I am woken up by a young woman and I notice that other than her I’m the last person in the amphitheater and I sleepily ask, “What time is iiiiiiiit?”
She giggles at me just a little before replying, “It’s your turn sleepy little fox, go down to the hallway and it’s the first door on the left,” She tells me while pushing on my back.
On my way there I make sure that I haven’t drooled down the front of my shirt and that my skirt is straight. As I walk into the room I look around and notice that the floors and walls are cracked in quite a few areas, there are scorch marks on the ceilings, and judging by the glass on the floor, none is left in the windows. A rather exhausted looking council is sitting at a table in front of me.
The head of the council looks up at me with a bit of shock on his face; apparently he thought he was done for the day. In fact everyone except for the woman that was watching me earlier is a bit shocked by my entrance.
The head of the council shrugs his shoulders before starting to speak to me, “Well Miss…” he pauses and begins looking through the papers on his desk.
“Lily,” I interrupt his search.
“Ah yes of course,” He pauses again and gives me a questioning look before continuing ,“Lily…”
“Just Lily,” I sigh to him having played this game many times in the past.
He gives me a curious look before continuing, “All Right Miss Lily, what are you going to have us evaluate?”
I look around the room for something intact enough to use and notice a Ginbow table in the corner. I turn to the head of the councilor and ask, “Would you care for a class of Ginbow?”
He looks even more surprised at my suggestion than when I walked in, before looking at Captain Bargas and asking, “Would you be so kind as to move the table for the young lady?”
To which he replies, “It would be my honor”
As he is moving the table and chairs around so that it can be seen by the other members of the council, who are now setting their chairs closer to the center to get a good seat whispering to each other trying to figure out what my intentions are, I walk over to the refreshment table and grab two cups filled with wine when I turn around the councilor has taken his seat and I take mine while handing him a cup, which he sits down beside him.
“Rules?” he asks.
“Queens,” I reply.
“Ah a good system, seldom seen used by one as young as you.”
“Wagers?” I ask.
He Replies, “Knights.”
“May fortune favor the brave.”
“Fortune may favor the brave.”
And thus our game begins. I open by moving a squire from my castle to the field and a knight to my rampart before cutting my turn. My opponent responds by placing a yew man at his doors, and an archer in his tower. From the mountains I draw a dragon and a nymph from the river.
...
Our game continues for over forty turns with no loss on either side just positioning and re-positioning. Tiny threats, and small skirmishing forces that don't ever meet are the most exciting events that have taken place. On my next turn I place a scout upon the field and my opponent smiles ever so slightly, and I cut my turn.
“Your first mistake, I am quite impressed it took this long for you to lose a piece,” He says, “You know I am a master at Ginbow.” He tells me while moving a werebeast from cover to take my scout, followed by a knight, and he moves a battalion to my castle doors before cutting his turn. “It is a shame for you but this match is going to fall onto my side,” He declares while taking his first drink of wine.
I laugh a little bit before telling him, “Ah but this game was over ten turns ago, and my evaluation is just beginning.” I smile as I use the tunnel my soldiers had dug to crack the floor and flood his castle with a mass force of Elfin warriors to take victory from him, and he just sits there looking shocked, never suspecting that to have happened and he takes a big gulp of his wine.
“Well that was done quite wonderfully” Lady Ledoux claps “but I am still not sure what skills beyond a high level of intelligence and creativity you have so that we can properly place you. And you didn’t declare on your entrance papers either?”
“Ah but like I just said my evaluation is just beginning,” I smile and place an empty vial from my sleeve onto the Ginbow table between myself and the councilor. “By now I’m sure you have noticed the tingling in your fingers, and thus our real game begins,” I tell him, “This vial could have contained a mixture of my own creation designed to paralyze, and kill my target; or it could just be a harmless trick using Illusion Magiks.”
Now the entire room has gone silent and is watching me, “Now this vial,” I say while pulling another from my other sleeve, “would contain the antidote to the previous vial.”
Captain Bargas steps towards me and begins to draw his sword, “You will give me that vial you little harlot or I will-”
I cut him off by waving my finger at him and holding the vial loosely above the floor, “I’m not done explaining the rules of our little game.” I smile to him, which stops him in his tracks. “Now where was I…? Oh yes that’s right, this vial contains the antidote to my mixture, but only if you actually drank the poison that is... if not… well it can have quite the opposite effect,” I smile across the table at the councilor, “And another thing if you did ingest my poison, once the symptoms progress up your arms it is unlikely that the antidote will help. And thus our game is born.”
