“Health is a Crown that only the ill could see clearly.” - Old folk saying.

“Poison!?” said the Duke with surprise and wariness as he dropped the dessert he was holding and about to take a bite from.

“Ah, apologies if I alarmed you, Your Grace,” said Aideen as she raised her hand to halt the Duke’s outburst while she took another bite from the dessert she had. “The poison isn’t one that is severe for the time being, and would naturally be flushed out of your body over time as long as no further intake occurred, so please be at ease.”

“I believe some of your foods in the past, like this dessert here, contained a powder made from certain rare nuts. In small quantities like this, it is pretty much harmless, and makes for a good seasoning for food as long as one consumes them in moderation,” she continued after she chewed and swallowed the rest of the dessert. “The problem only comes if one consumed too much of it at once, or like in what I believe is Your Grace’s case, a constant influx of small, imperceptible amounts over long periods of time. When it accumulates enough, the poison could even cause insanity or death.”

“So someone on my kitchen staff had been poisoning me for probably years,” said the Duke as he calmed down and took in Aideen’s words. Everyone else eyed the empty plates of food and the dessert before them with obvious trepidation in their eyes.

“I believe so. And the rest can enjoy that dessert, which by the way, was good. Just the powder it contained won’t do you any harm at all unless you gorged yourself on like, a hundred of them at once,” said Aideen with a smile. “The rest of the dishes we ate were fine too. At least I didn’t taste anything odd in them, and given the choice of poison, if this was done with malicious intent, they likely wanted to make it look natural.”

“You believe this is a deliberate malicious act, Miss deVreys?” asked the Duke as he steepled his fingers in consternation over the thought that one of his own household had betrayed him. The man had considered many of them close like family, and hated the thought.

“Well… given that you said this particular dessert is reserved for celebratory feasts and festivals, and how the flavor profile of it seemed to emphasize the powdered nut I mentioned… using them as seasoning seemed like something the people here do to begin with,” said Aideen after a moment of thought. “If using them as seasoning is normal, it wouldn’t be too difficult for anyone involved in food preparation to spike the dishes with them, I’d guess, and in stronger flavored dishes you likely wouldn’t even notice the flavor anyway.”

“I must admit I’m not that knowledgeable when it comes to cooking and cuisines, I’m afraid,” admitted the Duke with a frown.

“I am,” said the Duchess from beside him. She nibbled on the dessert in question and took her time tasting it, before she swallowed and nodded. “I do believe I know the spice Miss deVreys referred to, and we do highlight its flavor for this particular confection. It’s a rather expensive spice so it’s not used too often in general, as you said. Some old wives’ tales also warned against having the nut straight from the tree.”

“Would likely be why nobody realized it’s a poison, yeah,” replied Aideen with a nod to the Duchess. “I guess in a Ducal household you’d likely have more stock of the spice than most places, no? And I doubt you would keep it under lock and guard either.”

“So you’re saying it could be any one of my kitchen staff who is responsible for this.”

“They’re the most likely suspects, since they would have easy access to the spice, and all it would take was to sprinkle a tiny pinch on your food every day for a couple of years or so to achieve the accumulation that had accrued so far,” said Aideen. “Though anyone who comes into contact with your food before it’s placed on the table could likely do it as well. It’s not hard to hide such a tiny amount of powder on your person.”

“Good point. Joshua! Call Captain Edrioc. Have him round up the guards and surround the manor and watch for escapees, and send some to gather the kitchen staff and waiters and keep them guarded,” ordered the Duke, to which his son nodded and left the table right away. “I owe you another debt for this, Miss deVreys. Should you have anything in my power that I can help you with, just let me know.”

“We can discuss it later when this issue is resolved, Your Grace, but I thank you beforehand,” said Aideen with a polite nod. “Do you remember when you started feeling the symptoms I mentioned before? A rough estimate would be plenty.”

“Probably from the past half a year or so I would say,” replied the Duke after he pondered for a short while. “I had attributed it to frustration over Melissa’s injury and had not thought of foul play all this time.”

“In that case, perhaps pay more attention to any new servant or kitchen staff that had only joined in the past couple of years,” said Aideen after she did some quick calculations in her head. “If you only started feeling the effects for the past half a year, considering the amount that accumulated, I’d say whoever did this had not done it for more than a year.”

“So considering the time it would take before they would be trusted enough to be allowed access to the foods served to me… I get it,” nodded the Duke to Aideen’s deduction. “Thank you again, Miss deVreys. I hope to get to the bottom of this matter tonight.”

“You’re welcome, Your Grace,” replied Aideen with a nod. “I wish you good fortune and hope that you apprehend the culprit quickly.”