36 The Princess and The Poisoned Apple
When the principal arrived at the healers' chambers, Myra was already busy dealing with the poison. The physician was just standing in front of the room with a rather upset look.
"Principal, good that you are here! This student just threatened me. I just wanted to take a look at the patient. We can't just let a little girl treat the princess with something serious like poison endangering her life."
"Master Niall, I understand that this is quite an unusual situation for you, but if her highness would like to treat her family member by herself, there is nothing I can do about it."
"Her highness? You mean she's …"
"Yes Master Niall, our student here is Princess Myra. If you want my advice I would say don't disturb her anymore. I believe with someone from her family getting poisoned she will likely not be in the best mood."
He didn't know that Lisette was not at all related to Myra, nor did he know that she was more upset about having to spend time dealing with this poison, rather than any worry about the woman who had been poisoned. While Myra was very kind and soft hearted, in the end, this Princess Lisette, was a total stranger to her.
A good hour later, Myra was finally done and she completely removed the poison. She just left the room, walked past the principal and all the people waiting outside and headed for the dorms.
She didn't explain what happened, didn't explain if she was successful in treating the poison, she didn't even say hi. Just when she wanted to step through the door, she could hear the principal coughing slightly.
"Princess Myra, would you mind telling us what happened? How is Princess Lisette doing, could you help her?"
Myra sighed, turned around and then threw a little medallion at the principal, who quickly caught it.
"Princess Lisette is fine, the poison is neutralized and she should wake up after a good nights sleep."
"As for what happened … some assassin group kidnapped her and then threatened me with her life if I didn't meet them. I did indeed meet them this afternoon, then I escaped with Lisette and came back here."
"Oh and this medallion has a tracking spell that I cast on the leader. The group I've seen there had no one stronger than a violet grade magic power user. Just hand it to General Jaros or something. I'm tired and go to bed now, thanks all for your work and good night."
Once more she turned around and then left the building. This time no one stopped her.
"She dealt with the poison? She seems rather skilled."
"Oh and did you hear that none of the assassins is stronger than violet grade? Does that mean she escaped while carrying an incapacitated person from someone who had violet grade power?"
There were many whispers and discussions going on, but without any more detailed information, they could only guess at what really happened today.
"Well, the show is over, I still have to contact the royal family. I am sure they will send someone to deal with this assassins group, but this is no longer our responsibility. I wish you all a good night."
--
In a corner of Silverspire, hidden from the eyes of most people, a dark and creepy temple existed. There were not many people who would come here and even less would know about the dealings of this temple and its inhabitants.
"My Lord, the Darkmoon Assassins failed their task."
"Excellent!" the person on the throne in the middle of the temple was even creepier than the temple itself. He had an aura of death and decay that seemed to follow him like glue, making everyone who stood close by want to get away as quickly as possible.
"But My Lord, they didn't complete their task?!"
"They obviously did not, how could they? Do you think a Hierophant would follow an ordinary girl around just because she is royalty? Obviously they died and could not complete their task."
"My Lord, they did not die. The girl just rescued the princess and then fled."
"Oh? They didn't die? What a pity, she could have saved us some work. Make sure they disappear before they can talk about things that should better remain unspoken."
"As you command."
--
When Princess Lisette woke up the next morning, she was in unfamiliar surroundings. It took a while for her to remember what happened and even the things she did remember were blurry at best. She still remembered being kidnapped, she also vaguely remembered that she was dragged outside of the place where they held her and then someone running away with her.
Then she must have lost consciousness again, because she couldn't remember how she got here, or where this 'here' even was.
The building was solid enough to not just be some hut in some random village, but it wasn't the house of a noble either, because the furniture and decorations were simple and more about efficiency.
"Oh you're awake!" Now this voice sounded familiar to her.
"Aunty Velia what are you doing here?" still clueless about what is going on, she instantly relaxed when she saw her aunt. It would just mean this nightmare has come to an end. "Oh and where are we?"
"I've been worried about you and when I heard that you were rescued by your sister I rushed here immediately. Your father wanted to come here as well, but I convinced him that I go instead and make sure you're alright, he will likely come a little bit later."
Her aunt had a hard time holding her tears back. She must have been really worried. Lady Velia would easily tear up for the simplest things, let alone a kidnapping.
"But where is this place?"
"Oh, right, we are at Silverspire Military Academy."
'Silverspire Military Academy?' Lisette wondered. 'Now where have I heard of this place before?'
"An academy?" Why would someone bring her to an academy?
"Myra is living here, it did make sense as it wasn't too far away and it is one of the most secure places in this area."
They just wanted to continue their discussion, when a young woman entered the room, with a student emblem on her coat.
"Excuse me ladies, but Myra asked me to bring this tonic over. It will help with the aftereffects of the poison."
The girl was polite, but it was also obvious that she was upset about something and even though she tried to hide her anger, it was obvious that it was directed at them.
Before they could even ask her any questions though the girl was already out of them room, leaving the tonic standing at the cupboard.
"Who was this rude girl?"
"I don't know, but I guess it was one of Myra's friends. I heard they are not very happy with us currently." Velia let out a little sigh.
