"You caught six ninja goons?" Clawstorm asked in disbelief, her previous feelings of uneasiness towards having to sit beside Snow White evaporating when, blessedly, the woman had decided to get right down to business first thing before the first dragon practice game even started. "That is utter lunacy! Why risk getting caught when the past mission already went sideways?"
"That's what my people have been asking them before we noticed that the equipment that we have been using to keep them from blowing up has triggered a mechanism the prevents them from being taken out of their clothing, we tried to warn them, however all but one have believed us and were willing to have one of the golems that you had given control over to Anton to help them out of their uniforms. For some reason the idea of being ripped out of their pants by a jabberwocky skeleton has put them on edge." Snow White informed with a shake of her head.
Fair enough. Clawstorm mentally conceded.
"We also have the woman you described in custody." Snow White reports with a trace of an unidentified emotion.
"That was awfully quick." Clawstorm blinks Mira's yellow painted eyelids.
"I do aim for efficiency in an emergency. We have identified the woman through royalty records as one Joanna Lovelace, the surviving widow to the late Lord Lovelace who has been flagged as a person under suspicion of numerous crimes, the worst of which is murder and beating his wife, she had reportedly disappeared after her husband's suspicious death and until now, or more likely, until you came around, nobody knew what happened to her. She had a girl with her as well, wearing magic dampening jewelry to mask most of her scent as a witch, we of course replaced the girl's dampeners with stronger ones of our own and are holding her in protective custody with child services." Snow White grimaced. "There is something off about that child. The witches working for me could feel it, can't you Anton?"
Anton who stood dutifully the throne where Mira sat nodded. "It is true your dark ladyship, the concentration of pre-adult power inside this little girl's tiny body is to the point where even I, a warlock with no medical background, can tell that it is… abnormal, borderline unhealthy most likely. The healers won't know what to make of it until they do some more tests on young Miss Clementine."
Something clicked in the back of Clawstorm's mind, along with a memory of some information she had encountered while doing her collaborative research with different specialists who were keenly interested on the potential uses for her micro-talismans, one research project in particular came to mind which still left her with a haunted bittersweet feeling and had kept her up at night for weeks afterward.
It couldn't be… "A little witchling named Clementine was found with Joanna Lovelace?"
"Yes she was residing in a rented cottage house in the woods just outside of the village where the Council Chambers are." Anton nodded, watching Mira in curiosity.
There is no way… "Did this girl also carry a certain… familial resemblance to Joanna Lovelace? Like blonde hair and blue eyes? Maybe even a birthmark on her neck that's kinda in a crescent moon shape?" Clawstorm asked her tone slightly thick with emotion.
"Yes, in fact that is exactly what she looks like." Anton blinked. "Do you know who she is?"
Mira turned her head when Blondie announced that the proceedings will be starting in five minutes, in the background the witch could hear one of the student vendors shouting out offers for hot dogs and soda.
"I might, but I won't know unless I get a good look at her, is there a way that I could see this witchling sometime in the next few days?" Clawstorm swallowed, feeling slightly faint.
Snow White blinked in surprise. "Actually I was just going to ask you if you could make an appearance today after the game since the mercenaries that you saved from being blown up yesterday want to meet the witch who saved them and ask her a few question before they make a deal with us. They seem prepared to turn on whoever sent them. During yesterday's excitement my people were able to gather as many leaper sticks as they could to prevent the panicked mercenaries from escaping."
"Good." Clawstorm stated with conviction. She could feel as bitter and as grim towards the other woman all she wanted for those spiteful things that Snow White had put her through, however despite everything if one good thing could be said about Snow What it was that she was very good at putting her immense resources to effective use when there was a time of emergency and it almost appeared that everyone who worked for her was competent at the very least. "Do you suppose that we might be able to arrange a way to get the rest of them to turn on their masters?"
"…I may have an idea or two." Snow White admitted an all too familiar scheming glint forming in her eyes and Clawstorm, with a shiver of revulsion, was merely glad that the woman was not looking at her this time around.
XXX
"I think that the Headmaster put a curse on her." Faybelle informed Apple as the fairy examined an unconscious Raven lying limply under the sheets of the bed.
"What makes you say that?" Apple inquires.
"Well… it's still just a theory that he was the one to put this on her but there is definitely the faint scent of… well it's not exactly magic but it's definitely something that isn't her own." Faybelle mused, peering down at her unconscious wife. "It took me a while to get a taste of it but there is definitely something very odd with how one minute she's being all receptive and affectionate and the next she's either suddenly extremely hungry, or she literally falls over and is sound asleep before she even hits the ground it's like someone's gone and put some sort of… spell on her that is way more effective than any old chastity belt!"
