Poisons and Falling Crowns

Venera had been listening to music for some time, when the tall black-haired guard from earlier knocked on her door with her dinner. She tried to invite him in and keep her company, but he refused so Venera left the door open and talked to the guard stationed at her door.

She learned his name.

"So, Manny, why are you at my door? Isn't the palace safe? Why am I being guarded?" Venera asked.

"I have no idea as well, lady, but those were my orders, so I am here." he tossed casually.

"What do you do at the castle usually?" she followed up.

"Normally I guard the front entrance and the garden exit on the east, but I will be stationed with you for the duration of your stay here, lady." he sighed.

I bet it is a bore to sit outside the door and count flies, thought Venera.

"Why are you so exhausted? You look like you have been working like a horse for weeks." she inquired further, noticing his deep dark under-eye circles and bloodshot eyes.

"I haven't had more than 4 hours of sleep in the last 2 years, Lady Venera. They keep making us drink this shot that tastes like plastic and sugar every morning which prevents us from sleeping. I know they used to have it in some energy drinks that they sold in shops, but people got addicted to it, so they stopped using it. There was a big scandal." he shared. He looked truly broken and hopeless.

"They make you chug shots of glucofine?! Are they crazy?" Venera blinked in disbelief. Glucofine was one of the most misused substances, it was never supposed to be used outside of a medical emergency.

"Do you know about it, lady Venera?" Manny shot back, his curiosity peaked.

"Of course! I was the one who invented it!" she exclaimed. "Your body is going to give up some time soon if they continue to do this. And I also bet they can't synthesize it to a pure substance either. Do you have problems with digestion?"

He just nodded his head, eyes in disbelief.

Venera bolted from the desk chair to take a closer look at the guard sitting on the small chair in front of her room. His eyes widened, visibly surprised by her actions. She got in his face and noted his eyes being bloodshot, the whites of his eyes having a yellow tint to them, the skin on his face losing elasticity. She also noted his hand slightly shaking.

"Try to keep your hand steady like so Manny," she showed him to extend his arm and keep it straight. As she was positive of the tremor she noticed. Only affected the hand for now.

"I hadn't noticed it, lady, is this bad?" he replied, in disbelief of seeing his arm twitching.

"Try to find some magnesium supplements and consume as much diary as you can. Drink apple juice before going to sleep to hopefully sleep deeper. If you can get away with it, stop drinking it." Venera instructed. "Try to keep this on the down-low. And no word you heard this from me." she clarified.

Venera was horrified by what she heard and saw. The king was killing his guards slowly and painfully. Their livers are going to fail if they continue taking it like that.

"If you can fake the shot in the morning and bring it to me to take a look at, I can offer more help. I can also get you the clean substance so the side effects can subside for some time." she proposed, going back to her chair.

Manny's jaw was on the floor. He had nothing to say so he just stared at the young woman devouring her food after delivering such a diagnosis.

"I owe you a favor, lady Venera. If you think of anything that I can repay you with…" he trailed off.

"I will reach out when I have something on my mind," she replied noncommittally.

When she finished the best food in her life, Venera returned the plate to Manny and he disappeared to get it back to the kitchen.

Venera went back into the room and continued to listen to music and write songs down in the little notebook she brought from home. She wondered if her choice to be honest with the prince was the correct one. If she would still have a chance at a relationship with him if the 10 succeed to kill the king. Would he choose her again or find someone else?

The light coming from the floor-to-ceiling window was dimming and Venera turned on the lights in the room. The glass chandelier showered the room in soft light. She decided to go for a quick shower, anticipating the prince to return. Upon opening the closet to look for a towel, Venera found it full of dresses, made out of the most lavish materials and cuts. She wasn't stupid not to appreciate that those were masterfully crafted, even though they weren't to her taste. The guards weren't lying, they were custom sews, she barely found clothes that fit her properly in the shops, but all these dresses were tailored to her.

The bathroom was a box of creme-colored marble with a shower cabin on the furthest wall and bathtub on the right wall, a ceramic toilet, and a sink on the left. Venera decided to go for the shower, in the end, expecting the prince any minute now. She took the quickest shower she could. She didn't allow herself to savor the smell of jasmine that radiated from the shampoo and coconut from the soap.

After getting out of the bathroom she dressed into one of the two pair of jeans she took from home and her favorite T-shirt - a beige crew neck with small writing on it, written with bloody red letters "Be quiet and behave" in Italian, the title of a hit song from her favorite Italian band, Dan had gotten her for the birthday a few years ago.

It was getting late and the prince hadn't returned, contrary to his promise. Venera was beating herself up over thinking so highly of him. She made sure all her belongings were still in her bag, certain she would be going home tomorrow. Or worse, she was going to be taken to be interrogated by the king for everything she had revealed to the prince. She was ready to die, to keep the 10 safe, but she would have liked to at least give them the information about the guards.

She finally convinced herself to go to sleep. Manny was constantly tapping his foot just outside her door, so she took it upon herself to bring him a valerian tablet so he would stop. She put her headphones in and put a playlist on to distract herself from the sound, which was driving her insane while trying to fall asleep. His tremors were probably worse than she had initially thought.

