"Impossible!" said Awnadil. She raised a shaky finger accusingly at Lumina.

Lumina tossed her golden hair back and flashed a sparkling smile. "Impossible, she calls me. I rather like that, very flattering. But I think I prefer being called inevitable. Don't you think?"

"My apprentice tormented this town for weeks, and I saw and knew every hand that was raised against her. How could she have done all this if you were here?"

"I only just arrived, obviously. Only, please don't avoid the dragon in the room. That's not why you're so surprised," said Lumina.

Awnadil grit her teeth, glowering.

"Go on. Say it. Say something about fate," said Lumina.

Awnadil gritted her teeth, but held her tongue.

Lumina threw her head back and laughed. It lasted for a little too long, and it didn't catch on. The recovering townsfolk and the undead all stood stoically, watching her.

Lumina wiped a tear from her eye. "Now I see why you're dressed as a clown. Go on, say something foolish."

"We need not quarrel here," Awnadil said. "Even you could not protect all present from the suffering that I can unleash. I will depart, taking only my godson with me, my Aberthol. I do have such concern for him, you know. Oh, he's the dour thing there they call Brin."

The smile dropped from Lumina's face. "Foolish, true, but I think I should have said I wanted to hear something funny. And that’s not funny at all."

“He is mine by right. I am his godmother,” said Awnadil.

“My dear crone, I am his mother,” said Lumina. That elicited a gasp from several of the townsfolk. Battered, bruised, and broken, they still weren’t immune to a little bit of soap opera drama.

“I know his mother, and you are not her,” said Awnadil. It was Brin’s turn to gasp at the revelation. Aberthol’s father had been certain his biological mother was on her way to torture and death, but now Awnadil was talking about her in the present tense. She was still alive? He didn’t know how to feel about that. Well, actually he did. He hoped he’d never meet her.

Lumina shrugged, unconcerned. She didn’t so much as glance at Brin. “I adopted him.”

“The Wyrd does not recognize your claim. He is mine by natural right. A [Witch] is never stronger than when protecting that which is hers,” said Awnadil, and she wasn’t being hypothetical. Brin could feel the Wyrd now, and there was more power in Awnadil’s left pinky than had existed in the entirety of Siphani’s formation. It was more power than Brin had ever seen or felt before, more power than he knew was possible. “This is what a [Witch] is for. This is the power and purpose of my Class.”

“My Class is [Archmage],” Lumina said simply. There was no similar build-up of power that Brin could feel, but Lumina’s casual confidence almost made him feel safe.

“You will not deliver my godson to me?”

“I will not,” said Lumina.

“Then I curse you!”

Curses were invisible and insidious, but Brin thought he’d have been able to see this one even without [Know What’s Wyrd]. All the spite in the world seemed to be contained in the curse, and Brin wished he couldn’t feel its terrible intentions. Melt her eyes, a stew from her brains, cockroaches in the intestines, skin falls off…

Lumina reached out a hand and yanked the spell out of the air. She forced it to coalesce, to manifest physically. It became a thick black sludge, and as she wrapped her fingers shut the sludge disappeared inside her fist. She squeezed, and the curse winked out completely.

“I will repeat. I am an [Archmage]. Did you think your petty tricks were something too exotic for me? I am a master of magic. Your Wyrd is not weird to me.”

Awnadil’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t intend to let me flee. You won’t accept surrender.”

“Quite right,” said Lumina. “You’re too dangerous. I can give you that one compliment at least.”

“Then why speak to me at all?”

“Why else? To give my [Knights] some time to catch up. I had to—”

The green bunny blasted forward on a cloud of rotten mist, moving so fast that it almost looked like teleportation. Lumina brought her staff up just in time and warded it off with a bar of glowing flame, so bright it hurt Brin’s eyes.

Lumina shouted words of the Language, and the bar of white-glowing flame separated into darts that flew at the green bunny, dispersing wide swaths of its corrupted cloud everywhere they flew.