"…You know, Raven is starting to suspect that we've got nothing but one track minds." Apple pointed out carefully.
"That's because we do." Faybelle pointed out truthfully.
"That may be true…" Apple coughed, blushing slightly. "But my point is that… if what you sense is indeed a deterrent placed upon Raven to prevent such… activities from happening… I just don't think that at this point that she's going to believe us… or take us very seriously."
"She is a warm-blooded young adult in the beginnings of her prime, I don't see how this could not be seen as something moderately serious at the very least." Faybelle stated, one eyebrow rising.
"What I mean is that we haven't even taken her out on a proper date, you know, with flowers, movie, dinner, long walks in public, romantic overtures… the type of lovey dovey stuff that Raven has always talked about in the past whenever we occasionally brought up the whole… why she was so into certain romance movie things and not others." Apple waved her hand vaguely, in reality it had only been one time that Apple had become curious as to why Raven preferred to watch romantic movies on her phone and not in the village and Raven had explained that the movies that they tended to show in the village more often than not had content that was rather offensive to her personal beliefs on what a real healthy relationship was.
Part of Apple had wanted Raven to elaborate but when she had opened her mouth it was to tell Raven the same old lines about Raven becoming the Evil Queen and how it was her destiny not to have a happy romantic ending and Raven demanded heatedly on the topic of just what Apple had expected her to do long after Apple had been crowned queen or if Apple had even bothered to consider that Raven would have a life far away from the princess but then had just sighed, apologized for her tone and rolled over in her bed so that her back was to Apple and her earphones were going full blast in case the princess had wanted to argue further.
And that had been that (well… the whole incident with the True Heart's Dance had pushed the matter further past the point of no return), up until she informed Apple about her marriage to Faybelle, Raven had made it a point to never discuss romantic topics when she was alone with Apple in the dorm and between the thick, heavy silence that followed the brief attempts Apple had made towards asking Raven about any potential crushes she had or anything about romance really, and Raven's painfully deliberate excuses to get out of the room, Apple had decided to just never touch upon that subject ever again (because at least an argumentive Raven talked to her, a silent Raven who walked away was positively awful).
"She's the type to actually like that romantic stuff before the do is done? Not, like say… after? Would after count? I mean it still counts even though one thing proceeds the other." Faybelle asked a little hopefully.
Apple squeezed her eyes shut and made an exasperated noise at the fairy. "It's more romantic to be courted Fay." The princess stated in annoyance. "And don't bring up the whole different species and cultures excuse because I know enough to be wise to the fact that fairies have complicated courting rituals that often involve dates before anything else."
"Yes but we don't have to observe it." Faybelle argued with a pout.
"Neither do humans or witches." Apple informed coolly. "But that really depends on the individuals involved doesn't it?"
"It's just that if my mother finds out from her numerous contacts that I'm actually contemplating getting actually serious about all of this she's going to be pushing for grandchildren and scheming up ways for the clan to benefit further from all of this and this is all just… very new." Faybelle despaired over the sudden persistent knocking and ringing of the doorbell in the background. "Did I mention the grandchildren bit? She is very into the grandchildren bit. I mean right now she just thinks that I'm trying to worm my way further into the good graces of two potentially very useful allies… not consider an active romantic involvement."
"It's possible to have dates outside the public eye." Apple conceded as the two of them walked down the stairs. "I have an invested interest in keeping mum with my activities too, in my kingdom the use of girls my age and of proper royal upbringing to be entangled in romantic relationships outside of our pre-arranged betrothals, not to mention even the mere contemplation of a physical relationship out side of marriage to not only one but two people, is… well… not abnormal to be honest but with a mother like mine…"
"Ah." Faybelle said simply and nodded. Nothing more had to be said, which was just as well since Apple had opened the front door.
Charlotte immediately leaned against the doorframe. "Fetch your blushing bride cousin, the human girl can come too I suppose, the Evil Fairy wants to sew this getting hitched thing all up in a neat little bow."
Elenore Queen rolled up behind the witch and peered up at the fairy and princess. "It would seem as though my granddaughter will be eloping at the last minute, I didn't even have time to put a pin in my hat!"
"Apple, Fay, I hear voices- Grandmother? Charlotte? What are you two doing here?" Raven sleepily demands as she stumbles clad in only a sleep shirt and Nevermore draped across her shoulders to the stairway.
