Katarina's POV
"Look, prince, I'm trying my best. It's not looking up because there is nothing I can do as a blind woman. I am limited."
I paced around the room, confused on what to do and angry.
"I just want you to heal as much as you want too but I can't do anything. I am trying as much as you are but guess what? It's not easy going around as a blind woman trying to read and in a world where there are seriously no books blind people can use to read with."
"Blind people can't read," he sighed.
"You should really try looking into the future," I muttered. "Listen, I'll get you the cure. Just let me have a few days and I'll bring up something. I'm still working on it."
"Hurry up. The pain is beginning to get worse and it's hurting more than it usually does."
I thought deeply about it before pointing to his chest.
"How often do you practice?"
"What do you mean?"
"How often do you practice?"
"I haven't practiced since we returned. It hurts too much to do so."
I found a loophole to this. Maybe if I gave him more hope and brought up a fake assessment, it would temporarily protect me.
"How about if you practice more? You know… brave through the pain and that stuff."
"It hurts."
"I know, I know. But you're a prince right? A warrior. If you braved through the pain and tried to fight while also maintaining the strength and skills to keep fighting even when it's starting to hurt, I think you'll be fine in the end."
He raised his brows like I was the crazy one.
A knock on my door had me picking up my staff as the prince opened the door to see Gregory.
He entered the room, closing the door behind him.
"Hello," the man said to me with a little bow as he looked back at his prince.
"What do you want?" The prince asked.
"The elders want to talk to you."
This had the prince scoffing.
"Tell them they can jump into an ocean full of dead deer. I'm not showing up to their stupid meeting."
"But Prince Kirigan. You not showing up is against any rule. You have to show up or you have chosen war over the elders."
"The same way they chose war over me by actually telling a blind girl to drink poison? They poisoned every drink on the table save for one. Why did they not believe she was blind and let it be?"
"They were testing her."
"And that almost got her killed. What if she had died?"
The general looked at me with narrowed eyes. "Why did you do it?"
"Do what?"
"Don't play with me, miss," he sighed. "Why did you drink it? You could clearly see the one to drink but you chose to instead make yourself go through that torture by drinking the poison. That could have killed you and all for what?"
"To protect the prince," I sighed. "If they had found out about me it would have put the prince in a very tight spot and trust me, it isn't a good thing to be in. Besides, the prince has protected me multiple times so there was no need to hold back on returning the favor. He needed to be protected too and I was in a position to do it. Why hold back?"
"It almost came at the cost of your life."
"It was either that and he would be safe or I would save my life and he would lose his position as the prince or maybe he would not lose his position but he would be punished for lying to the entire palace and the elders. I can't imagine what they would do to him."
The men looked at each other and nodded.
"I'm grateful for what you did," said the general. "If not for you, the prince would have been punished for lying and it would clearly not be a good look on him. So thank you for everything you've done. I won't forget it."
I nodded, but as he was about to go, I knew that he was going to be the one to buy me time while I looked for a solution to our problems.
"General," I called as the man looked back at me. "I do have a request to make of you."
"What is it?"
"The prince," I sighed. "His fighting skills are great but they need more work and he needs to learn how to control his movement so he won't get hurt even more."
He looked at the prince. "You told her about your illness?"
"It's not like the three of us here have much secrets since we're all in this together. She's going to stay here and help me heal but she also isn't helping very much."
"Prince Kirigan," I sighed. "I am helping in the best way I can. I already told you that I used to be blind and during that time my father taught me all there was to know about the healing paths. Now that I can see it's different.
"I can't magically know how to cure you since I haven't seen the healing process being done. I've only heard of it.
"The herbs he used, only my senses could tell and he didn't tell me where to get them as that was impossible at the time seeing as I was blind and he didn't know he would die.
"So please, bear with me for not knowing how to cure you, but for now, if you could just try to control how the illness spreads by getting stronger and training like you're going to fight giants or gods, then that would be amazing."
The two men looked at me like I had said a speech with the general clapping which had me smiling.
"I'll get right on training the prince like never before."