In the end, it wasn’t difficult to get the warden to release him; it just took one conversation, but Lucas didn’t expect it to take longer than that. After all, he had a trump card.
“The Prince will want to know why you’re going,” he said blandly when Lucas brought up the idea of taking some time off. “And you can’t get up to anything dangerous. No gang wars or anything of the sort. You’re too valuable until all this is done. He’ll probably want me to assign you a bodyguard or two and—”
“I have my own guards at the manor. I’ll be perfectly safe there,” Lucas said, not entirely sure that it was true. “As to the Prince, just send him a letter explaining that the Lwynthenll—”
“Shhh! Shhh! Shhhh!” the gnome said, looking around with paranoia, even though it was only the two of them in the laboratory. “That is not the sort of thing that one consigns to a letter! Anyone might read it!”
“Even better,” Lucas answered. “Then you can go there directly and explain why I’m going to take a little time off to take care of business at home.”
“Why should I do that?” Heisenburgle asked, setting down the vial he’d been examining and looking at Lucas, “We’ve tried sixty-four different poisonous reagents this week, and not one of them has come close to the desired effect. How could I possibly justify a little vacation for you when we are making no progress?”
“First of all, I’ve been here for over a month. Half the winter is gone, and I’ve got a lot of things going on,” he saw Heisenburgle open his mouth, but Lucas was sure he was just going to explain that the needs of the kingdom came first, so he kept talking, “And second of all I have an idea, and I can’t exactly do it from here.”
“Oh, an idea?” the gnome asked, perking up. “What does this idea got to do with you, going home? Surely, any proper alchemy can be done here, can’t it?”
“Well, that’s just it,” Lucas agreed, “This elvish bullshit isn’t proper alchemy by your reckoning—”
“Lwynthenll is without a doubt—” Heisenburgle started, but Lucas cut him off.
“It's made from ditch weed and other things you just don’t have here,” Lucas said, “But back in my crappy lab, I have a little of everything, so if I go back and poke around, I might find something that’s useful.”
“You might just happen to have the secret ingredient we’ve been looking for?” the gnome snorted before gesturing broadly around the room. “Look around; we have rare ingredients from all over the world. We’ve got everything from polar blood straight from the Arctic to djinn dust all the way from Zyrathin! What could you have that we don’t already have.”
“That’s exactly the problem,” Lucas answered, trying not to be rude to this guy right now. “You’ve built one hell of a haystack, and we’re looking for a single needle within it. Potentially, we might have to make ten thousand batches of Blue just to rule all of them out.”
“So what if we do,” Heisenburgle responded acidly.
“So what if there’s a shorter way?” Lucas got up and opened up a book he’d brought with him for just this moment and showed the gnome a map. “All the ingredients in this except for one are native to the forests of the region except the dwarf berries, so I’m thinking, what if that’s the wrong ingredient, and we need something different to catalyze the whole thing. Something local, you know?”
“Maybe…” Heisenburgle answered after a long pause, stroking his wispy white whiskers. “Maybe you’re on to something after all. I can have my assistants begin an audit of reagents and determine which of them might also fit within the area…”
“And I can go home and see if I might have something,” Lucas said quickly.
What he didn’t mention was the alternative. If neither of them had what he was looking for, then he was fairly sure that they’d have to wait until spring at the earliest, then he’d have to go searching the forests to find some especially rare flower or something.
Still, that was a later problem because right now, the only problem he had was packing for the carriage ride back to Parin Manor. Once Lucas explained his plan, Heisenburgle easily agreed to let him go home for a week and search for an ingredient that might work. Lucas didn’t bother to tell the gnome that he was really going back to do a bunch of cooking and decide whether or not he needed to beat Adin’s ass, but then, those weren’t his business.
Neither was how nice it would be to see Danaria. He was genuinely surprised that he was missing her so much, and on the ride back home, it was her presence that he found himself looking forward to most.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
He left the following day, and given the current hours he kept, he surprised everyone with a visit just after breakfast, while Adin was still asleep, and Danaria was in the dining room, alone, except for the servants. She looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Lucas… You’re-you’re…” she stammered, “I didn’t expect you for so long, not after your last message, I—”
She rose as he approached her, but when he swept her up into his arms and twirled her around before dipping her and kissing her hard on the mouth, all she could do was melt into his arms. People were watching, and he could feel Gerwin’s frown of disapproval on his back. He’d missed Danaria too much to take no for an answer, and anyone willing to brave regular snowy rides to exchange messages with him obviously missed him too.
