Chapter 34 Lukas
Lukas
“Excuse my tardiness, but we must get started at once.” Alicia Vane strode into the meeting room with an air of power no one else present could ever hold.
Her hair was in a slick bun, giving her face sharper angles than normal.
“As you all know, we must get to work quickly so that this trial can meet its swift end. I have called back our esteemed Oathbreaker, Calvin Reed, and he will be here within the hour. For the time being, we have much to discuss.”
I sat at the opposite end of the table, observing those around me as the meeting officially began.
We were all called here this morning to discuss the implications of breaking Aster’s oath, as well as what we would do next.
This would differ significantly from breaking Middleton’s because the Oathbreaker had been given an excellent lead on who the oath was with.
Unfortunately for Aster, no one had a clue who it could be.
Ed sat next to me, looking through the long briefing packet given today.
He passed it along to me to look through and annotate, and I began while the rest of the room held a discussion.
There was a clear warrant from the judge approving the breaking of Aster’s oath, as well as multiple school documents looking into other potions and spells professors.
The prosecution team had exhausted all the potential options of who it could be.
The door opened, and in sauntered who I could only assume was Calvin Reed.
For Middleton’s oath-breaking, I had never met him since everything was rushed, and he had business to get back to in America.
The man was tall and lean, dressed in a white button-down with the top buttons left undone, black slacks, and dark, rounded glasses.
His posture was relaxed as he moved to the front of the room.
“Glad you could make it on such short notice, Mr. Reed. Everyone, this is Calvin Reed, our oath specialist.”
Murmured greetings sounded around the room, and I simply watched him.
“As you all know, breaking a blood oath without knowing both parties of the oath can be dangerous and extremely painful for the subject. I am equipped and able to do it, but there are some things I’d like to request before starting.
I believe there are potion specialists on the team?
” Calvin looked at Alicia, who gestured to Ed.
He stood and pulled me up along with him.
We both walked to the head of the table to shake his hand.
His grip was firm. Ed introduced himself and then introduced me.
Calvin seemed extremely young, and even more so now that I could see the details of his face so closely.
There wasn’t a single line of age on his forehead.
“Can you create a Calmaura potion for the subject? I wish to ease as much of the pain as possible for her when I break the oath. Calmaura is the most potent and most likely to keep her awake during the break.” Calvin looked only to Ed while he spoke.
“We can. I can have it done by tomorrow morning.” Ed patted Calvin before we both returned to our seats.
“Thank you.”
Calmaura was a potion typically used in minor surgeries.
It calmed patients enough that they didn’t need to be put to sleep for the procedure.
It included a pain management aspect, but also eased the user’s mind from thinking of the pain.
I would have assumed that other pain potions would do better, but I knew nothing about the procedure of oath-breaking.
“Now, I know that you all have been searching to find out who could be the other member of the oath, and I would like to request that you continue doing so. Breaking an oath is a pain I wouldn’t wish upon even the vilest of witches and wizards, so until ten a.m. tomorrow, please don’t stop searching for the answer.
If we still do not have the culprit by tomorrow, I will proceed with breaking the oath. ”
“Yes, we have a team continuing to work on it. Thank you, Mr. Reed,” Vane said, her voice clipped before she murmured something low to her assistant.
Calvin walked down to my side of the table and sat right next to me.
He leaned back in his chair with such casualness that no one could have guessed how severe he’d been speaking only moments ago.
“In addition to the oathbreaking, the judge has permitted a mandatory truth potion for Aster. Ed, can you please have that done by Friday?”
I was already writing that down on the notepad alongside where I’d written “Calmaura”.
It would be a long night of brewing.
“This has gone much deeper than I ever thought. You were certainly onto something with that second handwriting, and I only wish we knew who it belonged to,” Ed prattled on as we walked to the viewing room.
It was clear he was nervous about what was about to transpire, so he continued repeating things we’d already spoken about.
Yesterday, after our three-hour meeting with the prosecution team, we spent the rest of the day and well into the night brewing both the truth potion and the Calmaura.
Ed wanted me to be as involved as I desired, but he told me I could go home if I was tired.
Since this was the very thing I was passionate about, I stayed until four in the morning to help finish the Calmaura.
It was a long, tedious process, and Ed and I did two batches just in case anything went wrong.
The final brewing step took precisely five hours of steeping eucalyptus leaves and two more hours of simmering after that, so we had many hours of just entertaining ourselves until the potion was finished.
Both of our batches were successful, as tested by putting a drop on a mint leaf.
When the potion touched the mint, the potion would turn from red to purple if it was effective.
Once Ed and I both saw our batches turn purple, we cleaned up with hurried spells, the truth potion already long completed.
I returned home to find a snoozing Elsie in my bed and joined her for the few hours I had before I needed to return to work.
