True Love's Seventh Kiss

Epilogue

Epilogue:

Witch Queen Meredith sat on her throne in her dungeon. She cursed her hubris once again. She had thought this world was a simple backwater and that her avatar would be enough to kill a measly little princess. And it would have been if she didn't lose her cool while trying to get rid of that one brat. A brat so vicious he ripped the immortal stones from one of her knights and unbound them. Worse yet there were signs he bound them to himself and was arrogant enough to seek the life energy of her avatar.

Such predatory nature was not uncommon among men but the instinctive warped magic he wielded was closer to that of an outer god, a being of myth even in her own line of work. To top it off, she hadn't expected a dragon or two swordsmen of Arthur's caliber.

Plain and simple, she just knew too little about this world and she was still mostly trapped at the bottom level of her dungeon. Her prided forces were pushed back by mortals, and even if they had won in a more drawn-out battle, they were still lacking. The words of her mother and Arthur chastising and trying to educate her ran through her head reminding her of temperance, of gathering information, of wars beginning before the first soldier was recruited.

"Your majesty, you have... guests." Meredith's right hand arrived in a plume of black smoke.

"Guests?" Meredith rolled the thought around in her mind. Who would even know where her dungeon prison was located? "What do they want?"

"They said that if you asked, then you may consider them merchants, and that there was a high probability of having what you want." she responded.

Meredith's right hand was a knight named Nadia, a witch who specialized in shadow magic turned knight out of devotion. She wore a hybrid outfit of bewitched armor and witch robes that mixed defense and casting freedom.

Above all else, Nadia had proven she was a loyal retainer and friend of the Witch Queen. When Meredith was struck down and about to be banished, she learned who her real friends and allies were. And Nadia was right by her side when many of her friends and retainers betrayed her. When Meredith sent her consciousness out in an avatar it was Nadia who she trusted most to defend her true body.

While Meredith was traditionally beautiful her whole life. Nadia was a comely chick who hatched into a bodacious seductress. With long black hair and muscles toned just right from training, Nadia had sculpted her appearance so that she wouldn't be ashamed standing next to Meredith. It was to the point that Meredith enjoyed looking at her as much as the knights did, and even went as far to incorporate some of Nadia's beauty routines.

"What do you think?" Meredith asked.

"They came lightly armed to defend themselves but have shown no hostility. There are capable warriors by their bearing, but the watchmen have divined no malicious intent... against us... right now. Since there are only three of them, I think we can meet with them cautiously, but I've never trusted a single merchant to be completely honest." Nadia said.

Meredith smiled. "Truly, I would be lost without your counsel Nadia. Prepare some guards as you see fit and show them in."

"Right away, my lady." Nadia vanished in a separate inky plume of smoke that looked as if she had fallen through the floor and a droplet of darkness splashed up from her exit.

Meredith snapped her fingers, lighting up her "boss room". Her prison was broken into a type of keep with one large room that was a mock throne room for a "boss fight". With smaller rooms set up for living quarters and simple amenities.

One of the things she had discovered about the curse that bound her and her people to this location was that it fed them mana so they didn't feel hunger and sustained them so they couldn't get sick in a traditional way without outside interference. Another curious aspect was that the weaker knights and witches were freed from the curse before her, probably as a means to conserve magic power since they were seen as less of a threat. However as soon as they were freed from the binding curse, they felt hunger again and had to go on excursions into the outside world to sustain themselves. This was how she had gathered information about the world over the last couple of years, but it clearly wasn't enough.