In the heartland of the Elsiran Empire it was a case that all traces of human resistance had been ground to dust ages ago, yet on the next continent over there were still pockets of people that fought in nations conquered. It was a fierce resistance of people fighting for survival and for their continued independence. After all losing meant a fate of slavery and death at the hands of the Empire. It was in one of these occupied territories a plan was hatched and prepared with care. 

The assassination of Councilor Idria Wivlanis. No easy task. She was a name that struck fear and terror into the hearts of humans all over, a mage that sat at the head of the Council of Elsira and one of the core leaders. Yet her assassination was believed by resistance leaders to cause a massive power vacuum in Elsira as a whole. A blow that would not be easily recovered from by those that supported the war effort. And the opportunity arose to do just such a thing. After a visit to a recently conquered province she was conducting a tour of some of the other territories. 

Amelia took a few deep breaths as she waited in her place along the main road. She felt her fingers trembling around the staff in her hands. Nerves. It was only natural really. She was not alone. She had seen others in their group of thirty strong vomiting before this mission. It was not hard to grasp why. Many had actually seen the price of fighting against elves. Seen the futility. Felt the despair as the Grand General marched through their countries. Amelia had certainly seen it. 

“Amelia, the spell.” A harsh whisper came from nearby, their leader nodding to her. 

“R-right!” She said with a hurried nod. The mousy looking freckled redhead stuttered through the words of power. She grasped at the tapestry that bound her energy to her form, unraveling it and transforming it into magic. A wave of energy flowed out from her and fell over her group on this side of the road. Their forms were rendered completely transparent. At the other side of the road an older man by the name of Telvar did the same, with less stuttering at that. The forces on that side were also rendered invisible. Now it was a wait. 

Magic among humans was rare. Extremely rare. From what she understood it was very common among elves. Enough that all of their leaders were also powerful mages. It was one reason a pair of mages were here for this. Amelia was… well she had never really finished her apprenticeship before her country was set to the torch. Telver though, the dark haired magus had evidently been an accomplished scholar and battle mage. It was just a sign of having to work with what they had here. 

Amelia almost felt like breathing would be a poor idea. Like a single sound or noise might doom them in this venture. So she kept her breathing shallow and quiet which was not easy. Her heart was pounding so fast and loud it was a drumbeat to the redhead. She felt her mouth as dry as a desert, her skin clammy and pale. She was as unprepared for this as they came but she struggled through. 

There was a distinctive bird call that went out further out. They were coming. The distant sound of marching boots upon a well paved road were getting louder. The clack of horse hooves and carriage wheels were very distinctive. It was clear by the escort of forty strong and the opulent carriage their quarry was indeed inside. Closer. Closer. Closer still. Amelia felt her head swimming, like all rational thoughts were struggling to keep up. Fear that at any moment her spell would break and they’d be noticed. 

The procession was passing in front of their little units and that was when they struck. Without a cry every one of her group and those on the other side stood up and rushed toward the carriage and its guards. Amelia tripped over her blue robes as she tried to get up, falling and sending her staff skittering out. She scrambled and fumbled with it as she got to her feet and watched as one of her fellows was rendered visible as a blade sliced through a surprised elven throat.

There were cries that went out as blades clashed with the elven guards. There were a couple of elven battlemages, and they were the first that were felled. Targeted specifically to remove much of the magical threat. Amelia saw one elf with his back turned bearing down on one of her fellows, the better swordsman by far. She trembled and her arm shook as she lifted her staff up, the tip glowing as she fired off a spell. 

The air rippled as a blast of pure red magic smashed into the spine of the elf, shattering bones and ignoring armor. They were stunned and crippled by this, ended moments later by Amelia’s fellow assassin. She swallowed hard as she looked around in a daze, aiming her staff and trying to think of spells. Trying to think of anything at all to do and what spells to cast. It was hard, so very hard to think straight. 

Her fellow mage meanwhile weaved impressive spells, shielding their comrades from harm with magical barriers, firing off more magical bolts that struck the elves down. Calling lightning that jumped from elf to elf in a crackling display of energy. It was magic beyond Amelia’s power, displays of the strength of a true mage. In the end it was a gulf, a canyon that divided her and the man over there with determination in his eyes. 

In the end their ambush was too well planned out and thus the guards fell completely and the carriage was left wide open. One man tore open the door and the next moment was sent flying by a bolt of golden energy, smashing into a tree with a loud crunch. There was a silence as everyone held their weapons at the read, aiming at the carriage and soon enough a figure emerged from within. 

“My, what a mess.” 

The figure that stepped out from the carriage was beautiful. More beautiful than any other that Amelia had seen in her life. It was as though an angelic being had stepped down from the clouds and deigned to grace their soil with her presence on it. A tall and towering blonde haired elf clad in green and white robes, her sandals touching the ground and almost seeming to repel any of the blood at her feet. Her blue eyes traced over those gathered around her, looking at them with more annoyance than the panic one might show assassins. Amelia found herself transfixed really. 