"Quirieup!" Nevermore cheeps brightly, taking flight towards the elder witch's outstretched hands, passing Faybelle silently telegraphing a "see? I told you something was off seing as how she slept right through the two of us talking right over her but when someone comes to the door…!" to a bewildered Apple.
XXX
The Headmaster was understandably reluctant to let Mira take a "private" interview with Snow White after the practice Dragon Game was over and all the congratulatory speeches finished, Clawstorm suspected with a growing horror that the old man was becoming… almost fond of the Mira persona. At least to the point to where he felt the need to step protectively between herself and Snow White before telling Mira in a kind, fatherly tone to please watch over Nightshade for him while "The Adults" talk things out and gently sent her back to her little friends.
In her youth Clawstorm would have put up a righteous fuss over the kit-gloved treatment, however being a mother herself- albeit one who had been separated from her child for seven years- she couldn't honestly say that she wouldn't have done the same thing if she was in his situation.
She honestly didn't know what was worse; that she agreed with her father's methods or that she was actually hoping that her old nemesis would prevail in her task of convincing the Headmaster to let her go with the woman, alone, and for a long period of time.
She definitely knew that the old man's sudden… protectiveness against the supposedly fairest queen of them all was very disturbing.
Not to mention being nearly two decades too late.
And what's more the fact that her father had brought her mother's dragon to these proceedings himself only proved her suspicions that his recent cheerful mood had to do with things going rather well between her parents. Very disturbing indeed.
The witch shook off the dreary revelations when Nightshade, her mother's beloved childhood pet dragon affectionately bumped his tiny head against the side of hers and chirruped at her in the way that he only reserved for his own hatchlings, Raven, and herself. Being both a dragon and her mother's head familiar her disguise would not so easily fool Nightshade.
He had remembered her.
The woman blinked back tears as she returned the long missed gently affectionate head bump, oh how she missed her family, the life she had before it all went wrong…
"What is that all about?" Blondie met Clawstorm before anyone else and murmured into her ear when the witch reached the news club table her shallow nod indicating that she had noticed the Headmaster and the queen hissing tensely at each other.
"Important talks she wants to have with me. Privately. I'll be fine don't worry. Tell you 'bout it later." Clawstorm murmured back, carefully keeping a smile in place as the others from the table got up to surround her with questions.
It took much longer than expected for Snow White to turn up to fetch her, while Clawstorm did not mind spending some quality time with her mother's dragon who had not only helped to raise her in his own dragon-like way but had also greeted her with such love and warmth that the witch had to pause more than a few times to keep her emotions under control before the tears of gratitude and happy memories could successfully spill from her eyes, however Mira's cheeks hurt from having to smile too much while Humphrey and Cupid went wild with taking pictures and Clawstorm had to sharply remind herself to stay focused as Blondie interviewed her and the teams that had come off the field after they had put the visiting dragons back into their guest stalls.
"Preserving endangered species of dragons are not just important for the sake of preserving our ancestor's history for future generations to enjoy." Mira spoke into Blondie's microphone, Nightshade nuzzling her chin as she spoke. "They are an integrated part of the natural eco-system, take away the dragon and the delicate balance that keeps this eco-system running smoothly will be upended in ways that could prove not only detrimental to the things we take advantage of every day but could also cause irreversible damage. For instance when the tiny nectar-eating feathered dragons went extinct so did many other plants that it helped pollinate, and as a consequence, many other animals disappeared too, the beloved golden apples that are grown in a select few acres here and there throughout the realms used to be abundant everywhere, reportedly yielding crops of several tons of fruit every year, however when the feathered dragon was hunted to extinction for their feathers and their eyes for uses in either decoration or for potions, it was only those who had the foresight to send workers out with tiny paint brushes to pollinate the trees themselves that had saved the golden apples from becoming completely extinct, however the tree's pollinating season is dreadfully short and instead of tons of apple crops we can only hope for a few thousand yield each year, if that, from each acreage."
"It is because of the importance of preserving dragon species and other animals in our realms that I will be detailing plans to Miss Mira Shards shortly in a private interview about doing my part in aiding preservation groups in both Ever After and the Queen… and King kingdoms." Snow White came up behind the witch sounding as cheerful as always… save for the mention of the King realm weirdly enough.
Clawstorm nodded to Blondie when the girl mouthed "good luck, call if you need help" to her before turning around and began to walk towards the campus with Snow White almost uncomfortably close to her side. When she stopped to hand Nightshade off to her father the Headmaster smiled a faux apologetic smile towards Snow White and took the witch aside, out of earshot while Giles ran interference.
