Planning a Poisoning

"As a matter of fact, most cases of food poisoning are never linked back to their source." Eric Schlosser

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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

My brothers came back late last night. Everyone was so exhausted, and I didn't want to bother them. But today's a new day. I will bother them as much as I'd like and get my answers.

I march to eighth brother's palace, ready to ask them when I run into third brother.

"Third brother!" I cry. "Did you find anything out?"

"Shhh!" He shushes me, holding a finger over his mouth. His eyes dart around. "Let's get to Sandor's palace before discussing this. Don't forget the walls have ears."

I nod and follow third brother quietly. I've gotten so used to my brothers and so relaxed around them that I'd forgotten that we were in the palace still. It wasn't safe for anyone in the palace. We reach eighth brother's wing quickly. Ninth brother greets us at the door, closing it behind us. After setting up the wards, my brothers relax.

"So, do we have a sister?" I ask immediately.

"Yes, we do," third brother sighs. "I didn't expect mother to be so disgusting." His face twists in disgust. Inspecting him closely, I found that he looked terrible.

"I thought I was a good brother to Brutus, but it seems that I'm a worse brother than I thought. I didn't even realise he was crying for help inside."

"What happened?" I ask. I wasn't sure what was going on. My brothers look at each other before third brother speaks.

"You know how eight years ago, your mother was framed for the death of our youngest brother?" I nod. It was something I was bitter about. My mother didn't kill anyone, let alone a tiny baby.

"Well, that baby boy wasn't even father's child. My mother-" third brother Leo cuts himself off. "No. I can't even think of her as my mother anymore. The woman who gave birth to me, Kaitlyn MacDermott, had a nursemaid that was also pregnant at the time. That nursemaid gave birth to a son the day before she gave birth. She, however, gave birth to a healthy girl. Seeing the child wasn't the son she wanted, Kaitlyn told the nursemaid to give her the child, and she killed both mother and son. After poisoning the boy, she died what little hair he had red and ran to father, saying, your mother killed their son."

"How did father not know she gave birth to a girl?"

"Father was out at the time of the delivery, and Kaitlyn was surrounded by her own people," seventh brother explains.

"How did she hide our sister then?" I ask. How did she get our sister out of the castle?

"Brutus was there at the time. He was there when Kaitlyn gave birth to Emilia and so heard that she had a little girl. Kaitlyn told him to keep an eye on her and to hide her, or she'd kill her. While father was grieving, she gave Emilia to one of her own servants and told them to leave the country after killing her. Brutus told them to change sides, to follow him. He said to them that he'd let them raise her and protect them from his mother."

"And that's what he did. He became the son Kaitlyn wanted to hide the fact that he kept our sister alive," I finish. My brothers nod. I felt heartbroken for my big brother. He was only 6 years old at the time, yet he had burdens to carry with no one there to help.

"Why didn't he ask us for help?" I ask mournfully.

"He probably didn't know who to trust," third brother sighs.

"Well, we have to help him now," I state firmly. My gaze locked onto each of my brothers. They all nod in agreement.

"We'll help."

"That means we'll have to change our plan around. Rather than second brother, we start with sixth brother. And maybe go onto first brother after that."

"Why Alaric, and not Murdoch?" seventh brother asks.

"Because mother said we must hide the fact that we were collaborating from second brother. She said he has complete control over his mind-reading abilities and that it was perilous if he found out." I quickly cover my mouth. "Sorry eighth brother."

Eighth brother shakes his head. "It's alright, Adi."

"But you share the same mother!"

"I've been preparing myself just in case I need to battle it out with Alaric or Murdoch, so don't worry. Our ties as full-blooded brothers aren't as strong as with the rest of you."

"Then we go on to Alaric when we've finished with Brutus," third brother says finally.

"We need to talk to Brutus first," ninth brother adds. "So that we can create a plan. Do we want to kill Lady Kaitlyn or just send her to jail?"

