But whatever he’d done, it had put Saldrea in a tailspin. She’d been ranting and raving for hours now, only growing worse, her ire focused on Izzy, that poor nymph.
“No… no! I’ll just destroy that pretty face of hers beyond what healing can fix. Then let’s see what men think of her.”
“We should capture her and tear out all her secrets,” Hana added, pouring fuel on the bonfire of Saldrea’s rage.
“I could turn her into a bug, and you could squash her,” Neyalim added on a whim.
Saldrea’s eyes widened. “No… not a bug… a toad.” Saldrea was practically salivating with glee. “I’ll pluck off her little arms and legs and watch her squirm and squeal, then heal her and do it all over again!”
The woman was deranged.
I served a deranged elf. I ground my teeth, jaw clamped shut. I just had to put up with her for a few thousand years, then perhaps she’d have a sane child and…
Oh Blessed Skies… I wouldn’t make it that long.
But I had to.
I serve the crown, not Saldrea. My mantra. I repeated it over and over as the girls schemed.
“Where is Izzy now?” Saldrea asked Hana. The sylph flipped through her phone. “She’s probably having supper, but she has an intro to transmutation class this evening.”
It didn’t surprise me that the girls had somehow managed to get Izzy’s schedule.
“We can ambush her on the way. Come on!” Saldrea said in a frenzy.
I sighed as we left, making our way across campus to the lesser residence. There, we hid in some bushes to lay in wait.
And when Izzy emerged…
“There she is, do it!” Saldrea hissed.
Neyalim giggled and closed her eyes, hand out. Undines had a natural affinity for transmutation, turning one thing into another, but from what I understood, doing it from this far away wouldn’t be easy, usually you had to touch the subject.
Izzy didn’t flinch, just kept walking.
“Ney! Do it!” Saldrea hissed, furious.
“I am! She’s not… Something’s… Fuck!” Neyalim sat back heavily. “Something’s protecting her.”
“Protecting her?” Saldrea raved, close to losing it.
“I don’t have a lot of experience with it… but I think she’s got a binding protecting her form, keeping her as she is.”
“Given how often her hair and eyes change color, that seems odd,” Hana chirped.
“A binding?” Saldrea’s fury thankfully faded as curiosity took over. “Who would have…? How…?” She shook off her ruminations. “Doesn’t matter. I’m strong, I can undo a binding.” She grimaced. “But I’ll need to be close to her. We’ll need to find a time when she’s alone and corner her. Then we’ll have some fun!” Saldrea said, rubbing her hands together.
Thiswas my master… this scheming — objectively evil — young woman?
I decided then and there, I couldn’t wait thousands of years. Perhaps there was a way to reform Saldrea, as outlandish as that seemed.
“Mistress,” I said formally as we began to make our way back to her residence.
Saldrea stopped and glared up at me. “What?” she said, perturbed.
“Perhaps there is another way, a better, more peaceful way to deal with this woman?” I probably should have eased into things, but I wasn’t the best with words, usually blunt.
Saldrea blinked up at me. “What?” She seemed completely stunned, confused. “Who? Izzy?”
