Chapter seven: The Rose
Pierre carefully locks the door to his botanical lab, still haunted by these deep worries.
Hard decisions have to be made, but never in his entire life have they been this tough.
He feels guilty for Shae’s illness.
Was it my tonic that actually made here sick in the first place?
He used it on her without knowing its dangers, he always presumed that its powers could be consumed and make one healthy.
He had tried it on his own scribe for a while too, it worked perfectly and still did.
That is what it always did, but now it lost its effect on her.
Off course he didn't know the long term effects, but he simply assumed by observing the short term effects, that it was safe.
He holds his hand on the door and sighed.
Just as he wants to walk away he hears someone clumsily moving from wall to wall in search of support on the rear side of the hall way.
It moans and coughs as it moves.
As it came closer Pierre recognizes who it is.
“Shae!”
The old man runs towards her and supports her body with both arms.
She is a light weight, yet Pierres old arms and back has trouble holding her.
“What are you doing here dear? come, let us get you back in bed.”
Her beauty is covered by the marks of her illness, thick black pouches accentuated her normally so intriguing large almond eyes.
Shaes black hair was a fluffy mess, her full lips dry and cracked and she didn't wear her corset.
Her eyes look wild, and as if unable to see, her eyes roll from side to side, unfocused.
“They have spoken to me uncle...”
She mumbles.
“Let us talk about this when i get you back in bed!”
Pierre says as he tries to calm her down.
In reaction she goes wild, waving her hands around hitting Pierre several times on the head.
“Calm down dear! Your having a fever, your delirious! Calm down by the gods!”
“Poison!”
She screams repetitively, but in her attempt to run away she falls on the ground again.
She doesn't move.
Pierre carefully approaches her, kneels down next to her and calls for his staff to come.
“Shush my dear, you need your rest..”
He says while stroking her round soft cheek with the back of his hand.
She opens her eyes again, widely, terrified.
“You poisoned me you daimon spawn!”
“Murder!”
She screams as she manages to get back up.
She throws her weight on her uncle and tries to strangle him.
Her eyes look unfamiliar, mad and wild, implying insanity.
Pierre can’t breath and he desperately fights for his life as he tries to scream for her to stop.
When eventually an opportunity arose, he manages to hit her niece in the head.
Shae falls over motionless.
Right at that moment her guards run towards them looking at the passed out duchess.
“What happened?”
Pierre still recovering from the struggle, rubs his neck.
“She is delirious, lets get her to in her room and guard it well.”
When they lay her in bed Shae carefully regains consciousness.
The wild gaze in her eyes is now gone, yet still clearly weak.
Pierre seems at ease, glad it is over.
“My dear, how do you feel?”
Shae now notices her uncle standing next to her with a slightly shocked expression on her face.
She quickly turns her attention to the guards.
“Arrest this man!”
The guards look at each other confused, as if trying to find confirmation from each other.
“You heard me, arrest this man! your are my guards and you do as i say!”
Pierre is baffled and mumbles.
“B... but, Shae! what are you doing...?”
The guards are equally baffled and still stand motionless across the room.
“I said ARRRRREST that man! I know very well who he is!”
The guards slowly execute the order.
Pierre does not resist nor did the Guards really hold him they simply gesture him to follow them.
“Shae? its me, Pierre, your uncle!”
Shae stumbles out of bed, now seemingly sane yet extremely upset.
“You poisoned me Pierre, for all those years, you were poisoning me!”
She screams with a trembling finger pointing out to him.
“What on earth are you talking about Shae!”
Pierre says annoyed and confused.
“The tonic you fed me so much! I went sick and you only gave me more, my trusted servant informed me that even while i was unconscious you gave me the tonic.
The more you gave it to me, the worse it became!”
Her whole body is trembling, struggling to overcome her sickness.
“The tonic is your medicine, you know i always gave it to you when you were sick or weak! stop this nonsense and calm down, you need your rest!”
Shae sits down on the edge of her bed, holding her self with two hands, preventing herself from falling down as a red blush appears on her cheeks.
She has to use all the muscles in her body in order to sit straight.
“The more you gave the tonic to me the sicker i went! why didn't you stop uncle?! I had my servant investigate the tonic and he couldn't identify it, what poison have you used? some foreign snake poison!?”
Pierre, unknowing what to say of these sudden allegations tries to reply.
“Shae! you know i care about you more then anything i else, i wound’t...”
She shook her head in disbelief and interrupts him right away.
“You hold many secrets from me uncle... Not only does my servant not trust you, so do I. The gods have spoken to me at night Uncle, your holding much bigger secrets from me then i could ever imagine.”
Pierre anxiously looks up quickly trying to process what was going on.
How delirious is she?
“I used that Tonic for your health, i am completely honest to you about this. It always worked but now... it losses its properties on you, and just you.
And Yes, it could have caused your fever... i simply do not know! It always used to do you good.”
A desperate look in the old mans face appears accentuating his freckled, heavily wrinkled skin.
“So i was just a guinea pig for your crazy alchemystic experiments? Tell me, how did you make the Tonic, what did you put into it!”
Pierres eyes fall down, now staring at the floor.
“A rose”
He instantly says.
Shaes eyes widen, and her pupils narrow down to a tiny little spot.
“Go on...”
“It... it is a special rose, with the ability to cure.”
Shaes visions flash in front of her eyes again and she remembers the image of her uncle and Grand father around a rose.
Wladimir was handing it over to Pierre and spoke those odd words.
Could this be the very same rose? Was this what the gods where telling me? where is this leading?
“Where is it?”
She asks impatiently..
“Wh... where?”
