The Exam

A week passed in a blur.

"Now." Laine sighed and shook her head. "The doctor is a bit...rough around the edges, but he has a good heart. Just tell me if he gets too rude, dear. I'll set him straight."

"Alright. I will, don't worry, Laine."

"Good girl. Let's go, then."

Walking was...tiring, but it wasn't nearly as hard as it once was. She could take a few steps without having to lean on Laine, at least, which was a positive improvement.

They made it to the doctor's office with minimal trouble.

It was a surprisingly normal looking room, with the soft colors on the walls and a smell of something medicinal in the air.

She was quickly seated and then the doctor began examining her.

"Hm."

He leaned in close to her eyes.

"Can you see?"

"I can." She murmured.

He looked at her ears.

"Hear?"

"Yes."

"Take a deep breath."

She did.

"Again. Again."

"Now cough."

She coughed.

"Hm. Hmn. Very impressive for a dead girl."

Laine squawked. "She is fully alive!"

"Yes. Somehow." The man squinted at her, as if he could find some answer even she didn't know just by staring. "Your fever broke?"

"Yes, sir. About a week ago, I think?"

The doctor turned and stared at Laine. "Why did you wait a week to bring her here...?"

"She was weak, she couldn't even stand on her own."

"So you should have brought her in immediately, fool woman. She is in a fragile state!"

He waved some tool at the woman. "What would you have done if she took a sudden downturn and I, the only doctor anywhere nearby, thought she'd already died? Mmh?"

Laine stared at him and sighed.

"...I'm sorry. I didn't consider it like that."

The man gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Well. It seems you've lucked out. Against all logic, she seems to be improving. Astonishing."

She swallowed. "Does that mean I'll get my strength back...?"

"Hm? Ah. Probably. I've never seen a survivor of the Quickening at such an advanced stage, you know. Few have. You must be extremely lucky to have survived."

He looked at her in a way that said he doubted that luck.

He crossed his arms. "However. Don't be fooled. A simple cold would put you deep in the ground. With the damage the Quickening's done to your body, it's likely you will never regain the strength you once had."

Well.

That was...

Not encouraging.

"...Oh. Thank you, sir."

"As it stands, it is unclear if you will ever recover completely. Truthfully, someone whose Quickening progresses as far as yours tends to only get worse, never better." He waved at her, no doubt indicating her strange appearance.

"When you look like this, your body is dedicating all of its energy just to stop it from wasting you away any further. That you're recovering from that flu at all is. Bizarre. Mildly disturbing."

Laine coughed not-so-politely. "She is healing because she is blessed."

The doctor openly rolled his eyes.

"Well. Don't get too attached to her. If she takes any kind of a downturn her health will shatter and she likely won't survive past the night she gets her first cough. That's the nature of the Quickening. It consumes."

"...Thank you for your honesty, doctor."

A light of defiance and determination burned in Laine's eyes, and she visibly bit her lip.

It was...

Nice.

Rache didn't understand the disease she'd apparently woken up with, but. Laine clearly cared.

And that.

That was something she felt in her heart, like a warm glow.

The doctor wandered off then, and Laine immediately came to her side, gently easing her arm around Rache. "Alright. Are you alright? That man is..."

Rache smiled up at her. "It's alright, Laine. I'm doing just fine. Thank you for bringing me to the doctor."

"Of course, of course, my dear." Laine smiled warmly back at her. "Come. Let's disturb that doctor even more with a full recovery. Yes?"

She laughed a little, and the two of them made their way back through the hallways.

Her legs were more than a little shaky by the end of it, but.

She did make it back to her room.

Progress!

***

Despite the doctor's doubts, her recovery actually sped up.

By midway through the second week since she woke up in the world of her favorite book, she was able to walk without Laine's help at all.

She still got winded easily, and maid work was apparently a no-go, but her progress was undeniable.

Laine looked at her as if she were some kind of celebrity.

She took Rache to visit the maid's club - a small area of the kitchen where the maids of the palace gathered to eat and gossip with each other.

