I watched as the girl clothed in blood raised her ring of calamity.

There was a great earthquake.

The skies turned black like sackcloth stitched from goat hair.

And her foes were crushed beneath her heel.

- Andanian Chronicles

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The princess of Andania mediated desperately as she fought to suppress the wild power raging within her body. The tortured grass swayed wildly as the vast pressure from her Talent radiated out in concentric circles of force that was visible to even the mundane. And a loud cracking noise shuddered through the hill as it began crumbling to pieces. The surviving picket of mundane Saadian soldiers were paralyzed with indecision, as they stared in dismay at the princess that they were commanded to protect.

“What do we do now? All of our mages have perished, even the Emperor’s personal page stationed at the far end! How did she devastate our forces with just a single shout?” A horrified captain stammered.

The lone remaining colonel cursed loudly as he attempted to stem the blood pouring from his severed arm, “Sorceress First Class my ass! I should have never trusted those devious archmages, there’s no way any normal human could have slaughtered all our Talented along with half our forces in an instant. She a demon in disguise! Fall back, only the Hundred Archmages will stand a chance against a monster like that!”

“But our orders were to protect…” Another captain protested weakly as he turned back to stare apprehensively at the princess. Swelling veins of purple blood lined Lily’s normally blemishless complexion, her crystal blue eyes gleamed with swirls of golden threads, and the crackling lightning flickering from her body scorched the blackening ground around her.

“Don’t be stupid.” The colonel snorted as he mounted his horse and fled desperately, “What does that creature need protection from? We are the ones that need protection!” The vast majority of the troops followed after their fleeing commanders and deserted their positions. And the eerie silence that permeated the campsite was only interrupted on occasion by crackles of electricity striking nearby objects.

“No please… I mustn’t ever again…” Lily whispered hoarsely as she stamped down fanatically on the growing flames of her own Talent. “I don’t want this! Please, go away… Mother help me!” she moaned as the chaotic power rising up within her threatened to consume her sanity and transform her into a mindless tool of destruction. The witch of Andania was so engrossed that she failed to notice the ominously darkening sky. And she remained utterly unaware as the Calamity Ring’s magic raced towards her.

“Kill!” Laura commanded the ring of calamity as she gestured recklessly at the distant unseen target. The wolf was too far off to recognize her own twin sister, but the vast amount of Talent Lily emitted made it impossible for her attack to miss. An all-consuming power gathered on the tip of her ring as a massive fissure split through the quivering ground between the two princesses. A deep darkness that swallowed even the sun, blackened the skies as if at midnight, as an ancient forbidden magic aggregated within a diamond of incandescent brilliance crowning her ring. “Annihilate!” the wolf screamed as she struck out at her sister, and time itself seemed to slow as a concentrated spear of extreme magical force hurtled towards her target.

Lily cried out into the sky as she fought a desperate losing battle against the uncontrollable power in her body, and her tears of frustration sizzled loudly into the burning soil beneath her. Her voice tore through the darkness shrouding the blackened skies and bathed her within a circle of warm soothing daylight. And she was illuminated like an ethereal beacon of devastation in the deepening darkness. Just as she was about to give in to despair, her heart glimmered with a spark of hope as she finally spied the shrieking Spear of Calamity struggling to penetrate the edge of her condensed aura. “Thank you, Mother,” her voice trembled with surprised relief as she rose to her feet, while parting her defenses wide to allow the spell to race forward and embed itself deep into her chest.

“I actually did it? I silenced even that demon…” the wolf gasped incredulously as a thundering explosion snuffed out the monstrous power. The princess gawked at the smoking ring on her finger, then she giggled and sobbed with hysterical relief as she wrapped Aryan in a tight embrace, “I won! I defeated…” Laura experienced a sudden bitter emptiness wrenching through her body, and she slumped powerlessly against the prince.

“Laura! What’s wrong?” Aryan exclaimed as he grasped at her suddenly chilly flesh.

“Nothing… I’m just a little tired.” The pale panting princess refused to meet his gaze as she bit her lip, “You are alive. So, everything’s alright.” She replied hoarsely as she pressed her cheek against his chest and trembled frailly.

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“High Prince!” A ragged squad of two dozen battle-weary knights interrupted their conversation as they rode towards their position. “We must retreat from this area immediately. An entire company of Saadian cavalry is advancing towards this position!”

“My zither, do you have it?” Laura demanded.

“Here it is.” A soldier rode up from the rear and handed a large package, swaddled in waterproof fabric, to the princess.

“Excellent,” Laura nodded as she clutched her zither wearily, “now get over there and tell Zinnridi to signal a general retreat from the river, I’ll give you ten minutes to pull all your forces back. You must be at least a kilometer from the river, and preferably ten...”

