Of Gears and Humanity

| 04.1

[ELENA]

The castle servants placed lunch around the table. A selection of fruits, varying from berries to bananas, to all sorts of oranges grown in the royal orchard. Beside the colorful plates were slices of meats, cubes of cheese, and cut bread. On any other day, I would've dove into the spread and made a small mountain of delicacies on my plate. This time I couldn't.

As my father served himself beside me, laughing with Theo about the planned tour at the end of the month, I focused on my empty glass and untouched fork. At least, to someone looking at me from around the room, that was how I appeared.

On the inside, I was screaming.

I couldn't focus on lunch when my brain frantically backtracked through the steps I'd taken from the Gate back home. Had I dropped it by the wall? Could it literally be sitting on the ground on the scorched earth? Or had I dropped it on the way back home? Perhaps it was in the forest, calling for me? Oh, my mother's spirit had to be yelling at me for this mistake.

"Elena?" My father leaned close from his end of the table. I turned my head slightly to look at him, just in time to see his smile peak from beneath his curly beard. With a twinkle in his eye and a slice of bread in hand, he nodded before looking at the food in front of us. "Aren't you hungry? It isn't like you to skip lunch."

I'm always hungry, I know. Forcing a smile, I dipped my head so my dark locks fell one way over my shoulder. "I'll eat," I said to him.

His brows lifted. The light from the sun coming in through the castle windows cast a glow in his brown eyes, bringing the gold in them. They reminded me much of my own. "Will you?" he asked, taking a bite of his bread. "It's good, you know. The cooks had the freshest ingredients with this lunch. The harvest has been plentiful this year."

"Mhm." For a moment, I held my breath. My mind continued to wonder, wander; my thoughts tried everything to pinpoint my mother's journal. If someone found those pages and learned where they'd come from, my father would be angry. I would be in the deepest trouble. My mother may have gone on tours with him, but many of her notes were done on solo walks, her own adventures.

Had he known of her travels to the Gate? Had she kept the secret from him?

"Elena wasn't feeling well today, your majesty," Theo said from his corner of the table. My eyes shot up to look at him as he partly defended me; I hadn't told him I was ill, he simply assumed. But the lie could work in my favor.

"Not feeling well?" My father leaned back in his chair as he looked at me. Concern was etched on his face. "Elena, why haven't you seen the doctor? She could check you, see if all is well, and if needed, provide you with the medicines to cure your ailments."

My lips thinned. My eyes widened. If being sick made it easy to slip away from the table, then I just had to be. I had to feign illness.

My father frowned. "Is this why I didn't see you at the lake, Elena? Have you been ill since this morning?"

The lake. The beginnings of my royal coronation. Where I was supposed to have been this morning? In my panic to save my life, I'd forgotten.

But I feeding off the information, I continued to lie.

"Yes." I had to play the part; to be ill, be sick. Without a second thought, I let my head drop against the table so my cheek pressed against the empty plate. My father gasped because it was so sudden. And when I wrapped my hands around my stomach, he quickly stood and placed his hand on my back.

I continued as I squeezed my eyes shut, "Very ill. My stomach. It hurts so."

"My sweet child," my father muttered before calling out around the room. "Quickly, bring me the castle doctor! My daughter is ill and in need of care! Princess Elena is—"