There's Crows In The Garden | 3rd Life AU

.: The Poisoning :.

TWs: a poisoning (I think you can figure that out from the title lol), mentions of alcohol, small mentions of vomitting and death

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"Hand? HAND?!"

I shot up from the bench next to the garden I'd been reading on and spun in the direction of the castle, which, last I knew, was where Ren was. I found him rushing towards me, holding his crown to his head so it didn't tumble off. 

"What's wrong?" I asked, taking a couple of strides forward to close the distance between us. 

"We have guests," he panted out, and I knew those guests were people we didn't want to see just by the way he said it. I racked my brain, trying to figure out who the guests could be (it really didn't take long).

"King Scar and Grian?"

"Yeah. C'mon, they want a feast, and I want you to be there, just in case something goes wrong."

I followed Ren back to the castle, matching his brisk steps the best I could. As we walked, something occurred to me. "Wait, they came over and just demanded a feast?"

Ren glanced over at me. "Yeah."

I frowned. "Well, that's awfully rude of them."

"That's what I thought." Ren sighed. "I don't want to cause any more conflict than there is now, though, so I agreed to it."

"Hmm," I murmured. "I feel like this is going to go poorly in some way."

Ren never responded, but he chewed on his lip like he was brooding over what I'd said, which was good. I wanted to make sure he was going into this with as much caution as I was, just in case.

Grian and Scar were waiting for us in the dining hall. Ren sat across the long table from Scar, and I sat at the place directly to his right. Wine, bread, and jam were already laid out for us to enjoy while the cooks prepared the main meal.

"Ren, Martyn, nice of you to join us." Scar's voice was sly and caused the anxiety swirling in my gut to worsen.

"Of course," said Ren. "It's only polite." I said nothing, knowing that if I did open my mouth, the words to come out of it would be anything but polite.

Scar smiled. "Yes, yes, of course!" He took a slow sip of his wine. "Please, feel free to begin feasting. It's your food and drink, after all."

I wasn't that hungry, but I grabbed a piece of bread and slathered some jam on it anyway. I didn't touch my wine, though, as I wasn't keen on lowering my guard around the desert folk, even if it was only by a bit. Ren took a small, calculated sip from his goblet before snatching his own slice of bread.

As we waited for the meal to arrive, Ren and Scar made friendly small talk. Grian and I both stayed relatively silent, only adding to the conversation if we were asked to. Mostly, we just chipped away at our bread and made sure our kings didn't say anything they shouldn't.

After what felt like an eternity of meaningless talk, the meal was delivered and the main discussion began. I didn't pay too much attention to it, too busy watching the desert folk for any suspicious behavior, but I believe it had something to with trading cactus (important only because it could be smushed into vibrant green dye). I also kept an eye on Ren, who was drinking more than I thought was good for a meeting with our enemies.

Suddenly, Grian, who'd been the least involved in the conversation out of the four of us, having barely said anything at all, cleared his throat. "Martyn, are you not going to touch your wine?"