Alicia Valis prided herself on running a tight ship. The Royal Academy of Magic was a storied institution. The greatest mages to every grace the world had once learned in these very halls. Alicia herself, as Headmistress, had attended the Academy once upon a time. Much like her daughters did. It was a tradition among those with magic in the family to have their children learn here in the hopes that greatness might rub off. Commoners often spent a good deal of coin for the chance of their children being educated.

Alicia had ensured that the gears of the Royal Academy turned and the place was kept traditional and clear from the influences of the common folk. There was one stall in her gears however. One name that had made itself very known to the Matriarch of the Valis family. Rea Walshor. A genius of potion craft, a girl that likely could mix better than any noble could have hoped for. She was also the one responsible for the defeat, humiliation, and death of her daughter. Certainly it had been an ordained duel, but since then she had smarted at the slight. Her marks in all other classes aside from potions were... average to below average. Her magical abilities were fairly terrible. Yet this girl had ended the life of her daughter, a stain that reflected upon the whole of the family.

"Mother, let me avenge Juno!" The young woman across from her desk slammed her palms into it, leaning in. A spitting image of her late younger cousin, Julia Valis was what Juno likely would have become. Beautiful, powerful, with magic that could fell many mages that had studied their craft for years. A natural.

Alicia sighed. "It is not so simple. The duel was an honor duel. Academy Law holds that the family of the defeated are forbidden from seeking retribution in the form of another duel for a period of a year." This was a protection put in place typically to prevent a endless series of duels from a grieved family. Otherwise Alicia would have dealt with it herself.

The dark haired young woman frowned as she bowed her head and let out a displeased sound in her throat. "Then hire some killers. Assassins. We cannot let this stain stand any longer. The longer she lives the weaker you look. Before you know it, our enemies will look to replace you as headmistress. Hell, she could be in cahoots with them!" Julia said, gesturing wildly.

It had been something Alicia had considered. That Rea's... demeanor was a carefully crafted act. That this was indeed and effort to undermine the Valis family control over the Academy. She had defeated Juno after all. She had pricked at her pride. Almost like she had been baiting her only daughter into a fight. A fight which she would then use underhanded tactics Juno didn't anticipate to eliminate her. After all, it was all a bit too... Convenient to call a coincidence. Even still... she shook her head.

"My hands are tied. Much as I would delight in that redheaded commoner bitch screaming and weeping, if I take action against her it would both break Academy Law and also potentially be what she is expecting. If indeed she is working for our enemies." Alicia said. She paused at length before leaning back in her rather expensive chair.

"However. While I might not officially sanction anything to avenge my only daughter... I am hardly able to control her cousin. Who is a graduate of the Academy." She looked at Julia meaningfully.

The dark haired beauty had been frowning deeper and deeper until that last bit. Then her lips curled into a cruel smirk. "Excellent." She had a sadistic light enter her eyes. "By the time I'm done with that worthless bitch she'll rue the day she ever crossed our family, Aunt Alicia."

Alicia smirked. "It goes without saying it must be done quietly. In a manner that no one would suspect my hand in it. Preferably when she is away from the Academy. Though I think you should be able to handle it." The dark haired headmistress said. She would admit, imagining the suffering of the girl that had slain her daughter brought her no end of joy.

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It had taken some planning, but Julia was a clever woman. She gathered information about the strange, sleepy redhead during her occasional visits to the Academy. She was a very difficult one to actually get beyond the Academy however, she did wander from it once a week. Wandered out from the city itself and into the wilds beyond to gather reagents. That would be when she would have to strike. It would be unstoppable, deadly, and there would be no chance that the killing would be linked to Alicia. At least by anything other than rumors.

Julia had picked rather inconspicuous clothes. Loathe as she was to wear the common tunic and trappings of a commoner her normal noble attire would stand out far too much. Not the garb of an assassin. Oh she could have hired a proper assassin for this one, however Julia wanted to kill Rea personally. She wanted the bitch to know that it was a member of the Valis family that had ended her. Juno had been like a younger sister to her, a perfect image of a proud noble. Ended in a humiliating way. Like an insect.

Rea had sure enough departed and so Julia departed after her. She trailed the redhead off the road and eventually into the meadows and fields outside the city. She licked her lips as she ducked behind a tree and watched the redhead plucking some mushrooms from the ground and inspecting them. She was such a... maudlin little creature. The red hair was rustic enough. But her clothes were just so old. Her sandals were frayed. Her eyes had dark circles. She had a slouch to her gait. Perhaps commoners might find her rather fetching, but Julia found her repulsive. Well. Time for Julia to end that.

