[Chaos Echo]

And the next chapter. I kind of went overboard on the plot around the expansion, to the point where it's not even the focus of this chapter. If you don't really care about the characters, this could be a boring read. And, like I said before, this one's a bit darker than previous ones (whether badly done or not I'll leave to you to determine), but it'll lighten up again shortly.

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“There, there. It can’t be that bad… I’m sure we can think of some way to get you back home.” Carline patted Lucille on the back as she comforted the crying woman. When the weather was stable enough to do so, she had sent Anni to accompany her back to her kingdom, after, of course, refitting her dress to match her new figure. As best as she understood, when they’d gotten there, they were imprisoned, the guards and such not recognizing the newly aged and buxom princess, only that she was accompanying a known cohort of the sorceress. Whoever was in power (as she understood it, the royalty of the kingdom was mostly for show, and the queen was kind of a ditz) had known that Lucille departed to Carline’s territory, and figured that this older, bustier, happier, non-stuttering woman was a spy sent by her to infiltrate them. Anni had not put up with it, and explosively broke out and returned.


Lucille continued to sob into her shoulder uncontrollably. “I didn’t… didn’t even get to see mother! Or Ruttie! They… they would’ve known me!” Carline stroked her hair consolingly. “Shhh. Shh. We’ll get you back. We’ll get you back. Don’t worry. I’ll go myself next time. We’ll get you back to your family.” “This is… this is all my fault! I just wanted to be beautiful, and now my own people reject me! I’m so… so stupid!” She was reduced to crying in silence now. Carline just held her close without saying anything for a while.


“Well, really, it was me. I should’ve thought of this happening, what with the reputation I’ve garnered. Don’t be so hard on yourself, Lucille.” Lucille pried herself off, and looked at Carline with eyes still shining with tears. “No… but it’s worse than that… now to… to get me back, they’ve sent… they’ve sent a mercenary to kill you and return me!” Carline laughed. “What is a mercenary going to do? I’ve got a distinct advantage over any one of those silly men! Well, make that two. And magic!” “No, you don’t understand! It’s not a male mercenary!” “What? There’s only one female one that I know of, and she died years ago.” “No she didn’t! They’ve sent Bella!”


Carline froze. “You didn’t just… please tell me you didn’t say Bella!” “Yes! They sent only the best for me! The me that she won’t find, because she’s not looking for the current me! And she’s been given order to kill you!” “How is she still alive? Her battle with Aphira surely…? Even with her armor, Aphira’s the most powerful sorceress alive! Bella couldn’t have come out of that!” “Well she did!” Carline felt dizzy, and leaned against the wall for support. “No… no no no… she was dead, I know it! How can she be back!?” Bella was terrible news. An expert at what she did. What she did mainly being killing off unwanted sorceresses for money, when not engaging in odd jobs.


Her head spun. There was no way she could win, nowhere to hide. Every sorceress Bella had gone after she’d found and murdered. All of them, right up until Aphira put a stop to her. Why was she back? “Tuicia! Anni!” Her voice boomed throughout the mansion. “I need you to fortify this place! As many barricades as you can assemble! Someone terrible is coming, someone… terrible!”


The four women spent the entire day blockading the mansion, sealing off every door and window. That night, Carline lay in bed restlessly. She didn’t have a clue how she was going to do this. There was no option of fighting, no option of retreating, no anything. She debated just turning Lucille back to normal and handing herself in, to keep the other three safe. She heard a knock on her open door, and raised her head to see who it was. Tuicia stood in the doorway, wearing only a (disappointingly, Carline thought) opaque nightie. “Madame, Ah sought you would still be awake.” “What’re you doing here?” “Ah gave ze princesse ma own place to sleep in. Ah figured she would want a more elaborate and comfy room zen one of ze spares, you know, for fameeliarity?” “That still doesn’t answer why you’re in here.”


