Jularra had drifted away in her peaceful realization, but turned back to Leona.
“It’s really over, isn’t it?”
Leona grinned and placed her hand on Jularra’s shoulder.
“No, it isn’t,” she growled.
A flash of confusion tore through Jularra’s mind as Leona’s smile plunged. She bent her knees and then shot back up in a detonation of fire, slapping Jularra to the ground. Leona’s smoky rings burst to life, spinning faster than Jularra had ever seen them spin.
As Leona erupted with wrath and darkness, Vylas shot off the edge of the pool. Hope surged in Jularra's breast. Whatever treachery Leona had in mind, Jularra could surely overcome it so long as Vylas stood at her side. Her hopes sank beneath a weight of disbelief and dread when, with a motion like swinging a scythe, Vylas launched a wall of incapacitating force at the other queens. As it took hold, Leona sent smoky rings floating over to Jularra. They picked her up.
Dazed and hurt she might be, but Jularra was quickly making sense of this new treachery, even as Leona's magic confined her.
“I feel like I should apologize,” Leona sighed, “but I won’t.”
While Leona spoke, Jularra turned in her cocoon of magic and looked at Vylas. Vylas—her mother's old friend, and the closest Jularra ever had to a father—had betrayed her. Her throat burned. Tears spilled down her cheeks.
No, stop crying. Pay attention. Listen. Feel.
“More than forty years,” Leona was saying. “Away from my home, studying those damned, dead Nurudians. Force-feeding myself trivial knowledge…”
Leona clicked her tongue and shook her head, walking closer to where Jularra hung, suspended.
“And here you come… anointed by the Gift Gods. Complete knowledge.”
“They said it was about understanding,” Jularra said. “Not skills.”
“I fucking know that now!” Leona screeched. Jularra felt her bonds loosen momentarily. When Leona calmed, the tightness returned.
Jularra looked again to Vylas. Leona saw her look, and her lips curved into a smile.
“Yes,” Leona purred. “He stayed behind to groom you. To—well, to do exactly this: fight the Voidwarden, if I couldn’t figure out how to defeat it myself. For years, I've been sharing most of my knowledge with Vylas behind your back. It was incredibly thrilling!”
Jularra let out a broken laugh. Leona’s energy flared; the rings spun brighter and faster.
“All those Credellions,” Jularra chuckled, “and you're still just half a witch.”
Leona squeezed her fist, widening the smoky flames encircling Jularra. Jularra screamed as the increasing heat seared her skin, but again she felt the strength of her confines loosen. Leona eased off; her focus returned, and with it the tightness of Jularra's bindings.
Jularra continued her taunts through teeth clenched with pain. “Yes, just half a witch. Shame. And Vylas,” Jularra added without looking at him. “So sad. Just a dutiful admirer.”
“All that matters" Leona grated, "is that the pact is broken. The Voidwarden has been nullified, and I’m free to take the throne.”
Jularra started to scramble around in her hovering cage, but gave up as another jibe came to mind.
“Leona,” she sighed, smiling, “have you been with your eyes for the past few hours?”
Leona spun around, taking Jularra’s bait.
“If I and the other queens can castrate the Voidwarden, we’ll find a way to castrate you. Well…”
Leona laughed. “Come with me.” She grinned at her own command as she tugged Jularra along behind her.
Upon reaching the pool, Leona turned back to her floating prisoner.
“You’ll have to excuse me,” Leona said. She sounded like she was having trouble containing herself. “I’ve been working for this since before you were born, and as much as I want this to be over, it seems a shame not to draw it out a bit.”
Leona started to walk around the pool, growing more agitated as she spoke.
“Yes. I want the throne. I want to expunge your cowardly, feckless line from this country. Arrogant brats who haven’t tried to grow or nurture their country’s magical history in generations. I want to return Acorilan to a proud and prosperous nation that is once again a powerful bastion of magic. Users of magic have been timid for far too long in Acorilan. The Gifts deserve better. The mountains that fuel our history and magic deserve better.”
“Do you seriously expect me to believe that your intentions are so noble?” Jularra snapped back. Again, she felt her bonds relax as she continued to antagonize her captor.
“This has egotism written all over it, Leona," she continued. “You could have just petitioned for a change in policies. Solicited others to support your views. Requested an audience with me!”
“And risk another queen dying before anything changed, and having to start over?” Leona asked. “No… no. The next queen that dies—you—will simply just… die. And Acorilan will not suffer for it. No more pacts. No more citizens beholden to an enslaved line of queens. Enough.”
“Sure,” Jularra conceded. “And instead of a judicious queen, they’ll get a delusional amateur of all trades. You're right; that sounds like a wonderful exchange.”
Leona’s circling rings of smoke roared to fiery life as she prepared to lash out. The pressure of Jularra's constraints bottomed out.
Jularra seized the opportunity to focus and bear down on a pulse of sound that exploded concussively, rupturing her prison sphere and sending a disorientated Leona stumbling.
Jularra tumbled the few feet to the ground and rolled into a sitting position. She immediately pulled her arms back and then punched out to hurl a punitive blast at Vylas, dislodging his hold over the queens.
“Jularra!” Queen Lilvili yelled.
Jularra stumbled as she climbed to her feet, but found her footing and rushed toward Lilvili. Leona, quickly recovered from Jularra's counterstrike, whipped her energy into a frenzy in preparation for a new attack.
Jularra fled across the chamber in a panic, passing by the shadow of the impotent Voidwarden. Jularra ran now from a new enemy, and with a
