You decide that the first thing to do is see your father. You're not sure if it's the most strategic move, but he is your father, and if he's near death you feel you must see him at least once more. It's an emotional decision, but it's the only one you can think of just now. You stand from the stone bench and rush to the castle, slowing down as you approach the guards, who nod to you and greet you by name. You smile and nod back, as you silent stride past them and into the castle. Getting up to your father's room is trickier then you may have thought. You're pulled a few times by friends of Milly to help them with some of the chores of the day. They remark a few times about you're lack of ability to do them as well as you usually do. You simple smile and tell them that your mind must be on Eric, and quickly excuse yourself after those tasks are done. Finally you work your way up your father's room. Two guards stand leaning against the wall.
"My fath-er...the king, I must see the king." you say the guard with the salt-and-pepper beard and the chevron on his tabard, indicating him as a higher ranking guard. He looks at you suspiciously, and you silently curse yourself for your slip-up. You were so excited to see your father after so long that you forgot for a moment that you were in Milly's body. He narrows his eyes at you before speaking.
"Why's that then?" he asks slowly.
"Well, it's just that the girl who does the cleaning up in his room forgot to change the sheets, see, and she asked if I could do it as a favor." you say to him, you sigh and roll your eyes, as you ad a slight derisive snort just after the word "favor." The guard looks at and back at the other guard, who rolls his eyes as well. He nods and stands aside a bit, gesturing for you to enter. You walk with slow, measured steps, not to add any more suspicion to the guards then you already have. You enter your father's room.
It looks more or less the same as it did when you last saw him, a spacious room with plush furniture. A desk with a numbers of papers scatters about it, a huge book case standing next to a red sofa and a comfortable chair next to it. Your father's bed has the curtains drawn. You slowly approach and pull them back and synch them up with the ties. What lies before you causes you to gasp. Your father, once a large man, approaching corpulence and a well combed beard, is now thin and drawn, his skin is pale, his beard grey and scraggly. You kneel by his side a pull his boney hands in you own, tears welling up in your eyes. He weakly turns to you briefly and looks you in the eyes before blinking and leaning back, closing his eyes.
"Father...father, it's me, it's your daughter." you say in a wavery voice. He doesn't respond. You wipe your eyes.
"Father, I will help you. I will see you through this, I swear it." you say to him. An opening door causes you to turn your head. In steps a woman in an elegant, yet functional dress. She has her red hair tied up behind her and done up, a pair of spectacles on her face. She looks at you and narrows her eyes, pulling the glasses off. You don't recognize her, but her clothes are clearly high quality and the guards wouldn't have let her in were they not familiar. You conclude she must be Elthissa, posing as your brother's betrothed.
"You...who are you? I recognize the body you inhabit, but you aren't Milly." she says. You stand up and turn to her, matching her glare with one of your own, anger flaring in your mind.
"You don't recognize me? I'm the princess you rooted to the ground in the garden." you say to her. She looks at you, her glare turning into a look of confusion.
"Princess...?" she says and approaches you, you back away sneering.
"You'll step no closer. Reverse what you've done to my father!" you say to her. She gazes at you in a mixture of confusion and awe before nodding with understanding.
"I understand you're assumptions, but you must listen to me. We-" she begins before a shout from outside cause you both to turn your heads. You hear a muttered conversation from outside and hear the guards running off. The new voice sounds familiar and you soon learn why. The door opens and what you see causes your heart to tighten in your chest, and your hands wrap around you and back away further, bumping into a bedside table. It's you. The body that was trapped in prison of a tree steps through, just as human as it was when you first walked the garden months ago. She smiles a wicked smile and looks at you.
"Elthissa." your brother's wife says with hatred dripping in her voice.