Will You Spy For The Duke or Lie To The Prince? (Choose Your Path)

The Apothecary, Chapter 4: "The Fairy Queen"

Sep 06, 2024

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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: The Walled Garden

(continued from Chapter 3, find all chapters here)

The potion you brewed for the duke proved a poor antidote for the queen’s fairy curse. But there must be some way to help him.

If only you knew how to brew the proper potion. And if only you could keep the prince from interfering.

The prince summoned you to the castle earlier today, mostly for his own amusement—it would seem. You sense a darker intent in his dealings.

As you leave the castle steps, you pass through the thicket of flowers and shrubs that spill out from a walled garden. And then you hear it—

Footsteps coming along a path.

Perhaps the duke is hurrying to meet you before you leave. Or perhaps someone else is near, someone who might not welcome your meddling in the duke’s matters.

Hurry to the path? Go to Encounter.

Hide in the bushes? Go to Spy.

Independent

“I’ve been on my own for some time,” you tell the duke. “Fighting off competitors for my shop. I’ve learned how to keep myself safe.”

“You don’t know how vicious the queen can be,” he answers.

The distant creak of a garden gate startles you both. “The queen,” the duke gasps. “Go, before she finds you here.”

But just as you bolt from the bench, he catches your arm. “Take this.”

He plucks a sprig of flowers from near the foot of the bench and gives it to you. Fairy-tinged flowers.

Go to Beware the Prince.

Implore

“I wouldn’t dare to take a fairy flower if the duke hadn’t given it to me,” you tell the prince.

“The duke has no claim over anything fairy.” The prince’s brows lower and you catch your breath at the way the gold of his eyes deepens.

He takes the sprig of flowers from your hand.

“A gift from the duke.” Beneath his mocking tone, you sense resentment.

Why should the prince care if the duke gives you a gift? But perhaps he’s only angry that you’ve taken what doesn’t belong to you.

“Does it take so little for my brother to hold you under his spell?” the prince says with a smirk.

You fear it would be unwise to enflame his envy. But something in you wants to answer his haughty tone with a challenge

How will you answer?

“It’s my duty to help my king’s son.” Go to Intriguing Gifts.

“Are you so cold that you would watch your own brother die?” Go to Troubled Hints.

Confide

You tell the duke that you saw the queen add fife pods to the chalice.

“She dissolved them into the potion,” the duke says thoughtfully, “but there’s more to the potion we must discover…”

He’s right. You have a sense that the ingredients for the antidote aren’t all sitting on the shelf of your apothecary. A fairy queen must have rarer ingredients at her disposal.

“Her guards are careful to keep everyone out of her walled garden,” the duke says.

“The potion’s main ingredient must come from the garden. But it’s impossible to get past the gate.”

“If you were to try to get into the garden, the queen’s guard would send you to the dungeon,” the duke says. “Or worse.”

“Perhaps you can tell the guards that the queen sent you into the garden.”

He shakes his head and his dark hair falls over his eyes. “I’m the very person the queen must have told them to guard against. There may be other ingredients–other antidotes that can help me.”

You both know that isn’t true. Unless you can get into the queen’s garden, the duke will die.

“I’ll find a way into that garden,” you promise. “Somehow. There might be some potion that can help me slip past the guards.”

The duke clutches your arm. “No, I’m sorry I told you about it. I’m sorry I brought you into this at all.”

“If anything happened to you…” His troubled gaze finds yours.

Lean closer to him? Go to Enamored.

Assure him you can take care of yourself? Go to Independent.

Strategy

As you leave your hiding place, the leaves rustle no louder than if a breeze had moved them.

From behind a tree, you watch the queen slip something into the chalice–fife pods.

You have the same plant dried on a shelf in your apothecary.

But what else is in the chalice? The queen swirls the contents as she approaches the duke.

He seems to have grown weaker in just the short time since he sat down. The black mark of the curse covers his throat, creeps over his cheeks.

“The king must sign the trade deal I proposed,” the queen says, raising the glinting chalice.

She pulls the duke’s chin upward and tips the potion down his throat. He sputters, shakes. You have to fight not to call out to him.

