Episode-755
Chapter : 1509
"Understood," Lloyd said. "He will be a lamb."
Lloyd downed the wine in one gulp. It was excellent vintage, wasted on a traitor.
He stood up, bowed, and scurried out of the room, clutching his gold and his poison.
Lloyd was gone.
Prince Cassius sat alone in the large, cold room. The polite smile vanished from his face instantly. He looked bored.
One of the grey-robed mind-readers stepped forward and bowed. "Highness... you should be careful. His thoughts were loud, but deep down, it felt too quiet. He might be hiding something."
Cassius laughed. It was a short, mean sound. He picked up his wine glass.
"Of course he is hiding something," Cassius said flatly. "He isn't a doctor. Did you see his hands? They were rough. Those are the hands of a fighter, not a healer. And his accent slipped twice. He is probably just some low-level spy or a deserter from the North Bathelham looking for easy money."
"Then why let him live?" the mind-reader asked nervously. "Why let him near the King?"
"Because he is trash," Cassius sneered. "He has no loyalty. He has no honor. He just wants gold. That makes him useful. A real doctor has rules. A piece of trash like him will do exactly what I pay him to do."
Cassius stared at the empty chair where Lloyd had sat. A cruel smile spread across his face.
"Let him play his little game," Cassius whispered to the empty room. "Let him think he fooled a Prince. He is useful for now. But once the King is dealt with... I will have my guards kill him and dump his body in a ditch. After all, trash belongs in the garbage."
—-
As the carriage rattled back towards the city, Lloyd leaned back against the cushions. He held the vial up to the moonlight filtering through the cracks.
"You think you bought a dog," Lloyd whispered to the empty air. "But you just paid the wolf to guard the sheep."
He pocketed the vial. He would analyze it. He would create an antidote. And he would replace the contents with sugar water.
He checked his mental shields. The Vault was intact. The telepaths hadn't scratched the surface.
"Greed," Lloyd mused. "Such a useful mask."
He pulled up the sleeve of his velvet robe.
On his wrist, right where Cassius had grabbed him, there was a faint, purple mark. It pulsed slowly, like a second heartbeat. This was the "Trace" Cassius had talked about. A magical parasite designed to kill him if he tried to leave the city or disobeyed orders.
Lloyd stared at it. His eyes flashed gold for a split second as he activated his All-Seeing Eye.
He looked at the structure of the spell. It was complex magic, nasty and lethal to a normal person. It was designed to dig into the soul and explode if triggered.
But Lloyd wasn't a normal person.
He channeled a tiny bit of his Void energy to his wrist. He probed the curse.
To anyone else, this Trace was a heavy iron chain. But to Lloyd? It felt thin. Brittle.
"Glass," Lloyd whispered to the empty carriage.
He could feel it. If he pushed just a little bit harder with his mana, the curse would shatter into a million pieces. He could break it right now. He could wipe it away as easily as wiping dirt off his hand.
He gathered his energy, ready to crush it.
Then, he stopped.
He let the energy fade. A small, amused smile played on his lips.
"If I break it now, he will know," Lloyd thought. "He will know I am strong. He will be scared."
Lloyd pulled his sleeve back down, covering the purple mark.
"Let him keep his leash," Lloyd murmured, closing his eyes. "Let him think I am his dog. Because when the time comes... this leash won't hold me for even a second."
He treated the deadly curse like a toy. It was nothing more than a fake shackle, waiting for him to snap it whenever he got bored.
He arrived back at the safe house late. Ken and Jasmin were waiting, tense and armed.
"You're alive," Jasmin breathed.
"And rich," Lloyd said, tossing the bag of gold onto the table. "And employed."
He explained the deal. The interrogation. The poison.
"He hired you to poison his father?" Jasmin asked, disgusted.
"He hired me to be the gatekeeper," Lloyd corrected. "He thinks he owns me now. That makes him careless."
He looked at the gold.
Chapter : 1510
"We use this," Lloyd said. "We use his gold to buy the explosives that will blow up his factory. There is a poetic justice in that."
