"I'll have their heads.  That's what I'll do.  Make me come down my own Tower with your incessant knocking.  I see how it is.  Not up for a good challenge?  Ever put any thought into how much work I've put into my work?  No.  Of course you haven't you damned barely literate peasants.  Some Hero he is.  Imagine his own vision with only a fifty percent literacy rate.  Ooooooh save the world.  How about you all go and take a bath you filthy dirt mongers!"  Archibald cursed as he strode hurriedly through his tower.  All the while there was a constant clanging boom.  Archibald casually used magic to freeze and hold traps in place as he strode over them.  Monsters he had conjured, bound, and created from flesh warping magic bowed as he passed, his robes swishing with the angry pace of his stride.

   "If they ask for sugar again I'll melt their bones and turn them inside out before sending them back to the village as a flesh slime.  That's what I'll do."  Archibald assured himself.  His staff thumped the ground, a magnificent thing of the most potent magic silver ores refined in his unique magical forges.  It was covered in crystals that stored extra magic and functioned to grant him easy access to spells.  Not that he needed it.  The staff for mostly for effect, but he had made it useful anyway.  He could do any magic with just his mind, no need for chants, light shows, or great tension building rituals.  He had several such lengthy rituals planned of course, but he didn't need them.  The idea was laughable.  But he did want to give the Hero just a little hope before splattering him over the top floor of his magnificent tower.

  His staff struck the ground with the blue gem in its head glowing bright and allowing him to fly over a pit of lava as the sound of the terrible knocking grew louder and louder.

   "Dark Lord Vermatude was right.  I should have put in that elevator.  A secret elevator under the lava maybe.  They'd never find it there."  Archibald mused to himself as he glided over the magically created and sustained lava pit.  The narrow bridge was a balancing act, not really all that deadly, but it served its purpose as a first challenge.

   The Legendary and feared evil Archmage Archibald Grimbane landed at his front door as the knocking continued.  He took a moment to settle his dark robes, great hood, and enormous wide brimmed hat.  Assured that he was properly 'evil' enough in appearance he wretched open the door and threw it wide.

   "WHAT!?"  He roared in the most evil sounding and growling old voice he could manage.

  Standing before him was two figures.  One large and imposing, and one small and young.  The younger held books to her chest, and hid herself away from Archibald's gaze.  The other was the Hero actually which sort of surprised Archibald.  He hadn't seen this in the visions the crystal ball showed him.  He stared for a moment before tipping up his hat to look the Hero in the eye.

   "Hello Archibald.  I've a favor to ask you."  The Hero began, but was overrode by Archibald as he immediately went into a monologue.

   "William.  William the Hero!  Oh what dark purpose has brought you to my door on this dark and gloomy..."  Archibald had to narrow his eyes as he looked outside at the sky above.  "--Extremely bright Tuesday morning."  He said absently with less of his trademark menace in his voice as he rubbed his stinging eyes.

  "Really its quite early.  What in the world are you doing here and with a child no less?  And knocking?  At an evil wizards tower?  Come now.  What is wrong with you?"  Archibald continued.

  The Hero actually blushed a little.  Handsome, loathsome goody-two-shoes that he was.  He reached behind him carefully and brought forward the child.

  "Actually she's why I'm here today.  She's show a talent that I have no means to teach her anything about.  I'm afraid it will lead to bad things if she doesn't learn some form of control over her powers."  William said smiling and dazzling Archibald with his blinding levels of charisma.

  Archibald sneered at him, but he was too curious to not squat down and look at the child more closely.

   "Ah.  Your spawn.  A little more clean faced than i expected raising her in that...village."  Archibald mused continuing his sneer with practiced efficiency so it carried into his voice.

  The Evil Archwizard looked the girl over with his eyes, and magical senses both.  She was going to be a pretty thing one day.  She was maybe six or seven now and sickeningly adorable already.  She was a little tall for her age, no doubt a trait from her father, but she had her mother's dark eyes.  That horrible woman had done well enough to take up with the Hero and distract him for a good many years.  He owed her a good paying back for keeping the Hero from the Tower so long, but then again maybe the child could be a lever.  Yes, yes that was it.  Archibald could kidnap her and hold her hostage to make the Hero come get her.  He would have to take on all the levels of his magnificent tower and fight every boss level monster in the place!  It would be great!  It would also put Archibald right back into the focus of that damage 'television show' whatever that meant.  If that happened he would find himself acting stupidly again and soundly defeated.  That wasn't at all what he wanted.

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   He sighed distracted by his thoughts.  Then finally noticed what his mystical senses had been picking up on all along.  The girl was like a little magical bomb.  She was literally almost bursting with potential for complete and total worldly annihilation.

   "Oh.  Oh my..."  Archibald mused, lifting his hat and hood again to peer at the girl.  He reached out with his pale and thin fingers to probe at her face.  Her cheeks had plenty of fat yet, she well fed, her eyes were bright, and she pressed back against her father's legs as Archibald checked her teeth.  The were coming in and with a little spell Archibald checked and saw the rest would come in straight.  Flesh warping that into place wouldn't be needed.  Archibald hated people who didn't have straight teeth.  How did they stand it?

  The girl made a strange bubbling sound and turned away from Archibald to hide her face in her father's trousers.

