The Pharmacist and The Prince

The Summons

summon/sʌmən/ : to call or notify to appear at a specified place.

Reuentahl von Seelsorger swung his leg up and off his horse, ignoring the outstretched hand of his steward as he came down from the mighty stallion. With long strides, he quickly arrived at the unconscious, young woman tied up on the floor. He bent and began to observe her intently.

The first thing that caught his attention were the exposed areas of her skin. This woman was a member of the dark-skinned race.

He had heard of such people and had even seen one in his father’s court as a young boy. But this was the first time he had seen a female. Intrigued, he leaned further to examine the woman. This action, of course, made his attendants very antsy.

“Your High… Your Majesty, please step back. We do not know what this person is.”

“Who this person is,” Reuentahl corrected, annoyed. Turning his attention back to the woman, he roved his eyes all over her. The second thing that stood out to him were the strange clothes she wore.

“What manner of dressing is this?” Reuentahl muttered to himself. He had never seen such a style of clothing in all his life. The articles of clothing stuck to the woman’s body, outlining its shape. The bottom half was especially bad. It seemed like the trousers commonly worn by men but it was thin and wispy and looked like it could tear at any time.

Who would wear such indecent clothing in this kingdom? And so close to the castle, too? And why would this woman be around the castle at this time? He had given a strict directive that all sort of non-essential travel and visitations be halted.

Travel to and fro the castle was especially strict. She would have been accosted at several checkpoints before she could get to this place. So how was she here? That was the third issue.

As the royal pondered the questions, he stared at the insentient face of the young woman and was struck by how beautiful she was. He had seen a lot of beautiful women. And as the Prince of the kingdom, he had courted several, although unwillingly.

This, however, was the first time he was seeing a beautiful woman of swarthy complexion.

What was such an unusual woman doing here?

His steward interrupted his silent deliberation with a polite cough.

“Your Majesty. You’ll do well to remember your prior appointment with the Bookkeeper. He stated that he had an urgent matter to discuss with you.”

“Ahhh.” The Prince exclaimed and straightened himself. He had gotten lost in thought and almost forgot the important appointment. The mystery woman could wait. Saving his kingdom was of the highest priority. And to do that, he had to visit the Bookkeeper.

“Thank you for the reminder. Let us head to the castle.”

The attendants immediately responded to the command and began to lift the bound woman unto one of the horses present. Not without fear, however. Unlike the Prince, the attendants had never seen someone with a different complexion from theirs. And this was a woman. They had to be careful where and how they placed their hands.

Her tight fitting clothes did nothing to ease the situation.

The Prince watched as the lady was lifted up to a horse and felt the urge to order her untying, but decided against it. Despite how harmless she looked, the stranger could be a threat to his kingdom and he would treat her as such until he could ascertain otherwise.

Mounting his horse, he turned towards the castle and urged the beast into a gallop. Within a few minutes, he and his entourage arrived at the draw gate of the castle. Entering into the paved courtyard of the grand castle, the Prince gave orders to his helpers to place the woman in a room and guard her until he was ready to question her.

“Follow me," he said to his steward while dismounting. “We are heading to see the Bookkeeper.” As they climbed the grand stairs into the massive stone structure, it dawned on Reuentahl how far the great Seelsorger kingdom had fallen.

Three months ago, the courtyard and the stairs would be full of subjects, heading in and out of the castle for different purposes. Some to work, some to sell, some to seek an audience with the king. They held feasts, ate and drank merrily, laughed and sang loudly. The kingdom was prosperous and its subjects happy.

One fateful day, everything came crashing down. One man died in one end of the kingdom. The report said he was coughing blood and every effort made by the healers to save him proved unsuccessful. It was a puzzling case but it was just one man. Mayhap his time had come. Life was often fickle in that manner.

Soon after that, people started coming down with similar illnesses all over the kingdom. Illnesses the healers could not treat. Simple and complex magic remedies did nothing alike. Then the healers fell sick. And the death count increased in droves.

The kingdom began its journey toward decline. Their finances dipped. Their agricultural production dwindled. Their army, once full of young, vibrant men was a shadow of itself.

That was three months ago. There had been hope that the situation will reverse itself and things would return to normal. Even the Prince held such beliefs.

But now, the report he set off to receive this morning told him that one-third of his people were dead and another third sick. Even his father, the King, had succumbed to the illness and was now laying in his chambers, awaiting death.

As the Prince or now, King Regent, it was his duty to save the kingdom. And he had no idea how to. He became increasingly desperate and after several meetings with his ruling council, a decision was made. The Bookkeeper was summoned.

For most people in the meeting chamber, that was their first time seeing the Bookkeeper in person. It was definitely Reuentahl’s first time. He was often a subject of fables and myths. Some did not even believe he existed. Some said he was immortal. Others deemed him omniscient.

His father had told him that the Bookkeeper was aware of all the stories told about him but never made any attempt to correct them. That it was not his responsibility. His responsibility was to keep a book off all the tales. All the accounts and the stories that had occurred, were occurring and would occur.

Before the word went out to summon him, the Bookkeeper knew he would be summoned and was waiting patiently at the doors of the chamber. When the messenger the council sent returned a few seconds later, they began to understand that the fables may not all be fabrications.

As Reuentahl stood before the Bookkeeper for the second time in his life, his mind flashed back to that first meeting in the meeting chamber and what the Bookkeeper had said then.

“Iron sharpens iron and iron tempers iron. Iron can be destroyed by naught but its own rust.”

The entire chamber was silent as the Bookkeeper spoke. He paused and smoothed his long, brown robes before continuing. “The tales of the future have spoken of a Great Plague that will devastate and desolate the entire Seelsorger Kingdom. This plague will ravage the kingdom until it is no more.”

The council could not remain silent after the pronouncement. “Are you saying there is no hope?”

“The kingdom will be destroyed?”

The murmuring continued until the King Regent raised his hand to signal silence.

“Please, Bookkeeper, tell us. Is there truly no hope for the kingdom?”

The Bookkeeper dropped into a bow. “There is always hope, Your Majesty.” It made Reuentahl nervous to be deferred to by this fabled man. Therefore, he urged him to speak.

“What hope is there?”

“The hope of a saviour. The Plague is not of our doing and consequently, cannot be resolved by us. We have to summon the one of whose world the Plague belongs and task that one to save us. An ancient magic exists that links all the worlds together by the word of the book. If we invoke this great magic, we have the hope of rewriting the future of our kingdom.”

“And how do we invoke this magic, Bookkeeper?” The King Regent asked. The answer he received was simple. A magical ceremony would be held and the contract of summoning would be written with the blood of the reigning king.

Reuentahl did not mind. His people were suffering and dying daily. If a little of his blood would be part of the solution, he would give willingly. That day, he had followed the Bookkeeper to his Scribing Chambers and given the blood.

“I shall inform you when the summoning is complete, my king.” With another deep bow, the King was dismissed.

That had been over a week ago. Now, he was being asked to visit the Scribing Chambers once again. He could only hope the summoning was done.

He arrived at the door of the chambers and knocked on its red grain. The moment of truth was here. The door swung open and the Bookkeeper stood at the entrance, looking pensive.

“Your Majesty, the summoning is complete.”