ARCHIE

Eve’s healing journal for prince Luke lay on my desk. I asked her to turn them in because I wanted to see the records myself as well as the drug samples she used before they were submitted to the healing bank. After what happened last time, we needed to be very cautious.

    As I carefully looked through them, I realised how non-conventional the formulas used were. They seemed practical, but I would have never been able to come up with them. I was certain she hadn’t learnt them in school so how had she come up with something so brilliant.

    Has she seen this procedure used before? If Megan ever saw these, she would definitely want to question the child. The temptation to change what she had written was very strong, but that wasn’t right either. Hopefully, this wouldn’t draw too much attention. 

    There was a knock on the door. It was probably Robert. He was currently a guard at Megan’s household, but he worked for me.

    “Come in.”

    “My lord,” he said as he bowed in greeting.

    “Well”

    “I found something this time.”

Now, that was good news. We have been trying for 8 months now, but the security at her house was second to none. Ever since I came across a file she left at a client’s house, I became very curious about what she was doing in her private labs. I needed concrete evidence to confirm my suspicions before making a case in council, so I put Robert up to the task. I wasn’t proud of my actions and had felt so bad for putting Robert in a dangerous position, but after Megan’s last stunt, I was more than certain I was on the right track.

    He handed a file over to me and dressed back, giving me some privacy. The content of the document got me horrified. This woman was crazier than I thought. What kind of monsters was she trying to create with all this specific genetic modification? How could any of this be authorised by the council and who were her test subjects?

    The file contained detailed information on some experiments she had carried and how her subjects responded to the procedures. There were reports on the ones she deemed successful and modifications she would like to make to the ones she deemed failures.

    “Are you sure you left no traces behind?” I asked.

    “None my lord”

    “Good”

    The ideal thing to do would be to get rid of him. He knew too much already and might already be privy to the content of this document, but I couldn’t bring myself to do him any harm. “You may leave.”

    He heaved a sigh of relief, gave a low bow and left horridly. I watched him retreat and chuckled to myself. He knew I should have gotten rid of him because of all he knew. Hopefully, he’s smart enough to keep his mouth shut and not get caught.

    On my order, an appeal was sent to the 1^st royal requesting permission to visit. Meagan had obviously gone out of control and needed to be called to order. With this evidence, I could prove that.

* * *

    A guard led me to his liege’s private chambers the moment I arrived. My appeal to visit had been approved immediately, and I was given a set time to come. Tightening my grip on the file I planned to submit, I followed along. I hadn’t been here in so long, but everything looked the same.

    His liege stood by the corner of the wall with a filled glass in his hand, gazing out the window when we arrived at the doorway of his chambers. He seemed lost in thoughts.

    “My liege,” the guard that led me in said as he went down on one knee. He dared not proceed further,

   Charles turned toward the general direction of the disturbance and beamed when he sighted me.     

    “Come on in Archie. You haven’t come to see me in a while. I prepared a feast”

    He made a gesture with his hands pointing towards the left. I followed the trail. A long table filled with assorted dishes was on display before my eyes.

    “I had them make your favourites”

   “My liege, am honoured”

    “No need for titles between us. You used to call me Charles.” He said.

    Indeed I did, but that was a long time ago. Taking a deep breath, I walked to the table. Thankfully, he seemed genuinely happy to see me. I had come to report a mutual friend, it was beneficial for me that he was in a good mood.

    Maids rushed in quickly. They pulled out a chair for me, which I accepted then they went ahead to serve the delicious meal.

    Throughout the meal, his Liege kept reminiscing about old times, leaving me with no chance to bring up the reason I had really come. The maids were always present as well, making it more difficult for me to talk. I couldn’t divulge such sensitive information in their midst.

    After what seemed like an eternity, he finally quieted down and emptied the room, his expression suddenly turning serious “I know why you came”

    “You do?” I asked surprised

    “You did the right thing by coming to me directly. You could have gone straight to the council”

    “Why do you think I’m here?” I asked. Charles was the master of mind games. I needed to be certain he wasn’t playing with me.

    “You are here to report Megan,” he replied.

    What in the name of... How had he found out? My mouth fell wide open in shock. Had Robert spilled the beans?

    “Don’t look so surprised, Archie. I know you are here to make complaints about Megan, I do not know what you plan on complaining about. My seer couldn’t decipher that piece of information. He is an incompetent fool.”

    “Your seer? Didn’t your father ban the practice of using them,” I said, horrified at what I was hearing

    “My father is no longer with us,” He replied calmly

    He was right, his highness was dead. Charles was the Liege now. I had no business questioning his authority. 

    “Forgive me my liege. I was taken aback by the news and lost my sense of reasoning.”

     He waved the air nonchalantly. “Let me see what you have”  

I handed the file over to him quickly and watched his expression as he flipped through the pages. There was no significant change in them, just a casual expression like he was reading the papers.

He glanced up. “How did you get this?”

Was that what interested him? How I found this document?

“I had some help,” I replied vaguely.

Closing the file, he placed it by his side and helped himself to the glass before him. Thankfully, he didn’t press for more answers.

He nodded. “I will look into this.”

With that, I was dismissed. He didn’t return the file to me and I dared not ask.

    Long after I arrived home, the visit still weighed heavily on my mind. I couldn’t quite explain how I felt about it. It seemed his highness already knew what Megan was doing, but I had no way of proving it. He didn’t even seem surprised.

    One thing was certain, Megan wasn’t doing that all by herself. She was at least getting financial help from someone. She wasn’t financially buoyant enough to fund those expensive procedures all by herself. I had had several theories about who they might be, but his highness had never been on my list. Now, I didn’t know what to think anymore.

    The most depressing thing about this was that I had made no photocopies of the documents and the most surprising was his highness admitting he employed gifts of seers. He knew the repercussions of doing that. How could he be so cruel? Was he still the same person I once knew or had the times changed him too? It had definitely changed me.