Daughter of Death -Chapter 15 (Patreon)

Greetings patrons! Here's a surprise chapter whipped up for you in the [somewhat] middle of the week which is yours free of charge!  Enjoy and lemme know what you think MUAHAHA

-Britt xoxo

CHAPTER FIFTEEN 

“Your Highness!” Wilhelm’s voice was desperate. “It’s my brother! He won’t wake up!”

“He won’t?” Reina’s voice was full of surprise.

“You were with him but a half hour ago was all well with him then?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “He drank the soup you’d given him and I sat with him awhile humming a tune so that he’d fall asleep. When I left all seemed well although he confessed he was having a hard time falling asleep so he was going to just occupy himself instead and allowed me to depart. I gave him that string that he’s so fond of weaving.”

“Let us check on him,” Hulbard exclaimed immediately, “If he is so unwell, we may need the assistance of a doctor.”

Unfortunately, Jakob was beyond a doctor’s help. He wasn’t breathing moments after his brother and friends came to his bedside and began to check on him.

“Jakob!” Wilhelm cried in a voice that would haunt Errol’s dreams for days afterward. “Jakob please! Don’t leave! Don’t go!” Despite his twin’s protestations Jakob did not wake. His heart had stopped.

“What a waste,” Reina muttered as the dwarves milled about in grief after realizing they had been unable to stop their companion from dying. The Princess stared with disappointment down on the dead dwarf. He’d tasted just fine –he didn’t have any illness that she could detect.

Little did she know it had been /her/ fault that he had died. She’d taken too much; his heart had stopped working when his body could no longer take the strain of so little blood going through him.

Preparations were made immediately for his funeral and burial. Some people of Bayern still cremated their dead but in this case Jakob was laid to rest in the ground in a hole near a beloved tree that he and his brother had carved their initials upon years before when they’d first come to live at Brickwall Cottage. His friends had dug the grave in solemn reverence and they were pleased and humbled when Princess Reina agreed to be the first to drop a handful of soil to commence the burial.

For weeks afterward, the household held a grim veil over it. Everyone seemed to be grieved whole-heartedly –even Ulrich himself who seemed hardened was visibly upset and had even shed tears when Jakob had been laid to rest.

Talk came back to Jakob quite habitually, in fact.

“I remember when Jakob and I—” Wilhelm would begin quite often. His friends would remark similar sentiments.

With the happy memories also came sad ones filled with regret. “We should have sent for a doctor sooner,” Hulbard lamented. “He seemed confused at times towards the end there didn’t he? It was probably the mark of...of plague or something sinister!”

“Yes he didn’t recognize me once or twice,” Wilhelm agreed with tears in his eyes. “I just thought he had fever like when we were children and it disoriented him for a day or two. I-I didn’t realize...”

“What’s done is done,” Rutger their ever mentor was forced to relent when the guilt around the room began to increase and feel unbearable. “He is at peace, now. He did not suffer but passed in his sleep. Let us be grateful for that, at least.” The others felt they had no choice but to heed Rutger’s words. For what /could/ be done now for Jakob?

Reina for her part attempted to act upset over Jakob but soon she was secretly annoyed by all this fuss and attention given to Jakob after he was gone. Perhaps growing up with a grieving father had made her impatient with displays of affection, commemoration and yearning. Not to mention, she herself had never felt such a strong affection for anyone that she would ever mourn their loss to any degree. 

Except, perhaps of course, Ferdinand.

But she hadn’t lost him after the incident with the buck. She was fortunate. The start of panic and grief that had begun when she’d seen his life pouring out of him through the injuries to his neck had been unlike anything she’d ever experienced before and happily for her she did not have to experience them fully or reflect upon it to any degree afterwards.

“Jakob was ill for over a month,” Wilhelm recounted to Gus late one evening after most of their companions had gone to sleep, “Perhaps as his brother I should have done something. It began as a general tiredness but when it did not improve I should have...I should have done something.”

“You can’t blame yourself, Wil,” he whispered back. “We all cared for him and we all paid him mind when he was lying down or especially when ill. Who is to say a doctor would have assisted any more than we did? We can’t know that. Do not dwell upon it.”

Reina listening to this did in fact dwell upon it. Jakob had been the one she’d fed upon most after— her mistake. Thinking on it now she began to formulate that perhaps again she’d made another error in favouring Jakob. Yet, with him it had been different than before.

However, she did not feel guilt just as the first time. The regret she felt, as it had been the first time, was only that Jakob’s particular aroma was gone forever never to be enjoyed again. Shame. But, nothing she could do. Nothing except be more careful in the future.