FINALE: Rescue the Duke or Escape With the Prince? (Choose Your Path)
The Apothecary, Chapter 10: "The Final Potion"
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The Apothecary is an interactive story in which your choices determine your fate. Don’t read the sections in order. At the end of each section, make your choice and click on the corresponding link to be taken to your next section. Will you choose to save the duke from a fairy curse, or will you aid the prince in a darker quest?
Start Here: Forbidden Fates
(continued from Chapter 9, find all chapters here)
The antidote for the duke is ready.
“And once you give it to him,” the prince says with a pitying smile, “the duke will forget all about you and marry his betrothed.”
The firelight winks on the glass in your hand, and you gaze into the depths of the potion. You feel hollow, as if you’ve already lost the duke.
The prince says, “Of course, you don’t have to give him all the antidote you brewed. You could give him just a little and make him rely on you for more.”
“Like the queen does, you mean.” The thought unsettles you. But the prince is right—his idea could buy you more time with the duke. “Are you afraid the duke will keep you from the fairy realm if he recovers?”
The prince lets out a brittle laugh. “I’m sure he’ll try.” He smiles, but you see anxiety in his eyes.
You turn from the prince, ready to make up your own mind.
You feel this choice could have weighty consequences.
Take the entire vial of antidote with you so that you can fully cure the duke. Go to Cure.
Take only some of the antidote with you so that you can keep the duke alive but still sick. Go to Captivate.
Fungus
When you brewed the potion to help the prince pass through the fairy door, you chose to use a mushroom. Is that the correct interpretation of the phrase “corpse’s crown”?
Did you want to brew the correct potion—or did you mean to betray the prince?
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says again.
Drink the corpse crown potion? Go to Spectacle.
Refuse the corpse crown potion? Go to Shadow.
Fairy Threshold
You arrive not at the throne room, nor anywhere the duke might be waiting, but at a massive door lit by torches.
“I thought you were taking me to the duke,” you say, alarmed.
“The duke can wait,” the prince says, his hungry gaze fixed on the towering door. “First, I need your help.”
You know, then: he has brought you to the door that leads into the fairy realm.
The door is anchored deep in the stone. No handle appears in the swirling designs etched into the metal.
“How does it open?”
“Only a person gifted with second sight can see the way to open the door,” the prince answers. He runs his hands over the metal but seems to feel no handle.
He turns to you, slipping a vial from his pocket and holding it up so that the light from the torches shines on the glass. “And this potion grants the gift of second sight.”
His words make your stomach twist. “Are you asking me to drink the potion?”
The prince unstoppers the vial and steps close to you. He holds up the vial, close enough to your lips that you can almost taste it. You breathe in its strange, metallic scent.
“If you drink this,” the prince says, “you’ll gain a power that could be very useful to you in the fairy realm. You wouldn’t fare well there as a mere mortal. But with a strange power such as this potion will give you…”
“You want me to go to the fairy realm with you?”
“You never realized?” The prince smiles, amused. “I’ve been trying you. Testing your courage. At first, it was only a game for me. And then I saw that you could be useful to me, could brew the potion I needed. But…”
The prince’s eyes flash.
“I started to see something else in you as well,” he says.
You feel caught in his stare, hardly able to breathe.
At the corner of your vision, the shadows shift. And then—
The duke steps into the light. The black mark of the curse winds around his neck and creeps along the edges of his face.
Go to Bitter Bane.
Shadow
“I won’t come with you,” you tell the prince. “Drink the potion yourself if you want to open the door.”
You expect to see anger in his eyes—but it’s disappointment that shadows his golden gaze. He gives you a long look that makes you almost rethink your answer.
he next moment, he tips back his head and drinks the potion all at once. You hold your breath, waiting to find out if you used the right ingredient for the corpse’s crown.
The prince lets out a groan that echoes against the stone walls. His golden glow of his skin dims as he shudders with pain and disgust. The duke looks to you in alarm. “What have you done?”
