Just one remedy 1

After a long night, I woke up the next morning to see Liam staring at me admiringly.

"Good morning, wife." He greeted as if he was right to stare.

"Staring is rude you know." I responded.

"You're right, but not when a husband admires his wife. It's considered adorable." He said.

'Does he ever smile?' I wondered, then suddenly I remembered the lady I met last night and wondered if I should tell Liam about her. 'No, Nardin. You're not even sure about who they are yet, you can't trust them.' I thought to myself. 'But why would I trust that lady? Maybe because I felt a weird connection with her.'

Liam glared at me like he knew what was going on in my mind and when I gave him a questioning look, he rolled his eyes and spoke.

"I'll leave you to get prepared, a maid will come and give you a hand. Be quick, your presence is needed at the courtroom." He said and left.

After Liam left the room, I put my hand under my pillow and pulled out an amulet that I have been looking at since last night but just a few minutes after he left, a lady walked in smiling and getting permission from me to get in.

"Good morning, Princess Nardin." She greeted.

"Good morning." I responded waiting for her to introduce herself.

"My name is Gabrielle, my princess and I'm your new handmaid." She said.

"New maid? I had an old one?"

"Yes my Princess, Irene was your handmaid before now."

"What happened to her then?"

"She got married and so left. But don't worry my Princess, no day has ever passed without Irene coming to see you or writing to you."

"It's okay. I don't think it matters right now." I said.

"Okay. My princess, I'll get your bath water ready with some scented oil." Gabrielle said and turned to head towards the bathroom before I stopped her.

"Wait!" I said.

"Is everything okay, my princess?" She asked still smiling at me.

"How much do you know about me?"

As I asked Gabrielle that question, she had a confused look on her face but responded anyway.

"Not very much."

"Tell me everything you know. Please."

"Okay. Your name is Princess Nardin, previously Ryan but now Eldrago. You used to be the princess of Zugato, one of the kingdoms in the realm of the white foxes of the trio."

"Do... Do I have any siblings?"

"Yes my Princess, I heard you have two sisters and a brother."

Now, this was heading to confirm all that the lady from last night had told me.

"Do you know their names?" I asked.

"Your brother's name is Lo... Log..." She thought hard then spoke "Logain. Yes, his name is Logain but I can't recall your sisters' names."

"Oh." I said disappointedly.

"Can I go now?"

"No. Look." I said then opened my hand to show her an amulet "what is it?" I asked.

She wanted to come close and touch it but I avoided her.

"Don't... Don't touch it." I said withdrawing my hand.

"I'm sorry my princess. I only wanted to get a better view." She explained.

"It's okay. Just go and get my water ready." I instructed and she bowed then left to obey me.

In a few minutes, I was sitting with Queen Charlotte, Prince Liam, and Zed in the courtroom.

"What do you remember?" Zed asked me.

"Nothing." I responded.

"Nothing at all? Not even how you were kidnapped?" He asked again.

"No. You had to remind me of my name, have you forgotten already?" I responded.

"Don't take offense, my princess, I just wanted to be sure."

"No offense taken."

"So Zed, why have you called us here?" Prince Liam asked.

"Yes. After I took Princess Nardin's blood for a series of tests, I think I might have found out what poison was used to erase her memories." He said.

Queen Charlotte sat up with interest "you found a cure. What is it? Tell us." She said.

"My diagnosis keeps bouncing between two syrups. The first one is called the Atracnsta syrup. It is prepared using powerful magic and causes temporary memory loss to the victim, It can be cured using a tincture from the root of a black vine. The second one is the Syrup of the evil legion. This can only be cured when the victim is taken to the isle of the tender spirits, the priestess there would cast on spell on the victim to cure the memory loss." Zed explained.

"Well, if we aren't certain of which syrup was used on her then we can try both remedies, right?" Queen Charlotte asked.

"Your majesty, these remedies have their repercussions if administered wrongly. I mean if the wrong remedy is administered for a particular syrup." Zed said.

"What are the repercussions?" Liam asked.

"A tincture from the root of a black vine will make her lose her memories permanently and we can't even proceed with the next remedy if this one fails." Zed said.

"And the isle of the tender spirits, what is the consequence of administering it wrongly?" Queen Charlotte asked.

"Death. If it is the wrong antidote, the spell will take away her life." Zed answered.

There was a moment of silence before Prince Liam spoke.

"But the priestess you mentioned will know if it is the right remedy before casting the spell, won't she?"

"She never responds to two cases for the same individual. If you want her to diagnose Princess Nardin, then after that we have to find another way to heal her and there is only one way, the way of the priestess."

"What if you just let me be and make new memories?" I said after observing the whole time they were speaking.

"Every victim that has magically lost their memory in twenty-one days will also lose their mind and become irrational or crazy."

"So It should be just one remedy." Queen Charlotte muttered.

"Yes, your majesty." Zed replied.

"Nardin do you not remember even a thing? We need to know who injected the syrup into your system so we can know what kind of magic they use. It definitely would not be Rhal, he has no magic." Queen Charlotte said.

"Then he probably has a network of witches or wizards or even both working with him." Zed said.

"Does the entire kingdom know about my illness?" I asked.

"No one except the three of us, Marco and your maid, Irene knows about it. Why?" Queen Charlotte responded.

"I... I met a woman and she seemed to know about my condition." I said still considering if I should speak about my alleged sister or not.