The First Attempt

Aine absent-mindedly flipped the lobster omelet with the fork. Lately, meal conversations with her parents had made eating quite tedious.

Aine began counting down in her head. Her mother would speak in three…two…one…

“Baron Reuel is still asking for an explanation regarding what happened during your date with his son,” Lady Odette spoke, pointedly.

“God, that was weeks ago,” Aine mumbled.

“You kicked the poor young man’s—” Lady Odette paused, then continued in a softer tone, “…manhood.”

“He grabbed my arm,” Aine retorted. “I even had a bruise.”

“Well, you made him drink one of your potions.”

“I made him drink the famous beetroot tea you prepared.”

“You potion-laced the tea I prepared!” Lady Odette slammed the spoon and fork she was holding on the table, startling Lord Callum, who was beside Lady Odette, peacefully drinking his coffee and reading the daily paper. “I’m sorry, Dear,” Lady Odette said to him with a smile. “Ignore us.”

Lord Callum nodded, raising the paper higher to hide his face.

“Aine.” Lady Odette turned back to Aine. “You’re of age, already. You can’t keep playing with potions, and bat wings, and cauldrons, and whatever magical thing you think you’re doing.”

Aine smirked. This is never going to end.

Aine lightly stabbed the omelet with her fork again and again as Lady Odette went on and on with her usual sermons.

“—you will never find true love.” Aine vaguely heard Lady Odette say.

At the mention of the word love, Aine remembered her newly-brewed love potion. I wonder if it’s ready now? Should I head on up to check?

***

Lief found himself in the familiar veranda, beside a tall fern plant. He peeked through the glass door, carefully scanning the room with his eyes to ensure there was no one. Aine should be at the dining hall by now, having breakfast with her parents.

Lief tried to push down the door lever, but it wouldn’t move. He peeked through the glass door and saw five locks on the other side.

Lief clapped his hands. The fluttering hearts appeared. A series of clicking sounds could be heard as the locks unbolted on their own. He pushed down the lever, but the door would still not budge. He peeked through the glass again, checking the door for other locks. Then he saw, pasted at the foot of the door, a paper with a magic circle drawn on it.

You’ve got to be kidding me…

Lief clapped his hands again, summoning more hearts. A small tear appeared at the top of the paper, which quickly progressed until the paper was torn into two equal halves.

Lief pushed open the door, which was finally open.

Lief entered the room, and instantly his nose was hit by different smells, an assortment of everything. There was something sweet and fragrant, a hint of something earthy, but then there were also strong odors of something spoiled and rotten. Grimacing, Lief covered his nose with his hand. “Seriously…what is this?”

Opposite the door to the veranda was the main door. The main door had another set of five locks. Wrapped on the doorknob was a paper drawn with a magic circle.

Lief huffed. She sure is something. Lief must admit, it was quite impressive. Her magic obsession is not just for show after all.

Near the center of the room was a long marble table. On top of it was a large firestone. There were also a multitude of containers, different kinds of knives, and other tools and utensils—neatly arranged on top of the table.

Behind the table, near the far corner, was a three-layer shelf which housed rows and rows of colorful liquids in glass tubes. The tubes were arranged following the color of the liquid they contained, making the shelf look like a miniature rainbow.

Lief had only ever seen this room from the outside…Aine Darien’s workshop. It wasn’t as spacious as he thought it was. And if not for the strange smell, it would pass as a regular workshop.

At the back of the long table were drawers and some larger compartments. He pulled open one long drawer and saw some vanilla stalks and other herbs, like mint and rosemary. He closed the drawer and tried to open the two compartments below it. Both were locked. He clapped his hands, using hearts once again, and instantly the compartment on the left opened.

Inside was a big glass jar. Red ants were teeming inside the jar. Upon closer inspection, Lief realized there was something else in the jar. He pulled the jar closer and saw the ants were swarming what looked like the head of a snake. Fresh blood was still dripping from the cut. Lief stared at the snake’s yellow eyes. They were glowing, and he could see himself reflected in them like the snake was looking back at him. He gasped and quickly moved back. He wasn’t scared. Definitely not. He was just…surprised.

He cleared his throat. Without moving closer and without looking, he pushed the jar back deeper into the compartment with the tip of his fingers. He clapped his hands to lock the compartment again. Then he swiftly moved as far away as possible from the table.

