What Blooms At Midnight

Four

By the time I manage to open my eyes again after departing from the stables in Prince Edmund's arms, I find myself sheltered in a bed so impossibly soft, a slightly chilled set of hands tugging the heaviest of burgundy duvets up to my waist before pushing another pillow under my shoulders and smoothing some of my hair away from my face. Prince Edmund is gentle... And so careful as his hand lingers at my cheek for naught but a moment before letting his palm fall away, his hand finding mine to hold. My vision still dances when I keep my eyes open for too long despite my longing to stare back into the kind eyes currently watching me, so I take no hesitation in following the gentle order to, "Go ahead and rest, Jasper. You need it."

I don't think my own parents could be any sweeter than this man is being now... Bringing me into his home and insisting I rest after rescuing me from a disaster of my own making no less. It's what keeps pulling my eyes open again and again as if my mind needs to assure me that this all is actually real and not just a comforting hallucination come to lull me into death as my heart fails. With all my being I hope that it's not just an illusion... I pray that I'm not still trapped on Annabeth's back just losing myself, though the alternative does feel just as equally far fetched.

The bedding is all too soft for me to bear, the mattress made of feathers or down of some sort instead of straw and on an actual frame... A large four-poster completely with a gauzy canopy partially drawn shut to protect whoever is lucky enough to normally rest here.

At my side is Prince Edmund with the calmest of forced smiles on his face... One that is quickly replaced with a look of true relief when another man gives a single knock before pushing his way into the intimate inner chamber the Prince has settled us in to, a sighed, "Alister." Escaping him as his palm finds my cheek to give it a gentle caress.

...
Edmund
...

"Prince Edmund? Are... Are you all alright? The maid told me I needed to rush here - I had to leave Carilynn in tears over not getting to finish her... Well, let's just say not getting to-" my old friend lets his mouth and mind wander as he lets himself into my inner bed-chamber, so confused as to why I would need his assistance in a hurry when I haven't injured myself in any kind of serious manner in nearly a century until he spies my Dearest one now paler than pure cotton, his forehead dampened with cold sweat, a greyish tint replacing the flush that had made his cheeks so lively...his body limper than a drunk but tucked away safely and securely into my bed.

"This is Jasper", I keep my voice low, raising an eyebrow that signals that I expect him to do the same as Jasper struggles to reopen his eyes... He's trying so hard to be present, but at the moment he's beyond weakened and in such great need of care, "He's just suffered from an arrhythmic episode of the heart and I want him examined."

"I... Prince Edmund you know I rarely work with humans-"

"I'm aware, Alister." I am also aware that it's terribly rude of me to insist that he do so now... But, "You're the best, and he needs the best." My voice conveys more emotion than I really ought to let it, but as the sound of Jasper's now much calmer heart still missing a beat every so often fills the silence surrounding us I cannot erase the thunderous pattern that had caused him so much pain... That had forced him into such a vulnerable state barely able to keep his eyes open even in the presence of strangers... I know that I would ask the Doctor a million times over if only to ensure that Jasper will recover himself without issue.

Even if he's human now, he won't be for long, and in order to know the safest course of action in order to achieve my dearest one's turning Alister would eventually need to examine him anyhow.

A slow understanding seems to blossom in the young doctor's eyes as he looks from me to my precious one where he lay tucked so carefully under my sheets and back again, "He needs the best... Because he's... He's..." An eyebrow is raised as the heavy insinuation is made, surprise blooming in Alister's eyes followed quickly by the never-ending curiosity that the man has over everything.

A sharp nod answers his unspoken question, a gentle smile spreading on his face in place of a verbal congratulations over the finding of my other half, unhealthy as he may be, my hesitancy understood. With Alister, I would expect nothing less, his courtship of my youngest sister Carilynn hidden for nearly half a century before they thought to share it with the rest of the family.

I cannot bear to bring myself to say it just yet... To announce that the tiny mortal so exhausted currently nestled in my sheets has a claim laid on my soul that he isn't even aware of...

...
Jasper
...

It had been so easy to let myself slip into peaceful numbness, the smell clinging to the softest bedding I've ever been blessed with getting to lay on giving me the same calm as when I had been nestled against the Prince's chest in what I think may have been the Royal Orchard, the only alternative is to focus on the ache still plaguing my chest and the unfamiliar sets of eyes staring me down, both of them giving me chills for very different reasons.

The hushed voices fill the heavy silence that had blanketed the room, the Prince most likely unsure of what to say to the commoner that had trampled into his peaceful afternoon and then collapsed.

"Jasper?" The saying of my name startles me just enough to draw my eyes sluggishly open, the voice coming from the newcomer, the hand holding mine giving me a squeeze when I tense.

I can't seem to quite manage a real answer, the soreness in my chest at the moment too uncomfortable to make talking a pleasant activity just yet, a grunt leaving the back of my throat as my gaze meets with a set of inquisitive hazel eyes, the man who had joined us lowering himself carefully to perch on the edge of the bed, his hands in his lap,  "My name is Alister, and I serve as one of the Doctors here in the palace...The Prince wishes me to examine you, with your permission of course. Do you understand?"

Alister keeps his voice low and even as he addresses me, and the sincere concern that radiates from his eyes as he waits for my response is overwhelming, my hand squeezing Prince Edmund's as a reaction to the sudden attention. I should be jumping at the chance to have this once over, the doctors that live here the entire reason my family uprooted themselves.

The little coastal town on the border of the kingdom where we had moved from unable to cope with trying to find a solution to my heart's mistimed beating whenever stress overtakes me. The Doctor there had been a nice man, but one that had told my family and I that when my time comes it would be early and sudden, and most likely due to the arrhythmia that plagues me...

Whereas here, the Palace Doctors are just as old as the vampires who rule us, their knowledge of bodies both human and otherwise far greater than anything I could hope for elsewhere, and they all take turns to volunteer at the clinic in the village surrounding the castle as a display of goodwill towards the humans that occupy it.

Despite having been here for months my Mama and Papa had yet been able to secure me an appointment at the clinic, my heart left unchecked all throughout our journey until now... I should be jumping at this chance indeed... And yet all I find myself able to do is swallow thickly and stare back into the hypnotic eyes trained on me as the bashfulness that always ensnares me when I feel as weak as I do at the moment overtakes me.

His gaze leaves me, darting to His Highness and then back again, "Do you know if he can talk? Did he hit his head?"

"Yes, he can talk,  and no, I didn't let him injure his head. I think he's just too exhausted at the moment to truly muster much conversation." The tension that had crept into my shoulders from becoming Alister's target melts away... His presence alone much too comforting for someone I've only just met, "Is that right, Jasper? Or am I mistaken?"