The Princess Who Became a Poison Taster

📖 Synopsis

You are a princess of the Duchy of Mirte, a small realm in the mountains. As hostages in the name of a peace pledge, you and your brother, the heir Julian, live in the royal palace of the great kingdom of Valgren. For the past two months, that brother has been wasting away from an illness no one can diagnose. Back home he ate more than anyone and rode faster than anyone. The court physicians called it "a sickness of foreign water." You do not believe them.

White lines across the nails. A taste in the mouth turning metallic. Raised in a valley of medicinal herbs, you are certain: this is not illness, it is poison. So you made a move that set the whole court buzzing. In our country, you declared, a royal's meals are inspected by their own blood, and you volunteered as poison taster to get yourself into the palace kitchen, the Great Kitchen. Only three months remain until the signing ceremony. If you can't trace the thread of the poison, you lose your brother's life and your homeland's peace both. And what you don't yet know is that the previous poison taster died three months ago.

👥 Characters

The head cook who rules the Great Kitchen, Dario Becca, is a stubborn man who bellowed at you for bringing talk of poison into his kitchen. But beneath that anger lies a bitter memory of his own. The young physician Noel Galland is an oddball who knows far too much about poison, whispered about as "the poison doctor," and the only person who hears your suspicions without laughing. Caught between the shouting and the rapid-fire lectures, these two are the only ones you can speak the truth with.

🎭 How this story plays

Inspect the meals by the rites of the taster, watch the flow of people through the kitchen, and dig through the physicians' records and the autopsy reports. Turn the thundering old cook into an ally, bait the culprit into panic, and settle it at the table of the signing ceremony. A tasting is three mouthfuls per dish, followed by a quarter hour of observation. A ritual that puts your life on the line becomes your daily routine. Clues lie dropped even in the steam of the kitchen. Whom to trust, and how far; whether you let someone into your heart before the poison gets there. All of it is your choice.