Shaking off the vision of the snake in his head—It wasn’t scary, he repeated to himself—Lief paused to think. This was the perfect chance to find the potion. The problem was, Lief wasn’t sure what he was looking for. Which one was the love potion? He only had an idea of how it tasted. But then again, it was mixed into tea; thus, the taste could also be just the tea itself. Lief sighed. He knew this particular plan had a very low success rate. But it was the one that would cost him the least amount of hearts, so he had to try.

Lief jogged his memory, trying to recall any important detail while he was following Aine. But truthfully, he didn’t really pay much attention to her potion-making activities. Had he known he was going to look for her love potion one day, he would have watched her brewing and made sure to record every detail.

Lief looked up at the second row of the shelf and saw a number of blue mixtures aligned.

“So what to do now?” Lief reached for two glass tubes that were beside each other and examined them. The tubes were covered with small white plastic caps. At the back of the tubes were very small labels.

One of the labels read: for shiny, beautiful hair. The other read: for enemies, causes horrible rashes.

Brows furrowed, Lief returned the tubes to the shelf. How does she even know what the potions are without having to look at the label one by one?

Was he supposed to read the labels one by one now, too? Lief stared back at the entire shelf, his eyes scanning the lowest to the highest row. The entire shelf was filled with glass tubes, except for that one small space at the top row amidst the cluster of violet mixtures.

Then…he heard footsteps and voices approaching.

***

The fastest way to end Lady Odette’s sermons was to simply walk away. Thankfully, Aine had already perfected the art of walking away without a care. She left the dining hall with just a short bow to her parents, ignoring Lady Odette’s unending protests and the usual threats.

There was one thing, however, that she could not walk away from these past few days.

In front of the door of her workshop, Mila was once again waiting, arms outstretched, pushing a tray that contained a canteen toward Aine.

Aine clicked her tongue. “I’m not even going out today.”

“That’s not a problem.” Mila produced a flute glass from her dress’s pocket. She swiftly opened the canteen and poured the juice into the glass. “There,” she said, offering the glass of juice to Aine.

“That…wasn’t my point,” Aine mumbled, but she took the glass anyway. She looked at the glass, then at Mila, who was still standing there, just staring at her.

“I have to see you drink it, Miss.”

Aine attempted the puppy eyes trick, but Mila shook her head.

“I’d get in trouble again if you don’t drink it,” Mila said. “If you won’t drink, I’ll tell Lord Callum—”

“Okay, I get it.” Aine huffed. Begrudgingly, Aine pushed the flute glass into her mouth and gulped down the juice. “Happy?” She pushed back the now-empty glass to Mila.

“There’s still some left.” Mila shook the canteen.

Aine clasped her hands together, pleading. “Can’t I just drink the rest later? Please…” Mila was about to shake her head again, but Aine hastily feigned a cough. “It’s really…” She coughed again. “…really difficult for me. You know how I hate tomatoes, right?” She coughed again. “It feels like it’s stuck in my throat.”

Mila sighed. “Please make sure to drink the rest later.” She handed Aine the canteen.

“Thank you. You’re the best,” Aine said as Mila quietly left.

When Mila was already out of sight, Aine dropped the canteen to the floor.

From her pocket, Aine took out a purse and a huge bundle of keys and started unlocking the five locks of the door. From her purse, she pulled out a small sheet of paper where a magic circle for dispelling enchantments was drawn. She wrapped the doorknob with the paper. There was the sound of something burning coming from the other side of the door. The enchantment paper she had placed before leaving was burning due to the dispelling magic she had just used. Aine waited for a few seconds for the burning sound to stop before pushing open the door.

There were still bits of burnt paper dropping to the floor as Aine entered her workshop.

She took in a deep breath. She just loved the smell of various ingredients. But…

Aine stopped. For some reason, something felt off.

Aine looked around the room. Everything was as it was. She turned to the door leading to the veranda. The locks were in place. The paper with a magic circle was still at the foot of the door. Aine shrugged. She must be overthinking.

Aine headed for the large compartments at the back of the table. She unlocked the right compartment with a key and pulled out the cauldron where her love potion mixture was fermenting.

She took a spoon from the table and stirred the mixture. The mixture glistened as she stirred. “That looks good,” she said, placing the cauldron on the table.

She then took out a glass tube and a funnel. Carefully, she transferred all the love potion to the glass tube. She could only brew just enough love potion as the potion’s effect diminishes with time. If kept untouched for a while, the potion would no longer have any effect.

Aine placed the glass tube with the love potion on the highest row of her shelf, in its designated position among a cluster of violet mixtures. Then, at the corner of her eyes, Aine noticed something odd. Something was out of place.

She stared at the glass tubes on the second row and realized the tubes containing cyan and aqua mixtures had been interchanged.