Remaining hidden beneath a thick layer of quilted blankets, the Magic Mirror quietly hummed into life as pulses of deep, ruby-red lights danced around its edges. With each pulse of life-giving energy, the eerily, blood-colored lights grew brighter as their ominous tone slowly began to seep out from beneath the immense layer of quilted wool.

Somewhere out in the world, someone wished to communicate with the magical device's owner.

With a sleep-addled groan escaping from her scowling lips, Iskra threw an arm over her weary eyes as she did her best to ignore the unwelcome disturbance to her night's rest.

“By the Gods,” Whispered Iskra with an exhausted tone, keeping her eyes closed tightly shut as she quickly reached out to throw the blankets over her face. “That bastard already knows that his son isn’t here. So why in the world would be he calling me now?”

The bastard that she was referring to was none other than her father-in-law, the Witch-King of the Dark Elves and self-proclaimed righteous leader to all elven societies.

Ever since learning about the young couple's relationship, the elven ruler had made it blatantly clear to his many sorcerous wives that even though the women of the family had encountered a disastrous falling out with the once silent and shy blonde-haired prince and his universally despised wife, the anguish and hatred that these women felt for their newly acquired daughter-in-law did not extend to that of the Dreadblade family's awe-inspiring patriarch.

At first, the man's support had come in the form of hallowed words that served little purpose other than to appease the whims of his many wives while keeping his now-rebellious son happy.

It wasn’t much, but after the nightmarish incident between Iskra and a select number of her mother-in-laws, the Witch-King had taken a little more interest in the young couple’s affairs and begun gifting them various items. One of which was none other than the very same mirror that now glowed with magical light.

Even though the item itself was commonplace amongst elven society, Iskra took great joy in having such a fairytale-like item in her possession. However, there was a problem that came with owning the arcane device. Something that Iskra had slowly learned to accept over these past several months.

“Exhibitionist bastard,” Iskra snarled as she threw the covers off of her body and kicked them to the wayside as she snapped her head towards the source of her irritation. “Answer!”

“Iskra? Can you hear me?”

Sung the dazzling, honeyed words of Aurelius as his lyrical voice flowed through the air as if they were dancing upon heavenly clouds. The concern that he held for his wife at such a late hour was beyond obvious for the groggy human teenager as she slowly propped herself up against the bed’s headrest.

“Aurelius,” A lonely sounding Iskra purred as she placed a loving hand over her swelling stomach as the unborn children held within its confines began to kick at the sound of their father’s voice.

‘Now's not the time to be kicking at your mommy,’ Iskra thought to her unborn children as she lovingly patted the top of her stomach. 'I know that you miss your father, but you shouldn't take your anger out on me.'

At first it was extremely rare for her children to kick at the walls of their temporary confinement, but the moment that their father had left to head down south, they had caused a tumultuous storm within her belly. Their kicking had become such a common occurrence lately that Iskra could ill afford to stand for more than a minute without her unruly children forcing her to sit back down in complete exhaustion.

“Are you on your way back?” Iskra began to ask as her mouth opened up to let out a silent yawn. “How did everything go?”

Iskra’s ear perked up at the sudden sharp intake of air as her husband struggled to answer such an easy question.

A look of blatant disgust quickly grew upon her sleep-addled face as she listened to what came next out of her husband’s hesitant lips.

“Well-” Came the disgruntled reply as Aurelius struggled to come up with what to say next. “Actually-”

“Aurelius,” Oozed out the venomous tone of Iskra’s words as the young girl struggled to hold back her frustrations. “Where are you?”

“You see, what happened was-”

“Aurelius,” Iskra snapped as she cut off her husband’s excuses before they could further enrage her. “Answer me.”

“Iskra?” Came the distant, familiar voice of Anna as she hesitantly called out the name of her long-absent friend. “Is that really you?”

Even with the room cloaked in the shadows of the moonless night, Iskra's face darkened with evil intent as she realized the kind of situation her husband had found himself in.

“Aurelius,” Iskra spoke the name of her husband with a dark and sinister tone as her lips crept upwards into an evil smile. “We’ll talk more about this once you get back, do you understand?”

“Uh-Ye-Yeah.”

“It’s been a while, Anna.” Iskra called out towards the quilt-covered mirror as she quietly wondered to herself just how badly her husband had spilled the secrets that he was meant to keep hidden beneath the surface of his thoughts.

“Since it’s come to this, how much do you know exactly? About what the handsome messenger has told you, I mean.”

“A lot, actually.” The hesitant voice of her distant friend explained as she explained the laundry list of items that had been detailed within the blonde-haired messenger’s absurd story.

When all was said and done, Iskra couldn’t help but let out a defeated groan as she dragged an open palm across the front of her face.

‘It’s my fault for trusting him to keep his mouth shut about our relationship,’ Bemoaned Iskra as she vented out her frustrations with a heartfelt sigh of remorse for having chosen her husband as the go-between between the two teenaged humans. 'But there's no point in getting mad over it any further. Let's just move on and see what needs to be done.'

“Since there’s no point in denying it any further,” Iskra explained as she reached over to the nearby dresser before lazily searching through its drawers for the multitude of documents that lay hidden inside one of its many shelves. “Everything that he said is true. Though I would have preferred it if he had found a different means to convince you of his sincerity.”

“Still though,” Anna’s voice hesitated, forcing the raven-haired teenager to envision her distant friend tapping her fingers at the bottom of her lips. A peculiar quirk of the girl that she had long been acquainted with during their many years together.

“Regardless of its absurdity, it’s the truth.” Iskra let out in a huff as she scavenged through another draw in her search for the related documents before rolling her eyes at her friend’s hesitation.

It didn’t take much longer for her to find the documents she was searching for and as she grasped the handful pieces of paper between her fingers, an amused smile stretched across her lips.

“You’ve read my letter, yes?” Iskra asked as she began to dive into the meat of the situation at hand, no longer willing to keep the first step to her long road of revenge out of the reach of her fingertips. “The one detailing my proposal to your family?”

“I did-”

“Fantastic,” Iskra interrupted her friend as she moved the pieces of paper in front of her lips, hiding a vicious smile behind their yellowed pages. “What did your father have to say about it? Since he’s the head of your household, we’ll need his final stamp of approval to finalize the details of our agreement.”

An awkward pause soon followed in the wake of Iskra’s words and with each wordless breath that passed between the young girl's plush lips, the proverbial grains of time slowly built themselves into a bulbous mound of sunbaked sand, the raven-haired teenager’s face twisted itself with poisonous glee.

Soon enough, the sound of desperately held back tears began to reach the raven-haired teenager’s ears, turning the once casual conversation into an elaborate, full course meal for the expectant mother.

“Iskra-” Anna sobbed, her voice quivering with uncontrollable agony as she fought back the urge to break down and wail over the mere mention of her father.

As the sound of her hiccupping friend’s misery echoed across the room, Iskra closed her eyes and let out a shallow, haggard breath of lustful satisfaction.

‘Such a bright future is standing in front of me,’ Iskra’s vile thoughts echoed in her head as she readied herself for what she would say next.

“Anna, what happened?” Iskra spoke with a calming tone as her hideous nature hid itself behind an unwavering smile that showed little concern towards the current state of her sniffling friend.

It took Iskra a few more tries in calling out to her friend before she was able to succeed in convincing the other girl to steel her nerves and calm herself enough to continue with their conversation.

“Iskra,” Anna repeated the name of her friend, sounding as if her tears were once again threatening to burst out of her eyes as if they were being held back by a weakened dam. “I’m the only one left.”