A comrade and a crisis

"Sir, if you wouldn't mind to step out for a while?" Bernard's interruption separated the handshake that sealed Isabella's role as Belleza D Ina's new tutor. Rafael stared at his assistant with a slight frown. Then, he looked at Isabella.

"Please excuse me, Miss Isabella," he said and followed Bernard towards a corner near a big stairway that connected the ground floor to the upper floor of the manor. Isabella sat on the sofa while looking at the men who seemed to engage in a serious conversation. Whatever they were saying, she could tell that it was something about her especially when Bernard would now and then took glances on her.

'Queen,' a small delicate voice rang inside Isabella's consciousness.

'Pickley, you're awake? How are you?' she directed the thought to her consciousness. She noticed that the maid on standby was about to pour her another cup of tea, so she quickly refused. The maid then retreated to a comfortable distance which Isabella found to be a relief.

'I'm at my twenty-percent power now,' Pickley replied. Isabella frowned, 'Why did you wake up? Go back and rest,' she instructed and imagined a gush of wind to push Pickley to the soft bed she had created for her inside her consciousness. Pickley stumbled to the bed, but she refused to remain still as she tried to get off the bed again.

'Pickley!' Isabella was getting angry. To a fairy, twenty-percent recovery wasn't enough to execute even the simplest spell.

Pickley's exhausted eyes bored on her queen as she told her something of paramount importance. 'Queen, I sense the presence of a comrade!' the unexpected announcement brought Isabella up to her feet. She stood up in shock.

"Where is she?" she didn't realize she spoke the words out loud. Rafael and Bernard who just returned from their discussion looked at each other before they focused their eyes on Isabella.

"Where is who?" Rafael asked, taking the seat he sat earlier meanwhile Bernard took the farthest seat. He looked cautiously at Isabella. Just now he had told Rafael the concerns he had about her. Although Rafael didn't say anything regarding the matter, he knew that he had it under wrap for later reference in case Isabella did something unprecedented.

Isabella stared at Rafael with her cold eyes which now had a tinge of urgency. Rafael flinched. For a while, he thought that he was facing an enemy.

"Mr. Rafael, this could be presumptuous to ask but, I request to see your younger sister," she stated, trying to conquer the anxiety which began to stir her mana. Isabella still couldn't control her human body, so small agitation was all it needed to break down.

Rafael was finishing the last drop of his tea when he heard Isabella's request, which to him sounded more like a demand. He scoffed and held his hand up when he noticed the movement on Bernard's side, stopping him from taking any measure.

"Miss Isabella, we haven't officiated our agreement yet. I need you to read the contract before meeting my younger sister," he explained. An explanation that entailed his refusal as well. Although Rafael had developed an infatuation toward Isabella, he was still the calculative man who was feared by almost everyone. He was smart enough not to let her assumed that she had the power over him.

The rebuff made the chill in Isabella's eyes to intense. She closed her eyes and dropped to the sofa.

'Queen, please calm down!' Pickley's panic voice echoed in her consciousness. Damn human! She cursed inside her small fairy head. It had been more than a year and her queen still couldn't find the solution to absorb all her mana to her new body.

'No...the one who should be damned is me!' Pickley thought to herself. She should have thought it over before informing the queen about the existence of another fairy. She understood well the importance of finding fairies to her queen. But, she was also aware that such important news would stir the queen's emotion. And when it was stirred, her mana would get out of control.

'And now I am weak!' Pickley blamed herself. If she was at least at fifty-percent recovery, she would be able to absorb her queen's mana and refined it as her own. That was the most efficient way to help her queen. Another way was to channel the power on a plant, but the process was slow and only a small amount of mana could be funneled at a time.

"Miss Isabella, are you okay?" Rafael inquired as he noticed the unusual expressions on her face. She looked like she would collapse anytime soon, but the chill in her eyes told another story. It made him thought that she was about to go murder someone.

"I'm fine. Can I ask for a wilted plant?"

Huh?

Rafael and Bernard looked at each other in confusion. Wilted plant? What would she do with it? No, that wasn't the question. The right question was: why did she ask for a wilted plant?

"If you can't, please bring me to your sister," she said while clenching the edge of the sofa she sat on. She could feel her body temperature started to increase. If none of her requests were fulfilled anytime soon, a burnt sofa would be a consequence.

"Miss Isabella, who are you? You appeared out of nowhere and now you demand to see the Young Miss? You should know your place!" Bernard was angry. This woman was getting on his nerve with all the nonsense she spouted. However, when he locked eyes with her cold ones, he winced. Something wasn't right, the more he tried to fight back, the more he thought he would lose.

"Bernard, manner!" Rafael instantly reprimanded his assistance. "Go and find some wilted plants in the garden!" he instructed, sending Bernard to bewilderment.

"Sir, no Rafael, did you listen to yourself?" Bernard couldn't believe that Rafael would follow the woman's whim just like that. However, a mere look from him once again let him experience the feeling of losing. He clenched his fists and stormed off the room.

'Pickley, can you see what kind of fairy she is?' Isabella ignored the banters between Rafael and Bernard as she focused her attention on her consciousness. She saw Pickley sat in a corner with her wings covering her entire body. She could hear her blaming herself again and again.

Isabella sighed and imagine herself patting Pickley's head. Pickley's four wings spread open when she felt a touch on her head.

'Queen, you should focus on your body right now! Why are you here?!' Pickley's eyes widened in shock and slowly showed a strong protest to the action of her queen. She pushed the imaginary hand that was still resting on her head. When she saw no reaction from her queen, Pickley began to panic. She focused her entire senses to analyze her queen's current situation and found out that she was in a dire situation.

'Queen, please hang on until the plant arrives ~' Pickley sobbed.

Outside, Rafael saw that Isabella was staring at him. She looked like she couldn't wait for her wilted plant to arrive. He chuckled, "Sorry, but if you really need a plant, you need to wait. The garden is quite far from here," he said. In his hand was a folder. It was the contract he had asked the butler on standby to retrieve in his room.

Isabella didn't bother to respond as she made an effort to look fine. It had been a year in which the time she searched for a solution to the problem she had with her human body, but what she learned instead was the ability to ignore her pain or to look like nothing was happening to her. If there was a scale from one to ten, her score would be eight. Simply because she couldn't keep her pretense more than a day.

"Why is a fairy near someone who suffers Botanophobia?" Isabella mumbled. Her lips twitched when she sensed that her puissance was now attacking the inside of her body, trying to escape. The pain she felt at the moment was unbearable. This was the phase before she collapsed.

Isabella discreetly inhaled and exhaled, a practice to lengthen the phase. She noticed that Rafael was staring intently at her. Then she heard him asked, "Miss Isabella, could you repeat the last word you said just now?"

"Botanophobia," she did as told for there was no used to hide it.

Rafael was taken aback at what he heard. Earlier, he only caught the last word she had said and thought that he misheard. Now that she confirmed his suspicion, he wondered if she really knew how to cure his little sister's illness. Botanophobia; this wasn't really a disease but when it came to Belle, it appeared to be so.

There was silence afterward which soon shattered by the reverberating sound of heels hitting a hard surface followed by a raucous voice calling for Rafael.

"Rafael, quick, Belle is on her episode again!" a woman was seen descending the stairway in a fast manner, skipping the last two steps although she was wearing three-inch heels. She ran towards Rafael and pulled his hand in a panic.