Price
"Mother will make Medea pay."
The Mother's Venom
"It doesn't matter," Catherine murmured, fingers combing slowly through Birna's hair.
"There is no one in this tiny Valdina worthy of you anyway. My daughter must meet someone better. Young, capable… a great man who holds the Empire beneath his feet."
Her touch was gentle. Her eyes were not.
"This mother will make Medea pay for tormenting you. Don't worry."
Birna's sobs tapered off into hiccups.
Should I tell her? That I'm the one who drugged Medea's wine?
The thought flickered—and died.
How can I be sure the Minister raged because of my powder? That pig stuffed his face with everything on the table.
Silence, she decided, was safer.
After Catherine left, Birna seized Sheila's wrist with white-knuckled fingers.
"Sheila, erase everything from that night from your mind. We don't know anything. Understand?"
Sheila nodded, pale and shaking.
Now all I can do is bury the source as deeply as possible.
The Minister's Bed
Count Etienne had no leisure to worry about public opinion like the Regent.
He did not have the luxury to care.
"Why! Why?!"
After returning from the banquet, a grave failure had arisen in one part of his body.
The pain gnawed at him relentlessly.
The physician dabbed sweat from his own brow as he spoke.
"It appears someone administered a hallucinogenic compound, my lord. Unfortunately, the toxicity reacted poorly with your constitution and caused… severe side effects."
"What nonsense is this? Can it be treated? Give me the antidote—now."
The doctor's expression twisted with embarrassment.
"The aftereffects of such drugs are notoriously difficult to reverse, and the damage… is to a particularly delicate region. Stronger medicine risks complete loss of function."
"What are you saying? That it can't be cured?"
"Even with treatment, infertility is likely unavoidable, my lord."
He stammered on about impotence and sterility, about "preparing for adoption."
Etienne erupted.
"This Larque Etienne—impotent? Infertile? Don't be absurd!"
But every doctor summoned thereafter gave the same bleak prognosis.
Even as they attempted one remedy after another, the damage only worsened.
The pain grew so intense that the slightest brush of cloth against his skin made him scream.
"Who did this?" he snarled. "Which bastard did this to me?"
At first, he had assumed their aim was humiliation.
Now it was clear they had been reaching for something far more fundamental.
He had no taste for women, but he had taken pride—if in nothing else—in the idea that his bloodline would continue.
Now that quiet pride lay in ruins.
Someone has mapped my weaknesses down to the bone.
Etienne chewed his lip until it bled.
"Investigate everything. I don't care if it's a rat that scurried past the door—drag up every soul who moved in that hall."
No matter how carefully Birna tried to cover her tracks, she had underestimated her opponent.
Her enemy was the Minister of the Palace—a man whose fingers were sunk deep into the inner court.
"So it was Birna Claudio," Umberto reported at last.
The trail, followed link by link, led back to her maid—then to the glass of medicated wine that had hovered near Medea all evening.
"Master, it seems the young lady meant to target Princess Medea. She resented being embarrassed by Her Highness earlier."
Etienne said nothing.
"Master?"
"You still only believe what you see on the surface," Etienne snapped. "Idiot."
His eyes gleamed with poisonous light.
"Being a Princess makes for an excellent excuse. What if the Regent ordered his daughter to target *me*?"
"But… Your Excellency, Duke Claudio is your ally."
"I betrayed that ally with Quiggin, remember?" Etienne hissed. "You think a man like Joaquín Claudio forgets such things?"
Not long ago, he had joined hands with the head maid, Cuisine, to stab the Regent in the back.
If this is his reprisal…
"If he thinks I'll swallow this quietly, he's mistaken. Send this to Duke Claudio."
Two Houses in the Fire
The scandal at the royal banquet had hurled Valdina's two most solid houses into the furnace.
Between them, the Claudio family suffered more.
Their beautiful son and daughter had much farther to fall than a notorious Minister.
Had his assailant been anyone else, Joaquín would have gladly gouged out both eyes and carved him into pieces.
But this time, the offender was his indispensable right hand—Minister of the Palace Etienne.
Joaquín had not expected the situation to twist so that he could neither strip the Minister of everything nor fully silence him.
Umberto bowed and presented a sealed document.
"Your Excellency, this is evidence that the drug used by Lady Birna and the toxin found in my master's body are identical."
Joaquín's jaw tightened.
"My master asks whether the lady's actions were done with your blessing," Umberto continued smoothly.
The Regent's expression twisted.
"Does he *dare* suspect me? Has he gone mad enough to drag my children into this?"
"He merely says, Your Excellency, that he has suffered… irreversible harm due to your daughter's misjudgment. He wishes the ducal house to take 'responsibility'."
"Responsibility—like this?!" Joaquín roared, crumpling the letter.
"I will go see him myself."
Audience with the Broken Toad
At first, the Etienne household refused him.
Again and again.
"Due to the aftereffects, the Master is in no condition to receive guests."
Only after hours of waiting did the Minister agree to see him.
When Joaquín entered, the room stank of medicine and decay.
Etienne lay propped against a headboard, features sunken, eyes sharp.
"What do you want, Joaquín? I said everything in my letter."
Joaquín forced a smile and signalled to the servants behind him.
They carried in ornate chests, setting them gently at the foot of the bed.
Relics Etienne had once coveted. Exotic tonics to strengthen the body.
And, wrapped in layers of black velvet—
"The Book of the Sage I inherited when I left the palace."
Etienne's eyes widened for a heartbeat at the name.
"This is too valuable to accept lightly," he said faintly.
"Valuable?" Joaquín forced a chuckle. "If it were up to me, I'd hand you the Philosopher's Stone itself. Someday, I might."
What was meant to charm only curdled Etienne's mood.
Yes—Joaquín is aiming for the throne.
If he helped that man become King, what would be left for an aging Minister whose body was already failing?
"Gifts aside," Etienne said, pushing the chest away, "do you know what your daughter's little prank has done to me?"
"The doctors say I will never sow seed again. The Etienne line ends with me. Tell me, Joaquín—how will you compensate me for that?"
Joaquín's face blanched.
"That's only one doctor's opinion. It's said illness must be seen by many—"
"Several have come and gone," Etienne cut in. "If I weren't certain, I wouldn't bring it up."
He stared coldly at the Regent.
"Since this was your daughter's doing, should she not be the one to correct it?"
Joaquín's spine locked.
"I… don't understand what you mean."
"You really don't?" Etienne's lip curled. "I'm saying Lady Claudio will take responsibility—for the Etienne line."
"You're insane! I will never allow that!"
Poison Exacts Its Price ## The Serpent Devours Its Own
A Minister maimed by a stolen cup. A Regent cornered by his own child's sin. And the girl who aimed for a Princess— now named the compensation.
[ To Be Continued ]
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