“I… thought I brewed it correctly,” you say, your words barely more than a breath.
The prince falls to his knees and you rush to kneel next to him. But then you realize it isn’t pain that has brought him to the cold stone, but awe. He’s staring at the great door, transfixed.
“I see it moving,” he breathes. “I see…” He struggles to his feet and approaches the door with his hand outstretched, trembling as though he’s reaching instead for the flames of the torches.
His fingers brush over the strange etchings and then seem to find purchase. With a great groan of hinges, the door opens.
Beyond the door is a sunlit world, green with life. Delicate flowers carpet a path toward silvery-blue trees. You can only stand behind the prince and marvel at the sight.
He turns back to give you a look of wonder—and gratitude. Then he steps through the doorway into the fairy realm beyond.
The door closes behind him. You’re left in cold darkness with the duke. The torches seem dim now compared to the light you beheld.
The duke stands with his own empty potion vial in hand. The dark line of the fairy curse is fading.
You step closer and touch his unmarked cheek. The duke seems to lean into your touch. “Are you sorry you didn’t go with him?” he asks you.
You pull back, knowing that the duke is duty-bound to marry someone else. “No,” you say. “My place is here in this realm, in my father’s apothecary. I must work to retake my shop before he returns.”
The duke gives you a brief smile. In the future, he will only have an excuse to visit you when he needs more of your potions. Otherwise, his place is in the castle. “I’ll give you whatever help I can,” he says.
“Thank you,” you say. “And I’ll always have potions ready for you.”
Together, you find your way out of the tunnels. Then you must part ways—at least for now.
You have work to do in your apothecary.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
Spectacle
The prince smiles as you reach for the potion. A true smile, the kind you’ve never before seen light his face.
The potion tastes of metal and rot, a foul taste you know you’ll never forget. You manage to drink it all down and then you fight to keep it in your stomach.
You feel as though your veins are filling with lead. A sharp pain strikes your knees and palms and you realize you’ve fallen onto cold stone.
The prince quickly huddles at your side. “The potion—are you sure you brewed it correctly?” He touches your feverish face and then jerks his hand away, as if he’s been burned.
The leaden feeling moves to your skull. You can hardly lift your head to speak to the prince. “I… thought I used the right ingredient for corpse’s crown, but…”
The door behind the prince catches your eye—the strange way it shimmers in the torchlight. The design etched into the metal seems to swirl and spin.
With effort, you push yourself to your feet. The door draws you closer. You reach to touch the swirling shapes and your fingers brush a delicate handle. It gives beneath your hand.
The door opens.
Beyond the door is a sunlit world, green with life. Delicate flowers carpet a path toward silvery-blue trees. You can only stand in the doorway and marvel at the sight.
The prince stands stands next to you, taking in the same sight. “Are you sure you want to come with me?” he asks, his voice heavy with awe at what he sees.
What can your own realm offer you anymore?
If you stay, your life will be spent searching out glimpses of this fairy realm, scavenging for enchanted flowers and plants that will give you only a fraction of the awe now laid before you.
If you go, you’ll strike out into a strange new world. It might prove dangerous, but with your new second sight, and the prince at your side, you feel ready to anything.
The prince looks to you with a question still in his eyes. In answer, you take his hand, and then you pull him into the streaming light.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
Tempt
A distant scrape in the dark passage calls your attention. Is someone there, beyond the torchlight? But your focus snaps back to the prince as he lifts the vial to his lips…
“No!” calls a voice sharp as glass. A flash of glittering jewels and silver hair—
The queen lunges to snatch the vial from the prince’s hand before he can drink.
The next moment, before you can even take a breath, she has you in her grasp. Your head snaps back as she yanks your hair, and then she forces the vial between your lips and pours the potion down your throat.
The potion tastes of metal and rot, a foul taste you know you’ll never forget. A groan escapes your lips. You feel as though your veins are filling with lead.
The queen releases you and you fall to the floor. The hard stone knocks your breath out of you. The world darkens.
