4

Mallius stood beside his master in the potion room. The witch and her goon peered through the old, dirtied window at the distant kingdom. Calliope was gone now, somewhere in the castle, preparing herself for her final trip to Librona, fresh with Scarletta's latest potion flowing through her.

Mallius turned and inspected the table in the center of the room. His gaze drifted across the vials and rested on a peculiar empty bottle. He sniffed at the air, recognizing a familiar scent of a potion Scarletta had used before.

Scarletta turned to Mallius and smiled. "Nothing gets past you," she said proudly.

"An older potion? Is that what you gave her?"

Scarletta nodded and approached the table.

"She'll barely get to Alryn with that," he commented.

Scarletta smiled. "She won't get far at all. She's flawed, Mallius. Strong, but flawed. She's useless to me, except to help me administer the spell I need."

"But what about the rest of the kingdom? She won't be able to get through on that."

"I don't think she intends to. I don't think she intends to return to me."

"Like Samus," Mallius said.

Scarletta nodded. "Yes, she's much like Samus, unfortunately. But I won't make the same mistake I did last time; I won't let her escape. She'll drain herself quicker than ever, before she gets a chance to leave the kingdom, and when she does, I will use her one last time to administer my spell."

"Is it ready?" Mallius asked anxiously.

"Almost. I've had to tweak it several times, but I'm certain I almost have it right. I'll test it out tomorrow, and by then, Calliope should be just as weak as every without her magic."

"What if the kingdom gets to her first?"

"I don't care if she lives or dies, Mallius. She is disposable to me. If she dies, I have other resources; other witches I can make. One way or another, I will have my immortality, and Librona will finally pay for their treatment of witches and wizards. This world will be a world of magic once again, just as it was meant to be, and just as it was so many years ago."

Mallius smiled eagerly. Finally, after all these years of helping his master, their magical world would return once more. No more mortals, no more humans; just witches and magic, the very beings that shaped the world they knew it to be today. Scarletta had only heard the stories passed down from her mother; stories of a world once inhabited only by witches and wizards. Stories – or perhaps only legends – of ancient witches who came together to create the land they thrived in. But soon the witches and wizards of that world were banished; only the strongest, the quickest, and the smartest escaped, living in hiding for many years amongst the humans that soon followed their existence. The witches never forgot the world they once lived in, roaming freely amongst each other. Scarletta yearned for that world, before the witches were banished and the humans took over. She was ready to sacrifice everything to get that world back and avenge her mother's death at Librona's hands.

*****

Calliope stood outside Scarletta's castle, looking into the dark forest. King Sloan's castle stood nestled in the middle of the kingdom, overlooking the kingdom's capital, Alryn. Talmond, now black with ash, lay crippled in the west, just under the shadows of the mountains that marked the kingdom's north-western jagged borders. Smoke lingered from the attack, nearly suffocating the survivors as they examined the ash ridden remains of their town.

Halas was not much further from Talmond, resting almost due north of the kingdom, beyond Alryn. They, too, lay in a similar state as their neighbor. Calliope tried to envision the rest of the kingdom before her. A few smaller villages and towns remained scattered across the kingdom. The little village of Esmon stood quietly just outside the forest to the east, separated from the rest of the kingdom by the Caseitas River. She followed the river on the invisible map before her with her eyes until it brought her to the ocean, marking Librona's north-eastern boundary. Somewhere along the cost rested a tiny village inhabited by fishermen and sea merchants – surely a vital component to the kingdom's success. The name Vrien was scribbled on an old map in Scarletta's castle.

Librona relied on a prosperous kingdom just across the sea. Scarletta had a plan for that kingdom as well, and although Calliope knew why Scarletta sought revenge on Librona and Asmar, Scarletta kept her other plans a secret from her witches.

Calliope didn't know what land hid beyond the sea's horizon, or even much beyond the kingdoms of Librona and Asmar, only that Asmar rested on the other side of the mountains beyond Librona. The kingdom was a mystery to her. Calliope heard Scarletta speak of it only a few times during her short life, but usually only in passing. They were the kingdom that aided Librona over the years in their war against Scarletta. Calliope suspected that there was a bigger reason – a secret that Scarletta kept – for Scarletta's plot against Asmar. Asmar would be their next target; Scarletta's next target. Her heart ached in her chest for the unsuspecting people.

Calliope sighed and sat on the brown grass, her legs crossed under her dress. She waved her hand over a patch of dead grass, bringing it back to life in seconds. Each blade stood tall and strong, reaching to embrace the warm sunlight. Memories of the previous attacks played through her head. She flinched at each strike, spell, and sword thrust, forcing back the tears that stung her eyes. It was wrong to feel sympathy for those people. They were cruel and heartless and selfish. They were murderous and vengeful to those they could not understand. She should not shed a tear for what those people had done to her and all the witches and wizards before her.

But something pulled inside her chest, as if to reassure her of her feelings; a comfort that told her that her feelings did not make her weak. The people of the kingdom were only defending themselves from her attacks, and they were right to do so, of course. Nonetheless, she could not feel pity for the people who wronged her queen so many years ago. Surly, should she be caught, they would subject her to the same torture as they had done to her master; death would only be a gift granted to her. And should she fail, Scarletta would not come back to help her. No; Calliope was only a tool in this war. Scarletta would not waste her time on a witch that could not do the job she was created to do.

Calliope shuddered and winced in an attempt to push the thought from her mind. She picked at the new grass she had just granted life to. She plucked the blades one by one, pulling them up from their earthy home.

She couldn't bear to attack the kingdom anymore and she couldn't stand doing Scarletta's dirty work, ending innocent lives. Scarletta would destroy her if she found out Calliope betrayed her, and if she didn't, the kingdom surely would. Obeying Scarletta's every wish was her duty, her reason for life; she knew nothing else. It was the very reason for her being.

Her will to leave Scarletta, however, was strong, and it grew stronger with each passing day and with every needle that pierced into her veins, pulsing that dark magic through her body. It was all that kept her alive, and she couldn't survive without that magic tormenting her. But after years of training and stronger and stronger magic, she couldn't take it anymore. She ignored the sickening feeling in her gut and she stood tall. She didn't know where she would go, but she couldn't live under Scarletta's tyranny any longer. She sucked in a deep breath and headed into the woods without looking back.