"Call my secretary if things get out of hand." He murmured gruffly as he handed her a slip of paper. "If things feel off with her or if she makes you feel uncomfortable in any way, say that you have to visit the bathroom and call. You are only there to discuss her plans for dragons and nature, nothing else if you don't feel up to discussing it. Remember what Giles had told you a few weeks ago; we protect our students as much as we can from political intrigue."
Mira blinked owlishly up at the man. "Thank you." She whispered and slid the paper safely under her glove. "But I-I do not fear her." She tried to sound assuring even as the tremor of the thought that she may have to be left alone with the other woman, as well as the growing feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach, made it to her voice.
"Then why are you shaking like a leaf?" Her father asked.
She did not answer, just merely smiled bravely and walked away.
XXX
"I mean like what was up with him? He acted as though I was going to do villainous stuff to you; I'm a fair maiden! Er- fair queen now I suppose. But still the queen of Ever After for crying out loud! Seriously; what is with him?" Snow White ranted, Clawstorm could hear the other woman pace the room from behind the dressing panels as Anton helped her into her adult-sized clothing the three of them having transported to Ever After's winter royal palace some time ago.
"What did he give you anyway?" Snow White asked. "I saw him give you some paper or something."
"It was the number for his secretary, I was to call in case you decided to put Mira Shards through any more surprise "training exorcises" today." Clawstorm spoke smoothly. "He didn't appreciate the scare from the other day apparently."
"Well neither did I." Snow White sniffed.
"Am I wearing one of Charming's outfits?" Clawstorm asked as she stepped stiffly out from behind the dressing panels, her injuries from the last battle making her feel sore all over.
She wore a pair of tight-fitting black pants with silver and purple trim and a matching smartly fitted prince-like blazer that matched, it was… oddly very un-Evil Queen like, which was strange considering her current hostess.
Prince Charming stood up from his seat to stand beside his wife. "We figured that since you prefer the freedom to change between genders that you would prefer to wear something… a little bit more appropriate."
Clawstorm blinked at the man before turning back to the grandly large mirror with a ridiculously heavy looking golden frame in front of her, experimentally shifting to her male form… just to see how it looked.
It was a rather flattering outfit for both genders.
A collective intake of appreciative breath caught the warlock's attention, Malstorm turning around only to be met with the (expected) sight of the crowned prince and Anton eyeing the male form with surprised interest, while Snow White (unexpectedly, and creepily) did the exact same, only she wasn't surprised looking at all…
…She looked almost hungry.
Clawstorm quickly changed back into being female. Then as an afterthought, ran her fingers gently over her flower adorned hair to turn it red since that was the color that she had assumed that Snow White's goons had seen her hair in, and she felt a little better having at least that one bit of defensive glamour protecting her identity (even though she guessed that half the staff probably was expecting her by now…).
"I do believe that we have some ninja goons to talk to." The witch coughed, wringing her hands almost painfully behind her back as she fought to keep her professional cool around the king and queen. Acting all polite and cooperative may be the most surefire way to ensure that things were done properly and that maybe she could finally end this nightmare, however the parts of her that was still the young mother who would do anything to defend her family and the heartbroken little girl who just wanted the bullying to stop demanded that she get angry, speak her mind, even walk away and leave Snow White to the fate of being ambushed, perhaps even terminated by the same people that she had helped-
But the part of her that was still the young Queen, still the loyal protector to the heirs of the White royal family wisely tamped down upon the impulse to scream and leave. There was a job to do, a family and a homeland to protect, a new, dangerous enemy to defeat.
For that she'd gladly swallow her pride and allow the old enemy to dress her up and treat her as if they had always been the "best" of friends.
Even though Clawstorm had stopped caring about old Snowball's fate long ago… or so she told herself as she attempted to forget her act of destroying the incriminating records linking the queen to her help in creating whatever it was that sent the freaking sky falling upon innocent people… all for the simple reason of putting one up on the witch who just wanted to be left alone and enjoy her wacky happy family after the story had finished.
The witch inhaled deeply and continued to bite her tongue as the four of them walked along the expensively decorated white and gold hallways.
XXX
The dungeon room was a large, well lit, and well-guarded concrete box with a huge one-way mirror affixed above an average human man's height adorning the center of one wall and a metal table bolted to the center of the floor with what looked like some really flimsy chairs for the prisoners to sit on.
When she entered, alone save for the numerous dwarves lining the walls, four buff men in grey jumpsuits stood up and bowed politely to her.
