The Pharmacist and The Prince

Maid-in-waiting

maid/meɪd/ :  a female domestic servant. 

Ebony was dumbfounded. Such a simple issue and she forgot to ask. This wasn’t her world. This world has magic. She could attest to that.

So why? Why didn’t they use magic to heal themselves? Was it all fake?

She thought about it deeply. The king’s plea, the despair she had seen in the town and the use of magic. All of it was real. She was certain it was real. The question still remained. Why didn’t they use magic to save themselves? 

Ebony paced the room, in the long, wispy night gown she had found in the closet, thinking of all the possible reasons.

One reason could be that they couldn’t use magic to heal themselves. That they could only use it in creating things or in technology. But she immediately dismissed that idea. If they couldn’t use magic in medicine, then why did the Bookkeeper heal her? And why did they have an entire manor dedicated to medicines?

She thought up three other reasons and dismissed them all. It just didn’t make sense. And it wasn’t going to make sense this night. The only thing she could do was to wait till morning and ask the Bookkeeper. Laying down on the soft mattress, Ebony stared at the ceiling and sighed.

Did she make the right decision to stay? Could she really help these people? She had to resit two of her pharmacology courses in university. Add that to the fact that her clinical scores have always been average and she began to feel like she was overestimating herself.

She sighed again. There was nothing to do now. She had agreed to help and she had to help. And like the Bookkeeper had said the magic of summoning was like a one-way flight. The magic of summoning would only return her when her work was done or the kingdom was destroyed.

There was nothing to do except put her head down to work.

Sighing again, she closed her eyes and turned to her side. As she slept, she dreamt of her family.

Morning arrived with the sun beaming on her face. Grumbling and tossing, she cursed herself for leaving the window open last night. She sat up in the bed, rubbed her eyes, took in the environment and fought an urge to scream. The bed, the pillows, the room. Everything was unfamiliar.

Where on earth was she?

Swinging her legs off the bed, she shot up and dashed to the window, almost skidding. The sight of a castle on a hill reminded her of where she was and what she was doing there.

Seelsorger. Kingdom. Plague. Death.

Yesterday’s memories came flooding in, leaving an ache in her heart. She leaned on the window sill and felt the morning breeze wash over her. This was genuinely a beautiful world. What was happening to the kingdom was cruel and harsh.

The circumstances were truly discouraging but she had to do her best. Defeat panic with logic. That said, she stood up too fast. She needed to sit down.

Ebony returned to the bed, dragging her bare feet on the cool marble floor, and sat down with a plop. She needed to think. She needed a plan of action. What to do and how to do it. She needed to figure things out. That was going to be her first course of action. Information gathering.

She had visited the town yesterday and had been exposed to some magical elements but she needed to know more. She searched for her backpack and removed the jotter from inside it. Opening the book, she took out her pen and began to write out some important things she needed to find out. Thirty minutes passed.

Ebony looked down at the amount of things she had written out. Three pages full. And a lot more questions in her head. She felt it was enough for the time being. Any other questions that arose would be attended to.

Her stomach growled, informing her what next she should attend to. She needed to shower, get dressed and eat. Then gather information. She was told a maid-in-waiting would be assigned to her personal needs but the maid had…

A knock sounded on the door of her room.

…not appeared.

That should be her.

Ebony stood up, grabbed a hair tie from her backpack and tied her hair, straightened her dress and walked to the door. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she grabbed the door knob and turned.

* * *

Aische didn’t know what to expect when she was told she would serve as the maid to an honoured guest. She had never served as a maid to anyone higher than the daughter of a baron. Now she was told to attend to a very special person. She wished she could say it was because of her capacity as a maid. But she knew it was simply because she was one of the few that hadn’t gotten sick.

She was excited and frightened at the same time. The fact that the guest was given a room in the apothecary did nothing to calm her. When she arrived at the door of her lady, she had paced in front of the door for three minutes before mustering up her courage and knocking on the door.

The door opened and Aische stopped breathing.

In front of her stood an impossibility. Two impossibilities, in fact. An impossible beauty and an impossible skin colour. Aische was spellbound. This… Who was this? This wasn’t any simple royal. This was a goddess. A goddess.

Her hair rose to a curly crown above her, with soft, brown wisps falling to her shoulder. Her skin glowed in the morning sun, a dark caramel. Her lips curved in a small welcome smile, rosy and full. 

“I…I…I have…” Aische stuttered, her tongue tied and twisted. “I… I have never seen someone so…b…beautiful. You are so beautiful.”

Ebony averted her eyes, as if embarrassed by the praise. “Uhmm… thank you.” She fidgeted with the door knob, waiting for the girl to say something or introduce herself. The girl continued to stare, without saying anything. Taking the jump, she said, “Hey, my name is Ebony Johnseinne. Nice to meet you.”

Aische seemed to realized how strange she was acting and immediately raised her skirts, dropping into a curtsy. “Milady. My name is Aische. You may call me whatever you want, milady. I have the honour of serving as your maid.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Aische. Come in.” Ebony stood to the side to allow the girl enter the room. Aische curtsied once more and slid past Ebony into the room. Reaching the centre, she turned around, her skirts swishing  around her knees, and faced Ebony. “What can I help you with, my lady.”

“I would like to have a bath but I don’t know how to go about it. Can you show me how to use the bathroom? I tried last night but everything looked so unusual.”

“Of course, milady. Please have a seat. I will let you know when the bath is ready.”

“No, I mean…I want you to show me how to use it. Teach me,” Ebony said, eyes flashing with eagerness. “And not just this,” she continued. “I want you to teach as much as you can about you can. I want to be self-reliant.”

Aische was torn. On one hand, she was to assist the goddess in her tasks, not teach the goddess. On one hand, she knew not to disobey such a dignified person. Add that to the fact that the goddess was pleading with, not commanding her. It made for a proper dilemma. But she decided it wouldn’t be so bad to compromise.

“I will do my humble best, milady.”

Ebony scratched the back of her head. “That’s another thing. I would prefer it if you just called me by my name. I’m not a royal or anything. I’m just a girl. Just call me Ebony.”

Now this was the one place Aische could not compromise. Calling such an important person by their name was simply not possible. She shook her head vehemently. “I’m sorry, my lady. But I cannot do that. To call you by your name…it’s simply…I can’t…I really can’t.”

Ebony sighed and decided to let it go.

“That’s fine. Will you show me now? How to operate the bathroom.”

Aische curtsied again. It always paid to be respectful. “Yes, my lady.”

Ebony looked like she wanted to tell her to stop curtsying but she had an idea how that would go down and kept quiet. The important thing now was that she wanted to bathe. 

Aische led her into the bathroom and began to show her how to use the water system. It was quite simple and while most royals could use it themselves, there were some young and sheltered ones who had all their tasks done for them and as such, were ignorant.

Aische soon discovered another impossibility about her lady.