Ultimate Trickster Lord Reincarnation

Devil's Apothecary

Making poisons hadn't been a skill I had picked up by accident, and I had become damn good at it.

When Lucas had been sick, herbs were some of my early attempts to ease his pain. The medicine from the hospital treated the disease, but it left him miserable, feverish, and uncomfortable all the time. I attempted to steal from a local medicine woman who worked deep in the slums, but she caught me. It was one of a few times my attempts at thievery had ever been noticed. Oddly enough, she didn't punish me. Instead, an outstretched hand offered to teach me all she knew. Said I 'had the careful fingers and quick mind for it.'

What did I have to lose?

Amid all the scandals and setups of the city, Lady Ole (as she called herself) taught me the way of the alchemist. According to her the art of alchemy was lost to this world, and passing it on to me was her way of ensuring the practice survived. She made attempts to teach me the art of medicine, but despite my nearly inhuman knack for herb identification, preparation, and poison concocting, it was like the tools for healing fell apart in my grasp. Beyond a simple coagulation paste everything I made to heal turned out bad.

"You have the touch of darkness..." She had mused, "a talented devil's apothecary."

My confidence was shot, feeling useless to help Lucas, and a tad...monstrous. She must have noticed.

"Silly bird." She snorted, whacking me over the head with a dusty leather-bound book. "Good, bad, none of this matters. How will you use it?"

After this, she gave me her home-brewed concoctions to help Lucas. They had worked.

My eyes stung in the bright light of the day as I emerged back out from the depths, a stark contrast to the dim, flickering oil lanterns of the fighting arena below.

Had I passed any herb shops on the way here? Poisons were my specialty, but there were a lot of unknowns. Did this world have any of the same plants? With the same names? How about the equipment used in preparation?

Regardless, I was confident in time I could figure out anything this world threw at me. The only true unknown was how long I would be set back, not if I could do it.

'I have to believe that.'

After leaving the Outreaches, I flipped a single silver coin into the palm of a carriage driver to take me to 'the nearest botanical market.' Carriage rides were expensive, a luxury of the rich to use comfy seats and horses to travel around, so a ride across much of the city wasn't cheap. While less than ideal to spend silver, the days of sleeping outside and scrounging off stolen bread took a toll on my already weakened body. Although I felt much better than I had been upon arrival in this world, I wasn't at all back to full health. Rest was essential. Besides, I had no idea where I would begin to look for an herbal shop. Carriage it was.

Luckily the driver didn't blink twice at the request, and I opened the door to the polished, sturdy wooden vehicle and made myself comfortable as the reigns cracked. The sound of hooves echoed rhythmically in front of me. Roads passed by, dotted with stalls and stores. People shut and opened shutters with the shifts in daylight while children played with rough leather balls and homemade dolls. The sky was clear, the cold, rainy weather from earlier in the week washing away to a dry, comfortable day. I realized I didn't know what season it was. If this place even had them. I also didn't know the date.

My palm felt cool as I met my head to my hand. How much time had passed on earth?

What was Lucas doing?

I bit at my cheek, brows furrowing. There had been a growing tension since that night with Diane; almost like using magic had taken something out of me I couldn't get back. It was causing me to have subtle mood swings, just like now in the moments when my mind wasn't busy with something else. In fantasy magic usually just restored itself. Maybe it was, and I was interpreting things wrong. Finding someone who knew about magic would be helpful, but even if I did it would require admitting to them how little I knew, and what I was capable of. Could I trust someone with that? I thought back to the strange sigil marked on Diane's palm, considering what sort of power had been shared between us. Right now I had a gambling deadline to meet, but afterward, it would be time to go back and visit Diane...and run a few tests with her.