Elizabeth still not appearing, Norbert leaned forward to the coffee table, picking through the items there, trying to find something that would tickle his fancy. Seeing the three cups, taking one with a saucer as he looked around, finding some water in a kettle as well. Seeing a variety of leaves in the packs, Norbert read the packaging. Confirming they were for infusing with water, Norbert dropped a packet's contents into the water.
Holding the kettle out to Vivienne, Norbert looked up at her like a lost dog. Relenting under pressure, he took the white porcelain kettle out of Norbert's hands as she held them between hers. After several seconds, Norbert could see steam coming off the top of it, the lid rattling around, excited from all the gas that was trying to be released.
Norbert left the boiling kettle on the table, letting the tea leaves bathe in the hot water. The two of them sat in silence, Norbert taking a coin out and flipping it into the air as the fragrance from the tea slowly filled the area around them. Idly taking his helmet off, Norbert looked at it for a moment, conjoining the two pieces together before placing it on the handle of his sword.
Nodding his head, believing the leaves had sat long enough, Norbert took the kettle and poured each of the two. Cups Vivienne's saucer, Vivienne gave it to her, and the woman took it with a nod. Seeing the black lines snaking around her cup, Norbert did not even realise he had given that design to her.
Looking down at his own saucer, a hill overlooking a meadow, the sun shining down gave everything a yellow hue. Norbert smiled, remembering his hometown, the tree whose shade he basked underneath many times, before running down for dinner with Jack by his side.
She was taken from the memory of a chair grinding against the floor. I looked around and saw Elizabeth sitting in the final empty chair. She leaned forward, pouring herself some tea, holding the cup under her nose as she breathed in the vapour. She received a nod as she took a slight sip from it, a smile warming up on her face.
"Good selection, Norbert. She said to him.
Norbert nodded his head, smiling behind the cup as he took another sip. He stared out of the corner of his eye as Vivienne rested her own cup and saucer on her lap, looking between the two, gauging their reaction to each other.
"What can I do for you, Norbert?" She asked him.
"Can't I just have a nice game and a friendly chat?" He asked her.
"When have you ever wanted ‘friendly chat’, especially not with her," Elizabeth said, pointing her pinkie finger at Vivienne.
Norbert looks at the witch next to him. "It sounds like someone’s been a naughty girl." Norbert said to Vivienne.
Vivienne just took another sip of her tea and looked down at it. Norbert saw her mouth moving slightly, and the air she breathed out caused ripples in the water. Turning to Elizabeth Norbert answering her question, dismissing the antagonistic witch with a mysterious but dangerous back story: "Here for coins to buy elixirs." Norbert explained to her curtly.
"More? Sure, you can handle more?" She asked him, a flash of concern growing on her face before squashing it down. Norbert just nodded his head as he remembered the fight in the arena.
"I need to handle more after seeing a … fight" between someone who has beaten me and nearly getting outdone." Norbert sat there, letting his thoughts think of him not making it.
He sat there, not even realising why he was so invested in it.
"Wait a second. Why do people attend this tournament? Other than the glory to their country," Norbert said, realising that a key detail" he had missed was going on the whims of what he had been told.
"Really?" Both Vivienne and Elizabeth asked him at once.
Norbert raised his hands in innocence, the cup in one and the saucer in the other. He took another sip of tea as he sat there, letting the flavours bathe on his tongue as he tried to compose himself.
"For the ultimate prize, a selection in the guard's armoury." Vivienne said, Norbert guard seeing her eyes glass over with greed at the thought of its contents that would be held within. Instantly being tipped by where the item that she was looking for could be, Norbert turned over to
"And anything for runner ups?" Norbert asked, hoping for something that "could be good.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
She explained to Norbert that a rare elixir for the last four winners "allows the victor to take an item from the armoury."
Nodding his head, Norbert wondered what the elixirs could be. What's so special about the armoury?" There must be a hundred other armoires with better gear than in there," he said.
"The amount of contraband items taken from people found to be cheating has stacked up after many years. With their security, ancient relics are also placed there," Elizabeth said as she took another sip of tea.
"Huh, there must be some pretty neat stuff down there," Norbert said. Both Vivienne and Elizabeth nodded in turn to Norbert.
"Well, now you have started a fire in my belly." Norbert said as he looked to Elizabeth "So, the coins are for the elixirs. Unless you have some more stored somewhere?" Norbert asked her.
"Do I look like a bank to you or something?" She asked him.
"Or something," Norbert replied to her.
