Brewing Bad Ch. 156-157

Ch. 156 - An Unexpected Audience

After that, the hits kept right on coming. Lucas wasn’t given the chance to even talk to Heisenburgle about this. Worse, as soon as he was ushered into the waiting carriage by the black armored guards, they left immediately. He was being taken to the Prince without the gnome, which never ended well. 

Lucas reflected on the previous times this had happened and decided that he didn’t like this development one bit. He tried to chat casually with the two stern-faced guards who joined him inside the carriage, but they gave up very little, and after a while, they stopped talking to him at all. 

When he reached the palace, he encountered the same level of dismissiveness. They didn’t quite take him to the dungeon or anything, but as he approached the chamberlain, flanked by the guards that shadowed him. He said, “I will inform the Prince of his guest’s arrival. Please take him to the upper study.”

While Lucas had never felt welcome in the palace, this was stiffer than usual. Rather than simply being unwelcome, he was being made to feel unwelcome, which did not bode well for him. 

The guards didn’t follow him into the upper study, at least. Once he was in it, they shut the door and then flanked it, making it clear he wasn’t getting back out that way. Unfortunately, the place had no obvious exits, and he quickly started pacing as he contemplated his predicament. 

What did the Prince want with me? Lucas asked. No, that was a dumb question. He knew what the Prince wanted with him. The better question was, how did the man find out what he was planning. It couldn’t have been Heisenburgle, not after what the man had gone through. 

For a moment, he thought about what lies he could tell him, but Lucas had no faith that he had the ability to lie to that man. The Prince of Lordanin had Ice water in his veins. Last time, he’d dodged the issue and stuck to true but irrelevant things. This time, he doubted he’d be given the chance. 

So, instead of trying to come up with a story, he looked around the room for something that might help him. His first thought was simply to flee, but the door was guarded, and the window to the Prince’s study showed only a sheer four-story drop off below it.

Lucas felt every one of the seconds that ticked by as he looked around indecisively. It wasn’t until he noticed that amidst the Prince’s liquor cabinet was one familiar potion hidden in a nondescript crystal decanter. 

Extended Elixir of Superior Insight - Intelligence 6(Scheming), essence -4(Distant), endurance -3(fragile), poison 3(slow acting), euphoria -2(pensive), strength -2(frail), Agility -1(deliberate). Lowers emotional affect. Bonus is twice as effective for planning purposes. Highly addictive, effects last for up to a week, decreasing over time. 

As he did the math on the potion that lasted a week, he decided it would be terrifyingly strong if he brewed a version that lasted for just a few minutes. The highly addictive part concerned him, but then, he needed every edge he could get right now. So, he ignored the warning and took a quick slug of the sickly sweet stuff. 

Then, as the elixir took hold of his mind with cold fingers, he put it back and started pouring himself a few fingers of brandy to give him an excuse to be over there. That was a fortunate instinct, because he still had the decanter of brandy in his hand when the Prince walked into the office. 

“Making yourself at home, are we?” he asked dryly. He sounded the same as he did any other time, but now, Lucas could hear the layers of subtext in the man’s speech. He could sense his annoyance. 

“Well, I didn’t know how long you’d keep me waiting,” Lucas answered, trying to tread a middle ground between respectful and dismissive. It was the first thing that had come to mind, but already he could see a half a dozen better answers. 

When he drank a strength potion or an endurance potion, it was hard to quantify how much stronger or tougher he’d become, but with an intelligence potion, he could take that in much, much faster. This elixir had only increased his intelligence to twenty, which was a far cry from the thirty-five he’d pegged out his strength at, but it was still enough to make him see the world in an entirely different light, and when he turned and sat down, he felt much less frantic than he had a moment ago. 

The Prince is probably still smarter than me, he reminded himself to keep his arrogance in check, but not by nearly as much as he was a moment ago.

“I’ll get straight to my point, Mr. Parin,” the Prince said, “I know what you’re doing.”

“Working on ever more powerful potions?” Lucas asked. “I’m not exactly keeping it a secret. You’re kinda footing the bill for that, after all.”

“Yes, but why you’ve undertaken it so recently with such gusto,” the man admonished him. Lucas could see the pride in those words, but also the frustration in them. He’d always suspected that this man would have killed him if he didn’t need him, but now he was sure. 

“Because I’m locked away with nothing else to do with my time!” Lucas said, slamming the glass down on the desk just hard enough to make it slosh theatrically. “If you want me to get back to my basics, all you have to do is—”

“I don’t have to do anything,” the Prince countered cooly. “You have to explain yourself. That’s why I’ve brought you here despite the odd hour. Why are you making such high-powered strength potions?”

“Didn’t Heisenburgle tell you about my death wish?” Lucas asked. “Think of it as extreme sports, with more blood.”