As long as the moment lingered, though, it wasn’t long enough, and as he helped her slide back into her seat before moving into the seat beside her, he told her everything. Well, he told her the part of everything that he thought she could handle, which was only the tip of the iceberg. Really, he just talked until she regained her composure, and then he asked, “So what’s this about your brother?”
“I’m sorry, what?” she asked, still looking a bit flustered. “Oh, Adin, well, he’s still sleeping but—”
“No, what’s going on with him,” Lucas asked. “You mentioned him in your message, so I—”
“But I thought you came to see me,” she said, almost whining.
“I did,” Lucas nodded. “I absolutely did, but I have to head back in a few days, so I thought I’d set the house in order while I’m here.”
That mollified her, and he had one of the footmen bring him some of whatever was still warm. So, he had some bread and oatmeal while they caught up, and he basked in her smile. Then, once that was taken care of, and before Parin woke up, Lucas went out to the cider house to hear the real story.
He did this, of course, by activating his ring. This made him vanish off the back porch to anyone who might have been watching, but of course, if he had a tail, he couldn’t see he wanted to make their job at least a little harder.
Lucas made himself visible again as he walked around behind the building, and before he walked through the back door, he checked his mana bar and noted that he’d spent 12% of it on that little walk. That was new information, and he filed it away. He didn’t know what would happen if he reached zero, but it was nice to know that he could check it now. In the cider house, he found Mort, Kar’gandin, and Hura'gh sitting around drinking beer. It was a little early, but they didn’t expect the boss home for weeks or maybe ever, so he supposed he couldn’t fault them for that.
“I leave for one month and… Look at you, you’ve become a terrible influence on young Mort here!” Lucas said with a smirk that made it obvious he was joking.
Mort didn’t get the joke and started to stand at attention as he stammered some sort of explanation, but Lucas pushed him back in his seat with a laugh. “At ease, soldier.”
“We’ll look who’s still breathin’,” Kar’gandin said, toasting to Lucas before he took another sip from his wooden tankard. “Me and the boys were just like, strategerizin’, and as soon as we speak yer’ name, ye appear!”
“I’m funny like that,” Lucas agreed, flipping his chair around before sitting so he could rest his chin on his arms, which he crossed across the top of the backrest. “Now tell me all about our favorite Viscount.”
“Oh boy,” Hura’gh laughed, “Here we go.”
Alternating between the dwarf and the half-orc, the story slowly but surely came out in very predictable patterns. Adin was probably skimming from the payments because revenues were down. Adin was almost certainly drinking more blue than before because the vials kept going missing. There were complaints from some of the customers that the purity had gone down, which led Kar’gandin to believe that the man was diluting what he was selling.
That wasn’t the best part, though. According to Mort, some of the noble customers were unhappy that the price had gone up while the quality had gone down. Everyone but Lucas laughed at that little detail.
“So you’re saying he’s doing his best to cheat everyone, all the time, no matter what,” Lucas sighed. “That sounds like our Adin.”
“Hey, You’re the one that put him in charge,” Hura’gh answered, roaring with laughter.
“Well, it wasn’t like I had a choice,” Lucas answered with a shake of his head. “But I’ll fix it. I’ll—”
“So what are ye don’ back anyway?” Kar’gandin interrupted. “Weren’t ye a prisoner of the Prince er some blasted nonsense like that?”
“Prisoner?” Lucas asked, pasting on his best shit-eating grin, “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m an honored guest helping him with a very important project. I’d tell you about it, but it's a secret. I’d have to kill you.”
Hura’gh laughed even louder at that, which was enough to make Lucas’s smile just a little more genuine. He missed this. He’d grown so used to dealing with Heisenburgle that he’d forgotten how much hanging with the guys could improve his mood.
The three of them caught him up on recent events. Hura’gh confirmed that he had personally put the Fallen Orchid to the torch and that whole section of the slums was nothing but a crater. Apparently, it had almost caused a gang war, but a couple judicious payments to the Knights of Brass and the Red Lantern Gang had decided that it might be best to cut their losses.
All of that good news cheered Lucas up even more. He doubted that truce would hold once those poisonous women found out he was still breathing, of course, but it was a fine start. Still, however much the idea of getting his vengeance cheered him up, it didn’t make him so delirious or overjoyed enough to decide he wasn’t going to kick Adin’s ass. So, after a few minutes of shooting the shit and playing catch up, he got up, and after he told his friends he’d be back to do some cooking later, he made his way back to the main house.
He needed to teach his resident junkie a lesson in what happened to those that fucked with the count.