The bunny itself was quick as thought, dodging around the darts and instantly healing over any places where the darts burned through. Brin used [Inspect] when it held still for a fraction of a second, and to his surprise, actually got something.

The big blue bunny dashed forward to join.

He was gigantic, larger than a giant undead, and he moved so quickly that it couldn’t be natural. He leapt, jumping higher than anything that size had a right to, aiming to crash down where Lumina stood.

Lumina swung her staff and a fist made of ice bashed Zappo, knocking him to the side. He landed so hard Brin could feel the vibrations in the ground. Somehow Zappo was heavier than he appeared.

Lumina cast a golden cage around herself, warding Tigsi off completely, which let her give her full attention to Zappo. She threw a fireball at him, then a bolt of inky blackness, then something silvery and metallic. Spell after spell went hurtling toward the giant blue bunny.

Zappo held a boxer's stance, stepping much more lightly than should be possible. He dodged some of the spells, letting them destroy wide swaths of the undead behind him. Others he punched out of the air. A few connected, and the giant bunny fought a defensive battle, falling back.

There were two bunnies, and they’d killed Basil, but Hogg had said Awnadil had four familiars. As if summoned by his thoughts, a third bunny crashed down from the sky. This one was red with a white stomach, and unlike the other two, it didn’t even pretend to be cute. It was lanky, with matted fur, long claws and fangs like a vampire. He used [Inspect].

She streaked down like a bolt of bloody lightning. Lumina threw a bar of golden light at her but the spell shattered and Sorrow broke through, and then broke through the golden cage as well.

Now pressed on three sides, Lumina fought with her staff. She spun it as quickly and easily as any of the [Farmers] he knew. Each blow struck with a titanic wave of force that knocked a bunny into the air, but she was outnumbered and being pressed hard.

Worse, there was a black spot on Lumina’s palm, and it was growing bigger. Stopping that curse hadn’t been as simple as she’d made it out to be.

Brin heard a bang and looked to see the temple doors slam open. Inside, nothing but shadow. Had Awnadil somehow corrupted the temple? The darkness probed out with tentacles, then it climbed out of the temple, like a freakish, malformed spider, only the body of the spider was a man. It was Hogg.

He hung limp, being carried along by his own power. His visible skin was still dark and corrupted, his face held no expression, and his head hung to the side as if he were a puppet with the strings cut. Still, he must be conscious, because there was nothing wrong with his magic. The spider carried him until he was near Lumina, and then the legs of the spider separated off, turning into black shadow men. They joined the fight, leaping on Awnadil’s familiars.

Only one shadow stayed behind, holding Hogg under the arms to keep him upright.

“How can I help?” Hogg asked, though his lips didn’t move.

“You can stand back there and watch, old man,” said Lumina. “I’m just getting warmed up.”

Hogg sent his shadows out anyway, laying into the bunnies with black shortswords. This gave Lumina the space she needed to work. She’d been holding her own before, but Mages weren’t made for melee combat. Now that she had time for a proper recitation, her real power was unleashed.

She chanted the Language, and Brin actually knew a few of the words. He recognized “Gravity” and some words for directions.

Zappo stomped forward heavily, but then his next step pushed him into the air, where he floated like a balloon. One of Hogg’s shadows jumped up to kick him, knocking him a bit higher, where he stayed, unable to get down.

Lumina cast a net of light around Tigsi, who curled up into a ball to avoid touching any of the edges.

That left only Sorrow, who darted around Lumina like a ghost, throwing bolts of red lightning that splashed liquid when they hit her magical shields.

Awnadil wasn’t idle. She whistled, and the army started moving forward. In the meantime, Brin could feel her pumping more magic into the original curse. It covered the entire front of Lumina’s hand and was creeping around the back.

“Shields up! The army is on the move! Get ready for a fight!” Brin shouted, using [Call Sound] to amplify his voice over the battlefield.

Lumina summoned a dozen rings of something slimy and green and caught Sorrow tight. Rather than finish the bunny off, she stared at it curiously. “Sanguine Fulmination is such an interesting element. Blood and lightning aren’t something you would normally think of combining. [Archmage of the Mystical Elements] am I, but this is a rare one, even to me. I wish I could take you to the tower and study you, but unfortunately you’re too dangerous for that.”

