The Prince was in no rush when it came to dinner, and though Lucas' fatigue outweighed his appetite, he still sampled at least a little of all seven courses. He knew that the man was toying with him and trying to get him to ask about the gift he'd promised earlier, but Lucas was determined not to give him the satisfaction.

Instead, he scrutinized his system, noting the status it displayed with distaste while he waited for the other man to decide he'd had enough dessert. Elixir of Superior Insight +6 Intelligence (6 days, 22 hours remaining.) New Addiction to Elixir of Superior Insight (duration 13 days, 22 hours.)

It deeply annoyed him that after a single use, he was addicted to the Prince's intellect potion, despite his talent that made him less likely to get addicted to things. In fairness, the thing's description had told him it was highly addictive, so it would probably be much worse without it, but he was not looking forward to coming off this thing.

Still, that wasn't a now problem. Right now, his only problem was keeping it together long enough to get sent back to Black Gate instead of the Prince's royal love shack, or some place even worse. During dinner that seemed to be going well enough, but afterwards, when they started taking the familiar route toward the dungeon, Lucas had second thoughts. Those intensified when he made a joke about it, and the Prince said nothing at all.

Not this place again, Lucas sighed, willing himself to stay calm.

Fortunately, when they got to the bottom of the steps and reached Lucas' usual cell, it was occupied. The bad news was that it was occupied with a familiar face: Adin.

Motherfucker! His mind raged. Lucas restrained himself, but only barely, and in large part due to ice water that was running through his veins as a side effect of the potion.

Instead of screaming or grabbing the bars, he regarded the wretch cooly and then said, "This is my present? I was expecting something nicer."

"Well, look who it is," Adin chuckled. "I hope that that draconic bitch burned you down too"

Ever since he'd been forced to quit Blue the hard way the man had looked like shit, but in Lucas' opinion he'd never looked worse. Even in all the time that had passed since Lucas had seen him fly from the balcony, he was still pretty beat up, and the splints on his arms and one leg spoke to broken bones.

That cheered up Lucas. It was only a small measure of the suffering the moron endured, but it was still something.

Lucas wasn't surprised by that in the least. He'd made that fall once before and was shocked that he'd come away nearly uninjured.

"She might have breathed fire," Lucas answered contemptuously, "But you were the one who burned your entire life down. You know that? You could have had it all, but now you only have this."

"Me?" Adin answered. "Our life was going just fine until you showed up! You did this, Lucas, or whatever your real name is. You set fire to everything you touch."

As much as Lucas enjoyed bickering with the man under the watchful eye of the Prince, he declined to keep going. As satisfying as it would have been to bring up his sister or his wife and watch the fire in his eyes go out, Lucas didn't want anyone to catch him in his lies. So, instead of indulging, he turned to the Prince and said, "I thought you told me he was dead."

"I might have implied it," the Prince agreed. "Though in fairness, he was largely dead when we pulled him out of the moat. He has healers and priests to thank for his recovery."

"What makes you think I want him?" Lucas asked. "This is the last person I would want in my life, ever."

"Understandable," the Prince agreed, "And yet, you may have him just the same. Once you've patched things up with Skylara, you may dispose of him anyway you wish. You may—"

"Wait, you're going to… After that bitch killed my sister you're going to what… Fuck her? Marry her?"

"If she'll have me," Lucas said, forcing himself to grin at those words. "Being a Parin was only ever a stepping stone to larger things."

The look of shock on Adin's face was priceless, but it still wasn't enough to warm his heart after the terrible nature of the lie. After that, Lucas turned and started down the hallway and up the stairs to the courtyard. A few seconds later, Prince joined him.

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"I thought you would have enjoyed your reunion a little more than that," he admitted.

"The only thing I will enjoy about that man is watching him hang," Lucas admitted. "He's been dead weight the entire time I've known him, and the sooner he stops breathing, the better off Lordanin will be."

After that, he changed the topic. The Prince asked him if he'd like to return to Black Gate immediately, but Lucas merely shrugged. "Truthfully, I'm exhausted, and after that last ambush, I'd rather not travel at night. Perhaps I could find a room and return in the morning?"

