Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Forbidden Temple

A maid finally brought the royal physician to Anna’s chamber as requested by the princess earlier. Meanwhile the wounded lady just sat on her seat like an unmoved mannequin, staring blankly at the mirror before her.

Her chocolate brown eyes remained void of any emotion, she was no more than a dead soul in a living body.

Annalise didn’t turn or even bother to look at the direction of the door since she already knew who it was that walked in.

“I’ll take my leave now.” The maiden politely said to the old white-haired physician who nodded without a word. She immediately excused herself, feeling less comfortable staying under the room of a certain maid who wrecked with bad luck. She wondered why the princess cared so much about a lone girl like her.

Even calling the royal physician to attend to her wounds? Goodness knows why the King chose to let her stay in the first place.

Keeping those thoughts to herself and closing the door after exiting the room, the old physician finally took a step towards the blacked out lady who still hasn’t shifted her gaze or moved from her position.

The tears in her eyes kept swimming as she had no intention of letting them drop to her cheeks again. She was stronger than that and won’t let herself cry into despair.

.....

“Annalise, crying has never been the right way to solve the problem, which is exactly what you’ve been doing.” The old physician neutrally spoke as he grabbed a chair from her bedside and sat beside her.

“How are you feeling?” He asked.

“I don’t know.” Her voice was faint, almost like a whisper as the lump in her throat seemed to have gotten bigger due to her state of trauma, “paralyzed?”

That was the only thing she felt actually, the pain on her body right now couldn’t be compared to what she felt in her heart, she lost everything and it had been unbearable to the point she wished to commit suicide, but right now, she could barely feel it, almost like her body had gone numb all of a sudden.

Was it a good sign or a bad sign?

“Let me see your wound?” The physician proceeded to do his work as he examined her knee which had changed color from its usual paleness to a blushy red. Whenever she gets injured, he was the only one who the princess would assign to check on her health and take care of her wounds.

“And who hurt you this time around?” He knew and treated Anna that much to know this wasn’t the first time such incident has been occuring, she had been wise enough to avoid most of the attacks but this particular one told him she must have had a really bad fall.

“I don’t know.” She responded with a sigh while pinching the skin in between her brows, “Whoever it was got away the moment I fell off.” She briefly explained as he continued to examine her red knee, she had hit that specific knee hard on the stairs and the pain was one she doubts even words could explain.

“You’ve fractured it.” He pointed out.

“I expected it.”

The old physician said nothing in response and brought out a small jar from his sack bag, opening the lid and revealing the green creamy substance inside of it.

“This will reduce the pain and help with the inflammation, I’ll inform the king and the princess not to let you partake in any sort of work that might add pressure to your knee, at least for the meantime till the pain subsides.”

Annalise chewed on the skin in her cheeks while nodding politely. The old physician has equally been nice to her ever since she came into the palace as well, he had been her physician right from her tender age and not only that, he equally helped her in uncovering a tiny secret which the mark possessed, the secret that she wasn’t going to live long according to the little history he found in a book, except, he hasn’t told her which book he found it on.

To simply put it, he was unwilling to share it with her, claiming she was too young back then to hold such an important possession.

“How’s your meteor mark?” The physician finally broke her from her reverie, noticing she had worn the Jewelry headband on her head again. He had been totally against her wearing the headband but it seems the stubborn girl has made up her mind.

“You know how much I detest that topic.” Anna’s face scrunched into one of annoyance, seeing how at ease he was bringing such topics up, to be honest, she really isn’t ready to speak about it now.

“It’s fine to detest it, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore the fact that it never happened. It’s all fate.” He theoretically explained which only seemed to get on Anna’s nerves.

What did he say? Fate??

“Fate has never been faithful to me,” she poured it out as a bitter truth, “I was born with a mark which ruined me, it killed my mother and painted me a culprit in the eyes of my own people.”

“That was fate taking its course.” His elderly tone remained calm and understanding, no matter how she tries to put it, it all ends with fate.

“Does its course also revolve around making my life a living hell? It’s a good thing I’m not destined to live long, at least I’ll gain peace.”

She blinked her tears away and covered her knee with the length of her dress.

“I’m fine, it’ll get better.” She stubbornly said while the old physician just stared at her for a while, as though he was silently contemplating on something in his head before speaking.

“Are you really desperate to have it removed?” He popped a question which Anna had asked herself a thousand times, she could only smile sadly. It was her one wish, to get rid of the meteor mark and be free from all the accusations occuring lately, except it has been nothing but wishful thinking.

“But it can’t be removed, you said it yourself.” She replied in a tone that showed she had forgotten about it.

“What if I told you there’s only one way to get rid of the meteor mark?” He whispered softly with an unusual, yet serious look in his eyes, causing Anna to blink in half disbelief as those words continuously sang in her head.

“There is??”

He nodded but there was this look in his eyes which told her it’s not going to be an easy task. Like he had thought really hard about it before bringing up the conversation with her.

“Tell me, what?” Anna immediately prompted with an expectant look in her eyes.

If there was really a way she could get rid of the mark, she doesn’t care about the obstacles she might face along the way and was fully willing to risk it.

“Tell me.”

“Ever heard of the forbidden temple?”