The overindulgence in aphrodisiacs and hallucinogens by awakened individuals is a concern that remains largely underexposed, particularly among advanced-class awakeneds who have not yet transcended the limitations of their physical form. Their elevated cultivation levels demand significantly higher doses to sustain their euphoric experiences. While the consumption of these substances has no direct impact on spiritual cultivation, the physical body and core are not as fortunate.
Dr. Halima Preznik, Royal Constable of Lutia
Year 2271
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Aodhán scrambled, his mind racing a mile per second, as he tried to come up with a solution to prevent this disaster. However, his thoughts were a jumbled, incoherent mess that sputtered and smoked like a malfunctioning engine.
His gaze roamed the hall hurriedly, and in a desperate attempt to keep a semblance of their plan ongoing, he pulled away from Imani’s confused form with a muttered apology and moved towards Meredith.
Imani called after him, but Aodhán barely noticed, so intensely focused on the keys jiggling in Meredith’s palms. Daruk immediately stepped in to dance with her, stopping her from following after Aodhán. “Hey, what's up with my brother?” He asked, his face scrunched up in confusion, and Imani, sweet soul that she was just shrugged. “I don’t know. One minute we're dancing, and then he just leaves.”
Daruk shrugged, pretending to be just as confused as she was. “I'm sure he's fine. Wanna dance?”
While Daruk distracted Imani, Aodhán weaved around several dancing lords and ladies in a bid to cut Meredith off before she exited the hall, and a glance across the room showed Aldric doing the same. Seducing Meredith wouldn’t be easy, despite her obvious attraction to him, so Aodhán decided to bring out the big guns. He tousled his hair, scattering tiny arcs of lightning in the air, and then unbuttoned the first two buttons on his shirt, exposing his toned chest and the golden lines that marked it.
When he reached Meredith, he immediately plastered on the brightest smile he could muster, considering the circumstances. "Hey, Meredith, would you like to dance?”
Meredith scowled at him, although her eyes dipped to his exposed chest, tracing the glowing lines on it seductively.
“What do you want, Aodhán?” She asked, her gaze glued to his chest, and Aodhán wondered if she hadn’t heard his opening question. She seemed distracted by the view he was providing, though, so despite feeling like shit, Aodhán slowly unbuttoned the third button, exposing more of the golden lines, and Meredith inhaled sharply.
Her eyes widened, and she looked up at him with eyes burning with an unmistakable flame of hunger. “What did you say you wanted again?”
Aodhán grinned. “To accompany you.” He leaned forward and whispered. “I thought perhaps we could go somewhere less crowded.”
Meredith licked her lips and glanced behind him. “What about Imani? You’ve been hogging her all night.”
Aodhán grimaced as another pang of guilt lanced through him, and he pulled back. “This was a mistake.” He clasped the first button and pretended to leave, but Meredith grabbed his arms and pulled him closer. “Is this what I think it is?”
Aodhán shrugged. “If you want it to be.”
Meredith stared at him hesitantly, her gaze darting from him to Imani, so Aodhán decided to up his game once more. He leaned even closer to her and whispered. “I could be yours on a platter.”
Meredith let out a sound akin to a whimper and pulled him towards the exit. “Come, I know just the right place.”
They rushed out of the hall, and Aodhán signaled to Aldric that his assistance was no longer needed. Meredith already craved him; heightening her already uncomfortable attraction to him was unnecessary.
As they rushed out of the hall, Aodhán grabbed a drink from a passing servant. Unlike the last time, this drink wasn’t to suppress his nerves or anxiety but was a necessary part of their plan. With delicate movements, he took out a {Clearveil pill}, an alchemical pill they’d bought specifically to combat the anesthetic effects of the crushed somnorus seeds.
He popped the pill into his mouth and downed the drink to flush it down before returning the wine glass. They burst out of the hall a moment later, barely acknowledging the guards stationed behind it, and with urgent steps, Meredith led him up the stairs.
The Blackwell mansion had fewer twists and turns compared to that of the Willowood’s, and after spending several hours studying the map, Aodhán knew it like the back of his hands. They passed by several scurrying maids and servants, but the sight of them only caused Meredith to feel frustrated, and when they stepped onto the third floor, which was supposed to be deserted by now, Meredith cursed. “Is there no reprieve from the gazes of these blasted servants?”
Aodhán, on the other hand, was thankful for their presence. He didn’t want to get with Meredith in some dark alcove or hallway; what he needed was to get into Makeba’s room, and the more servants that littered the hall, the more enticing the option of Makeba’s room became. As they climbed onto the fourth floor, Aodhán pretended to be overcome with need and pressed Meredith against the wall. “I can’t control myself for much longer.”