In the time I have been explaining how my concoctions work Lady Ledoux has stepped around the table and is beginning to channel her magiks, and drawing sigils to try and counter act what might not even be there.
Captain Bargas now has his sword fully drawn and is now standing over top of me with a gleam in his eye that screams he just wants a reason to hurt something, the only thing keeping him from moving is my threat of breaking the vial. Master is sleeping propped against the table where she slumped over during the game of Ginbow.
Alice Ledoux is now in her less solid form, “Maybe one day I will actually ask an Undine what they call their forms, or if they even refer to them as forms for that fact,” and is running back and forth behind the table in a panic as to what to do. Hunter and Nathan have moved to the doors to block any attempted escape.
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The only calm person amongst the council is the albino woman that was watching me earlier, and she is now watching me more intently.
While swirling the vial in a small circle, I look over across the table and ask, “So what is it going to be?”
Lady Ledoux claims, “I think she is bluffing, I can’t find any traces of a poison in his system. I could try and flush his system with energy but that might not end well, especially if there isn’t anything there, which I don’t think there is.”
“But what if she is using Illusion Magiks to hide the traces from you?” Alice asks her in a panicked voice.
“Can Illusion Magiks even be used like that?” Nathan asks from across the room.
“I…I don’t know. I have always assumed like everyone else that Illusions are relatively useless,” Lady Ledoux admits.
“They can,” the paleborn woman finally speaks up, “If the caster is powerful enough.”
“So then all you have to do is scan for magical residue and we will have our answer correct?” Bargas asks.
“In theory…yes,” the paleborn replies after thinking for a few moments, “I have heard that Kitsune that are well versed in that school leave a specific signature in their Illusions.”
“Ah but therein lies the next part of our game,” I speak up as I quickly begin drawing sigils on the table behind the illusions from the game forcing it to be my catalyst even if I burn it out now. I cast several illusions of myself around the room doing different things such as drinking a glass of wine, sleeping on the table, and looking down from the chandelier among other things.
“As you should be able to figure out, by the sheer number of illusions in the room,” to whicha dozen of me wave and curtsy to the center of the room, “that you will not be able to actually detect residue from such a small spell behind the mass of that casting, and any previous activation sigils would have just seemed a part of the Ginbow game and would be impossible to differentiate.” I laugh just a little bit before continuing, “And really what’s to say that I have even been in this room since the beginning of the match, that I haven’t been standing outside of the room looking in hmm?” Impressively this causes even the paleborn woman to pale just a little bit more.
“What doesss she mean?” Hunter hisses from the corner
“It means that it is possible that we have been holding a phantom here this entire time, and that the real one could have left at any time since she sat down,” Lady Ledoux says through clenched teeth.
“That isn’t possible” Nathan exclaims from the side door, “Don’t you think one of us would have noticed a door opening and closing?”
“Not if she never closed the door in the first place,” Alice states, “Think back does anyone remember the door closing after she entered.”
“This little Undine is more observant than the others,” I praise her.
“No I was too surprised by having another evaluation, and by her unusual suggestion,” Lady Ledoux admits with down cast eyes, and everyone else shakes their heads as well.
I slowly begin releasing my Magik letting my illusions fade out of existence one by one until the only one in the room is over by the table with the glass of wine, and with a wink and laugh, I disrupt the last sigil and let the illusion drinking her glass of wine fade away. Almost everybody breaths a small sigh of relief that I am where I appear to be. “Tick, Tock not much time left upon the clock,” I sing across the table.
Finally making his decision the councilor reaches down to the table and unstops the bottle and pauses for just a moment before drinking it in one quick gulp, and he quickly makes a wretched face as the taste of the vial hits him, “What in the retches is this?” he swears to me finally breaking his silence.
I clap and tell them while laughing, “Congratulations my game wasn’t real but it was worth it to find a few things out, and its alcohol- or so the Dullahans keep trying to convince me. Personally I'm not sure I believe them.”
“Wait what do you mean it wasn’t even real?” Bargas asked me his anger on the rise again.
The albino woman started to laugh as well, “It means exactly how it sounds this was all just a game to her, and she was just using her illusions to twist us around her finger.”
