Chapter 909: Scheming In The Background
Chapter 909: Scheming In The Background
Walking through the hallways, Isdis sighed, "If only Rey and Ray were here..." She looked back at Mira, "Come on. Two in a row, I'll be dead."
With a smug smile on her face, Mira giggled, "I sadly can't help you. And you're the one who asked for it."
Poor Isdis, she didn't count well. Due to the long days off, she tried to bite more than she could chew. Now, she's regretting her decision. She thought of canceling the plans but couldn't bring herself to do that. As Mira said, she was the one to plan everything, she couldn't be the one to back away.
"I'll ask Merlin, she's my last hope." Isdis looked down as she dragged her legs to Merlin's room. "Merlin, come help me..." She opened the door and walked in with a sad face.
After explaining the situation, Merlin shook her head, refusing to help. "I can help, but I won't. We agreed on a plan, it's the rule, and I intend to play by them."
"Come on, I didn't mean it like that. Do you have anything else to help me with?" Alice looked at her with a troubled face. If she didn't find a solution in the next half an hour, she might die.
Merlin giggled, staring at her with a smile. "Then, how about a trade?" She waved her fingers, drawing a magic circle in the air. "I can't help you personally, but I can try some things. In exchange, you owe me a favor."
"Deal!" Isdis exclaimed with a large smile, "Please do, what do you have on your mind?" "Some tricks...but you'll have to get Hati's permission first."
Isdis cried, breathing in heavily, "I don't want to even discuss the subject with her. She's a crafty one, I'm certain she'll try to trick me somehow."
"I agree with Isdis. Hati is dangerous, we can't let her get too close to us." Mira nodded, giving Merlin a sharp glare.
"She's dangerous because you can't either understand her motives or control her. It can't be helped, she is far stronger, older, and wiser than us all." Merlin leaned back on her chair, putting one leg on another as she waved her fingers, pulling a crystal ball to her face.
"I've heard from her, stories of her and her husband. He too had a lot of wives, and I mean a lot." Merlin smiled, "He did a good job bringing them together in more than one way, but that isn't for us. I'm sure she'll have solid advice for you. Ask the old and wise, not the young and inexperienced, right?"n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
"Fine...but don't blame me if she used us." Isdis walked out of the room with heavy steps, seeking Hati's advice.
"Hmm..." Hati looked at Isdis with a smile as she lay on her large pillow, getting fanned by her daughters. "You ask me about that? You should be smarter than to trust me with an answer, human princess."
Isdis sighed, "I know...but Merlin said I should..."
Hati waved her hand and a small glass bottle glowing with faint mystical light appeared between her sharp and long red nails. "I'll give you this, with it you'll be able to survive not just tonight, but for the whole week." She licked her lips, "One drop in water and you'll be able to get through everything with ease."
Isdis reached toward the bottle, but Hati moved her hand back, "With a price."
"I knew it." Isdis gasped, "What kind? Don't think you can swindle me here."
Hati giggled, throwing the bottle toward Isdis's face. Isdis immediately snatched it. "What's the meaning of this?"
"Help Astrid and Frida get close to Arad. Wives, mistresses, or maids, whatever spot they get is better than nothing. Just be on their side when they need it." She stretched her arms, "And now if you'll excuse me, I've got some rest to catch up to." As Hati turned around on her pillow, Isdis found herself standing in the hallway.
Isdis looked at the bottle, "I hope this will work..." She walked away.
As the next morning came and Arad went to train with Kayden, Mira looked around for Isdis but didn't find her. After a long search, she had to ask one of Hati's daughters if they saw her. What she heard was quite worrying, no one had seen her since she walked into Arad's room last night.
Mira rushed into Arad's room to look for Isdis. She found her still naked on the bed, dripping and motionless. She tried to wake her up but was surprised to see her awake. "Are you okay?!" Mira cried.
Isdis mumbled into the pillow, "Potion helped, but since it felt good, I got carried away. Now I can't move...my hips are sore...and I got a painful hangover..."
Mira looked at the side of the bed and noticed the still-filled bottle. Isdis had only used a single drop in a cup of water, nothing more.
"Wait a moment, I'll call Tina." Mira rushed to the hallway and called Nina before walking back into the room. "Come, I'll drag you to the shower room if you can't walk." She lifted her from the armpits and dragged her, trying to make her sit.
"Why didn't he stop..." Mira growled.
"Told you...I'm the one who got carried away..." Isdis mumbled, "Since I was feeling good, I asked if we could keep going...and this is how I ended up like this..." Even with how embarrassed she was, she couldn't look away from how painful her head was.
The doll sitting at the side of the bed stood and started walking toward the bottle, Aisha had remained in the room after Arad left and she looked at the bottle that Hati gave to Isdis.
