Jennifer and Lachersia had finally returned to Jennifer’s room. Or Jennifer’s two-story apartment, judging by its size.

The little girl showed signs of fatigue, so she awkwardly stumbled in and went straight to her bed but was intercepted by the maids that led her to the changing room.

Lachersia was a bit sad that she wouldn’t get to see more of Jennifer wearing today’s outfit. It simply suited her too well: it was a mix of an empire-waist dress, in the sense that it gathered at the slimmest part of the torso, creating a flattering effect, a ball gown, in the sense that it hit the floor and came with a great many frills and a standard Empire-style mage robe, in the sense that it was very loose-fitting, came with very large sleeves and had a long cap with a hood attached to it. Its main colours were black and white, which were used in many patterns like stripes and checkers.

While not the most comfortable to wear or walk around in, it looked very good on Jennifer. She also wore long black gloves, various hair ornaments and many other things to the point where she resembled a doll more than a human. Still, it looked wonderful. About as wonderful as the results of the audience.

Lachersia was very content with how the audience went. Remembering the awkward atmosphere of all the people in the room that were so surprised at the heroine’s words that were appropriate and yet very much inappropriate, she wanted to giggle wickedly.

Of course, she would not explain Jennifer how addressing the king as “the ruler of the people” instead of simply “the king” or “Your Majesty” came with the implication that she didn’t consider him to be a king or how saying “I agree to guide the people to salvation and peace, as the heroine of this generation” instead of “I promise to bring the people salvation and peace” as she was supposed to could be interpreted in a very extreme case as “I will not be sacrificing myself for the people, I’ll simply guide them and only because I have been forced into the role of the heroine of this generation” or something similar. Not to mention how saying that she would “guide the people” to the king of a nation is very offensive but still not inappropriate in the context of the conversation.

If Lachersia didn’t know any better, she would think that Jennifer wanted to deviously pit her against the king and make them lose trust in each other after Lachersia suggested that she call the king “the ruler of the people” and Jennifer figured out that Lachersia might be not satisfied with how things are running. But of course, she wouldn't put such suspicions on a child like Jennifer.

She, of course, understood that the way the audience went could very easily put her against the king’s faction but she also knew that the audience would be distributed throughout the kingdom exactly as it went, which would make many rumours float and it also will attract attention of the church and other countries, so the kingdom will not be able to act unreasonably with Jennifer, and it was worth whatever repercussions that could come her way. Most importantly, it also made her responsible for Jennifer, which would mean that she would be able to act as Jennifer’s guardian and even take her away to live at her residence, which would be a very much desired outcome.

Very much desired indeed.

Being as it was, it would be not wise for the king’s faction to get in Lachersia’s way. She was one of the only three Grand Mages of the kingdom, one of the most powerful types of mages who would be equivalent in power to a corps of around 30 thousand ordinary soldiers in favourable conditions. While a direct conflict was unlikely, it was always better for a wise ruler to make some concessions to such valuable personnel that could defend the kingdom in case of war or a massive disaster.

Besides, the conflict wasn’t on too big of a scale and there were not any hard feelings involved, so unless the king and his close aides were idiots, which they weren’t, they would bend.

Ah, today was surely a beautiful day! She would let Jennifer rest today and prepare her mansion by tomorrow. She couldn’t wait. Things were going really, really well.

***

The Capital of Gyr’Canak is believed to be the most beautiful city in the world. Built on the shore of the sea with the price of many lives and resources, its history, as appropriate for the Capital of the largest Empire in the Union, spans for countless centuries and is one of the most precious objects of cultural heritage in all of humanity.

It’s also the biggest city in the world: over the centuries it has been rebuilt and destroyed and rebuilt again, resulting in a chaotic environment where it would be very easy for the people arriving in it for the first time to be lost. Orderly blocks of buildings replaced by sporadically placed mansions, manors, castles and churches. Arcs, statues, canals, aqueducts, museums, theatres, libraries, public and private schools and academies, entire districts dedicated to the trade of a specific product and mage towers that seem to reach the very skies created a monumental mosaic puzzle where it was hard even for the locals to navigate.

Crowds flooding the tight streets, carriages coming and going all over the place, many cultures and races appearing here and there, ships and other large vessels filling the ports to the brim, the city is so full of life, it can be very tough to adapt to is insane rhythm sometimes.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Many notable figures were born there. Famous writers, poets, artists, actors, architects whose legacy is spread world-wide and whose works are considered to be classic would with pride declare that the Capital was their home. It’s the holy ground for culture, religion and trade.

That’s why it was so ironic that in the centre of this city that was bustling with life, the greatest necromancer and death magician that the world has seen so far was summoned.

