The Doctor Is Calling (Rian and Rozalia)

[cowette]

Rozalia was on a mission. Ever since the little princling, Rian, had arrived to have his time with the Princess she had been hearing the barest whispers of rumors. Apparently, if the stories had any truth, the prince was sick. After some discreet observation and conversation among the servants she was inclined to believe they were. It wasn’t a widely known fact, as far as she could tell. She had only heard about it on accident while in the kitchen to deliver the herbs that were going into a certain Lady’s tea to help her conceive.

A couple of the servants who had arrived with the Prince were there talking and she had noted a few key words that made her think of illness. She had been curious enough, that when one of the Prince’s men at arms came to her to have a small gash gained in training tended she had worked her magic. A little smiling, some cute blushes, and wide eyed questions set her up as a sweet little thing who just wanted to help. The man had known enough to know that the Prince suffered some sort of illness, but no specifics.

She hadn’t been able to gather any actual specifics since then and she was bound and determined to know the truth of the matter. For one thing, if it was a serious problem she needed to know because it could easily be the breath of air that sent relations between these countries right back off their shaky ground and into war again. She would need to be prepared if that happened. The second thing that urged her on was, perhaps, even more compelling. She was just too much a healer to ignore a sick person that she had the ability to care for.

So this morning she had gotten up, put on a dress actually made of silk, and enlisted a maid to put her hair up in a plain but fashionable style. Of course she had only made it a few steps from her room before a servant girl had come rushing up to announce that one of the kitchen maids was going into labor a week early. She had proceeded to follow the girl down to the village and help the local midwife deliver the babe. Luckily the child was healthy, if a bit small, and the woman had been fine when she left. Unluckily it was well past noon by then and she had to bathe and redress. The various things that came out of a birthing woman did not mix well with silk.

She chose another silk dress, in the no nonsense shade of tan her maid called fawn. Her hair was done up again, braided and rolled into a modest bun. A glance in the mirror showed her just what she wanted to see. She looked polished enough not to offend persnickety nobility but not glamorous or seductive enough to immediately turn a man’s mind to bed play.

She set off once more to locate the Prince Rian. She spent an hour going from room to room, wishing the man would just stay still in one spot. When she did find him she blessed her lucky stars that he was nearly alone. There were a couple servants in the sitting room where she located him, but no other nobility. She strolled into the room and took a seat where she could watch him carefully. He seemed to be reading some sort of book so she just sat and watched him, her keen eye taking in the rhythm of his breathing and the color of his skin.

[Mimi]

Rian was glad - well, as glad as he could be - to have the day to himself to do what he would at his leisure, but when did things ever go how he wanted? It started off with a healthy round of hacking and coughing before dawn that further and further resembled hemorrhaging followed by an even healthier dosage of poison-medicine and a fair amount of ingested alcohol - in the form of strong Silian wine - for good measure. After which, the death-bringer paid him a visit and attempted pestering him to the grave, and following Rian's semi-successful evasion, he had quite the unfortunate run-in with the Reginien princess and Helion prince. They hadn't seen him, but Rian seeing them annoyed him and reminded him of things he didn't want to be reminded of. The rest of the noon and afternoon he spent dodging aforementioned royal Silian death-bringer which was easier than confronting him considering the man was technically under his father's employment. He would have taken a fair bit of joy in terminating the man's position... and life, the latter more so than the former, but he would have taken whichever.

Rian sniffled miserably, the dark circles under his eyes more than apparent against the pallor of his skin which seemed to grow more and more - dammit - translucent now, not even pale. Glancing down at his outstretched hand, Rian flexed it cautiously and watched as the blue veins surfaced a moment, startling vivid, before settling back into faint obscurity - an outline. Something about the image seemed wrong, but another cough interrupted his thoughts, and instead, he pulled a new handkerchief from the depths of his jacket. Automatically, he brought it up to cover mouth and nose and turned slightly as a servant passed, hurrying to who knows where with a basket of fresh linen. The hallway, otherwise, remained barren with only a few persons here and there appearing and disappearing every few moments at either ends of the narrow way. Seemed a calm day, sun streaming in through wherever possible - cracks, niches, holes - and the humidity absolutely choked him, especially in this godforsaken bit of the castle. Rian cursed vehemently under his breath as he moved along the wall and looked for some sitting room or other where he maybe could isolate some time - a few minutes even - before his entourage sent out a search party for him.

Straightening, he pressed down against his chest a moment, took a deep, ragged breath, and stepped stately forward as, what he could only assume, was a Reginien duchess passed by and smiled at him half-politely and half-coquettishly. Self-absorbed as he was, Rian let it go, offending the woman surely, but he couldn't care less at the moment. A tightening sensation settled in his chest that seemed to spread, and it was growing worse by the second before Rian (at last) stumbled upon a... relatively suitable alcove. The light was dimmer, muffled by thick, velvet and silk drapes that hung over the lancets, and only a few Reginien servants milled about. They immediately glanced up upon Rian's entrance and hastily bowed, a few murmuring his title with reverence, a few with silent fear, and Rian dismissed it with a casual wave of the hand.

