Wine and Poison – Chapter 16 – Between Mentor and Apprentice

Author: Nikss

Ino, his mother’s sister and the only member of the royal family of Thebes who had been kind to him, went mad and died.

All her family went mad, too. For raising him, for being hated by Hera.

The following siblings, Hyades and Silenus, were merely foster parents, raising him under orders from his father Zeus.

No other feelings existed in their relationship. Not to mention Zeus, who was busy looking for a new woman.

So his body felt cold all the time.

Lancion unconsciously pressed himself closer to Scylla. The warmth of their bodies never felt so good.

The waves rolled in, then ebbed away.

Lancion closed his eyes in contentment.

💫

She spent her mornings tinkering with poisonous materials, and her afternoons developing new poisons or testing the venom of unknown creatures.

The test subjects were usually her skin or tongue. At first, Lancion was horrified, but Scylla was unperturbed.

“I’ve been doing this for years. I’m not dead, so that’s good enough.”

“…”

“This won’t kill me. I can’t die easily.”

Her face was cynical, like she was mocking, but also solemn.

Scylla’s skill was decent. If the full power of the poison had been tested through her body, she would certainly not die easily.

But that was all.

Many things about her old body were uncomfortable. Her hunched back ached with the slightest step, her digestive system was failing her, and she coughed so violently that she threatened to cough up blood.

With such a body and such recklessness, a long life was unlikely.

‘If I am to break the curse, I must fetch the Nectar of Olympus.’

Perhaps the nectar could restore Scylla to health.

Lancion held out a vial of white powder to Scylla, trying to think of a way to smuggle the nectar and ambrosia past their strict surveillance.

“Why don’t you mix some more of this?”

“Mmm, give it to me.”

Scylla narrowed her eyes as she mixed the liquid with the white powder Lancion handed her.

The liquid was an aged version of Thyrsus’s snake venom, and the white powder was the powder of a hallucinogenic mushroom.

Whatever her research turned out to be, it was none of his concern. It was quite interesting just to watch her face as she concentrated on her work.

Lancion laughed quietly, then stood behind Scylla, commenting appropriately.

For a self-taught woman, Scylla was quite knowledgeable in herbalism.

She had no teacher. She’d only peeked over the shoulders of women who were called witches and healers.

Likewise, she was entirely on her own. Still, to have accomplished this much, it would have been difficult without a certain amount of desire and dedication to poison.

Every waking moment except for eating and sleeping are spent in research. To create the best poison possible.

‘The best poison…’

“Master.”

“Don’t talk to me when I’m concentrating.”

“If I can obtain the Hydra’s venom.”

Scylla’s shoulders immediately stiffened. Lancion whispered, his eyes sizing up the reaction.

“What would you do?”

After a moment’s silence, she spoke up, her voice raspy.

“I’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

“Whatever it takes?”

Lancion’s tone became subtle.

“Yes. If Hercules hadn’t died from that poison, I’d be wandering around looking for him instead of doing this.”

She wants to get the best poison.

To kill the gods.

But why she wants to kill the gods, she never says. It has to do with a secret she harbors, perhaps a pretty painful past.

What human being doesn’t have a troubled past, and while he’d always dismissed it as commonplace and boring, this was different.

My curiosity was piqued, ‘What had happened to this cranky old woman?’

“Why does Master want to kill the gods?”

“You want to know?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not a nice story to hear.”

“I’m curious, though.”

Scylla glanced at him.

Lancion smirked, as if waiting, “I’m curious about you from head to toe, and if I could, I’d count how many strands of hair you have.”

Ugh, Scylla flicked her head away with a look of disgust. Hmm, maybe I should try to pinch her a little harder to get her to talk. Lancion pondered.

Scylla spat out, “He ruined my life.”

Lancion’s eyes narrowed, ‘Ruined her life?’

Of course, there are countless examples of humans whose lives have been ruined by the gods.

Most often, they were cursed by the gods for breaking taboos, but even the wisest of humans could suffer the wrath of the gods and die, so it’s hard to say.

“Did you get a glimpse of the gods’ secrets?”

“…”

“Or did you have an affair with a cheating god?”

He brought up a ridiculous case. He hadn’t meant it because he thought she would, of course, but she had frowned and glared at him, as if he hadn’t already realized she had.

Lancion felt his heart drop. His face turned a deep shade of blue.

“You can’t be…”

Scylla threw the knife at him. Lancion frowned, narrowly avoiding the blade in the face.

“Surprise. You nearly killed me, didn’t you?”

“I think you deserve to have your mouth crushed for saying such nonsense.”

“Nonsense?”

Lancion raised an eyebrow as he picked up the stone knife and handed it back to Scylla.

“Yes, it is. It is nonsense.”

“But Master’s reaction…”

“There was a rendezvous.”

Lancion stiffened, ‘Really?’

He glanced up and down the old, hunched figure of Scylla unconsciously, almost getting stoned again.

“I’m the one who saw it.”

“What?”

“I saw a rendezvous of the gods.”

“Oh…”

“What, the moaning?”

“You’ve had a rare sighting.”

Scylla shot Lancion a dumbfounded look at the pint.

Lancion averted her gaze with an ambiguous expression. But he meant it.

Having intercourse on the surface of the earth, in the realm of humans, in the presence of humans. What a horny god.

At that moment, someone popped into her head like a thunderbolt.

‘Father?’

How his life took a turn for the worse.

The image of Zeus’s chiseled face, the god who had ruined not only his life but the lives of countless women, gave Lancion a terribly ominous premonition.

“So what happened?”

“I threw up.”

“What…?”

“I threw up,” said Scylla grimly.

“And my life was ruined, not that that’s the only reason, but…”

Lancion imagined his father, Zeus, having been caught by a human having fun with some nymph, human, god, or goddess he didn’t know where, and…he human vomiting in disgust.

No self-respecting Zeus would let that happen.

Slowly, he spoke up, “Is it possible that the god…”

It was the moment. Scylla stared at the liquid, a mixture of poisonous snake venom and hallucinogenic mushroom powder.

She dipped a needle into the white steam and placed it on her tongue. It happened before Lancion had a chance to restrain her.

“Ugh!”

She immediately covered her mouth.

“Master!”

Lancion’s mouth dropped open, not expecting her to test the poison so blatantly. The surprise was enough to make the back of his head hurt.

Scylla bowed her head deeply. Her shoulders and fingers twitched horribly.

Lancion’s heart thumped just as hard. For a moment, his mind went white. An involuntary movement brought a bucket of water.

Crouching down, Scylla was squawking like a little bird before its death.

‘She can die so easily?’