Dumbfounded, I stared at her. She was a vision, ethereal, the tattoos on her skin pulsating. Intricate designs wove around her fingers, her hands, her forearms, and extended up through her shoulders and back. Her tightly wound braids, black as midnight and interwoven with golden threads, fell all the way to the ground when she sat with her legs crossed. She didn’t look at me, instead, watching the bloodshed below. Who was this woman? She knew my name, and as she said, had been waiting. But I didn’t know who she was, or what on earth she’d been waiting for. Instinctively, I knew she wasn’t human. I didn’t think she was a monster, although my knowledge on them was limited, so she must be some kind of demon. A demon sorceress, apparently, that can summon creepy ice monsters at the flick of her pinky finger. I avoided looking at the frozen guards behind me. I couldn’t do anything for them now.

“Who the fuck are you?” I said without thinking, the words tumbling from my lips before I could stop myself.

She let out a small laugh. “Some call me Charybdis.” She flicked her eyes to meet mine with a sly smile. “Don’t you recognize your own mother?” Her head turned back to face the carnage, taking in the sights.

I blinked. “Uh…,” I said, my mouth forming other sounds before I could get this one out. “Uh, you said you were waiting. What for?”

She didn’t meet my gaze. “For this, and for you,” she said enigmatically.

“For me?”

“And other things,” she nodded, still not taking her eyes off of the scene below.

In contrast, I could barely look at it at all, even in peripheral. I knew that down there, somewhere, my friends were being slaughtered. And there was nothing I could do for them either. But… maybe she could.

“Can you stop this?” I asked, my voice thin and pathetic.

“Darling child, why would I stop this?” she said, her honey voice sweet as poison, giving me chills. “This is necessary.” She looked down on the massacre. The look on her face wasn’t hatred, it wasn’t fear, it wasn’t even disdain. It was indifference, like she was watching something inconsequentially amusing.

“What is it you want?” I asked, desperation weighting my words, frustration peeling through the syllables, breaking my flimsy façade of cool acceptance.

“What do I want? Everything I was denied. Everything that was mine. I should’ve been the heir to the throne, not whoever my father deemed I should marry. Do you not agree?”

“Um, I guess?” I ignored the death below us, the one she was fixated upon. “But I wouldn’t have wanted it to happen like… this.”

“Hazuzu and Zaavi must pay for their crimes against me.”

“Crimes?”

“Yes, daughter. I want to give you everything I didn’t have. The choice. The empowerment.” She turned her head away from the carnage below to look me in the eye, her pulsating tattoos hypnotizing me. “Change and growth is painful. Violent. Difficult. But ultimately? Necessary.”

I stared at her dumbfounded. I didn’t know what to say. Her frank stare frazzled my brain. “I don’t understand.”

She gave me a sad, yet indulgent smile, a grin you give a child as it first discovers the world. You’re proud of its progress, yet sad that it is beginning the path, knowing its inevitable fate. “You aren’t meant to.”

“Uh… glad to hear I’m on the right track then,” I said glibly. The battle continued on below us, the clashing of swords, bursts of magic spouting up as vibrant flares of light, screams of the dying echoing up to our vantage point. It was horrific.

My friends were down there, my family, old and new, even my enemies. My heart broke for them all, for the knowledge that everything we thought we were doing was all for nothing. Or rather, if I believed what Charybdis was saying, it was all for her plan. It was all meant to culminate in this. But she didn’t look pleased with the outcome. She didn’t take pleasure in the deaths happening below us, just out of reach. She just looked tired, weary, wasted. I couldn’t begin to fathom what was going on in her mind. There had to be some ulterior motive. She had to be wanting revenge on Hazuzu, on Zaavi, on the humans – that’s what everyone else’s motive was, revenge, payback. How could she be any different? I had to distract her, figure out how to stop this. I had no idea how, so instead, I had to stall. And perhaps get some information. There wasn’t much I could do from inside this magical cell.

“Were you angry?” I asked.

She raised her watery eyes to meet mine. “Angry?” she chuckled. “When?”

“When Hazuzu – father – made the alliance with the humans.”

“No,” she said, settling in, still watching the blood spill in battle. I didn’t have much time. But I needed to find out something, get a rise out of her, anything to halt this madness. “I’ve been angry far before that.”

“Can I ask then… what made you so angry as to react like this?” I said, gesturing below.