“We both know that isn’t the truth,” the Prince answered with a shake of his head. “I want you to admit it. This is about Skylara, isn’t it?”

“Fine, you win,” Lucas sighed. This wasn’t the route he’d planned on going down at the start of the conversation, but he was smarter now than he’d ever been in his life, and he’d found a better answer than denying it. “I’m working on the endurance potion to deal with Skylara. The strength potion, too, but not in the way you think.”

“Oh?” the Prince responded. His body language told Lucas he was very slightly surprised by that turn of events. “Do tell.”

“Well, it’s something I’ve been keeping pretty close to the vest,” Lucas said, trying to sound embarrassed as he repressed his anger and revulsion. “But… you know how we banged after one of your parties, right? Surely one of your spies told you.”

“I don’t have spies watching Lady Skylara,” the Prince corrected him. “That is an exceedingly dangerous suggestion; she will do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. However, I was informed of the aftermath of your dalliance by my head maid. Apparently, you left the room quite a mess.”

“I, ummm, sorry about that,” Lucas answered. “Anyway, I don’t have the body to go with a woman like that. Not all night anyway. She nearly killed me.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that,” the Prince commented. Lucas wasn’t sure if the man had already caught him in a lie with some minor slip-up, but it was too late for that. He was committed. So he pressed on. 

“Anyway, before I try to win her back, I plan to make something that can give my performance a little—” He started to explain.

“Win her back?” The Prince asked. “What are you talking about? What about Danaria?”

“She’s dead,” Lucas said flatly, doing his best impression of not giving a fuck. “She’s dead, and she’s not coming back. What do you want me to say? You want me to spend the rest of my life moping around after her?”

“I expected you to be a little more broken up than this,” he admitted. “Where was this Lucas when you were staying in my château?”

He swallowed at that, but pressed on. “I’m not really into whores, and women that are paid to want me will only ever be that. I cared about Danaria, but pragmatic reasons as well as lustful ones. I could chase some new noblewoman, but if Skylara’s already there, why not just take her up on it and be done with it?”

The Prince did something then that Lucas couldn’t recall him doing before. He laughed. 

“What’s so funny?” Lucas asked. No matter how well he thought he’d told it, he could think of half a hundred holes in his story, and had no idea which one the man that held his life in the balance found so ammusing.

“You think she’d be interested in you after the way you spurned her?” the Prince laughed, “I doubt her dignity would allow it.”

“How many women have you been with?” Lucas asked. He waited for the Prince to open his mouth before he added, “That you haven’t paid, I mean.”

“What’s your point?” the man said, betraying more than a hint of annoyance at that jab.

“My point is that women love drama,” Lucas said. Truthfully, he was no ladies' man, but he’d had plenty of friends who were, and he channeled them in that moment. “I’ll bet that Skylara has killed every man who’s ever crossed her, and now, along comes someone she can’t, and he makes her feel like this? Catnip. Her wires are completely crossed. I just gotta do the whole crawling back to her thing and—”

“I can’t let you do anything that would endanger this Kingdom again, Lucas,” the Prince admonished him. 

“And I’m telling you, nothing would make it safer,” Lucas boasted, taking a drink.

“You’re sure about that?” The Prince asked, judging him harshly with his eyes. 

“I’m sure that paying her in gold or in drugs is a losing strategy,” Lucas said. “She’s ancient. You need to bond with her emotionally, too. You need her to care about the people of the city. In 50 years, I’ll be dead, but she’ll still be the same demanding dragoness. You should be using that, and make her so fond of this place, that… Well, you know.”

“The royal family is already bound quite tightly to her,” the Prince answered. 

For a moment, Lucas could see something else on his face. There was clearly a larger secret there, but the Prince wasn’t about to share it. Instead, he stood and said, “Come, you’ve come a long way, and I have clearly misjudged you, at least in part. We shall solve that problem after dinner with a gift?”

“A gift?” Lucas asked, but the Prince didn’t answer him. 

Instead, they went downstairs together, making small talk about the state of the Kingdom, and the two of them entered the small dining hall where a single place had been set. As Lucas sat, the servants scrambled, and a second place was added. 

That puzzled him. With his currently towering intellect, he could think of any number of reasons why the man had not planned to have dinner with him, but none of them were good. 

Still, whatever terrible futures had been planned for him, Lucas had talked himself out of them, at least for the moment. Instead, they talked about drugs and exports, and Lucas pretended to care. Finally, at one moment, the Prince asked, “If this was your plan the whole time, why not simply tell Heisenburgle and ally my suspicions?”

Because this is all a lie and I made it up on the spot, Lucas thought. He didn’t say that, though. Instead, he said, “Heisenburgle, didn’t tell you this. He probably told you about the troll, but that’s not why I’m here.”