Unlike most other mages that have reached their heights of power in order to pursue the truth about the world or in order to follow their convictions, necromancers have the reputation of uncouth and crude mages that have stepped on the noble path of magic in order to satisfy their primitive lust for power and very much earthly desires.

When it comes to the legends of the strongest necromancers on mostly any world, they would usually tell about insane kings and emperors that were afraid of death and, in order to quickly achieve immortality, sold their souls to the Dark Deities, or about power-hungry tyrants that raised legions of the dead to spread their banners to all corners of their planet or simply about insane people who wished for death and destruction or revenge.

Eliza, in that regard, was a very non-typical practitioner of the forbidden art. Even in her previous life, before she was chosen by the Overseer of the Cycle, she had devoted her very being to the teachings of the Dark Deities she venerated and worshipped. They had protected her people and allowed her race to prosper. Their methods were cruel and twisted but never unjust. They demanded much but always repaid in kind. And they had never failed her.

She began to practice necromancy and death magic as a way to proceed further in her understanding of their ways, nothing more. If one forgot about the many battlefields that were thoroughly soaked with blood because of her, she could even be called a saint. A very evil and psychotic saint yes, but nobody needs for their worshipped Gods to be considered “Dark” to be one as well.

Before she knew it, she had achieved a level of mastery in necromancy that would be equal to a traditional Grand Mage and was offered by her world’s sole Archmage a way to trick death by reincarnating on another planet where magic would have almost no effect.

There were many clauses and conditions in their deal that were rather restraining for her. Such as not leaving the planet she would be reincarnated to for the next 600 years at the minimum. Or not taking the planet over, not spreading the teachings of her Gods, not acting too high-profile, not influencing the planet’s population’s development directly too much, not spreading the knowledge of magic more than her quota allowed, not causing more death per year than her quota allowed, not performing human experimentation on a scale greater than 600 people per project, not influencing the government of the planet directly, not over flooding the planet’s market with materials created or acquired by magic, presenting all of her large-scale projects to the planet’s Mage committee for approval, not killing, crippling, traumatizing, or brainwashing other magicians and many other conditions.

As expected, her stay at her new residence wasn’t very pleasing or interesting. The society of Earth was developed rather well, though in an odd way, and their technology, though subpar and underwhelming in its performance, was creative in its realization. Other than that, Earth was a backwater world where she had to spend a good part of her new life. The future was as bleak as it could get. She could distract herself by kidnapping some unfortunate human and entertaining herself in ways the primitives of Earth would find immoral and repulsive, though for her race and religion it was both sacred and honourable.

Not that she expected the barbarians to understand the sacredness and beauty of the struggle and pain that her victims went through just to keep staying alive and the holiness of death.

It was in this manner that she came across her fated person.

She kept him in captivity for a week, which he took surprisingly well, and after many conversations and interactions, she found herself unable to kill him. Even inflicting torture on him wasn’t even a quarter as pleasant and relaxing as it was when she did it to other humans. But she still found that the thought of him staying by her side lifted her mood and made her stay on Earth not as unpleasant as it used to be.

The things she took no notice of before began taking a lot of her attention. Sometimes she would feel happy, sometimes sad. She would feel lonely when she was alone. She would feel embarrassed when he would compliment her or even look at her. She would find it funny when she noticed him feeling the same. She was relieved knowing that he wouldn’t judge her and understand her. It all was strange and very sudden for her.

She was happy. And he was genuinely happy to be with her too, as some of the mental probes she performed on him showed. It was a bizarre happy and sad, good and bad, lovely and painful state, a feeling, an emotion, a desire unknown to her before. It was what they called… love.

A trivial argument got in their way. Perhaps the differences between their views and values were too great, as her loved one, her fated one readily abandoned what they had together for the sake of another person. Another person that harboured the same feelings as she did. Unforgivable.

She couldn’t understand it even though she spent days trying. The memories of the past would replay over and over in her head. The good memories and the bitter ones. Why? What went wrong? Is that person, no, that thing more important than her? Another previously unknown emotion emerged. Jealousy.

Who was she? She was a powerful magician of one rank right below Archmage. If she wanted something she would get it. If she wanted to change the past then she would do so. If she wanted to have her loved one to herself, she would. Isn’t it simple? Leaving her? It was as impossible for him as leaving the planet he lived on.

Which, as it turned out wasn’t impossible for him at all. Both the former and the latter. She spent years trying to find him but he seemingly evaporated, all traces lost. Not the local powers neither her connections to the mages residing on the planet could get even a clue about his whereabouts.

And now that she was taken from Earth, she found out that perhaps her search scope was too small.