Back to Square One.2
Ymiden 1, arc 717
Linika stepped into the Veridian Wing from the hall that led to the Infirmary. This was the route she was most familiar with, having originally been employed there. She still had her "private medicine cabinet"; a stock of numerous compounds that she had engineered to be modified with frageon crystals, through one of her best prior deceptions. A doctor and his nurse had been on the spot to save several thousand nels' worth of Frageon, a powerful reagent that allowed literally any reagent to be blended with another.
Linika had manipulated the two, through their own financial desperation, to let her "help" them salvage what she could. It had quickly become obvious that they really only knew how to use it in the various compounds recorded in their books, and possessed no real innate knowledge of the substance's true capability. Being from the southern continent, Linika knew quite a bit more about the stuff, and had them practically doing cartwheels to save the expensive chemical, when it was actually not in danger of being corrupted at all.
Her deception had resulted in their putting what they thought was diluted Frageon through needless processes to extract it from the water. Linika knew that being oil-based, there was no real threat of actual blending and loss of the frageon. The real trick had been to modify it so that it did stay blended with the water, so that it would remain solvent enough, long enough, to blend in with all the medical compounds in an entire cabinet of the Infirmary. She did this on her own time.
So she now had an entire cabinet of drugs, vitamins and medicines that were already prepared to accept any additional reagents, be they medical, toxic, euphoric, hallucinogenic, psychotropic, aphrodisiac, or whatever else served her ends. The real beauty was that the Frageon had no effects of its own, so if someone was to take some of the medicine from this cabinet, there would be no freakish side effects to alert anyone to what she'd done.
Her intent had been to engineer a program of discrediting and scandalizing her superiors through the additions of drugs in their medicines. Mostly they would be behavioral anti-inhibiting compounds that would cause them enough disgrace to be dismissed; which would open up positions for those of her rank to work their way up quicker than usual. She would, of course, try to befriend a few of those that advanced along with her, and set up a reasonably loyal faction that would inadvertently do tasks to advance her agenda without even knowing it.
Then...all had fallen to ruin. She'd been arrested, interrogated, exposed, and worst of all....Blessed with her enemy's mark, Xypha. It was difficult to make a non-naerikk understand what ruin this would bring upon a loyal naer. She was a pariah now. What had been a cover story before was now fact. She was an exile in utter disgrace. Assassins had already been sent from her home in Augiery to execute her as a traitor.
But there were other tactics at work in Yvithia's decision to approach her enemy this way. Linika knew that it was hoped that when she finally gave up on her prayer that this could be undone and she could go home to Augiery again, that she would instead embrace the uniquely ingenious truth that, as a Naer, she could be Viden's greatest spy. It was well known that converts made the most zealous followers. And Linika had no doubt that Yvithia hoped "her naer" would eventually come to embody this level of loyalty.
Naturally, Linika swore to resist this to the last. But every day, her watch for new assassins wore on her resolve. As did the genuine benefits she'd gained from the mark. She tried not to use them, but found herself subconsciously embracing them all too frequently to feel completely successful. Right from the start, she'd suddenly found herself fluent in Grovokian. Part of her preparations for her mission in Viden had been to learn common as a replacement to the Augierian tongue, to make her exile seem more fully encompassing.
But apparently, Yvithia had sensed the slivers of a broken language within her mind, analyzed it and filled all the gaps of fluency. She may have thought it a gift to her recalcitrant spy, but Linika assumed it was just another form of homesick torment the Immortal inflicted upon her. Still, it was another gain she now enjoyed. She found herself fluctuating between appreciating these newfound abilities and hating both herself and Yvithia for their existence.
But now it came to it. She still had this "medicine cabinet"; and either Yvithia did not know about it, or she was intent on allowing Linika the boon of bringing it with her to the Viridian Wing from the Infirmary. Linika had noticed how conveniently matched her recent string of work orders had been for the purpose of replacing those same stocks. She still had to actually make the regular drugs and things for the work orders. But from there, it was very easy to smuggle them back and forth through this connecting hallway; bringing the unmodified stock into the Infirmary and bringing her Frageon-infused stock back to her work station.