Tuicia shifted uncomfortably. “Ah sought zat you would be worried about ze mercenaire. So I sought zat maybe you would like some company sroughout ze night, to ‘elp alleviate some of it.” “That’s nice of you Tuicia, but… uh… I’m pretty much naked under here.” “Madame, you and Ah ‘ave bozh seen each ozher in various states of undress so many times in just zis last year zat it no longer bozhers moi.” She crossed the room to Carline’s elaborate canopy bed, and began to climb in. “And Ah know zat you would not ‘ave many objections to raise about ma attire.” Carline indeed had no objections, as she was far too grateful for the act of kindness, and because Tuicia was clearly tired. They both lay in the bed in silence, before Carline decided to voice her worries. “Tuicia?” “Mmm?” “I was thinking… if I just turn myself over, maybe she’ll let you guys go…” Tuicia sat straight up in the bed. “No, Madame! Do not speak such ridiculousness! Ze mercenaire will not ‘arm you, or anee one of us! Ah promise! Do you not remember what Ah promised you years ago, Madame? Ah will protect you to ze end!”


Carline had no response to that, and so she continued to run things through her mind for a while, even after Tuicia had fallen asleep. In her sleep, she had grabbed Carline’s arm and held it to herself. She’d tried to remove it, but the strong protests of the sleeping servant convinced her to just leave it. She couldn’t help but notice, to her mild enjoyment, Tuicia’s lovely, tanned breasts rubbing against her arm, and especially, through the thin fabric of her nightgown, her hard nipples. She idly wondered whether the latter was from whatever she was dreaming, or from her current situation with her master, or simply the cold of the night. She kind of hoped it was the second answer, but knew that Tuicia was not interested in her, not in that way. She brought up her other arm, and gently ran her hand through her bedmate’s short brown hair. “Oh Tuicia… faithful Tuicia… kind and beautiful Tuicia… most favored of my servants… maybe… I’d even go as far as…?” Carline drifted into sleep in the comfort of her presence.


When she woke up, Tuicia had gone, likely to do her daily duties, and there was a foreboding silence in the air. She brushed it off as nothing, and got up and began clothing herself, glancing at the clock to see it was late morning. As she finished putting on her circlet, adjusting her hair to go the way she wanted, she heard rapid clicking of heels coming her way. She turned to greet Tuicia, listen to whatever reason she was running for, and question why she was wearing her warmer weather clothes. Tuicia came up looking horrified. “Madame! Ze mercenaire! She is ‘ere!” “What?!” “And she ‘as ze princesse! She ‘as a message: she ‘as been auzhorized to put down anyone ‘oo is associated wizh you, Madame, and she demands you show up in ze galerie now, or she kills ze princesse!” “WHAT!?” “Go, Madame, go! Ah will sink of somezing!” “Right!”


Carline hiked up her multilayered dress and ran as fast as she could. She got there, and saw exactly the scene she had expected. Bella was there, holding the much daintier Lucille (surprising, considering the curves she possessed) with her arms behind her. She glared at the familiar face. Bella was tall; she very well could have been six feet, and she was solidly built from a life of laborious physical activity. She wore a confident expression, her face beginning to line with age. Her hair, drawn up in a thick ponytail, inexplicably grew in two colors, a strange, dull yellowish green, and a blue-tinted black, though both colors were starting to grey. She wore a headband, keeping her long bangs out of her face. But the reason she was feared, the reason she had succeeded where everyone else failed, was much more noticeable. She was clad in various bits and pieces of aged metal armor, of an unidentifiable material.


And though Carline recognized her, it did not seem to be mutual. Bella released Lucille, who put distance between them, but still remained close to watch. “So, you’re the sorceress I’ve been ordered to go after, then?” Carline just nodded, both too angered and afraid to give a vocal answer. “Right. Well then, on behalf of the Kingdom of Ceyllitar, I have been sent to slay a one Mrs. Carline Marzelaei.” “Please… don’t bring that up… if you must, just call me Carline…” “Oh, is your beloved deceased? I’m sorry to hear that. I suppose, then, you can finally rest with him now.” She reached toward the sword scabbard she wore, but rapid footsteps caught her attention.


