A/N: Hello patient people. I honestly have no excuse for your wait but if I do offer one would you expect going to see The Dark Knight Rises, watching (and trying to explain to a well meaning but confused friend) Olympic artistic gymnastics (GO ON BETH! Yes I'm British), job hunting and a cold being distractions?
Once again, thank you to my reviewers, and people who have favourite/alerted this fic, you keep me going on long days. I was watching re-runs of Merlin (and just over a month to SEASON 5!) and picking up inspiration when this idea hit. Whilst I still have a few ideas left from my original list, this wouldn't leave me alone so enjoy. :D
Warnings: Nothing specific.
The Lair
Whilst planning, gloating and fabulous dress sense is important, all of this becomes useless if you don't have a safe haven to plan from, practice your gloating in or hang your fashionable ripped dresses and red cloaks in.
When choosing a lair, consider both location and style. Whilst large fancy castles and fortresses in the middle of a large kingdom are nothing less then you deserve, until you have funny and successfully executed a plan, it is best if you hide...erm... stay in a cave or hut in the middle of nowhere.
The location of your hut/cave is essentially important. When you choose to tactically leave in a whirlwind (which any good sorceress can do), witch hunters and members of royalties seem to believe that you only have the power to either transport to another part of the town or a village over if you're incredibly powerful. Whilst this gives you the advantage to make a clean get away whilst the idiots are harassing peasants, to keep this advantage you must remain far away from civilization. This way no patrols will inadvertently stumble across you like some idiotic manservant of a king and you can happily murder old sorcerers of dubious sanity who are meant to be your doom without the irritation of screaming villages or pesky knights.
Just because you are forced to live in a rundown hovel doesn't mean that you can't decorate. Hanging dried herbs with no apparent uses from the roof gives the place a homely feel whilst filling the room with lovely aromas. To give your lair a mysterious, magical air, use shelves of odd magical knick-knacks that will become important in your spells and a large brazier to increase the potency of your spells using glorious fire. Finally, add a string of dead rabbits to a random corner of your hideout. Whilst you know that you will eventually cook them up for a stew, any trespassers will believe that they are really incredibly vicious rabbits that only a powerful sorceress could kill. Said trespasser will proceed to whimper in terror at the realisation that he is in a witch's home and you can saviour his fear before putting the fool out of his misery. These simple tips make a depressing hole into a lair that screams powerful future ruler.