Good Old Days

Instead of saying anything she knelt down in order to pick up the broken items only before she could try a yelp entered her ears causing the woman to look up slightly.

To her shock the physician saw the prince going on his knees to pick up the broken pottery while some blood fled the side of his right hand.

"I'm sorry" Prince Skye panicked as his fingers trembled due to the pain while he grabbed the pieces hastily.

"I didn't mean to drop it" raising a brow at how he was behaving, the physician stared at him for a bit before a small smile formed on her face.

"It's okay" the physician said softly as she shook her head slowly at how he was behaving like a five year old who had broken something valuable, something that was surprising to see given how the prince was often cold and distant from almost everyone.

As she shook her head it had caused her black tresses that mostly rested on the right side of her face to move side to side.

"Let's just make sure that no one else gets injured alright?" she commented with slight mirth in her eyes, startled but left staring at her in awe before a small genuine smile formed on his face.

"Then afterwards I'm tending to that hand of yours" she added with a sly look that made him almost blanch, instead his face went more red before he winced from another cut that had been created by another piece of the broken pottery.

Staring at him for a minute she shook her head once more.

"Go and sit down, I'll tend to it before you lose your hands" she said masking her amused tone, feeling ashamed for causing more problems the prince slowly went back to the chair that was beside Anberine's bed.

As he watched the physician skilfully pluck all the shards from the ground and place them all into box that would be used to throw things away, the physician then went to grab her sewing kit and began to get to work on the prince's hand.

Immediately she cleaned and numbed the injury before sewing the cuts up due to how long they were, Prince Skye at times winced and hissed from the pain but endured it as best as he could knowing that it could have been much worse.

As she continued a set of footsteps alerted them that they were no longer alone.

"Oh my gosh..." Merlia cried in horror.

"Anbery!" Helga exclaimed, her voice choked and nearly shook in disbelief as they rushed towards the sleeping girl.

Mordred as he saw Anberine grew more pale while Perceval and Gawain blanched not knowing what to make of what they were seeing.

Morgana meanwhile remained torn and emotionally tired as worry continued to fill her about Anberine's state of health.

"She'll be fine, however she will have to stay here until I deem her fit enough to leave" the physician said calmly as she placed her hands on her hips after cleaning her hands after tending to the prince's hands that contained bandages, her bangles jingled lightly as she tilted her head slightly.

"But who did this?" Helga demanded before Merlia could ask the question, wincing slightly Prince Skye went quiet which didn't go unnoticed by the physician.

"An unruly teen who will be speaking to the king tonight, in the meantime I want you all to take care of yourselves. I highly doubt Miss Prendagon would be very happy knowing that none of you are looking after yourselves, go and rest. She will be in my care and it will remain that way until I dismiss her so do not stress yourselves over this, I am upset about this as much as all of you are but it will not undo what has happened. Am I making myself clear?" The physician asked sternly as she stared at the group who either looked down or looked at the other with helpless eyes.

Saying nothing they slowly took one last look at Anberine's sleeping form before leaving, except Mordred who stared at the prince who remained still.

"Why are you still here?" Mordred asked catching their attention.

"I'm staying" The prince said causing Mordred to stare at him for a bit, seeing that there was no malice in the prince's eyes Mordred finally relented.

"I'm going to speak to Marcus about this, don't get into a fight with him about this" Mordred warned before leaving the room, seeing the Dark Dweller leave caused a huge sigh to leave the prince's lips.

"Don't go abusing my trust, you hear?" The physician's voice caught the prince's attention. "I am still unsure about you, so no funny business" this made him release a bitter smile.

"Why would I do that?" he asked faintly "I have no reason to hurt her, I love her" the woman blinked rapidly from the confession.

"I sure hope that you mean it and are not under some spell, the last thing I doubt she needs is someone to use her" the woman said earning her a soft chuckle from the prince.

"Do not worry about a thing" he assured the sceptical woman who eyed him.

"We'll see" and with that she returned to her desk and began writing up a report, as silence echoed in the room a soft sigh left the physician's lips as her pen scratched on the paper.

"I miss the good old days" the woman said as the prince held Anberine's hand softly but was mindful of his own bandaged hands.

"The good old days?" the prince asked with a confused look on his face, a sad smile formed on her face.

"When Merlin and King Arthur were around, the kingdom was at a state of peace... it's a shame the skirmishes had to happen and it was no thanks to Uther and his hatred for magic. We mages were outlawed until Arthur had set us all free, but we had to wait until his father had passed for it to be a reality and then the fighting happened" the woman said sombrely not seeing a heavy look form on the prince's face.

"I never knew what happened to make the king's great great great grandson so cold, when he was a child they say he was full of joy and wisdom until the assassination attempt happened when his daughter had been born..." the woman looked up with a tired sad look as the prince stared at her with curious eyes, this was new to him. Since when did the king have a daughter?

"They told us she had been killed along with the queen but it makes no sense, no arrests were made and it was almost as if it was the attack hadn't happened given how quickly it happened. I'm surprised that the king did not want to find out who killed them. Instead he went and married that Duchess a few weeks later before imposing tighter restrictions on magic users. Any move would have caused us to be thrown in the dungeon and let's not forget about the taxes just so we could use magic... what a king indeed" she said dully before shaking her head "it's getting late, I'm going to retire soon. Do you want me to get you anything to eat?" the physician asked as she looked at the boy who was processing the woman's words.

"No... I'm fine" Prince Skye replied politely.