She turned her head just in time to block a flying kick from Tuicia, who was now wearing what Carline recognized as her steel-toed boots, in place of the normal heels. She struck repeatedly, quick and precise, but Bella, despite her being in what had to be middle age, was fast, blocking each and every blow with her gauntlets. Tuicia leapt backwards, avoiding a counterattack by her metal-encased (or perhaps metal-replaced) left hand. She jumped in again, and almost landed a good hit, but Bella continued to prove too fast. Tuicia backed off, ceasing her assault and avoiding another counterattack. “Is that all? Your only defense? Sad.” Tuicia had no reply, and instead drew a dagger from within her cleavage, its sheath flying out onto the floor. She charged once again, but this time Bella raised her left hand, taking the hit straight on with it, and wrenched the dagger from her grasp, flinging the weapon to the floor. She grabbed Tuicia with the other hand, and threw her against the nearby wall, the painting above where she hit falling down on her. Bella waited, but Tuicia seemed to have been knocked unconscious and did not rise.


Satisfied with this, Bella advanced on Carline again. This time, though, she did not even get an attempt at drawing her sword before Anni burst into the room. “Sorry I’m late, this is much earlier than I’m used to being up!” She jumped in, hands glowing an intense pink, and stopped in front of Bella. “Anni! No! Don’t do that you idiot!” Anni fired it off, and Bella’s breastplate faintly shimmered, with no ill effect. “Anni, her armor’s enchanted! It repels magic! Why do you think I wasn’t doing anything?” Anni was suddenly tense. “Oh… so that means…” “Yes. Why did you try that one anyway? And put so much into it?” “I thought it’d be hot… and I’m not good at restraint when it comes to magic…”


Anni braced herself for the oncoming flood. “At least I only put energy into the chest here…” She felt, and everyone saw, her nipples harden and poke clearly through both bra and shirt, displayed quite noticeably. Anni half-debated trying to take them off before it started, but decided it’d be more fun if her breasts just burst through. Her nipples steadily got larger and more prominent, and she began to worry a bit. How much had she put into that spell? It wasn’t like this last time. She was hit by a powerful wave of pleasure from the spell, and she suddenly had a thought. Perhaps… if she put on enough of a show here… she could distract the assassin, long enough for one of the others to think of something. “Oh!”


The spell’s purpose had started, her breasts beginning to swell. She began to grope herself lightly and moan a bit. Bella just stared, dumbfounded. Anni smiled, partly out of satisfaction that it looked like her plan might work, and partly because of the feeling from the spell. As her breasts grew, tightening her top, she began to slowly intensify the kneading, her moans increasing in fervor. She touched her growing assets, discreetly using magic to draw out the effects, having experimented with the spell herself. “C’mon… someone do something…” She looked over to Carline, who was watching the event fixatedly. “Oh, right. I forgot she’s into that. That just leaves Tuicia to get up…”


Her shirt was now visibly straining to withhold her breasts, the fabric stretching all across her bosom. Still she fondled them, moaning louder and louder, and needing to fake the pleasure less and less. It was starting to get good, and she had no problem with that. The clasp of her cape was getting pushed up her chest by her swelling breasts, as they created magnificent cleavage in the open space of her top. She stopped the touching to undo her cape before it became a problem, letting it fall to the floor. She returned to her breasts immediately, as they filled out her shirt ever more with their globular wonder.


