And it came to pass, as The Witch traveled to the house of one of the chief Princes to eat bread, that they watched her. And behold, there was a certain slave dying before her who had leprosy. And she answering spoke to the nobles and Princes, saying, “Is it wrong to save a dying slave?” But they held their peace. So she took her, and healed her, and set her free.

- Andanian Chronicles

“Noble princess… please wait for me…” Naomi’s burdensome chains clattered loudly as she trailed behind the princess skipping swiftly down the hill.

“Oh, what’s keeping you? You are even slower than puppy speed. It’s just a couple of steps to where idiot Xerxes fell and I hope to arrive before dusk.” Lily frowned in confusion as she turned to face the child as she stumbled slowly down the slope.

“Noble princess… please have mercy, I can’t walk… not any more…” The child panted tiredly as she finally flopped down before the patiently waiting witch.

Lily’s lips pursed with concern as she studied Naomi carefully and rested her hand gently against her brow, “I don’t see any external injuries, are you feeling unwell? I came across a lengthy tome that described the many horrid diseases that humans could suffer from, but I fell asleep before I got to the end…” She confessed sheepishly as she withdrew an ominously knife shaped talisman, “Hmm… An obvious lack of breath? Clearly it must be a dangerous infection in your lungs! Forgive me, but I will need to experiment a little. I’ll probe around inside for a couple of minutes and see if I can identify the root of the problem.” The princess smiled comfortingly as she loomed over the horrified child.

“Eek! Help! Someone please save me…” Her chains clattered loudly as Naomi attempted to crawl away, but the princess caught her deftly by the heel before she could flee and the horrified child was tugged back to rest in Lily’s waiting lap.

“There, there… don’t be afraid, I’m just going to perform a routine examination.” Lily nodded agreeably, “This won’t hurt one bit! I’ll just use my handy snippy talisman to pry apart your chest, then I’ll pull out a couple of your lungs and check if they are infected. I remember that the book mentioned something about black spots? Or irregular growths within the alveoli? You’ll be as good as new, once I’m done…”

“Arrgh!” Naomi screamed as she struggled desperately for her life, “Help! I don’t wanna die!”

“Erp... why does everyone say that to me, all the time?” Lily sighed moodily, “I have never hurt a fly in my entire life! Erm okay, there was just that one time when I squished my sister’s bones into a pulp by accident. And I guess that incident in the Saadian encampment was mostly my fault too, but I’ve never willingly hurt anyone!”

“Please, have mercy! I’ll try harder, I’ll walk faster!” The child begged for her life.

“Mercy? How is ignoring your plight mercy?” Confusion clouded Lily’s features, “Your condition is growing steadily worse, excessive sweating, an overtly pale completion, dilated pupils, and loss of breath. Immediate interventional therapy will be essential for your survival, I must excise all your defective parts and…”

“I’m not sick! I’m just a little tired, I need to rest a little…” Naomi whimpered.

“But we have only been strolling along for less than five hundred meters?” Lily frowned as she turned back to examine the short distance they had travelled, “Surely even mundane humans aren’t that feeble? Ahh! You must be just like my elder sister. The type that feigns fatigue before slinking off to suffer alone... I won’t let you die Naomi! You promised to be my first experiment… err student! Yes student!”

“I’m not ill! I swear, by the gods!” Naomi cried out desperately.

“Okay? Even assuming that I actually believe you, how do you explain the deteriorating condition of your body? Why are you like this after just strolling along at a snail’s pace for such a short distance?” Lily pouted disapprovingly.

“The ball and chains are tying me down! They are too heavy and I can’t walk for any extended distance in these bindings…” The child explained anxiously, “Please forgive me noble princess! I’ll get stronger… I’ll work harder…” Naomi sobbed frightfully.

“This is heavy?” The deforming irons screeched loudly as Lily tore the ten-kilogram ball from its chains and spun it lightly on the tip of a single finger, “But even that idiot Xerxes could have lifted a hundred of these things without breaking a sweat.” She mused suspiciously, “You must be jesting, isn’t this item just for aesthetics? You know… like the cute little musical bells they put on kittens?”

