The doctor stayed silent for a moment before opening his eyes. He twisted his body, locking gazes with Alea. The sudden eye contact surprised Alea slightly. But she quickly calmed down. A learned man won't do such an insulting action toward a royal without reason.
'Yeah. That's right. He is checking on my conditions. Like any good doctor would do.'
But the doctor didn't give her a synopsis of her physical condition. Instead, he spoke about something else entirely. "Have you ever heard of Mermaid's Blood, Princess Alea?"
Alea looked up and to the left, trying to remember if she had ever heard of such a thing. But eventually she gave up and asked. "I don't think I have. What's that?"
The doctor looked away. "It's a panacea, able to cure all diseases, mend any injuries, small or big, as long as the receiver is still alive, no wound is too big, no sickness is fatal."
"But alas, nothing in this world is without a price."
Alea furrowed her brows. "And what exactly is the price, doctor?"
"Mermaid's Blood will heal the body by rejuvenation--Unmaking all the pain and fatigue, and squeezing out all the quiet decay tucked beneath one's skin. All the junk one's body builds up as it goes about its daily life will lead out of their pores without a sound." The doctor explained, his voice calm and steady. "Well, that sounds great and all, but the thing is... Mermaid's Blood also considered sperms and eggs to be deformed cells, and a fetus to be a parasite."
The news struck her hard. Sweat beaded on her forehead, trailing down in slow lines. She was so stunned she didn't even feel it—not until the salty tang reached her lips, and she realized her own body had been trembling. "What do you mean, doctor?" She asked, her voice trembling. Alea had already known what it meant, but she just couldn't accept the truth. Her head lowered.
"You are fruitless, Princess Alea." The doctor answered. His withered hand held onto hers, gripping the shaking hands tight yet gently, anchoring them to the hard truth but not too much. "I'm sorry. But you can't have children. And I'm even more sorry about your unborn child."
"You knew!?" Alea looked up, her watery eyes quivered, catching the glint of emerald in their depths, like morning dew on leaves catching the first light after the fog lifts.
"I'm a doctor, Princess. You are smart. Especially for someone your age. But there are still people smarter than you." The doctor patted her shoulder. At that moment, the barrier between classes had been lifted, replaced by a common understanding and mutual grief for a life that was lost. "You want to prolong the trip to the Moldrivore Academy as long as possible so that you can give birth before enrollment, acting like a spoiled brat who does as she pleases the moment she has an ounce of freedom and breaking the planned journey."
***
Ellie couldn't help but let out her voice, raised high. "What?" Her mother's miscarriage was something she didn't expect to hear.
Alea shushed her daughter. "Why did you scream so loudly? Now Periola is going to check on us. How am I supposed to continue with my story?"
"Well, how am I supposed to be calm after hearing that? You came to a place where there was a rumor of a lurking danger, going into a battle knowingly that it would be dangerous to your pregnancy?" Ellie yelled.
But then, she froze, remembering that she wasn't the one to talk.
Then, a thought crossed her mind.
"Wait a minute. If you can't have children anymore, then how was I born?" Ellie felt her head hurting just trying to come up with an explanation.
"Remember the thing that was inside the bed with me once I woke up?" Alea said.
"What about it?"
"Well, Mermaid's Blood healed my body and made it to excrete out everything it considered waste."
"Yeah, you have made it very clear by now, Mom."
"Yeah, remember when the obsidian spear stabbed into my body? Well, one of the guards, my lover, had come to the rescue in time. He cut it off and chased it away. But a piece was left stuck inside. And once Mermaid's Blood took effect, the embryo and the burning blood that the crazed worshiped combined together with all the other waste before exiting my body."
"Don't tell me…"
"Yeah, it was you."
Ellie's head became light; she swore she almost fainted.
'What's the hell am I?' She gripped her hair, holding a handful of hair, pulling it. Her teeth bit down hard; she wanted to seek the divine blood, wishing it would comfort her, but it was nowhere to be found.
Without the divine blood, Ellie had to confront all these emotions herself. The thought distracted her mind from the shock briefly. 'I had become reliant on the blood, hadn't I? My body acts out of habit even now when I don't have it anymore. What did I do before when I'm like this? Oh, right, eating. Yeah, I loved eating. But I couldn't even enjoy doing it anymore.'
'What am I supposed to do now?' Ellie yelled inside of her head, hands yanking out of patches of hair. 'I'm an abomination. Born out of shit and sweat, a bane on existence itself. I was supposed to be dead, yet somehow I defined it and became one with a fragment of 'Thief of the Divine Light', becoming a failed clone of it.'
'Wait. If that was the case, why don't I have any divinity in my blood?' Ellie thought. There was still more to the story. There was still a chance she was normal. She convinced herself so. She took in deep breaths, finally coming to terms with such heart-wrenching information.