By this point a small tear had started in her top, brought about by her now basketball-sized breasts trying to fit into a space meant for ones not nearly that large. She never let up on the groping and caressing, still trying to plot as best as she could through the overwhelming sensations. “Straight or lesbian, there’s no way that this chick can look away from this.” And indeed Bella couldn’t. “What is the meaning of…? What kinds of things do you teach…?” Behind her, unnoticed, Tuicia began to stir. The tear found its way further and further down her shirt, revealing more of her darkish bosom. She was finding it harder to concentrate on putting on a show, not that that was much of a concern at this point. Her breasts were barely reined in by the little cloth that still stood strong, and her bra was visible, but having slid down them and no longer attempting the good fight.


By this point, they were larger than her head, and her nipples poked through her shirt so powerfully that it almost looked as though they were going to tear some holes themselves. Before that became an issue, the rest of the shirt that had remained covering her mounds had given way, and they bounded free, and she cried out from their sudden jolt. Her now fully visible nipples could have been brown thumbs, with how large and erected they had gotten. Anni had lost all focus to her desires, which caused her to drop the slowing she had been forcing on her breasts, and they grew even faster, quickly swelling to larger than the rest of her torso. She fell to her knees, still moaning loudly and crying out sensually, all of it genuine by now. Her bloated breasts were easily as large as her arms were long by the time it was done, and she was no longer able to get close to her beckoning nipples, which could well fit a hand around them.


Bella was still mesmerized by the sudden display. She sputtered incoherently. She’d been raised a chaste woman, one who wouldn’t dare show skin anyplace short of bathing and undressing. Something like this, an opponent who dropped the fight in favor of growth of breasts, immodestly feeling herself while it happened… it was completely against her life of violence and death. And this woman had meant to use the spell on her! What kinds of things were they taught here?


She was struck in the back of her head by a powerful blow from Tuicia, dazing her, but setting her back into an appropriate mindset. She turned to face her attacker. “Very nice… the entire thing was a ploy to get you back on your feet.” “It was an eemprovised plot on ze part of Anni, mademoiselle mercenaire. Ah take no credit.” After the light exchange, Tuicia darted in and kicked her hard on the inside of her thigh, dropping her to a knee. “Per’aps you should ‘ave armored zat side as well!” In her lighthearted confidence, she tried another blow to cripple her arm, but Bella reacted this time and grabbed her foot. “No more of this. I have a job to do.”


She gave a quick twist of her wrist, and even through Tuicia’s cry of pain the sound of her ankle snapping could be heard. Bella stood up, and shoved her over gruffly by her wounded limb. Tuicia stayed on the floor and cradled her hurt foot, clearly in severe pain. Bella again turned her gaze toward Carline. “That’s all of them. Both of your defenders are down. You’ve nothing left. Just make it easy on yourself and me, and go quietly.” Carline was frozen with fear. This was the moment. The line she always gave just before the kill. It could no longer be told from her tone whether she was genuine in her care about her opponent.


Bella began to limp over, but Lucille ran in front of her, leaving her observer role. “Please don’t! She’s been nothing but kind! She doesn’t need to die! I’m the princess! Really! I know my body doesn’t reflect it, but look into my eyes! Listen to me speak! Anything! Anyone who recognizes me would be able to tell it’s me! Please! Take me back to my mother or Ruhtina! I’m sure this can wait until after one of them has judged me! Please!” Bella watched her intently during her speech, but seemed to be more running through something in her mind than listening. She raised her hand, holding it across her body. “Sorry about this princess, but a job is a job.” She struck Lucille with a backhand, knocking the delicate woman unconscious with one blow.


“What?! You know she’s the princess, and you’re still doing this?!” “It is not my role to determine morality. I do what I am hired to do. Nothing less. And nothing more.” She gestured to Carline’s two closest companions, one clutching her ankle and trying to fight the pain, the other resting on her enormous breasts, looking horrified at the occurrences. “I could easily have slain your accomplices as well. I was given explicit permission to. But I left them, as I have no intention of killing any more than I need to.” She advanced, limping, and drew a long nonbladed sword, which only came to a sharp point, the kind for poking through holes or weakspots in armor, or for killing someone with a precise blow while damaging them as little as possible.