The queen’s voice rings distantly: “Haven’t I told you never to drink a commoner’s potions?” She must be speaking to the prince. “Of course she tried to poison you. How could you be so foolish?”
Her voice dies… The whole world slips away…
Cold glass presses against your lips. A sickly sweet liquid pours into your mouth. “Drink,” the duke says.
It’s his antidote.
He has given it to you.
“I’m sorry you ever got pulled into this,” he says into your ear. “You should be in your shop, making your potions. You should be waiting for your father’s return, ready for a life of happiness.”
“I’ve taken everything from you,” the duke goes on, “only because you were kind to me in the woods that day. I’m sorry.” He tips the last dregs of the antidote between your lips.
“No,” you try to say. But the word doesn’t come out. The antidote quickly goes to work, lightening the leaden feeling that had spread through you.
But it can’t lighten the dread in your heart. The duke will die without the antidote.
You struggle to open your eyes—and a strange sight awaits you. The door to the fairy realm stands open…
“The queen relented and let the prince go through,” the duke says. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
Beyond the door is a sunlit world, green with life. Delicate flowers carpet a path toward silvery-blue trees.
But next to you, the Duke is dying. The black mark encircles his face, a mask of doom. The antidote is gone. If only there were some other way to save him…
You struggle to your feet. “Come with me,” you say, holding out your hand. At the edge of your vision is the sun-drenched fairy realm, full of warmth and life.
The duke looks through the doorway, uncertain. “But who knows what we’ll find there.”
“Whatever we find,” you say, “we’ll be together.” Is that enough for him? You turn to him with the question in your eyes.
In answer, he takes your hand. You pull him into the streaming light.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
Cure
Even if the duke hasn’t been entirely honest with you, you can’t find it in your heart to keep him from getting well.
“We shouldn’t linger,” you tell the prince. “I need to get the antidote to the duke before the effect of the curse takes any more toll on him.”
The prince makes his expression solemn, if only to mock your earnestness. “I’ve grown impatient myself. Let me lead the way.”
The prince ushers you into the dark tunnels and you follow close at his heels, trailing your fingers along the cold stone walls to keep your bearings.
The duke will soon be well, you tell yourself.
Well enough that I’ll never see him again.
Such a thought makes the darkness gather closer.
Go to Fairy Threshold.
Bitter Bane
The duke will die soon. Here, in these tunnels.
The prince follows your gaze to where the duke stands. “You dragged yourself all the way here?” the prince says. “Eager to say goodbye to me? Is that it?”
The duke’s attention is only on you. “I came here because I wanted to do what I could to save you.”
The prince lets out a cruel laugh. “To save her from me? Or from a fairy realm more beautiful than anything your realm has to offer?”
Without the prince’s golden gaze dazzling you, you suddenly remember the duke’s antidote. You start toward him—
But the prince says to the duke, “You aren’t trying to save her. You just want to make sure you get your antidote.”
“That isn’t true,” the duke says. “You’ve been trying to turn her against me with your lies.”
“I’ve been more honest with her than you have,” the prince says. The duke turns toward you as if for an explanation.
“Did you never truly care for me?” you ask.
The duke leans toward you, but even this small movement seems too much for him. The confusion on his face quickly turns to pain and exhaustion.
“I told her about your betrothal,” the prince says.
The duke grimaces. “A betrothal my father forced on me to secure a treaty,” he explains to you. “I have tried to tell him there are other ways to make an alliance.”
Tell him how much you care for him? Go to Confess.
Tell him you know he must think of his kingdom first? Go to Confide.
Transgress
The prince smiles as you reach for the potion. A true smile, the kind you’ve never before seen light his face.
The potion tastes of metal and rot, a foul taste you know you’ll never forget. You manage to drink it all down and then you fight to keep it in your stomach.
But then a strange glimmering moves through your veins, as if your blood were turning to gold. You almost laugh at how strange and magical it feels.