Pierre replies terrified.
“Yes where! if you feed it to me i have the right to see it!”
Shae says, now clearly annoyed.
“My dear you must understand that this rose is of extreme value, I kept it a secret from everyone, you included for good reason.”
He looks at the guards on his right and left flank.
“I can only show it to you alone, no one else, not even your guards.”
After she agrees they both walk down the hall way where they eventually reach Pierres locked indoor greenhouse.
With sweat dripping from his forehead, he opens the door.
Eagerly Shae steps into the room, it is very humid and the sweet smell of flowers greet them.
When they finally arrive at the back of the room, she sees the rose.
It is the exact same rose in her dreams, and when she looks at Pierre, she notes he has that same obsessed look in his eyes, just like the old man of her dream.
It attracts her unlike anything, as if being overtaken by a higher power.
She quickly turns her eyes away from it.
“Is this the rose that doesn't age, which you got from your father when you were but a young man?”
Pierre freezes and abruptly turns his gaze away from the flower.
“H..how did you know?!”
“It doesn't matter, what matters is that there is something deeply wrong with this rose, i know it and i can feel it standing here, it has an evil charm and i can see that it has already effected you severely. We should destroy it uncle...”
Pierrre is shortly overtaken by hate and the idea of escaping from this castle with his beloved rose. He quickly suppresses it however and replies, knowing that right now is the time to break his oath with his father and tell her the truth.
There is no way to keep this a secret any longer, somehow, someway, she already knows more then I could ever fear for.
“Shae, there is more you should know about this rose. You see the faith of this rose and ours are intertwined...
My grand father, and your grand grand father was a famous gardener back in his days.
He grew the most beautiful rose in the entire land.
He won every competition there was and brought great fame to our name with this very rose.
However he couldn't accept the faith of that rose alike any other living creature in this world, death. He turned to dark magic and the rose lived for ever.”
Pierre paused for a moment.
Shae, still weak, and trembling on her feet leans over as close as possible, focused on her uncles words.
“You would realize this eventually when you turn as old as i am. He him self and all generation’s to come of his blood, are cursed with the inability to die. He passed on the rose to my father Wladimir who passed it on to me and we all kept it a secret as long as possible. We know some cannot handle it. Your father Vlad, he discovered it when he tried to kill him self, he...”
Pierre paused again and sighed.
"It drove him mad..."
Shae stands frozen, unable to react, completely baffled, staring at her uncle.
This was exactly like her dreams, the man with the rose, the murder of his daughter.
All the pieces now come together, the hubristic nature of her Grand Grand father had cursed her entire family.
Yet the gods in their irony showed her the story from start to end.
Was this dream also part of my punishment? To suffer for eternity and know that there is no way out? why me?
Her headache grows as she lets herself fall to the ground, where she remains sitting motionless.
Pierre sighs while holding his hand on her shoulder.
“I have learned to accept our faith Shae. I kept you safe from your illness, knowing you’d suffer for eternity, the Tonic was the only potion that used to work. But somehow it lost its effect on you.”
Shae looks up astonished.
“You mean to imply i might never be able to cure myself from this?”
Pierres voice trembles.
“I.. don’t know my dear...”
He turns his gaze back on the rose.
“For almost my entire life i have lived to do the best thing by my judgement, i have offered to the gods and lived my life by their tenants. I have learned that what my grand father did was wrong, but the gods are unforgiving.”
Shae notices his uncle’s attention drawing back to the rose again.
“You have not.”
She replies firmly.
“What do you mean? i have not?”
“You are just like him, unable to accept your faith, the faith that the gods have had waiting for all of us. You are afraid to die.”
As soon as Pierre tries to reply, Shae interrupts him.
“Then why have you not cut that rose down?”
Pierre slowly walks closer towards the altar upon which the rose stands.
“Do you even realize what that would mean for us Shae? if you cut that rose down, we will perish and our entire blood line!”
Shae slowly manages to climb back on her feet.
“And that is exactly what we should have done long ago. We do not deserve the life taken out of greed with the tools of evil! You and your nonsense serving the gods!
We have a huge depth to pay them, which can only be payed with our lives if we want our souls ever to be saved!"
She takes a few steps closer towards her uncle.
"The gods have spoken to me last night and i saw how that man killed his own daughter just to keep his rose! I saw everything even how Wladimir passed the Rose on to you! No, uncle we must destroy the rose in order to find salvation for our souls! Their message is clear!”
Out of deep instinctive behaviour Pierre now stands with its back against the altar, his arms covering its entire width.
“Your delirious, Shae, this is insane!”
Shae reaches out for his uncle and grabs him by his tunic.
“No, THIS is insane!” She says as she raises her other hand to the sky.
“An existence like this is!”
“STAY AWAY!” Pierre now draws his knife.
Shae immediately releases the tunic and relaxes.
“The curse has reached deep in your soul uncle. You are the one that's delirious! You are enchanted! bewitched!”
In a scream of desperation Pierre stabs the knife threw Shaes stomach and turns it 90 degrees to the right, further opening the wound before he pulls it back out.
Shae falls forward on the altar, right next to the rose.
Pierre looks at the sight, his niece heavily bleeding on the altar as he comes back to his senses.
What have i done?
He reaches out for his niece, turning her on her back.
As he flips her over, a knife uncovers in Shae's right hand, and before he could react she stabs it right in his heart.
With blood pouring from her mouth she mumbles.
“Don’t worry uncle, I shall set us free, once and for all..”
And then with the last strength in her body she reaches out for the rose and in a single movement cuts it from its bush before falling back down, lifelessly on the ground.