She sighed a deep sigh of disappointment and sadness, the air flowing from her lips in a breeze of a thousand years. “My father began this. He refused to make me his heir, instead forcing me to marry and choosing my husband as his successor.”

“Didn’t you love Hazuzu?”

“He loved me, or so he said. But he loved a prisoner, a bird in a gilded cage. Zaavi was simply another rival to both Hazuzu and me. I vowed to destroy them both once and for all. Demons are immortal, as is our patience and resolve. This is the result.”

“You’ve been whispering to both sides of the war,” I said aloud. “You started all of this.”

She nodded. “I said as much.”

“You got Zaavi released.”

“Indirectly, of course. A few nudges here and there, the right whisper into the right ears. All for you.”

“For me?”

“Of course, for you. I want you to be the Queen of the Demon Realm, my heiress, without the looming presence of expectations from men who think them better. You and I? We’ll destroy them together.”

“You think I would defeat them with you?”

“You’re my daughter, after all. Callisto, destroyer of worlds, daughter of Charybdis, the mother of monsters.”

I shook my head, unable to cope with those words. But if I played along, maybe I could still succeed.

“It took centuries for this all to play out like this,” she continued, ignoring my lack of response from her previous sentence. sighed, content. “It’s so beautiful, the chaos. You’ll learn to appreciate it too, in time.”

I growled, fury unbidden rising through my entire being. “Those are my friends down there,” I spat through tightly clenched teeth. “I won’t let you go through with this, right or not.” I felt my rage grow like a tangible being, pulsating around me like a wave of heat.

She laughed, a light, musical chuckle, startling me from my anger. “You too, daughter?” she said, watching the battle still. “Do you truly think that you, a fledgling sorceress with zero experience and knowledge can best me?”

I screamed, releasing the pent up energy I’d not realized I was holding in. A blast of heat erupted from my body, shooting in every direction an explosive force. Zaavi’s magical cage held strong, though it rippled and faded ever so slightly.

“My daughter, you seem to be cooped up in that cage of yours,” she said sweetly, her voice smooth, the words dripping from her lips. “Allow me to help.”

She formed a pattern in one hand, twisted her fingers, light rising from them, wrapping around my prison. Fear gripped me. This prison was the only thing that stood between her and I. At first, it was a cage, a cell, something I ached to be free of. Then it became a safety net, a security, a wall between me and danger. If she was lifting it, then I couldn’t imagine she had pure intentions.

The light flashed around me, and I could feel the energy that had once surrounded me to keep me safe choke and die, just like the grass that had been burnt in a circle when the prison had been cast. Charybdis had short circuited it somehow, rendering it useless, its energy spent. She reached out experimentally. I was frozen, still seated cross legged, eyes wide as I watched her fingers approach closer and closer.

She rested surprisingly warm hands on my shoulder, far past the border of where the prison had been. I shivered where she’d touched despite the warmth. However long she’d walked this earth, I instinctively felt that any compassion she’d perhaps once had was long gone, erased by the march of time. I’d once thought that hate was the opposite of love, but now? I wasn’t so sure.

She stood, and I followed her lead. I refused to back away. She wouldn’t have the luxury and pleasure of seeing my fear, seeing my back turn away from her in retreat. I steeled my expression, willing my features to show only fierce determination. It was all I had left.

She set her free hand on her hip, taunting me with informality. “Well, dear daughter, you were doing so well. I want to see what you’re made of,” she said, a smile on her beautiful face.

I knew she was just toying with me; her obvious underestimation of my powers was clear. I feared that she estimated me perfectly. I had no idea what I was doing, everything was new and uncharted territory.

“As much as I’d love to teach you everything, I can’t,” she said, practically reading my thoughts. “Each sorceress’ magic is different, unique to themselves.” She tilted her head, examining me. “Which is precisely why I need to measure you up. I need to know if you’re worthy.”

“I can’t let you kill them,” I said.

She smiled again, crooked, and indulgent. “One thing at a time, dear daughter.”

Her free hand twisted in another pattern, different than before. I gulped. This couldn’t be anything good.

Directly from the ground erupted a form, vaguely humanoid, with impossibly long arms that dragged the ground. The legs were stout, like tree trunks, and flashed with swirls of hot red color, like coals that smoldered on after a fire had been lit. At the head was no face except for a pair of large, long eyes, that were so black they looked as if someone had cut a chunk of night sky devoid of stars and placed them there. It groaned as it straightened, the swirls of heat working its way from the root of its legs upwards.

