Chapter 110 - Say You're Sorry

"Ma… Mage Kalcifer." Princess Alessandria started, swallowing hard, "I'm pleased to see that you have made it back safely. Does that mean you were successful in subjugating the monster?"

Professor Kal could see clearly in the near pitch-blackness of the basement. He could see the terrified looks on their faces as they pressed against the bars of their cell. Even as the princess spoke, he could see her eyes dart back and forth, trying desperately to peel back the darkness so that she could see what he was doing. The way that both of them were behaving truly stung a little, it was as if they had suddenly started to fear him for some reason, even though, he thought, he had been nothing but nice to them thus far.

Snapping his fingers, the magical lights reignited, bringing the ambient light up to a level to where everyone could see clearly. The soft blue flames cast dancing shadows across the hard-packed ground, giving the dingy basement a haunting atmosphere. At the same time, the iron cage that had imprisoned the two women crumbled away, turning into powdered rust that sank to the ground.

Pulling over a wooden chair, Professor Kal straightened out his poorly woven pants before taking a seat. Trist, happy to see her best friend return, trotted over and started to nudge his hand with her cold, dry muzzle.

"What happened?" Professor Kal asked, cocking his head, "Before I left, you both were so lively, so... bold. Now, it's as if you're staring at an uncaged beast, frankly, I'm a little offended."

Taking several steps back, Princess Alessandria's eyes went wide, "You're not Mage Kalcifer!"

At the same time, Lilly quickly stepped in front of the First Princess, her arm morphing into a morning-star, complete with three-inch long spikes jutting out in every direction.

"What are you going on about?" Professor Kal asked, genuinely confused, "Of course I'm me, right, dog?" He looked down at the perpetual wagging machine that was resting her had on his lap, her large, clouded eyes looking up into his.

"We traveled with him for quite some time, you look nothing like him! Who are you?" Lilly barked out, demanding an answer to her question.

A little taken aback by the current situation he had found himself in, Professor Kal stood up from the chair before marching across the room and started to rummage around in one of the chests residing in the corner. After a moment, he pulled out a large glass flask, its mouth sealed with a rubber cork. Inside of the container was a silver liquid that perfectly reflected the soft blue light given off by the magical flames.

Without hesitation, he pulled the stopper from the flask with a deep 'thwomp' that reverberated throughout the room. Holding the container in one hand, he used the other to trace out a large circle just in front of him. The metallic liquid gushed out of the flask on its own accord, following the invisible line traced out by his hand just moments before. After forming an oval some three feet from top to bottom, the liquid began to thin out, filling the middle of the oval with boiling, silver metal.

Soon, the roiling surface of the oval was replaced by a placid, mirrored finish, perfectly reflecting Professor Kal's countenance. Not believing his own eyes, Professor Kal leaned forward, closer to the perfect mirror floating silently in the air. With just a thought, the soft blue light of the magical flames instantly transitioned into piercing white, driving away all of the lingering shadows that inhabited the room.

There, staring back at him with piercing, amber eyes, was a devilishly handsome man. His thick, shoulder length hair was the darkest of black, the white light of the room becoming lost in the forest atop his head. His facial features were rugged and sharp, as if a God themselves had chiseled a masterpiece out of flesh. Just a hint of a beard covered his striking face, giving it an even more masculine feel. If he didn't know better, he would have thought a stranger was looking back at him through the floating mirror.

He followed the contours of his face with his fingers as he allowed the blinding white light to dim considerably, allowing the exiled shadows to return to the underground room. This was a face that he hadn't seen in almost three-thousand years, this was what he looked like in the prime of his life, before he even considered turning himself into an undying lich. Well, it wasn't exactly as he remembered, his own subconscious hubris must have altered his appearance a smidge while he reconstructed his living shell.

In the process of becoming a lich, the body undergoes a violent and devastating transformation. All of the flesh is burned away, granting power to the spell, and allowing the soul to be able to bind to the phylactery, becoming affectively immortal. In most cases, the process is so traumatic that the caster often experienced compartmentalization of their memories, locking them away behind a subconscious wall. Add this phenomenon to a lich's near endless lifespan, and all of the experiences that brought with it, and it would not be difficult to understand why they were considered insensible and insane.

With no clear memory of what he looked like before his transformation; he had just made his shell into an amalgamation of what a human male would look like. This resulted in a completely average appearance, not too ugly, not overly attractive, entirely mundane, and forgettable. Now, since he had somehow unlocked the memories lost to him all those years ago, he had unknowingly crafted his living shell into something that closely resembled his actual self.

He smiled a wide, toothy grin, enraptured within his own vanity. He had never been one to really care about his appearance, at least not recently. It seemed that after recovering some of his fragmented memories while imprisoned within the beast's soul-plane, that his very personality had shifted slightly. Suddenly bothered with the changes occurring within himself, he hastily waved the hovering oval away, scattering the mirror into countless drops of shimmering liquid.

Regaining his composure, Professor Kal cleared his throat before turning to face the anxious looking women that were still very much on guard against him. "Well... hmmmmm. There's a perfectly good explanation for my sudden transformation."

"Let's see..." he hummed as he returned to the solitary chair he was seated at before, "Ah yes, magic. Yup, that's it, I used magic before to conceal my true identity. As one beautiful person to another, I'm sure you can sympathize."

