Chapter 17

Being taken in by the mistress and going from place to place, Jason has come to learn that the mistress is an alchemist and the air-called slaves that are following by the carriage were guinea pigs for any potion she invented, and one particular day in the middle of the night while they were resting after a long day of traveling, the mistress came out of the carriage with a small container with jack walking behind her and when they get to where the slave where resting, she instructed him to hold the slave down placing the container in his mouth as the potion left the container before going into his mouth as all the way to his stomach.

Since the process has already been done, jack let go of the slave as they waited to see what the slave's reaction would be and it was the same with the others slave, especially Jason who had his attention on the slave as he want to see first hand what would happen to the slave since he was only told what the mistress used them for.

After waiting for a long time, the slave didn't go through any charges apart from breathing heavily while sitting on the ground with a fearful look on his face.

"Could it be that the potion is not potent enough"? Asked jack in doubt as he stare at the slave.

"I don't think so, maybe it takes a lot longer before it will begin to kick in" reply the mistress with a frown on her face.

"So what are we supposed to do now" jack asked.

"Just keep a watchful eye over him and if he starts acting stronger, just let me know" the mistress replied before heading back to the carriage to continue with her work.

"Something is not right, just take a look at him" said a voice among the slaves just when the mistress had her back to the slave.

Turning around to take a look at the slave after the uproar that was caused by the others, the mistress begin to observe the slave closely and that was when she noticed that his skin was beginning to brighten up before turning red the next moment, it begins to get rotten.

"Please help me" cried the slave with his gaze to the mistress.

The mistress was just standing there motionless as she continue to watch him. Seeing that the mistress was not making any move to help him, the guard begin to crawl forward and was just about to grab her robe but before he could anyway, jack came out of nowhere and kicked him back.

"How dare you try to lay your filthy hand on my mistress" he said in disdain as he kick the slave backward once more.

The slave turns to his fellow slaves for help but they all turn their head away to avoid his eyes, since no one is willing to help him the slave resign himself to fate as he just lay down there as his body begin to get rotten to the extent that the flesh begins to fall off and before long, all that was left of the slave was just skeleton.

"I guess this potion is a failure then" jack said as he turned to the mistress who still had her eyes on the skeleton.

"Where do I go wrong in the process?" she muttered with her hand placed on her chin.

"Maybe mistress is forgetting a vital information to making the potion" said jack as he tries to encourage her.

"I don't think that I'm forgetting something jack" replied the mistress.

"So do you have any idea where you are going wrong in the potion making"? Asked jack.

"Not a single clue. I'm going in to revise the process once more and while I'm at that, I want you to get someone to clean this mess" The mistress replied before going back into the carriage.

After the mistress has gone inside, jack instructed two slaves to clean the place before going back to his position. While the other two were cleaning the place, the lady walked up to Jason who was just watching the two doing the cleaning.

"This is exactly what happened to those of us who were unlucky to be given poison".

"Does this happen all the time"? Asked Jason fearfully.

"That's right Jason, whenever the mistress created a potion someone would be selected to try it out. This time, it was him but next, it might be you, me, or anyone here. All we pray for is not to be given poison to drink" replied the lady with a sigh.

"Miss, do you mind telling me how you ended up here" asked Jason.

"I was sold to her" replied the lady with a saddened face.

Seeing that he has asked a question he shouldn't have asked, Jason walked to sit by the side as he continued to look at the man's skeleton being buried away.

"Sooner or later is going to be my turn, what am I supposed to do when the time comes" said Jason to himself as he lift his head to look at the night sky before speaking once more with tears flowing from his eyes.

"How I wish you are here mother, I would have been going through all this suffering".

While Jason was busy lamenting on what he should do now that he has landed himself into trouble, his mother who was taken back to the palace was still laying in her prison unconscious with no care from the guards or the maids in the palace and it would be difficult to tell if she is still alive or dead due to the state she is in.

Somewhere in the palace, there was a meeting going on between the heads of all the officials in the kingdom about when to judge the queen for her sin, which took a long time before they were able to come up with the idea of judging her right after the king's funeral.