“Mother has work to do,” she said, turning away from the monstrosity she’d just summoned. “If you can best my fire elemental, perhaps I’ll forget your dissent. It’s only natural for a child to rebel, I understand.” She took a few steps towards the edge of the cliff to watch the battle rage. “But I won’t have a daughter who isn’t strong enough.”

The monster advanced on me. Automatically, I shrunk back in fear. It was easily twice my height, which isn’t altogether a huge feat given how short I am, still made for a terrifyingly looming figure. Desperately, I tried to rush backwards, giving up ground so that I could put some distance between myself and whatever this was. It was probably some kind of elemental, given how Charybdis had summoned that ice creature before. I just didn’t know what to expect out of this one. But I was sure to find out.

It took a few lumbering steps closer, its feet, for lack of better word, sticking to the ground and pulling out as if it were stuck to mud. It was as if it had to pull itself free of roots and mud each time it removed a foot from the earth. It stopped, then with a screech I could only describe as ear splitting, cut through the air. Then, the air around me waved with heat, and the screech turned into a burst of continuous flame flowing from the creature’s mouth.

It began to turn that monstrous head towards me, the flames pouring from it sure to roast me like a pig in seconds.

Panicked, my instincts took over. The only thing I could think of to save me was the prison that Zaavi had placed around me – maybe I could replicate it. Time seemed to slow down, my fingers clumsy and thick as I tried to will them to form some kind of shield, anything.

A bright light emitted from them and their frantic movements, my attempt at remembering what Zaavi had done to cast it and became a sphere around me. The sphere had formed just in time, flames licking around them harmless, though the force of the heat caused me to stumble backwards.

The flames ceased, the monster taking another step closer. It tilted its head at me, the dark eyes of night staring at me, a depth I could never fathom. I panted from the effort and fear. I didn’t know how much longer I could do this, or if I could fight this monster off at all.

Then I grit my teeth and dug in deep. My friends and family depended on me. If I didn’t do this now, then they would all surely die, as per Charybdis’ plan. And I sure as hell wasn’t going to let that happen.

The creature of fire took in a breath – or whatever it required to prepare for another dose of flame to shoot at me. Its screech sounded again, nearly piercing my eardrums in its proximity. This time, it sounded different, a different pitch. I readied myself, my fingers still stumbling over themselves and becoming entangled, but I managed to generate the shield sphere just as I had moments ago. It was a touch easier the second time around.

I scrunched my eyes shut, bracing myself for the heat that was inevitable. Then, a force hit my shield, shattering rock upon it into shards. My shield failed spectacularly, the light exploding outwards just as violently bright as it had when it was generated, and I was thrown backwards. The back of my head struck the dirt, then again as it bounced; my left wrist slammed against a sharp rock; my breath expelled from my lungs involuntarily as my back thudded against the flat earth.

The pain from my forearm was overbearing, the swelling immediate. I was positive I’d broken it. Experimentally, I attempted a wiggle of my fingers and was met with intense pain shooting through the entire limb. My head throbbed, a result from my brain bouncing around inside my skull. I was sure to be bruised just about everywhere. Looking around, it seemed that the creature had created some sort of earthquake, prompting rocks to sprout from the ground as if he had suddenly summoned gravestones from the earth itself. They stuck out at odd angles, random formations of rock in a vaguely circular shape surrounding the creature and myself. It was one of these that I’d had the misfortune of being closely acquainted with.

This development did not bode well for me. I had barely figured out how to use my apparent innate magic, and so far, what had worked for me was some kind of instinctual forming of patterns with my fingers as a conduit for whatever I was casting. That was how I’d made the shield, anyway, and now? Any patterns I would make would cause me great pain. I didn’t know if I had enough energy or determination to power through that.

The creature screeched, and this time, I knew it meant he was going to blast me like a flame thrower again. My breath heavy, I squeezed my eyes shut through the pain. I winced and an answering screech came from my throat as the crushed bone in my arm protested the deft movement of my fingers. Instead of seeing the flames, rather, I felt the heat that radiated towards me. Any second now, and I would be toast if this shield didn’t work. I poured every ounce of my willpower and desperation into producing another shield, twisting my hands into the pattern I’d used before.

The heat radiated towards me, through my closed eyelids the brightness of the fire showed through them.

If this didn’t work, I was dead.