"Pure Gracie's Spit, this bottle should be worth several hundred platinum coins." Aisha lifted the bottle and shook her slightly, "The goddess of lust's bites are told to contain a legendary aphrodisiac that could overwrite reason itself. How in the hell did that hag get her hand on this, and why give it just like that?"
Mira looked at her, "The real deal? Not the fake one? Does that mean that got harvested from the goddess herself?"
"Yeah. A hundred platinum coin is the base price, put this thing in an auction and the rich would wage war over it." Aisha looked at them, "Don't underestimate how much money people are willing to give just to have some of a goddess's spit."
"She gave me that? She only asked that I help Astrid and Frida, be on their side." Isdis barely managed to speak, her whole body was starting to feel numb.
"This isn't an item that anybody could get their hands on. Make sure to keep your guard around Hati, she's far more dangerous than you think." She took the potion and stored it
inside her body. "I'll be keeping this."
"Wait...I need to use it." Isdis gasped.
Aisha glared at her, "No you won't use it again. Arad is too much for you to take on alone, I'll tell him that if you aren't able to. Better than having you die in his hands, stupid brat." She growled at her and jumped from the bedside table to the ground.
Aisha glared back at Isdis and Mira, "You two underestimate Arad far too much. If you can't keep up, just tell him. No need for those things to artificially make you last longer."
"Where are you going?" Mira gasped.
"To have a word with that nine-tailed hag." Aisha replied, "You little girls stay here." Even if she was just a cute little doll, Aisha was still older than them by a lot.
When Aisha walked into Hati's room, she found her lying on her large pillow as usual, four of her daughters sharpening her nails, each one taking care of a limb. Five more daughters were behind her brushing her tails.
"What brought such a cute doll to my room?" Hati looked at her with a smile, "It's been decades since I played with dolls, but I'll play with you if you want."
"Don't mock me." Aisha growled, pulling the bottle of Gracie's spit. "Where did you get
this?"
"From Gracie herself. I just asked her to fill me some a few days ago." Hati waved her finger and a large box filled with potions of Gracie's spit appeared.
"You have that much?" Aisha gasped.
"I got Lyla drunk, and she told me that Arad's wives agreed to let Isdis have him this week
since she rarely gets time with him since she deals with the kingdom's affairs." Hati stored the box with a single weave of her nails, a single tap of her nails and it disappeared in a puff of
smoke.
"I knew she doesn't have the stamina or durability so I planned ahead of time." Hati's glowing golden eyes stared straight at Aisha's soul, "I've also told Arad that this would increase fertility." She pulled out a half-empty bottle, "He's a dragon with a powerful metabolism, this much would only increase his fertility nothing more..." She giggled, "Only... if he's the only one who took it."
"You laced Arad's food..." Aisha growled, "A slithering snake..."
"Arad knew, I suggested it to him and he accepted it. My deal with Arad was with him alone,
and my deal with Isdis was with her alone. I'm not responsible for user error or side effects."
Hati giggled.
"Now with Isdis out for days...you think your daughters would take her place? So, your whole
plan was just to push them at Arad?" Aisha growled.
"Pretty much." Hati giggled, "Do you have a problem?"
"I'm going to tell him." Aisha growled, turning to leave. "He won't be happy about it."
"Olivia, want to meet her?" Hati said with a smug grin and Aisha froze in place. Aisha's magic started gushing out as she glared back at Hati, "The hell you said? Olivia? You
mean her, Olivia?"
"The Legendary Alchemist Olivia, in the flesh." Hati waved her fingers and a large white door opened up, inside it was a massive lab with a woman in her underwear, only wearing a white lab coat over her body as she glared at several boiling glassware of strange colors, giggling like a madwoman. The woman paused for a second and glanced back, her glasses reflected the light coming from the opened door, barely allowing her green eyes to show.
The woman smiled, "This door, Hati. Did ya need something?" The woman smiled, "AH! I wanted to get one of your nails, and some of your tail fur... if you don't mind." She approached the door.
"Got them." Hati waved her hand and her daughters gathered, they weren't just tending to
their mother, they were gathering the material that the woman in the lab coat asked for. [Claw of the Eternal Fenrir] [Tail Fur of the Divine Beast]
"By the way, Olivia, for my payment, can you tend to this doll a bit?" Hati pointed with her
foot at Aisha.
Aisha could only look at the woman in the lab coat in shock, was this really the legendary alchemist Olivia? In her life, she had spent decades fighting over just a single scrap of paper written by her. To the alchemist of the world, Olivia's writing was akin to holy scripture. "No need to hesitate. Thousands of alchemists begged me for centuries to allow just a second meeting with her but I've never let a single one." Hati nodded to one of her daughters.
The daughter walked behind the stunned Aisha and kicked her into Olivia's lab, after which
the door closed.
"That leaves the rest." Hati leaned back and touched her ears, "What are you doing? Can I
send Mira your way?"
She then touched her other ear, "Isdis isn't ready, but you better be."