As the group sat there and worked their way through the courses in that large, cramped dining room, the mood was quite celebratory. Everyone, including Lucas, acted like they were happy for the young couple and their plans to wed. Everyone acted like it had been a natural idea that had been a long time coming, and no one mentioned or even hinted at the fact that she’d been held prisoner in this very manor for almost two months before this meeting.

It was easy enough to see the official story fraying in the hard looks and tight smiles of Arissa’s friends and family who had gathered together for the occasion. Lucas told himself that was going to make what was coming next easier, but for now, he did nothing to tip his hand. Instead, he endured the gossip and enjoyed the menu of braised lamb, potato gratin, and all the other side dishes that stretched between here and dessert. Along the way, he found time to compliment Arissa’s mother and chat with some of the people who had been introduced as her friends but were almost certainly members of the Whisperers.

It was only when that second circle of hell ended, and the larger group began to break up that Lucas learned who the real power brokers were in this relationship. There, the biggest surprise was that none of the Torvin brothers were in the inner circle. Lucas had expected the oldest to join them at least, but as the bride’s father started pulling people aside for a ‘friendly chat,’ as he called it, he selected his daughter but not his sons.

That makes for an interesting dynamic, Lucas thought, though he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at the moment. In the end, only six people, including Lucas, walked into Adin’s study before the doors were shut: Lucas, Adin, Arissa, her father, and two of her friends, Lords Broan and Halforn. Both of them seemed far too old to be her friends, and Broan seemed likely to be a mage or something similar, which made the hair on the back of Lucas’s neck stand on end.

Still, at least he isn’t the mage that tried to kill me last time, he told himself, trying to count small blessings. And six was a good number. He’d expected five but prepared for up to seven just in case, so everything might yet work out. Still, he kept his face neutral in the same way Adin did, as if they were expecting a scolding or worse, as Lord Torvin finally sat down across from them on the plush leather couch.

“Well, this isn’t how I planned for things to work out, but I suppose it will do,” Lord Torvin said finally, eyeing the two of them. “You’re not the son-in-law I planned for, but even so, I trust my daughter’s instincts, and I think this should work out just fine.”

He was a stern man that Lucas had chatted with several times throughout the day, but not once had his stiff demeanor that was his personality softened, not even after a few glasses of wine. To look at him, he was more protocol than man, but that was just about right for anyone who had risen up as high as the Torvins in the Lordanin’s court.

“Thank you, sir,” Adin said, obviously not sure what else to say. “Your daughter and I… we are of like minds on some things. I think we’ll make a good match.”

Lucas couldn’t help but notice that the way everyone had chosen to sit, he and Adin were isolated and very nearly surrounded. He doubted that was an accident.

“Look, I’m as happy as anyone for the two lovebirds,” Lucas said finally, “But let's not beat around the bush. We all know that none of us are here in this room for the engagement. So, what’s going to happen next.”

“Why, you’ll work for us, of course,” Lord Torvin said with an icy smile as if there wasn’t a question in the world. He paused for a moment to give Lucas a moment to speak, but even if Adin hadn’t been giving him a hard look at that moment, Lucas knew better than to say shit.

“You’ll be given a fair price, of course,” the older man smiled, continuing, “But ultimately, this tool is much too powerful to be sold for gold and silver coins. Not only is the Prince desperate to get his hands on all he can, but even if that wasn’t the case, the idea of wielding true power through a number of well-placed addicts is simply too… intoxicating.”

Lord Torvin laughed at his own joke then, along with the two flunkies he’d brought into the cramped study with him. Lucas followed their lead, but only barely, and it was only when the faint laughter passed that he finally said, “Fine. If that’s the way you want it, then we can do that, but I want whatever deal we sign in writing. I’m done playing games. I just want to import my product, get my cut, and live the high life.”

“What he means to say is—” Adin tried to pretty up Lucas’s words, but the elder noble seemed amused by his impudence and cut him off fairly quickly.

“That’s fine,” he assured Lucas. “As long as we get what we need to turn the city into the bastion that it could be, I care little how you spend your time. I’ll confess that when my daughter told me that you were only in this for the gold, I found that difficult to believe, but some people really are as stupid as they look.”

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Lucas ignored the insult. “What about that stupid misunderstanding at the warehouse?” he asked. “Am I really supposed to believe that’s just going to be water under the bridge?”

“If I can forgive the Parin house kidnapping my daughter, then I’m not too likely to get wrapped up a single cell of our organization suffering an accident, now am I?” the older man continued. He acted nonplused, but Lucas could see ice in his cold blue eyes as he answered. “Damages will be paid to their families, new members will be recruited, and that will be that.”

