Mordecai found the wording of Queen Sylphine's orders to her seneschal rather interesting. As Carmilla had noted, the wording of those orders meant that only Lord Silvander was insisting. If he failed, Queen Sylphine had not committed herself to anything more and Mordecai thought it likely she was not expecting him to succeed.

This was a test and a probe for information.

Not only a test of Carmilla but a test of the Azeria Dungeon and Court. She wanted to see what they were all capable of and Mordecai felt quite confident that Carmilla was going to put on quite the display. One that would teach him, Kazue, and Moriko a lot more about what Carmilla was truly capable of.

In her role as a floor boss, she had been limited to her abilities as a witch and never hinted at any sort of skill with weapons. But for the first time since she had awakened to her true self, she wasn't acting as a floor boss at all. She was present in the role of a princess of Azeria Court and all that she had ever learned was available to her.

Plus, she had her full complement of power as a floor boss. This area might reflect the appearance of their Zone Zero, but it was not that zone. This was their Domain and it was permeated with the power of their dungeon territory. There were no divisions or limitations, for there were no delvers. The Other Side operated by different rules of 'fairness' and the dungeon's rules took second place to them.

Honestly, if he'd realized that possibility, he might have been tempted to try this in his previous existence.

So whatever Silvander expected of the princess before him, he was going to get a whole lot more.

A glittering coin hit the ground, and the duel began. Moon-touched blades flashed at deadly speeds as the two faeries danced across the lattice of living crystal and pure white mycelium. That Lord Silvander could move with surety across such precarious footing was a testament to his skill, but Princess Carmilla had even less trouble for she belonged to this domain. This was why she had chosen such difficult terrain, she was not hindered by it in the least.

While it might not have been obvious to all of the spectators, Mordecai and Moriko were both able to quickly tell that Carmilla needed this advantage when it came to sword work alone. Even with her advantage, she was pressed to maintain an offense against Silvander. Slowly that offense slipped as she was forced to defend herself more, until a twist knocked her blade wide and there was no way that Carmilla could dodge his thrust entirely. Yet that blade found nothing but empty air.

Carmilla's suddenly tiny form swung from where Udup's large claw held her, their sizes now reversed. Before Silvander could recover from his thrust, the umbral dragon exhaled a cloud of darkness that clung to the faerie lord and leeched away his vitality. He was forced to leap away from them to get free of that dark fog and recover his footing.

But the duo pressed their advantage and Udup flung Carmilla directly at Silvander, with her sword aimed forward. Mid-flight, Carmilla swapped sizes again to make her blade a serious threat once more. Silvander managed to block the flying thrust with the flat of his blade, a maneuver that would have gotten most people killed. Even so, he was driven back several feet, sliding along smooth crystal until he gained traction against the more textured mycelium.

Now he pushed back, shoving Carmilla away and his free hand flung forward to release a spiral of ice and fire at her.

She didn't fight that shove, letting the distance between them grow before she landed. Her blade slashed down to meet the spell and break it apart, then the swamp witch retaliated by spitting a spray of poison thorns at her foe.

The duel was now one of sword and spell that clearly left Silvander scrambling to adjust. Carmilla swapped her magic freely between her older faerie spells and her newer witch hexes and spells. Light, sound, and illusion flew freely in both directions as did elemental spells, but disabling spells of darkness and toxins only came from Carmilla.

While many fey did have such magic, most nobility considered themselves above such things.

For the most part, Carmilla's hexes failed to take hold upon the faerie lord; his sight was briefly obscured instead of being blinded, he became disoriented for a moment instead of entirely deafened, and so on. But it was not what he expected. Their swords clashed once more and a nest of vipers exploded from her sleeve to attack the Faerie lord, forcing him to sear them with fire while Carmilla pressed her attack.

But her advantage did not last. Lord Silvander was an experienced combatant and he was quick to figure out what sort of magic he was facing. Mordecai found some amusement at Silvander's expense when the lord scowled as he figured out that he was facing witch magic themed heavily toward swamp-related spells.

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It was not aesthetically appropriate for a faerie princess to be a swamp witch.

As soon as Silvander recovered from his surprise and adapted to her tactics, he was able to press Carmilla once more. Which was when the next part of her tactic was revealed.

Udup sank his teeth into Silvander's foot.

An umbral dragon of such a tiny size was tricky to keep track of if there was the slightest bit of shadow to hide in. The lattice upon which they danced provided plenty of shadows and gave him the opportunity to attack from below.

