23 — I can't see!

Unknown
The candle light in his chambers flickered and danced as the cool breeze from the window softly blew across it like gentle breaths caressing a flame.
He was seated on his bed, a queen sized bed and was staring at his ceiling, deep in thoughts. It seemed like it was all he did these days, sit and think in silence.
The soft bustle of the castle was almost muted from his Chambers. If he strained his ears a little, he would be able to catch the sounds of metals being kept in the storage room, the sound of the kitchen women giggling as they stocked the remaining food in the pantry. He would hear all these if he just strained his ears a little but tonight, he was oblivious to all these.
His mind was far away, miles away plotting on how to get the perfect potion to render the king helpless once more.
He'd been reading about it for months now. He'd heard that there was a perfect blend of nightshade, rosemary, elderberry and wolfsbane that when applied right could cause instant blindness.
Due to the fact that he could prowl and walk round the palace as long as he wanted and as far as he wanted, he was able to scavenge some wolfbane from the ruined garden. It flew there like some sort of weed.
The next step was to get rosemary which was easy because the palace had a room filled with cooking herbs and thankfully, rosemary was a cooking herb.
The thing that frustrated him was the lack of nightshade in the kingdom. He'd searched far and wide but it'd all come up to nothing. There was no nightshade, not in the bushes, not in the small forest they had, nowhere.
How was he to prepare a potion if nightshade was absent? It wouldn't work, or even if it did, it may not have the lasting effect he was aiming for. It was starting to get frustrating.
The elderberry had easily been bought from the winery, that was easy but nightshade was the pain in his behind now.
And he was already out of time. He was supposed to add the potion to the king's tea that would soon be delivered to him and he'd barely done anything.
Deciding nothing could be done, he got up and started to chop up the ingredients he had at hand now.
As he worked deftly, he thought of how he would do it. He had no informat, no inside worker on his side, no one was aware of his ploy. It would also be a problem being that he had to work alone on this one.
It was always so easy before. He'd just tell a guard that the head cook wanted him to deliver the tea to the king, the tea would already be doused with a pinch of poison. No one would trace it back to him, no one would suspect him because the head cook had in fact asked him to take the tea to the king.
It was the reason the king was getting worse and worse and it was a sweet relief to him that his potions we're working on the king.
The reason the king had fainted that afternoon when he was quarreling with Laura was that the dose of that day had been a little stronger than he was used to. Instead of adding a drop, he'd given him half a teaspoon. It wasn't his fault, he was growing impatient with how persistent the king was to live.
It didn't help too that the king was being treated, even though since they didn't know the cause of the sickness, they could not administer the antidote.
More than once, he'd thought of just silently ending Mr Finch. It would be a quick and painless death. One needle to the right artery and he was paralyzed forever. But then, the palace would smell foul play. They would know someone had some hand in it.
He sighed, scooping up the cut ingredients into his pot filled with steaming water. The water in the pot immediately turned brown as he stirred the ingredients together.
Disappointedly, he thought of how princess Laura couldn't get a dose from the potion he was meticulously brewing. It was a shame that he'd suggested that she get married, if not, he would've doused her food with more potion than he gave the king because gods help him, he hated the girl.
Because she was a princess, she felt like she could do anything, he angrily thought, slowly sieving the mixture into a jar. She thought she could pick offense with anyone, argue about anything and even ridicule anyone.
He realized his hands were shaking from rage and he dropped the jar already filled with the potion on his work table and gave a deep sigh.
The back breaking straw had been when she'd accused him of wanting the throne during that afternoon quarrel.
Of course he wanted the throne, he savagely thought, picking up the jar and turning a little into a small stone bottle. The stone bottle was very convenient to hide and was almost smaller than his pinkie. It held a very powerful potion within its stone hold so it was as important as it was small.
Who didn't want the throne? He thought again, hiding his work tools from sight like he always did in the small crevice in the wall. Methodically, he washed his brewing pot clean and stored that under the bed.
The throne was his by right. He deserved that throne. He'd stood by the throne, giving advice for years only for the king to think that he was somehow better than him. That was the reason he'd petitioned the king and the poison, undetectable, had been ruled off as a 'strange illness'. It was funny how stupid people were. How ignorant they were.
No one knew that the cause of the 'strange illness' was no illness at all but just a few well blended herbs mixed thoroughly with a concealer and boom, the king had fallen ill.
Chuckling at how smart he was, he hid the small bottle in his robes and walked out of his chambers, determination in his eyes. It was time to finally render the king incapable of sight.
As he moved, a shadow among the darkness, he carefully slipped past the loud and boisterous guards, slipped past the kitchen maids and went straight to where the tea had already been made.
