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Of course, despite its origin, this version of cukani was a slower-acting drug than the original form. It would have been...interesting...for Lorenus to use the full-strength version, but he knew better than to push his luck. It would be easy to turn Prince Dumisani into a raging cock-whore with it, but it would be too obvious for the rest of his plans, and it wouldn't take long for the rest of the court to start noticing what had happened to their ringleader. Hedonists or not, they would know what the threat was, and they'd know that it was only a matter of time before he came after them.

And they would be smart enough to kick him out before that happened.

No, it was better to take it slow, addicting the fat prince to the drug before taking more from him...even if it was driving the naga insane with boredom.

Lorenus looked at the alchemy set again, shaking his head at the slow process of the cukani refinement. It was slowly breaking down in the steam, water, and other ingredients, but he knew that it had a good ten minutes at least before it could be taken off the heat. In that time, there wasn't much he could do, not without risking going past it and ruining the batch.

And he couldn't afford to do that, either, not now.

The prince is already addicted, he thought, coiling a bit tighter around the stiff Jelani, the jackal tense beneath him as a perch should be. He will want this regularly, and I need to feed that schedule. And if I don't...

Well, there were two possibilities. A complete breakdown was the most likely one, where the prince simply fell into his addiction so far that it would make a drunk coming out of alcohol look like someone having a mild chill. That would warn off any of the other nobles from using the drug, which - so long as it was applied regularly - didn't show any negative side effects apart from an overactive libido.

The less likely one - and the one that he was more worried about - was the possibility of the prince throwing off his addiction, finding a way to quit cold turkey and not wanting to go back to it when Lorenus had a new batch ready. It was unlikely, less than a percentage of a chance of it happening, but he knew better than to discount it.

No, I have to keep on schedule. No batches can go bad.

"Master."

The Old Hump. Lorenus turned from where he leaned on his perch, looking over his shoulder at the camel. His oldest servant bowed in the doorway, then stepped into the apartment.

"I come with news from the court."

"Then sssay it, hmm?"

"Very well, sir."

The camel spread out the usual missives across the spare space on the table, clearing his throat before pulling one of them up and reading from it.

"There are reports of Prince Dumisani giving into his libido in public."

"Oh really, now?" The naga smiled, hissing in a quiet laugh. "How much did he humiliate himsssself?"

"Quite badly, sir. He apparently pulled a hyena guard out of patrol and fucked him on the streets."

"Hss hsss hss." The naga smiled, shaking his head. "Already. Barely three dayssss into hissss addiction, and he issss already sssso conssssumed."

"It is the way that the drug goes, sir. Should we slow down?"

"Hmmm. No. But keep me informed. I do not wisssh to be ssssurprisssed by hissss progressss."

"Yes, sir."

The camel put the scroll down, continuing through the pile that he had brought, but the naga had already tuned him out, paying more attention to the cukani and his own thoughts. Oh, the information was still going in, but he wasn't paying as much active attention anymore.

As he pulled the hot cukani off the fire, he set it to the side, sprinkling a few herbs into it to increase its potency by just a smidge. The last dose had been a bit weak, and he didn't want the prince to start getting used to it.

Stirring it in, he glanced at the monkey prince. The elephant seemed to have completely forgotten about the royal slave, leaving him entirely in the charge of the naga, and Lorenus was...concerned about that.

At first, he had imagined that Prince Dumisani was using the monkey to spy on him, perhaps even attempting some bit of guile that the elephant obviously wasn't capable of. But that would have required there to be some intelligence, some action still left in the primate's mind, and there was little enough of that. For that matter, when he had taken the prince in, there was barely enough active outside of the 'vault' on the inside to keep the prince breathing.

But as time went on, he realized the truth. Prince Dumisani wasn't conniving, or clumsy, or even trying to keep an eye on the naga.

No, he was bored of the monkey, and it was a way of divesting himself of a useless slave without potentially screwing himself out of an asset.

Jelani stirred under the naga, and Lorenus tapped his head twice.

"Ah. Sssstill assss a posssst."

"Sorry, Master."

"You are ssstill learning."

"The elephant messed with my head, Master. I'm sorry."

"You are forgiven."

He smiled, sliding his coils down the jackal, admiring the muscles of his slave in the process. The jackal was certainly in better physical shape than the different slaves that the Sizwe kept. Far better shape than the monkey had been, and better off than the crocodiles and gnu and other creatures that he had seen. If they had not grown fat by the treatment that they got from their underlings, they were skinny and starving.

Leaving the jackal naked and erect, he slithered over to the crouching monkey. He used his tail to tilt Thulani to look up at him, cocking his head one way, then the other.

The monkey's eyes were arguably clearer, which either meant that the treatment he was getting was taking effect, or the drugs Lorenus was feeding him were clearing away some of the poisons in his body. It was in the lap of the gods which it actually was.

But it was a start. It was something.

"Time to sssshow me what you know, little prince..."

The naga stared into those eyes, and delved into the monkey's mind.