"Why? Did we do something to them? I can't remember that we antagonized anyone around this Myra, did we?"
"No we didn't and it should be fine, but just think about it. A group of assassins used you to lure Myra out on her own to some far off village and tried to capture her as well. I think they are just upset that you indirectly caused her be in danger."
"Will this be a problem in the future? They are just some commoners after all."
"I hope it will not cause any troubles. From what I've seen, those kids will likely become some of the strongest people of our empire. We can only hope that whatever Myra intends to do, that Luminos is on her good side."
--
Breakfast was great, but Myra was not feeling very energetic today. First she had to spend all of her free time the day before running around and rescuing some princess and then she still had to deal with a poison that took hours to get rid of.
Now others would just have left and gotten some sleep, but Myra, kind hearted as she was, even made a tonic to speed up the recovery process significantly, which would have taken weeks otherwise. Weeks of staying in bed while feeling sick did sound rather nasty, in the end, the lack of sleep felt like it was worth it.
"I'm tired" she mumbled in between spoons full of food, doing her best to appear pitiful in front of Alyn to avoid the scolding that she had to deal with since she opened her eyes.
It all started with Myra greeting Alyn, who was unexpectedly coming right to her room early in the morning "Good Morning Alyn." and then all of a sudden Alyn just started madly telling her, what could have happened and how worried she was.
"We can let Nell rescue the next princess that gets in trouble." Myra pointed out after a while. "He still needs a girlfriend anyways, maybe he even becomes a prince or something because of it."
"Oh, but rescuing a princess, doesn't make one a prince." Liam argued and Myra quickly joined the discussion to avoid the topic of her running off into danger all on her own.
"What if he marries the princess?" – "Nope, still wouldn't make him a prince. He might become a princess consort perhaps, he might even become a regent of some sort and inherit the throne, although that's very unlikely."
"Does that mean if Aaron marries me that he won't become a prince?" Now that was a rather interesting question in Myra's opinion.
"Uhh, no he won't." - What if I become queen, will he not be a king?"
"It depends on the kingdom and on the specific situation. The answer is maybe. There's no guarantee though, I would need to know more about the kingdom."
The discussion between Liam and Myra quickly turned more and more outrageous. One was bringing up historical data and explanations, while the other was just throwing out random questions as if she wondered how some heroic novel might translate into a real setting.
"You still owe me a dance." Aaron said, just when their discussion ended and Myra's focus returned to the food.
"Yes I do, I think I have some time tomorrow. I still want to go to the city today."
"Are you visiting the little ones?" now done with her scolding, Alyn was curious what would happen to all of the kids. She was not worried that Myra would abandon them, but she really wanted to know what this crazy girl would teach them.
"Yes, I think Rae liked my bedtime story about a princess who ate a poisoned apple. It was my first time telling a child a story. I made something up on the spot while I was healing that woman I rescued."
"She liked it? What did she like most about it?" Alyn was also interested in this story, but she was no child and asking about the details directly seemed strange.
"I don't know what parts she liked the most, but it must have been really good because she fell asleep right after I started!"
"Oh, I see. I'm sure she loved your voice." Now that she thought about voice, another question came up. "Wait a moment, how did you tell her a bedtime story when you were at the academy?"
"Uhm, I have my ways." Myra answered and tried to change the topic again.
'Was that a guilty look?' Alyn wondered. "Myra, tell me what you did!"
"Nothing much, I just bound a piece of my spirit to an item and then bound it to her. I told her it's an item spirit." Myra explained, now looking even guiltier.
"That's possible too!? What is the outcome of this? What do you mean your spirit? How can you even bind it?"
Liam opened his eyes really wide. He was the one who was taught directly by Myra over the last couple months and he knew a lot more about magical theory than most other people throughout Luminos, even concepts that were totally unknown on this whole world.
"I think what she is telling you is that she made a spirit bond between a part of her soul and that child's item."
"That sounds complicated, can you put that in simpler terms too?" Now Nell was asking questions as well.
"It means that she can use her spirit to influence the world through the child and the child will be able to use that link to influence the world through her as well once the kid is skilled enough to do so." Aaron started to explain.
"As it is a bond similar to a spirit weapon it is semi-two-way. Myra can act through the child only if the child allows it, like our spirit weapons can only act if we agree to it, but the child can use it like an open door all the time, unless Myra spends a lot of effort to break that connection."
Why did he know that? Well Myra told him not too long ago. As Myra seemed to really like the child, he didn't interfere. He had to admit the girl was rather adorable, but he wasn't used to being around kids so it was a strange situation and he just observed instead of getting involved himself.
"That's not everything though." Liam interjected and Aaron looked at him in surprise.
'So what parts did Myra not tell me about this whole thing?' he wondered.
"Point is, this easy sharing of power comes with a caveat. If the kid dies, Myra will get some serious backlash, as part of her spirit will die along with the child." Liam continued and quickly earned himself an angry look from Myra.
"In other words, we better not let that kid die." Aaron relaxed again. "I thought it would be something more drastic. I guess I'm used to Myra turning everything upside down, using her life to protect a child is really nothing surprising there."
