Maksim carefully studied the king from his place in the corner, where he had been relegated to sit for the past hour as Vitale put together the… well, ingredients, for lack of a better word.
The plan was explained in simple terms, but the gravity of it was much deeper and impressive than Maksim figured he would ever truly imagine. That was, unless he strapped in for lifelong alchemy lessons. The king seemed to be fluent in the science – or at least enough to not question every other word out of Vitale's mouth. And the king was months from sixteen. Or a month? Maksim wasn't exactly sure on that.
Regardless, the king was going to ingest some substance that would slow his heart enough to fool Rens Aquiladessi when he inevitably demanded to check the 'body' himself. King Nikolai described it as a torpor state. Vitale described it as foolhardy and dangerous. Both agreed it was necessary.