“That’s impossible, we are still engaged with the Burning Legions! There’s just no way…” the highest-ranking officer protested as he turned to Aryan with a silent pleading stare.

“Laura, there’s no way we can pull back right now. Our foot soldiers will be routed by the advancing Saadian cavalry if we abandon our defensive positions. We have to stop them as they attempt to ford the Waters of Merom...” Aryan explained patiently.

The wolf shrugged as she began unwrapping her elegantly decorated instrument, “You have nine minutes, then I’m going to sing every living thing near the waters straight to hell with me. I’ll destroy the Saadian army, seal off most of the border, and guarantee Vaishyan eighteen years of peace. Consider it my final gift to you Aryan.”

“That doesn’t even begin to explain anything, and I forbid you from harming yourself!” Aryan yelled as he tore the zither from her numb trembling hands.

“You’re too late,” Laura smiled with resignation as she sank down in a sitting position on the churned muddied hillside. “I was forced to use the Calamity Ring’s magic to slay that Saadian demon. My life is already forfeit, so I may as well go all out with a bang and take the rest of the enemy with me.” The princess frowned as she stared at the stupefied prince, “Don’t you get it? The penalty for using the ring will soon befall me. I can either die, or die while taking the Saadian army with me.”

“No! This can’t be…” Aryan protested.

“Enough talk,” Laura smiled wanly, “I’m sure that Mirror will explain everything.” The princess gestured for her zither, “This is where we part, I have fulfilled my objective by avenging my sister, and sacrificing my life was an acceptable price. I was born to destroy the enemies of Andania, so don’t let my death be in vain and let me fulfill my purpose. As I recall, you’ve never attended any of my performances. Before I go, let me sing an original tune that I composed myself. You’ll be impressed!”

“But…”

“No buts,” the wolf reached out and eased her instrument gently from Aryan, “you are a prince of Vaishya. Didn’t you tell me that your loyalties were first to your country and people? Is your determination only worth so little? Muster your knights and hold off the Saadian cavalry for me, and don’t forget to signal the retreat!” The princess bent down and hummed intently to herself while tuning her instrument.

“There must be some other way out of this. Laura, you don’t have to…”

“That Laura you are talking about never existed,” the wolf snapped. “I’m The Witch of Andania, and not some pampered half-witted princess that needs to be coddled at every juncture. I was born to fight and die for my country, and not to live out a long life of idle luxury in some foreign palace. Hah, I’m a living weapon who could have slaughtered all the inhabitants of Calcutta on a whim, only a fool like you would have invited me into your city.”

The prince of Vaishya pulled the quarrelsome wolf up to face him and held the cold trembling girl close, “Incredibly stubborn even till the very end, are all Andanian women like this?” He sighed, “Is there nothing that I can do for you?”

A single tear trailed down her mud stained cheeks, “Idiot. I’m the all-powerful Witch of Andania, the Best. Whatever could a mundane human like you hope to do…”

Aryan silenced her half-hearted grumbles with a tender kiss. “Really nothing?” he whispered softly as he cradled her pale bloodless cheeks gently in his hands.

“Don’t be stupid. I am the mighty Wolf, and the peerless Talent of Andania.” She muttered proudly, “There’s nothing on earth that you could offer me…”

The prince snuffed out her weakening protests with a passionate kiss. “Nothing at all?” he asked quietly.

The princess blinked swiftly as she fought back her tears, “High Prince Aryan, you presume far too much. We’ve only been together for two and a half weeks! You should forget about me and spend the rest of your life with some other lass…”

His steady hazel gaze bore into her distressed crystal blue, “A prince of Vaishya only falls in love once. I’ll love you Laura, and only you, until the end of my days.”

The princess lowered her head and rubbed at the tears in her eyes, “Ugh… romantic poppycock. I’m not good at mushy farewells, um… don’t pine away like my super idiot father. Remember to pick up Mirror, she saved your life, and Dagon will be able to patch her up in no time. And please don’t die when fighting off the Saadians, after all that crap you put me through to keep you alive, I’ll never forgive you…”

“Laura, I’m…”

She silenced him by resting a single slender finger on his lips, “I know, and I’m sorry too that things had to turn out this way. Perhaps the legends are true, that no witch can survive long, away from the shores of Andania.” Laura bit her lip hesitantly, “I researched a spell that will delay the ring’s consequences till dusk, defeat the Saadians quickly, and we can spend a little more time together.”

“Promise me that you will wait for my return, Laura.” His eyes hardened with resolve as he glared at the approaching Saadian detachment and rose to meet his foes.

“I swear, Krall be my witness.” Laura whispered, as she turned away from the departing prince, “I shall wait till my very last breath, so come back safely.”

And so, the prince of Vaishya departed with his brothers for war as the princess of Andania strummed her zither and prepared to sing destruction upon their enemies.