The next moment, your laugh turns to a groan. Your veins seem to fill with lead. A sharp pain strikes your knees and palms, and you realize you’ve fallen onto cold stone.
The duke falls to his knees beside you. “The potion,” you gasp. “The corpse’s crown. I used the wrong ingredient.”
Fear floods his expression. He lays a hand against your face. His dark, mournful eyes are the last thing you see as darkness overwhelms you…
You feel cold glass press against your lips. A sickly sweet liquid pours into your mouth. “Drink,” the duke says.
It’s his antidote.
He has given it to you.
“I’m sorry you ever got pulled into this,” he says into your ear. “You should be in your shop, making your potions. You should be waiting for your father’s return, ready for a life of happiness. I’ve taken everything from you, only because you were kind to me in the woods that day. I’m sorry.”
He tips the last dregs of the antidote between your lips.
But in your selfishness, you left most of the antidote behind. What he’s given you isn’t enough to save you.
And now he will die too.
You manage to open your eyes just long enough to see him lying there next to you on the cold stone. The one who gave you a simple gift of a rose in a dark wood has given you one final gift.
But it isn’t enough. And now you die together.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
Transform
The prince smiles as you reach for the potion. A true smile, the kind you’ve never before seen light his face.
The potion tastes of metal and rot, a foul taste you know you’ll never forget. You manage to drink it all down and then you fight to keep it in your stomach.
But then a strange glimmering moves through your veins, as if your blood were turning to gold. You almost laugh at how strange and magical it feels.
The next moment, your laugh turns to a groan. Your veins seem to fill with lead. A sharp pain strikes your knees and palms, and you realize you’ve fallen onto cold stone.
The duke falls to his knees beside you. “The potion,” you gasp. “The corpse’s crown. I used the wrong ingredient.”
Fear floods his expression. He lays a hand against your face. His dark, mournful eyes are the last thing you see as darkness overwhelms you…
You feel cold glass press against your lips. A sickly sweet liquid pours into your mouth. “Drink,” the duke says.
It’s his antidote.
He has given it to you.
“I’m sorry you ever got pulled into this,” the duke says into your ear. “You should be in your shop, making your potions. You should be waiting for your father’s return, ready for a life of happiness. I’ve taken everything from you, only because you were kind to me in the woods that day. I’m sorry.”
He tips the last dregs of the antidote between your lips.
“No,” you try to say. But the word doesn’t come out. The antidote quickly goes to work, lightening the leaden feeling that had spread through you.
But it can’t lighten the dread in your heart. You open your eyes…
The duke lies on the ground next to you, weak, struggling to breathe. He’s dying.
“Wait!” you wail. “Don’t go!” You press a hand to his chest and feel his heartbeat slowing. Then the pain is suddenly gone from his eyes, and with it, all longing.
The one who gave you a simple gift of a rose in a dark wood has given you one final gift.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
Captivate
The duke can stand to suffer a little longer. You pour some of the antidote into extra vials and leave most of it behind.
A wicked smile slowly spreads across the prince’s face. “You would be a good queen. Bold, resourceful… and very cunning.”
You have a feeling he means treacherous but you dismiss him with a faint smile.
The prince ushers you into the dark tunnels and you follow close at his heels, trailing your fingers along the cold stone walls to keep your bearings.
The duke will soon be well enough to survive, you tell yourself.
And the prince will soon be gone.
Such a thought makes the darkness gather closer.
Go to Door to Fairy.
Confess
Even through the pain clouding the duke’s expression, you can see in his gaze the same feelings that churn inside of you. Regret. Longing.
You take the antidote from your pocket and press it into his hand. As you lean close, you tell him, “I’ve cared for you since the day I first met you in the woods.”
He ignores the vial in his hand for the moment, his gaze locked on you. “If I could find a way for us to be together…”
The prince’s voice cuts through the gloom. “The duke has his antidote. But what about you? Will you come with me into the fairy realm?”
He holds out the vial of potion you brewed for him. “I won’t force you,” he says. “It’s your choice. Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm. Or I’ll drink the potion myself and leave you.”
