With nothing to do but wait for Nul and Karyn to examine the mystery substance, Kell poured Roran some wine and they settled onto the couch.
"You said your herbalist made the stuff?" Kell asked.
"Yeah, she was the one my mom went to whenever she needed medicine. My mom always said she was good. I didn't know she was familiar with poisons though."
"Poisons aren't that different from medicine, they just have a different outcome."
Roran nodded, rubbing his palms together. They didn't feel any different but he was extra aware of them, as if he hadn't realized he had hands until he had accidentally coated them in poison.
"I'm sure you'll be fine," said Kell, grinning at him. "Nul is the smartest person I know and Karyn isn't far behind."
"If you don't mind me asking, what's your relationship with her?"
"With Karyn? What do you think? I pay her money to have sex with me. Outside of that I like her alright. She's a kind person that's fun to be around. If she keeps hanging out with us I might start calling her a friend."
"Have you considered courting her?"
"Nah, I'm not one for all the gooey romance stuff. What about you? Did she catch your eye?"
Roran shrugged. "I haven't really thought about it. She's a friend and I like being around her, but I haven't thought about romance with everything going on. I could die any time I step foot in the arena. It's hard to think much past that."
"That's the life of a champion. We walk the line of life and death."
"I'm not a champion," said Roran.
"Not yet."
"Morena said something similar, that if I win the tourney they would make me a champion and give me a title. Did you know that would happen?"
"It's not a guarantee, but with the way you're cutting down champions it's a pretty safe bet you'll be given a title at the end of it all."
"What do you think they'll call me?" Roran was hoping for anything that didn't include the word 'murderer'.
"Hell if I know. The judges come up with a bunch of suggestions and the audience does a noise vote. You know, they almost called me 'the spear maiden', but those idiots went with the living storm instead. Half of us champions are the living something or other. I could have gotten a cool and distinguished title, but no, they had to give me a dumb one."
"Why do they call Nul the worldbreaker?"
"Nul uses advanced focus markings to bend the world around them. You saw what the earth workers could do?"
Roran nodded.
"Think that but with all the elements and geared towards combat. Reality is Nul's plaything. They don't like fighting but can do a lot of damage when pushed to violence."
They continued chatting for a few more hours, working their way through a bottle of wine. Before Roran realized it, he had dozed off on the couch. He woke several hours later to the sound of movement in the kitchen and the smell of bacon.
Sitting upright, he was greeted by a typical morning in Kell's apartment. Kell was bustling about the kitchen, putting together breakfast, while Nul leaned over a cup of coffee, contemplating the torture that was being awake in the morning.
"Good morning sleepyhead," said Karyn. She had a bright smile that was contrasted by deep bags under her eyes. "It looks like you survived the night."
Roran nodded. "Did you two stay up all night?"
She nodded.
"And?"
"We did it!" Karyn beamed at him, a smug smile on her face. "We were able to determine what the compound is supposed to do."
"Explain at the table," Kell yelled from the kitchen. "Breakfast is ready."
Roran joined Nul at the table while Kell set out plates of food. Karyn went to the kitchen and fussed over a teapot. She poured a cup of tea and set it down in front of Roran before joining them at the table.
Picking up a strip of bacon, Kell gestured at Karyn and said, "So, is our newest recruit going to die in an ironic twist of fate, unwittingly poisoned by his own kinsmen?"
Karyn rolled her eyes. "You read too many mystery novels. No, from what we learned, Roran is not going to die. If he starts becoming symptomatic we may have to brew a cure, but for now this will do." She tapped the cup in front of Roran.
"What is it?" he asked. He picked up the mug and sniffed it. "It smells like chamomile."
"Correct! What your herbalist concocted was a strange poison—well, more of a toxin—that kills its victim in a couple days, rendering them mostly helpless after just one. What tipped me off was the bergamot. This is a rare toxin that interacts with tea. Bergamot increases the speed at which it affects the body, chamomile slows it down. The chamomile will slow down the toxin so that you shouldn't have any severe symptoms until after the match. That will give us plenty of time to brew up a neutralizing agent."
Nul shook their head. "Toxic tea. Probably the most convoluted way you could poison someone."
Karyn shrugged. She was still pleased with herself for working out the problem. "You will likely experience some fever over the next week but the toxin needs to be soaked in water to be really effective. The stuff we blew out the window might cause a little bit of fever throughout the city, but I doubt anyone will be seriously hurt by it."
Roran frowned, putting down the cup of tea. "Fever? What are the other symptoms?"
"Fever is the big one. About a day after ingesting the toxin, you would have a high fever and begin losing consciousness, going into fever dreams and madness. You'd probably have some nausea and muscle fatigue but-"
"What if there was no bergamot?" asked Roran, his skin starting to feel clammy and cold. "What if the toxin was mixed in with a pot of chamomile tea?"
"Oh...Um, I guess that would drastically slow it down. It would probably take weeks or possibly even months for the toxin to kill you. You would go through a cycle of fevers, each one worse than the last, until you were stuck in bed. Eventually the fevers would kill you, cooking your body from the inside out. It would be a miserable way to die."
Roran nodded. "So, if I put the toxin in a pot of chamomile tea, and shared it with someone, I would have plenty of time to get the antidote and they would slowly die from fever over the course of a month, with everyone around them assuming it was an illness."
Karyn blanched. "I guess you could do it that way, but I don't think that would help you in your fight with Morena. Just that cup of chamomile you're drinking will push off the effects until-"
"That's a very specific scenario," said Nul, cutting Karyn off. "Is everything okay?"
Roran picked up the cup of tea and chugged it, burning his tongue and throat. He slammed the mug back on the table and stood up. Despite downing the cup of scalding hot tea, he felt ice cold.
"Yeah," he said, "I need to go take care of something."
Karyn stood up as well. "What's wrong? Are you okay-"
Kell grabbed Karyn's arm and shook her head. "Let him go," she said softly.
Roran left the apartment without looking back. Making it down to the street, he almost broke into a run. Roran felt disconnected from the world around him, as if it were no more than a backdrop. The people, the places, everything seemed out of place, hollow. The world was empty and he was alone.
Upon entering the Crucible, he swept past the wardens, ignoring them. When he made it down to the dungeons, he simply said, "Open, I need to get through," and the wardens startled back, rushing to open the gate. Roran had no idea what his expression looked like but it was enough to scare the wardens.
He swept down the hallway with long strides, his pulse rising with every step. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears and his hands were shaking. The warden fumbled the keys into the door and let him into Millgrove's dungeon. Roran shoved past him.
His kinsmen eyed him as he entered, forty six lost souls, robbed of their homes and forced to live underground for the benefit of a hungry empire. Kamil was sitting with Toth, fiddling with some collection of herbs and cloth, likely trying to rub anesthetic into some bandages to help heal a wound or sore on someone's foot. Kamil spent a lot of time tending to the minor illnesses that came from living in squalor. She looked up when Roran entered and, upon seeing his face, flinched backwards.
"Why?" Roran called, walking straight towards Kamil.
Murrin jumped to his feet and intercepted Roran, a big smile on his face.
"Tell me, how did it go? Did you get him to drink the concoction? Did you give him the herbs?"
Not slowing down, Roran shoved Murrin out of the way, sending the old councilman sprawling to the dirt.
"Why?" Roran asked again, his voice hoarse with anger.
People scrambled out of his way, opening a path to Kamil. She hurried to her feet and started backpedaling away from Roran. She wasn't fast enough. Roran reached out and wrapped his hand around her throat. He slammed her into the wall, squeezing until she stopped breathing.
Shaking with rage, Roran asked, "Why did you kill my mother?"