"Rise, rise. You all may remain if you so desire; I only ask you leave me in silence."

Stepping further in, Rian swiftly pocketed the darkened handkerchief as the servants returned to their previous work - dusting, clean, rearranging - and he slipped into the nearest seat. The wooden arm felt cool to the touch, and only then did the temperature change fully register with him. He sighed tiredly under his breath, and a hand rose to rub slowly at the light sweat and wrinkles damping and marring his otherwise dashing features. Dammit.

A nearby book discussing Reginien topography on the desk in front of him caught his attention, and he took it up and flipped through it casually. Much of it he knew; Regina wasn't so big an empire, and spending three years attempting to fight through it gets one well-acquainted. Nevertheless, he didn't notice the girl who had quietly slipped into the room until she had already taken a seat and been seated for at the very least ten or fifteen minutes. She wouldn't have usually garnered a reaction from him had he not noticed that she'd been watching him for who knows how long. Gradually, Rian raised his eyes from the smooth pages and stared back, unblinking.

"...Who, may I ask, are you? And since it seems you have been observing me, what may I so kindly do for you?"

His voice rose mockingly sweet tone as the book settled back into his lap, and he attempted to feign an air of robustness. Such could be difficult when it felt one's lungs had collapsed in on themselves.

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[cowette]

Roz took advantage of the time before the princeling noticed her attention. She was frankly surprised that the whole castle wasn’t buzzing with the fact that he was ill. His skin was nearly translucent, except where it was bruised under his eyes of course. There was a certain something about his breathing that set her mind on alert as well. She couldn’t help but think that he must be working awfully hard to keep his ill health from being so obvious and it couldn’t be good for him to be expending all that effort. She itched to get him into her work room and do a more thorough examination.

When he finally noticed her Roz didn’t bother to stop her visual examination. She noted his effort to sound healthy and added it to her mental list of concerns. The man would send himself to an early death if he was always like this. Even earlier than his disease would manage on its own. She was busy listing and dismissing possible causes for his symptoms. It couldn’t be just fatigue, he was royal and there were people who could step in when a member of royalty was harming themselves. There were several blood diseases that killed slowly, weakening the victim over time. This could be one of those.

She smiled, a carefully composed smile that didn’t let on if it was true or not. “Your highness, I am but a humble servant of the crown.” She bowed her head ever so slightly, knowing she hadn’t really said anything with that introduction. “Since you are ever so kind to offer your assistance, I’d like you to accompany me to my room and remove your clothes.”

She wasn’t entirely sure what it was that had driven her to behave this way to the prince. She was usually much more discreet, watching and waiting and getting her way through subtle hints. She suspected that she was getting bored here at the castle. She liked her life well enough, and her work was satisfying, but it didn’t allow for the freedom she had grown up with. Her role here as the quiet healer never allowed for such brazenness as she had just shown, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t inside of her. She smiled inside, knowing she was going to have her fun with this princeling and just hope that it didn’t cause too much of a disturbance in her regular life.

[Mimi]

There was... something about this girl that did not sit well with him, and he frowned slightly as he noticed he hadn't interrupted her examination at all. On the contrary, she seemed even more keen to pick up on... whatever she was picking up on, and Rian had an unsettling feeling it had something to do with his bit-too-tired expression and bit-too-hoary complexion. He almost felt... self-conscious - almost - under her scrutiny, and under any other circumstances, he would have given her a snappy retort. However, seeing as he was a foreigner in this country and what with the tenuous relationship between his state and the present one, he decided that perhaps discretion, at least for the time being, was the best most appropriate response.

A smile lighted unto her face, and Rian noticed how young she was -- not much older than himself -- though he wouldn't have been able to guess at the exact age. Her clothing seemed to indicate, say, middle-class or higher peasantry, but the gall! In all honestly, he hadn't had many encounters in which the other person simply ... sat observing him. Better clothing, and he wouldn't have been terribly surprised if someone said she was a, say, baroness or the daughter of one.

“Your highness, I am but a humble servant of the crown.”

Rian smiled artificially in return. A humble servant of the crown? She was being clever with him, something he might have appreciated when he was younger. But as it was, he was just the slightest provocation away from breaking with the niceties.

“Since you are ever so kind to offer your assistance, I’d like you to accompany me to my room and remove your clothes.”

Rian didn't react at first, visibly anyhow, but gradually, the implications of her statement seemed to reach him, and he raised an eyebrow in response, followed by an incredulous scoff. He didn't know what she meant by it; the most obvious interpretation could have been the wrong one, and indeed, he was counting on it, but nevertheless, the directness of it was intolerable. That princess should have taught her servants to hold their tongues before higher authority, and with finality, Rian snapped the book shut and placed it back on edge of the desk.

"Well, Miss, since you deny me your name, I appreciate the offer whatever you meant by it, but I am afraid this is the wrong time, wrong place. I am flattered though, and if you would like to come to my room later, well, I wouldn't be able to stop you, now would I?"

