The Witch's Traitor

Deadly Poison

Poisons were one of Luna's specialty. There was nothing more rewarding than discovering how naturally it came to her still. Everyone could make a simple rat poison, there was not a doubt about it. You only needed a few ingredients, two of which were choleocalciferol and bromethalin. Although, witches liked the idea of adding their own factors, to make their poisons even stronger. Even though Luna wasn't able to use her powers anymore, she was still able to add three drops of frozen meat's blood into the mix. The potion turned light pink shade, blending with the other ingredients in the small glass jar. 

Half of the poison's ingredients found their way onto Luna's white apron, making her uniform even dirtier than usual. Working in a castle where you had to clean every dust particle, had it's effect on their appearance. Confirming Luna's thoughts, she spotted her friend coming her way. Her walk was slow, but steady. Her hair was messier than usual , adding to her tired look, weighing down her usually bright face. Yesterday was one of the hardest days they had to get trough since several years. The news of the competition between the prisoners were fast revealed to the staff three hours after Luna had heard about the rumor, at the most inappropriate time. They had only three days to clean up the entire castle, leaving them with little to no room for some rest. Today, they were forced to go about their day with only two hours of sleep. Luna's legs still ached from going up and down the big staircase, but she still managed to smile at the girl before her.

Ruby-Mae was one of the only people who had accepted Luna as their friend years ago, sharing her meals with her when no one else trusted her to get close enough to the kitchens to get her own food. Being the only witch in a crowd full of humans wasn't exactly helping her with winning friends over. After ten years, she was finally content with having only two close friends who she appreciated dearly. Ruby-Mae was one of them.

''How was your night?''

The answer was clearly written on her face, but she still looked around before giving her an honest answer.

''I have had it better.''

She licked her cracked lips before continuing with the real reason to why she was coming to talk to Luna, when there were over twenty big rooms that still awaited to be cleaned.

''However, this is not what I'm coming to talk to you about'' she pointed at her dirty uniform with a hard look on her face ''Look at the mess you have made out of this thing. What are you going to wear if the King calls us in the dinning room to tell us more about the competition? ''

There wasn't an accusation in her tone, but it still made Luna a little uneasy, looking down at the light pink marks that the poison left on her. She wasn't the only one who walked around in stained clothes, they worked with food and the staff made sure to keep the castle spotless. Everyone had some kind of marks on them, but that wasn't anything out of the ordinary. It was inevitable.

''Why are you so distressed today? I have stains all over my uniform, it's nothing new''

''I'm aware, but these are no ordinary stains, you reek of poison. ''

Well, that made Luna silent, loosing her train of thought. 

The thought of people finding out the mixture was poison, wasn't one of her concerns. It could have been anything, she wasn't aware that some people could recongize the smell, much less her friend. 

Ruby-Mae moved in front of Luna, covering her mindless friend from the curious eyes of the other maids.

'' You can't walk around like that, no one will think that it's just a paint or something. Especially not after what had happened last week. '' 

That killed even the last bit of good mood left in Luna's body. 

''We aren't going to talk about that here''