A knock came at the door.
I set down the beaker full of elixir and went to open the door. “Daglor?”
“Hey. I heard you had a new lab, and I wanted to bring you a lab warming gift.” He handed me a cotton pouch.
“Thank you. Come in.” I took the pouch to the central worktable and opened it. “Tybor tea? Thank you!” I lifted it to inhale the scent of citrus and black tea. “I've missed this.”
“I thought you might—oh, fuck! Your Majesty, I didn't see you there.” He bowed.
“Hello, Head Archivist. I didn't know you were friends with Master Sevarin,” the King drawled.
“I, uh, grew up in a village near his,” Daglor stammered. “Sire, did you find what you were after in the books I brought you?”
“Not exactly what I was after, but something interesting.” King Falken straightened in his seat. “Have you ever heard about a sealed off armory?”
“Not beyond the one you had sealed today.” Daglor frowned.
As they continued to speak about Sconheit history, I went to the sink and pulled a kettle from the cabinets above. Afterfilling it with water, I lit a burner and set the kettle on it to boil. Things got quiet as I opened a cabinet to get out some mugs.
When I shut the cabinet door, Daglor was gone. “Where's Daglor?”
“He went to find another book for me that he thinks might be helpful.”
“Ah.” I returned to my work while the water heated.
The King went silent, but I could feel him watching me. If only I could tell him to leave. But although it was my lab, it was in his palace. Despite his lurking, I achieved success.
“There!” I lifted a beaker of bubbling blue liquid. “I believe this will reveal the rot before it becomes dangerous.”
The King stood up and went to take the whistling kettle off the burner. Then he lifted an eyebrow at the liquid. “What is it?”
“An alchemical reagent to reveal rot even when it is still beneath the surface.” I shrugged. “I won't be sure of its effectiveness until I test it.”
“How will you know what to test it on?”
“That's a good question.” I poured the reagent into a glass bottle and capped it. “Are there more iron chairs in the garden?”
The King chuckled. “Yes, many.”
“Then I'll start there.” I joined him at the counter. Ignoring the way he watched me, I took a few pinches of tea and put them in the kettle to steep. “Would you like a cup of tea?”
“Yes, it smells nice.”
“It's made in my home village, using the oranges grown in the region.”
“Oranges?” He leaned over to smell the steam rising from the kettle. “Yes, that's what I smell.”
“Orange peel, to be precise. I'll have to ration it.” I tucked the pouch into my inner jacket pocket.
“You can't find it in Eberein?”
“No, Daglor must have brought some from home. It's only sold at the mountain markets.”
“Thank you for sharing it with me.”
“I'm not sharing!”
The King jerked back and held up a hand. “All right.”
