Chapter 44 part 3

"Welcome," a man in a blue dress said, whose voice sounded what Ralph considered feminine, but this world seemed to consider it more masculine. While he sounded like he was addressing them, his attention seemed more focused on some papers he had in his hands. "I understand you returned my daughter. I am grateful that you were able to return her unharmed. However, I wanted to make sure that you-"

The man had finally looked up from the papers at Ralph and his friends, but he suddenly stopped talking midsentence. His gaze centered on Amelia. Ralph looked over at Amelia, feeling a little curious as to what was so interesting about her, since he had assumed they'd sorted out the issue of how Amelia looked like someone that they had known or something.

"Milyah, it is you!" the man said, standing up from the chair he'd been sitting in, gracefully gliding over to Amelia.

"Uh," Amelia said, clearly uneasy about the reaction, as well as unsure how to handle it. "I-I'm not-"

'Where have you been, my love?" the man said, his eyes starting to glisten. "How is it that you survived?"

Amelia looked at him, and Ralph had a feeling she might back away. However, she merely replied, with a smile, "I'm Amelia Adams. I really have no idea who you are."

At that moment, with the marquis' face full of shock and disbelief, a familiar voice cried out, "Mother!"

Ralph groaned as a little girl ran over to Amelia, wrapping her arms around her. Leaving Amelia stunned. This almost seemed like something from a cheap TV show. Where as soon as one thing happened, another happened, leaving the audience focused on the show in order to not miss what might happen next.

The girl had the same hair color as the marquis, and as far as Ralph could tell, the same color of eyes. Though, the girl's hair was cut short, it also looked like the girl had just come out of bed and hadn't really done anything to take care of her hair.

"Can you say that to your daughter?" the marquis asked, though Ralph wasn't sure if the marquis was as confident as he had been when he first saw Amelia.

"I wouldn't say that to my daughter, if I had one," Amelia replied calmly, though Ralph could see how much it pained her to see the hurt on the little girl's face as she pulled the girl's arms from around her. Then, kneeling in front of the girl, clearly trying to get as close to eye level with the girl as she could, she continued, "I'm Amelia Adams. What's your name?"

The girl looked at Amelia, her amber eyes filling with tears. Ralph expected the girl to burst out crying and to run over ot the marquis, who he suspected was the girl's father. However, as he looked at the girl, aside from the hair and eye color, she looked so much like Amelia, it was uncanny.

"Ever hear about how everyone has a doppelganger somewhere?" Ralph couldn't help but mutter.

"What was that?" Amelia asked, her eyes flashing with annoyance.

Which also seemed to have the effect of drawing the marquis' attention to him. Which Ralph really didn't like. Especially since he'd rather just stay in the background for the most part. However, he didn't see anything that should get him in any real trouble. Although, he was confident that it would help keep him from being in the background as much as he'd like.

"Just that you know how they say that everyone has a doppelganger or double, or something somewhere, right?" Ralph asked, hoping that he wouldn't need to say more. "Well, I'm just wondering if Amelia is that to your… uh…" Ralph couldn't remember the name the marquis had called Amelia, nor was he confident on how to finish his sentence without it.

"How can you be sure she's not my Milyah?" the marquis asked.

Ralph hoped this wasn't going to be a trap about proving something that he couldn't prove, but he couldn't see any other alternative.

"Well, does Milyah have any scars that you remember?" Ralph asked, hoping that something as simple as this would help. "Or tatoos?" Ralph paused, then when there wasn't a response, he started to feel despair starting to creep up on him. "Or a birthmark?"

The marquis shook his head. "She hasn't had anything like that," he replied calmly. "However, for the last year when we thought she'd died, she could have received some scars."

Ralph felt like that subject was a dead end, though he wasn't sure if he should give up just yet. However, before he could say anything more, Amelia beat him to the punch.

'Did you wife know anything about healing?" Amelia asked. "I noticed you have a building in your courtyard that looks kinda like the houses in the village that all of us left about a week ago. What's it used for?"

Ralph was confused. He didn't have a clue as to what building Amelia was talking about or even what this had to do with proving that Amelia wasn't this… whatever her name was.

"That's to quarantine anyone who is found with the spotted plague in the castle," the marquis replied. "You should already know this."

Amelia nodded, though Ralph had a suspicion that it wasn't because she agreed with the marquis. "I thought it might be that," she said. "But I think I saw signs that someone was living in it. Am I right?"

The marquis nodded slowly, his eyes saying he didn't know where Amelia was going with her line of questions. "Yes, about a week and a half ago, one of the maids was seen with spots. So, he was naturally put in there."

"Good to know," Amelia said, turning as if she was done talking with the Marquis. "Cinder, you said you wanted to learn how to assist me, right?"