Since oathbreaking was such a serious act, and especially since Aster’s counterpart was unknown, it required many witnesses.
The pain would be so great that the law required multiple witnesses in case Aster claimed any sort of magical torture.
Only three witnesses were legally required, but Vane asked Ed to be present since his potion was a critical part of the procedure. Therefore, Ed asked me to join.
We walked into a small room fitted with about ten chairs. The room had a glass window that was actually a one-way mirror so that we could view those in the room below.
Alicia Vane was here, along with her assistant and two others on the prosecution team. As I took my seat, Alicia approached Ed to discuss the potion.
The room below the window was all white, save for the silver medical table propped up for Aster. The table also had visible restraints. There was a metal chair next to the table. I was sick to my stomach just thinking about this.
What kind of pain would this oath-breaking truly cause? Elsie had told me that the only time she knew this kind of oath-breaking had happened was when the recipient had been hospitalized.
As we learned in school, breaking any oath one had taken would cause physical harm to the person who broke it.
Books described it as extreme physical pain, along with the feeling of one’s personal magic revolting within their body.
Therefore, it was supposed to be difficult for someone under oath to break one.
But for the oath to be forcibly removed… it had to be much worse.
Aster had caused a lot of pain and misery on Forrestbriar’s campus.
She had done something unforgivable, something that left many people—people I loved—with permanent scars of what happened to them.
She nearly killed students and teachers alike with the poison that she cast. She deserved to be punished to the full extent of the law for what she had done.
But she didn’t deserve to endure such intense pain. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone.
I could only hope that the Calmaura would help and that it wouldn’t be nearly as bad as what everyone said.
We could hear everything that happened in the room below because of a charm placed on this room, so the second the door opened, our upper room fell silent.
Calvin walked into the room wearing all black. He pushed a small cart into the room. It had five things on it. An empty vial, the vial of red Calmaura, a towel, his wand, and a curved knife. Once he pushed it well past the medical table, he turned back to the door.
Next, Aster walked in, escorted on both sides by large security guards who were fighting to keep her between them.
Aster was thrashing against them, screaming at them to let her go.
Her hands were bound in front of her, as well as her feet, but she was doing everything she could to escape.
Two medics followed them and closed the steel door.
“Please, no!” she begged. I bit my tongue to distract myself.
Over her yelling, Calvin began, “Mira Aster. The court has ordered that your unknown blood oath be broken for the sake of justice. There are witnesses present to observe, and we have brought in a special potion to help with the pain.” He was very robotic in his tone, though he had to be loud.
From what I could see of his face, his expression was grim.
“You can’t do this!” she screeched, and I sat back in my seat, trying to breathe. The security guards sat her down on the medical table, pushing her back against the rest and holding her there as they strapped her in with the restraints. She bucked and kicked as much as she could.
“Mira Aster. You need to calm down so you can take the Calmaura that was brewed for you. This will ease the pain and your mind as we begin.”
Slowly, Mira rested against her seat, nodding. Her chest still rose and fell rapidly, but she allowed Calvin to bring the vial of Calmaura up to her mouth and gently pour it into her mouth.
The second he pulled the vial away from her mouth, she spat the potion all over his face.
“I don’t want your stupid fucking potion! You can’t do this to me.” Aster was bucking against her restraints again. My gut twisted as the red potion dripped down Calvin’s face.
“You do not want the pain-easing potion. It has been noted,” Calvin stated methodically. As he said, Vane’s assistant was already writing his words down. “If you do not stop moving, we have court permission to magically subdue your movement.”
Aster looked truly scared. Not crazy or mad, just scared. She nodded again and sat back against her seat.
“Thank you. I do not wish to restrain you further. Now, I will have to cut a line down your arm to pull the oath from your blood. Do you wish to bite down on this?” Calvin picked up the white towel from his cart, and Aster shook her head. “Very well.”
Calvin picked up the ancient-looking curved knife. Bile rose in my throat.
The security guards held her arm in place as Calvin neared her with the knife. Aster’s eyes tracked the tip of the knife as it came close to her skin. The second it touched her forearm, she let out a howling scream.
I squeezed my eyes shut, hating every second of this. No one deserved this.
When her screaming stopped, I opened my eyes to see Calvin holding the empty vial to her skin, allowing her blood to trickle into it.
Then, he started murmuring words I couldn’t understand or comprehend. Perhaps the worst was over.
As his words grew louder, the blood still flowing from the cut on her forearm rose into the air, forming a large clump.
That’s when the real screaming began. Aster began thrashing uncontrollably, her back bowing off the table, yet Calvin’s words were uninterrupted. Her screams were so loud I flinched.
Abruptly, I stood up and rushed out of the room. As soon as I shut the door behind me, I started running until I could no longer hear Aster’s tortured screams.