Kargan quickly re-formed his ward. “Glamshara, we’ve figured it out. Lay down your weapons; you’re under arrest.”

Grashuk snarled as he clutched his scimitar. He turned to Glamshara. “I told you this was a bad idea.”

“Hush, my love,” Glamshara cooed, caressing the warlord’s face. Grashuk’s eyes grew hooded, as though under a spell.

Justin knew Zogmar had warned him to act fast, but he had to try reasoning first. They needed the Heart of the Moonflower, if there was any left, and only Glamshara would know where it was. “Glamshara, it’s not too late. If you have any of the Moonflower left, Nyrissa’s life can still be saved. Your punishment will be lighter.”

Glamshara’s expression remained stony. “It’s too late for that. Grashuk and I stepped away earlier when I thought constructs were coming. But I won’t comply as long as I’m falsely maligned.”

“Oh, give it up,” Bohemond scoffed. “All the evidence points to you, Glamshara.”

“I didn’t poison her!” Glamshara snapped back.

“Then who did?” Bohemond challenged.

“I don’t know! Isn’t that your job to figure out?”

“You could have saved Nyrissa,” Kargan said, nodding toward the book Justin had placed on the table. “Instead, you wasted the Moonflower on this Everlasting Draught business.”

Glamshara’s gaze flicked toward the book, and for the first time, a look of guilt flashed across her face. “I don’t deny that. I can’t undo that mistake, but I swear I didn’t try to murder Nyrissa.”

Justin frowned thoughtfully, picking up the dwarven tome. “Glamshara, how did you come by this book?”

Her eyes narrowed. “I found it right here on this table. Why?”

“When?” Justin pressed.

“As we were leaving the excavation. I thought it looked interesting.”

Justin glanced at Borgruk. “You weren’t the first to find it. Borgruk was.”

Glamshara’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Borgruk found it when your team first arrived at the excavation. Zogmar took it from him, placed it in his satchel. And yet, it somehow ended up here, in your possession.”

Glamshara’s expression hardened. “Why wouldn’t Zogmar mention that?”

“Why indeed?” Justin murmured, his tone deliberate. “Could it be because he knew you wouldn’t be able to resist using the Moonflower to create the Everlasting Draught?”

“What are you implying?” Bohemond asked, his voice tense with confusion.

Justin’s eyes flicked toward the book. “There are certain…patterns here. Zogmar may have known what your ambitions were, Glamshara. Perhaps he even counted on them.”

“Explain,” Glamshara said.

Justin watched her closely. “Think about it. Zogmar has been close to all of this from the beginning. But that’s not all. This might be hard to hear, but Grashuk’s feelings for you—they’re not real. He’s under the influence of a love potion. Zogmar made sure of that.”

Glamshara’s face fell, her anger crumbling. “He…he did this to me?"

"Yes, and we can prove it. Zogmar gave us an antidote that should cure it. That would confirm the truth."

"Any common antidote would do," Glamshara said. "You don't need anything special."

Justin filed that detail away. He reached for an antidote in his satchel, handing it to Glamshara. "If you want to know the truth, tell Grashuk to drink that."

Justin watched what she would do. Her reaction would tell him a lot.

Glamshara inspected it for a moment, as if assessing its properties, before sighing and passing it to Grashuk. Within moments of drinking it, the haze in his eyes cleared. His expression contorted in shock, quickly turning to disgust.

“What…what is this? What have I done?” The warlord’s voice was strained with revulsion.

Glamshara’s voice trembled. “Grashuk…do you love me?”

Grashuk sneered. “By Nyriss, I’d rather stick a spear in my gut than stick mine anywhere near you!”

Glamshara let out a pained sob, and Justin couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity for her, despite everything.

“I still don’t get it,” Kargan said, impervious to the emotional display. “Why would Grashuk offer a reward for Glamshara if he was under the love potion?”

Justin looked to Glamshara. “You must have told him to do that. Why?”

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She sniffled, her composure faltering. “I was afraid of Zogmar. He…caught us. I worried he’d tell others about Grashuk and me. So, I told Grashuk to make that offer, hoping it would distract people from suspecting us. Grashuk didn’t like it, but he did it for me.”

Justin turned to Grashuk. “And the prayer at the shrine? Was that your idea?”

“What prayer at the shrine?” Glamshara asked, clearly unaware.

Grashuk shifted uncomfortably. “It was my idea. I thought it’d take the pressure off Glamshara, make it look like we weren’t involved. I asked Ralthog to mention Ryn to Justin. He’s loyal to me.”

Bohemond’s gaze narrowed. “So you’d rather get your wife blamed than face Zogmar?”

Grashuk sighed, the weight of the truth settling on him. “I wasn’t in my right mind. The potion twisted everything. All I could think of was Glamshara, nothing else.”

“And you just accepted his sudden change of heart?” Kargan asked Glamshara.

“Grashuk came to me after the expedition, saying he loved me,” Glamshara replied, her voice soft. “I wanted to believe it. I thought I’d buried my old feelings, but they flared up again.”

Justin kept his expression neutral, though the pieces were coming together in his mind. “Zogmar’s been manipulating this situation from the start. The mess he caused was a perfect way to cover his tracks. And he had the means to deliver the love potion, didn’t he?”

Glamshara nodded slowly. “He did. All he needed was a hair from my head. He had ample opportunities for that.”

Justin turned to Grashuk. “Do you remember anything about the night Zogmar might’ve acted?”

Grashuk frowned. “After we got back from the expedition, I went to the tavern. On the way back, I was really exhausted. I just passed out. When I woke up, all I could think about was Glamshara.”