As Ralph looked over towards the others, not sure what Amelia had in mind, only that he wouldn't be able to stop her, even if he wanted to. Cinder certainly looked surprised, and Ralph had a feeling Cinder didn't know what Amelia was about to do. Which made Ralph feel a little bad for the boy. Just a little.

"Uh, yes, I said that," Cinder said, sounding uncertain about why Amelia was asking about that.

"Good, then follow me," Amelia said, as she walked by him. "Oh, and make sure to bring the mushrooms we'll need and plenty of water to boil."

"R-right away," Cinder stuttered, as he scrambled to pick up his bag.

Ralph wanted to mention that Amelia's pack was the one with most of the blue-spotted mushrooms, which he was confident were the mushrooms that Amelia had been referring to. Yet, he was sure that eventually Amelia would figure that out.

"Where is she going?" the girl asked, sounding a little confused.

"To treat the person with the plague," Tim remarked casually. 'She shouldn't be too long."

"What do you mean 'treat?' There is nothing that can be done other than pray he's one of the few that survive the plague," the marquis replied, looking rather confused.

"Yeah, Cinder and his family had much the same opinion when they had it," Hannah said.

"That boy's a survivor?" the marquis asked, sounding more shocked than Ralph had expected.

"Yeah, he was one of the first we treated after ourselves," Ralph said carefully, not sure how much he really should tell them. Given how suspicious they'd been of them so far.

"How did you discover a treatment for it?" the marquis asked, his expression looking more awestruck than Ralph really cared for.

"Actually, it was a friend of ours who figured it out," Beth said.

"Where is your friend?" the marquis asked. "Did they come with you?"

"No, she was taken by the Lost," Tim said.

The marquis looked like he didn't understand what Tim said for a moment, before his expression became more crestfallen.

"I see," was all he said in response.

Ralph didn't mind the fact that the marquis had not taken the news cheerfully, but he still felt like they'd gotten off topic a little. Which annoyed him for a reason he couldn't quite put his finger one.

"How about we explain who we are, what we've been doing, and why we came here, okay?" Tim asked, using the tone Ralph recognized when Tim was trying to get a teacher to either give him more time on some homework or give him a break on arriving to class late.

_

Beth felt exhausted when they'd finally finished explaining everything to the marquis. Scithia had already returned from unsuccessfully stopping Amelia and Cinder from entering the quarantine house, not that Beth was surprised, given what she knew about Amelia.

Yet at the same time, it felt like Scithia had only become more convinced that Amelia was who they thought she was. Which only confused her more.

"So, Hesha is the daughter of someone who served me?" the marquis asked when they ad finished telling him everything.

"Yes," Hesha said, stepping forward despite her clear reluctance to.

"Show me the ring then," the marquis ordered.

Hesha reached into her tunic and pulled out a small bag that she'd been wearing around her neck. In a moment's time, she had the ring out of the bag and had already replace it under her tunic.

Hesha held it out and Scithia stepped forward to take it. At which point, she then walked it over to the marquis as she examined it. When she reached the marquis after a couple steps, she handed it to him.

The marquis looked at it for a brief moment before turning back to Hesha. "What was your mother's name?"

"Inshet," Hesha replied. "She'd also given my older sister that name."

The marquis nodded before handing the ring back to Scithia and gave a slight motion of his hand in the direction of Hesha. Which Beth took to mean that Scithia was to return it to Hesha, as Scithia then walked back to Hesha and returned the ring.

"So, your entire family was either killed or taken away by those bandits?" the marquis asked.

Hesha nodded. "Yes, I was hoping that you might be able to give me some help as I search out for anything I can learn about what happened to my father and my brothers," Hesha answered.

The marquis sighed. "I wish your mother had settled down on lands that I govern," the marquis remarked, almost mournfully. "If she had then I'm confident that I'd have been able to stop what happened to your village."

"Does that mean you won't help me?" Hesha asked, looking like she wanted to burst into tears but was holding them back.

The marquis shook his head. "I wish I could," he said. "The problem lies with the fact of how old you are and the number of auctions those bandits could have taken your brothers and father to. Not to mention that there could easily have been someone directing it from the shadows." The marquis paused and it almost felt like he was trying to bore through Hesha with his gaze. "Then with how young you are, you'd only inspire others to try and take you as well."

"I'm not afraid," Hesha said defiantly. "I'll take whatever risk I need to if it means I can save those in my family who survived."

The marquis nodded. "That may be, but would you like to hear my suggestion?"

Hesha looked like she was hesitating, unsure how she should respond. Then after a minute or two, she nodded, her expression more resolute than Beth could remember seeing it before.