The Prince agreed to that and handed him off to his chamberlain. Truthfully, Lucas would have preferred to go back tonight, but rushing back felt too much like he had something to hide, and right now, he felt the almost unreasonable need to prove to the ruler of the kingdom that this wasn't so.

So, Lucas slept in the palace that night, wondering how Heisenburgle would take that news, and then, in the morning, after a night of tossing and turning because his schedule was entirely out of whack, he had breakfast with the Prince and then left the city just the way he came in.

On the way back, Lucas mostly sat quietly and studied his system. With an Intelligence of twenty, even if he bumped his physical attributes as high as they would go, that would still only bring his average to twenty-three or twenty-four, and he wasn't about to spend the rest of his points to bump up appearance or soul on whim. So, even with the current bump, Divine Potential was, at least for the moment, out of his reach.

I can make a better intelligence potion than this, though, Lucas assured himself.

He could make one that lasted less than an hour, that was at least ten or fifteen. He might even be able to do more than that if he could convince Heisenburgle to share the recipe. He decided that was unlikely, though. The gnome hadn't budged on that to date.

As they traveled, Lucas reviewed his priorities. One thing he knew for sure was that as interesting as the Prince's intelligence elixir was, he was not going to enjoy when it wore off one bit; in a week he was going to start feeling like shit, so his first priority was seeing if the alchemy text books had something in there for addictions that was stronger than black coffee.

After that, as much as he hated it, he probably needed to write the Dragoness a love letter or six, and then he'd be able to get back to work on his more specific potion projects, and help Heisenburgle with his metallurgical work. As a list, it was deceptively short, but each of those categories contained dozens of smaller projects, and his goal hinged on all of them.

No, I'll have to start with an apology first, he realized, suppressing a sigh. A long, groveling apology, along with the finest bottle of Lwynthenll I can make. After that, I can seduce her.

He gave a lot of thought to that on the ride home. As distasteful as he found it, setting the trap with care was every bit as important as being strong enough to spring it. He had to convince the Dragoness to meet him somewhere out of the way, and then, when they got there, he had to be ready to cut her down and fill her heart with poison.

Knowing that, and doing it without actually filling his own heart with bile, though, were too different things. All of that was set aside, though, when he returned to Blackgate and found Heisenburgle had waited up for him.

The gnome quickly spirited Lucas into a study and then read him the riot act. That none of this was Lucas' fault seemed to matter to him. Heisenburgle was frantic.

"Of course he knows!" the gnome insisted when Lucas tried to explain to him. "He's smarter than you and me combined. The man knows everything! He sees right through you!"

"I know," Lucas said, "That's why I took a sip of his stash when he wasn't looking. To beat him at his own game."

"You what?" the gnome paled. "Lucas! That elixir is incredibly addictive! You can't just—"

"Yeah," I know that too, "He interrupted, but it is what it is. I'm in for two weeks of pain, but I'll get over it. It can't be as bad as Blue or Heroin."

When Lucas explained his audacious plan to Heisenburgle, he was mollified somewhat, but only a little. The gnome might be pretending to be grumpy, but Lucas could see that he was secretly pleased that he'd found a way to lay the groundwork for their trap.

That was the scary part of this elixir, he decided. Not that it made him smarter, or that he could think faster. It made it much easier to see that everyone else was thinking, though a combination of what they said, what they didn't say, and the micro-expressions scattered across their faces.

I wonder how much I give away like that normally? He wondered as the conversation continued.

They spent more than an hour going back and forth, with Heisenburgle asking the minutest of questions about his patronage's verbiage. Normally Lucas would have told him to fuck off, but today, juiced up as he was, he could remember every line and intonation, and he repeated the Prince perfectly, and at length.

Being as smart as he was was almost distracting, because he ended up having whole meta conversations with himself about minor details he was noticing, and he wasn't at all used to it. In a way, it was a different sort of high, and the fact that he liked it so much scared him.

Even after their conversation ended, and Lucas went back to his room to do a little light reading and get back on a proper sleep schedule, he thought about that. It was something he could get used to, but in a way, that was almost as scary as getting addicted to the potion. How much could he change his attributes before he wasn't even the same person anymore?

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