His voice rumbled like the sound of distant thunder, and Meredith gasped, her neck arching as if urging him to take a bite. Aodhán didn’t see a need to deny her, so he bent his head and took her neck in his mouth. Tiny arcs of electricity sparked from his fingers, and crawled up Meredith's arms in a manner that had her gasping and shuddering with pleasure while his tongue stroked her neck.
Aodhán would be lying if he said he was completely faking his need at this point, but he still retained his senses, and after successfully driving Meredith to the edge, he forcefully pulled back and growled. “Let’s find a darkened alcove.”
“No.” Meredith refused, her voice a harsh and shuddering whisper. “It's too dangerous. Someone could see.”
“A room, then.” Aodhán suggested, his hands subtly tracing her right hand, which clutched the keys to Makeba's room. Predictably, Meredith glanced at the key in her hands, and without hesitation, she rushed up the stairs to the fifth floor, ignoring the guards who frowned at them with disapproval. Aodhán kept up his seduction, using his touch and skills in ways the monks would never approve of, but it was so effective that by the time they reached the fifth floor, Meredith was panting, not from exertion but from need.
She raced towards Makeba’s quarters, and while she fumbled with the keys, Aodhán popped the crushed Somnorus seed into his mouth.
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Immediately after the overly potent sedative touched his tongue, Aodhán was hit by an intense wave of dizziness, but the {Clearveil pill} he’d ingested earlier cleared his mind just as Makeba’s door swung open, and without hesitation, Aodhán pressed his lips to Meredith’s. Lupin's face flashed across his mind, but Aodhán pushed it aside and thought to himself. Now is not the time. You can feel guilty later!
Meredith kissed him back like a woman dying of thirst. Her hands roved his body, savagely clawing at his clothes in her need for him. Aodhán groaned, now overcome by his own need. Gone were his pretenses and manipulation. In this moment right now, he wasn’t nearly as in control as he would have preferred. With the last of his restraint, he shut the door behind them, carried Meredith, and pressed her against the wall. She let out a moan of pleasure as his lips connected with hers once more. The pleasant sound shredded the last of Aodhán’s control, and with a growl that sounded like thunder in the quiet room, Aodhán raised her skirt, shifted her undergarments, and inserted a finger inside her.
Meredith’s gasp echoed in the room. A sound so pleasurable that it nearly made him stagger. Yet, it was nothing compared to the sound she made next when he channeled a tiny arc of electricity into her. She—
Thud!
She collapsed in his arms, the effect of the somnorus seeds only now taking effect. Perhaps it had something to do with her water affinity or the fact that he’d ingested it first, reducing its potency, but at this point, Aodhán couldn't care less about the reason and was more interested in exiting the area Immediately.
He pushed her off him and quickly took several steps back, not wanting to be doing anything sexual while she was unconscious. He was toeing the line of his morals here, but this was the best plan they had come up with, regardless of how shitty it was or how dirty it made him feel.
This wasn’t supposed to happen, at least not to this extent. This extensive make-out session wasn’t part of the plan. He’d gone too far.
His erratic breathing echoed in the now silent room, and Aodhán sighed, giving himself a moment to regain his sanity.
He glanced at Meredith’s limp form, and after taking a deep breath to steady himself, he carried her to the bed. He had at most five minutes before the anesthetic effects wore off, but that was enough time to get what he came for.
With his raging hormones now somewhat under control, Aodhán turned to take in Makeba’s room. The room was an image of wealth and luxury. Silver, gold, and beautiful stones shone everywhere; even the furniture was trimmed and highlighted with gold and silver. Velvet curtains blocked the moonlight, yet the room was bright enough to see, and a slight haze of opium smoke filled the air.
Perhaps he could blame his temporary lapse of judgment on the haze, although he doubted anyone would believe him. He looked around until he found Makeba’s jewelry table, a silver cabinet trimmed in gold and decorated with sapphires. Rather than the runes he’d expected, the cabinet was protected with a simple padlock, and Aodhán breathed a sigh of relief. One potential problem eliminated.
He grabbed the bunch of keys from the door where Meredith had left them and began testing each key until he finally opened the spatially expanded cabinet filled with so many jewelries, ranging all the way from mundane to epic-ranked items. The entire cabinet was a treasure trove, and even better, it was a mess. Sure, the jewelries were sorted by their different ranks, but each rank was simply a big pile of items that it was almost impossible to find anything and downright impossible to know if an item or two was missing.
Before he began searching, though, Aodhán focused his core sense to search for any hidden runes, but after an entire minute of searching, Aodhán gave up and began riffling through the uncommon ranked jewelries instead.
Thankfully, no alarm went off, but barely a minute later, his chip pinged with a message from Daruk. “Makeba is on her way.”
Aodhán cursed and hastened his search just as another message came in. “Aldric is trying to stall her, but I doubt he can hold her for long. She looks like she’s ready to pass out if she doesn’t get her next fix of opiates.”
