Above All

-Twenty-Six-

Army moves troubled

Treasure trove towards love's grace

Night covers greedy

Layton:

"Allow me to get this straight your majesty... you've been having pain in your chest area... intense sweaty and anxiety over the past few weeks?" The palace doctor asked me with an intensely furrowed brow. We were in the palace's clinic center and I finally concluded that I had to be sick or something of the sort; it had to be the reason why I felt I couldn't function like a normal human being whenever Amani was around.

Maybe I was allergic to something, it always happened around her.

I nodded my head in a fast motion. "Yes, that's right!" I said to him.

The palace doctor cleared his throat and adjusted his square-frame glasses on his face, "Is there anything else that comes along with these symptoms?" He questioned me.

My head lowered a bit as I thought to myself about other potential causes for the changes in my body's behavior. "Oh!" I snapped my fingers remembering something that has also been occurring. "My heart rate has been all over the place." I added.

Amory who had been leaning against the wall of the doctor's office snickered to himself as if he found my sickness amusing, I shot him a look. "Shut up, Amory! This is my life at stake right now!" I called out to him.

He ignored me and laughed louder.

The doctor looked over, "Are you also here for a consultation, your majesty?" He questioned him to which he replied with a simple shake of his head. "Apparently, I am his moral support... whatever that means." He chuckled again.

I narrowed my gaze at him, he was laughing like he knew something I didn't.

The doctor returned to me and scratched the back of his head with his pen that he used for his clipboard. "Well, have you been having any stress triggers lately?" He questioned me.

"Stress triggers?" I inquired.

He nodded, "Yes something... or someone that may cause for these symptoms to rise out of you." He explained to me, I shook my head at first and then I thought deeply... these things seemed to happen to me mostly when one person came into thought or view.

Amani.

Just the mere thought of her brought shivers down my back.

Since I witnessed her surprise proposal about a week back, I had been pretty standoffish in terms of interacting with her, but something seemed off about her after the orphanage event; her bright and cheery persona just seemed to have fallen flat completely and out of nowhere. As a matter of fact, the day after we were scheduled to have a session with her to go over the new engagements we were required to attend, she called in sick; Éliane took over and wouldn't necessarily tell us why Amani hadn't shown up.

"She just needs a little bit of a day off." I remembered her explaining before hastily changing the subject. I had grown frustrated to myself thinking she was perhaps using the day to just mess around with her boyfriend, especially now since my mother's engagements out of the country has extended, she wouldn't be back for another week; this was the perfect opportunity, right?
Right?

That prick of a man Blake, he didn't deserve her... I just knew he didn't. I wasn't sure who she deserved exactly, but I knew it wasn't him. Something in his eyes just told me he was the kind of guy who thought life was a game to win and to come out on top victorious; it was mentalities like this that forced my brothers into shitty roles that never looked out in our own personal interests.