"Hello, you boys asked to see me?" She greeted, standing in front of the men's table as they all took that as their cue to sit down.
"You're the Evil Queen?" A younger man from the rest that she guessed was the one who had volunteered to have his death-suit ripped off of him spoke up, discretely one of his collogues kicked his shin in warning.
"I haven't gone by that particular title since I fulfilled my obligations to my story's princess." Clawstorm was tempted, oh so very tempted, to tell the young man that she had never signed the damn Book of dumb Legends but held her tongue yet again. Best to stick only to the point. "In my pursuits in academia I felt that it was best to go by a different name all together, one can't exactly be taken seriously in the work of curing poisons and illnesses when one is also called the Evil Queen. I've never been able to figure out why but apparently even in other dimensions people tend to get so very jittery about it."
"What name do you go by now?" Asked what Clawstorm believed to be the elected leader of the group as she pulled out a chair and sat down, elbows on the tabletop with her fingers interlaced.
"Clawstorm Grimmbook."
At her words all four men sat up straighter than they already were.
"You're the one who created the talismans that can be injected into the bloodstream?" A man wearing what looked like prescription goggles breathed in the stunned silence.
"Indeed. Turns out, just because one is born into a fairytale villain family does not mean that we are all programmed to be heartless or cruel towards others or are incapable of finding personal reward in helping others." Clawstorm intoned dryly. "Imagine my irritation when I discovered that someone had hired a two-bit lackey to steal my research and create several versions of talismans out of stolen tech that was meant for helping young children survive leukemia but was instead used to try to eliminate my family."
"But Doctor Grimmbook is still very active in the mad-scientist community-… even though she- you were trapped behind the mirrors…" Realization dawned upon the goggle wearing man. "You found a way to keep in contact with your lab, to continue your research even while imprisoned…"
The witch smiled self-depreciatively. Just how much did the enemy know about her Monster Realm life? "I had to do something to keep myself from getting bored, couldn't very well escape and cause all sorts of ruckus until I knew what I was dealing with and how to keep my family and people safe."
"So the rumors… what they are saying in the newsfeeds is true? You aren't really evil?" The leader spoke carefully.
"No more than a dragoness protecting her chick and her horde from poachers would be considered evil." Clawstorm replied smoothly, the comparison thankfully making some sense to all the men at the table, dragons of various species were, after all, notorious for their protective streaks as well as their tendency of seeking revenge when wronged.
Clawstorm smirked wryly. "Of course if you need further proof I can always recount the latest results and specifics of my more recent research project, it involves the use of glamour spells as well as a binding charm to properly seal up gaping wounds to prevent patients from bleeding out during transport to hospitals, which I'm sure you can imagine would be rather tricky to properly calibrate and program since blood vessels, bone, muscle, and skin all have very different types of cells that make them up, however my team and I have found a possible way around that by using the regenerative properties of sea slugs-"
"It's fine. We believe you." The leader held up his hands. "That is more than enough for us to believe you, aren't I right lads?"
The youngest nodded meekly, looking like his brain was about to fry, and the biggest and most silent of the group grunted in acknowledgement.
"Perhaps if you explained more about the sea slug- OW! Right. We believe you." The goggle-wearing man clutched the side of his head where the leader had sharply swatted at him.
"Do you believe me enough to help me in taking down your employers, the same people who strapped bombs to your bodies without your knowledge and tried to kill you without a second's thought?" Clawstorm carefully pointed out.
"Ma'am, the only people who currently want to see our former employers dead and gone more than we do is you." The leader assured with dutiful nods from all around the table. "Especially young Todd over here." The man jerked his chin towards the youngest.
"I was born and raised in the kingdom of Lance, to be perfectly honest my Lady I-I never felt any real hatred towards you witches, I was even taught to read and basic math by one who braved being caught by the guards to teach my village and to give us as much food as she could smuggle to us… but when my girl Angeline got pregnant with our child… she became very ill, we could not move her to the safety of your kingdom and I feared for both her and the child… the guards have been looking for some local boys with families to train and put into their ranks in exchange for food, medicine, and a better house close to the palace. They- they said that as long as I worked hard and stayed alive they'd help provide for Angeline and the child!" The young man's voice quivered.
"So you joined up. To protect and provide for your family." Clawstorm nodded in understanding. "You did what you had to do, however now that they've sent you on what they have ensured to be a suicide mission…"
"The lord's payment ticket only pays month by month for housing, in two weeks they will evict Angeline and even then I do not know how she will be able to get enough food for herself or call for a healer, she is bedridden!" The young man was crying now.
