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The Enchantress floats in her throne room, barricaded with as much spare rubble as she can muster. A disastrous miscalculation on her end; the Pocket Dungeon was far easier to escape than she anticipated. Rather than buying time for her takeover by neutralizing her greatest threats, she brought them together and united them against a common enemy. Once they were freed, Specter Knight led them directly to her tower, intent on destroying her. The pounding on the walls gets louder.
Perhaps she should have played this more carefully. If she had taken the time to properly investigate the Pocket Dungeon, she would have learned the method by which the exit opens. With that knowledge in mind, she could have- but it doesn't matter anymore. What's done is done. A fiery talon breaks through the stone bricks.
But that's okay. She's the Enchantress, she doesn't lose. She merely retreats, so she can live to scheme another day. As the barrier protecting her sanctum crumbles, the Enchantress sighs. Time to make a show out of dying.
Dark. Cold. Exhausting. The Enchantress stretches, feeling the joints of her new body. It's stiff, and unresponsive. But it's all she has.
Slowly she pushes through the darkness, along carefully memorized steps. She comes to a stop. In her path lies a small boulder. She raises a finger, intending to magically flick it away. The boulder glows with power, but doesn't move.
The Enchantress frowns. She clenches a fist, grabbing the rock with her mind. It rises slightly, but the Enchantress is hit by a wave of nausea. She tries to go on, but the pounding headache brings her to her knees. Relinquishing her grasp on the boulder, she falls to the ground, panting heavily. Is this what she has been reduced to?
It's a long time before the Enchantress rises. Approaching the rock, she reaches out her arms and lays hands on it. Like a peasant. The thought enrages her. She had merely wanted to rule this valley, so she could guide it back to its age of glory. And this is how they accept their empress? Rather than rule, she should raze; a pathetic, miserable world reduced to ashes. She should-
The Enchantress takes a breath. All in good time, but nothing can come of her scheming unless she can escape this damnable cave. Refocusing her efforts and swallowing her pride, the Enchantress slowly shoves the boulder out of its resting place, revealing light beyond. Squeezing through the crack, she comes to the mouth of the cave.
Off in the distance, the ruins of her tower. She had collapsed it for dramatic effect, and hopefully to crush her attackers as well. From where she stands, she can see groups working to excavate the rubble. A pity that some had survived, but she is in no condition to finish them off right now. She needs to find a place to recuperate.
A rumbling noise alerts her. She looks desperately around for a hiding place as it approaches. Back into the cave? It'll take too long to crawl inside. Further up the mountain? She can only run for so long, and if someone is searching for her she'll soon be overtaken. Behind that rocky outcropping? It will have to do.
From her spyhole the Enchantress sees a familiar bohto come into sight and stop. A hand draped in blue reaches out to pat it on the head, before the sound of feet landing on stone can be heard. Seconds pass in silence before a voice rings out.
"Hey Boss, you around here anywhere?"
Chester. Her loyal pawn. But the Enchantress isn't stupid. He has schemes of his own, however small-minded, and could easily be here to betray her. She'll have to play this carefully.
"Chester. You've managed to find me."
Chester looks in the Enchantress's direction as she steps into a view. "You commissioned me to have a clay body built and hidden away. I figured it'd be for an occasion like this."
The Enchantress curses her shortsightedness under her breath. She really should have killed him after that. "Very astute of you. And now that you're here, what is your plan?"
"Well, my lady, that depends on what you want to do. I've worked with you closely enough to know that you aren't done here."
"Correct again." She inches closer.
"And doing a bit of research I found that your clay vessel, while suitable for transport, takes nearly all of your magical power to keep functioning. Casting a spell will divert magic away from your internal organs, and you can't survive that for very long. You're practically mundane as long as you have that body."
"Which is why you understand I have to do this." The Enchantress lunges for Chester, grabbing him by the shoulders. She quickly chants the soul transfer spell, and the familiar feeling of being drained out of her body fills her. Rather than entering Chester, however, she finds her spirit seeping into the physical world. This is dangerous. She charges at Chester, only to bounce off of him. Souls weren't meant to exist in this realm, and she feels herself quickly fading away. With no other option, she rushes back into the clay body, which sits back up and starts sputtering.
Chester grins and pulls a silver locket out from beneath his shirt. "Did I forget to mention my new accessory? Silver, with sage, yarrow, and hawthorn inside. Meant to ward off evil spirits, and hey, I guess it prevents possession as well."
The Enchantress grasps for breath. Looking up at the smiling Chester looking over her, she feels something she thought she had outgrown centuries ago. Was this fear?
"Alright Chester. You've won. Now what do you plan to do? Turn me in for a reward?"
Chester chuckles softly. "No my lady, if I had wanted to do that I would have brought some of my new friends with me. That Black Knight fellow would be very interested in learning where you are."
"I fail to see what other plans you have for me. My fortress is destroyed, my army scattered, and my magic inoperable."
"Ah, but you still have your mind. Your wealth of knowledge around ancient magics and artifacts is unmatched, and a savvy assayer such as yourself could help me acquire and price my wares far more... competitively."
The Enchantress sneers. "This is your master plan? Keep the greatest sorceress the world has ever known captive, all so you can make a few extra gems hawking trash."
"And this is your problem. You have big plans, but when they fail they fail big. I, on the other hand, know how to hedge my bets. I've got a thousand tiny schemes all running at once, and if any one of them fails it's no skin off my back. That's something I could teach you." Chester extends a hand to help the Enchantress up. "Whaddya say?"
The Enchantress considers her options. Stay with Chester, play his little game for a few months, and disappear once she's devised a new scheme to enact. Or be found by the hunting party of angry knights and be torn limb from limb, this time without a backup body. She takes Chester's hand and stands up. "Very well, Chester. Teach me."