Then a terrifying sight descended from the heavens: a huge winged serpent with a thousand heads and a thousand crowns on its heads. Its tail swept up one third of the gods of the lands and rulers of the seas, and its fangs devoured their shattered corpses. Then the serpent said in its heart, “I will enter into the depths, I will subjugate all that is beneath me, and I will make myself greater than even Krall.”

- Andanian Chronicles

“Pudding, pudding…” The blood drenched princess hummed happily to herself as she emerged from the dungeons. The unfortunate couriers she happened to come across paled apprehensively as they eyed the gore encrusted witch and cowered in fearful obeisance as she waved absently at them.

“Too slow! You’re all too slow.” Lily pouted impatiently as she turned to eye the shambling trio of grey skinned truth-finders, struggling through the tide of servants fleeing desperately from her presence. She sighed in disappointment as she appraised their desperate efforts to increase their pace, but their hideously battered bodies and shattered minds were clear impediments to their obviously pitiable progress. “This is probably my fault, I should have spent a little more time putting them back together.” The princess sighed reluctantly as she began leafing through her stack of talismans.

“I’m not too slow, am I?” Naomi trembled as she eyed the witch beside her. “Um… Teacher Lily?” She questioned pensively yet again, as she tugged at the hem of her bloodied dress when the distracted witch failed to respond.

“Ahh…” Lily screamed girlishly as she jerked away in startled surprise from her apprentice. “Oh, it’s just you.” The princess sighed with a relieved grin as she eyed Naomi with a guilty expression, “For a moment, I thought that elder sister had finally come to lecture me. You’ve become pretty good at sneaking up to me, haven’t you? I’m sure you’ll be really amazing at hide and seek now!” The princess smiled as she finally retrieved an intricately complex talisman and pointed it experimentally in the general direction of the mass of terrified servants who immediately redoubled their efforts to evade the impending disaster. “Hmm… how does this spell work again?” Lily frowned as she examined the ominously glowing charm in her hand.

Naomi stepped swiftly behind the princess to avoid the unknown magic accumulating in her palm. “What are you doing? Teacher Lily?” She questioned hurriedly, in an attempt to buy some more time for the fleeing servants.

“Eek!” Lily shrieked as she leapt away forcefully in her shock and bashed her head against the distant rooftop. The magic in her hand ran wild and ignited with a loud explosion that collapsed an entire section of the passageway, trapping the remaining people between the witch and freedom. “Oww… That was just so evil, dearest Naomi! How did you even get behind me like that?” Lily complained as fresh blood streamed down her forehead. “I almost lost all my remaining clothes in that explosion! Luckily I managed to throw that talisman away before it could burn my dress to cinders.” She giggled mischievously as she patted Naomi's snow colored hair, “With your amazing invisibility, we can definitely play an amazing prank on sister when she finally visits!” She whispered conspiringly.

“I’m so sorry! Please don’t punish me again…” Naomi wept in horror as she prostrated before the soot covered princess.

“Dearest apprentice Naomi, when have I ever, ever, punished you!?” Lily grumbled incredulously as she tugged the sobbing child forcefully into a choking embrace.

“Help! I’m suffocating!” Naomi gasped as she writhed about desperately as she accidently inhaled a large mouthful of soot from Lily’s bosom.

“Oof.” Lily gasped as a glancing shove knocked the breath from her lungs. A single push from Naomi cratered her against the far wall with a loud bang and her shattered arms hung listlessly at her sides. “Hey, be nicer to your teacher!” Lily pouted as she struggled to her feet and realigned her broken limbs.

“I can’t breathe! I’m dying…” Naomi moaned desperately as she coughed and clawed at her throat with growing horror.

Lily stared skeptically at Naomi before breaking out into peals of amused laughter, “Can’t breathe? What do you mean by can’t breathe? Why do you even need to breathe?”

“Help… I’m choking to death… Save me please…” Naomi screamed as her lungs refused her mind’s desperate commands to inhale. The moaning child fell to her knees and several long moments passed before she finally realized that she wasn’t blacking out. Naomi blanched in disbelief as she eyed the tittering princess, “Am I some sort of undead?” she muttered in resignation.

“Bah, what nonsense.” Lily smiled mockingly, “If witches had to breathe all the time, how would we ever be able to visit Krall in the sea? You should be able to live on a single breath of air for at least a day and up to a week in a pinch. And your lungs will shut off automatically for several minutes whenever you happen to inhale anything particularly irritating, it’s just a natural innate reaction to noxious stimuli. Just don’t try it with my elder sister. She’s weird and can only hold her breath for a little more than three hours.”

“What is this insane ability?” Naomi squeaked in disbelief.