He remembered the time he'd mistakenly added a potion to the tea other palace staff drank and boy, that hadn't been nice. It was nice that Dr Finch didn't know about the herbs he was using and had ruled out the general poisoning as some kind of flu.
Luck, he thought, was his greatest asset. Even the universe was on his side to claim the throne because it was rightfully his. He would rule the wolf kingdom and become the wolf king after he'd gotten rid of the king.
Carefully, he added three drops of the potion to the tea and watched as the tea briefly changed to a swirl of muddy colors before it settled for the normal yes color.
With a sigh of relief, he carefully walked away, grabbing himself a mug of unpoisoned tea.
This night, he thought as he took the back door and softly walked across the expanse of green grass to his quarters, it would be primarily for a celebration.
He didn't have to wait near and wait for the king to drink it. That was too much work. All he had to do was sit outside his chambers, enjoy the cool evening breeze and hear the palace explode in a flurry of voices. Then, he would go and check.
Sorrowfully, he shook his head. Why hadn't he seen nightshade? It was all so sad. However, he'd doubled the amount of wolfbane and the concealer he'd used this time was more powerful than the last time. It was done this way to reduce the poison of the wolfbane. The elderberry had done the work of making the potion scentless and undetectable. All fruits had that power.
He'd really wanted the potion to be as strong as possible but now, nightshade had gone missing and so, he'd done without it. He hoped the potion wasn't a temporary one because the risk he'd undertaken that night was just one of luck.
He couldn't do that again. Not if he didn't want to get caught.
The potion though was supposed to be permanent. The book had said so and though it was rumored to have an antidote, he didn't bother himself with this. Not like they were going to detect this one too and even if they did detect the potion in the tea, the king would already be blind and the damage, already done.
He chuckled again, choking on his tea and he coughed twice to get it out of his lungs where it painfully entered and settled there. A few more coughs, each more painful than the last, did it and he cleared his throat, cleaning his eyes from the tears that gathered there.
Sitting down heavily, he looked up into the starless sky, cup of tea forgotten. He supposed that the earth wasn't as bad as he'd thought it was. It was just the disgusting people that filled it that made it a hell hole and he had to admit, to his own conscience, that he was one of those disgusting people.
The shouts from the main palace could be heard all the way from where he sat and he smiled, watching as guards hurriedly ran into the palace, alarm written on their faces.
It showed that his potion had worked. Or so he hoped. That could be the only reason why the guards were running into that palace, he thought.
He hurriedly got up, starting to stride into the palace with more panic in his step. He had brewed the potion to make the king lose his sight but gods help him if he'd mistakenly killed the king.
That would just be the end of everything, he thought. He would just pack his bags and flee under the cover of the night. He had a distant cousin who lived amongst the fairy people. Maybe he would go there.
Get it together! He snapped at himself as he jumped over the stairs and began to rush to the king's chambers, sidestepping servants who hurried past him with fear in their eyes.
If he'd compared the sounds coming from the palace earlier before as bustle, then he was dead wrong. The palace had turned upside down and there were shouts and yelling of orders and hurried footsteps everywhere like some devil was chasing everyone.
He made it to the king's quarters and noted that there were no guards outside his chambers. This meant that something was really bad and the situation was looking really sour.
He pushed open the heavy wooden doors and met the king's chambers filled with maids and guards. It was like everyone had crammed themselves into the chamber, the king at their very middle.
He could see Laura softly weeping on Elaine's shoulder and he inwardly felt disgust. Had she no shame? No backbone or self control? She was weeping like an infant and it repulsed him.
He tore his attention from the weeping princess and focused on the king who was sweating profusely with Dr Finch hovering over him and speaking softly to the man, opening his tightly shut eye balls and flashing a flashlight into it.
What he saw made him draw back and shake his head. This reaction proved a relief for him because it showed that the potion had worked and had not killed the king as well in the process.
To be honest, he hadn't been expecting the king to order for his tea so early but still, luck was still on his side.
Dr Finch spoke softly to princess Laura who nodded like she was being controlled but burst into a fresh set of tears, shaking her head as she cried. He could see Elaine crying as well but less silently as she tried to offer what little comfort she could give.
To draw attention to his presence which hadn't been noticed, he cleared his throat and some eyes focused on him.
"What's going on here?" He asked, feigning ignorance and concern. The ignorance was easy to fake but as he spoke, he felt that his voice lacked the amount of concern he was aiming for but it seemed like no one noticed.
Dr Finch sighed, folding his tools and keeping them in his bag. When he was done, he gave the crowd one last weary look. It seemed like he was short of words to explain the situation.
The answer was soon provided because the king who'd called into some sort of short spell woke up with a gasp and shrieked, "I can't see!" In the loudest voice possible.
The room disrupted in a flurry of shouts and mumbled and he quietly took his leave. His work was done.