Sorrow hissed and spit, but the bands of green slime held her tight.

“Of particular interest is the effect on undead. Some people say Seraphic Flame is best for undead, but I find that it’s more effective to use evil to destroy evil.”

One of Hogg’s shadows dragged another man out of the temple. Jeffrey the [Bard]. The shadow began to turn a crank on a box, a music box. The very same one that Hogg had shown to Davi and Brin. To all appearances, Jeffrey was comatose, but when the epic orchestral music began to play, it had every ounce of Jeffrey’s magic behind it, urging Lumina to greater power and glory.

She smiled, then lifted her eyes up to the undead, fast approaching.

“Excuse me, but you’re scaring my son.” Her calm face twisted into hatred. “NOW SUFFER FOR IT!” She screamed out words of the Language, words that made Brin’s mind feel raw, like sunburn on his soul.

Energy poured through the bloody red rabbit, pushing her lightning out into the oncoming horde. The bunny shriveled up like a prune as waves of her own energy poured through her and back into the undead army.

The effect was immediate. The undead on the front row screamed in pain, actually screamed, sounding surprisingly humanlike. Red lightning arced wildly from one to another, bright and staticy, and yet it splashed red drops of blood in every spot it hit. They turned, retreating in a mad scramble as the bloody lightning spread and magnified. The undead scrambled and thrashed, spinning in circles, clawing at their own faces, doing anything that they could to diminish their suffering. Every time one of them bumped a neighbor, the lightning spread and grew more intense.

Brin had been told on good authority that it was impossible for undead to disobey orders and equally impossible for them to feel fear. He’d heard that from the mouth of an undead with no reason to lie, and yet the last rows of undead, those who hadn’t been struck, threw down their weapons and fled.

The wail of suffering undead only seemed to join the chorus from Hogg’s music box.

Lumina wasn’t content. She raised her staff and a bright light appeared in the sky, like a sun shining at midnight. The light fell down from the sky as a beam of fire, slamming down towards Awnadil. The [Great Witch] raised a crooked branch above her head, warding off the flame. The branch was some kind of artifact and it created a barrier, but it wasn’t enough. The flame hit an invisible barrier but then splashed out around her, igniting the hem of her dress.

“I suppose I should take care to not burn down the forest,” Lumina said.

“Bogland wood is too wet for that to be a danger. You’d sooner boil the ocean,” said Hogg.

“Do you think I couldn’t boil the ocean?” asked Lumina. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she chanted in the Language. The words hurt and Brin felt light-headed. He put a finger up to his ears and felt something wet. This again, just like the first time he’d seen her go all out. He’d hoped that a year in this world would toughen him up against this sort of thing, but standing behind Lumina he felt as if the gap between them hadn’t shrunk at all.

She pointed forward with her staff, and the pillar of fire doubled in width, completely blocking off any view of Awnadil. She tightened her grip. “<<Obliterate!>>” The pillar of fire doubled in width again until it was ten yards across. It created a deep trench all around Awnadil, burning down deeper and deeper.

Zappo landed on the ground, free from whatever gravity magic Lumina had done to him. He launched himself at her, but this time a man in mirror-polished armor stepped in front of Lumina. He seemed comically small compared with Zappo, but when the giant bunny swung down, the armored man blocked easily with his shield. He followed up with a swing of his sword, cutting into the bunny’s fluffy stomach.

At first, Brin thought he was seeing Galan, but then the armored man glanced to the side enough that he could make out his features. This [Knight] was a stranger, but looked like he could’ve been the model for Ademsi.

“Ah, Officer Diali. Right on time,” said Lumina.

“Disperse the cage and my men will finish the other one as well,” said Diali.

“No need,” responded Lumina. “Step back, if you please.”

Diali jumped back to avoid a double-fisted slam from Zappo.

