The Doomed

"Why are you so hell bent on getting out of this castle?" Dai asked Sophie on week seven of confinement.

"I feel really weird here," Sophie said closing her eyes. "And it's getting worse by the day."

Dai stared at her with questions in his eyes but dared not to say anything. She looked fatigued.

Sophie took a deep breath and opened her eyes. "At first I thought that I needed to adapt to this environment. This is a new place and I've always had trouble sleeping in unknown beds. But that little feeling kept growing. I feel like every nook and corner is hiding some imp or monster. Every sound feels like the sound of doom. I can't stand the dark anymore. And I'm having terrible nightmares. I have never had such nightmares in my life." Dai felt that Sophie would cry, but she did not. She continued, "This confinement is driving me insane. I'll die of boredom here."

Dai heard all this with a solemn face. If he had any misgivings, he kept them to himself. "The empress will be sorry to hear such an account of the castle."

He could see that something was amiss. Dai had known Sophie since childhood. He had seen her in extreme fear but never before he had seen her like this. Her eyes were in a state of permanent terror. Dai had suspected it earlier but now he could see that it kept worsening by the day.

After taking leave her leave, Dai went straight to Enand Sengar. Even the medic did not look in good spirits. When he saw Prince Dai, he composed himself as best as he could and welcomed him.

Dai thanked him for saving Sophie's life. Enand received the gratitude gracefully and reminded him that the poison was a fake.

"You don't look so well," Dai said, "if I may enquire."

"I assure you that this has nothing to do with my health." Enand sighed. "My dog just died."

"I'm sorry to hear that. What happened?"

Enand gave a wry smile. "I'm sure Your Highness is here to talk about something much more important than my poor dog."

"I'm afraid that Commander Antofurota is not feeling well," Dai said peering into the man's eyes.

The eyes shied away, the face was full of sweat. "She is just tense because she thought that she would die."

"Where did you learn to make that universal antidote?" Dai asked. His stare shook Enand to the core.

"I..I," he stammered, "I have travelled far and wide and have learned many things from many masters." He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"I'll need a list of all the ingredients," Dai commanded.

"Yes, Your Highness." Enand hunted for his notes in the messy room and handed them to the prince.

"It says that only a special spoon has to be used to feed the potion into patient's mouth," Dai said after reading his notes.

Enand nodded. "I don't need to hide anything," he said to himself.

"Do you have the spoon with you?" the prince asked.

The medic silently handed the spoon to Dai. It was made of a metal which neither of them could recognize.

When the prince left the room, he had left the human in worse condition than he had found him. Dai was sure that something was not right about Enand. He told the guards to keep an eye on the man.

Instead of returning home, Dai went to see the empress. He was surprised to know that she was in a tri-council meeting. He deduced that it was an emergency meeting as he knew all the scheduled ones.

Dai sent a message to his father saying that he had important and urgent matters to discuss with them. He was invited to join the meeting and was surprised to find a fourth person among the monarchs.

The empress introduced the stranger. "King Shrutketu has sent his foremost expert on poisons to us."

Dai noticed that everyone in the room was tense. The stranger, who had been sitting, stood up and saluted Dai with fluttering hands. "Roderick," he said and took his seat. He was a tall lean man, with big eyes and visible nerves under his skin.

Dai did not bother to sit.

"When King Shrutketu had last visited us," Suffle said, "he was impressed to know about the universal antidote. But Roderick here tells us that…" Suffle paused and looked at Roderick.

"Such a thing does not exist. It took us some days to be sure, but we are certain."

Dai took the news better than the other three had. He was expecting it. He gave Enand's notes to Roderick and asked, "Do you know what potion this is?"

Roderick's face got pale and kept losing its colour with every word he read. After reading it completely he composed himself as best as he could and whispered, "This is a very powerful drug."

"What does it do?" Dai asked impatiently.

"It can do nothing without a metal called-"

"This?" Dai showed him the spoon.

Roderick took the spoon in his hands to examine. His face lost the remaining colour it had left and his green eyes wildly darted between the prince and the spoon.

Dai said, "I know that this drug needs to be in direct contact with this metal before consumption."

Roderick stopped and looked at his hands. He wished that somebody would say something, but all four pair of eyes were on him and all mouths were shut. So he gulped and continued, "The victim won't feel anything for the first few days save a strange uncomfortable dread. With time the fear will turn into hallucinations and the victim will turn mad."

"But he won't die?" Natasha asked.

"The fear is too much to bear. Victims either kill themselves or beg for death."

"It must have a cure?" Dai asked. He could now see what plan was hatched for Neal and feared the things that could happen to Sophie.

"It can be controlled," Roderick said, "if the treatment starts in time. But if the victim is too far gone, we can't do anything. Is someone…" Roderick wanted to ask who was poisoned but was interrupted with a knock at the door.

"Yes," Dai said to him, completely ignoring the interruption. "You need to start the treatment as soon as possible."

"I will need to meet the victim first," he said, "to access the situation."

There was another knock on the door. Dai begged the empress, "Please, get her checked," and rushed towards the door. Nobody else seemed to be opening it. He went out and did not come back.

Roderick, who had not looked at the three faces since he had read Enand's notes, now saw that they all had the same hopeless expression. He felt like death was in the room and he was the only one who could not see it.

The empress said in a barely audible voice, "Let me escort you to your patient." And she rose up with too much effort.

"I'll come with you," Raveena said.

"I'll write a letter to King Shrutketu that we will require your services longer than expected," Suffle said. "I'm sure he will understand."

The three people left Suffle alone in the room. After about five minutes, Dai arrived and said in an emotionless tone, "Enand is dead. His quarters have been turned into ashes."

"Was it intentional?"

"I believe it was suicide," Dai said taking a seat beside his father. "I think he did something without knowing the consequences and chose to die rather than face them."

"There is nothing now that we can do but wait," Suffle said. He stood up. "We should go home and pray to Lord Star for her recovery."

Roderick was settled in the castle with the authority to order anything he wanted, for his patient or for himself. He had assured the empress that the damage was not irreversible. He also advised everybody against telling Sophie anything about her situation.

Natasha, Raveena, Suffle and Dai had another meeting the next day.

"As far as I can tell," Natasha said, "someone put the fake poison in the wine, so that Enand could use the real poison."

"Because the real poison cannot be given secretly without the metal," Dai completed. "Enand himself could have easily laced the wine."

"Roderick is positive he can cure Sophie?" Suffle asked.

"Yes," Natasha reassured. "He said that it will take a few months but she should be as healthy as before."

"And what about Gaea?" Dai asked, "Or whoever did this."

"I told you," Suffle said waving his hand, "I have sent a shadow to investigate."

"I wasn't aware that shadows were real," the prince complained.

"Then I have been successful in the endeavour."

"And you think that one person can track and capture the culprit?" Raveena asked narrowing her eyes.

"Neal wanted it that way," Natasha interrupted. "And I agree. If we send an army, it may disrupt the peace."

"Neal and his peace," Dai said with gritted teeth. "This is not the time to show off. And where is he supposed to be?"

"We thought it best to not know his whereabouts," Natasha said.

"I know it is Neal's idea. He always wanted to be away from this castle," Dai said. He might have not known the whole story, but he knew what Neal felt about the trio. "And this tracking and capturing thing may take

"Raveena has decided to shift to the castle to keep me company," Natasha said straightening her dress.

"Queen Maya has no problems with that?"

"None that I can't solve," the nymph replied.

"I would have taken Sophie to the mountains if Roderick had allowed," Suffle said.

"She shouldn't be moved. It will put strain on her brain," Dai reminded his father.