But already he sits straighter, his strength returning. The black mark encircling his neck fades. And yet, it still shows just above the collar of his shirt. “It isn’t enough,” the duke says.

The queen drops the empty chalice into the leafy dirt. “Tell your father to sign the trade agreement and I will make more.”

The duke glares up at her. “If we export so much grain to the North Kingdom, our own people will starve.”

The queen offers him a cruel smile. “But I must have the mineral that only the North Kingdom can supply.”

The duke coughs weakly. “What do you need with their mineral?”

The queen presses a ringed finger against the black mark at the base of the duke’s throat. “Tell your father to sign the agreement.”

In a moment, she’s gone, sweeping along the path back to her walled garden.

You rush toward the duke. Your foot hits the silver chalice and you retrieve it from the dirt.

Go to The Silver Chalice.

Encounter

You fight through the shrubbery and burst onto the path–

Only to meet the fairy queen.

Her jeweled cloak flashes in the sunlight. She stops at the sight of you and parts a lace veil to reveal a face like cut glass, sharp and glimmering.

Her cool stare pins you place. “How dare you venture so close to my garden,” she says. The heady scent of some unnamed fruit or flower drifts over the wall behind her.

“Remove her,” the queen commands a guard near the gate to the garden.

Before you can say a word, the guard drags you away. You just get a glimpse of a silver chalice in the queen’s hand–

Was it the antidote for the duke? You’ll never know…

Perhaps you should have hidden in the bushes…

Go to Spy.

Alliance

You shake the leafy branches around you just enough to get the duke’s attention.

His head snaps toward your hiding place. Too late he realizes he has given you away.

The queen’s cool stare pins you in place. “How dare you spy on your queen.”

A pair of rough hands haul you from your hiding place. The queen’s guard has you.

Now you’ll never know what was in that antidote…

Perhaps you should have stolen closer more quietly…

Go to Strategy.

Beware the Prince

You hurry away, around to the back of the castle, where all glimmers of fairy magic give way to a more human sight: a practice ground scattered with arrows.

You stop to examine the flowers in your hand, the gift from the duke. Their petals are palest gold. Some powerful potion will come from these–but not an antidote.

A voice breaks through your thoughts: “I thought you had left.”

You turn to find the prince lazily swinging a practice sword. His sweat-dampened shirt clings to the broad plane of his chest.

The sword at his side makes you nervous. Or perhaps it’s something else about him that excites your nerves. You find yourself lying: “I lost my way.”

The prince smiles, and you’re struck again by his otherworldly beauty. “Somehow I doubt that,” he sayd.

His gaze falls on the sprig of flowers in your hand just as you try to move it behind your back.

“What’s this?” He darts toward you and catches your wrist.

The glimmer in his eye serves as a warning. You sense some dark emotion colors his thoughts.

You must be cautious. How will you answer him?

“Just an ordinary flower.” Go to Evade.

“The duke gave it to me.” Go to Implore.

Investigate

You examine the chalice. The scent still clinging to the silver reminds you of the heady air near the queen’s walled garden.

“The potion’s main ingredient must come from the garden,” you tell the duke.

“If you were to try to get into the garden, the queen’s guard would send you to the dungeon,” the duke says. “Or worse.”

“Perhaps you can tell the guards that the queen sent you into the garden.”

You both know that isn’t true. Unless you can get into the queen’s garden, the duke will die.

“I’ll find a way into that garden,” you promise. “Somehow. There might be some potion that can help me slip past the guards.”

The duke clutches your arm. “No, I’m sorry I told you about it. I’m sorry I brought you into this at all.”

“If anything happened to you…” His troubled gaze finds yours.

Lean closer to him? Go to Enamored.

Assure him you can take care of yourself? Go to Independent.

Spy

You sink into the leafy overgrowth and breathe its woodsy scent. Soon, a figure hobbles into the view.

The duke. He stumbles to a low bench and collapses onto it. You’re just about to call out to him when–

The squeal of hinges calls your attention to a gate in a high wall. The heady scent of flowers drifts out from an unseen garden.

And then the fairy queen appears.

Her jeweled cloak flashes in the sunlight. A veil covers her face, but her hair shows through, pale and silvery as frost.

