Chapter Twenty-Three: Senior Trip | Part 8
“If we can guess what he’s on, maybe Professor Lessel can help. I have an idea.” Purple sparks now danced around Benn’s eyes. Thirtyx stared, transfixed, at the emerging sigil before his vision blurred. The distant crowd sounded muffled. It felt really nice. He relaxed into the nice…
“What in the universe?” When Thirtyx’s senses returned, Benn leaned heavily against the wall, shaking his head in disgust. A raven now perched on his shoulder. “Twins, it does feel like his brain is floating in happy juice. He’s really out of it.”
Thirtyx tried to say that he wasn’t out of it—he had, in fact, never felt more alive—but he’d forgotten Rhea had silenced him. “What are the effects?” she demanded. “Lessel is headed this way!”
“Extreme euphoria, some disorientation, an inability to focus his attention… That could be nearly anything. Professor Lessel! We think Thirtyx needs help.”
Thirtyx shook his head as hard as he could, which made it swim, which made him laugh with no sound. That, in turn, made him laugh harder. “What kind of help?” Lessel said coldly. “He seems to be enjoying himself. In fact—Mr. Grimmary, is he intoxicated?”
“We don’t know with what or how it happened!” Rhea cried. “We think someone drugged him!”
Thirtyx’s tears of laughter cleared in time for him to watch Lessel cross her arms. “Are you certain he didn’t take something to make this journey a little more fun? He certainly wouldn’t be the first to try and sneak illicit substances on the senior trip, although he might be the first to be so obvious about it. Come on, Venmagalion. I’ll have a carriage take you back to campus. You two should get through the portal before the potion wears off.”
“Professor, wait,” Rhea gripped Thirtyx’s arm again, but he was too distracted by the furious flicking of Professor Lessel’s tail to notice. “He didn’t do this! He didn’t even know he was on anything! Please hear him out.”
The sigil on Thirtyx’s throat disappeared with an exciting tickle. The resulting giggle turned into a hiccup. Twins, how had he never noticed how fun it was to hiccup? “Venmagalion,” Lessel said in a tone suggesting he was in trouble, even if he was still piecing together why. “Did you deliberately ingest anything to intoxicate yourself?”
Remembering things was hard. The time before this feeling was a lifetime ago. “I don’t think so,” he said.
Professor Lessel gritted her teeth. “What a convenient Verith answer. I’ve heard enough. I’m sending him back to Wydewood and straight to the headmistress.” As she traced a sigil near Thirtyx’s wrist, understanding finally settled in his mind. He couldn’t go back to Wydewood! Seerla had gone through the portal. He wanted to be with her. He wanted to experience Vursanne. “No, Professor! I want to see the mountains!” he whined.
His wrist moved seemingly of its own accord and tugged the rest of him to his feet. Benn caught him as he stumbled. “You should have thought about that before you took recreational drugs on a school trip,” Lessel sighed. “Now I’ll have to drink an extra dose of that disgusting draught when I return from putting you in a carriage.”
“But it wasn’t disgusting! It was delicious!”
Even Thirtyx recognized Benn’s look of sudden understanding. Benn stepped between Professor Lessel and the door. “Euphoria. Portals. Professor—what was in that potion?”
“The same thing all the perfectly sober students drank, Mr. Grimmary. Now, if you’ll excuse us.”
“Please, Professor, just humor me. I promise once you answer, I’ll step aside.”
She eyed him like he was an annoying insect. “Seagrass oil. Moonseed. Ghertaynsage—”
“Ghertaynsage—the portal eater! That’s it!” Benn cried. “Ghertaynsage has compounds that trick a portal into lowering its defenses, even while being attacked. That makes it a great ingredient to help people through a feral portal!”
Lessel’s look had as much venom as her still-lashing tail. “Considering I brewed the potion, I am well aware of the properties of ghertaynsage.”
“Well, you’ve clearly forgotten the one that makes it a recreational drug when activated specifically by Verith saliva because Veriths are Lamiakk’s only native species that can keep the thing in check!”