"If you stay here, train to join my guard, like your mother had been, then I'll send out people to inquire about anyone who has been sold that has the names of your brothers or father. Then if I find anyone with those names, I'll do my best to purchase them and bring them back to you," the marquis replied.

Even though beth was sure that Hesha didn't mean to, Beth couldn't help but notice the tears that started leaking out of Hesh'a eyes. "I accept," she said without hesitation. "Whatever it takes."

The marquis nodded, and then shifted his gaze back to Beth and her friends. "Now, what would you ask from me? You haven't claimed a connection to me, like Hesha did, and you deny that your friend 'Amelia' is my wife, Milyah," the marquis stated.

"That's right," Hannah said. "We're trying to find a canyon of griffins that we know is somewhere on this world. So we were hoping that you'd be willing to help us with any maps you have that might help lead us there."

"What can you do to prove that your 'Amelia' isn't Milyah?" the marquis asked, making Beth wonder if he was going to ignore their inquiries until they got him to understand that Amelia really wasn't the same person as whoever his wife had been.

"Uh…" Hannah said, clearly stumped.

Though, Beth suddenly had an idea. She wasn't sure how well it'd work, since she wasn't confident about the science of it herself, but she had a feeling that it'd at least be something to try to work with.

"You said that your daughter is also your wife's daughter, right?" Beth asked, earning a nod from the marquis. "Well, then in that case, we can have one of your doctors examine Ameila when she'd done in your quarantine house to see if she'd given birth before."

"Beth, you really think that Amelia would be fine with that?" Wes hissed in her ear, clearly uneasy about the thought of someone from this world doing the necessary examination of Amelia that Beth's suggestion would require.

"Relax, Amelia wants to be a doctor herself, right?" Beth replied, unable to keep from smiling as she did so. "I'm sure she'll understand. If nothing else, I'm sure she'll at least be happy to get the issue behind her."

Wes didn't say anything more, but just sighed. Beth was confident that what she suggested would work. Provided her assumption was correct that giving birth would leave a mark on the body in some way, even if it wasn't something that could be seen on the skin exactly.

"Provided we can convince you that our friend isn't your wife, would you be willing to give us any assistance on finding that griffin canyon?" Beth asked when the Marquis didn't say anything, hoping that they could get off that topic for at least a minute.

The marquis didn't say anything, but looked at each of them for a minute before moving on to another. When he was done, he sighed. "What kind of help were you thinking you might be able to get?" he eventually asked. "I don't have infinite resources, and even if you could get the queen to help, even she would only have so much that she could give to help you."

"Actually, we were thinking of maps first," Tim said. "Since we came from a different world, we really don't know much about the geography of this world. So, we can't be sure if we head east, that we'd be getting closer to the canyon rather than farther away."

The marquis nodded. He looked like he was about to open his mouth to respond when Wes suddenly added, "We're not really interested in having an escort sent with us when we go look. At the very least we'd just like maybe some provisions or a place we can meet up again if we can't find it on any maps you might have."

Beth couldn't help but wish that Ralph had stayed quiet, but it wasn't like she could smack him so hard that he'd stop talking before he'd started. Not that she could really find fault with what Wes had said. She just wished she'd been able to find out what the marquis had been about to say.

"I can help you with maps, but right now with everything going on in this country, food is getting scarce," the marquis replied. "I'm able to hold my own with those attacking my people, the farmers on my lands primarily, but even still, it's taking a toll of what they're able to grow. As such, there really isn't much to offer you."

"You know, Wes," Hannah remarked. "Isn't your magic more attuned with growing things than the rest of ours?"

"Yeah, how about you see if you can help get some of the farmer's crop grow faster or back if it gets destroyed by a bandit or something?" Ralph asked, though from his tone Beth couldn't help but wonder if he was mocking Wes or offering a serious suggestion.

"You have magic?" the marquis asked, clearly stunned at this revelation.

"Uh, yeah," Beth said, suddenly not sure if that would be a good thing. She didn't see how it wouldn't be, but she suddenly f\elt like it might be. "All of us can, aside from Feon, Cinder, and Lyshean. Even Hesha can use magic."

"Only wild magic," Hesha muttered, looking rather embarrassed about it.

Beth was surprised at the change in the marquis' expression towards them. Beth couldn't help but wonder if this was what the word 'countenance' meant. She thought it might, but at the same time, she couldn't really remember where she'd heard the word before. Just that it came to mind for reasons she couldn't begin to explain.

Beth couldn't help but wonder what he was thinking and wished, again, that Charlie was there. If she was, Beth would have wanted to push her to read the marquis' mind so that they could at least understand what he was thinking and know what his final decision would be about if he'd provide them any help at all.

Or if they'd said something that was going to cause no end of trouble for them.