As Rea plucked up her next mushroom suddenly mana pulsed through the air and the redhead found shackles of pure energy held her to the ground, wrapped around her legs. The redhead blinked at the sight, looking more confused than startled. That was when Julia jumped out from behind the tree and let out a laugh, setting her hand on her hip.

"Rea Walshor. At last. A face to the name of the enemy of our family. Did you think you could escape the justice of the Valis family? Scurrying and cowering in the Academy where justice could not touch you?" Julia sneered.

Rea looked at Julia for a few moments. No doubt she was terrified. Panicking. She could see her end was at hand and she was about to end up completely obliterated by Julia Valis, avenger of Juno. Yes those tired green eyes would fill with terror at any moment and the begging and pleading would begin.

"The what family? Who are you, lady?"

Julia admitted that... wasn't quite the response she had been expecting. "The Valis family! The greatest of the noble houses, the most prestigious of lines, and the family of the late Juno Valis who you ended so ignobly." Julia said.

Rea scratched her chin, still not seemingly too alarmed by the situation. "Juno... that sounds familiar... where do I remember that from." She mused.

"The great noble woman that you killed you wretch! You shrank her to the size of an ant in a duel and ended her life under your unworthy filthy foot!" Julia screamed, red in the face at the slights.

A light seemed to go off in Rea's head and she snapped her fingers. "Oh! Right! I remember her now! Oh, so you are related to her or something? Sorry, not really interested in another duel. Not really my scene. I only did hers because she wouldn't give my journal back otherwise." Rea said with a casual shrug. "Can I go now?"

Julia felt like her head was absolutely about to explode. She saw why Juno saw fit to wipe this improper stain from the world. "Absolutely not, now see here you redheaded brat, I am-!"

Rea's hands moved deceptively fast for a woman of her sluggishness. She tossed something from her belt at Julia and lifted something else to her face with her other hand. Julia lifted her hand and summoned a wall of stone, blocking it. She heard a breaking sound. "Ha! You think that your piddling little potions can stop me?" She laughed heartily... only then noticing the blue mist that was spreading out from the sides of the wall. She inhaled some of it with her laugh and stumbled back, coughing and sputtering.

Julia brought her hand to her throat, letting out croaking noises as she fell to the ground. She was coughing and sputtering as the gas Rea had unleashed from the vial spread around her. She looked up and she could see Rea was wearing a mask of some kind over the lower part of her face, watching Julia passively. The dark haired woman lifted her hand to try and make her chains strangle her... but she couldn't manage it. She felt more and more of her grasp on her powers slipping away... along with the world seeming to get bigger around her.

"Ya know, if you were trying to kill me. Maybe like don't make a big show of it?" Rea suggested with her voice slightly muffled behind her mask. "I'm no assassin but kinda seems like an important assassination thing."

Julia glared at the woman as she coughed and as the world only got bigger and bigger. She was starting to see what Juno had seen in her final minutes of life. Her clothes were falling off around her and she was watching as the grass came closer and more into focus. She tried to cast any kind of spell, however it was useless. At about half the size of a normal human now she looked up at Rea.


"What *cough* have you done to me!?" She demanded.

"I sorta mixed a mana suppression poison with the shrink potion I've been refining. Ended up making a gas. Suppressed magic and shrinks the subject. Honestly, kinda situational. Dangerous as well since gases are more likely to get out than liquids." Rea explained. The gas was clearing up finally and she was removing her mask, letting out a yawn. "Guess it was a good thing I had it on me today." She mused.

Good for Rea as the chains that Julia had created now vanished away. Not so good for Julia who was still shrinking away at an alarming rate. Rea's form got bigger. And bigger. And *bigger* in the distance as Julia shrank down. Eventually there was only a pile of clothes as Julia squirmed her way out of them. The grass was eye level with her... then it was double her size. Then it was like a tree before her. Julia felt anger turn to icy fear in her veins as the shrinking was severe until she was indeed no bigger than an ant.

It was a vista out of some piece of absurd fiction. All around her were blades of green pillars rising up into a shining sky above. Looking around she could see massive boulders that were pebbles, little streams of moisture she never would have noticed before. An acorn nearby was huge, bigger than a house really. Julia fell back onto her rear as she was no longer coughing, however she was clammy and pale and sweating now that she was looking in fear at the giant world that had existed beneath her feet.