#

Inside the pit of the monkey's mind, light was starting to pour through. It was still dark, still dank, still unpleasant, but there were signs of it getting better. The walls had been scrubbed of some of the worst of the dark smoke, and the light from outside burned through the brain in a painful but cleansing light.

"Getting better, at least..."

Lorenus shook his head, slithering through the half-dark, half-bright parts of the monkey's mind. He followed the light to the vault in the center...

And found that the monkey statue on top was gone.

The naga blinked, only to 'feel' a flicker of movement behind him. The snake whipped around, turning just in time to avoid getting tackled from behind. A blur of movement rushed past him, and he followed it with a whip of his tail.

Too slow. The blur darted back again, but this time he saw it. He saw the way that it reached through the fog for the chains, the spiked chains that hung through the mind. It swung itself to and fro, but dripped as it went. Blood? Memories? He wasn't sure.

But it was predictable. Lorenus watched the figure, saw the shadow move from chain to chain in the shadows until -

WHAP!

The naga brought his tail up as the blur shot at him again, this time batting it to the side. He lunged for it, grabbing one limb, spinning it around.

It was a monkey.

More importantly, it was Thulani.

"You're free?" the snake asked, his eyeridges rising in surprise. "No...that's not possible."

"You told me to free myself. You told me."

The monkey kicked out, and the cobra naga dropped him before the kick could connect. Before he could grab the monkey again, he darted off, disappearing into the shadows, hiding away.

Lorenus shook his head, and closed his eyes.

#

"Master?"

Old Hump's question was met with a raised hand, the naga shaking his head a few times as he pulled back from the half-comatose monkey. The primate showed no signs of the new life that he obviously had, and Lorenus wasn't entirely sure that the smaller male was faking his current weakness.

If he was, he was committed to the role, and doing a damn good job. There was no sign of resistance when he cupped the monkey's testicles, nor any struggles as he pulled out some rope and tied the monkey up to the leg of one of the tables.

"Did you see something in him, Master?" the camel asked again.

"Ssssomething, yesss," Lorenus muttered. "Ssssomething that I didn't expect."

"Was he worse off than you thought?"

"No. The opposssssite, in fact."

"...Master?"

"He issss healing himsssself."

He remembered telling the monkey to 'recover' when they had first met, but even with the drugs that he had been forcing down the primate's throat to try and minimize all the aphrodisiacs that he'd been given, even with the mental work that he had already done on the prince, he hadn't expected this. Nobody else had ever come anywhere close to healing themselves without significantly more outside aid.

Whoever this monkey used to be, he must have had a very strong sense of self in the vault...

Lorenus wasn't sure how he felt about that. The monkey prince obviously had some use, but he had expected a half-dead brain that he would need to bring back to life, something that he could manipulate and warp while getting the memories that he needed.

Having the prince actually alive in there was not part of his plans.

That said, there were ways to turn this to his advantage. He had been the one to give the prince the tools to bring himself back, and he was obviously following orders. If he could approach this the right way, play on that gratitude...

Yes, yes, there were some definite possibilities there.

"Old Hump. Do we have the other sssslavessss yet?"

"They are in the slave apartments, Master."

"Bring three of them up. I want to tesssst more of the cukani, sssee if there issss a way to focusss it for our dear hosssst."

"And for the slave prince, Master?"

"Manaclessss, I believe. Ssssomething thick and sssstrong. And tight."

#

When the Old Hump returned, the naga set to his task. He tied the monkey to the rafters in the ceiling, making sure to do the task thoroughly. Metal bars ran between the primate's arms and legs, creating spreader bars so that he wouldn't be able to reach for the roof so easily, or climb the way that he might want to. Ropes and shackles ran from his wrists and ankles to the bars on the roof, keeping him from sagging too far.

As he hung there, blank, naked, and empty-faced, the naga continued his testing. Small doses of the different cukani derivatives he'd made were fed to the slaves, sometimes orally, sometimes anally. The naga noted down the results, surprised that the anal doses were actually more effective than the oral ones.

Will need to find out how to sneak that into the elephant prince...

All the while, the naga looked out of the corner of his eye at the monkey prince. He kept thinking that he saw a little twitch here and there, like the monkey was testing his bonds, but every time that he took a closer look, the slave was still again.

It was hard to tell what was his imagination and what was not, but despite the difficulty, Lorenus was enjoying himself.

After all, it had been a long time since there was a slave that refused to be broken. Doubtlessly, Thulani was fighting against him because he had already been enslaved once and didn't want to be broken down again.

Completely understandable, of course, but the slave didn't have a choice. Now that he'd been captured, there was no escape from servitude, only passage from one master to another. All the naga had to do was make it a tempting enough passage of ownership.

He made a few more notes in his book, looking at the monkey again. Lean, yes, but with enough muscle to be useful as a spy. If he could be brought back, chained up properly...

Realizing that he was already planning a return to the Snakelands, to the desert and his own people, Lorenus sighed. He couldn't afford to look that far into the future just yet. He needed to keep his mind on the now, otherwise, he would be constantly editing his plans for the future as things changed.

For now, plot how to take down the prince. If you have him on your side, then you can take down the king.

The End