>>3699944Now, I stand before her, alone in her lair. Her guards have engaged my supernatural escort, and as they struggle around us with wet shrieks and maddened howls, I recall the time when I first challenged the witch in this ancient castle, then a ruin abandoned for a thousand years. It was here that I saw the jewels shatter into discordant fragments, here that my hopes were dashed and I was driven into the dark, into defeat. It was here that she had the effrontery to name herself queen... of the moon, of us all.
Her blue eyes lock with mine, and the surge of dark energy drives questing tendrils into my brain. She's trying to steal my mind, but I won't give her time. I counter with my own attack, striking deep into her psyche, and I catch the briefest glimpse of red turmoil there... a hint of fear. She did not expect me to be so strong. Will she stand or flee?
She makes her choice. A blue-black swirl of stars opens around her, then spills out and surrounds me, and in a flash we are transported beyond the sky, into space.
She thinks I will not be prepared for the sudden jump to the harsh radiant vacuum, the bright stars undimmed by atmosphere and the whirling globe of the shadow-cloaked world far below us. It is her territory, the very essence of the night, and she waits for me to choke out my life, screaming silently into the void. But my wards retain a sphere of air around my body, and they contract now to press that air firmly about me that I might not burst.
Now we are far away from innocents who might be harmed, and I can use my powers without restraint. I gather them now. The time for peaceful resolution is past, and the burden is on me. If I could only hope...