Crossover Fan Fiction ❯ The Apothecary's Other Diary ❯ Fragile Peace ( Chapter 2 )

Work within the chambers of the Lady Gyokuyou did not consist of laundry and dusting, though I’d grown to accept such tasks without resentment. The food here in the Jade Palace is better, though I passed much of the treats along to my source of gossip. Xiaolan cheerfully gobbled treats while she told me all the secrets passing around the inner palace. The inner palace is a place without men, other than the thousand eunuchs. As a woman of seventeen I found the very concept of a mutilated male repulsive. The palace courtesans and their servants vied for the attention of the Emperor, and prized beauty above all else. Position took a slight second. That is to say the beautiful ones were the most likely to be holding grudges and aching for the chance to damage the reputation and pride of other women. A palace full of two thousand poisoners and backstabbers, basically.

And since it was full of poisoners, I was tasked as my lady’s poison taster. Prior to my being hired, the previous taster had eaten an attempted poisoning in the food, whose effects still left her hands and feet paralyzed and numb. I have replaced the crippled girl as the next expendable asset, first to fall. As someone who’d experimented with snake venom on myself, I admit to having considerable resistance to poisons, including those meant to ensnare the mind. As an apothecary I have a library of scents and flavors I can identify, and thus detect poisons at an expert level. The slow acting ones can still catch me, but the fast ones I can tell. Poison tasting is my primary job, and I am prevented from other labors. I fear I will grow fat in this laziness. Worse, that if I grow fat I will become attractive and thus gain the ire of women jealous for attention, and enraged at more competition. My mother was a beauty beyond compare before she… well, fell to a man who betrayed her. She loved him enough that I exist, but I am also the reminder of this failure.

My lady’s eyes are green and her hair is red. She comes from the Mongolian deserts, where such traits are rare but exist. Her eyes are wide rather than slitted like my brother’s had been, as large and expressive as my own had been as Tanya or Komachi. My own eyes are sort of purple, a mix of blue and red, which is odd. My mother’s eyes were red, very much like this eunuch Jinshi, who is apparently the top boss of the inner palace for some reason. He takes orders ONLY from the emperor himself, if the rumors are to be believed, though I find him boyish and playful at times, while being painfully beautiful. Such a waste. If only his parts were intact he would be good husband material. Such a terrible loss. The practice of creating eunuchs was banned some years ago, possibly making this Jinshi one of the last.

My long quest to create a medicine which would allow people to regrow missing body parts, like my finger or mother’s nose, and cure diseases like the pox that laid low so many men and women in the pleasure district, continued without success. I’ve searched through much of the plant kingdom for wonder drugs that might be hiding in a flower or root, waiting to be discovered and grant the ability listed only to sages, buddhas, and gods in mythology. As a scientist, it is my hope that there is a trace of truth behind those stories.

After my warning, they have removed the lead oxide powder from the palace. Lady Gyokuyou and princess Linli were both healthy, with my care and attention to their diets, recovering nicely. The infant princess had red hair like her mother and was more active now. A part of me aches to have a child of my own. She is a baby and the four servants attend to her needs, including diaper changes and baths before returning her to her mother, who at twenty dotes on her daughter. I do wonder if being raised with this much care and affection makes all children this sweet tempered, or if this is merely nature at work since her mother is also this way, though her impish sense for gossip is strong.

I give away my treats to avoid notice. I paint on my freckles daily, and bathe alone, or at least away from any who might recognize me. Beauty in this palace draws attention, and jealousy. I do not need additional problems. The wet nurse who’d accidentally poisoned the princess had been a user of the lead powder, and laid off now the girl was on solid foods. The lady herself was already a beauty with little makeup needed, and the bloom of youth and motherhood gave her a healthy glow.

The attendants I work with in the Jade palace look at me with pity. They’ve seen my arm and I dread to think what terrible stories they’ve invented. If they only knew I’ve been experimenting on myself to find cures for common ailments… and I have to wound myself properly to test those. My left arm was already scarred by the mushroom, so it was obvious this was the best choice. Few of my salves work properly. You have to fail a lot and keep going if you want to succeed.