He heard Elizabeth groan in annoyance as she kicked something from underneath the coffee table. Norbert opened the case up, undoing each latch with a satisfying click and rubbing his hand over the leather before opening the lid.
As he looked down, his face was awash in light. The light faded as he took one of the elixirs out, examining the metal dragon wrapped around the stopper.
"Oh, how did you know? A woman after my own heart." Norbert said as he swished it around, the dark blue potion swirling in front of him. Tiny dots of light blue also remind Norbert of a snow globe. Holding it to his face, Norbert wondered if some house was within.
"How many?" Norbert asked her.
"Just five," Vivienne," said to him. Norbert nodded in response as he popped the dragon stopper and downed the elixir in his hand.
"Same supplier as last time?" Norbert asked, Elizabeth, reaching forward for the next one. Norbert saw this one completely different from last time, a dark red, almost black jelly seemingly floating in the centre of the elixir, spikes blasting off of it only to be contained by the light pink liquid around it. On the side of the
"For a little bit of kick." Norbert read aloud, wondering what exactly that could mean. "Is this safe?" Norbert asked around the little group, "fishing the potion around, wondering if he could see the glob floating in the centre.
"Oh yeah, drink the suspicious elixir from your friend who retrieved it from a random source," Vivienne said to him.
Norbert opened the cork, turning to Vivienne as he held the flask to his lip. “If I wanted sass, I would have Count von Count here." Swallowing the contents, Norbert saw Vivienne’s eyes scrunch into a scowl as she looked towards him.
Norbert dismissed the woman as he downed the contents, the taste of strawberry Neapolitan ice cream covered in cherry sauce and the two flavours too close to taste just right, overpowering his taste buds slightly.
When the jelly hit his throat, no longer adequately contained by the pink liquid, pain shot out through his head. Swallowing it down instinctually, dropping the potion as he leaned forward in his chair, coughing up as loud as he could.
The hacking cough filled the room they were currently in, the echoes traversing downstairs to those underneath him. The entire complex grew quiet as they all looked towards the stairs, wondering what had happened to the rambunctious cheating gambler who was called upstairs.
Norbert felt it burst within him as it crawled down his throat. The energy within his body wrapped around it, ripping it piece by piece of it apart. The pain is shooting around him, not as concentrated but now filling his entire body. Tensing every muscle in his body, no longer breathing, Norbert felt his face turning red in response. Hearing blood rushing in his ears, head ballooning out every second, clutching it as pain wracked over him.
Feeling a boulder on his back, Norbert twisted his head to the side. Vivienne stood there over him, a single hand resting where the boulder was located. Unable to twist his head anymore, Norbert stayed still, hoping it would crush the pain coursing through his blood. The only reason he was still conscious was the purple energy within him chasing it around, trying to absorb it and make it its own.
Standing above Norbert, Vivienne looked down at the man as his skin withered underneath his clothes. Their face was completely red and purple, blood was starting to sweat from the skin around his forehead, and his eyes were nearly bursting from their sockets. Each of them desperately stared into her own, the struggling look on his face as he clenched his jaw. Shaking her head at the man before him, about to turn into a puddle from pushing himself too hard with elixirs, his body finally breaking down after so many already taken.
Letting her magic slither down her arm, Vivienne pushed them into his body, feeling them instantly curl around something foreign but similar. Grasping onto it, unable to stop a smile from escaping her lips, for she couldn’t let someone that would help her on her path slip away from her grasp. Letting a single snake slither down, wrap itself around it, the seed of potential laying dormant within him, wondering who could plant something so profound.
Looking around inside him, not letting the rare opportunity slip from her grasp, she found the presence of the many elixirs within his body. In some, the amount would gain energy off one another, and being released would cause a volcano to explode, resulting in the user's demise by whatever the biggest thing was.
But inside this case, Vivienne looked; all previous ones were. Looking inside as she squealed around, she saw signs of the cage compared to before and the bustle it was now. What was before knocking around, unable to fit within this purposed cage, and it became even more unstable whenever it bounced off.
Looking around Norbert's inner world now, the two cages now situated, the new green one has thorns trusted inside, pinning anything trapped within, unlike the simple cage and swinging door, with its stable inmates.
Feeling everything within Norbert started down, Vivienne left the inner body and once more within him. Patting his back, Vivienne leaned forward, her hair touching Norbert's own.
"Relax," Vivienne whispered into Norbert's ear. The man resisting for a moment before giving in, Vivienne seeing his body visibly relax under her gaze, his face no longer getting worse.