But once she calmed down, she found herself dangling in the air, four chitin arms lifting her up, two slithered through her underarms and behind her neck, their hands intertwined, locking her arms and neck from making any movement. Meanwhile, the other two arms, their hands gripped into the side of her back, giving her tremendous pain.
'When did she come in?' There was no sound of footsteps when Periola rushed for the tent, no sound of her opening the tent. Yes, Ellie was having a mental breakdown, and her guard was down, but for someone to possess such a great ability to conceal themselves was abnormal. 'She's an assassin.' Ellie was under the assumption that everyone in the group of Dwarphs was a warrior since the Thunderspine Clan was known for producing strong warriors.
"Put my daughter down, Periola" Alea tried prying the arms trapping her daughter free, but her modest strength didn't even bulge the chitin frame.
She, too, was caught off guard by Clan Thunderspine's hidden claws. It was all a blur in Alea's mind, so caught up by the elegant movements, the dim light reflected on Periola's exoskeleton, blinding her with a beautiful combination of colors, like sunset at the beach.
"What are you doing?" Ellie yelled. She flexed her muscles, trying to break free.
"Have you calmed down yet?" Periola asked, her voice was indifferent.
"I am calm. Let go of me." Ellie tried kicking Periola. However, the angle betrayed her. Her legs had no room to gather strength, leaving only flimsy, flailing motions, barely worth the effort.
Eventually, she gave up. "Please," she said, lowering her voice.
Periola released her hold on Ellie's neck slightly. Then, using one of her hands, she lifted Ellie's head up. "I'm going to release you now." Her four eyes stared deeply into Ellie's as she said. "However, you must give your word that you won't act out wildly."
"I will not act out wildly." Once Ellie gave Periola her reassurance one more time, the latter slowly lowered her down to the ground, and she found the pain binding her gone as soon as her feet touched the tent's floor.
Periola turned Ellie around. She bent down, lowering her head to Ellie's level. "I'm starting to worry about your mental health, Princess Zelris. Was Velkan's death that devastating to you? Or have you always been this much of an impulsive person?"
Ellie couldn't answer. She had finally understood what was happening to her. She was experiencing withdrawal. With the loss of 'Thief of the Divine Light', it had left behind a hole in her ability to properly process negative emotions, leaving her unable to sift through the darker emotions without losing her grip.
'It's worse than I thought.'
"If you don't straighten up and continue to prove to be unstable, then my leader, as benevolent as they are, will not spare a second thought giving you back to House Gennan to face justice. Then, your life--your mother's life will be hanging by a thread."
"Do you understand your situation, Princess Ellie? Without my Clan's protection and our involvement, using Velkan's death as a way to put the fault in House Gennan's hands, they would have rushed for the capital to ask the ruling House for assistance in capturing you. If my leader deems you aren't worth the risks of angering a potential ruling House, then we will drop our blame on them for Velkan's death, and House Gennan would be free to continue their pursuit." Periola said, raising her voice.
"It's okay, Periola. She's still young. Children are prone to having trouble dealing with their emotions." Doread stepped in; his voice came from outside the tent's entrance.
"Well, it's high time she started learning how to." Periola turned toward the entrance. "Out of my way." She yelled at Doread, pushing him out of her way as she exited the tent.
"I'm sorry for the intrusion, Princess Zelris, and Alea. Periola just wanted to stop Princess Zelris from hurting herself and potentially her mother." Doread apologized to the pair of mother and daughter. "It's strange, though. It's such a rare sight to see her getting so worked up about something." He added as his footsteps announced his departure.
Ellie rubbed the back of her neck, her fingers trailed along the markings left behind by Periola's. 'She could have gripped off my head with ease. And she was the thinnest out of the three of them.'
'And why does that woman care so much? It's not in her interest whether mom and I live or die after she had delivered us to the leader of Clan Thunderspine.' Pain coursed through the back of her neck, traveling back to her head, turning her thoughts hateful. 'How dare she act like that toward me? Looking down on me! Holding me in place and making a fool out of me!'
"Are you alright, dear?" Alea spoke, her voice full of concern. She had already stood behind Ellie. "Let me apply medicine for you."
Ellie took her hands off the wound, and soon after, a cool sensation lay over the pain, numbing it.
"Tell me if it hurts." Alea said as she continued applying the paste over the red marks.
"Mom."
"Yes, Dear?"
"What am I?"
Alea paused her ministration for a moment, thinking about what to answer next.
"Am I an elf? Am I a human? Am I a failed clone of 'Thief of the Divine Light'? I am not an abomination, am I?" Ellie's body started to shake, her hands were making their way toward her mouth when Alea hugged her.
"You are my daughter. Though there were complications with your birth, you are still my daughter. And that's it all that matters."
Then Alea spoke in the human tongue. "I should have told you sooner, but back then, I couldn't handle seeing my child being a blob of blood and flesh. So I joined the 'Heaven Seeker' cult to find a way to turn you back to normal."