Jinshi is smirking at me again. I recoil with disgust, thinking of his missing manhood. Few things are more useless and disgusting to a brothel employee. We know what man parts are good for. We are meant to relish their purpose, to use our best efforts to lead a man into spending money on us, to create desire, to inspire madness through lust that can only be cured by owning us, and pay in silver ingots.

“I have been gifted this by a certain military officer. Please test this if you would,” Jinshi said, uncovering the steaming pork buns. I reached forward, picking up one and firmly splitting it in half, careful not to spill. The scent arising is familiar to me. I looked him in his red eyes.

“This has an aphrodisiac. Whoever sent this to you probably intended a night visitor to join you after eating,” I suggest, leaving off how pointless that would be for a man with his parts missing. I wasn’t able to stop my involuntary shudder of disgust. He looked pleased and amused at the attempt, and my reaction. I am starting to think this Jinshi might be a masochist.

“You can tell without eating it?” he confirmed.

“It won’t harm you. Though perhaps the one who gave it to you had plans of his own,” I said. Lady Gyokuyou giggled with glee at the outrageous suggestion. His eyes went from the buns to the Lady with distaste.

“If that will be all, I shall take my leave,” I said, hoping to escape for the evening and return to my duties, or to bed.

“If you don’t mind, could you make me an aphrodisiac?” he requested.

The following day I acquired cocoa beans, which I first ground up and then assembled with butter and sugar into chocolate, then used dried fruits to dip them in the melted chocolate. The candied ginger chocolates would probably be very effective. I set a floating basket of these above a chilled tank of spring water to cool properly.

There was leftover chocolate so I dipped rice mochi into the mix and place the plate of six of them on a shelf to cool. My task complete I circulated through the grounds and found more of the medicinal herbs I suspect my father planted when he worked here, years ago. I harvested useful parts for my growing collection. I am an apothecary after all. I collect and concoct medicine from them, curing boils and colds to fevers and itches.

Returning to the Jade palace found the head maid was in a fury. Three of the girls were glowing red and looking rather disheveled. I pointed. The maid gestured to the plate, where three of my snacks were missing.

“Ohh. Well, at least we know it works,” I said philosophically. I lifted the skirts of one, noting the lack of mess or blood. “And they didn’t go all the way.” The maid smacked me on the head with outrage.

My friend Xiaolan later told me that a certain woman-hating military officer had seduced a maid and forced to take her as a bride. I suspect my aphrodisiacs might have something to do with that.

I awaken to a body in shambles, my mana springing to life healing injuries to the face and skin, damage to the organs and my poor brain is full of holes, along with my liver. I am fortunate that I am soul rather than a body, for my soul carries this magic, and this mana. Once again I feel an absence of mana to draw upon so I heal as much as I can, finishing the nose, a missing finger, and curing the disease that had left this woman so scarred and broken.

Why I can heal is a ghost of a memory, of my mirror self looking on with pity, and sharing a vision of a land of steep mountains, bright magics, and lizards that breathe fire. There such healing can be done to restore a body from near death, and this I know as well. Whether the soul of this woman will restore her memories as her mind reassembles itself I do not know.

“Mama says truth… is all that matters… lies and deceit… is a sin… drifting through a world… torn and tattered… every thought I had… don’t mean a thing… don’t stop… don’t stop the dance…”

This is what Meimei heard, in a language she did not know, from a far away land. She dropped her bucket of hot water on seeing her mistresses face, seeing her restored to her glory, her nose and skin whole and healthy. She lay upon her filthy bed covers as if a miracle had occurred. For there could be no other explanation.

I awoke in Chiba, in my bed. That place stank, and the ghost of the memory of the smell of rotting flesh, of human blood and cheap incense left me feeling nauseous. I went to the bathroom, using the facility and availing myself a shower and dressed before getting myself a hot cup of coffee. I wouldn’t be able to sleep, despite it being so painfully early. I selected a song on my phone, playing Roxy Music’s “Don’t Stop The Dance”. For whatever reason I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Without noticing I was refilling my mana once more.