You look from the prince to the duke, considering. Stay with the duke, or go with the prince?
With a start, you remember the corpse you used in the prince’s potion. Was it the correct ingredient? The wrong one could be deadly…
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a mushroom? Go to Mushroom.
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a skull? Go to Skull.
Skull
When you brewed the potion to help the prince pass through the fairy door, you chose to use a skull. Is that the correct interpretation of the phrase “corpse’s crown”?
Did you want to brew the correct potion—or did you mean to betray the prince?
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says again.
Drink the corpse crown potion? Go to Transform.
Refuse the corpse crown potion? Go to Tempt.
Vial
“And yet,” you say bitterly, “the truth is that you are betrothed. Your duty is more important than your feelings.”
You take the antidote from your pocket and thrust it into his hand.
The prince’s voice cuts through the gloom. “The duke has his antidote. But what about you? Will you come with me into the fairy realm?”
He holds out the vial of potion you brewed for him. “I won’t force you,” he says. “It’s your choice…
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says. “Or I’ll drink the potion myself and leave you.”
You look from the prince to the duke, considering. Stay with the duke, or go with the prince?
With a start, you remember the corpse you used in the prince’s potion. Was it the correct ingredient? The wrong one could be deadly…
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a mushroom? Go to Fungus.
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a skull? Go to Mortis.
Door to Fairy
You arrive not at the throne room, nor anywhere the duke might be waiting, but at a massive door lit by torches.
“Where have you brought me?”
You already know the answer before he speaks: “This is the door to the fairy realm,” the prince says, his hungry gaze fixed on the towering door.
The door is anchored deep in the stone. No handle appears in the swirling designs etched into the metal.
“It’s… beautiful.”
The prince seems pleased with your response. He studies you for a long moment, glowing with anticipation. “I thought you would appreciate it.”
He slips a vial from his pocket and holds it up so that the light from the torches shines on the glass. “Whoever drinks this will gain second sight. And with it, the ability to open the door.”
His words make your stomach twist. “Are you asking me to drink the potion?”
The prince unstoppers the vial and steps close to you. He holds up the vial, close enough to your lips that you can almost taste it. You breathe in its strange, metallic scent.
“If you drink this,” the prince says, “you’ll gain a power that could be very useful to you in the fairy realm. You wouldn’t fare well there as a mere mortal. But with a strange power such as this potion will give you…”
“You want me to go to the fairy realm with you?”
“You never realized?” The prince smiles, amused. “I’ve been trying you. Testing your courage. At first, it was only a game for me. And then I saw that you could be useful to me, could brew the potion I needed. But…”
The prince’s eyes flash.
“I started to see something else in you as well,” he says.
You feel caught in his stare, hardly able to breathe.
At the corner of your vision, the shadows shift. And then—
The duke steps into the light. The black mark of the curse winds around his neck and creeps along the edges of his face.
Go to Lost Love.
Mortis
When you brewed the potion to help the prince pass through the fairy door, you chose to use a skull. Is that the correct interpretation of the phrase “corpse’s crown”?
Did you want to brew the correct potion—or did you mean to betray the prince?
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says again.
Drink the corpse crown potion? Go to Transgress.
Refuse the corpse crown potion? Go to Witness.
Lost Love
The duke will die soon. Here, in these tunnels.
The prince follows your gaze to where the duke stands. “You dragged yourself all the way here?” the prince says. “Eager to say goodbye to me? Is that it?”
The duke’s attention is only on you. “I came here because I wanted to do what I could to save you.”
The prince lets out a cruel laugh. “To save her from me? Or from a fairy realm more beautiful than anything your realm has to offer?”
Without the prince’s golden gaze dazzling you, you suddenly remember the duke’s antidote. You start toward him—
But the prince says to the duke, “You aren’t trying to save her. You just want to make sure you get your antidote.”
“That isn’t true,” the duke says. “You’ve been trying to turn her against me with your lies.”