A number of the assassins let out cries of battle and charged her, a few firing arrows. She flicked her fingers and those mean nearest to her simply seemed to vanish. The arrows flew past her head, diverted by some magic. The woman snorted as she waved a hand and more of her assassins seemed to simply vanish, all aside from the two mages among them. Amelia and Telver alone remained. It was a… horrifying display of power. 

“Oh? A bit more magical resistance from you two.” She lifted an elegant brow as she stepped forward and over the bodies of her fallen fellows. 

Amelia was frozen. She couldn’t see an aura from the woman, couldn’t detect just how strong she was. However it was enough to have just completely reduced their number of fighters to two. No, that wasn’t right the redhead realized as she noted some movement on the ground. She could see the forms of… people moving along the ground, some of them right in the blonde’s path. 

A man was running away from her as fast as he could, but he was rather deep in her shadow as the blonde walked forward. Her booming steps shook the ground beneath him as she stepped over him, the shadow of her sandal sole raining dirt and debris down upon him in the moments before it came crashing down. There was a slight crunch and a pop for her as the half inch tall human was crushed, Idria continuing to walk on her way toward the pair of human mages. She didn’t even look particularly smug about killing the human, it was likely she hadn’t noticed or cared. 

She looked at Telver and then Amelia in turn as both regarded her warily. “Mages. It's always interesting to see how animals learn to replicate the methods of the superior species. Imitation is the highest form of flattery it's said.” The woman remarked. 

Telver frowned. “I think you’ll find us more than a match for you, witch. I’ve a mastery over magic from two decades of devotion. Plenty to end your wretched life.” 

Amelia swallowed hard and couldn’t stop her legs from trembling. “I ca-can’t see her aura, Mister Telver.” She breathed. 

“Hmm?” Her eyes turned upon Amelia and she smirked. “Oh? Ah.” She held out a hand and plucked off one of her rings. “There, that should make it easier for you, dear.” 

Amelia vomited. As soon as Idria removed the ring from her finger she threw up on the spot. Her knees finally gave out and her eyes were wide enough they could have fallen from her skull. It was hard to capture the sight she viewed in words. It was… everything. Trying to glimpse her full power was like a fish trying to measure the depths and width of the sea. It was a vast golden aura that swallowed up everything around it. 

Telver winced as though looking at the sun, averting his gaze and frowning. “Elven trickery, Amelia. Don’t let it swallow you up.”

“Trickery? Now I’m hurt, I’ll have you know I’m an honest woman. Ah, but I suppose the minds of animals find it hard to grasp that. In any event, o master of two decades. Come, show me what two decades of human study amounts to. Seems like I broke the redhead already.” 

Their words were spoken but it was hard for Amelia to hear much of anything right now beyond the rushing in her own skull. She was still staring at the aura of this woman. This Councilor of Elsira. She was a pillar of magic that Amelia had never imagined could exist. If she had told the redhead she was the Goddess of Magic she might well have believed it. She had thought Telver brimmed with magic but this. This was something on a different level. 

Telver meanwhile managed a smirk. “A duel is against the great Idria Wivlanis it then? How very generous.” 

“You should be flattered, yes, it's rare that I’ve granted a human the honor of a duel.” Idria said with a shrug. There was a smirk that crossed her lips. “Try to entertain me.” 

“I’ll just kill you instead I think!” The man reached out and the weapons of all those fallen upon the assassination attempt were seized by a telekinetic power. Swords, spears and arrows gleamed in the air before coming right for the blonde, a powerful spell that would have ended most. Idria crossed her arms and appeared unconcerned as the weapons were coming right at her. Only to be sent flying away as soon as they struck a sphere of golden energy that surrounded her. A shield. 

The mage growled as he tore open the ground beneath Idria and a spike of earth rose up to impale the blonde. The form of the blonde flickered out and appeared seated upon a tree branch overlooking them both. She kicked her feet idly and waved at the pair of humans. There wasn’t a scratch on her from either impressive magical attack. 

“Not terrible, not terrible at all. I’d mark your level of skill as that of a particularly competent apprentice.” She remarked. 

“Don’t screw with me!” Telver shouted as he lifted his staff up and held it up high. Energy crackled all around Idria as a series of lightning bolts struck her dead on. They hit her. Amelia could see that. It was enough force to kill anyone. And yet the lightning seemed to do nothing. Idria lifted a foot and upon one of her toes a ring with a blue gem on it glowed as the crackling energy seemed to be gone from her. The blonde smirked down at the gawking pair. 

Precautions against elemental magic, a basic practice any skilled mage would take. Your best move there would have been to strike out at the tree itself, maybe throw me off balance. Wouldn’t have worked either of course.” She giggled as she jumped down and landed on the ground with perfect dexterity. 

“Damn you elf, very well, try this!” The man slammed the bottom of his staff upon the ground and there was a rumble as the ground split and from it clawed long dead skeletons from the depths. Warriors slain here many years ago most likely. Their ivory bones were very bleached and they held rusty weapons in their hands as they lunged for Idria. 

