Mordecai found the w of Queen Sylphine's orders to her seneschal rather iing. As Carmil had he w of those orders meant that only Lord Silvander was insisting. If he failed, Queen Sylphine had not itted herself to anything more and Mordecai thought it likely she was not expeg him to succeed.

  This was a test and a probe for information.

  Not only a test of Carmil but a test of the Azeria Dungeon and Court. She wao see what they were all capable of and Mordecai felt quite fident that Carmil was going to put on quite the dispy. Ohat would teach him, Kazue, and Moriko a lot more about what Carmil was truly capable of.

  In her role as a floor boss, she had been limited to her abilities as a witd never hi any sort of skill with ons. But for the first time since she had awakeo her true self, she wasn't ag as a floor boss at all. She resent in the role of a princess of Azeria Court and all that she had ever learned was avaible to her.

  Plus, she had her full plement of power as a floor boss. This area might reflect the appearance of their Zone Zero, but it was not that zohis was their Domain and it ermeated with the power of their duerritory. There were no divisions or limitations, for there were no delvers. The Other Side operated by different rules of 'fairness' and the dungeon's rules took sed pce to them.

  Holy, if he'd realized that possibility, he might have beeed to try this in his previous existence.

  So whatever Silvander expected of the princess before him, he was going to get a whole lot more.

  A glittering hit the ground, and the duel began. Moon-touched bdes fshed at deadly speeds as the two faeries danced across the ttice of living crystal and pure white mycelium. That Lord Silvander could move with surety across such precarious footing was a testament to his skill, but Princess Carmil had everouble for she beloo this domain. This was why she had chosen such difficult terrain, she was not hindered by it in the least.

  While it might not have been obvious to all of the spectators, Mordecai and Moriko were both able to quickly tell that Carmil his advantage when it came to sword work alone. Even with her advantage, she ressed to maintain an offense against Silvander. Slowly that offense slipped as she was forced to defend herself more, until a twist knocked her bde wide and there was no way that Carmil could dodge his thrust entirely. Yet that bde found nothing but empty air.

  Carmil's suddenly tiny form swung from where Udup's rge cw held her, their sizes now reversed. Before Silvander could recover from his thrust, the umbral dragon exhaled a cloud of darkhat g to the faerie lord and leeched away his vitality. He was forced to leap away from them to get free of that dark fog and recover his footing.

  But the duo pressed their advantage and Udup flung Carmil directly at Silvander, with her sword aimed forward. Mid-flight, Carmil sed sizes again to make her bde a serious threat once more. Silvander mao block the flying thrust with the ft of his bde, a mahat would have gotten most people killed. Even so, he was driven back several feet, sliding along smooth crystal until he gaira against the more textured mycelium.

  Now he pushed back, shoving Carmil away and his free hand flung forward to release a spiral of id fire at her.

  She didn't fight that shove, letting the distaween them grow before she nded. Her bde sshed down to meet the spell and break it apart, then the s witch retaliated by spitting a spray of poison thorns at her foe.

  The duel was now one of sword and spell that clearly left Silvander scrambling to adjust. Carmil sed her magic freely between her older faerie spells and her newer witch hexes and spells. Light, sound, and illusion flew freely in both dires as did elemental spells, but disabling spells of darkness and toxins only came from Carmil.

  While many fey did have such magic, most nobility sidered themselves above such things.

  For the most part, Carmil's hexes failed to take hold upon the faerie lord; his sight was briefly obscured instead of being blinded, he became disoriented for a moment instead of entirely deafened, and so on. But it was not what he expected. Their swords cshed once more and a of vipers exploded from her sleeve to attack the Faerie lord, f him to sear them with fire while Carmil pressed her attack.

  But her advantage did not st. Lord Silvander was an experienced batant and he was quick to figure out what sort of magic he was fag. Mordecai found some amusement at Silvander's expense when the lord scowled as he figured out that he was fag witch magic themed heavily toward s-reted spells.

  It was not aesthetically appropriate for a faerie prio be a s witch.

  As soon as Silvander recovered from his surprise and adapted to her tactics, he was able to press Carmil once more. Which was when the part of her tactic was revealed.

  Udup sank his teeth into Silvander's foot.

  An umbral dragon of such a tiny size was tricky to keep track of if there was the slightest bit of shadow to hide in. The ttice upon which they danced provided plenty of shadows and gave him the opportunity to attack from below.