“I see,” Lucas answered, unconvinced. Instead of continuing the discussion further, he reached under the desk he was sitting at, pulled out Adin’s bottle of good brandy, and put it on the table. “We’ll drink on working together for now then and work out the exact terms later on paper.”

“You’ll want to give that a scan with your poison sniffer, I suppose,” he said before standing and moving to a shelf along the wall where he retrieved the glasses he’d had custom-made for Adin the other day.

Lord Torvin moved his amulet across the bottle, and as expected, it found nothing objectionable. Indeed, no one seemed to have any problem with the idea of drinking to cement the alliance. Arissa sat there smugly, the two other members of the Whisperers talked quietly among themselves but seemed pretty pleased, and the white-haired Lord Torvin sat there calmly with slightly less animosity in his expression than there had been before. He’d expected a surrender, and he’d gotten one.

Lucas set out 6 blue glasses with great care, and then poured them all an equal measure of ten-year-old brandy with an almost sincere smile on his face. When that was done he took one glass, and handed another to Adin before he raise the fancy, delicate thing in a toast and said, “To working together for a long time to come.”

Everyone else grabbed their glasses, and after raising them in a manner that seemed almost menacing in some cases, all of them took a drank to their new alliance. Some like Arissa took a sip, and others like her father downed the whole thing in a single swallow, the results were almost immediate in every case.

“What is…” Lord Torvin managed to ask before the glass he was holding slipped from numb fingers and fell on the floor.

Arissa didn’t even get that far. Instead, her eyes widened as the sudden narcotic bliss shot through her system, but no words escaped her mouth before she slumped backward in her seat, spilling the rest of her drink on the floor.

One of the Whisperers - the man with sharp eyes that had been introduced as the leader of her cell, managed to pull out a wand, but he had no strength to speak whatever terrible word activated it.

Only seconds after Lucas had offered the toast, all four of them were lost in their own private narcotic induced heaven. He smiled and finished his drink what. Adin looked at everything that had happened in shock.

“What in the name of all the devils below did you do!” he said finally, exploding into motion even as he looked at his drink with suspicion. “Did you poison them? How? Why? They’re going to kill us!”

“They were always going to kill us,” Lucas laughed, leaning back in his chair. “I could see it in their eyes. As soon as they got what they wanted, we were finished. The man’s pride would never have allowed for less.”

“You can’t know that!” Adin shot back. “We could have fixed this. Arissa and I were going to fix this, but now—”

“Now we have done onto them exactly as they planned to do onto others,” Lucas smiled wickedly, setting his glass down. “They wanted to use addiction as a leash to get their way, and in return, I’ve done exactly that to them. Now, they can never turn against us. Not without a very ugly detox period.”

“But how?” Adin continued. “The bottle wasn’t poisoned, and neither of us were drugged, so—”

“You know, I didn’t think this trick was going to look, but seeing how easily it fooled you, I really sold myself short here.” Lucas sighed, pulling out the rest of the glasses and setting them down on the desk. “What do you see, Adin? What’s the giveaway here?”

“I… I don’t see anything. They’re all blue, but—” the viscount started to say.

“And how many of them were blue earlier?” Lucas asked, trying to lead him to the solution.

“I don’t know - half?” Adin guessed. “Did you really pay for enchanted glasses just to sign our death warrants?”

“Nothing magic here,” Lucas said with a smile. “I wouldn’t know the first thing about using it. I’m just smarter than the rest of you. I was sure they’d check the bottle for poison, but an empty glass? I thought that was pretty unlikely, and in this case, that’s what bit them.”

“You poisoned the glasses?” Adin asked incredulously. “How?”

“I didn’t poison shit,” Lucas sighed. “I took that same candy coating I showed you last week and coated the inside of the clear glasses with it. That was the whole reason I had them made. Once you let that shit cool, it looks just like the blue ones. That lets me choose exactly who gets dosed and who doesn’t.”

“They’re going to fucking kill us,” Adin said, putting his head in his hands.

“Maybe,” Lucas agreed, “But they always were, and now if they do it - well, it's going to make them hurt more.”

“Yeah, well, what if they just kill everyone but you now?” Adin asked piteously. “The secret to making Blue won’t stop them from killing Danaria or burning this place to the ground, now, will it? They only need you, and after a little torture, they don't even need you breathing.”

The man wasn’t saying anything that Lucas hadn’t already thought of. The move wasn’t without risk, but it was still the most insurance he could possibly muster in the face of the dangers they faced. He wouldn’t give them shit, though. As much as he was dreading going back to the afterlife after everything he’d been through, he’d rather face those angels all over again than roll over for these assholes like a bitch.