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We are all in the poisons workshop. Sister Serafina sets the youngest girls to pluck the
flowers, leaves, and berries from the nightshade I collected yesterday. She gives them careful
instructions not to crush the stem, for it will fill the room with a foul odor. Margot and Mateline
are outside collecting honey from bees fed on laurel and rhododendron, for even what we use to
sweeten our potions is poisonous. Annith is sorting through a bag of rye, plucking the grains
covered in black mold, for that highly prized black fungus is used in a poison called Martyr’s
Embrace.
“Here,” Sister Serafina hands me a plate of goose livers and a mortar filled with grayish
white powder. “Prepare this for the toads, then have Florette and Aveline feed them. After that,
I take the supplies from her and set them down on the table closest to the toad’s cage.
They croak loudly and crowd close, eager for their meal. The two younger girls play with them
while I quickly mash the arsenic into the goose liver, then form the mixture into small, pebble-
sized balls. “Gloves,” I remind the girls, and they hurry over to the shelf. When they return, I set
the platter of pellets on the floor and watch them feed the first few to the eager toads. Once I am
certain they know what to do, I hurry over to assist Sister Serafina.
I have just begun to help her place the crop of wild mushrooms on a drying rack when
“Our new novitiate is ready to join the others in their lessons,” Sister Thomine
announces.
Sybella’s eyes seek mine out, and she gives the tiniest of nods. I smile back. “Sybella can
work with me. I will begin showing her how to identify these mushrooms.”
When Sybella is close enough to see, I hold up a mushroom. “This is a fool’s webcap.
She points to a brown one lying on the table. “And that one there?”
I look up and meet her gaze. “Ingenious, no? A man would pick that one, thinking he was
safe.”
Sister Serafina leans across the table. “Then the man would be a fool. Just like he will be
Sybella and I exchange a glance and, for the first time since she’s arrived, she smiles.