My Dear Savior

Episode 16

I shrugged nonchalantly. “There is just my mom and I since we don’t live in the palace. My father sends gifts sometimes, but since I am a girl, he doesn’t visit.”

“That sounds lonely. Among my people, all the children are raised together regardless of parentage. We even sleep in the same beds until we are teenagers. There is hardly a moment when you are truly alone there.” He trailed off as if he said too much. “Where is your mother now?”

“It’s not lonely- my half-brother Dae visits often, especially when Mom is helping out at a battle like she is now.”

He instantly looked more alert. “Do you think he’ll visit anytime soon?” He looked to the door as if he suddenly expected Dae to barge in wielding a sword.

I laughed lightly. “No, Dae hates the snow as much as I do, so he will wait until it clears before he ventures this far from the palace.”

His shoulders relaxed again, and he resumed eating.

“I love my brother dearly, though I hate his mother for sending us away. I know now that I look too much like my mother for my own good, so she would have been reminded of my mother every time she saw me with her son. My fair hair is a dead giveaway because not many of our people are this light-colored.”

“It suits you.” I almost missed his comment then he cleared his throat and continued. “I thought I was truly dead yesterday when I saw you. You looked like a hauntingly beautiful ghost come to lead me away to the next life.”

I blushed again and abruptly switched the line of the conversation awkwardly. “My mother is a great healer. Do you want to see some of her work?”

He nodded so I led him over to her workstation in a small study area off the main room. I lit a few candles around the perimeter so we would be able to see. I always loved coming into this room and heavily associated it with my mother. It even smelled like her, and I realized just how much I had missed her presence the past few days. The two tables were covered in various herbs and pages of notes. A few large texts were propped up on one of the tables, and I recognized that these were from the palace because of their ornate bindings.

“Wow, what is all this?” He asked in awe as he ducked under some drying herbs hanging from the ceiling.

I motioned to a few small vials of medicine. “Most of these are medicines she has been perfecting over the years for various ailments.”

“I’ve not seen anything like this in my kingdom.”

He picked up a few and either examined their contents through the glass or uncorked and sniffed them. He rifled through a few of her pages, but I figured he wouldn’t be able to make out much of what they said so that was okay for him to do. I let him wander around the little room and looked over some of my mother’s notes so as not to stare at him.

I hadn’t realized where he was going until he got to the back of the room to a few of the shelves where she stored her poisons. As he unstopped a small, metal vial, I called out, “Wait!” I ran over to him and gripped his hand before he lifted the vial to his face.

I motioned to the vial and the notes stacked beside its place on the shelf. “That’s poison, Zane! Don’t touch it or even smell it!”

He carefully corked it again and set it down. He turned to me suspiciously. “Why is she making poisons? I thought she was a healer.”