Mei Ruan May 16th,20XX

A healthy flush pervaded the prince’s face as Askeli roamed his hands across the base of his wings and back up to his neck but he didn’t say anything and focused on staying still. He visibly tensed to avoid moving, as Talan had requested and a thin bead of sweat rolled down his forehead as a testament to his efforts.

“Stay still your highness, it’ll be over in just a moment. Linus, can you tap the back of the left wing again?”

His eyes, which had at some point become more gold than green, constantly bounced between me, Askeli that stood beside him and Talan who stood directly in front of him at a decent distance away. I’d tried to give a proper introduction when she’d followed me into the room but I supposed it couldn’t be helped that he was on guard against someone he didn’t know.

Even though she had to treat him, I and Akseli couldn’t stand by and watch someone lay hands on his highness’s person. Even though she’d been professionally trained by her family as a medical professional she hadn’t bothered to get properly registered as a doctor and therefore had no grounds to even approach Cai.

Because of this Askeli tried his best to follow her instructions but considering he had not even graduated from a proper institution the process took a lot longer than it should have.

“That should be enough Linus.”

Akseli quickly stepped away from Cai with a relieved expression on his face and quickly fixed his clothes, that had been messed up by his unprofessional check-up before fixing himself up. I’d known he was a competent person but seeing him be so attentive to someone other than himself was a bit bizarre.

“What the verdict?”

The silence was broken by a curious Cai, who seemed oddly cooperative today as he let Akseli style his hair and adjust his clothing. It was a far cry from the guy that had not even let the attendants brush him down when we’d last went out.

Being addressed directly by the prince visibly threw my drunkard friend off her guard but she quickly played it off and waved the clipboard off to her side. Unlike myself, she wasn’t under any sort of restraints and could use magic as casually as she wished.

She turned first to his direction, then to mine, then to Akseli’s before finally settling on reporting to me.

“Well, the good news is that his highness is as healthy as one can expect. As long as there is an effort to avoid strenuous situations I'm sure he’ll recover in no time.”

I trusted in Talan’s medical expertise so I knew that I could rest easy, but I also knew that she may have not said the whole truth due to his highness’s presence. She was the type that would only say what she had confirmed and would keep her suspicions to herself, or in cases like this would only share them with who she considered their guardian.

Usually, I would have appreciated her discretion, since worrying his highness over some suspicions wouldn’t be good but that wasn’t much of an option in this case. Even if she shared any suspicions with me I wouldn’t know enough about Cai’s whereabouts or actions to be able to confirm or deny them.

I made a mental note to ask her to pass me the full diagnosis later on. Even if Cai didn’t want to tell me anything I couldn’t in all good consciousness keep anything that might be happening to him away from him.

“That’ll be all then. I can’t thank you enough for coming on such short notice.”

She waved off my gratitude with pleasant sophistries of her own but shot me a loaded look that I was sure hadn’t escaped Cai’s eyes.

“I’m afraid I’ll have to leave soon to avoid suspicion from others but off the top of your head can you recall if you have come into contact with any odd substances lately? Or ingested anything out of ordinary?”

Cai took a moment to think about it, but eventually shook his head in response and backed it up by responding verbally.

“Not that I can recall. Matter of fact I don’t remember eating much of anything recently, Akseli, can you grab me something to eat once we’re done here?”

The male fairy startled at suddenly being addressed by his first name by the prince but buried the reaction quicker than it had appeared and nodded in response to Cai’s request.

Talan continued her questioning while Akseli left the room but my eyes kept bouncing between his discoloured wings and the conspicuous cloth wrapped around his forehead.

Akseli, being the quick thinker that he was had copied the fashion choice and had wrapped a piece of his belt around his forehead but that did little to distract me from what I’d seen earlier.

No matter how I thought about it the facts were too hard to deny

That was a goblin horn, wasn’t it?

It had been a long time since I’d seen a goblin, never mind a goblins horn, and I was aware that Cai shouldn’t have one since to my knowledge he’d never been awakened, but who was to say that hadn’t changed since the last time I’d seen him.

But at the same time, I hadn’t thought it would be possible for anyone to have both wings and a horn at the same time.

Upon the prince’s birth, a lot of research on whether it was possible had been published and debated but the verdict was that he would eventually only be able to manifest one and the other would become a recessive trait.

But I was sure that I’d seen the horn back then, and the fact that he’d wrapped such a thick barrier of cloth around his forehead wasn’t doing much to derail my growing fears.

Akseli returned with a full tray of snacks, from fruits to pastries and efficiently placed them onto the table where Cai sat before returning to his original position of standing behind him.

I was suddenly reminded of the fact that he was in fact from the Linus family, a lower-ranked but ambitious clan. I was sure he would have been trained as an attendant before his potential as a bargaining tool was realized.

“Your highness.”

Cai slightly frowned at the address and turned around to glare at the other fairy.

“Weren’t you the one that was crying at my side a few minutes ago asking to be my aide? Why are you suddenly being so formal? Just call me Cai.”

Akseli lost control for a moment at the sudden scolding and glared at the prince with a starling venom but quickly gathered himself and forced a smile.

“Whatever do you mean your highness? I could never disrespect you like that.”

Cai snorted out an ugly laugh and sneered at his companion. Contrary to Akseli it was obvious that couldn’t care less about whether we were here or not.

“Are you for real saying that to my face? The same you that tried to att- Ah, I mean. You know what you did.”

For a second I could have sworn Cai was about to accuse Akseli of attacking him but for some reason stopped himself halfway and redirected his words.

But there was no way Akseli would have attacked Cai. To begin with, attacking a member of the royal family was a crime punishable by death, and I knew he was smarter than that. There was also the fact that he couldn’t even bat away an insect if it came flying at him too quickly so even if he’d tried I doubted he would have landed a hit against the athletic prince.

“Well, if his highness insists on it then I have no choice but to obey do I?”

The prince suddenly dropped his aggressive stance and let out a charmingly smug smile, showing he was pleased with the petty victory. He even went as far as to pull the other fairy from his side and into the chair across from him.

“Eat.”

The sight of the two guys that in her opinion had no reason to be friendly to one another suddenly being on a first name basis was too much for my friend and she held a strong hand to her mouth to prevent any audible laughter from seeping out as she quickly bowed and excused herself from the room.

I excused myself as well and quickly caught up with Talan, who by now had crumpled into one of the couches in my office and convulsed with laughter.

“Is it so funny to you?”

She quickly stifled whatever laughter she had left in her and quickly passed over the clipboard to me. Her absolute cowardice in situations like this was one of the reasons she struggled to get along with others, who expected an Elder of the mighty Aslan clan to be more awe-inspiring, but it was a welcome trait to me. Unlike our reckless friend that said what she wanted regardless of time or place or our quietly threatening friend that would sooner take your head off than argue with you, it was nice to have someone heed my mood and behave as such.

I quickly flipped through the pages of the unedited diagnosis, hating the irritating expression on her face as the confused expression on mine blossomed.

“This can’t be right.”