"Adria. Adria!" A girl with chin-length black hair shouted as she shook her awake
"Judy?"
'Am I back home?'
"How do you think you will become a soldier if it's this hard to wake you up?" Judy, who looked no older than 16, stared at Adria with a disappointed look on her face.
'Guess not.'
The realization that this was just a cruel dream, a memory of something that had already happened, caused a bitter smile to rise on Adria's face.
"Mom's making steak for breakfast to celebrate your semi-finals victory. You should get up before Dad finishes all of it."
"Good morning to you, too, Judy." A yawn escaped her as she stretched her arms.
"Morning? It's already 7, sis." Judy raised her left eyebrow mockingly. "You consider anything past 5 am to be noon."
A light giggle almost made its way out of Adria's mouth, but sadness quickly took its place.
'Why did I have to dream about this of all things?'
"Alright, fine. You can leave now. I want to get changed."
The last thing she wanted to do was kick Judy out, but the mere sight of her face formed a crack in her spirit.
Adria stood up from her bed—the hope that she could see her parents before inevitably waking up, driving her forward.
'I wonder if the steak will taste as good as I remember.'
"My lady." Lucie's voice shattered the dream.
A sigh escaped her lips. "I'll see you later, Judy."
Daylight greeted Adria first; Lucie's face came into view moments later.
"Oh, my lady. Good morning."
"…Morning, Lucie."
"We should get you ready, my lady. The physician is to be here soon."
'Looking at her now, she reminds me a lot of Judy.'
***
The door of the guest room opened slowly—Adria stepped in a moment later. Charles was sitting on the sofa at the centre of the room, his eyes focused on the window.
"Good morning," Adria said, a hint of hesitation cracking from her voice.
Charles snapped his head towards the door at such speed that you'd think he was caught doing something he shouldn't be doing. "…Morning, Kath."
"Where's everybody else?" she asked as she sat down on the sofa across from him.
"The physician will arrive soon."
"No, I mean, where's mother and father?"
"Clearly not here, as you can see," Charles said in a sarcastic tone before quickly regretting it. "…I didn't tell them that the physician was checking on you today."
Adria—unable to hide her confusion—asked, "And why not?"
"It's just like you said—what if you haven't really gotten better?" Charles stopped for a moment. "…I wouldn't want to give father false hope."
Words wanted to leave Adria's mouth, but she had no idea where to start.
The room was silent for a moment before Charles' words cut through it, "And you owe me one by the way."
"What? Why?"
"What do you mean by 'why'? Do you know how hard it was to get a holy physician behind father's back?" he said—a half-serious, half-joking tone dripping from his words.
"You are meant to be a knight. You should be doing this from the goodness of your heart," Adria retorted while pointing her index finger at him.
"I'm doing this from the goodness of my heart, and I also want you to owe me one. Two things can be true at once." Charles smiled as he turned his head back to the window.
For a long moment, they just sat there in the room—quiet.
'He mentioned a holy physician, didn't he? Wouldn't that be bad for me?'
'What if he's able to see that my soul doesn't belong to this body?'
A knock on the door swiftly broke through that thick fog of silence.
"Come in," Charles said, his eyes turning towards the door.
"Greeting, my Lady. Greetings, young master." The physician said as he got in. "May the goddess of health be with you."
Charles stood up and lightly bowed. "May the goddess of health be with you."
Not wanting to bring any attention to herself, Adria quickly picked up her cane and copied him.
"How have you been, Lady Katherine?" the physician asked as he set his tools on the table between the sofas.
"I'm… fine," Adria stuttered as the words left her mouth.
"If that's true, then I'm happy." The old man's face softened. "But why are you acting so stiff all of a sudden, my Lady? Even though I haven't been here in a long time, I didn't expect you to forget me so quickly." The physician sniffled as if he was holding back tears.
"Stop joking around, Sir Alaric," Charles said as he lowered his head and rubbed his nose bridge. "We're a bit tight on time. Just run the tests on her quickly."
The physician looked at Adria. "I see young master Charles still acts like this." He then started mixing something in a small flask. "How does he expect to get a wife if he has such a foul temper?"
"What's that?" The question slipped from Adria's lips before she noticed.
"Oh, this?" Sir Alaric pointed at the flask. "It's a potion meant to assist me in analysing your body. It has a small amount of god essence in it."
'God essence?'
"But didn't I explain this to you last time, Lady Katherine?"
'Crap. What do I say now?'
"Sir Alaric. We really don't have the time for this." Charles interrupted.
"Oh, right. My apologies." Sir Alaric quickly handed Adria the potion. "Here. Drink this so that we can begin."
Adria held it in her hands—the shiny golden colour of the liquid almost blinding her.
'Bottoms up.'
Her body reacted to the liquid and began to burn up. Adria glanced down at her shaky hands, confusion clouding her judgment.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Oh, the potion has already taken effect?" Sir Alaric put gloves on his hands. "I didn't expect it to react that quickly."
"See, young master Charles. We will be able to finish the tests on time."