Lumina let go of her staff and it stayed in place, spinning. She thrust both hands to the sides and spoke a word of power that left Brin seeing stars as if he’d been struck in the head. Another pillar of fire fell from the sky and slammed into Zappo, burning straight through the familiar. A third pillar of fire landed on Tigsi, incinerating her inside the golden cage.

Even then, Lumina wasn’t done. One last push, and the beams all brightened in intensity. Brin smelled brimstone and ozone.

Then the flames died down. There was no trace of Tigsi or Zappo, just holes in the ground lined with steaming black glass.

Awnadil, blackened and burned, was still on her feet. Even as Brin watched, strips of black fell away to reveal pink skin underneath.

Lumina caught her staff, and blinked forward to stand immediately in front of Awnadil. She swiped out with her staff, and a blade of air formed at the tip just in time to remove Awnadil’s head.

Awnadil’s headless body jumped into the air, sprouting enormous bat wings and already regrowing the head. Lumina dashed up into the air after her, as if stepping up an invisible staircase. She slashed out with her staff, cutting off both of the wings and then stabbed Awnadil in the heart. They both fell to the ground, Lumina stabbing the [Great Witch] down into the earth.

The ground exploded where they landed, and Awnadil’s body evaporated into a flurry of shadows and dark, flapping wings. They flew along the ground as quick as thought, but Lumina said, “<<Stop>>” and the escaping thing slammed into an invisible barrier and resolved into the form of Awnadil again.

Awnadil grew, becoming sharper and more monstrous. Horns formed on her head and spouts of flame came from her nostrils as she formed herself into a weapon.

By then, Lumina was ready. Glowing words of Language appeared on the ground in a circle around her. She pointed her staff at Awnadil and said, “<<Release>>”

A stream of elemental ice as wide as a semi-truck blasted out from her staff, hitting Awnadil and passing straight through and engulfing her completely in a chaotic fury.

Then, the spell ended.

Suddenly, everything was still. The whole world seemed to hold its breath. For a brief, surreal moment, no one spoke, and no one moved. Awnadil was nowhere to be seen, so they all watched and waited for her to appear again.

For the first time since coming to this world, Brin saw snow. It grew up from the ground in the trail her ice spell had made, one long line all the way down the street, through the town walls, past the fields, and into the forest beyond. Scattered flakes took to the air, moving in all directions as if confused.

The ice had extinguished all the fires that Lumina had started, and it looked like the town had been cut in half. Behind Lumina, nothing was touched, few were hurt, and you could almost believe the town was the same as it had always been. In front of Lumina, utter devastation. The nearest homes were burned and then frozen again, while those further out had smashed doors and broken windows from when the undead had sacked the town. There were many sections of burned, melted or annihilated houses from smaller spells that Lumina had flung.

The undead themselves had been slaughtered. They lay scattered on the ground, tortured expressions on their faces.

Lumina wiped her brow. “Phew! Glad that’s done.”

“Then she’s—?” Brin started.

A notification appeared.

Since the System was sending him notifications anyway, he decided to unpause his Skill-ups as well.

Was that all from his fight with Siphani? He bet that just standing next to an [Archmage of the Mystical Elements] while she went all out counted as training.

“Ow…” Brin said, touching his bleeding ears again. It was strange, because his hearing was totally fine. Maybe the damage wasn’t physical? In that case why was he bleeding?

“Mageburn. Sorry about that. There’s nothing for it except exposure, I’m afraid.” Lumina stepped over to Brin and bent down to look him over, looking at his ears and pulling up his eyebrow to peer at the white of his eye. Satisfied, she wiped a smudge on his cheek away with her thumb, then looked suddenly awkward and stepped back, clearing her throat.

“It’s um… good to see you again, um, young man, or… that is to say…”

Brin knew his part. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Lumina in a hug. “Thanks for coming. I knew you would.” He felt her shake. With indignation? Their height difference placed his face directly in the middle of her chest; he hadn’t predicted that. He started to pull back, when she returned the hug, squeezing tight.

“My boy. My poor boy. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t come sooner.”