“Undead as well. Not bad.” She snapped her fingers and the skeletons went from bleached, to yellowed, to slowly falling apart with every step toward her. By the time they reached her they fell into dust, aged rapidly. “Easy to counter I’m afraid.” 

Telver’s face was one of disbelief and barely concealed panic as Idria countered every one of his spells or avoided them. Ghostly blades appeared in either hand as he dropped his staff and lunged forward toward the blonde. There was desperation on his face as he was trying to get in close and end the blonde councilor completely. He was closing in on her and she did nothing. And then Amelia saw a blue glow at her feet. 

“You can have these back now.” Idria said with a broad and toothy grin. 

Bolts of lightning blasted out from the toe ring they had been absorbed by earlier. They struck Telver dead on and his form simply exploded into charred and blasted bits of meat that scattered along the ground. Some blood hit Amelia as he was felled and she was just left in stunned disbelief. Her legs screamed for her to run but she couldn’t. Her body wanted to lurch up and flee as well. But it was no use. 

“Ah… so that is what passes for a skilled mage among humans these days. ‘Tis always good to measure one’s self. Though I’ll admit the difference between him and you cowering over there is as narrow in my eyes as a few millimeters.” Idria remarked as she started walking toward Amelia. 

Amelia stared ahead, her mind screaming for her to run but her body unable to obey. Every step closer was closer to death. She whimpered as the elven woman lifted her hand toward her and then paused. Her eyes trailed down and Amelia followed her gaze down as well. At her foot, at the side of it, was a young woman that had been shrunken and had thrust her sword into the side of her pale heel. It had penetrated evidently as blood was dribbling from the wound. Enough that it drew a smirk from Idria. 

“My, my, how long has it been? How long since a human drew blood from me? Shrunken and pathetic like that, yet you manage to draw from me more than either of these so called mages.” Her tone was one of light amusement. 

Amelia watched the youth struggling to pull out her own sword, shouting obscenities. Why wasn’t she running? Why was she able to resist this… terror? This fear? It was probably ignorance. Ignorance that this woman she poked at with a needle was a god compared to Amelia let alone her. The redhead tried to bring magic into her hands and found a slender hand placed on her forehead as the blonde looked down at her out of the corner of her eyes. 

“You meanwhile. You’ve committed the cardinal sin of boring me.” She said, her tone as cold as ice. 

“W-wait!” She screamed as magical energy pierced through her resistance. 

Amelia felt herself getting smaller and smaller. Her resistance was shattered as easily as tearing through a spider’s web. The raw magic of Idria drained at her more and more, and she was being pulled off the ground, held up by the fingers of the blonde. She kicked and flailed and screamed as she tried to get free, her body finding some life though it was hilariously too late for her to manage much of a resistance. She was shrunken down into the same half inch size as the same woman fighting at Idria’s feet. 

She was held aloft by a pair of soft pale fingers, the blonde’s eyes gazing down upon her from on high like a deity. Cold blue eyes looked at her like she was nothing, not a person, not a woman worthy of respect, simply some animal squirming between the digits easily holding her. Amelia felt the air rush past her face as she was held aloft further, lifted up before a pair of flawless plush lips. A pink tongue traced over the lips and it was then that Amelia understood what was to happen. And she screamed. 

Her screams were little more than the sharp squeaks of some tiny thing to Idria, something she had doubtlessly heard many times before as she opened her maw slightly. A rush of warm humid air blasted forth and washed Amelia in its embrace. She was staring inside. Staring deep inside the fleshy cavern from which there was no return. At the perfect white teeth that could mince her with ease. At the black pit at the back of her throat, the journey which she suspected many humans before her made. 

Amelia squealed and screamed and tried to cast any kind of spell, any magic, but found that she simply couldn’t. It was as though the spell upon her was keeping her from accessing that. Thus she could only squirm as Idria dropped her on her tongue, the pink member dragging her inside the cavern of her mouth. Her lips sealed shut behind her, bringing Amelia into the darkness of the fleshy hell. She could feel the rough tongue below her sampling her flavor, the elf enjoying a taste of her as saliva dripped upon her form. 

The redhead begged and howled as the elf brought her to the back of her throat and scrambled, clawing at the tongue to avoid being dragged to the back. It was no use of course as a simple toss was all Idria needed to send her tumbling back into the pit of her throat. Toward the eagerly pulsing pit that would drag her into a true hell. She fought and tried to cling to the walls but a simple gulp at that point was all that was needed to dislodge the struggling mage and send her on her tumbling down the throat of the councilor. 

Beyond Idria idly traced the progress the little redhead made down her throat with her finger, letting out a sigh. “Not even much of a fight on that one. How irredeemably dull. ‘Tis rather like eating gruel when they barely even fight. Grey and boring.” She remarked before her gaze turned down at her feet and a smirk curled up her lips. “Now then… perhaps you’ll keep me entertained?” She chuckled.