Carline backed away, and began to talk, anything to stall her, anything to possibly find a way out. “How are you still alive? I swear Aphira killed you more than ten years ago.” “Oh, she did. I remember that clearly.” “Then… what? Why are you…?” “Alive and breathing? No idea. You know as much as I. I just awoke one day, not more than a year ago, and had no clue how. But enough of this.” She’d backed Carline into a wall now. “Be honorable. Be reasonable. Just take this quickly so I can go; I’ve got a terrible headache from the French one.”


Carline had no choice but to do just that. Tuicia wouldn’t be able to make it over here in time, not with her condition, Lucille had nothing to stop her with and was out cold, and Anni was useless, and not very capable of quick locomotion at the moment. Bella pulled her sword back, going for what looked to be a straight thrust to the heart. Carline closed her eyes. She hoped that when she was gone, Tuicia would be able to run the place well enough. That Anni had learned enough from her as her apprentice. That somehow Lucille would be able to find a way back home.


In the darkness, she heard a cry of “Madame, no!”, and quick footsteps. She felt hands on her shoulders pushing her to her butt, followed by the sound of metal piercing flesh. She felt no pain, but heard Anni shriek. She suddenly had an exact, awful idea of what had just happened. She feared opening her eyes, for confirming what she thought. She reluctantly did, and saw exactly the scene she’d imagined: Tuicia was standing over her, arms still outstretched. She was smiling kindly down at Carline, eyes welling up with tears from the pain of her action. Most noticeably of all, Bella’s sword stuck far out of her lower-right chest, and had been let go in surprise.


“TUICIA!” Her own tears instantly came. Tuicia only turned her head toward Bella. “Ah would never fail ma Madame. No person could make zat ‘appen.” She grabbed the sword on either end of her body. “And zis sword of yours, zat you ‘ave felled so manee sorceresses wizh… Ah will be its last victim!” With that, she jerked her arms powerfully, breaking it at both points. She threw both ends to the floor, and sank to her knees.


Carline immediately rose up to catch her. “No! No no no! Tuicia, why did you…?” Tears were streaming down her face. Tuicia framed Carline’s face with her hands. “Sshh, Madame, shh. It is alright. It is… it is alright.” She wiped some of the tears away. “Zis is what you ‘ired moi for… remember?” “N-no! Not for… not this! You weren’t… Tuicia, please…” “Madame, ‘ave you already forgotten? We just discussed zis last night. Ah will protect you to ze end…” “But it wasn’t supposed to be your end! I wasn’t expecting… not now… Tuicia…”


Tuicia turned her head and coughed, a bit of blood coming out ungracefully. “Oh… it is just as Ah feared…” She faced Carline again. “Oh, Madame. Ah don’t want to die… Ah still ‘ad so much left to do… Ah never reconciled wizh ma famille… Ah never found love… and Ah could not even grow old serving you… Ah am sorry, ma Madame…” “D-don’t talk like that! You’re not going to die! I won’t let you! Please, Tuicia, don’t give up! Please…” Even in her denial, she could see Tuicia struggling to focus, and feel her holding herself up less. Her wound was beginning to bleed openly, and badly.


“Ah am fighting it, Madame, Ah am… fighting it… Ah ‘ave no intention of dying today… but it is ‘ard to resist… Ah need… Ah just need to sleep. Ah… If Ah sleep, zen Ah will… Ah will…” She collapsed into Carline’s arms. “No! Tu…Tuicia!” She held her close, and could feel her breathing. It was dangerously erratic, and very shallow. She wasn’t dead. Not yet. But there was no way she could be given medical attention. Not before it was too late. She contented herself just holding Tuicia in her final moments, as she silently shed tears.


