Royal AU: Yellow Jessamine

Smoke and Mirrors

Everything stayed quiet for a few minutes until Das finally returned, opening the door silently and looking at Sky. He didn't say anything, but simply nodded at the man to follow him out of the room.

He watched her slowly doze off to sleep until she had let go of his wrist fully, the young man gently stroking her head as she seemed to sleep although he felt overly worried about her. When Das had returned and signed him to follow him out he nodded as well and carefully stood from the chair quietly making his way out and briefly looked back at her in-between, before being outside of her room

The man silently closed the door to let her sleep and stayed quiet for a while before whispering softly. "I don't think I've seen her fall asleep so easily since weeks now. She kept struggling so much...and you accomplished it in a matter of minutes?" He commented, scoffing "I guess it was good to bring you here after all. Now come, I need to show you something." He said, walking with him through the halls with his arms behind his back.

He raised his eyebrows softly at the comment and spoke just as quietly "Oh- I was not aware. But I'm glad I could help" he said with a brief smile before he nodded and went to follow him through the halls "Say Das, how long was she this..sick?" He asked a little hesitantly

"That depends." The man spoke with his normal tone now since they were far enough. "Because the symptoms began the weekend before your marriage" he said, glaring at him briefly before he looked forward again "But this badly? Probably since a month." He answered truthfully, entering a room with him and closing the door behind. "Have a seat" he said as he also sat down by a table which had some stuff on it, tangling his fingers together.

He seemed overly surprised at the answer ".. She's been getting sick for multiple months already?—..Oh dear" he mumbled and followed him into the room taking a seat by the table as he was told to and glanced towards Das "..Alright, I'm all ears" he seemed to be already quite attentive

He didn't seem to waste much time as he simply slid a burnt arrow across the table. "Do you know what this is?" He asked, furrowing his eyebrows. At first it didn't seem to be anything weird, but soon enough he spoke up again. "Our kingdom has been under attack in these last weeks. Robberies, fires, and much more... it all happened at night." He explained, putting his hands together "Flora's conditions worsened a lot due to this. She wanted to defend the kingdom even in these conditions and it left her unable to recover at all."

He looked down to the object and tilted his head slightly "Well- it appears to be an arrow" he answered before Das spoke again explaining that they had been attacked in the last weeks, the prince seeming quite worried at these news "Goodness, that's terrible—...Are they still attacking the kingdom?" He asked

"Oh, not now that you're here" he scoffed, taking the arrow back and turning the point a little, tapping it. "You know, this material can't be found just anywhere, it's not regular stone nor metal." Das pointed out, setting it down again. "Coincidentally, it does happen to be found in the mines closest to the Yellow Kingdom. The one of your wife, yes?" He explained a little, as if trying to hint him towards who he thought the attackers might be.

"Now that I'm here?" He repeated a little confused at that before he was told that the material used for the arrows are found closest to his wife's kingdom, raising his eyebrows slightly at that. "..You think that the attackers were sent by the Yellow Kingdom?" He asked to be sure but didn't seem to be doubting anything yet

"I don't think so, I know so. There's no doubt" he said, crossing his arms and leaning onto the table. "And there's a specific reason why. And I was hoping Flora would tell you herself, but..." he glanced away a little, furrowing his eyebrows. "...I'm not sure. Recently she's-" Das inhaled deeply, bringing a hand to his head for support. "...She seems so lifeless. It looks like she's only acting like she's not. She really lost that spark in her and with her conditions worsening daily, I'm not- I'm not sure how many more weeks she'll be alive, honestly" he admitted, staring down at the table. "She recovers a little, and then wastes her energy to protect the kingdom. Maybe now that you're here, the attacks will really stop and she'll have a chance of slight recovery, but... there's no way to cure the disease as it is now. It's going to keep growing inside of her." He explained more in detail, closing his eyes as if it also pained him to talk about it. "Me, Michael... we did everything we could."