A Deepening Knowledge (A Life of Magic) by Mitchell Matthew

Author:Mitchell, Matthew [Mitchell, Matthew]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2013-11-28T05:00:00+00:00

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While we spent the afternoon working on poisons and herbs we did not make any for Victor. As we worked Conium showed us how we could add different ingredients to change minor things like color, smell, even taste without making large changes to the effects of the concoction

"This is something that has to be done with some medicines. Otherwise the flavor makes it hard to take. It works especially well with children and those who cannot tolerate strong flavors." Conium was sniffing her latest concoction "This one, without any additional flavors would cause most people to gag and maybe even vomit." She held it out to us. "With the addition of just a small amount of herbs it becomes palatable, if not tasty."

We smelled the concoction The smell reminded me of fall nights, the smell of the wind. Crisp leaves and maybe smoky fires. Raven took a sniff and sneezed.

"I think it smells like harvest time." Raven stated, handing it back to Conium.

Conium smiled, "Now, smell the original medicine." Handing a larger pan to me she smiled.

I took a deep breath and the smell of burnt flesh, decayed leaves, and the sharp scent of oily smoke flooded into my nose. I thrust the pan towards Conium and tried to breath fresh air.

Raven watched me and hesitantly took a much shallower smell of the pan. She also disliked the smell. Her nose squinched up. "That is a big difference in smell."

Conium grinned and nodded. "You would be surprised in how easy it is to change the flavor of things. Some are harder, most are fairly easy." Her grin took on a much nastier look, "Which is one thing you need to know if you are working with poisons."

Raven and I looked at each other and frowned.

I turned to Conium, "I really do not want to poison anyone."

Conium nodded, "I do not want you to poison anyone either. It is an unpleasant task that is usually defined as being needed by those in power. However there have been occasions where I think poison is the answer to a difficult problem."

I sat and thought about this for a while while we worked. Where would poison be the proper answer? Why not just a direct confrontation? After struggling with it for a while I finally turned to Conium. "What makes it acceptable to poison someone?"

She sighed and set down what she was working on, a small puff of blue gas coming from the vial. "I have had to struggle through that question myself. Sometimes there are those who must be removed from a situation without it being obvious that you were the one doing the removal. Now that does not mean that you have to kill someone. You can also simply cause someone as minor a problem as an upset stomach. A minor illness can be as powerful a game changer as someone dying. More so in some cases. Also not all poisons cause harm. Some are embarrassing, irritating, or annoying. I once was required to make a potion that would cause a person to sneeze every few minutes.

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