Bella spoke up again, having been silent for the event. “I’m sorry. I really am. I didn’t mean anyone to die but you. You must understand I had no intent for this.” Carline had nothing to say. Intent or not, she’d brought Tuicia’s death. Nothing mattered any more. Bella continued, sensing that she would not respond. “But as I said earlier, now you may rest with both your husband, and her.” She lifted Tuicia’s dagger, which she had grabbed during the emotional exchange. “I’m trying to be as nice about this as I can. I can kill you in the most painless and quick way I can, if you’d like.” Carline weakly responded. “No… not yet… please… just let me here for… for her…” She could die all she wanted now. But not yet. Not while she could still be there for Tuicia.


Just then, she heard a familiar voice as the door was blown down. “Hey, witch, I’m here!” Bella turned and saw Praeli bounding up, and got the dagger struck from her hand. She unleashed a flurry of strikes, much less exact than Tuicia’s, but much more powerful. Bella was forced backwards by them, and her armor was not taking forceful physical blows well from its age. Praeli called back at Carline. “I came as soon as I heard! I don’t know what you’ve been doing, but like hell if I’m gonna let anyone kill you before I figure you out!” Carline still had her head down, mourning. “Tuicia… I never… we never… it was so short… we only had eight years together… I never even got the chance to… to say…” Praeli was calling to her. “Hey, c’mon! I got her down!” Bella was battered from Praeli’s unrelenting blows, her armor caved in in several places. Praeli grabbed her breastplate with both hands, and tore the straps binding it clean off, and it fell off of her body. “She’s open! Do something!”


Carline was silent, but something was starting to grow. This woman, this DAMNED woman, had killed her mother so long ago, had killed so many of her fellow sorceresses, had now killed the person most dear to her. She clenched her fist and her entire arm began to tremble. Bella… vile mercenary… she had to be punished… punished for everything. She let out something between a roar and an anguished cry, and threw out an arm, her hand glowing a solid black. Bella crumpled to the floor instantly. Praeli looked frightened. “O-okay, you didn’t need to go that far.” Anni stared from her spot not far from them. “Did… did she kill her?” Praeli put a hand to Bella’s neck. “No, but she’s… something. I can’t even tell what happened.” She walked up to Carline. “What in the hell did you HOLY FUCK!” She’d just now noticed Tuicia, whose breath had become very faint and infrequent. “Why didn’t you tell me this?! Move over, dammit!”


Praeli squatted down next to her, and put her hands over Tuicia. She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, and then exhaled. Her hands glowed a shimmering pale white-green as she lowered them onto Tuicia. Tuicia stopped all activity. Carline screamed. “NO! What did… you just-” “Shut up, bitch! I’ve put her in a kind of stasis. She’s got no activity going on. She’s not going to deteriorate any more while I’ve got this going.” “So how is that going to help her?” “It’s not. What’s going to help her is me.”


“I move faster than any of you dumbasses. Give her to me, I’ll run her back to town, hell, I’ll run her all the way to the capital of Ceyllitar! I’ll get her the best medical attention!” A faint glimmer of hope rising, Carline did so. Praeli pulled the fragment of the sword from Tuicia’s chest, and situated her on her back. She muttered to Carline. “Even with all that death you caused, accidental or not, even with all the times this chick beat my ass, I’m still saving hers. You owe me so much when she gets better from this, dammit.” She ran over to Bella, who was still curled up and twitching. “Let go of her! Whatever you’re doing, stop!”


Carline did so, and Bella threw out her arms, inhaling deeply. “Now… I’m low on magic from buffing myself for that fight…” She turned and pointed to Carline. “Don’t! Tell! Anyone! That I can do this. It’s… not a good spell.” She set Tuicia on the ground gently and knelt in front of Bella, who was lying on the floor still. She raised her hands, holding them above Bella like she had Tuicia. They glowed a foul purplish-black, and Bella began to writhe, seeming almost like she was being drained. She sat like this for a few seconds, then withdrew her hands. “That should be enough, and you’re still well enough that a good sleep should rejuvenate you.” She stood up and hoisted Tuicia again. “Again, no one can know I know that. It’s a very bad one, learned in not so good a way. But now, I’m better! I’m leaving you to deal with her in whatever way!” She ran out haphazardly. Carline just stared, still too distraught to react. Praeli poked her head back in. “Witch, don’t worry. She’ll make it. I promise.” Her head disappeared, and she was gone.


