Collective

Penelope

A soft knock woke Penelope from her third nap of the day.

"Come in." she called, struggling to hide the sleepiness form her voice.

Lyla pushed open the door shyly, unsure.

"Lyla! I didn't expect to see you until tomorrow!" Penelope exclaimed.

Lyla smiled, "I know Miss, but I, I wanted to give you the good news! My sister has been cured!"

Penelope jumped up from the bed in delight, "Oh Lyla! That's wonderful! I'm so glad!"

"My mother tracked down one of the healers on the list, and she made the journey with my sister out to the country town where the healer lives. They had to wait three days, I guess other people hear of the healer and go to ask for help, but the healer saw them. My mother said it only took a minute for the healer to completely cure my sister! We are all just so thankful to you Princess, without you, she probably wouldn't even be alive!"

Penelope blushed, "Oh Lyla, I just did what anyone would!" she insisted, eyes downturned.

Lyla looked like she was gathering her courage before she spoke. "Not anyone Miss. I don't mean any disrespect but, when I asked the Queen for help, even though she has known me for years as your personal servant, she said of course not. In fact, she admonished me for even asking. 'Why' she said, 'Would a mighty queen deign to use her powers on a simple servant's girl's ailing sister? It wasn't her place to interfere with nature.'"

Penelope blushed deeper, feeling shame for her mother.

"But," continued Lyla, "The very next week I was standing behind you at dinner when Duchess Emory came up to pay her respects. She apologized for being late, and said it was because she had developed a slight cough, which was slowing her down. She then gave a rather unconvincing mime of a cough."

Lyla paused, and Penelope had a dreadful feeling she wouldn't like where this was going.

"The Queen stated that she couldn't have her court taking ill and announced that she would heal her right then and there. And she did. She put her hands on her throat and focused her power. And then Duchess Emory couldn't stop saying how her throat felt better than it had in years."

Lyla took in Penelope's expression and added, "I'm not saying this to make you feel bad Princess. I know my words amount to treason. I'm only telling you so that you start to believe what I already see: you are a good person."

Penelope nodded. "I know Lyla. Thank you for sharing with me. And I am so sorry my mother treated you in that manner."

"There is no need to apologize." Lyla smiled again and curtsied toward Penelope, "I should go now. I just wanted to let you know about my sister, and thank you again."

"Of course Lyla. It was my pleasure." Penelope smiled as Lyla ducked back out the door, dropping the happy expression as soon as she was gone.

It just didn't make sense. If the few under 18 healers in the country were so swamped by people, that there were 3 day waits to be healed, then wasn't there a need for more healers? Surely, the healing power could not rise up and overtake the crown. How dangerous could healing be?

Even as Penelope thought it, visions of the garden power she'd attempted to absorb exploding throughout the receiving room came to mind. Sometimes seemingly innocent powers were more nefarious than one might think. But still, wasn't the greater good more important here? People were dying because there was no way to heal them. And taking away more healing powers would only make the problem worse. In a country with only one healer, and one who refuses to heal anyone at that, unnecessary deaths undoubtedly ran rampant.

The unpleasant thoughts made Penelope restless. Days had gone by since she'd gotten the healing power list for Lyla, and in those days, literally nothing had happened. Penelope had not even left her room. She was afraid to request the presence of her mother. She wasn't sure she wanted to know what the abandonment meant. If she was honest with herself, she was scared.

But that, she thought to herself now, was exactly why she needed to do something, get out of this room, take risks. She needed to become stronger. Who knew when she would need to protect herself. She wanted to be ready.

Without pausing to think things through more carefully, she took on the appearance of a random young boy she had seen at the market. He'd been a shopkeepers son, and definitely did not work at the palace, so there was no chance of running into him. Penelope projected a servant's uniform onto him, and carefully emerged from her room.

With no destination in mind, she freely wandered the halls, steering clear of the Queen's quarters and offices, in an abundance of caution.

Before long, she noticed Duchess Brianna and Duke Chester whispering in a corner. Slowing to a crawl like walk, she strained her ears to hear, before she remembered the sensory power she had absorbed from a young blonde girl a few months ago. Focusing, she stopped walking altogether, kneeling to pretend to scrub at the wall, out of normal hearing distance of the couple, and enhanced her hearing to listen.

"Aren't you concerned at what it could mean?" Duchess Brianna sounded panicked, and rather frantic.

"Calm down. I'm sure it's nothing. A fluke. Arianna has never been the strongest among us." Duke Chester's voice was placating.

"What does that have to do with anything? Strength doesn't matter if you're getting stripped of everything!"

"Look, we know powers are related to our minds and are entwined with our hearts. She must have had a change of heart about something, or a weak mind. The powers must have just detached somehow."

Detached somehow? Powers? What were they talking about?

"Ariana said she doesn't know how it happened, but I heard, I heard..." Duchess Brianna trailed off in apparent terror.

"You heard what?" Duke Chester coaxed her.

"I heard one of the guards say they think it happened when she touched that girl."

"Girl?"

"The girl who's powers she was trying to remove. The girl had offended her and Arianna reached out to take her powers. But the guard said something went wrong, you could see it. She said Arianna was blasted backward by the force of the touch."

"I'm sure that's an exaggeration. What girl was this? What have they done with her?"

"Apparently she's in the jail. No one is sure what to do with her. Everyone is afraid to go near her. At least, absorbers are. And what does it matter if it's an exaggeration? If it's true...if there's a girl who can...take all our powers..."

Penelope heard the clatter of the brush she was holding hitting the floor but barely noticed. The two royals startled, and immediately bustled off down the hallway, glaring at Penelope as they passed.

Vaguely, Penelope wondered if she had offended them so much they'd try to take her powers away. What a shock they would get if they tried. But of course, they were too spooked by the situation with Arianna to try to take anyone's powers at the moment.

Could what they said be true? Had Arianna really lost all of her powers? And because of....a girl?

If it was true, it changed everything. No such power had ever existed before, the implications of such a thing would be catastrophic.

Penelope suddenly realized something. Regardless of the truth of the royal's hypothesis about this girl, she was in grave danger. If word got around to the Queen that there was a person capable of taking away the Queen's powers, that person was as good as dead.

Penelope stood up squarely and rushed back down the hall toward her room. She had to get to this girl before her mother did.