“You have many more ‘insane’ abilities.” Lily replied as she gestured cynically at the people behind Naomi. The servants’ now silenced forms lay scattered around the stoic truth-finders who stood like grey pillars of jellied flesh amidst the carnage. Here and there, still partially conscious servants moaned softly as blood poured freely from their ears.

“What… what did I do? You were the one casting the spell…” Naomi denied feebly.

“Humans are very sensitive to sound. You have to avoid all harmful frequencies when shouting, at least according to elder sister. Oh, and be careful of extremely high frequencies, it’s hard to have tea when the tea cups keep breaking.” Lily added helpfully.

“How do I even know which frequencies to avoid?” Naomi whispered in horror.

“Oh, it’s simple. Just look at them, the man over there is particularly sensitive to the 20.27891 kHz wavelength, while this woman over here will be incapacitated if you scream with a sound that includes a 20.11871 kHz wavelength. It’s similar for most of the others, so you just have to avoid the wavelengths that have the greatest resonance with each of their tympanic membranes by looking before you scream.” Lily answered smugly.

“How about the people you can’t see. This is impossible!” Naomi exclaimed loudly, before clamping her hands around her mouth in horror as fresh blood spurted from the victims around her.

“Why do you even need to see? How do you intend to move around safely if you just rely on eyesight?” Lily sighed impatiently, “I can feel the exact position of all living creatures and magical constructs within a radius of at least five kilometers, even without magically extending my senses. Surely you can do something similar?”

Naomi closed her eyes and concentrated deeply, “One, two, three… Dear gods, I’m a monster. I’ve murdered almost three hundred people with my voice alone.” The paled faced child whispered in horror as she stared at the princess.

“Three hundred and thirty-two, to be exact.” Lily nodded agreeably. “Your senses must be defective like elder sister’s if you can’t even detect anyone more than a hundred meters away. But you didn’t kill anyone, I’m sure most of them will be walking around like nothing happened in a couple of minutes. In Andania, we maintain a team of mages whose specialty is to fix minor accidents like this.” The princess shrugged as she turned back towards the kitchens, “Now, shall we have some pudding?”

“There’s no such thing in Saadian…” Naomi stammered, “Magical healing is an extremely rare ability and reserved only for high nobility…”

Lily shrugged absently as she stared at the silent bodies interposed throughout the rubble strewn passageway, “Hmm… I’m sure that even the weakest humans will be able to regenerate from this much in an hour or two. It’s kinda hard to die from a minor injury like this right?”

“Please Teacher Lily! You have to save them, I don’t want to become a mass murderer! Saadian law sentences all mass murderers to death by a thousand cuts!” Naomi begged desperately.

Lily frowned as she stared at her teary-eyed apprentice, “But elder sister always says to leave them alone… Apparently most humans don’t really like it when I use my fixing abilities on them randomly.”

“Please, please teacher Lily! I’ll do anything, so please just save them all!” Naomi pled.

“Okay…” Lily replied somewhat reluctantly before brightening suddenly, “Oh oh oh! I just had the bestest idea, why don’t we start your magic lessons right here.” The witch thrust a talisman into Naomi’s horrified hands before she could refuse, “Here’s the first charm my elder sister ever crafted for me. The Anything Talisman! It can do anything and everything you would ever want. Just close your eyes and wish for it to happen!”

“Are you sure this will actually work?” Naomi stared doubtfully at the dubious looking talisman in her hand.

“Of course, it will! My genius sister designed this charm for total amateurs, the spell always works perfectly.” Lily reassured agreeably, “Just channel your power into it and your most heartfelt wish will become reality!”

Naomi bit her lip nervously as she glanced at the dying victims strewn across the rubble, “I guess this means that at least some of them will have a chance of survival. Well here goes nothing!” The child squeezed her eyes shut desperately as she held up the talisman and wished.

“Amazing! Just amazing, dearest apprentice! I always knew that you had the greatest latent talent!” Lily clapped proudly.

Naomi eked her eyes open gingerly, “Where did all the people go?” She muttered in bewilderment as she stared at the gaping emptiness before her. The rubble, corridor, and servants had vanished into nothingness and only a gaping hole, fifty meters deep and wide, remained of what had been an entire section of the palace. Then the child squeaked in fright as the entire floor trembled when a large stone crusted hand rose up and clamped onto the edge of the crater. A many headed multi-armed buddha like stone and metal golem roared as it propelled itself from the depths and landed before Naomi with a thundering crash. “What… what is this monster!?” The trembling child screamed as she retreated and cowered at Lily’s back.

“I always knew that combining people made them better!” Lily nodded contently, “But adding stone and metal to the mix, that is definitely an amazing stroke of ingenuity! Well done, apprentice! It appears that I have nothing left to teach you.” Lily smiled as she admired Naomi’s handiwork.

“What… what happened? I didn’t ask for this… this demon to appear!” Naomi moaned.

