Chapter 15

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A banquet was planned for the Royal family, including both the Emperor and Empress, Crown Prince Sun, Princess Ziyi (the little sister of Crown Prince), Prince Yan (the younger brother of Crown Prince), Prince Si Pierce, and many well known officials. Many of the officials brought a companion to sit with as well. The main hall was filled with rows of tables, each with two elaborately embroidered pillows underneath for the guests to sit on. The Emperor and Empress faced the room at the back of the hall, the royal family sat in front of them, closer to the officials and their guests.

All of the personal servants were to stay outside during the banquet, a dedicated staff was chosen to bring in the food and drinks. A few of these servants remained along the perimeter of the room, if anyone needed anything they could simply get their attention. I stood outside with Nomi, among the closest to the entryway. In the distance a figure seemed familiar. Gathering small amounts of energy I reached out my senses to recognize General Bai approaching with another general I didn't recognize.

"I summoned the person and got confirmation." General Bai said as I channeled my energy, listening in on his conversation.

"Have you met with the person since then?" The general asked.

"No, but I know they're here, somewhere." General Bai sounded confident. The person laughed lightly.

"Aren't you too trusting?" He asked.

"Hah!" General Bai laughed. "I'm not trusting at all, in fact I don't know which is worse: the person being here or not being here. Which is precisely why I know the person is here. They're probably enjoying the fact I don't want them here!" He sounded bitter. The unknown general shook his head, not understanding this arrangement at all.

"How will you know for sure? Will you meet today?" It seemed like he was questioning excessively.

"I doubt we'll meet. Eventually we'll start finding bodies." He ended the conversation as they came closer to other people. The general suddenly looked worried, his gaze shifted as he looked this way and that. With my head lowered like the rest of the maids, they walked through the doors without noticing me.

To the side the elderly midwife and her servant made their way towards the entrance. Her eyes looked up and passed over several of the maids beside me before fixing on my face. I could smell poison on a servant approaching from the kitchen to the banquet. I wasn't familiar enough with the ceremony to know who she was serving. It should be in the wine, I thought, not changing my expression. Still looking at the midwife, I paused momentarily to calculate the exact time I should step forward to collide with the servant. Two.. One.. I stepped forward, effectively knocking the wine from her arms. It spilled across the ground with a loud clang, everyone froze.

"Sorry, Sorry!" I apologized. A servant standing not far away held a stack of linens, I quickly put my hands out and waited for them. The servant who had been carrying the wine looked stunned.

"Clean it up!" She hissed at me as she hurried back to the kitchen to get more. Apparently she was unaware of the poison. Whomever was making a move was doing it from the kitchen. With the linens in hand, I soaked up the spilled wine and returned the saturated cloth to a tray along with the wine container. Nomi had bent to help me, but I ushered her back to her place. The midwife watched, still slowly approaching.

"I'll be right back! Sorry to make you wait Grandma." I said to the midwife, causing more than a few glances at my casual speech.

I hurriedly made my way to the kitchen and dumped the poisoned cloth in a fire pit just outside. The poison would become inactive in the excessive heat. Moving to a pot of boiling water, I ladled a bit inside of the wine jar, swirled the water around inside and dumped it into the drain nearby. Repeating the process three more times would suffice. I placed it on the counter for further washing, it should be enough to keep anyone from dying. I didn't mind touching it, the toxins inside my body easily swallowed it up. Others wouldn't have been so fortunate.

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