Nitiri lifted a vial full of turquoise liquid up to her eye and carefully poured a few drops of green fluid into it. A reddish steam started to billow off the top. She wrinkled her nose and held her breath until it stopped producing gas.
“Vark maï bok rantak,"[i] she said in a clear tone.
Her hand started to glow red with heat, and the liquid started to bubble, creating more of the foul-smelling steam. She cringed and stared at the concoction for a few seconds, then gulped it down and set the vial on the table. The effect was immediate. Liquid fire burned through her body, scorching arteries, organs, and muscles. She wailed, and her body went into shock. Her skin pulled back, and her hands shrank and perfected themselves. A dark cloud surrounded her body as magic warped her being. Then, quite unexpectedly, everything went silent.
Nitiri lay on the floor, blinking back tears. She had never liked using potions; they were always painful. When she finally found the strength to move, she looked at her hands and tentatively bent her fingers to make sure the joints were moving correctly.
She sat up slowly and looked down at her clothes, which were much looser than before. Abruptly, she realized her ring was missing from her finger. She looked around desperately, knowing it had to be nearby. She sighed in relief as she spotted the silver circle on the ground. Nitiri realized it was too big for her new, dainty hand, so she took the insignificant diamond and gold pendant from her neck and strung the silver and pearl ring onto the chain. After she secured the necklace’s clasp, she inspected herself in a looking glass on the wall. She was a young woman again, in the prime of her youth.
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She smirked at her reflection. She was proud of herself for pulling off the complex potion. There was a steep risk of failing, but she had prevailed. The effects should last about a week or two, which was long enough for her purposes. She had already convinced the kingdom that the princess had ran away. The people had mourned her, and search parties were sent to all corners of the kingdom. Alas, the tiny princess was still missing. Unfortunately, her men had no luck locating the little girl either, even though she’d sent agents to search all the surrounding towns. She pushed their failures away so she could avoid the rage that typically followed.
Buffoons. I should have known I couldn’t trust anyone to properly execute such a plan, she thought.
It was time she took matters into her own hands. She had spent the last few months amassing and training her army, and the people were looking for someone to accuse for their misfortune. All she had to do was kill the prince of Amora. If the beloved jewel of the Amorian kingdom died and Lur Alava was blamed, then a war would follow. The Amorian royal family would be destabilized, and they would throw together their army without planning so their temperamental king could charge into a full-out invasion. Nitiri’s fortified defenses along the road coupled with her strategic plans to whittle away and crush the king’s army on her home turf would be successful. Conquering Amora would be easy, and no other kingdom would step in if the Amorians were the aggressors. She would establish rule over them with false promises of proxy leaders and fair agreements before slowly tightening her grip. All the while, she could build her army in preparation for attacks on other kingdoms.
She smiled widely at her reflection. Soon, everything would fall to her.