“And thus I have shown you a few tricks from my bag and my evaluation is complete,” I smile and head toward the door, “Oh and one more thing if I had any intention to actually poison any of you, you should remember that I will never refer to it as a game. Now if you will excuse me I have a date to attend.”
I rush out of the room before they can recover from their shock, and back into the entryway where I spy Melodiana sitting on the bench we used earlier with a small package wrapped up next to her. I wave at her once I catch her attention and she gives a nervous little wave in return. When I get over to her I ask, “So where are we going for dinner?”
“A… about that,” she starts, “Everywhere close that serves food closed about an hour ago.” She tells me not quite looking at me, and I can quite audibly hear my stomach growl and apparently she can as well because she continues almost immediately after, “But I got you this, I know it isn’t anything special and I couldn’t get any cake either, but I promise I’ll make it up to you properly, and if you are willing to wait until the beginning of the week I can even take you to a new café that is opening up down on the street that will have really amazing food.” She tells me in one breath while shoving the package out in my direction with her head down.
I take the package, and sniff at it a little and determine it to be chicken, a bit over cooked but I’m hungry enough to eat it. “How can you be certain that it will serve amazing food?” I ask her while sitting down on the bench next to her and start to untie the cloth.
“Because I know the person that will be opening the café and she has always been an amazing cook.”
“And how am I supposed know that you aren’t just trying to trick me into going somewhere that you can get a discount?” I ask and look through the box of food before looking over at her and asking, “What are these?” while pointing to the light brown roll like lumps of bread in the box.
“I gave you my word that I would take you somewhere good, so I will,” She declares with a bit of a hurt look in her eyes, ah that’s right I sigh to myself, “And they are meat buns, they aren’t really the best but they are acceptable.”
I pick one up and give it another suspicious sniff, confirming once again that its chicken I smell before I take a bite of it and then a start searching around for something to drink because it is very dry, and Melodiana passes me a cup of wine after realizing what I was searching for. After I take a drink I mutter to her under my breath, “Thanks.”
After I finish eating I notice her staring at me with an expectant look on her face out of the corner of my eye. After a few moments of silence she asks me, “So… how were they?”
“Decent enough, dry and over cooked but edible and chicken isn’t my favorite but thanks for the meal.”
“What do you mean you don’t like chicken? Aren’t your people like foxes? And foxes like chicken right?” she asks in a flurry with a confused look on her face.
I laugh at her, which causes her to scowl at me and I tell her, “I didn’t say I don’t like chicken I just prefer other things like fish and fruits, and I am only look similar to a fox in my ears and tails, and I consider myself to be a Succubus, unless it is convenient for me to say otherwise. Anyway let’s start heading home,” I say while standing up and stretching.
“Okay,” She says with a slight look of disbelief on her face and she stands up and we start walking. “Oh and by the way he said his family makes medicines, so he works with it a lot,” I give her a confused look and she continues, “Michael Palter.”
“Who?” I ask.
“The young man you asked about earlier, the one you said smells like Jimsonweed.”
“Oh him.”
…
…
“That’s all you have to say for yourself?” she asks me with exasperation in her voice.
I flip a tail up at her as we walk out the door, “You can’t really mean I’m supposed to remember people I haven’t even properly met can you?” I ask her while noting that the sun had set quite a while ago but Milta hasn’t risen yet, I couldn’t tell from the evaluation room because the windows were set too high in the ceiling to see out of properly.
“No I guess not,” she sighs to me.
“Well let’s get back to the house. Do you know how long until they decide where to place us?” I ask her.
“It will take them two to three days to go through all the evaluation papers,” She tells me before asking, “Didn’t you pay attention to what they said at the end of your evaluation?”
“Nope, I left in a bit of a hurry. So let me guess you declared knight on your application right?”
“Yes. It is a very honorable profession to have, but I fear I will not be placed there,” She says while looking down.
“And what did you do that was so bad that they wouldn’t take you on?” I ask to satisfy my curiosity, while also choosing to not crush her fantasies that they are anything other than glorified mercenaries.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” She tells me with a gloomy atmosphere around her.
“Well, I’m certain wherever you did can’t be as bad as what I just pulled,” I tell her laughing at the memory of how the council reacted, and she looks over at me but I just wave it off and we walk in silence the rest of the way back through the housing district.