  "Ewgh!"  Archibald sneered.  "Is she sick?  What was that noise?"

  The Hero chuckled.  It was a good laugh.  It would make for a good wordless sort of confident come back against one of the other more hapless villains.

   "That was a little girl's giggle Archibald."  The Hero informed him.

   Archibald craned his neck to look up at the Hero with a raised eyebrow. 

  "Are you sure?"  He asked.

   "Yes."  The Hero said with another chuckle.

  "Well then if she's not sick then why did you bring her here?"  Archibald asked, very annoyed.  He had so many things on his mind.  This magically potent child was none of them for the moment.

  The Hero smiled through a patient gaze.

   "I'd like you to teach her to control her magic Archibald.  Please.  She's very dangerous when she's afraid or upset and has means to learn on her own that won't endanger others or herself."  The Hero asked.

   Archibald stood slowly with his eyes locked on the Hero.

   "What is this?  Some sort of plot?  A trick?  Is she really a bomb?  This is all a clever rouse of some kind.  Very good Hero, but you won't get much past me.  It's about time you've tried something clever, but this won't work.  Even now I'm shielded from whatever magic you might be able to muster."  Archibald said smugly.  He was really shielded.  At least until the Hero stepped inside, but then Archibald could just blast him and the child both with lava.

   "No.."  The Hero said chuckling again.  Damn his charisma!  It was so hard to think of what other schemes he might have come up with when he always seemed so genuine, handsome, and honest!  "I really need your help.  My little pumpkin here needs someone to train her to use her magic safely.  You're the best in the land for that.  Everyone knows that by now.  You've been an ally to world a time or two as well now.  So I'm willing to make a compromise."

   "I'm not some bloody magic tutor!"  Archibald snapped, his voice full of scorn and his best villainous menace, but then the Hero's last words registered.  "C-compromise?"  Archibald asked uncertainly.  He looked at the pleased gleam in the Hero's eyes past his smiling face.

  "Yes.  Teach her to control her magic as best she can, and when she's showed some progress I will challenge your Tower."

   "I'm an Arch Villain!  Not some kind of tutor!  You--"  Archibald tried, but the Hero just kept on smiling.  Archibald summoned up all his villainous rage and pomp to try to fend it off, but it was no use.  That damned smile!  DAMN THIS HERO!  "I won't just--"

   "You can't just ask me to---"  The evil wizard stammered on.

  The little girl stepped forward still holding tight to her father's trouser leg and hand.

  "Pretty please Mr. Grimbane?  I can read and write the best in the village.  I'll try really hard, and do the magics when they're big and when they're small.  Please."  She said.  Her voice...AAAGGGHNNN her voice was painfully sweet and so horribly...Innocent!

  "I--No.  I won't do it.  It's some sort of trap.  You're both---"  Archibald persisted, but as his eyes flashed between the two of them and he witnessed their sheer Hero level of honest openness a tiny hope entered his dark mind.

  "You'll do it?"  Archibald asked the Hero.  "William the Hero will assault my Tower?  You'll face me in a duel when you've defeated all my traps, puzzles, mazes, monsters, and magic?"  He asked.

  William grinned.

  "I will even send for musicians, not just Lyrica, but a proper orchestra...on the terms they come out just as they were when we brought them in.  Last time you tried to have some sort of monster play music and that was...well..."

   Archibald threw up his hands.

   "I'll never live that down.  That creation was one my worst.  It was awful.  It could play the harp, but attach three more limbs in a panic and suddenly it can't play any of them at all!"  He moaned.

   William chuckled.

   "You'll teach her then?"  He asked.  "At least enough to control her strength and make her safe?"

  Archibald started his signature villainous laugh.  It was great.  He had been practicing.

   "Oh...."  He said, his fingers sliding against each other outside of his robes in a perfectly menacing fashion.  "I won't just teach her to control her magic, but to master it, and become one of the most deadly weapons the world has known!"  He went up in his laugh again, even getting a little chuckle...or this strange 'giggle' out of the girl.

   "Nothing gross.  No monster magic.  Just explosions and stuff."  The little girl said.

  Archibald frowned deeply and squatted down again to look her in the face.

  "Monster magic is the most fun.  You can make all sorts of things.  Flying heads!  Monkeys with wings and snake heads!  Or Snakes with monkey limbs!  Anything!"  He said pleading with the child.

  She just smiled and shook her head hiding her face half in her father's trousers again.

  "No that's super gross."  She said, but then her eyes glittered with a spark that Archibald recognized.  "I wanna blow up monsters and other big stuff."  She said, her eyes shining with the idea of it.

   That...Now Archibald could work with that.

   "Fire maybe?  Or arcane?  There's even metal magic that can be used to make all sorts of bombs and other conjurations."  He told her.  Her eyes shown.

  "Fire!"  She cheered.

   Archibald chuckled darkly.

   "Fire is an excellent place to start.  All the better if its what you like to use!  I liked shadows when i was little, but fire was always a close second.  Here inside we should get started.  A year or two and you'll be ready and your dear old dad can come see what new things i think up while we're training!"  Archibald told the smiling child.  She beamed at him and carefully held out a nervous hand looking past him.

  "How do we get in?  Past all the monsters and traps?  Or is there some kind of secret elevator in the lava?"  She asked.