“Noble princess! How did you do that… my chains were twice forged iron!” The child stared at Lily with wide shaken eyes.

“Huh, what do you mean by how? See, I put my fingers in the joints and push a little… piece of cake!” The shackles binding Naomi snapped off and clattered noisily to the ground as Lily demonstrated patiently.

“Noble princess, you are very strong! Is that magic?”

“Bah… that was nothing,” Lily boasted bashfully, “with magic, I can…” She crumpled the iron ball in her hand like a piece of paper and folded it effortlessly into the form of a sparrow, “See? A pretty bird! I can make it sing too!” The bird hopped from her hand and tweeted cheerfully as it flapped its wings and rose into the sky and the magical minion travelled for several hundred meters before falling back to the ground, “Ugh… Not as impressive as I hoped, my sister could have flown a dozen of those things beyond the horizon.” The crestfallen princess murmured.

“Great noble princess genius sorceress, this humble slave is honored to exist in your presence!” The trembling child prostrated at her feet.

“Aww you must be exaggerating, I’m not that good.” Lily blushed, “Hey call me Teacher! You are my student now, aren’t you?”

“Teacher Lily?” Naomi answered hesitantly.

“So cute!” Lily’s crystal blue eyes sparkled with excitement as she pinched Naomi’s cheeks and ruffled her curly brown hair, “We must begin the experiments… erm lessons immediately! Let’s spank that idiot Xerxes into shape and get started as soon as possible! Come it’ll be faster if I bring you along with me.” The giggling princess scooped her up in a bridal carry before she could protest and retrieved a talisman that catapulted them high into the air and straight towards their target.

“Eek! We are all going to die!” Naomi screeched out as they hurtled swiftly back towards the ground.

“Stop squirming around! I need to retrieve the stop charm!” Lily fumbled through her stack of talismans and finally managed to retrieve the correct spell. Their rapid descent jerked to an abrupt halt, barely half a meter from the earth, “See? Safe! I got this!” Lily nodded with a cheerful smile, “I usually find it in time, and definitely during more than half of my jumps!”

Naomi’s teeth chattered violently, “What happens if you don’t find it in time?” she muttered.

“Oh, it’s nothing serious. I just hit the ground and bounce around a couple of times, a dozen broken bones perhaps? Definitely nothing to worry about!” Lily smiled as she patted Naomi reassuringly on the head and the child wisely refrained from any further questions.

“Xerxes! Stupid idiot Xerxes!” Lily’s shout echoed slowly down the deep tunnel as she peered hopefully down into the darkness.

“Rarr! I’ll kill you, I tear you apart!” The ground quaked violently as the emperor rammed the side of the pit at full force, and a powerful blast of wind gushed from the depths, along with his frustrated shouts of rage. The trapped lion clawed swiftly upwards, but the restraining circles of magic lining the pit’s walls suppressed his attempt to escape and shoved the maddened beast back down into the darkness.

“Alive as expected… pervert…” The princess muttered as her fiery hair fluttered wildly in the gale. She frowned as she studied the powerful spells lining the entirety of the pit, “Ahh a fancy puzzle, I just need some stuff to solve that retarded lecher.” She nodded calmly as she gathered up a bunch of weapons and armor that were strewn about near them and the princess beamed happily to herself as she began tossing the sharpened items down into the hole. The items crashed down with blinding speed as they were accelerated by Mirror’s restraining magic and tortured screams of rage and pain bellowed from the depths in reply. “Oops,” Lily shrugged unapologetically, “start dodging idiot Xerxes! I’ll get you out soon!”

“Teacher Lily, what are you doing? Are you going to vanquish the emperor?” Naomi winced as Lily tugged yet another heap of pointy objects toward the hole.

“How did you even come to such a ridiculous conclusion?” Lily pouted, “I’m helping him!” she sighed as she shoved the entire stack of items down into the depths and elicited yet another round of anguished screams. “One of the Vaishyan sorceresses devised an innovative magic riddle to restrain Xerxes, but if I manage to fill the hole with enough stuff, surely even that idiot will be able to jump out.”