“I’ve been more honest with her than you have,” the prince says. The duke turns toward you as if for an explanation.
“I know about your betrothal,” you say.
The duke grimaces. “A betrothal my father forced on me to secure a treaty,” he explains to you. “I have tried to tell him there are other ways to make an alliance.”
Tell him how much you care for him? Go to Tonic.
Tell him you know he must think of his kingdom first? Go to Vial.
Confide
“And yet,” you say bitterly, “the truth is that you are betrothed. Your duty is more important than your feelings.”
You take the antidote from your pocket and thrust it into his hand.
The prince’s voice cuts through the gloom. “The duke has his antidote. But what about you? Will you come with me into the fairy realm?”
He holds out the vial of potion you brewed for him. “I won’t force you,” he says. “It’s your choice…
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says. “Or I’ll drink the potion myself and leave you.”
You look from the prince to the duke, considering. Stay with the duke, or go with the prince?
With a start, you remember the corpse you used in the prince’s potion. Was it the correct ingredient? The wrong one could be deadly…
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a mushroom? Go to Mushroom.
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a skull? Go to Skull.
Mushroom
When you brewed the potion to help the prince pass through the fairy door, you chose to use a mushroom. Is that the correct interpretation of the phrase “corpse’s crown”?
Did you want to brew the correct potion—or did you mean to betray the prince?
“Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm,” the prince says again.
Drink the corpse crown potion? Go to Spectacle.
Refuse the corpse crown potion? Go to Shadow.
Tonic
Even through the pain clouding the duke’s expression, you can see in his gaze the same feelings that churn inside of you. Regret. Longing.
You take the antidote from your pocket and press it into his hand. As you lean close, you tell him, “I’ve cared for you since the day I first met you in the woods.”
He ignores the vial in his hand for the moment, his gaze locked on you. “If I could find a way for us to be together…”
The prince’s voice cuts through the gloom. “The duke has his antidote. But what about you? Will you come with me into the fairy realm?”
He holds out the vial of potion you brewed for him. “I won’t force you,” he says. “It’s your choice. Drink the potion and come with me to the fairy realm. Or I’ll drink the potion myself and leave you.”
You look from the prince to the duke, considering. Stay with the duke, or go with the prince?
With a start, you remember the corpse you used in the prince’s potion. Was it the correct ingredient? The wrong one could be deadly…
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a mushroom? Go to Fungus.
In Chapter 8, you brewed the potion with a skull? Go to Mortis.
Witness
“I won’t come with you,” you tell the prince. “Drink the potion yourself if you want to open the door.”
You expect to see anger in his eyes—but it’s disappointment that shadows his golden gaze. He gives you a long look that makes you almost rethink your answer.
A distant scrape in the dark passage calls your attention. Is someone there, beyond the torchlight? But your focus snaps back to the prince as he lifts the vial to his lips…
“No!” calls a voice sharp as glass. A flash of glittering jewels and silver hair—
The queen lunges to snatch the vial from the prince’s hand before he can drink.
The next moment, before you can even take a breath, she has you in her grasp. Your head snaps back as she yanks your hair, and then she forces the vial between your lips and pours the potion down your throat.
The potion tastes of metal and rot, a foul taste you know you’ll never forget. A groan escapes your lips. You feel as though your veins are filling with lead.
The queen releases you and you fall to the floor. The hard stone knocks your breath out of you. The world darkens…
You feel cold glass press against your lips. A sickly sweet liquid pours into your mouth. “Drink,” the duke says.
It’s his antidote.
He has given it to you.
But in your selfishness, you left most of the antidote behind. What he’s given you isn’t enough to save you.
And now he will die too.
You manage to open your eyes just long enough to see him lying there next to you on the cold stone. The one who gave you a simple gift of a rose in a dark wood has given you one final gift.
But it isn’t enough. And now you die together.
The End.
This is one of six different endings.
Replay the chapter? Go to Start Here: Forbidden Fates.
Replay a different chapter? Go to the list of chapters.
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