The ride down in the elevator takes way too long, but that’s on Blaine for wanting to have a room at the top of a tower.

The maid tries to explain what is going on, but she seems confused by it as well.

“A rancher brought him in,” she starts, “And he’s a stranger. I haven’t seen him around Castle Town. Maybe he’s from a town in the north of the kingdom? But anyway, he is hurt! He’s very thin too. And he seems to be in some state of shock. He keeps saying the weirdest things!”

Blaine looks down towards his bottles of healing potion. They definitely cannot cure a mental problem. Cooper’s magic also cannot fix mental problems, but he at least has his words to inspire people.

Oh, he really isn’t cut out for this.

The elevator doors open and Blaine and the maid rush towards the Castle infirmary. The doors are open and Blaine can see a man lying on the bed. He looks like he’s Blaine’s contemporary, or maybe a year older, but at least around Blaine’s age. He is unconscious, but he still looks like he’s in pain and his strange clothes are ripped and torn apart.  

Blaine cannot immediately see any blood or wounds, which is great.

“Oh prince Blaine, thank goodness,” the royal doctor says.

“What is the situation?” Blaine asks.

“I have stopped the immediate maladies, but this stranger… he’s… I don’t want to say he’s mad, but he sounds like a madman. He says he is in pain from the inside! Physically!”

“And you cannot find it?” Blaine asks her. The human body is fragile. A lot could’ve gone wrong internally.

The doctor shakes her head.

“No, your highness. I have put him through our most advanced machinery to see if I could find anything, but nothing. I will keep looking, but right now I need to soften the pain immediately."

Which is why she needs Blaine.

But Blaine has no healing powers. He only has potions, and he does try to strengthen them with Royal magic, but as far as Blaine’s aware, it’s to no avail. And the doctor already has ordinary potions from the royal alchemist.

Blaine knew he was asked, but he once again wonders why.

But the maid, the doctor and the nurses all look at him with pleading eyes, so Blaine unscrews the cap of one of his bottles and spells the healing potion that’s inside.

“Oh yeah,” he sings and the potion glows. Everyone looks excited and relieved, but Blaine knows they shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Blaine crouches down next to the bed and holds the bottle above the man’s mouth. Luckily, his mouth is open and Blaine pours some of the potion inside of it.

And to everyone’s surprise, including Blaine’s, the man’s face changes. He calms down. He looks serene. He lets out a long breath.

“You… you did it!” the doctor says.

“I knew he could,” Blaine hears and to his surprise, his mother emerges from the corner. How long has she been standing there, out of view? Is she the one who requested Blaine?

“You’re right, your highness,” one of the nurses says.

“Could we ask you to give us one of your potions?” the doctor asks.

Blaine hands the magical potion to her. His mind is reeling. Did it actually work? And if so, then what changed? Maybe he can ask the royal alchemist for more information, although he keeps insisting that he cannot help Blaine. But surely this must interest him as well! This must interest everyone. This could help so many people.

Really, what just happened?

“Please keep me and my son up to date about the stranger’s condition,” the queen requests.

“Of course,” the doctor bows.

Then Blaine’s mother puts her arm around Blaine and guides him outside.

“Come on, dear, dinner’s waiting for us.”

After dinner, Blaine goes back to the infirmary. Usually, he hangs out with his parents or retreats to his parts of the castle, but something about this stranger compels him.

Besides, his parents had other business to attend to. Cooper’s saved a small village in the north and his parents have been made aware of some atrocities that are committed there, so they have to deal with that.

Maybe he should go back to his tower to experiment with his magic some more. He can enhance potions. That’s huge and he should explore it!

But instead he sits down in a chair next to the bed with the stranger and waits for him to wake up.

This might be a long night.