She had no idea where Rea was but she turned and started to run... only to look up at something utterly dumbfounded. It was a vast wall of brown material before her that stretched upward. She only knew what it was because she could see massive straps, empty of an occupant around them. It was her own sandal. Julia's mouth went dry as she stared at the sandal that had held her own flawless pale foot in it. It let her understand her own true insignificance.

*BOOM*

It started as a distant tremor. Something that for whatever reason Julia instinctively felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise up.


*BOOM*


The next was closer. Much closer. It caused the pebbles to jump around her. It caused the wall that was the height of her sandal to shake. Julia knew what was coming behind her and she turned to see it even if she knew that looking at it would be to know true fear.

*BOOOOM*

Julia got to watch the events leading up to that one. She watched, a shadow swallowing up the area around her. She watched dozens of meters away as a massive tattered looking sandal came down, snapping blades of grass bigger than Julia herself. She looked at the five wriggling toes inside, faintly peppered with dirt from having walked outside for a while. Each one was enough to end Julia a thousand times over. Then she looked up in the distance of the sky and saw Rea's form, casting its shadow over all the land.

The redhead squatted down on high, looking around the vague area where Julia was. When she spoke, Julia was sure it was what a god would sound like. A volume and pitch that brought the dark haired noblewoman to her knees, clutching her ears and screaming. Yet also unable to stop her voice from pounding against her skull.

"Hmm... where is she... think she inhaled too much of it. Got made super small." She mused.

She watched Rea reach into her pack and pull out some massive glass object in one hand, and in the other was a... pair of tweezers? A grand magnifying glass swept over the ground and eventually, a massive magnified eye was looking down right at Julia from on high in the heavens beyond the trees of grass.

"Ahhh, there you are. Hold still a sec." Rea boomed.

Julia was screaming from the volume of Rea's voice, unable to move and on her knees. She squeezed her eyes shut, though when she opened them again... she was watching the tweezers come in fast and impossible to dodge. She let out a gasp of surprise as the hard metal clamped painfully around her tiny body and screamed as air started to rush past her. She was being lifted up. Up. Far above into the heavens as soon enough the grass forest melted away. Instead it was replaced by something else.

Julia had considered Rea to be pretty common looking. A girl she might not think twice about bumping into in the street. Now, that face was the face of a goddess. It was all that Julia could look upon. It made Julia feel such terror that she had never felt in her life. Was this what Juno had seen in her final moments?

"W-wait! I'm sorry! I-I'll forgive you! I'll forgive any offenses you've made against the family! I'll help you succeed in the Academy! Please, just return me to normal, Lady Walshor!" Julia screamed, using a superior title for Rea.

Rea... didn't look like she heard any of that. "Huh... wow you are *tiny* aren't ya? I can't hear anything you're saying."

This close the words threatened to burst Julia's eardrums. They were unbearable this close up and drew another scream from Julia as she tried to strain against the tweezers that were holding her so tightly. They pushed the air from her lungs likely from without a conscious effort on Rea's part and Julia felt like her bones were creaking in warning.

"Hmm... I sorta wanna try something. Never taste tested shrunken folks before. So..." She lifted the tweezers up and Julia's eyes widened as the words slammed into her brain.

"T-taste? N-no! Nononono! Please, anything but that, oh gods please no I'm sorry Lady Walshor! Please, no, please gods no don't do this! Please!" She squealed, begging for her life as best she could as Rea lifted her up a bit over her lips.

The next moment was when Julia watched the gates of hell open up. Pale lips parted and a hot wash of air blasted over the dark haired woman. She watched strands of saliva break and form before her. She saw the white teeth of the redhead gleaming with saliva. She also looked back and saw the eager pulsating throat at the very back of her mouth. Waiting for Julia, waiting to take her to a truly terrible end.

"Wait! Please, oh gods please, stop no oh gods! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I'll do anything! ANYTHING! PLEA-AAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Those were the final coherent words spoken by Julia as Rea let the tiny pale thing fall from her tweezers and into her open mouth. Julia landed with a splash upon her massive slimy tongue. Saliva coated her and started to burn almost immediately. Julia stretched a hand out toward the light from beyond the lips of the redhead. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

*Gulp*

Rea swallowed pretty much as soon as she closed her lips. She seemed to consider it for a moment as the tiny form of Julia made her final journey down her throat.

"Huh. Didn't really taste like anything. Oh well. Maybe she was too tiny." The redhead mused before shrugging carelessly and walking back over to retrieve her basket and get back to work. Claiming the life of yet another of the vaunted Valis family.