Vanessa's childhood and her years in Vesuvia before the plague

Chapter four

A couple of days after Vanessa's arrival at the palace, she fell unconscious and was laying under the water. Nadia was taking a walk around the palace when she suddenly felt drawn to a certain palace bathroom. When she first walked in, she didn't see anything out of the ordinary and was going to leave but she felt compelled to walk further into the room. When she got close enough to the bath, she saw Vanessa and audibly gasped out of shock as she wasn't expecting to see a mermaid let alone one who was unconscious. "Oh god! Oh no, that's not good! I really hope she isn't dead" Nadia muttered to herself as she ran out the bathroom, calling for Julian and a servant to get Lucio. She walked back into the bathroom and sat by the bath looking over at Vanessa- looking for some sign that she was alive. 

Julian came running into the room. "Nadia, what is it? What  happened?" He asked walking over. Nadia, still in shock, just pointed to the unconscious mermaid as she had no words for it. "Oh no, no no" Julian said, getting into the bath. Propping Vanessa's head that was submerged underwater, he frantically began to check her pulse with his two fingers on her wrist.

"Her heart rate is faint..." Julian blurted while immediately going on to do chest compressions on the motionless mermaid. Desperately trying to regain life into her, suddenly Vanessa began to cough raspily- revealing her shallow breathing. A flicker of hope arose within the Doctor as he started to look at signs on why she fell unconscious. Realisation hit him when he held up Vanessa's arm, unveiling the deep cut that Lucio had previously scratched- however it now had swelled and looked alarmingly greenish.

Feeling dumbfounded and full of regret, Julian mumbled to himself, " I completely forgot that I didn't get to treat her wound! Now it's been exposed to the air and become infected. I need to act quick, she's of different species- she won't survive very long with this,".

Meanwhile, the servant (Chamberlain) had gone to collect the Count. Distracted in his library with mercenary work, Lucio was abruptly distracted by Chamberlain's commands.

"Count Lucio, there's an emergency. Nadia needs you right away!" Chamberlain shrieked.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Lucio bellowed, slightly frustrated by the sudden news, "What does she need anyways?".

Walking with Chamberlain who was escorting him to Nadia, he mumbled "I am not sure about that, I guess that's what you'll have to find out, Count Lucio,". Rolling his eyes, Lucio reluctantly followed however he became familiar with the route they were taking.

"Hang on... we're going towards the bathroom where we kept Vanessa. Did Nadia find out? No, this cannot be happening..." Lucio pondered as he began to contemplate if he should floor it and not face Nadia however it was too late. The Countess stood before him, her violet eyes filled with fury and perplextion.

"Well, I guess I'll leave you here with the Countess for a good discussion..." the servant chimed however cut off by Julian's distressing demands.

"CHAMBERLAIN! I need to treat an infected wound so get me some wine, herbal ointments and some silk cloth immediately! You'll find them in my lab!" Julian alerted from the bathroom. Instantly, the servant hurried off to get the supplies yet was halted by Nadia who whined, "Wait a minute Chamberlain! Can you get me a glass of wine as well? I think I'll need it to get through this conversation...". The servant nodded and scurried off.

"What conversation?" Lucio asked playing dumb as if there isn't an endangered species in the room next door that could die at any moment because of him.

"Oh really? I just found a mermaid in my bathroom! Do I really need to explain myself? Because it seems here that you are the one who needs to explain themselves" Nadia said.

"Yeah especially as this mermaid could die" Julian yelled out from the bathroom.

"Wait what? What do you mean she could die?" Lucio asked, sounding worried. "I asked these pirates to get me a rare exotic fish for my menagerie but they bought me a mermaid instead and well she tried to escape-" Lucio started but was interrupted by Julian yelling out,

"Bullshit! He got too handsy with her so she tried to escape and he scratched her arm with his claws,"

"Yeah..." Lucio sighed, giving up on attempting to lie to Nadia, " that happened and she wouldn't trust me nor would she trust Julian after that, that's all I have to say for myself".

Julian left Vanessa for a second to join the count and countess, " Because of him, Vanessa wouldn't trust me to go near her so I couldn't treat her arm. Now it's infected and she could die from it" Julian explained.

Looking at them with panicked eyes, Nadia urged, "Well, what are you doing? You're the ones who brought her here so you should be responsible for caring for her,"

"Hold on a minute! I had no part to play in bringing her here. This was all Lucio's doing, I was only treating her wounds!" Julian defensively uttered.

"Okay fine then- Lucio! What has gotten into you! Do you not have the decency as the Count of Vesuvia to take responsibility for Vanessa and what happens to her? Yet, you were just sitting in your office like nothing happened!" Nadia yelled as she turned to face the flustered Lucio.

"Great, so I'm the one to blame now..." Lucio cried with agitation.

"Yes!" Both Nadia and Julian asserted in union.

Julian continued, "Of course you are, you brought her here and you're the reason she could die! I say you should be responsible for her death if she does die!"

Feeling slightly cornered and defenceless, Lucio muttered, "Fine then! I'll take the responsibility. Once Vanessa has been treated, I'll get the servants to prepare her a bath in the guest room so she can be monitored throughout the night. I guess that's all I can do right now."

Chamberlain soon came back with the things Julian needed and the glass of wine for Nadia.

Julian took the items he needed from Chamberlain and rushed back into the bathroom and over to Vanessa.

'Vanessa, can you hear me? I'm just going to put some antiseptic remedies on your wound, I promise it won't hurt too much...' Julian whispered as he prepared the ointments beside him. Quickly, Vanessa jolted with all her might left in her feeble body to move away from Julian.

'No! I don't want your help. I'm fine, I don't trust you...' Vanessa whimpered weakly.

'Vanessa I know you don't trust me and consent is a huge thing that does stop me from doing procedures to a patient. However I have to help you and treat your wound because your safety and health is at risk. So for your safety, I will have to disregard you saying no to my help and helping you' Julian explained softly but firmly.

Vanessa went to argue back but didn't have the energy to so she let Julian treat her arm. Julian helped Vanessa move closer to him as he carefully applied the antiseptic ointments to her arm. Once he had done that, he wrapped it up tight in the silk cloth. 'There I'm done, in a little while I'm going to move you to a smaller bath in a guest room so I can properly monitor your health and how you are healing' Julian explained.

Vanessa nodded in understanding as she curled up and leaned against the edge of the bath.