Chapter 71: Assassin's Creed

“Come again?” Princess Astaroth blinked.

“This is poisoned,” Emma elaborated, drinking most of the remaining peach juice but leaving a few drops behind for further analysis.

[Status condition: Poison resisted.]

“Let me see that!” The Princess grabbed the cup, immediately holding it close and giving it a sniff.

Her nose began bleeding quite heavily; fortunately the Princess had chosen a red dress for the day, so the spillage wasn’t too noticeable by the time she'd stemmed the flow with a hastily conjured handkerchief.

"Were you dropped on your head as a kid?" Emma asked, baffled at the display. "I'm immune to poison from being a Revenant, what's your excuse?"

"I have my own resistance," The Princess grimaced. "Anyone with a proper royal upbringing has at least some training to resist poisons; a risk of the trade, you could say. This is real nasty stuff though, if just a few drops can cause that kind of reaction in me."

"Show us where you got this from," Emma ordered, tossing the glass back to the waiter, who nodded and began to reach beneath his shirt.

"No," Princess Astaroth interrupted, bashing the man's brains out with a wooden staff that sprang into being.

A silver dagger clattered to the floor, faint runes glimmering along the length of the blade.

[Sanctified Dagger - Does double damage against Undead, Demons and individuals of Evil alignment.]

"I thought all your men were under mind control?" Emma questioned, edging away from the dagger.

"They are," The Princess agreed. "All mind control looks the same on my status page though. It doesn't list the caster."

Her eyes unfocused for a moment, followed by her cheeks going bright red.

"Actually, never mind. Apparently there's a detailed display for minion status; good to know I guess? None of the others are being influenced by another caster, at least from what i can see."

"That's a problem," Emma pointed out immediately. "Because I don't think any of your men have left the castle since the trial started; so when did someone get a chance to take over a guard, and where did the poison come from?"

Emma and the Princess stared at each other for a long moment.

"The cellars?"

"The cellars."

Princess Astaroth led the way downstairs, past several patrols of guards along the way. Each passing patrol made Emma's frown deepen; mind-controlled though they might be, but the guards were all vigilant and professional in their movements. Nobody showed any signs of a scuffle, nor were any of the patrols understaffed; all of them moving in squads of four. This only added to her belief that whoever was responsible possessed impressive stealth; enough to fool not only the guards but the castle's wards as well.

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"We're here," The Princess informed her, having halted in front of a door by the corner of the stairwell; a pair of guards barring the way ahead.

"The cellar contains the castle's main stores of drink, alongside a small internal well to draw water from in case of emergency. There are external wells just inside the walls, connected to larger reservoirs, but this is the only one that can't be poisoned from outside by a determined attacker. There's a permanent guard here, to prevent anyone from getting ideas. Guards, has anyone entered or left during your shift?"

Both guards shook their heads in the perfect synchronicity only mind magic could achieve.

"Wonderful," The Princess bit her lip. "You ordered several drinks as well, different each time except for peach juice twice in a row. So where did all the other drinks come from if not here? This is the only cellar."

"Something isn't right here," Emma frowned. "Let us through."

The guards promptly obeyed, ushering both of them into the cellar posthaste. One of the guards followed them in with the key, whilst the other stayed outside to cover their backs whilst the pair were occupied. Emma's first look at the cellar was more or less what she expected. A low ceiling, with holes drilled to provide ventilation from above ground. Narrow walls lined with shelves filled with bottles of every shape and size, whilst barrels were stacked against the corners. The Princess paused upon entry, her eyes glazing over in a very similar manner to Felix when he accessed his System.

"Nothing suspicious is showing up on my display, how about you?"

"I have no way to detect poison, unless it triggers my resistance," Emma shrugged. "We could pop open bottles at random and see if anything happens?"

Lacking any better ideas, what followed was possibly the most amateurish round of wine tasting in British history. Emma had never drank anything more expensive than supermarket wine, and could barely tell the difference between bottles. Princess Astaroth was barely any better; she'd always left it to servants to select her beverages; so while she could tell what appealed to her palate, she had nothing else to offer in terms of analysis.

"You weren't lying about your poison resistance," Emma remarked, a hundred bottles later.

They hadn't drank much of each bottle; only a taster each time really, but that still added up to a considerable quantity all told.

"I don't think we're getting anything out of this, besides maybe a hangover," The Princess sighed, though her complaint was somewhat undercut by the bottle cradled in her arms; her favourite of the session, naturally. "Wine aside, this was all a waste of time; let's head back upstairs and look for other clues."

"I don't suppose the trial provided the castle's defenders with a forensic analyst?" Emma joked, as they climbed the stairs back towards their starting point.

"Unfortunately not," Princess Astaroth laughed. "Just bog standard guards, I'm afraid. Perfectly obedient, but not much for creativity."

Her head shot up and she paled before Emma could reply.

"Shit!" The Princess crossed her fingers oddly, in a way that reminded Emma of gang signs from the bad part of town, and vanished from sight.

Emma barely caught the bottle of wine before it dashed against the floor; which just left the problem of reuniting it with its owner. The guards weren't exactly talkative, and the Princess could have gone anywhere in the castle, which left few options for finding her. Few didn't mean none, however.

"Your nose is pretty good, right?" Emma quipped, as the newly summoned Sir Bearington took a curious sniff of the wine bottle.

"You can smell a person on this? Proper human flesh and blood, along with just a hint of brimstone?"

Sir Bearington nodded ponderously, before gesturing with a paw at a random corridor.

"Lead me to her."

As her summon led the way confidently into the unknown, Emma allowed herself to hope for just a moment, that maybe nothing had gone disastrously wrong.

[Quest - Align in the Sand updated!

* (Bonus) Objective: Complete the Trial with the Princess alive (FAILED)

* Note: The Princess is alive in reality, but has activated a fail-safe removing her from Scholomance. For the purposes of this trial, she counts as dead.

Rewards updated!

* Objective: Complete the Trial of Crowns.

* (Bonus) Objective: Complete the Trial without changing Alignment.

* Rewards: 500 EXP, Archetype (Damned Apostle)

* Bonus Reward: Ability - Null and Void]