The Book of Dreams: Curious Things

All she felt was pain, bone-crushing pain, and suffocating air. She shuddered with the effort to remain on this plane of existence. This world wasn't right. She was still lost in the darkness of her subconscious but she felt like wherever she was wasn't where she was supposed to be. Like this place was trying to snuff her out. Her bleary unfocused bark brown eyes cracked open to the sight of what could be stone slabs, she wasn't sure at the moment. Struggling to figure out where she is she breathed a calming breath. Incense filled her nose immediately, almost demanding her to sneeze, she didn't. She needed to figure out what was happening, where she was, and more importantly who she was. She wracked her brain to try and understand, to try and figure out, to just know something further than she's looking at the floor and she's not supposed to be here. That effort was as fruitless as her attempts to keep the other people she felt in the room with her ignorant to her consciousness were. She was soon surrounded and hounded by questions she couldn't understand nor fully discern in the cacophony that erupted. "Step back, now! Take 3 paces back and give the woman some air!" A booming voice sounded around the room like thunder. It didn't take long for the people that had her surrounded to listen or for the feet of the owner of the voice to come into her line of sight. The person, probably a man given the shoes but who's to say, knelt to talk more quietly to her and help try and ground her since from what they could probably see she looked like the universe would eat her whole. "My dear, there was a mistake in our ritual. We were trying to summon the blessings of our gods for our esteemed emperor, but we summoned you instead. Can you answer some of our questions?" The person said, their voice was deep and grumbly like an old bear's. "I can try." Her voice was raspy and unsteady. "First of all, do you know where you are from? So we can send you back." Their voice remained the same calming timbre that they were using before. "No." She said keeping her answers short so that she didn't wreck her throat even more. "Are you from this world?" She felt a gentle hand rest on her head, which was well, it was the only place that wasn't throbbing. "I don't think... I belong to this world." She began coughing the irritation on her throat being too much. "Get the Healers and the Archmagus council. We need to get her stable before we question her further!" The gentle voice from before kept its calm tone as she blacked out once more. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She opened her eyes to see that she was on her back and the ceiling was a fair distance away. Her eyes drifted around the room as much as they could without her moving. She wasn't throbbing but she was sore. She huffed a sigh before begrudgingly sitting up, much to the dismay of two very tired people. "My lady you must rest!" One said. "Ona, we don't even know if she's human, I mean look at her eyes. Only demons have that eye color!" The other looked really distressed with her blank stare resting on them. "Seb, we've gone over this, the Archmagus council has verified that she is indeed human. Even if her hair is the color of the gods, she's-" "Where am I?" Her question cut the pair's bickering off. "Who're you?" "You are in the Healer's Quarters of His Imperial Majesty Rivaln, Emperor of the Thirty Principalities of Weirsen. We are the imperial healers, Ona and Sebrin." The one who she gathered was Ona answered the two questions gently before pressing on her shoulders. "You must rest some more, our usual methods of healing weren't exactly usable on you so you need to rest and let your own body heal itself, okay ma'am?"  "I'm rested enough, thank you." She gently swatted the healer's hands away. "I'm just sore."  "The demon feels pain." Sebrin, the one that's been keeping his distance, scoffed. "Sebrin." Ona had a warning tone to their voice. "This may sound insensitive but are either of you-" "Women? No, Sebrin and I are both men. We had a few of his majesty's maids help take care of you if that's what you're worried about milady," Ona hummed at her with a smile. That moment the doors swung open to have someone walk in with a flourish. Causing the two healers to snap to attention and bow to the person. "Your Grace, what brings you here today?" Ona was the one to ask still with his head bowed. "I came to check on his majesty's guest." The regal man sounded both curious and annoyed. "She indeed has the hair of the gods, it's a shame about her eyes though." "It's a shame about your prejudices, sir." She narrowed her eyes at him. "Well-founded prejudices mind you, wench." He said with a scowl on his face. "Not a good look for you sir, perhaps a smile would suit you?" She hummed with a smirk playing on her lips. "Gervan, she has a point. You do look better with a smile." A red-haired man stood in the doorway leaning against the frame. "Your Highness, I was merely-" The man now known as Gervan swung around to face the man in the doorway. "Save it Gervan. You may explain yourself to me in my office, now I'd like a moment with my father's guest." At that Gervan excused himself, and walked quickly out of the room. The man watched the other leave before turning his attention to her. "Please forgive him, Marquess Gervan lost his family in a demon attack hence his hesitance to show you politeness. I am the crown prince Dernik, son of Rivaln, heir to everything around you, and admirer of such things of the curious sort such as yourself ma'am." "I wish I could introduce myself, Highness, unfortunately, I haven't a name to me."  "My uncle, the priest that spoke to you before you woke up here, told me as such. You've become quite the rumor about the castle you see, the staff has taken to calling you Lady Bes." Dernik said mirthfully. "That name. Why?" Her head tilted slightly letting her catch sight of her own hair for the first time, it looked very similar in color to the Prince's, how peculiar. "You don't know about our gods, of course, you wouldn't know that story either." He grinned softly at the blank-faced woman. "Bes is the name used to refer to the unnamable god, there's no meaning behind it and the god was said to have been a curious sort much like you. It seems rather fitting, my lady." "Then since others are already using that name to refer to me, it would make sense to just let them continue to do so." She sighed. "Then I'll see to it that the appropriate documents make it to my father, my lady." He turned to leave with a jovial smile. "What documents?" "The documents to officially add you to the imperial family through adoption. We can't be having an enemy of the empire try to use you to slander this most blessed of houses can we?" His tone lost the mirth it once held as he turned to look at the woman in the bed almost daring her to say otherwise. "Of course not, shall gouging out my eyes make the likelihood of slander diminish as well, Highness?" She narrowed her eyes at him. "Since they are distasteful to the subjects of the empire." This made the man roar in laughter despite the healers in the room wondering if their examinations about the Lady's possible mental stability were as wrong as their estimation of when she'd wake up.  "Father's going to love you, Lady Bes." Dernik's smile felt more genuine this time as he left with a nod to the healers. Sebrin grabbed her shoulders and began shaking her to get some sense to fall into her head. "He could've killed you, you i***t! All our hard work would have been for nothing! Hells they could decide at any moment to just kill you!" Sebrin was fuming. "Seb, please calm down!" Ona tried to pull him off concern lacing his voice. "A wise ruler wouldn't waste resources like that, if he wanted me dead my head would already be on a pike." She said as she gripped Sebrin's wrists and removed his hands herself while keeping her eyes locked with his. "I'm not a child's toy, please don't shake me like one." ~~~ Down the hall from the Healer's Quarters Marquess Gervan bit his lip, he'd overheard everything after he left as per the previous instructions of Prince Dernik. He didn't know what to think or what the purpose of this was, the unease about the situation didn't help matters as it settled in the pit of his stomach like a boulder dropped into a lake. "Lady Bes is quite the charge, isn't she?" Dernik smirked at his friend motioning him to walk with him. "Does His Imperial Majesty truly intend to adopt her?" Gervan's eyebrows furrowed in worry. "As far as uncle and father have told me, yes. If not, then she'll fall under my uncle's care as his ward since she's only here because of his mistake." Dernik sighed. "What was the ritual for anyway?" Gervan hummed in mischievous curiosity. "To give my father the wisdom to select me a bride." Dernik wilted. "It's like neither of them trusts my judgment on that matter." "Your Highness certainly lacks luck there. The maids call you the scariest man alive." Gervan said with a smirk. "It's not my fault the scariest god is my patron!" Dernik whined. "You were a terror as a kid." Gervan teased the red-haired man. "What of Lady Bes, what god could be her patron for her hair to be that shade?" The prince sighed.  "Why don't you ask your patron, he should know." The marquess shrugged. "We don't talk when we meet, we sort of just fighting the whole time." Dernik heaved a bigger sigh. "Besides, she'd probably remind him of his wife and dog me to pursue her. Like the last time I asked him for advice." That made Gervan chuckle at the thought. "Patron god of conquerors urging you to conquer her? Oh, that's a thought." "Need I remind you, you're the one who has to spend your days watching over her. Being stared at by those eyes of hers." The prince's tone dipped dangerously. "It's strange how she didn't flinch when you challenged her like that. She even offered to remove her own eyes." Gervan grimaced. "Precisely why I want my patron nowhere near her." Dernik wrapped his arm around Gervan's shoulder and began dragging him along. "We must go prepare the documents, dear Duke!" "I hope you're not trying to make me do your work for you again." Gervan sighed in defeat. With the Prince's laughter filling the hall, the pair walked the last stretch to the Prince's office talking about far more amicable things than the woman or imperial duties.