Alaric POV
I must do everything to save the one who brings me peace. My chest felt tight. I looked at Sophie.
She sat beside me. She looked tired. Her skin was pale. I looked at the silver blade in her hand. The metal caught the morning light. It looked sharp. It looked final.
"I will talk to my grandmother." I said.
I stepped toward her. I reached for the blade.
"I will return this dagger to her now. She cannot hold your life over your head like this."
"No." Sophie said.
She stepped back. She pulled the dagger away from my reach.
"We should work together to find the culprit. Returning the dagger will not make the young prince well. If I hide from this, Isolde wins. If I fail to find the truth, the Prince dies. That is the real tragedy."
I looked at her. Her eyes held a fire I did not expect. She was not just trying to survive. She wanted justice.
I admired her strength. I agreed with her logic. I still reached out. This time, I did not ask. I wrapped my fingers around her wrist. I gently took the dagger from her hand. I tucked it into my leather belt.
"I will keep this." I said.
"I cannot forgive myself if you die after three days. I cannot let you keep the tool of your own death. If the time comes, I will be the one to face my grandmother. Not you."
Sophie sighed. She rubbed her wrist. She did not argue further.
She knew I was stubborn. I looked at her. I needed to focus. My brain felt slow from three days of hunger. I took a deep breath.
"Where do we start?" I asked.
"I know the food did not cause this." Sophie said.
She walked to the table. She touched the empty bowl of broth.
"You ate the same meal. We must check the ingredients again. We need to see if something was in the Prince's meal that was not supposed to be. Did he eat something else? Did he go somewhere before he came here?"
She looked toward the door. She was thinking like a detective.
"First we should ask Roland a question." She said.
"Did Young Prince Daemon visit anyone else that day? Did he eat anything else before he came to your table? We need a timeline of his day."
I agreed. I walked to the door. I pulled it open. Roland was there. He had been waiting in the hall. He looked at me with a question in his eyes.
"Roland." I said.
"I need you to move fast. Go make findings. Did the Young Prince visit anyone else on the day he dined with me? Did he eat or drink anything else in the palace? Talk to his personal guards. Talk to the maids in his wing."
Roland nodded. He did not ask why. He saw the intensity in my gaze.
"I will find out, Sire." He said.
He bowed. He turned and left.
I turned back into the room. I sent for Cassian. He arrived a few minutes later. He pushed past the guards. He looked at me. He looked at my messy hair. He looked at the half empty bowl of broth.
"Has His Majesty come back to his senses or is there." Cassian paused.
He saw Sophie standing by the window. His jaw dropped.
"How is she here? I thought she was in the depths."
"Quiet Cassian." I said.
I did not have time for his shock.
"I called you here for a task. You are my most trusted eyes. Go meet the royal doctor. Ask him for a list of things the Young Prince cannot eat. Some children have sensitivities. Some have allergies. Go to the palace archive. Search for the list of ingredients the young prince must not consume. Confirm whatever the doctor says. Do not trust his memory alone."
Cassian nodded. He looked at Sophie again. He saw the bruises on her face. His expression softened. He realized the stakes. He left the room without another joke.
I paced the floor. My boots made a heavy sound on the stone. Sophie watched me. She looked out the window. She seemed to be counting the clouds. Every minute felt like an hour.
Roland returned after some time. He looked grim. He wiped sweat from his forehead.
"The Young Prince did not visit anyone." Roland said.
"His guards confirm he stayed in his room all morning. He ate nothing else that day. He wanted to save his appetite for your table. He came straight to your chambers for the meal."
I looked at Sophie. I felt discomfort. This was not the answer I wanted. I did not believe her food was the cause. I felt someone was playing a hard trick. I felt a professional was at work. Someone knew the schedule. Someone knew the menu.
Thomas entered the room. He is the man of secrets. He usually stays in the shadows. He walked to me. He whispered in my ear.
"Your Majesty." Thomas said.
His voice was a low rasp.
"I found Eunuch George's charcoal. He used it for writing his reports. I found it just outside the border of the Kingdom. In the dirt near the old road."
I looked at him with shock.
George was the one who recorded the kitchen logs. He had been missing since the night of the dinner.
"Does that mean someone took him?" I asked.
"Yes." Thomas said.
"The ground looks like someone dragged him. It was a struggle. I followed the trail for miles. I saw one of his shoes by the path. Then the trail stopped at the rocky pass. The person doing this is trained. They are a professional. They did not leave a single footprint after the rocks."
"Stay on it." I said.
"We must find the truth about George. If he is alive, he should know what happened in that kitchen."
Thomas bowed. He vanished back into the hallway.
Cassian came back. He held a piece of parchment. He dropped the list on the table.
"I found the medical records." Cassian said.
"The doctor was hesitant to share. I reminded him who pays his salary. I must go back to the archives to check the seal on the records. Something feels off."
He left quickly. I called the maids.
"Clear this place." I said.
"We start the investigation now."
The maids cleared the plates. They moved in silence. They knew the mood in the room was dangerous.
Sophie brought the list of ingredients she used for the meal. She wrote them down from memory. We compared the two lists. We at my desk. We looked at the medical restrictions for Prince Daemon.
None of the ingredients she used were on the restricted list for the Prince. There were no allergies listed. There were no warnings.
"There is nothing here." Sophie said. She leaned back. She looked at the ceiling.
"If it was not the ingredients. And he ate nothing else. Then how did he get sick?"
"Maybe it was the quantity?" I suggested.
"No." Sophie said.
"He ate a normal portion. You ate more than he did."
We looked at each other. The sun was setting. Everything we tried led to a dead end. Every lead was a cold trail. The missing Eunuch was gone.
The clock was ticking in my head. Sophie had two days left. Two days until she was expected to use the dagger in my belt.
I looked at her. I saw the fear she was trying to hide. I saw the way her hand trembled as she reached for the list again.
"We are missing something." I said.
"Someone is smarter than us. Someone wants us to see a dead end."
I stood up. I walked to the window. The kingdom looked peaceful below. But inside these walls, a war was happening.
A war of poison and secrets. I felt the hunger in my stomach return. It was not a hunger for food. It was a hunger for the truth.
