by Mia Archer
She was sure the mages out there in the city could feel it as well, but they were close enough to that maelstrom that they couldn’t feel the subtle distinction between what was happening over their heads and what was happening in the village below.
That and they were idiots. Of course they wouldn’t be able to see what was obvious to her. That was part of the reason why she’d burned their damn city down around them.
Jaska smiled. Then she threw her head back and laughed. She couldn’t help herself. It looked like her joke nearly two decades ago was finally paying off, and she was going to get to witness the opening chaos that little joke had caused.
It couldn’t have worked out more perfectly. Sure there was the tiny problem that the one person in the whole world who could supposedly defeat her had come into a hell of a lot of power, but if she didn’t miss her guess that power was going to cause more trouble than the burning inferno of Choikal before this was all done.
She figured if there was a chosen one out there destined to stop her then the least she could do was make that chosen one’s life as difficult as possible.
Speaking of. The hint of a smile curled up at the edges of her lips as she thought of some more fun she could have this night at the expense of her future adversary. The girl had come into her power, so there was no point holding back form giving her a reason to go after Jaska.
It was time to let loose.
She closed her eyes. In a moment she was in the village. Standing below a small home in a row of small homes. It brought to mind the night she’d burned Choikal, with one key difference.
There was a bright glow coming from the windows. A glow that confirmed her little joke had finally come to fruition. She smiled. That was good to know.
Also? She heard shouting in the distance. A low rumble, as though there was a large group gathered somewhere near. That also brought to mind that fateful night. She closed her eyes again and found herself standing atop a building in a town square.
“The Dark Lady is no worry of yours!” a balding sweating man on a platform in the middle of a crowd shouted. “None at all! She’s stuck behind her armies in the Twisted Lands, and that’s all any of you need to worry about!”
“The mages will bring the Dark Lady again!” someone shouted. “Burn them all!”
“Now how many times…”
Whatever the balding man had been about to say was cut off as Jaska stepped off of the building and over the crowd. First one, then a few, noticed a woman in dark robes walking over them. They all stared up in terror until eventually she stood over the sweating bald man.
She regarded the crowd. Smiled. Held her hands up and began working a spell. A glow that wasn’t all that different from what she’d seen in that room started at her hands, and a mist gathered with creatures moving within.
“Hello everyone,” she said, looking at them all. “I’m afraid I have good and bad news for you.”
They stared. She’d hoped someone would give her the line she’d been looking for. She shot a glare at the bald sweating man. He seemed to realize something was expected of him, so he cleared his throat and spoke despite the fact that his nightmares had just walked into their midst and was hovering over him.
“Um, what would that be?” he asked.
“Well the good news is there is no chance the mages at that school will ever bring the Dark Lady down on you,” Jaska said. “We don’t really get along after what I did to Choikal.”
A gasp from the crowd. Surely some of them had hoped she wasn’t who they thought she was, but she’d just confirmed their worst nightmares. Though oddly they didn’t run. That was a curious response Jaska had noted many times in a long career filled with death and destruction. The tendency for people to freeze when they saw their worst nightmares walking.
“And the bad news?” baldy asked.
“The bad news is there are no mages necessary to bring my attention,” she said. “And unfortunately you’re all about to have a very bad night in service of a long running practical joke I’m playing on one of your residents.”
She moved her hands just so. The monstrosities that’d been gathering in the glowing mist above the villagers, a mist they’d ignored because they were so terrified at seeing the Dark Lady in their midst, descended on those unsuspecting villagers.
Jaska smiled as the screams started. Oh yes, this was going to make the joke so much more amusing than it already was.
Also by Mia Archer
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