"Not…I'm not sure. I don't run that portion of business, you understand. I would have to check in about that." Arabelle replied, giving her a quick smile. She tipped her head faintly. "So, are you in? Would you be willing to do that for us? If that is the extent to which you are willing to be involved, then that is fine. If you would like to be involved further, we can figure it out."
“Okay then.” They looked down at their hands again. “I… I am willing to do this. However, I may not be able to help you after that. I’m not sure what will happen to me once my owner is dead. I may get an opportunity to escape this place, and if it comes, I will take it.”
Aarabelle nodded. "Of course. I understand that. As a personal slave, you have both more abilities and less than the rest of us." she said. "Lor, as a plumber, is not tied to a specific person, and won't necessarily be sold off for one death, but they also cannot get as close as you can."
“Mm, yes.” Indigo raised a hand to scratch their head. She felt weirdly excited about this, though it was more about the prospect of escape than the actual murdering bit. If it was successful, and they successfully escaped, they might be finally able to do the things they spent many a late night fantasizing about. Becoming an alchemist or a scholar, finding her father. She tried not to get carried away with those thoughts, though. There was always a chance that things would go awry.
Lor tapped a finger for a moment. "What if it was a build up? The poison, I mean. Not lethal in small amounts, but once it built up in his system, it would kill him? It would be harder to control where he died, though, as when he would reach the fatal dose would be anyone's guess."
"It's a possibility, but it gives less of a guarantee that he would die with his brother." Arabelle replied.
Indigo frowned. “But how would that work anyway? You make it sound as if the build up would happen over several days.”
The logistics of that were starting to mess with them. It’s probably not what they meant, but she wanted to be sure.
"It would. It reaches lethal dose after, ah, a while." they said. "Because it slowly builds up in the system. It could be days, could be weeks. Might even be more than a month, just depends on how much it takes to poison him."
Oh, so she had understood correctly. Indigo’s brow knotted together. “Wouldn’t… wouldn’t that increase the chance of random fae dying as well?”
"No, because it takes time to build up. If they had only a drink of it, once, or even twice, it would not be enough to be fatal." Arabelle jumped in to help explain it as best she could.
“Oh, alright…” Indigo paused to think about Arabelle’s words, then looked satisfied. She shrugged. “We could use it. What would be the benefit of it be if the location of his death is less predictable, though?”
"Even harder to track back to you, and more likely to look like an accident or a result of an illness, as the late stages of the poison would appear like a bad illness." Arabelle replied. "However, it gives less control of where and when, and it would be far more difficult to pin the blame on, say, one of his brothers."
“Right…” she said, starting to feel a bit like an idiot. Perhaps it was simply because they felt more confident in healing people from poisons, instead of killing them with poisons.
"It's a little complicated, I suppose." Arabelle said, waving her hand and shifting in her seat. "The specifics do not really matter all that much right now."
Indigo nodded slowly. “I think I’ll… leave it up to you then. Just… tell me what poison it is and what it will do to him before, you know, I try to put it in his wine bottle.”
"We will." Arabelle stood up, looking at Indigo, then at Lor. "I believe that is all, unless you have any additional questions?" she asked, raising her eyebrows at the half-human. "If not, then Lor will take you back to the prince's quarters."
Indigo paused, then shook her head. They stood. “I will wait for more word from you. And do know that even if I don’t help you after this, I am in support of your cause.”
Arabelle nodded slightly. "Of course." she replied, heading over to the door to escort them out of here. "And, Indigo, don't come back here without Lor or myself. Please." she looked over at Indigo.
They followed her and nodded. They were mostly worried about the prince now, and whether he would be in his room when she got back. It was likely that he wouldn’t be there, but on the off chance that he was, would he wonder where she had been? Then they remembered the silence spell. Well, even if he was there and he asked, there was no need to worry.
Lor led her back into the dark passageway, touching the wall to light it up again. "How are you doing?" they asked, knowing that the discussion had been, perhaps, a lot.
As they entered the dark hall, Indigo’s skin once again became blotchy with bluish light. They thought back to what had been said, then forward, into what she had promised to do. She sighed, a small smile appearing on their face.
“I’m hungry. You?”
Lor smiled a little. "Food would be nice, yes." they replied. "Do you have a place in mind, or? The kitchens would probably be willing to feed us, as we are both, ah, palace owned."
“Yeah, the kitchens,” they agreed, ambling along. “Though, the question now is, how much would they be willing to feed us?
Lor shrugged. "I don't know. We'll see. It's close enough to a mealtime that there should be plenty of food available."
She rubbed her hands together excitedly. “Ooh, I hope so.”
They laughed a little bit. "Are you that hungry?" They asked, raising an eyebrow a little bit. They seemed only amused and teasing, not mocking her in any way.
Her hands dropped to their sides at the question. “Um, actually, I’m not sure. Sometimes it’s difficult to know, but the idea of a lot of food is appealing.”
They nodded faintly. "I was not teasing you, Indigo, there is no need to be…to feel embarrassed or upset. I was only asking." they kept walking as they spoke.
She blinked. “Oh, well, I didn’t think you were. I’m not embarrassed. I was just answering honestly.” With a shrug, they continued, “After all this time of being underfed, it becomes hard to know how hungry I am.”
"Oh, alright, that makes sense. I was just worried that you had misconstrued my words. My apologies." they replied still walking. They shot her a quick smile.
“Of course. And don’t be, no harm was done.” Indigo returned the smile.