  Witd dragon began a new assault that was incredibly difficult to defend against. Either of them could attack physically, but defending against a sword was different from defending against the swipe of a dragon's cw or the bite of his jaws. bined with their ability to exge sizes this created a very fluid dynamic even before one ated for Carmil's spells. They also tried to only fly when they were small, while Silvander was forced to to repeatedly fly for short distances without the be of a lighter form.

  If the pair was more experiehe battle would have ended immediately. As it was, it took several more minutes before they finally forced Silvao yield with Udup's teeth at the lord's throat and a tiny-sized Carmil holding onto Silvander's hair while pointing her bde into his ear.

  Carmil and Udup were bed, her dress torn and blood stained while her familiar had several bloody patches where he was missing scales.

  Silvander was worse off in many ways and he bore more wounds thawo of them bined. But this was also a sign of his resiliend strength, he had kept his body moving with grad power far beyond the limits most mortals could. Many seasoned warriors would simply be dead before they could have accumuted so many wounds.

  But the battle was over, and the tired batants were atteo by flying rabkin and buzzkin before being assisted to the ground. Carmil did her best to march forward with poise, ready to decre her victory in a manner befitting a princess.

  She did not get the ce.

  Fuyuko had the least restraint and reached Carmil first to her arms tightly around her adoptive sister while Udup g tightly to the faerie's shoulder. Mordecai, Moriko, and Kazue had already decided to abandon de for this and were only a couple of steps behind and swiftly joihe family hug. Mordecai could feel Carmil shake ahe tears f that she refused to shed, and he whispered to her, "Well done, we're proud of you."

  Kazue and Fuyuko each told Carmil how worried they were and Moriko praised her skill and cleverness while simultaneously threatening her with more training. This overwhelmed the st of the proud princess's defenses and she began quietly weeping with tears of happiness. Mordecai would normally have been tent with this, but the event was not quite doh. He kissed Carmil's forehead then broke free from the group hug to walk toward a fused-looking faerie lord.

  "Lord Silvander," Mordecai said, "We have all witnessed Princess Carmil's victory. Do you formally quit your cim t Princess Era to Queen Sylphine and the Silver Grove Court?"

  Silvander ined his head in aowledgment. "I do, but I am uain how my queen will feel about this. She will be pleased that Carmil has finally won a bout against me, I am less certain that she will be pleased about the sort of abilities that she gained in order to do so and may have questions about how she gaihis particur magic."

  Mordecai smiled at him and said, "I will be happy to tell her about how a rebellious little fairy was influenced by a special visitor of ours and was quite eager to take up the role of a s witch, should she e in person to ask. In fact, should Queen Sylphine speak with the other pixies, I am quite certain that they would be gd tale her with all the tales that our ratling friend told them. At least, to the best that they recollect them. Much like their chaotic idol, they seem to have trouble keeping their various stories from mixing, but that is part of what makes them eaining, yes?"

  One did not bee seneschal to a faerie queen by being a fool or an idiot unless it was of a particurly useful sort of idiocy. Given that Silvander was still alive after having worked for the queen for quite some time, he was almost assuredly not that sort of seneschal.

  Watg prehension dawn was rather eaining. Mordecai was not above petty satisfa foing reve having to deal with the Faerie Courts.

  "Might I know the name of this ratling friend of yours?" Lord Silvander asked in a tohat suggested he'd be happier if he didn't know. But Mordecai had dropped too many clues; ign the obvious question that would certainly be asked of him ter would be extremely unwise.

  "Of course," Mordecai replied, "My friend goes by the name of Li, though his full name is Li Zarb. There are also some titles that people like to give him, but he doesn't care for any sort of title and remains happily unaware of such things." Being bound to tell the truth did have its advantages when one spoke a direct truth that some might find difficult to believe.

  "I see," Silvander replied with a sigh, "That does expin much. I will inform my dy of this of course, but I think that if she wants to know more she will wish to speak with you directly."

  Mordeodded and said, "Naturally, I would be quite willing to host her. For now, will you not join our uests for the feast? We have more visitors to attend to before we have the ce to attend the feast ourselves."

  By the time he had returo the pavilion, Carmil had enough time to recover her posure, which had been part of his i. While she pridefully wore her battle wounds and shredded clothes, she also seemed more sincerely and unreservedly happy than he'd seen her before, and Mordecai sidered that to be a very good thing.

  He did not doubt that much of her normal demeanor would reassert itself before too long, but now that this part of her had been exposed he was certain that Carmil should find it much easier to find this state again.

  They all returo their thrones and chairs in order to resume properly seeing to their visitors. Their guests had at least witnessed aertaining spectacle and had much to gossip about, which should make them happy as well as provide for some iing and hopefully favorable reas from the fey unity.

  Zagaroth