~The Hidden Enemy~

Chapter 1:~Fading~

Eroan gently placed his wife in a bed in the healing wing and a healer hurried over to Elora and began to examine her. "My King, you cannot be in here," Another healer explained, "You have to leave us to our work," Eroan shook his head in protest. "I'm not leaving her!," he protested. The healer by Elora's side looked up at her King. "You have to leave and let us do our work. The Queen will be in safe hands here," he explained. Callon pulled in Eroan's arm. "Come on, Eroan, come," he said gently. Eroan still didn't move and Eldridge was forced to grab him and drag his protesting King out of the infirmary room and out of the healing wing.

As Eroan was locked up in his and Elora's chambers, Elora laid dying in the infirmary bed as the healers tried to bring the Queen back to consciousness. The healers gave Elora a healing potion to slow down the poison in her body but they knew that they needed to hurry to identify the poison. The Queen's life was slowly slipping away. Alana brought them the tea that was the latest thing of what Elora had eaten/drunken. The healers soon to their shock find out that the tea had actually been poisoned which a very rare poison that they did not have a full antidote for. They become more and more weary for their Queen's life that were slipping away by every minute that passed.

Eroan sat in his chambers, crying as his thoughts circled of his wife who was dying in the healing wing. The doors suddenly unlocked and a healer sadly entered the hall. "You may see the Queen now, Ardor mím," (My King) Eroan looked up at the healer before storming out of the chambers.

Eroan entered Elora's room in the healing wing to see his wife laying motionless in the infirmary bed. He swallowed his tears that threatened to leave his eyes and the healers bowed slightly before they begun leaving the hall, assuming that their King wanting to be alone with their Queen. The head healer looked up at Eroan and sighed. "She is stable but we do not know for how long," he explained, "We have done everything we can for her for now," Eroan nodded understanding and the squeezed his shoulder comfortingly. "I'll come and check on her later," he said before he left the infirmary room, closing the door behind him.

Eroan slowly walked over to Elora's bed and took a chair and sat down by the edge of the bed. He looked at his beautiful wife who was breathing slowly with a blanket over her body and her left hand on her stomach. She looked so peaceful despite the poison that was spreading in her body. He gently took her left hand in his hands and held it against his lips and kissed it. He let out a shaky breath as tears started streaming down his cheeks. "Please... Don't go... Don't leave me... Don't let this take you from me...," he said, trembling with tears in his throat. Elora expectingly did not respond to his words. She just lay in the bed, her breathing still slow and peaceful. Eroan looked down and broke out into more tears of pain and fear for his wife that he might lose her. The love of his heart and soul.

The healer entered some hours later to see if Elora had improved any changes in her condition. But it was still the same. "My Lord, you should get some food and sleep," he explained. Eroan shook his head. "I cannot leave her," he declared in a trembling voice that was filled with pain, tears and fear. The healer sighed. "My Lord, the Kingdom needs you and if you do not sleep, you will get sick too," he explained, "Do not worry. Your wife, the Queen will be safe with me," Eroan stood and reluctantly left the room.

That night, Eroan couldn't sleep. All he could think of was his wife who was dying some halls away from him. He was awakened from his thoughts by the sounds of baby cries from Phalo's childbed. He got out of his bed and lifted his crying son into his arms and tried to soothe him back to sleep gently. "I know you want Namina but she's not here right now," he said softly. He glanced at Talindra who luckily still slept peacefully and didn't show any signs of waking up. He softly kissed his son's forehead and Phalo soon fell back to sleep again. Eroan gently laid him back in the childbed before walking back to his and Elora's bed. He laid down in his side of the bed and pulled the covers over himself before grabbing Elora's silk pillow and hugged it tightly as he fell into an uneven sleep, his head filled with anxious thoughts about his wife.