Mylidred

15

It was not a good day. Not at all. Remember how I said it was going to be a good day? Well I guess I jinxed it by thinking so.

Everyone was tired other than me. Every maid, soldier, counsellor. Basically everyone that lived within the castle. They were tired. I thought it was just fatigue but it made no sense. I had just given them leave to rest yesterday and some days prior due to... Well... You know... Kerran and I. The strangest part was I got the least rest out if everyone and yet I wasn't tired.

It seemed planned. It wasn't normal. I sent for the doctor and physician. He was a tall man, just a head or a head and half taller than me, with a bush of a white moustache. He had boring but sharp brown eyes which seemed to be slit like. His nose was very straight not big. His lips were thin and pressed in a thin line always.

He told me that there was an epidemic that had been going round for a while and even some of those outside the castle had gotten it. What caused it, he didn't know, but he was working on a cure.

The disease or whatever it was caused immense fatigue. Fatigue that would wear on for a while before seemingly shutting the body down. The victim would be in a comatose state either until they gained their strength back or until they died.

Because of whatever it was, people tended to fall asleep wherever. Like the story of sleeping beauty, without the spell of course.

"Have you shared anything with anyone in the castle. " He asked seemingly curious as to how I didn't have it. I told him no. I hated sharing.

"Have you eaten or drunk anything within the castle lately?" He asked

I thought for a while and realised that I hadn't. I had only eaten Kerran's food. But I didn't reply him.

I narrowed my eyes at him in suspicion.

"Why do you want to know?" I asked.

"After testing the water and other common and uncommon disease carriers. We ran some tests on some of the food substances to see what they made from. We tested the food most people within and outside the castle had eaten. We found something in common. They all had a sort of unidentified spice. Looked like it came from a plant. The plant it came from couldn't be traced." He explained.

"I see. Thank you, doctor."

"I advice you use freshly grown herbs to cook not manufactured." He said.

"Lucky for me, my wife doesn't use manufactured goods. She's a traditional, hands on person." He gave me a small smile.

"I and a few other able chemists are currently looking for a cure. The best we can do now is hope we can find a way to flush the herbs out of everyone's system. If we can, the herbs won't be necessary." He informed me.

I nodded and thanked him for his time, asking him to try his best. We were on the brink of war. We couldn't lose anyone. Not right now.

I had thankfully skipped breakfast and was waiting for Kerran to come.

When he did, I let him take me to his parents' house. I put on a dark cloak to hide my face. He left through the window I guessed and I left the castle normally.

We met up at the house itself. He was draped in a black cloak with a hood as well. It was pulled so low over his face so no one would recognise him. I guessed that was what he normally wore when he came to my room at night. The road sad empty, but it was best to take precautions.

We soon got to the house. I entered about 10 minutes after to make sure no one would put two and two together.

I walked in and took off the cloak, placing it on one of the hooks on the coat rack. I walked into he kitchen to find Kerran already there and leaned against the door frame.

"Have you eaten today?" He asked, looking up from the vegetables he was cutting. I shook my head no.

"Why?" he asked with narrowed eyes. He was probably about to give me a speech on eating properly.

"I prefer the food you make." I told him bluntly. He looked taken aback for two seconds before he shrugged and went back to cooking. I got lost in thought as I remembered what the doctor said.

"Kerran?" I called his attention.

"Hmm?" He replied, not looking up from the vegetables he was cutting. Whatever he was making was using a whole lot of vegetables.

"People are getting sick. Everyone is sick. They are all fatigued. I called a doctor. He said it was from the food they had been eating. That there was some unrecognisable herb that was added in all the foods they tested both within and outside the castle. Did you know this?" I asked him. I was hoping he didn't know cause it wouldn't have been fair for him not to tell me, but I trusted him completely.

He frowned, putting down the knife. "That's weird. No one has those problems in our camp. And we all cook individually if we don't want to eat Cook's food somedays. But no one has had that- Did you say it was caused by an unidentified herb?" He asked abruptly.

"Yes." I nodded slowly.

"Some bags of herbs were delivered a few days ago to us. I didn't see anything wrong with it. I thought cook was out of spices." He confessed, his brows furrowing deeper.

I walked up to the counter and held his face between my palms.

"Hey, you didn't know." I told him gently, mentally urging him not to blame himself. "Besides I'm ok. Even though my people are not. Me being ok means I can do something for them. I can help find a way to cure it. Ok?"

He shook his head. "I should have been able to smell it." He argued.

"What if it had no scent?" I countered.

His brows pulled closer again into a deep set frown. "It doesn't matter Nora, I should still have been able to do something. Your people won't have been this way if it wasn't for me."

I crossed my arms over my chest with a blank face at first.

"Kerran. If you say one more stupid thing. Just one. I swear I'll slap you so hard, your Mylidred would feel it." I told him with a raised brow, daring him to dare me.

He said nothing, just looked away, still troubled. "I should kill her." Was all he said, not even looking at me. "You could have been part of them and she knows. And to think that you were eating food from the palace a few weeks ago." He shouted.

"I want to kill her. She put you at risk." He whispered leaning forward till his forehead touched mine.

"No." I commanded. He raised a brow at me,as though he was asking me, 'And who will stop me, you?'

Knowing he could actually do it, I went round the table and hugged him to my chest, playing with the back of his hair as I did so. He sighed.

Kerran loathed Tania and he would slip if he let her know with the actions that he was attached to me. So I did what I did best, hugged him till I was sure he was ok.