“But…” the child stuttered, “why did you pick all those sharpened weapons…”

The princess giggled impishly, “Training! That idiot Xerxes needs to brush up on his dodging skills, I’m killing two birds with one stone! Isn’t this really efficient?”

“At this rate, I think you are going to kill more than just two birds.” Naomi muttered under her breath.

Lily smiled brightly as she turned to eye the child behind her, “Hmm… did you say something? Why don’t we add you to the training program!” She suggested cheerfully, “Come over here and hop right down! It’ll be fun, like dodgeball! I’ll toss down the stuff I find and you’ll dodge it!”

“I’ll pass…” Naomi shuddered as she backed away from the eagerly beckoning princess.

“Aww spoilsport…” Lily teased, “my sister wouldn’t have turned me down.”

“Not funny, I…” Just as Naomi opened her mouth to deliver a well-placed retort, a large boom of energy materialized in the air above them as dozens of Saadian archmages finally arrived at their location. Their usual smug expressions were instantly wiped from their faces as the powerful Talented men and women blanched at Krall as he slumbered in what had been the Waters of Merom.

“It’s the Beast of Armageddon! Kill it! Kill it!” Several archmages screeched simultaneously with horror as deadly spells began crackling in their hands.

“STOP!” Two yelled simultaneously to restrain the terrified archmages. One a grizzled ancient man standing at the rear of the formation of the Hundred Archmages and the other a young princess who stretched out her arms from side to side as if she could have prevented their spells from reaching Krall. The beleaguered Saadians spluttered with disbelief as they turned to stare alternatingly at both the man and the girl.

“Colleague Sotil! We must attack immediately, the legends… that beast will end us all!” An archmage spluttered incredulously.

“You are wrong! Krall is my harmless, peace loving…” Lily protested.

The dissenting archmage whirled about to glare at the girl beneath him, “What insolence! Interrupting a conversation between your betters! I claim the right to summarily execute this boorish upstart.” An orange ball of flame materialized as he chanted and the spell raced forward to consume the unprepared princess. Lily began leafing causally through her stack of talismans, but Krall acted before the witch could defend herself. A mass of dripping tentacles raced out between the combatants to snuff out the offending flames and the unfortunate screaming man was dragged straight into Krall’s waiting maw.

“No, bad Krall!” Lily groaned as she tugged at his closest appendage, “Spit him out immediately, you promised not to kill anyone.”

Krall wailed disapprovingly but he spat out the slime covered human. The terror-stricken archmage squealed in the most undignified manner known to man as he staggered away from the offended beast. He bled profusely from a large puncture through his gut and both his arms were lopped off at the shoulder. Then Krall picked slowly at his teeth and hurled the remaining limbs into the back of the unfortunate mage. The deranged man whimpered as the impact smashed him face-first into the churned mud, then he screamed in horror as he eyed the remains, his addled mind finally grasped the full extent of what had happened, and bloody bubbles of foam frothed from his lips as he collapsed and convulsed with shock.

“Good boy!” Lily beamed as she waved at Krall and the earth shook as Krall nodded and waved happily in reply. “See, he’s totally harmless! Krall wouldn’t kill a fly!” Lily turned to the child cowering behind her for confirmation.

“Yes! Krall couldn’t kill a fly.” A pale faced Naomi bobbed her head fanatically in assent.

“Who are you!?” The grizzled ancient man demanded.

“Humph, aren’t you supposed to introduce yourself before asking for my name?” Lily frowned. Krall’s angered glare bored into the offending Saadians and his tentacles began creeping swiftly towards his next victims.

The horrified archmages backed away hurriedly from the approaching menace and the trembling man bowed before the disapproving princess, “Esteemed witch. I am Sotil Cairon, the 1st Archmage of Saadian. May I please inquire about the nature of your business in our nation?”

“That’s weird,” Lily mused as she scratched at the back of her head, “you are clearly the number two Talented in Saadian. What does the number one person do then?”

“Esteemed witch, do you know where the Mage Whisperer is located?” Sotil inquired shrewdly.

