After we arrive, I contact Lin to have her meet us in the palace and then guide Bella to the guest suite. I have learned my way around the palace so the guards no longer escort me unless asked. As we are making our way to the guest suite I realize that I have no idea what time of day it is.

  I know that the sun is up, I saw that much when I went to find Bella, but that is all I know. When we pass a big set of windows, I check the sun’s position and find out it is the morning. Late morning, almost lunch time, which means that the emperor should be in his office.

  He doesn’t hold court until the afternoon, so I should be able to catch him before then. I take Bella to the suite and tell her to wait there for Lin while I go speak with the emperor. As soon as Bella agrees, I head to the office where I find Amn and Atesh working.

  They greet me when I enter and while Atesh looks fine, I notice that Amn looks horrible. His eyes are bloodshot and from the way they are darting around I am sure I know why.

  “You have been using the tea too much! You look like you haven’t slept since the last time I was here.”

  Empress Atesh says “He hasn’t! I tried to tell him, but he won’t listen to me.”

  “He is going to crash hard and it will probably be soon.”

  Empress Atesh says “I already figured that was going to happen. This evening’s court has already been cancelled.”

  Emperor Amn says “It may not seem like it, but I know what I am doing. I may be about to crash, but for the first time in years I am caught up on my work!”

  “How can you be sure that you haven’t made mistakes? I am no stranger to pulling all-nighters and your current state isn’t the most stable.”

  Empress Atesh says “Don’t worry about that. I have been checking all of his work and fixing anything that he missed.”

  Emperor Amn says “Yes and I really appreciate it! Now, Ash, what can I do for you before I pass out?”

  “I came by to get the sample of the drug if you have it.”

  Emperor Amn says “Oh, right. Yes, I do have it. It arrived last night, here you go.”

  “Alright. I already figured out the enchantment, so as long as there is something unique in it, the detector won’t be a problem. I will go break down the drug and analyze it now. If all goes well, I should be able to give you some detectors before I leave.”

  Emperor Amn says “Great! That would be much appreciated!”

  Empress Atesh says “If you manage to make them, bring them to me. Amn will be going to sleep shortly.”

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  “Sure thing.”

  I manage to make it out of the room before my laughter escapes my throat. The look she gave him when she said that last bit was absolutely hilarious, but laughing in front of him would have been rude. I take the drug sample and return to the guest suite where Lin and Bella are sitting discussing tattoos.

  Well, to be more precise they are talking about the new spells for the new tattoos. Apparently Lin has come up with a bunch and most of them are already complete. There are only a few that she hasn’t had the time to finish up, but Mulan should be able to do it easily enough.

  In fact, Bella can actually complete them herself, I had forgotten that she took Lin’s classes too. They should be able to take care of it between them, but I will help if they need it. I sit quietly and wait until they are done talking before I hand Lin the detection spell.

  Lin says “This one is fine. You can use it as is, but there are a few small improvements that I can make.”

  “Go ahead. If it can be improved there is no reason not to do so.”

  It only takes a minute for Lin to make the improvements and hand the spell back to me. Then I hand her the other spell which is multiple pages long and Lin’s face changes.

  Lin says “This is a mess! Not that I blame you, this is an insanely complex spell. You are going to have to leave this with me for a few days. Even then, I am not sure if you are going to have enough mana to cast it.”

  “I don’t plan to cast it. I plan to turn it into an enchantment and put it on an item.”

  Lin says “That will probably work better, but it will need to be a powerful item.”

  “That won’t be a problem.”

  Lin says “Alright. I will see what I can do.”

  “Thank you.”

  Lin says “No problem. So, do you need to rush back, or can the two of you join me for lunch?”

  “We can stay. I am going to convert this into an enchantment and make some detectors. I also need to break down this drug and look for a component to attune the detectors to.”

  Lin says “Don’t you need your workshop for that?”

  “If I was trying to learn the recipe for the drug I would, but just to find a component all I need is mana. I just need to find something for the spell to lock onto. It doesn’t have to be an original component, a combination of elements would work just fine.”

  Lin says “Now I understand. Need any help?”

  “Not sure yet, I’ll let you know once I break it down.”

  Lin says “Alright, I will call down for lunch.”

  I move a bit away from the two of them before taking out the drug sample and breaking it down. I don’t know if it will release any kind of gasses when I break it down and I don’t want to risk the two of them. I trust my poison resistance to take care of anything that might happen to me.

  As I break down the drug sample using my mana, I ignore anything that came from beasts. There are too many things that can be made from beasts and I don’t want the detector picking up all of them. What I am looking for is something the detector can lock onto that is unique to the drug.

  That is why I don’t want to break it down to its original elements, they could be too common. Luckily, it looks like the drug is made with a lot of things compounded together. I do my best to identify the compounds one by one looking for one that wouldn’t be common.

  The one I decide to use is acidic in its base form so it shouldn’t be something others use. Through whatever process is used, the acidity is removed and it forms a compound that is safe. I can’t think of anything else that would use the same compound, so I decide to tune the detector to it.

  Making the detector and enchanting it with the new spell only takes me a couple of minutes. Once it is done, when I test it, it not only detects the sample in front of me, but another somewhere else. I leave the girls to chat and start lunch without me as I leave the suite and find a guard.