After what felt like just a few moments of sleep, Venera was awoken by a hand covering her mouth. Instincts kicked in right away and she kicked as hard as she could, prepared to scream when she heard metal hit the carpeted floor.

Venera blinked and saw a crown roll on the carpet next to her. She immediately jumped off the bed and found she had kicked the prince square in the stomach. He was trying to regain balance and breath when she turned the lights on.

"What the fuck Felix!" she whisper-screamed.

He tried to speak but nothing came out of his mouth, he just sat on the bed and stared at the floor. His eyes were swamp green, strained, and filled with pain. His hair was a mess. He wore the same suit from earlier that day but it was wrinkled all over.

Venera was still trying to make sense of everything when she saw a drop of blood drip on her sheets from under the prince's suit jacket.

"Why are you bleeding Felix?" she whispered and got closer to the prince. His face was still pale and in pain.

He lifted his suit jacket and shirt to reveal some sloppy bandages going across his back. Venera was horrified. Not at the sight, but at the meaning of all of this. It wasn't the worst she had seen by far.

"Can you talk? I need you to speak. What is under the badges and what is it from? How long ago did it happen?" she whispered and got closer to examine, still not daring to remove the bandages.

"Whip marks, whip, maybe 2 hours," he whispered back weakly.

Venera's eyes saw red. Two hours and still bleeding through bandages.

"When did you change the bandages?" she asked back, getting ready to remove one.

He shook his head and replied that it had been half an hour.

Venera recoiled immediately and went to dig into her backpack. First, she found her only jar of glucofine concentrate and took a pipette. She carefully suctioned only a drop and went to the prince.

"Open your mouth," she instructed, but the prince shook his head.

"If you think this is poison, you shouldn't be giving it to your guards every day for breakfast. It's glucofine, so you don't pass out from the pain."

"What kind of pain?" he pulled back.

"The one you will feel when I disinfect your whole back. You have clearly done something wrong if it isn't clotting and I need to see what it is."

The prince let her squirt out the drop on his tongue and he swallowed sharply. It did indeed taste like it smelled at first but left the worst aftertaste of plastic.

Venera then dug out her strongest antiseptic and got another pipette. She started from the top and removed the first bandage that covered his shoulder blades. She inspected the wound for anything that may be preventing it from clotting but could find nothing. It was evident this wasn't the first time the prince was whipped. He had old scars which had healed horribly. Venera piped the first pipette along the length of the wound.

The prince stifled a scream, so Venera passed him a towel to bite from the bathroom. She moved on to the next bandage and it revealed two other big slashes. They were deeper. Venera took an empty flask and scraped some of the blood to look at why it didn't cloth in the slightest later. She quickly removed the next bandage as well and disinfected everything. There were 5 big slashes across his back in total with only the bottom one having only partially started to clot.

She then dug out a third flacon out of her backpack that contained a mustard-colored salve inside.

"This will hurt like hell, and you will feel like ants on fire are crawling around for a while, but believe me, it will be worth it." she prefaced, as she started thinly spreading the salve on the wounds. Venera made sure to cover all of the insides of the wounds as well, not leaving a spot bare.

The bleeding stopped almost immediately but the prince's hissing was getting louder by the second. Venera squeezed his hand and told him it will stop in a few minutes.

She got to cleaning right away and went to soak the bandages in cold water, so the blood would let go. When she emerged from the bathroom the prince had stood up and was trying to look at his back in the mirror.

"Stop flexing the muscles or you will tear the skin and you will have to endure this twice," warned Venera sneaking up behind him.

"How did you make it stop bleeding so fast? Why weren't they clotting before?" he asked.

"First, all you need to know is that it works. Second, I have no idea, but you were both smart and stupid enough to come to me to fix this. Now tell me who tortured you and why?" she hissed through her teeth. Anger was building up inside for who dared to hurt him in this way.

"But you have to tell me what you did to me, Venera, I don't buy the bullshit."

"It's a salve I invented. It stops bleeding by shrinking all blood vessels and provides the needed conditions for platelets to start rebuilding the skin as soon as they get there. It clots a non-lethal bullet wound in 2 hours."

"Is that even possible?"

"You just witnessed it in action. Now go lay on your stomach on the bed. You need to relax your back." she replied, urging him to take the bed.

"Now tell me what kind of trouble you got yourself into," asked Venera.

"I decided to confront my father about the chips and he didn't like it," he replied, already sprawled on the bed face down.

"Are the previous ones from him as well?" she asked weakly.

He nodded.

"You are an idiot, you know that right? Why would you go blabbing about that? I hope you learned your lesson to keep whatever I tell you to yourself after this debacle." she snapped back in outrage, in pure disbelief that the prince had done that.

"I was never going to put you in danger, Venera," he mumbled.

"Spare your words, you have no idea what you are doing." she spit right back.

"What am I doing Venera?" he retorted.

"Your father is the most paranoid person alive and you just showed him you are weak. Be prepared for more of what you just experienced and worse in reaction to the smallest of missteps in the future," she warned.