The princess concentrated momentarily, “Hmm… a whisperer? An apt name, I sense him floating around sometimes, but it’s surprisingly hard to pin down his exact location. His soul wanders like the clouds and it’s almost as if he’s in more than once place at a time. But that can’t be right, only Krall and the divine can exist simultaneously in several places.” Lily’s crystal blue eyes sparkled with renewed interest, “Ah another puzzle! I love puzzles, but first I must solve this idiot Xerxes.”

“Ah yes, that idiot… what!?” Multiple men and women coughed loudly to hide their accidental slip of tongue.

“He’s the Emperor of Saadian! Isn’t that just a little impolite?” Sotil snuck an anxious glance at Krall as he admonished Lily gently.

“Stupid idiot Xerxes!” Lily bent down and shouted loudly into the pit. Immediately, a massive burst of power blasted out from the depths in response, accompanied by a furious roar of rage. The princess turned and beamed at the pale, sweating Talented around her, “See? He likes it!” She giggled playfully.

A perplexed expression was etched on Sotil’s face as he studied the unconcerned girl, “How do you remain unaffected by the emperor’s aura? I have assessed your Talent, your abilities are equal to a Sorceress of the First Class, someone like you shouldn’t be able to move freely this close to Emperor Xerxes! Have the witches devised a special talisman for resisting auras?”

Lily giggled coyly as she eyed the Saadians gathered around her, “Do you really want to know? Measure my Talent and I’ll tell you how I manage it!” She smiled teasingly as she slipped off her glove and beckoned temptingly at the curious archmage.

“DON’T DO IT!” Methuselah yelled as Sotil floated down to take her hand and the wounded Mage General limped forward slowly to finally reunite with the gathered archmages.

“Colleague Methuselah!” Sotil tucked his hands securely behind his back as he turned to greet the ragged archmage. “The battle reports we received where hopelessly jumbled. What happened here? Where are the Vaishyans? And where are the other archmages?”

“Dead, the Vaishyan Talented massacred us. They even managed to hurl Xerxes into that pit…”

“But Emperor Xerxes survived. We won, didn’t we?” Sotil frowned uncertainly.

“The witch standing behind you is the Princess of Andania, do not underestimate her abilities. I don’t know how, but she managed to overpower the Talented that defeated Xerxes, and she summoned Krall to vanquish the Vaishyan army singlehandedly!”

“Humph, spoilsport!” Lily pouted at Methuselah as Sotil backed warily away from her.

“Honored Princess, what are your intentions with Emperor Xerxes?” The Mage General inquired.

“Hmm… I plan to toss sharp objects into the pit. When it finally fills up, even that idiot will be able to jump out.”

“Your magical senses are vastly superior to mine,” Methuselah spluttered, “surely you sense the emperor’s abnormal aura. Someone must have altered the magic in his body to rile him into this condition, what if he goes berserk once he reaches the surface?”

“Then I’ll scream at him and kick him back into the hole repeatedly until he finally calms down.” Lily smiled and her teeth gleamed as they reflected fleeting rays from the setting sun.

“And when you fail?” Sotil muttered incredulously as he studied the slightly built girl.

The princess shrugged, “Krall will slap him.”

The surviving members of the Hundred Archmages gathered together for an urgent conference. After several tense moments of discussion, Methuselah emerged and prostrated himself before Lily, “Honored Princess, please allow us an opportunity to retrieve Emperor Xerxes.”

“Suit yourself.” To the relief of the gathered archmages, Lily grabbed the stunned gaping child rooted beside her and stomped off towards the sizable supply camp that their apprentices had set up some distance away, “I want dinner and a nap, idiot Xerxes can rot in that hole all night for all I care!”

“Why did you change your mind? You wanted to save him immediately, didn’t you?” Naomi questioned softly when they were finally alone.

“Humph! Didn’t you smell the scents on that idiot’s body? That insatiable pervert was busy groping the Vaishyans that attacked him!” Lily fumed bitterly, “He lost the battle because he couldn’t control his stupid bestial lusts! Let him rot in that hole for eternity!”