“Huh, isn’t that obvious? You simply fused three thousand, four hundred, and thirty-five humans together, and condensed them along with several tons of stone and metal to produce this obviously superior servant.” Lily nodded at the trembling three-meter statue prostrating before them, “I like it. Legion, I name you, now bring me some pudding from the kitchens!”

“Why did the body count increase so drastically… I definitely didn’t wish for something like that!” Naomi muttered in hysterical denial.

“What do you mean you didn’t wish for that? The Anything Talisman my sister made always grants your wishes. What did you even wish for?”

“I wished…” Naomi’s dark blue eyes widened with dread filled realization. “I wished that the people and the palace around me would always be protected from harm…”

“Exactly! See nothing was wrong with the talisman!” Lily declared smugly. “That much improved servant won’t be damaged easily by your accidental shouts and the integrated pieces of palace in that golem even gained a capacity for self-regeneration. What more could you ask for?”

“I’ve become a monster that makes monsters!” Naomi sank to her knees in despair just as Legion returned with a cup of differently flavored pudding in each of its many hands.

“Very fast, and you are a most excellent chef, Legion.” Lily nodded contently as she helped herself to her favorite dessert. “Oh, I almost forgot to mention this, the Anything Talisman is infinitely self-replicating. Once any witch is offered one, she gets to use it anytime she wants!” The princess demonstrated with an easy flick of her wrist, “Just say the words, ‘Anything Talisman’ along with this gesture and it will instantly appear in your hand! Handy, isn’t it?” Lily smiled as she eyed the bowl of pudding in front of her and activated the charm in her hand, “I want more fresh strawberries in my pudding!”

Needless to say, the merchants throughout the Saadian capital of Riyadh were utterly mystified when all the best strawberries in their warehouses and storefronts vanished mysteriously.

…

“By the Vaishyan holy gods…” Aryan moaned as he clutched at his painfully throbbing head before rising up and glancing wearily about him. “What in the world happened to me?” He grumbled as he massaged his faintly aching throat, “I must have fallen somehow and knocked myself out in the darkness…” he mumbled in confusion. “What the…” his eyes widened in horror as his hand plunged into the warm viscous fluid around him, “this is blood… so much blood.. Lieutenant Carol! Anyone, respond! We have an emergency! A terrible monster is roaming around the city!”

“You are the monster!” Crystal blue eyes flashed sadly in the darkness as Mirror growled ruefully at Aryan.

“Aah…” Aryan yelped in surprise before he finally spied the kitten’s familiar form across the dimly lit chamber, “It’s just you Mirror, don’t startle me like that. For a moment, I thought you were the blue-eyed demon that attacked me!”

“You must have attacked yourself then…” Mirror snorted in disbelief as she glared at him. “I’m not stupid enough to bite an obviously poisonous monster like you.”

“What are you talking about? You aren’t making any sense.” Aryan complained as he rose to his feet.

“Stop trying to deceive me fake Aryan. I’ve already examined the other remains strewn throughout the building and they were all stained with your unmistakably evil scent. Especially around all the bite marks.” Mirror snarled warningly at the approaching prince.

“I would never do anything like that!” Aryan protested incredulously as he reached out to convince her.

“Stay away from me, you bad evil monster! And stop trying to impersonate my good prince Aryan!” Mirror yowled furiously as she twisted away from his bloody grasp and fled to the relative safety of the rafters. “I should have killed you while you were still trying to lure me in by feigning death!”

“But I’m Aryan!” The prince protested as he reached out supplicatingly. To his surprise, his simple action propelled him several meters into the air and his hand locked around Mirror’s exposed heel.

Mirror screamed in pain as his bloodstained fingers hissed against her flesh, “Don’t touch me you demon!” She cried out as she attempted to stake him through the chest with a spear of pure magic, but the blood surrounding his body congealed into a shield which deflected her hastily conjured attack. The shocked kitten was knocked off balance by the magical backblast and splashed straight into Aryan’s bloody embrace.

“What? I didn’t mean it… I…” Aryan’s grip slackened as he finally realized what had happened and the wounded kitten finally managed to twist away from him.

“You evil, evil monster. Pretending to be Aryan!” Mirror moaned as she staggered desperately away from him. “I know how you got to all the others without a struggle now! This is mighty god Dagon’s city. When I tell him about your evilness, he’ll definitely come and turn you into a jellyfish!” Mirror smiled victoriously as a communication spell formed in her hands, “Um… god Dagon? Hello? Why aren’t you responding.” Mirror whimpered as she was overcome with a sudden premonition of impending doom. “It’s a trap! God Dagon, run… save yourself…” Mirror meowed as the light in her eyes flickered and dimmed suddenly when the divine power fueling her body was snuffed out. And the silent kitten pitched forward face first into the dirt.