Stolen by the Rebel King
Chapter 435: Foreign Anomaly I

Chapter 435: Foreign Anomaly I

"No, no I haven’t," Sirona muttered despondently. She closed her eyes in despair for a brief moment before she gathered herself and offered help to the older queen. "I rushed straight for Daphne the moment I heard that she had fallen. Queen Lavinia, how bad is Daphne’s situation?"

For once, there was no hint of a smile on the genial queen’s face.

"You did a good job with stemming the bleeding so far, and I’ve also done my best to aid her recovery by making her blood flow towards the necessary organs, but Queen Daphne’s life force is in jeopardy," Queen Lavinia said with a sigh. "Someone has to contact King Atticus, and fast. I do not want him to possibly miss his beloved’s passing."

Sirona paled at her ominous words. She would ask Jonah to call Atticus, but the two fools were still off in the mines. Even if they rushed back, they would only arrive when the sun rose on the very next morning.

Gods. Atticus was going to lose his mind. She took out the piece of sodalite Atticus left her for emergencies and proceeded to send a frisson of magic through it, hoping for a reply. However, there was no one on the other end. She cursed under her breath and took out another sodalite piece, this time for Jonah. There was a brief crackle on the other end before she heard Jonah’s voice on the other end.

"Hey Sirona, what’s the matter?" he asked, immediately worried. After all, Sirona wasn’t fond of casual calls.

"Daphne lost the baby and she might lose her life too," Sirona said, summarizing the entire shitshow in one sentence. "Where is Atticus and why can’t I reach him? When can you guys come back?"

"We’ll be back as soon as possible," Jonah said frantically, "I’ll have to look for him― there was this freak sandstorm that happened near the mines and we ended up splitting up. He must have lost his sodalite. I’ll find him and bring him to the palace. Please, save Daphne. I know you can do it, Sirona, you’re the best healer I know!"

"I’ll keep Daphne alive, so you’d better make sure the both of you come back safely. Goodbye," Sirona said, her voice choking up while she thought of the terrifying alternative.

Gods, they were stuck in a sandstorm? Misfortunes did not come singly.

Next to her, Queen Lavinia’s eyes were grim as she contacted her own husband. Calarian was no stranger to the viciousness and unpredictability of sandstorms, but she didn’t want to take any chances. Once she ascertained that he would return in the morning after waiting out the storm, she turned her attention back to Sirona and Daphne.

"We can still reverse that. The herbs― Harvey, where are the juices I asked you to prepare?" Sirona barked out anxiously.

"Here they are!" A bowl was hastily thrust in Sirona’s face, but before she could feed it to Daphne, Queen Lavinia snatched it from her hand, her lips pursing in disapproval.

"While this combination of herbs would work at any other time, it will worsen Queen Daphne’s condition."

"Why?" Sirona demanded. "This particular combination of herbs causes her blood to thicken. Daphne needs that to strengthen and nourish her blood!"

She believed in her capabilities, for she had rarely made wrong diagnoses. Was Xahan’s queen trying to use this situation as an opportunity to get rid of Daphne while her husband threw Atticus out into the wild desert sands?

That horrifying thought entered Sirona’s mind before she banished it just as quickly. If Queen Lavinia wanted to doom Daphne, she would simply not need to show up at this critical moment. And it was Atticus who wanted to go, despite the dangers.

Queen Lavinia hastily explained, "I sense the presence of foreign ice magic residue in her veins, and that’s hindering our efforts. I cannot redirect her blood as easily. While this combination would help most people, in Queen Daphne’s case, it’ll instead make it more stagnant and difficult to flow, suffocating her organs."

"Ice magic?" To say Sirona was perplexed was an understatement, "Daphne’s mother does have cyromancy abilities, but how..."

Queen Lavinia shook her head. "If it belonged to her mother, her body would not be reacting so poorly to it by trying so hard to purge it from her system. It naturally clashes with Queen Daphne’s pyromancy, causing instability."

Sirona realized that Xahan’s royalty did not know about Daphne’s hydromancy abilities. It was a closely kept secret, and most people assumed that Nereus was responsible for all water-based abilities. Normally, she would keep mum for the sake of ensuring an upper hand, but incomplete information could be fatal in these circumstances!

Daphne already had two conflicting abilities warring inside her. Perhaps the ice magic might even be a mutation of Daphne’s hydromancy, but Sirona would be hard-pressed to find a possible trigger unless one counted Daphne’s hot-and-cold attitude towards Atticus.

"There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?" Queen Lavinia’s frown deepened as she gazed at Sirona evenly. "What has Queen Daphne been involved in? I did not detect this irregularity when on my first checkup, so it must have happened recently."

Sirona took a deep breath and began to give a brief explanation of Daphne’s dual abilities. Queen Lavinia initially looked shocked, before a puzzled, contemplative look grew on her face.

"That would explain the fragility of the fetus. Queen Daphne’s body has been steadily weakened by having two elements warring for dominance inside her without knowing, and the introduction of a foreign third element has made things worse. This... malicious chill had lingered too long in her body."

Sirona could only nod in agreement. Queen Lavinia continued.

"In fact, I dare say that it might be a bigger culprit for the loss of Queen Daphne’s child, rather than the fall. Usually, falls do not cause a miscarriage, nor do they result in such heavy bleeding."

"How... where..." Sirona could only close her eyes and cursed herself. Daphne had made no mention of this at all, and Queen Anette and Blanche were the only ice users she knew. This meant there was an entirely new person who was responsible for Daphne’s current situation.

And the only people who knew the truth were right there in the room. Sirona narrowed her eyes and glared at Zephyr, who was on the verge of tears.

"Tell me the whole truth." She hissed the words out through gritted teeth. "What on earth happened to Daphne?"

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