Witch and dragon began a new assault that was incredibly difficult to defend against. Either of them could attack physically, but defending against a sword was different from defending against the swipe of a dragon's claw or the bite of his jaws. Combined with their ability to exchange sizes this created a very fluid dynamic even before one accounted for Carmilla's spells. They also tried to only fly when they were small, while Silvander was forced to to repeatedly fly for short distances without the benefit of a lighter form.

If the pair was more experienced, the battle would have ended immediately. As it was, it took several more minutes before they finally forced Silvander to yield with Udup's teeth at the lord's throat and a tiny-sized Carmilla holding onto Silvander's hair while pointing her blade into his ear.

Carmilla and Udup were both ragged, her dress torn and blood stained while her familiar had several bloody patches where he was missing scales.

Silvander was worse off in many ways and he bore more wounds than the two of them combined. But this was also a sign of his resilience and strength, he had kept his body moving with grace and power far beyond the limits most mortals could. Many seasoned warriors would simply be dead before they could have accumulated so many wounds.

But the battle was over, and the tired combatants were attended to by flying rabkin and buzzkin before being assisted to the ground. Carmilla did her best to march forward with poise, ready to declare her victory in a manner befitting a princess.

She did not get the chance.

Fuyuko had the least restraint and reached Carmilla first to wrap her arms tightly around her adoptive sister while Udup clung tightly to the faerie's shoulder. Mordecai, Moriko, and Kazue had already decided to abandon decorum for this and were only a couple of steps behind and swiftly joined the family hug. Mordecai could feel Carmilla shake and see the tears forming that she refused to shed, and he whispered to her, "Well done, we're proud of you."

Kazue and Fuyuko each told Carmilla how worried they were and Moriko praised her skill and cleverness while simultaneously threatening her with more training. This overwhelmed the last of the proud princess's defenses and she began quietly weeping with tears of happiness. Mordecai would normally have been content with this, but the event was not quite done with. He kissed Carmilla's forehead then broke free from the group hug to walk toward a confused-looking faerie lord.

"Lord Silvander," Mordecai said, "We have all witnessed Princess Carmilla's victory. Do you formally quit your claim to bring Princess Elara to Queen Sylphine and the Silver Grove Court?"

Silvander inclined his head in acknowledgment. "I do, but I am uncertain how my queen will feel about this. She will be pleased that Carmilla has finally won a bout against me, I am less certain that she will be pleased about the sort of abilities that she gained in order to do so and may have questions about how she gained this particular magic."

Mordecai smiled at him and said, "I will be happy to tell her about how a rebellious little fairy was influenced by a special visitor of ours and was quite eager to take up the role of a swamp witch, should she come in person to ask. In fact, should Queen Sylphine speak with the other pixies, I am quite certain that they would be glad to regale her with all the tales that our ratling friend told them. At least, to the best that they can recollect them. Much like their chaotic idol, they seem to have trouble keeping their various stories from mixing, but that is part of what makes them entertaining, yes?"

One did not become seneschal to a faerie queen by being a fool or an idiot unless it was of a particularly useful sort of idiocy. Given that Silvander was still alive after having worked for the queen for quite some time, he was almost assuredly not that sort of seneschal.

Watching comprehension dawn was rather entertaining. Mordecai was not above petty satisfaction for ongoing revenge at having to deal with the Faerie Courts.

"Might I know the name of this ratling friend of yours?" Lord Silvander asked in a tone that suggested he'd be happier if he didn't know. But Mordecai had dropped too many clues; ignoring the obvious question that would certainly be asked of him later would be extremely unwise.

"Of course," Mordecai replied, "My friend goes by the name of Li, though his full name is Li Zarb. There are also some titles that people like to give him, but he doesn't care for any sort of title and remains happily unaware of such things." Being bound to tell the truth did have its advantages when one spoke a direct truth that some might find difficult to believe.

"I see," Silvander replied with a sigh, "That does explain much. I will inform my lady of this of course, but I think that if she wants to know more she will wish to speak with you directly."

Mordecai nodded and said, "Naturally, I would be quite willing to host her. For now, will you not join our other guests for the feast? We have more visitors to attend to before we have the chance to attend the feast ourselves."

By the time he had returned to the pavilion, Carmilla had enough time to recover her composure, which had been part of his intent. While she pridefully wore her battle wounds and shredded clothes, she also seemed more sincerely and unreservedly happy than he'd seen her before, and Mordecai considered that to be a very good thing.

He did not doubt that much of her normal demeanor would reassert itself before too long, but now that this part of her had been exposed he was certain that Carmilla should find it much easier to find this state again.

They all returned to their thrones and chairs in order to resume properly seeing to their visitors. Their guests had at least witnessed an entertaining spectacle and had much to gossip about, which should make them happy as well as provide for some interesting and hopefully favorable reactions from the fey community.