Was Yvithia allowing it? She did not know, and hated the fact that she appreciated this ongoing stroke of luck. She did not want to be in debt to her enemy. But then again, it seemed that her mother figure, Audrae, was her enemy now as well. She stopped dead in her tracks at this thought. Looking quickly around, she found eyes only just beginning to note her sudden lack of motion. She faked a sneeze to account for it, and continued on her way, tears of loneliness and abandonment shimmering in her eyes.
Linika had manipulated the two, through their own financial desperation, to let her "help" them salvage what she could. It had quickly become obvious that they really only knew how to use it in the various compounds recorded in their books, and possessed no real innate knowledge of the substance's true capability. Being from the southern continent, Linika knew quite a bit more about the stuff, and had them practically doing cartwheels to save the expensive chemical, when it was actually not in danger of being corrupted at all.
Her deception had resulted in their putting what they thought was diluted Frageon through needless processes to extract it from the water. Linika knew that being oil-based, there was no real threat of actual blending and loss of the frageon. The real trick had been to modify it so that it did stay blended with the water, so that it would remain solvent enough, long enough, to blend in with all the medical compounds in an entire cabinet of the Infirmary. She did this on her own time.
So she now had an entire cabinet of drugs, vitamins and medicines that were already prepared to accept any additional reagents, be they medical, toxic, euphoric, hallucinogenic, psychotropic, aphrodisiac, or whatever else served her ends. The real beauty was that the Frageon had no effects of its own, so if someone was to take some of the medicine from this cabinet, there would be no freakish side effects to alert anyone to what she'd done.
Her intent had been to engineer a program of discrediting and scandalizing her superiors through the additions of drugs in their medicines. Mostly they would be behavioral anti-inhibiting compounds that would cause them enough disgrace to be dismissed; which would open up positions for those of her rank to work their way up quicker than usual. She would, of course, try to befriend a few of those that advanced along with her, and set up a reasonably loyal faction that would inadvertently do tasks to advance her agenda without even knowing it.
Then...all had fallen to ruin. She'd been arrested, interrogated, exposed, and worst of all....Blessed with her enemy's mark, Xypha. It was difficult to make a non-naerikk understand what ruin this would bring upon a loyal naer. She was a pariah now. What had been a cover story before was now fact. She was an exile in utter disgrace. Assassins had already been sent from her home in Augiery to execute her as a traitor.
But there were other tactics at work in Yvithia's decision to approach her enemy this way. Linika knew that it was hoped that when she finally gave up on her prayer that this could be undone and she could go home to Augiery again, that she would instead embrace the uniquely ingenious truth that, as a Naer, she could be Viden's greatest spy. It was well known that converts made the most zealous followers. And Linika had no doubt that Yvithia hoped "her naer" would eventually come to embody this level of loyalty.
Naturally, Linika swore to resist this to the last. But every day, her watch for new assassins wore on her resolve. As did the genuine benefits she'd gained from the mark. She tried not to use them, but found herself subconsciously embracing them all too frequently to feel completely successful. Right from the start, she'd suddenly found herself fluent in Grovokian. Part of her preparations for her mission in Viden had been to learn common as a replacement to the Augierian tongue, to make her exile seem more fully encompassing.
But apparently, Yvithia had sensed the slivers of a broken language within her mind, analyzed it and filled all the gaps of fluency. She may have thought it a gift to her recalcitrant spy, but Linika assumed it was just another form of homesick torment the Immortal inflicted upon her. Still, it was another gain she now enjoyed. She found herself fluctuating between appreciating these newfound abilities and hating both herself and Yvithia for their existence.
But now it came to it. She still had this "medicine cabinet"; and either Yvithia did not know about it, or she was intent on allowing Linika the boon of bringing it with her to the Viridian Wing from the Infirmary. Linika had noticed how conveniently matched her recent string of work orders had been for the purpose of replacing those same stocks. She still had to actually make the regular drugs and things for the work orders. But from there, it was very easy to smuggle them back and forth through this connecting hallway; bringing the unmodified stock into the Infirmary and bringing her Frageon-infused stock back to her work station.
Was Yvithia allowing it? She did not know, and hated the fact that she appreciated this ongoing stroke of luck. She did not want to be in debt to her enemy. But then again, it seemed that her mother figure, Audrae, was her enemy now as well. She stopped dead in her tracks at this thought. Looking quickly around, she found eyes only just beginning to note her sudden lack of motion. She faked a sneeze to account for it, and continued on her way, tears of loneliness and abandonment shimmering in her eyes.
