The brew didn’t bubble, hiss, or spit like one would expect of something of such a toxic nature.  No, it just sat there, clear and odorless.  Delilah stared at it for a moment, her hair frumpy and the roots starting to show from underneath her latest black dye job.  Her clothing was practical for dealing with a lab and a heavy coat covered bare skin and goggles over her eyes.  Of course, the coat had wide slits down the side for her noxious green wings that she’d had to stain herself from their original sky-blue color.  It was rough keeping up appearances.  She spent more time making herself look the traditional bat wings and spiderwebs than the other fairies did with their swans and bi-daily trips to the stylist.  Delilah didn’t even like bats!

She did like chemistry though.  

It hadn’t really bothered her when she stopped being invited to the tea parties.  It took a while but Delilah caught on to the fact that no one else really cared about the latest exciting new advances in chemistry when there was a perfectly good spellbook just sitting there.  Besides, those potions were icky and bubbled and smelled.

Delilah stared at the beaker on her work desk.  It didn’t bubble or smell.

Then she stopped being invited to weddings and birthdays and marriages by all the royalty… that had ticked her off slightly.  She enjoyed mingling with the humans.  Sometimes she met the most interesting people.  Instead, she started getting visitors late at night from the fairies who really did like bats and cobwebs and turning young men into cats with their tails tied together.  One of them had shown her how to dye her hair and wings so she’d fit in better at –their- tea parties.

Stupid, stupid social norms.

Then she’d met this absolutely delightful alchemist who was just brilliant.  Unfortunately, he also didn’t like her (the whole evil fairy thing) and so she was forced to find alternate methods of obtaining his research.  

Satisfied with her day’s work Delilah stripped off her work clothes so that only a tattered silk dress remained.  It was a gift from another fairy for a particularly vile potion.  Delilah had to add baking soda to make it bubble like the fairy expected.  They always wanted it bubbling and smelling like rotten eggs.

She called for the alchemist’s daughter.  The girl was only twelve and in another couple of years or so would be pining for some prince to come rescue her.  And she’d have to deal with that nonsense and eventually some good fairy would come and save her and she’d have to find some other sort of blackmail… but that was worry for another time.  The girl appeared, her face bright shining and always so happy like it was every stinking day.  Like some law mandated it.  Delilah poured the beaker into a flask of wine and shut it up.  It looked quite fine, like some rich king would send to another king as a gift.

“Deliver this to his royal majesty as he passes by through the woods,” Delilah said, “Tell him it’s a gift from his fairy godmother.”

And the girl curtsied and was gone.  She’d do it.  The wine flask didn’t turn putrid green.  It smelled like wine.  Had to be wine.  Delilah smiled and reviewed her notes.  That king had a son and no doubt he’d be the one to topple her tower and destroy all her precious work.  But when the hunting party grew tired… well… they had a nice flask of wine.

And it wasn’t bubbling.  This arsenic stuff was certainly an interesting discovery.