“Duke, there you are,” she says, her voice like chiming bells.

He leans heavily on the bench, glaring at her. “Have you seen me punished enough yet?”

She parts her veil to reveal a face like cut glass, sharp and glimmering. “You don’t look well.”

“I don’t know what I did to make you angry,” the duke says to her. “Perhaps you mean for me to die this time.”

The sunlight catches the silver of the chalice the queen holds half-hidden in the folds of her dress–

The antidote. If you can find out what’s in the chalice, you can brew your own antidote.

And free the duke from the queen’s power.

Signal to the duke to help you get closer? Go to Alliance.

Steal closer without signaling? Go to Strategy.

Enamored

His lips graze yours. You taste some enchanted fruit or flower. But it’s the thrill of his closeness that makes you feel as though you’ve drunk a powerful potion.

The distant creak of a garden gate startles you both. “The queen,” the duke gasps. “Go, before she finds you here.”

But just as you bolt from the bench, he catches your arm. “Take this.”

He plucks a sprig of flowers from near the foot of the bench and gives it to you. Fairy-tinged flowers.

Go to Beware the Prince.

The Silver Chalice

The duke starts up from the bench in surprise when he sees you, but you pull him down to sit with you.

“I heard everything,” you say, breathless. “The queen is even more treacherous than I imagined.”

“She won’t give me more of the antidote unless I pressure my father to sign the agreement,” the duke says.

The despair in his gaze troubles you. Is it despair for himself, for his ailing health? Or for his father? “You’ll die if he doesn’t sign it.”

“And if he does sign it, many others will die.”

You carefully touch the black mark showing just above his collar. “Then we must find a way to break her power over you.”

He takes your hand and brushes it against his cheek. “Thank you for helping me. I didn’t know if you would. No one else has.”

“I haven’t done much to help yet.”

“If only we knew what the queen puts in her antidote,” the duke says with a sigh.

Examine the chalice? Go to Investigate.

Tell him about the fife pods you saw the queen put into the chalice? Go to Confide.

Evade

“Lying to your prince?” His voice drops to a low growl. “I wonder what the queen would think to find you stealing from the castle grounds.”

He wrenches your arm behind your back.

“The truth, now,” he says, pressing close, his voice in your ear. The sunlight glints on the edge of the sword he holds by his side.

“The duke gave it to me,” you gasp.

Go to Implore.

Intriguing Gifts

“I have a feeling this is about more than your duty to the crown,” the prince says.

He turns away from you. “You think the duke is the only one who suffers under the queen’s tyranny.”

Her tyranny—

She keeps the prince here in this realm and bars him from the fairy realm he longs to return to. Why did he confide in you on the castle steps? He seems the kind to guard his secrets closely.

You fear he has a reason for revealing them to you, a reason that may bring you trouble.

“She’ll give the duke the antidote he needs,” the prince says. “Eventually.”

He jabs his sword into the mud. “But I’ll still be trapped here in a realm where I don’t belong.”

His desire to escape makes you bristle, though you can’t admit why. “Is it so terrible here?” you ask him, your voice conveying more bitterness than you mean to reveal.

“I do find ways to entertain myself.” He looks you over. “From time to time.”

His gaze heats your skin.

He holds out something to you, something you only just realize he’s been fashioning: he’s made a crown from the sprig of flowers.

You stare at the delicate crown in your hands, trying to decide if he’s mocking you.

Or if his gift means something more.

When you look up, he has already turned away to retrieve his sword.

He glances over his shoulder at you, his gold eyes glinting, and then he trudges back to the castle.

End of Chapter 4.

Return to the beginning? Go to Start Here: The Walled Garden.

Come back soon for Chapter 5: The Trap. A recipe for a potion that can help you evade the fairy queen sends you into the hills to trap a hare by moonlight. But with the prince suspicious of your activities, the hare might not be the only one caught in a trap.

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Troubled Hints

“Careful,” the prince says, lifting his sword to press the tip against your shoulder. “Such talk isn’t courteous.”

A thrill of fear goes through you.

But the prince turns away from you. “You think the duke is the only one who suffers under the queen’s tyranny.”