctor who had heard what Elder Lorenzo said also thought the same.
"What if His Majesty's mate is a human?"
"Do not speak nonsense." Elder Lorenzo reprimanded sharply.
Xavier was a powerful demon, being mated to a human was completely insensible. It couldn't be. He could only be mated to a very powerful female of high ranking species, demons more precisely. A human-demon bond couldn't work. But then again, what if?
Besides, if any powerful female demon was dead, the news should have spread by now.
"Is the human dead?" Elder Lorenzo asked Ferlin.
"Yes, Sir."
"We should at least check." The Royal Doctor commented.
"Ferlin, bring the human to us." Elder Lorenzo ordered.
...
Arianna was in a weird world. Everything happening around her was both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. Everything was jumbled up. She saw her eight year old self talking with her current self. The conversation was one that she really had but the characters involved were not right.
In this conversation for example, she had really been speaking to her mom about how beautiful the world was.
She was part of the scene and yet not part of the scene.
It suddenly occurred to her that a while ago, she was on the ground with two deep holes in her chest. Had she died?
No. There was no way she could have died. She didn't accept it. She didn't spend 20 hours in the wilderness trying to survive, only to die 16 hours later. She didn't live to die.
She screamed at herself.
"Arianna open your eyes! You are alive! Breathe! I am alive and I will continue to live! I will not stop living until old age! I must see my mother and my father with my eyes before I die. I must live with Logan again before I die."
"I must continue to live!" She yelled and then she felt that world darken immediately.
...
Arianna's body had been washed. Ferlin lay her on another bed right next to Xavier's. The Royal Doctor immediately operated on her.
Three long thin threads like snakes, formed in his palm. The threads slid onto her body and crawled. One slid into her mouth, another in between her legs and the last one slid into an incision in her wrist.
After a while,
"She managed to hold on until now. She is no ordinary human."
"There is only one problem. She needs a blood transfusion. She has lost too much blood and we unfortunately do not have any human blood servants."
Elder Lorenzo looked at the Assistant Royal Doctor. Where would they find blood that would be compatible with that of Arianna? She was a human. They didn't have any human blood servants and the situation was currently urgent.
"Why not donate to her His Majesty's blood. If they are mates, their blood should be compatible." Ferlin who was already leaving, blurted out unconsciously. It was after saying it that he realized that he wasn't supposed to comment as the soldier he was.
"What? Such absurdity! How would we give the precious blood of our King to an ordinary human? We should just look for a random human." A man in the room said. He was the Assistant Royal Doctor.
"She is not an ordinary human. She is his mate and too much time would be wasted on determining compatibility. Her life is already on a thin line." Ferlin defended.
"Yet, we are trying to avoid something here. Why do you think His Majesty went through all that hardship? Was it not to destroy the bond? Doing that will only strengthen the bond." The Assistant Royal Doctor retorted.
"But still, the top priority now is saving her so that we can save His Majesty."
"We should use blood recovery potions on her instead."
"She is a human. She cannot withstand the power of third tier potions!"
For a while, Ferlin and the Assistant Royal Doctor went back and forth. They both in their own ways cared about the well-being of the King.
The Royal Doctor kept quiet and looked at Elder Lorenzo. In the room, he had the final say.
"Both of you, leave." Elder Lorenzo ordered to which they heeded.
"Do as Ferlin says." Elder Lorenzo said to the Royal Doctor after a while and with much thought.
The Royal Doctor immediately made a deep incision on Xavier's hand.