“Sounds like he laced it with a sedative, too,” Justin said.

Bohemond spoke up, suspicion creeping into his voice. “Wait a second…Glamshara, how do we know it wasn’t you who shot Grashuk with the love potion? You already mention being in love with him, so it stands to reason you might be the one to do it. Where were you on the night after the expedition?”

Glamshara’s eyes narrowed in thought before she answered. “I wasn’t anywhere near Grashuk. I was in the lab, going through some of the more immediately beneficial ingredients from the expedition. I wouldn’t have had time to ambush Grashuk.”

“I can back that up,” Borgruk said. “I was on the watch that night, and I passed by her lab a few times. The light was always on, and I could see her busy at work.”

“Could she have left at any point?” Justin asked.

Borgruk shrugged. “I suppose it’s possible, but I passed by every half hour or so. When I finally went to bed, it was late, and she was still in there.”

“How late?”

“Can’t say for sure, but the tavern had gone mostly quiet by then.”

“Did you see Grashuk?”

He shook his head. “No.”

It wasn’t definitive, but it helped Glamshara’s case.

Glamshara’s eyes suddenly seemed to notice the blowgun at Kargan’s side. “That’s Zogmar’s, isn’t it?”

Justin nodded. “He wanted us to use it on Grashuk, claiming it contained an antidote to the love potion.”

“Any common antidote could do that,” Glamshara said. “But if I had to guess, there’s probably something more deadly in there. If Zogmar is the one to have laced him, then he wouldn’t want to undo the spell he’d created. He’d want to leave no witnesses.”

Justin sighed. “He was pushing us too hard to fight, wasn’t he? Almost as if he wanted things to end a certain way.”

Glamshara stepped forward cautiously. “Let me test the poison.”

This required a bit of trust on Justin’s part, but there was no one else in the tribe with the expertise to do the testing.

Justin nodded at Kargan, who handed her the blowgun. She expertly cracked open a dart, dipping it into a clear solution. The liquid turned a murky purple.

“Poison of Slowing,” Glamshara confirmed. “Duskbell and venom of the blue-spotted tree frog. A common ingredient for immobilizing targets.”

Justin remembered Eldrin using something similar in the fight at Raven’s Rock. “Zogmar was setting Grashuk up for a fall.”

Grashuk’s fists clenched in rage. “The traitor will pay!”

“There’s still the matter of the Moonflower,” Justin said. “You said you used it all?”

Glamshara nodded, regret flashing across her face. “I did.”

“Why did you choose to make the Everlasting Draught over saving your niece?” Justin asked.

Glamshara’s face fell slightly. “The Everlasting Draught is a legend among alchemists. It’s the ultimate achievement, something that could grant eternal life. Or so the records say. Zogmar and I… we’d discussed it before, back when we were on better terms. I always joked about making it, but of course, it was impossible. The ingredients are so rare, nearly impossible to acquire.”

Justin’s eyes narrowed. “But then you saw the tome and realized the ingredients were here in this lab.”

Glamshara hesitated before nodding. “Yes. I saw it as a sign, an opportunity. I started working on it almost immediately. But the process was much harder than I expected. Then the Feast of Fates happened. When I saw Nyrissa was poisoned, I rushed back here to work on the antidote.”

“And?” Justin pressed.

“I was still making the Everlasting Draught when that happened,” Glamshara admitted. “I thought I could finish the Draught and then make the antidote. I didn’t want to ruin all my work. But the Moonflower…I miscalculated. I thought there would be enough for both. But after you questioned me yesterday, I discovered I was off on my original measurements by the smallest amount. A terrible shame, because all that’s needed is a little to create the antidote. I had no choice but to finish the Draught.”

Justin studied her carefully. “So you prioritized the Draught over Nyrissa’s life.”

Glamshara’s shoulders sagged. “Yes, because I would lose all my work if I didn’t finish it. I was greedy, thought I could have both. I didn’t want it to happen that way. It was a mistake, but by the time I realized it, there was nothing I could do. And worse, the potion I created wasn’t even the Everlasting Draught.”

“Really?” Justin asked. “What was it, then? Can I see it?”

Glamshara hesitated, then reluctantly reached into her satchel, pulling out a vial. The liquid inside glowed with a soft, iridescent light, shifting colors like a small rainbow trapped inside.

“This is it,” she said. “It’s not what I hoped for. I mistranslated the recipe. The text was unclear, but I think it’s called the All-Encompassing Draught. The words “Everlasting” and “All-Encompassing” in dwarven look very similar. It will still provide powerful benefits to anyone with a class, but I don’t know what those would be.”

“It may not be the Everlasting Draught, but it’s probably quite valuable.”

“And for now, it’s evidence,” Bohemond added, his voice stern. “We’ll need to bring it back to the Queen, along with the tome. You’ll come with us, Glamshara.”

Glamshara sighed heavily. “I understand.”

Grashuk, his face still contorted with disgust, stepped forward. “You’re lucky we’re not dealing with this here and now.”

“Grashuk, Borgruk, bind her for now,” Justin ordered. “Let’s bring her back to the Queen.”

Glamshara didn’t resist as Grashuk and Borgruk moved to bind her wrists. Her blowgun and remaining potions were confiscated, leaving her with little more than her dignity.

As they began the trek back, Kargan walked up beside Justin. “So, what’s your read on all this?”

Justin’s thoughts were already racing ahead. “Everyone we spoke to—Zildur, Glamshara, and Zogmar —all had a potential reason and the means. It’s a downright mess. But there was a small detail in what she said. If we can confirm that detail, then we can unmask the true poisoner.”