Fire and Flame

"Are you serious? You and your posse had more than enough funding to make sure that you brought them here alive!" Envano yelled, enraged that Falael and Rinomve were not standing in front of her.

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, they outsmarted us." Uzohr said, bowing so low that his nose touched the stone floor. Envano stood up. "The Melarin girl was also with them." This made her shake with fury.

"I gave you every chance to complete a simple mission. Overlooked every mistake you made." She grabbed his chin. "But this last failure is just that. Your last." She took out a long, thin, bone handled knife inlaid with mother-of-pearl and traced it along the wizard's jugular. "Say hello to hell for me." She jabbed the knife into his throat.

"Servants!" Envano called, wiping the blade against the sleeve of her robe, making the purple fabric turn off-black. "Clean up this mess, and find me a new wizard. We will be needing their assistance."

"Yes, Your Majesty." The room started swarming with servants, and in an instant the pool of blood that had formed disappeared.

As nice as her throne room was, Envano couldn't appreciate it. Where is the Ablundite? She wondered, as she walked out of the room and into her office. Oh how she wished that she was at home, in Thoasia. She settled herself down at the ebony black desk, simply adorned with her leather bound journal, a pot of ink and a few quills. She opened the journal, and found a blank page.

Everything is not going as planned, she wrote. Falael still lives. Uzohr is useless. Now my own kin has betrayed me. I need to come up with another plan.

"Your Majesty!" one of the many palace servants called. "They are here." The messenger appeared on the doorframe, breathless. "The Oblivion Kappa are here."

"Thank you, Syracuse. I will be there in a moment." She dismissed the servant before dipping her quill back into the ink pot.

Now all I need to do is to make peace with my enemies, She wrote. Maybe they might be of use, maybe they might even help me make this hell hole of a castle feel more like home.

She got up from the desk, straightened her skirt, and went back into the now spotless throne room, where two Oblivion Kappa stood, violent blue in the light pouring through the windows. Envano paid them no attention as she marched past them and up onto the dais that her throne sat on.

"Can I help you two gentlemen?" She asked, trying her best not to yell at them to get out of her court, or better yet, to give her the throne of Thoasia back. The usurpers bowed.

"Your Majesty, we do not mean you any harm." One of them started.

"Tell that to my dead sister." She shot back. What ever they wanted, she wasn't going to make it easy for them, and she certainly wasn't going to make friends with the bastards.

"We sincerely apologies if we have hurt you in any way." The other one said.

"If you are truly sorry, then you will give me the throne of Thoasia." She replied coolly. "And, you will let me kill every member of your precious royal family save two. Then we will be even." She took a long drink of the goblet of water that a servant brought over. "Now, what does that bastard of a usurper want to do with me? Cause me even more heartache?"

"No, Your Majesty. We are here to make peace."

"Peace?!" Envano laughed. "A baby killer wants to come and make peace with a mother? How peculiar!" She took a deep breath. "Asharia will have peace with Thoasia when King Dietes's head is on a pike!" She said with so much conviction she stood up from her throne. "Now get out of my court, before I do the same to your heads!" The ambassadors did just that, scurry out of her sight like the mangy dogs they were, their tails tucked between their legs.

Taking a deep breath, she steadied her shaking hands and went back to her office, settling back down at her desk.

The bastards wanted peace, she wrote. I told them we would have peace when the monster that killed my family had his head on a pike. They don't get a chance to be kind now when they are the reason that the world is the way it is.

I don't know what I am going to do in regards to my heir, seen as my nephew is going to end up dead soon. Maybe I could foster one of the many daughters of Lord Erris, seen as he is struggling to find husbands for all of them.

As for Falael Wynfir, the concept is the same, even if the actors are different. Make sure he never ends up on the throne of Asharia. I have sent for more wizards. I hope that they are all more useful than that Uzohr Tovis was, or this country will not have any of them left.

She blew gently on the page she had just finished, then closed the journal. If Falael Wynfir and the Melarin girl were going to cause trouble, then they would have a firestorm waiting for them.