Ben's POV

I needed to find Cordelia and at great haste.

I knew Rey was slipping away and slowly running unconscious.

The venom slowly climbing up her arm, infecting her blood stream with poison.

I could barley stand the sight of what was happening to her.

Seeing her in so much pain and all I could do was watch as it was all unfolding.

The only thing I could do was find her mother as fast as I could.

She was going to be alright. I had to believe she would be anything else but gone from me.

She was going to be more than fine. She had to.

"Countess Cordelia!" I called and shouted her name with strong urgency.

Cordelia came into view a few minutes after searching the castle for her.

"What is it my dear?" She spoke in soft words as she gasped seeing her daughter in my arms.

She was petrified for a moments time before reacting right away.

"Come." I followed her through a hallway into the second room to our right.

"Hurry bring her to this table."

She set a cloth onto the table as I laid Rey as gently as I could.

"She was bitten by a snake."

"Color." She said as she brought our small bottles filled with herbs and other filled with other unknown substances that I could not recall myself.

"A deep purple I think. I only glimpsed." I stayed by Rey's side as Cordelia fiddled around for what she needed.

"What of it's size?"

"Fairly large."

"Than she'll survive. The larger those Nightfall Strikers are the less toxic their venom is but...their bite makes up for a nasty wound."

She paused between words as she got a small dish to put what she needed inside it.

I watched as Cordelia, in great haste, ripped the rest of her sleeve off.

"Hurry grab the herbs over there in the red bottle."

I did, as was told of me.

She made a mix of the red plant with other herbs she already had beside her.

She put a thin layer of the mixture on Rey's skin wherever the black color was seen.

She then bandaged Rey's arm.

"She'll be alright. She just needs a bit of rest to recover from the poison."

"What does the herb mix do exactly? How do you know she'll be ok?"

"Many, that don't tread carefully outside the castle walls, have been bitten. I, in my youth, was a very good healer. But I just know my herbs and plants well. The mix I made will soothe her pain as well as extract the poison from her body. This process will take about a day before she can fully recover from it."

Cordelia gestured for me to take Rey.

"Will you help me take her to her chambers."

"As you wish." I carried Rey carefully.

Once I had made it with Cordelia to Rey's bedroom chambers I laid her on her bed.

She looked so helpless then, it almost made me want to stay by her side.

I was just about to leave before Cordelia spoke out to me.

"What were the two of you doing out so early in the morning?"

I looked her way for a brief moment.

"That's for her to tell if she wishes it. I'm afraid to tell what she might not want to spill. But nothing happened if that's what your worried about."

She only nodded in understanding what I meant as a spectacle look was worn on her face.

I could tell she was filled with curiosity to what was going on between Rey and I, but that was for Rey to tell.

I did not wish to upset Rey in anyway so that was that, and I left.

Rey's POV

A flash of sun hit my face, it's warmth waking me.

My eyes fluttered open.

I felt at odd with myself, I was perplexed to where I was until I recalled being bitten by a snake.

Then I was carried to the castle and all else went blank from there.

I looked at my arm in impetuosity.

I assumed to see black all over my skin but instead I came face to face with a bandaged arm.

I knew right then that Cordelia had done this by the way the bandage was wrapped and clipped around my arm.

Just then the door to my chambers was unlatched and opened.

Cold air seeped through the room.

I sat upright as Cordelia appeared.

"Mother I can never thank you enou-"

"Enough. You worried me sick. I thought something had happened to you, frolicking off like that yesterday morning. What were you thinking child? I could say that you could have gotten your self hurt but I'm afraid you already have."

I was a tad confounded.

I was trying to say thank you, to show my gratitude but instead I was getting a lecture as if I were as a child.

I was no longer that. I held my angry and spoke calmly.

"I understand that you might have been greatly distressed from my sudden disappearance but I will not be treated like a little girl anymore. I am not a child like I once was, not anymore. So I wish you would stop treating me as such."

Her face softened as if she were about to begin weeping.

She looked at me, knowing she had nothing else to say, came to me and embraced me.

"I'm just glad your alright most of all. My dear Rey, I just don't want to lose you...not like I lost my husband. Not ever again."

I hugged her back.

"I know. I don't want to lose you either."

She detached her embrace on me before continuing to speak.

"It's not that I don't wish for you to grow into such a beautiful young lady or even start a family one day, spreading your wings...I'm just afraid to lose you is all. That is why I act the way I do. Sometimes I act fickle of heart and I apologize for it...that always seems to be my downfall. But again, I just want you to be safe."

"...of course I forgive you. No matter what you will always be my mother...I'll never really ever leave you. I may travel off but I will always come back. And..." I paused before continuing.

Hoping she'd think it not offensive.

"..I can never be sheltered by everything in this world..as much as I wish it even for myself."

She nodded in understanding my words.

Her eyes watched mine intently. Her hand going over top of my folded hands that were currently on my lap.

"Just be safe. I know I can't protect you from everything but for what I can't I know Ben most definitely will."

"He's only an acquaintance." I tried to slip by the ongoing topic she was trying to bring up.

"Mhm. Better than being enemies are even rivals yes?" She raised an eyebrow trying to humor me.

I could have blushed but I forced it away before it appeared.

"Perhaps so but can we leave it as that. I feel quite dreary right now and wish to rest a bit more."

My head felt light as I spoke to her.

She felt my head with the back of her hand.

"Your a bit warm. Yes, get some rest. When you wake I'll have someone make you soup."

"Thank you."

She then left before my eyes fell heavy once more.