He could tell the servants were listening with all intentness, and without a doubt, this little episode would be shared throughout the castle before day's end. His latter sentence was partially for them and their insatiable appetite for gossip, but mostly it was from sarcasm. Not overtly apparent, but there, and he smiled again, mockingly, before a sudden welling up of pain in his chest forced him to bend over slightly, coughing. He floundered a moment before his hand reached the handkerchief and tugged it back out of its pocket and up against his nose and mouth. Avoiding looking to the girl who had seemingly so brazenly asked for his company, he made a slight turn and leaned a bit against the wall. Damn servants and their meddling.

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[cowette]

Eliza watched carefully as he reacted to her words. More than that she noted how he picked up on her manner and actions. He seemed to be an intelligent princeling at least. He chose not to snap at her directly, a wise decision considering that he didn’t know her rank or connections and could risk relations between his country and Regina if he offended the wrong people. She could tell that she was throwing him off kilter, at least a bit, and a small evil part of her enjoyed that. She really would have to take some time off to go relieve herself of this new urge to be bold. She had a reputation to protect.

She liked the way he didn’t believe her little line about humility at all. His answering smile told her that clearly. She was finding the princeling to be interesting at the very least. She ducked her head submissively as he gave his little speech in reply. She did this mostly to hide the little smile that lit her face and the glint in her eye as her mind worked through his reaction. She could tell she had annoyed him. His feathers had obviously been fluffed by her words, and she suspected that her lack or apparent rank had just added insult to injury.

She wasn’t completely in control of herself as she looked up at him, hands folded demurely in her lap and eyes wide and ever so innocent. “But your higness, I doubt your room would have the necessary equipment.” She should have given her name then, but some little devil inside of her kept her quiet in that regard. If she told him she was a healer right at that moment then it would make her words much clearer and she was having too much fun being un-clear. She noticed that their little interaction was catching the attention of the other servants, knowing that a large part of it was simply because of her own out of character behavior. The prince might not know, but a good number of the rumors going around that night would be more about her than about his comments.

When his little display was ruined by a bout of coughing Rozalia felt the humor leave her along with the curiosity that had drawn her to look for him in the first place. She stood, her entire demeanor changing to one of confidence and authority. Her face was set and her eyes firm as she advanced on the princeling. She didn’t go as far as to touch him, but she was mere inches from him now, carefully taking in his condition. “Who is looking after your health and what do you know of your condition? Tell me now or I will examine you here and now, regardless of the audience.”

By all rules of decorum and rank she could rightly expect to be punished for daring to threaten a prince, beaten or whipped or worse if he so desired. She knew this but dismissed the possibility. The man was obviously sick, obviously trying to pretend otherwise, and based on his rank, was probably doing so in some silly sort of ploy. She didn’t mind, and if he was not in her territory she would let him go on unhindered. But he was in her territory, and that made him, in her own mind at least, her patient.

[Mimi]

“But your higness, I doubt your room would have the necessary equipment.”

"Necessary equipment"? Ha! Rian would have laughed if he'd been able to. What was she playing at, exactly? His curiosity spiked a moment before softening under the weight of his disease, and he felt the third fit that day welling up and spurting out in a wonderful display of coughing, hacking, and blood shed. He cursed silently, and his body shook under the severity of the coughs as they seemed only to worsen. In this condition, he barely noticed that the girl beside him had suddenly grown rigid. Something seemed to come over her -- control, perhaps, or concern. Either way, Rian found the change insignificant at best and thus, not worth his attention. He turned a bit further from her; mayhap she had wised up and would meekly scoot away, wide-eyed. Was that too much to hope for?

“Who is looking after your health and what do you know of your condition? Tell me now or I will examine you here and now, regardless of the audience.”

...It seemed it was. But the tone of her voice, her question, and the way she posed it answered his previous doubts. So, she was no common girl as he'd thought. She was of the doctor profession -- nurse, midwife or otherwise -- and he almost scoffed at the irony of the situation. Escaped from one only to be caught by another it seemed, and he grimaced, both out of loathing for the incessant girl at his side and distaste for the frothy blood accumulating in his mouth that he was trying oh-so-hard not to discharge. The servants were again piqued by the developments and straining to keep the curiosity from leaking across their faces. A guttural growl ruminated in the back of Rian's throat, but first, he'd best regain his composure. Some painful swallowing later -- of blood that he would only regurgitate later in dark red clumps -- and he did utter that belated laugh. It was the barest resemblance of one, of course, broken by moments of minor coughing.

An enigmatic smile spread across his lips as he nodded his head almost with an air of defeat. "Ah," he croaked , "I see."

Re-pocketing his handkerchief, careful to fold it so as the stained side face inward, Rian gestured briefly towards the door. He paused a moment longer before his tone re-assumed some fashion of his previous haughtiness and force. "Your persistence deserves the backside of my hand, and your indiscretion all the more so. But, I disdain to talk of such matters in public. If you must, and seeing I have no power in this land, come."

He didn't look at her again as he made for the door, but his eyebrows drew together in a scowl. Damn it. At this rate, the entire castle would be made privy of his health. Who did she think she was, exactly? No matter, it remained that he wouldn't be beaten into submission by a woman of all people, whether or not she dabbled in the medicines.

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