The Prince nodded at that, so Lucas continued. “Tell me who did it and I’ll tell you why I’m keeping Hesienburgle in the dark.”

The Prince paused a moment, and Lucas could see the urge to order him to talk written across his face, but he resisted and said, “I have men everywhere, including among my chief alchemist’s assistants. I thought you knew.”

Lucas laughed at that to cover up the bitter feeling that one of the two men he’d helped had sold him out. Thank god I never asked them to relay a message to Danaria like I’d considered Or I’d be seriously fucked, he thought, doing his best not to let that relief show. 

“The answer is simple,” Lucas said. “Your man is a soulless prude, and knowing my real plan would make him hate me more than he already does.”

The Prince didn’t laugh at that, but it was a close thing. He nearly did, but merely smirked and toasted Lucas with a goblet of red wine. 

Ch. 157 - An Unexpected Gift

The Prince was in no rush when it came to dinner, and though Lucas’ fatigue outweighed his appetite, he still sampled at least a little of all seven courses. He knew that the man was toying with him and trying to get him to ask about the gift he’d promised earlier, but Lucas was determined not to give him the satisfaction. 

Instead, he scrutinized his system, noting the status it displayed with distaste while he waited for the other man to decide he’d had enough dessert. Elixir of Superior Insight +6 Intelligence (6 days, 22 hours remaining.) New Addiction to Elixir of Superior Insight (duration 13 days, 22 hours.)

It deeply annoyed him that after a single use, he was addicted to the Prince’s intellect potion, despite his talent that made him less likely to get addicted to things. In fairness, the thing’s description had told him it was highly addictive, so it would probably be much worse without it, but he was not looking forward to coming off this thing. 

Still, that wasn’t a now problem. Right now, his only problem was keeping it together long enough to get sent back to Black Gate instead of the Prince’s royal love shack, or some place even worse. During dinner that seemed to be going well enough, but afterwards, when they started taking the familiar route toward the dungeon, Lucas had second thoughts. Those intensified when he made a joke about it, and the Prince said nothing at all. 

Not this place again, Lucas sighed, willing himself to stay calm. 

Fortunately, when they got to the bottom of the steps and reached Lucas’ usual cell, it was occupied. The bad news was that it was occupied with a familiar face: Adin. 

Motherfucker! His mind raged. Lucas restrained himself, but only barely, and in large part due to ice water that was running through his veins as a side effect of the potion. 

Instead of screaming or grabbing the bars, he regarded the wretch cooly and then said, “This is my present? I was expecting something nicer.”

“Well, look who it is,” Adin chuckled. “I hope that that draconic bitch burned you down too” 

Ever since he’d been forced to quit Blue the hard way the man had looked like shit, but in Lucas’ opinion he’d never looked worse.  Even in all the time that had passed since Lucas had seen him fly from the balcony, he was still pretty beat up, and the splints on his arms and one leg spoke to broken bones. 

That cheered up Lucas. It was only a small measure of the suffering the moron endured, but it was still something.  

Lucas wasn’t surprised by that in the least. He’d made that fall once before and was shocked that he’d come away nearly uninjured. 

“She might have breathed fire,” Lucas answered contemptuously, “But you were the one who burned your entire life down. You know that? You could have had it all, but now you only have this.”

“Me?” Adin answered. “Our life was going just fine until you showed up! You did this, Lucas, or whatever your real name is. You set fire to everything you touch.”

As much as Lucas enjoyed bickering with the man under the watchful eye of the Prince, he declined to keep going. As satisfying as it would have been to bring up his sister or his wife and watch the fire in his eyes go out, Lucas didn’t want anyone to catch him in his lies. So, instead of indulging, he turned to the Prince and said, “I thought you told me he was dead.”

“I might have implied it,” the Prince agreed. “Though in fairness, he was largely dead when we pulled him out of the moat. He has healers and priests to thank for his recovery.”

“What makes you think I want him?” Lucas asked. “This is the last person I would want in my life, ever.”

“Understandable,” the Prince agreed, “And yet, you may have him just the same. Once you’ve patched things up with Skylara, you may dispose of him anyway you wish. You may—”

“Wait, you’re going to… After that bitch killed my sister you’re going to what… Fuck her? Marry her?”

“If she’ll have me,” Lucas said, forcing himself to grin at those words. “Being a Parin was only ever a stepping stone to larger things.”

The look of shock on Adin’s face was priceless, but it still wasn’t enough to warm his heart after the terrible nature of the lie. After that, Lucas turned and started down the hallway and up the stairs to the courtyard. A few seconds later, Prince joined him. 

“I thought you would have enjoyed your reunion a little more than that,” he admitted. 