Carline sat and thought, still taking no action. As she did, she could feel the grief beginning to be replaced by a second emotion. The one she had channeled moments before. An unrestrained hatred for this woman, lying here helplessly. She rose, unbothered by the blood-stained lower half of her dress. It would serve as an eternal reminder. She began to walk toward Bella, and stopped to pick up Tuicia’s dagger on the way. She examined it closely. “A dagger… how perfect a weapon… takes much experience and skill to master, but so little to use. And it’s Tuicia’s as well. How poetic.” She stopped, standing over Bella. She pointed the knife at her. “You may well have killed the most important person in the world to me. She is…very special to me. She’s my best friend. No… ” She hesitated. “No, it’s more than that. There’s no use lying to myself about it anymore. I love her! She may not love me back, not like that, but I love her!” She paused, having begun to cry again, trying to collect herself.


“And if someone I love dies again, then the perpetrator will pay for it! This won’t stand! You shouldn’t even be alive to have done this! I should just put you back in the grave!” She gripped the dagger hard, her hand trembling. “First my parents… then Ghatteus… now Tuicia… everyone… everyone I love… they all die… I won’t have it… not if I can punish the one responsible for most of them…” “Carline, no!” She raised her head at the voice, and saw Anni still there, trying to stand up with her massive breasts. She’d completely forgotten about her, entirely focused on Bella. “Don’t kill her! She said herself, it was an accident! Isn’t that what you did? Isn’t that exactly how all those people died? How Ghatteus died?” “Don’t you talk about him like that, jiggletits! This is not the same at all! She came here… came here to kill! Tuicia is just a byproduct of her horrible bloodlust! It doesn’t even matter what she says, she’s a monster! I’m going to finish what Aphira didn’t!” “Listen to yourself! That’s exactly what they’re saying down at the kingdom, both kingdoms, and it’s what they’ll keep saying if you do this! You’ll be no better than what they say you are!”


Carline could hardly bear it. The two situations were so different, and yet they were so very similar. Bella was here to kill, and she killed. It didn’t matter what were the casualties. It wasn’t like her event, not at all. Hers was entirely accidental. Her power was not yet refined. She’d never meant to kill anyone, ever. She… she couldn’t kill anyone. She gripped the knife even harder, knuckles going white beneath her gloves. Bella did not have the energy to bring herself to do anything more but watch her, unblinkingly and stoically. She stood like that, unable to move, for a long while. Her grip slackened, and the knife slid from her hand, harmlessly hitting the floor. She dropped to her knees, sobbing. Anni came over to comfort her, having finally heaved herself off the floor. She sat next to Carline, and hugged her as best as she could, enveloping her in her enormous breasts. “C’mon, Carline. We can deal with her another way. You made the right choice.” “Anni… Tuicia is… she’s such an amazing woman… she… she helped me so much when… when Ghatteus passed… when I… when my spell…” “Shh… I know, I know. You don’t need to say it.”


Carline sat in the warmth and softness of her apprentice’s chest in silence for a long time, quietly crying. Bella had long since made an attempt at sleep. Carline suddenly stood up, looking determined, startling Anni and sending her breasts jiggling. “No. It’s not going to end like this. She’s not getting away, the princess is not going to be kicked out of her home, and Tuicia is going to live!” She began to walk quickly in the direction of the library. “When Princess Lucille wakes up, tell her the situation. Make sure Bella stays locked down. I have many spells I must research before tomorrow. We leave at noon.”


“And for our own credibility, shrink those huge things down before then!”