Apparently they all knew her, but of course, she had no memory of any of them.

Still, they were kind, and eager to feed her sweets while she rested from the walk to the kitchen.

She didn't have any real friends in her life back on Earth - she was too busy actually working to befriend coworkers, and she was much to introverted to go leaving her house and making friends when she was off-work.

Instead of making friends, she just bought books.

Half the time she didn't even read the books she bought, actually. She was a bit of a slow reader, and she enjoyed Auberon's Edge enough that she kept reading that over and over.

Now that she was here, though...

Maybe...

This wouldn't be a bad place to start.

After all, the more friends she had, the easier it would be to get out of Aurania with them.

"Whoa! You really are better!" One of the younger women gasped.

She looked at Rache with wide, surprised eyes.

"You know, most people who get sick that badly with the Quickening die. But you didn't! You didn't, and you got better. Amazing, right?"

"She's right. You got better. Now you're even prettier than before! Not fair, that's not fair. Ahh, you look just like a delicate royal! I guess that means the maids have their own princess~!"

Rache laughed nervously at that.

She could see that her 'illness' and subsequent recovery had become the subject of gossip in the castle.

"Ah, and Princess Airie's wedding is going to be soon!" A third maid, with long blonde hair, spoke. "Prince Donncahd will be here soon. I hear he intends to take Airie back to Sidera to have the marriage ceremony."

The first sighed. "How sad. We won't get to attend the princess' wedding..."

"But you know, the more important thing is the alliance between our nations." Another maid spoke, this one with short brown hair. "The fact that Princess Airie is giving herself for Aurania's sake is a heroic act. Princess Airie is an inspiration for us all."

"For the alliance..."

"Everyone in Aurania knows she's sacrificing herself for us." The fourth maid sighed and shook her head. "To marry such a dreadful monster..."

"Isn't it sad?"

"Sad."

"So tragic."

The conversation quickly turned to Princess Airie, and her wedding to Prince Donncahd.

Rache had to bite her tongue, not to slip up and make it worse with the knowledge she had. It wouldn't feel right offering hollow comfort to them when she knew what would happen to Airie.

But then...

She frowned and stared down at the drink that Laine had poured for her.

If she stayed silent...

Would she be to blame for Airie's death too? For all the deaths that came for Aurania? Including any of the maids here that didn't escape?

She licked her lips and glanced up.

The conversation had shifted towards the maid's club gossiping about members of the military.

It was her chance to speak up.

"Are...there any plans to evacuate Aurania?"

The maid's all turned to her.

"Eh?"

"Evacuate?"

"That's silly!"

Rache tried to suppress the panic she was feeling at suddenly becoming the center of attention.

"Aren't you worried that the prince will... Will..."

She could feel her face heating up with embarrassment, and she clasped her hands in front of her skirt.

"Um. Kill the princess and destroy the nation of Aurania...?"

The maids stared at her in silence for a long moment.

Finally, one began to laugh, and the others followed. Short of Laine - but Laine had stepped away briefly.

"Ah, we shouldn't laugh..." The blonde sighed and patted Rache's hand. "It's very hard to deal with the Quickening. You can't be blamed for such things."

The brunette nodded then. "Prince Donncahd is terrible, but it was his family who suggested this alliance. If they desire peace through marriage, they certainly can't go and kill the princess, can they?"

"Besides. Princess Airie is the pride of Aurania. Prince Donncahd is too intelligent to murder a nation's only princess."

"Yeah, and he'd be an idiot to risk an alliance with Aurania. We can be quite impressive if we have to be. He simply wouldn't dare."

The other maids sniffed and nodded along.

It seemed they were willing to gossip about mistreatment, but the moment she tried to suggest that he might go through with it, they rejected it.

She sighed and took a sip of her drink.

Convincing them to escape would be difficult, it seemed.

But.

Well, she did have a good amount of time yet. So long as Princess Airie was not yet Queen Airie, she was pretty sure Donncahd wouldn't make his move.

By then...

She'd be long out of Aurania. Of that she was certain.