“The only thing I will enjoy about that man is watching him hang,” Lucas admitted. “He’s been dead weight the entire time I’ve known him, and the sooner he stops breathing, the better off Lordanin will be.”

After that, he changed the topic. The Prince asked him if he’d like to return to Black Gate immediately, but Lucas merely shrugged. “Truthfully, I’m exhausted, and after that last ambush, I’d rather not travel at night. Perhaps I could find a room and return in the morning?”

The Prince agreed to that and handed him off to his chamberlain. Truthfully, Lucas would have preferred to go back tonight, but rushing back felt too much like he had something to hide, and right now, he felt the almost unreasonable need to prove to the ruler of the kingdom that this wasn’t so. 

So, Lucas slept in the palace that night, wondering how Heisenburgle would take that news, and then, in the morning, after a night of tossing and turning because his schedule was entirely out of whack, he had breakfast with the Prince and then left the city just the way he came in. 

On the way back, Lucas mostly sat quietly and studied his system. With an Intelligence of twenty, even if he bumped his physical attributes as high as they would go, that would still only bring his average to twenty-three or twenty-four, and he wasn’t about to spend the rest of his points to bump up appearance or soul on whim. So, even with the current bump, Divine Potential was, at least for the moment, out of his reach. 

I can make a better intelligence potion than this, though, Lucas assured himself. 

He could make one that lasted less than an hour, that was at least ten or fifteen. He might even be able to do more than that if he could convince Heisenburgle to share the recipe. He decided that was unlikely, though. The gnome hadn’t budged on that to date. 

As they traveled, Lucas reviewed his priorities. One thing he knew for sure was that as interesting as the Prince’s intelligence elixir was, he was not going to enjoy when it wore off one bit; in a week he was going to start feeling like shit, so his first priority was seeing if the alchemy text books had something in there for addictions that was stronger than black coffee. 

After that, as much as he hated it, he probably needed to write the Dragoness a love letter or six, and then he’d be able to get back to work on his more specific potion projects, and help Heisenburgle with his metallurgical work. As a list, it was deceptively short, but each of those categories contained dozens of smaller projects, and his goal hinged on all of them.  

No, I’ll have to start with an apology first, he realized, suppressing a sigh. A long, groveling apology, along with the finest bottle of Lwynthenll I can make. After that, I can seduce her. 

He gave a lot of thought to that on the ride home. As distasteful as he found it, setting the trap with care was every bit as important as being strong enough to spring it. He had to convince the Dragoness to meet him somewhere out of the way, and then, when they got there, he had to be ready to cut her down and fill her heart with poison. 

Knowing that, and doing it without actually filling his own heart with bile, though, were too different things. All of that was set aside, though, when he returned to Blackgate and found Heisenburgle had waited up for him. 

The gnome quickly spirited Lucas into a study and then read him the riot act. That none of this was Lucas’ fault seemed to matter to him. Heisenburgle was frantic. 

“Of course he knows!” the gnome insisted when Lucas tried to explain to him. “He’s smarter than you and me combined. The man knows everything! He sees right through you!”

“I know,” Lucas said, “That’s why I took a sip of his stash when he wasn’t looking. To beat him at his own game.”

“You what?” the gnome paled. “Lucas! That elixir is incredibly addictive! You can’t just—”

“Yeah,” I know that too, “He interrupted, but it is what it is. I’m in for two weeks of pain, but I’ll get over it. It can’t be as bad as Blue or Heroin.”

When Lucas explained his audacious plan to Heisenburgle, he was mollified somewhat, but only a little. The gnome might be pretending to be grumpy, but Lucas could see that he was secretly pleased that he’d found a way to lay the groundwork for their trap. 

That was the scary part of this elixir, he decided. Not that it made him smarter, or that he could think faster. It made it much easier to see that everyone else was thinking, though a combination of what they said, what they didn’t say, and the micro-expressions scattered across their faces. 

I wonder how much I give away like that normally? He wondered as the conversation continued. 

They spent more than an hour going back and forth, with Heisenburgle asking the minutest of questions about his patronage’s verbiage. Normally Lucas would have told him to fuck off, but today, juiced up as he was, he could remember every line and intonation, and he repeated the Prince perfectly, and at length.

Being as smart as he was was almost distracting, because he ended up having whole meta conversations with himself about minor details he was noticing, and he wasn’t at all used to it. In a way, it was a different sort of high, and the fact that he liked it so much scared him. 

Even after their conversation ended, and Lucas went back to his room to do a little light reading and get back on a proper sleep schedule, he thought about that. It was something he could get used to, but in a way, that was almost as scary as getting addicted to the potion. How much could he change his attributes before he wasn’t even the same person anymore?