“Tell Aodhán to give her back her pouch!” Aodhán replied as he hastily scanned the bizzare pile of uncommon-ranked earrings, half tempted to just grab the whole thing and run. He dismissed the evil thought and tried to search more carefully despite the ticking clock. It took him almost two minutes to find the earrings, and without hesitation, he tossed them into his spatial storage.
Just as he locked the cabinet, another message came in from Aldric. “I just returned her pouch, pretending to have found it on the floor somewhere, which caused a sort of scene, but that’s by the way. She’s still coming upstairs, though; she says it’s time for her to retire for the night. You have two minutes at most.”
“You should have stolen the pouch earlier.” Aodhán hissed in response and rushed towards Meredith’s sleeping form. He fought the urge to slap her awake and instead settled for shaking her vigorously. When that didn’t work, he zapped her with enough lightning to kill anyone below tier 5, and she jerked awake, eyes wide with confusion.
“Oh, thank the ascendant!” Aodhán exclaimed and hugged her. “What happened to you?”
“I—I don’t know.” She replied in confusion, and Aodhán shook his head. “One moment, we were making out, and the next, you just collapsed.” He morphed his expression into one of concern and asked. “How are you feeling now?”
“W-what?” Meredith asked, still unable to understand his words, but Aodhán didn’t have the time for that. Instead, he pushed her to her feet and reminded her. “You were here for opiates, remember? Let’s get it so you can rest.”
Meredith glanced around, still confused, but Aodhán urged her forward, and after she grabbed a pouch from Makeba’s bedside cabinet, he helped her towards the door and said, “We can talk about this when you’re feeling better. For now, you should rest.”
Meredith didn’t seem to hear him. “This has never happened to me before.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I just fainted in-between our make-out like that.”
Aodhán forced a grin and urged her forward. “Well, when you’re feeling better, we can revisit it. Now though, we should get going.”
Meredith nodded, but when she reached the door, she frowned and asked. “How long was I out?”
“Just about five minutes.” Aodhán shrugged and held the door open for her. “Maybe even less; I wasn’t counting.”
Meredith let out a sigh of relief. “Well, it can’t be too bad, then. It was probably just a dizzy spell. You know, insufficient ammonia.”
Aodhán nodded, not bothering to point out that it was impossible to suffer from a deficiency of ammonia. Meredith locked the door a moment later, but they had barely taken more than a few steps away from the entrance when Makeba arrived at the end of the hallway with two guards behind her.
Aodhán stiffened slightly, and only then did he realize how disheveled he looked. He hurriedly buttoned his shirt and arranged his hair, but his actions only caused Makeba to stare at him in disdain. “I should have known this was the reason why you took your sweet time fulfilling my request, Meredith. I had thought perhaps you had changed your errant ways, but alas...
“My apologies, Lady Blackwell.” Meredith bowed, and Aodhán quickly followed suit. Makeba tsked and turned to him. Her gaze widened slightly, and she asked. “Weren’t you the young man dancing with my granddaughter earlier?” She glanced at Meredith and then back at him before shaking her head in disappointment. “I had thought you were quite taken with her. Apparently, I thought wrong.”
Aodhán didn’t bother responding or defending himself. Instead, he just stood there and soaked in the judgment of her stare.
“I’d like my keys back, Meredith, and the opiates. You’ve proven yourself completely unreliable and frankly untrustworthy. I’ll let Imani know to stay away from you. You’re excused.”
Meredith’s lips quivered as she handed over the pouch and keys, and it went without saying that Aodhán didn’t feel good about the whole thing. It wasn’t really Makeba’s opinion that ate at him; instead, it was just the nail in the coffin.
Makeba walked past them with her guards, and Aodhán sighed. “I’m sorry, Meredith.”
He left before she could respond, his heart pounding as he walked past the hall guards, who stared at him with judgment and disdain. Their glare was so intense that Aodhán almost believed they could see the earrings in his spatial storage, and despite the fact that he knew that was impossible, his heart couldn’t help but pound loudly every time he walked past a guard or servant. Aodhán battled his nerves and forced himself to keep a calm pace. Running would only call unwanted attention to himself.
When he reached the third floor, he smiled at the guards and even spent a few minutes discussing with a maid just to maintain the appearance of nonchalance. When he finally reached the first floor, he sighed in relief and sent a message to both Daruk and Aldric that the mission was done. When he neared the entrance to the main hall, he found Rahim grinning at him. “I take it that lady luck smiled in your favor.”
“I’m just glad it’s over.” Aodhán sighed and subtly handed the earrings over to Rahim. “Could you keep this for me?”
Rahim nodded, and Aodhán felt an immense sense of relief as the earrings disappeared from view.
“Congratulations.” Rahim smiled. “With your success in this mission, I imagine your problems with the principal have only just begun.” His smile widened, and he patted Aodhán’s shoulders. “Enjoy the rest of your break. I’ll see you in the academy. Try not to call me before then.”