Clawstorm swore passionately under her breath. "Do any of you know how many citizens, not counting the guards, are still in the kingdoms?" she bit back a bark in her tone.
"The latest official census marked that there were over a thousand locals in the kingdom of Lance and around five thousand total in all four kingdoms including those who had joined the royal guard and not counting the lords and ladies who run the lands." The leader informed, patting the crying youth on the back.
That was surprisingly more people than the outside reports that Clawstorm had reviewed had guessed, but it was still a very tiny amount compared to the three billion that had once lived in just the kingdom of Lance alone back in her parent's school days. "How many mercenaries are there to keep everyone from running away or starting a revolution?"
"I'm not certain about the other kingdoms but we've got nearly three hundred in Lance, including the locals like young Todd over here who have joined up, but we've also got golems, wisps, and zombies to make up for the lack in numbers and to save money since they don't have to pay 'em." The leader continued.
"Zombies?" Clawstorm muttered, the zombies that she knew tended to be rather gentle creatures and it was difficult to compute that these kinds of lords would hire an undead species, and she highly doubted that any self-respecting zombie wouldn't demand hazard pay.
"Or I suppose you could call them anther kind of golem I suppose." The leader relented. "Rather vile things, the lords order us to dig up the graves in each village cemetery and cart any dead that we come across back to these factories where some witches, wizards, and other magical beings that we have captured turn the bodies into working skeletons that patrol the inner cities, and like the golems and the wisps, stick strictly to the orders that they are programmed with."
Okay, ew! Clawstorm cast the man her flattest squinty-eyed look that she could muster over the mental image of some village kid having to watch his own beloved granddad's skeleton marching around the streets at night.
The leader shrugged. "Hey I didn't say that we were good, honest men- well save for young Todd here- just that we draw the line at our employers trying to actively kill us for a cause that we don't personally believe in and that we are only being paid to do."
"Do all of the men wear the same uniforms we found you in?" Clawstorm asked knowingly.
"Not just us, the golems and the zombies also- oh." The goggle wearing man squeaked once he got the point.
"They wouldn't." The leader sounded faint.
"It would be a lot easier to get bombs over to the enemy side if those bombs had legs and were armed to the teeth ready to fight it out before they go boom." Clawstorm said knowingly. "And considering who your bosses are really working for it wouldn't matter to them if you all died fighting other kingdoms or were detonated to cause the most damage possible in order to limit the amount of survivors that could turn on them if their plans fell apart. Keeping you guys alive to see the end of this is not their end goal after all and between the shrapnel damage bones and weapons can cause and the infections that people could die from the bacteria of some stranger's body infecting their wounds, there wouldn't be very many survivors to warn the other kingdoms of what's going on."
"But why?" Young Todd sobbed in horror, all around them Clawstorm could see the stoic dwarf guards turning a little more pale under the beards.
"War." The biggest goon whispered. "They… want… big war."
"You were ordered to ambush the queen's entourage and do as much damage as possible before leaving behind evidence that would accuse the Queen Lands of attacking and harming Ever After's beloved ruler, weren't you." The witch spoke to the leader.
"It was supposed to be the last straw to lead to war, first between your two kingdoms, then among others." The leader admitted gravely. "The plan was to attack here and there in the next few months to eliminate the leaders and their children and the families of fairytale characters and then blame it on you or some other convenient monarch until everyone on this continent was at war."
"And then when your use to Kline and Councilman Tomak was through you'd all be eliminated as well, giving them the perfect escape goats with the public citizens who would be by then so angry and afraid that they'll believe anything a kind and powerful warlock has to say about why the world suddenly stopped making sense and why everyone should follow him now that their beloved kingdoms are burned to the ground and their rulers are long dead." The witch realized the pieces dropping into place in her brain.
"Wait, a witch has been doing this? Has been hiring us to hunt their own kind?" Young Todd gaped even as the others all the others murmured something along the lines of; "The rumors are true!" and looking just as puzzled.
"An ambitious one who is willing to go to great lengths and wait decades so that he can take over all of this land as the ultimate ruler while not having to worry about folks going up against him because they are blaming you guys for starting the wars." Clawstorm stated, glaring hard at the mirror behind the men.
"They were going to kill us all." The leader hissed in outrage.
"How do you fellas feel about helping out a bit in convincing your colleagues that wearing those uniforms is a particularly bad sense in more than in just fashion?" Clawstorm asked.