A Botanist's Guide To Parties And Poisons Novels & Stories

I lifted my hand to scratch the back of my neck, but she spoke sharply, stopping me in my tracks. “Hands down! A Consort must always be the picture of elegance and restraint.” Her voice rang with both authority and disdain. I nodded silently, not wanting to say the wrong thing. I turned back to look at the flowers, but she spoke again. “This is the Nolorith flower. It is a plant of both poison and medicine. It is dangerous to handle it carelessly,” she remarked, while stroking the stem of the branch closest to us. “Nearly all the plants in this courtyard possess poisonous properties.”

Sunlight filtered through the towering oaks, casting golden patterns on the stone pathway where Damian and I strolled. His voice was calm as he pointed out various plants, his fingers trailing over their leaves with an almost reverent touch. "This one," he said, gesturing toward a delicate purple flower, "is foxglove. Beautiful, but incredibly poisonous. A single dose can stop a heart in seconds." I arched a brow at him. "Is that supposed to be a metaphor?" He smirked. "Merely a fact. Though, I suppose beauty and danger often go hand in hand."

I began working on this particular cocktail a year ago, and after months of painstaking effort, I am finally on the brink of perfecting it. There are an infinite amount of uses for most plants in the world. Even the most deadly ones can be used to create life-changing medicines. The trick is to find the balance. Killing someone isn’t hard, but mastering the use of poison is truly an art form. With my combined degrees in biology – with a strong focus on botany – and chemistry, not only am I capable of controlling how people die, but the rate at which they die and in some cases I can even dictate the symptoms.

She stepped aside; her eyes held pity for me. I gave her a nod and stepped out of her room. Later that evening, I returned to the library with purpose. I hurriedly scanned the shelves for any book with botanical knowledge, and luckily, I found one. It had a faded green cover titled 'Botanica Obscura: The paralytics'. I pulled it out, my trembling wet fingers swiped through the pages until I stopped on a drawing of a delicate flower with jagged petals and veined leaves: Atropa belladonna.

Aside from her protruding belly that had precious cargo of its own. “Plants make chemicals that can be valuable nutrients, powerful medicines or deadly poisons” She announced, holding up the two woven baskets. “Many plants can make you sick but these four are the most lethal.” “What have you brought with you dear?” Grandma Rose and I hurried to the door to relieve her from the weight she was carrying. “Poison Water Hemlock, Baneberry, Monkshood and False Hellebore.” Rune huffed out as soon as she was freed from her baskets and she rubbed her lower back with her hands.

Myriad read, and I gasped. Stormee looked around confused, "Hydrangea? As the beautiful flowers they use in bouquets like weddings?" she asked, "Little flower, certain poisonous flowers are used for decorative purposes because they don't p[present harm unless consumed. Hydrangea Poisson is something close to what you call, in human terms, cyanide." Aelfred, the very botanist freak, explained.

Fishing through a few drawers, I find a lab coat and a few safety equipment I'll need. I grab a note and pen from the drawer, writing everything I'll need for the poison and the formula. The plants I'll need for the mixture aren't as complex; they're just normal everyday plants. A few of them I already have in my backpack, but with some oleander and lantana flowers, I can't find them in any of the drawers, probably because they are poisonous and not to be messed with.

The drawers are jammed with underwear: panties, bras, stockings. What else? The bedside tables... A pair of lamps. A plastic tumbler and a bottle of sparkling water. A clock. A radio. I slide open a drawer: hairbrush. A bottle of paracetamol. Tissues... At the back, a book. 'Poisonous and Psychoactive Plants: a Handbook.' Interesting choice of bedtime reading... I slide the drawer closed again. Something's pulling at me. Something missing. I can't put my finger on it.

I questioned, deciding to go on a subject she might be more inclined to talk about. Her face lit up at the subject change. She was already breathtaking but smiling at me like that, her eyes dancing with excitement, she was stunning. “I have always had a fondness for flora. I maintained multiple gardens when I lived with my family. My parents indulged my interest because my green thumb meant we could grow poisons. Like wolfsbane, vervain, belladonna, water hemlock, and rosary pea.” she explained.

The words on the sheet blurred in front of Lisa's eyes as she struggled to focus. The scrawled handwriting was barely legible, but the implications were chilling. The plant extract was more than just a sedative—it was a potent neurotoxin, capable of inducing a coma-like state that could last indefinitely if not treated correctly. Her breath caught in her throat as she read the final lines: *"Dosage must be exact. Overdose leads to permanent brain damage. Known antidote: rare, difficult to synthesize."*