"Kill her," third brother states, hatred dripping with each word. "She needs to die to atone for the sins she's committed."

"...She's your mother, third brother," I say with worry. "And will sixth brother agree to it?"

"He will. She doesn't care about either of us. I've known it all along."

"I'm sure she does care."

"She doesn't, Adi. I know you want it to be true, but you need to face the facts. Kaitlyn MacDermott doesn't care about Brutus and me. She's a true monster who only cares about becoming the next Queen Dowager."

"...Okay...But we run the plan through sixth brother first."

"Of course."

"So how do we... kill Lady Kaitlyn?" I ask.

"Poison," third brother replies flatly. "Kaitlyn loves to poison others. It's basically her thing; her trademark. It's what she was known for back in her Dukedom. She would kill off anyone she was displeased with back in the Dukedom of Scotland. It seems she didn't stop when she came here."

"How do you know that?" I ask. Usually, a son wouldn't have dirt on his own mother.

"After the death of your 'youngest' brother, I did some digging into Kaitlyn's past. I was a little suspicious because your mother wasn't the kind to kill an innocent baby, and her closest maid was suddenly gone too. The child looked poisoned, so I decided to look into past cases back in the Dukedom of Scotland. I found hundreds of cases that were buried, each and every one of them leading back to Kaitlyn MacDermott."

"That's terrifying," I shudder. "Has she done anything that extreme over here?"

"No," third brother says, shaking his head. "But she has killed a considerable amount of people. It's not only her, though. Queen Satine also uses poison, it seems. I also looked into Lady Rita and Lady Violet, but both seem to be clean. And as for Lady Cardinia, she's clean as a whistle."

"I know my mother's clean. She's too nice to hurt others... and that's her problem..." I sigh.

"I'm glad you know she has a problem, at least. She's literally the weakest one out of the concubines, and she has no thoughts to punish anyone and make her stature known! It's as if she thinks she's still a commoner or something."

"It's just her personality. She never raises her voice."

"Alright, enough talk about Lady Cardinia. We still need to plan how to kill Lady Kaitlyn. So we use poison, but what poison? How do we poison her? And how do we make sure it doesn't link back to us?" ninth brother asks.

"We should use ricin," seventh brother suggests. "Ricin is the excess found in beans of the castor plant. After the castor oil is removed, all that remains in the beans is ricin. Everything in the castle is made fresh and from scratch, including castor oil. After inhaling, the individual will only have an 'allergic reaction' which includes nasal congestion, hives and wheezing. Post mortem results will only show the inflammation of the lung tissue and airways."

"How do you know all that?" I ask, nearly gaping at my seventh brother. It was astounding how he knew such things.

"I read," he shrugs apathetically.

"What about other ways to apply it?"

"Well, there's ingestion and injection. But no matter what we use, Lady Kaitlyn will only die between 36 and 48 hours later."

"Is that the best we can do?" I ask. "There's nothing that can kill instantly?"

"Not if we want them to find out about the poisoning. And anyway, ricin doesn't have an antidote."

"Well, we can use a pre-existing allergy," third brother muses.

"What allergy?"

"Well, Kaitlyn has a love and an allergy for chrysanthemums. Although it's hard to find some, there is a possibility. And I can hand-deliver them."

"Wouldn't that get you into trouble? You're not close to her."

"Then we need to get Brutus to do it," eighth brother says calmly.

"Brutus is closer to Lady Kaitlyn," ninth brother agrees.

"That's if sixth brother agrees to our ridiculous plan," I sigh.

"He will. He just can't sniff the flowers. They'll probably chalk it up to a severe allergic reaction."

"Will sixth brother get into trouble?"

"Probably not. Kaitlyn asks for chrysanthemums a lot since she likes sniffing them. We just need to put a whole lot of ricin into the bouquet of chrysanthemums, and it should be alright."

Now, all we need to do is rope sixth brother in.