Tama

  The Lich stopped channeling into his blue orb. I thought he might attack. Instead, he simply stood there for a moment before suddenly speaking. His voice boomed over the distance, unexpectedly softer than before. "I wish to talk to both of you. Afterwards, we will fight if you wish. But we all know your attacks are useless against me. Instead, let us be pragmatic and discuss this like mature adults."

  The words caught me entirely off guard. I almost ignored him and went to attack when I saw Saki. She was standing there, thinking. So I waited. Saki would have a plan, which meant I just needed to wait for her to decide.

  Finally, Saki spoke, her words careful. "How do we know we can trust you won't just attack us when our guard is down?" she said, her ears twitching. The chill wind blowing over the field created a chilling atmosphere.

  The Lich stared at her for a moment before responding. "You would be foolish to ever let your guard down in front of an enemy. That is when they are most likely to strike. No, I wish to talk, but that does not mean I expect either of us to be trusting."

  Another moment of silence, and Saki began walking towards the Lich. I blinked over to her and followed behind her. We reached about twenty feet from the Lich and Saki said, "Alright, talk," she said simply.

  The Lich did. "I shall start with introductions. My name is The Great and Powerful Jabrome. But that was not always my name. I used to have a different nameTrevor Nettles."

  I watched Saki tense at that and her eyes narrowed, but she said nothing. Jabrome continued. "Based on your reaction, you know my name. You know her name."

  Saki nodded once and asked, "How is any of this related to what's going on right now?"

  Jabrome responded instantly. "Because no matter who wins this fight, I need her to pay. I have knowledge that will bring you to her, that you can use to finish her once and for all. Should you lose this fight against me, I will use your bodies to fight her. But should you win, I expect you to take my place and finish her for all of us. Both living and dead, she is a disgrace to all who exist."

  Saki took a step back. She seemed stunned. "You... you want us to kill your mistress?!"

  Jabrome shook his skull. "She was never my mistress. I was her puppet before she was sealed in that accursed throne. Even now she lives on in some capacity. That is unacceptable. I have made this army to rectify that. I plan to march on the castle, kill the hero protecting her, and kill the witch myself."

  "Then why can't we all work together?" Saki asked curiously as she shifted slightly.

  "Simple, little Foxkin. I do not work with the living. I am freeing you all from your accursed lives and giving you immortality in undeath. Surrender now and join something greater than yourself. Or fight me in this futile fight and we shall see who wins. Either way, I want your promise that you will hunt down Sarah Liturgis the Demon Queen and kill her should you win by some miracle."

  Silence filled the ice-cold windy plains for what felt like an eternity. Then, Saki spoke. "Tell me where she is and how to free her from the throne. We will hunt her down and kill her ourselves once we are done here with you." She looked over to me questioningly and I nodded. She smiled back before looking serious again and turning to face the Lich.

  "Excellent. In that case, she is at her old castle, on her old throne. Tulip the hero guards her using a relic to trap her there forever. Tulip is exceptionally powerful and has trained nonstop over the years to prevent anyone from ever freeing the witch. But to kill her, she must be freed. Right now, she is in eternal torment. Something I normally would be okay with, but it does not give me the honor of murdering her for her crimes against me."

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  "I had heard she was very... controlling," Saki said casually. "That she used domination magic liberally." Even as she spoke, I saw the tips of her fingers glowing purple, but I didn't see the ball anywhere.

  "Yes, she did. She used us all as playthings for whatever her little heart desired. What a disgusting creature. Her form might have been human, but her soul was black." Jabrome said. The chill had somehow gotten worse as we stood there and for a moment, it intensified before calming down.

  Saki nodded knowingly and commented, "What are the chances your undead army will lose while we are fighting?"

  Jabrome's horrible laugh echoed through the plains. Both Saki and I flattened our ears and winced in pain. "Do you truly think of yourself as a clever girl? That I would not plan for your goblins? No, once I am done here, I will cleanse them of their runes and add to my army."

  Saki shrugged and said, "Well, I did try. You had to admit that at least."

  "Indeed, you did. Now that I have your promise, this chat is over. Prepare yourself, little fox," Jabrome said as he brought his staff up. I grabbed Saki, and after a moment she yelled "Now!"

  I blinked instantly, teleporting us directly above Jabrome. He looked up at us and pointed a finger. An icicle formed on it as he spoke. "Do you think being in the air will save you?" he said mockingly.

  Saki yelled back as she snapped her fingers. "Nope, just keeping you distracted."

  For a split second everything seemed to freeze. Then a massive ball of void energy suddenly flew up from underneath Jabrome. He wasn't able to fully dodge and a massive portion of his body was simply erased, leaving only his skull and right arm.

  He fired the icicle, but I had already blinked behind him. Saki grabbed his skull. I watched as her fingers began to freeze and decay while she held it. Purple began to eat into the skull as Saki tried to hold it still.

  Then a blue orb appeared around us. I looked over to see Trevor’s right hand still holding the staff. The ball was glowing strongly. The blue orb covered all three of us. I quickly swung down on the blue orb. The ball cracked, then the energy started going crazy.

  "No! What have you done!" I heard Jabrome say.

  I turned to face his skull and pointed Serenity at him. "Nya, Tama has stopped your magic pow..." Before I could finish the sentence, everything went black.

  I felt pain. So much pain, more pain than when sensei would starve me for days to teach me humility. That hunger was nothing compared to the mind-numbing pain that etched every inch of my body.

  Then I was laying down on something hard and wet. I opened my eyes, and everything around me was very dark. I heard water running. "Saki?" I said, but there was no response. I tried to stand but there was a sharp pain in my head and I laid back down.

  After what felt like an eternity of me pulling my water all over myself, I felt like I could stand again, so I did. I looked around the extremely dimly lit cavern. There was water dripping everywhere and a waterfall across the room in an alcove. It didn't look natural.

  Pillars covered the room. They showed really pretty glowing lines that looked like pictures all up and down them. The shine was low from these, but it's what gave the cavern its light glow instead of pitch blackness.

  "Saki?" I called out again, but there was no response. I felt my tail curl around my leg and my ears twitch. I didn't know where I was, but I didn't like it. What happened to Saki? What happened to that Jabrome guy? Where... where was I?

  I heard footsteps; They were far away but I heard them. Then a voice spoke. The voice sounded like a goblin. I tensed. I was friends with Grok and his tribe, but there were lots of goblin tribes.

  Grok would tell me about them. He said many were not like him. They were mean and dirty. I didn't know how since Grok is usually covered in dirt and only wears a cloth around his waist when he isn't in combat. But Grok was honorable. He wouldn't lie!

  I got closer, darting from pillar to pillar, blinking to each one silently as I got closer. A few pillars in I could hear their words. "Chief Trukar said we look, so we look!" one of the goblin voices said.

  The other replied, "Chief is stupid. He hears noise and sends us running. We have guards for a reason!"

  Their footsteps drew closer. I imagined the loud noise had probably been me. But I didn't make any noise even when I laid back down. That meant whatever brought me here, most likely that magic staff thingy, had made lots of noise when dropping me here.

  A light came from a hallway. There were a couple of those, but unlike the cavern, they were all pitch black. The light flickered, meaning torch of some kind. I smiled. First, we talk. Then I kill.

  I waited until the goblins passed. As that's what they were as they left the hallway. Slowly walked past the pillar I was hiding behind. I was inside of a shadow and they utterly missed me.