"Did you learn anything else?" Ken asked.
"I learned that Cassius is arrogant," Lloyd said. "He relies on fear and money. He doesn't understand loyalty. Or love. That is his weakness."
He sat down, suddenly exhausted. The mental strain of maintaining the Seal against telepaths was immense.
"We are in deep now," Lloyd said. "I am the King's doctor and the Prince's poisoner. I am playing both sides of the chessboard."
"Just make sure you don't get checkmated," Ken warned.
"I won't," Lloyd said. "Because I'm about to flip the table."
The safe house was usually a place of quiet planning, but today, the air was thick with panic. Lloyd had just returned from a morning at the palace, where he had successfully swapped the King’s poison for a harmless saline solution. He was feeling good. He was feeling in control.
Then Ken Park walked in.
Ken had been out scouting the perimeter of the Orchid House, or at least the general area of the quarry. He looked grim. Grimmer than usual. He was covered in mud and smelled of rain.
"Report," Lloyd said, his good mood vanishing instantly.
"Bad news," Ken said. He walked to the table and poured himself a cup of water. He drank it in one gulp.
"I intercepted a courier," Ken said. "A runner from the Orchid House to the Tower of Silence. I didn't kill him. I just... borrowed his satchel while he was unconscious."
He pulled a crumpled document from his tunic. It was stamped with a red seal: URGENT.
"Read it," Ken said.
Lloyd took the paper. Jasmin crowded in to see.
To: Director of Operations, Site B.
From: The Curator.
Subject: Expedited Processing.
Due to increased security concerns and potential leaks, the scheduled harvest of Batch 4 is to be moved up. All subjects currently in holding are to be processed immediately. The quota must be met within 72 hours. Dispose of the failures.
Lloyd stared at the paper. Batch 4. That was Risa’s group.
"72 hours," Jasmin whispered. Her face went white. "Three days. They moved it up."
"Why?" Lloyd asked. "Why the rush?"
"Maybe they sensed something," Ken said. "Maybe Cassius is getting paranoid about your snooping. Or maybe the war is starting sooner than we thought."
"Three days," Lloyd repeated.
He looked at the map on the wall. The Orchid House. Sector 4, Grid 9.
"We aren't ready," Lloyd said. "I haven't mapped the interior. We don't have the patrol routes for the inner sanctum. We were planning for a month."
"We don't have a month," Jasmin said, her voice rising. "We have three days! Lloyd, we have to go! Now!"
"If we go now," Lloyd said, "we hit a fortress on high alert. We hit a wall. We die. And Risa dies."
He slammed his fist onto the table.
"Think!" he commanded himself. "Think like a general."
He paced the room.
"We can't sneak in," Lloyd said. "Not quickly. Stealth takes time. And we can't fight our way in. Their defenses are designed to stop an army."
"So we need an army?" Ken asked.
"No," Lloyd said. "We need the guards to leave."
He stopped pacing.
"The Orchid House is heavily guarded because it is secret," Lloyd reasoned. "But the guards are drawn from the Obsidian Eye and mercenaries. They answer to the Palace. To Cassius."
"So?"
"So," Lloyd said, "if something happens... something huge... something catastrophic... somewhere else... Cassius will have to pull forces to deal with it. He will strip the defenses of the Orchid House to protect something he values more."
"What does he value more than his secret weapon factory?" Jasmin asked.
"His power," Lloyd said. "His control over the city. His legitimacy."
He looked out the window at the looming black bulk of the Royal Palace.
"We need a distraction," Lloyd said. "Not a fire. Not a riot. We need a national emergency. Something that threatens the throne itself."
"An assassination attempt?" Ken suggested.
"Too common," Lloyd dismissed. "Cassius expects that. No. We need something political. Something that breaks his control over the narrative."
He thought about the players on the board. The King was awake but weak. Cassius was strong but paranoid.
And then there was Seraphina.
The Princess. The girl with the light magic who was just learning to be angry.
"Seraphina," Lloyd whispered.
"The Princess?" Jasmin asked. "What can she do?"