The two women glared at him with skeptical eyes, not dismissing the explanation they had been given, but not entirely believing it either. He did sound much the same as he had before, his mannerisms were unchanged as well, and then there was the fact that the 'sickly' looking dog seemed to accept him as its master, happily licking his hand with a drool covered tongue.

"Let's say we choose to believe you." Princess Alessandria said from her position safely behind Lilly, "And you really are Mage Kalcifer. What is it that you're truly after? You said all you wanted was gold for felling the beast, that you imprisoned us to keep us safe…"

Gaining a little bit of her courage back, Princess Alessandria stepped forward, confronting the seated man, "You may think me daft, that I am unaware of the happenings going on around me, but I assure you that I am not! I went to the church to help clear your good name, I thought that I knew what kind of man you were, that, although crass, stubborn, and exceedingly materialistic, you were someone that I could trust. As it turns out, I was a fool!"

Professor Kal leaned back in his chair as the Princess continued her impromptu rant.

"I don't know how, but it was you that I talked to inside the church. It was you who handed me the scroll that brought us back to this… place." She looked over to Ryan's unconscious form, "He was there as well… How wicked of a soul do you have to be to drag a child, an innocent boy, into whatever nefarious misdeeds you are arranging outside of the light's touch."

Professor Kal let out a tired sigh, he had too much on his mind at the moment to really have a desire to argue with the hysteric woman, "What proof do you offer to collaborate your wild accusations? Me and the boy were here when you stepped through the gate, how could we have been conversing inside the church if we were here the entire time?"

As he said those words, he spread his arms out wide, gesturing to the entire room. Although he had been caught red handed, she had no proof other than her own conjecture; and no one would believe such a yarn, even if it did come from the First Princess.

"Proof? You want proof!?" Princess Alessandria started, basically shouting at the man, and gesturing toward Trist who was still happily wagging her tail like a macabre whip, "Just look at the fucking mut! That alone is enough to confirm the slanderous rumors circulating about you, or are you going to say that that bitch is only a little 'under the weather'?"

"That's hurtful, isn't it Trist?" Professor Kal said compassionately as he looked down at the zombie-dog, before looking back up at the fuming Princess, "I don't see how her condition can be proof of anything, and at least my 'pet' has all of her limbs still firmly attached."

Princess Alessandria's eyes nearly rolled out of her head as she sneered at the man's juvenile rebuttal, "Of course you are who you say you are, there's no other man that could possibly be as grating on the nerves as you!"

Motioning for his pipe, but receiving nothing in return, Professor Kal scowled as he remembered the state that his storage-ring was in, "You're no refreshing spring breeze yourself… Princess. Any other respectable person would be on their hands and knees, pressing their faces into the grime, thanking me for saving their lives not only once, BUT TWICE! Yet here you are, flinging half-cocked conspiracy theories and disgusting accusations around like a peasant slinging shit in the fields!"

Losing her temper, Princess Alessandria snapped back at the mage, "The only shit here is you! You arrogant cur!"

Professor Kal erupted from his seat, the soft, magical light taking on a harsh, crimson glow that perfectly echoed his current mood, "I could kill you where you stand! Rectify the mistake I've made by saving your wretched, ungrateful life."

The pressure inside the room was palatable, the magical flames were overflowing from their sconces, the flames burning so vigorously that they were licking the timber beams above. Trist had backed away, taking refuge underneath a long, metal table with her tail tucked between her legs. Princess Alessandria, suddenly realizing the truth held within his words had clamped her mouth shut, her face drained of all its color and cold sweat had drenched her shivering body.

Lilly, struggling against the overwhelming pressure gushing forth from the mage, stepped in front of the terrified princess. She brought her metal arm, in the shape of a morning-star, up to bear, prepared to strike the mage down at any moment. Seeing this, Professor Kal sneered at the woman's antics. He couldn't believe that a gift he had given someone, out of the kindness of his heart, would be used against him in such a way.

With a snap of his fingers, Lilly's magi-steel appendage deformed and elongated, taking on the form of a scaled serpent that slithered its way around her body and wrapped her in an unbreakable hold. Losing her balance after being restrained, Lilly toppled over like a dead tree in a deep forest, hitting the ground with a hard 'thud'. Now alone, and faced with an enraged mage, Princess Alessandria shrank back, desperately trying to make herself as small as possible, her eyes wide in primal fear as she watched him stride across the room towards her.

Bringing his face mere millimeters away from hers, Professor Kal issued his final words on the matter in a low growl that shook her to the core, "You think your status protects you? You think you can use your royal upbringing as a shield, use that fucking crest as an excuse to slander whomever you please without fear of repercussions? I could squeeze the life out of you right here, right now, and no one would be the wiser. Your final moments on this plane would be spent struggling for each breath with my hands wrapped around your neck, and the only ones that would mourn your passing would be the crows, bowing their heads to you before feasting on your stinking flesh."

Becoming overwhelmed with dread and losing all strength within her legs, Princess Alessandria collapsed to the ground, a warm and wet sensation spreading out from her loins. Professor Kal gave her one final glare, his amber eyes stabbing daggers into her soul, before turning around and walking back to take a seat in the wooden chair situated in the center of the chilly basement.

"At least that's what would happen if I were a man quick to anger." He said glibly, his tone holding no traces of the wrath of just moments before, "Indeed, you're lucky to have crossed paths with me, someone who would educate you on the inner workings of the world outside your gilded castle. I only ask a small favor in return for the lesson imparted upon you."

He paused, making sure that the Princess was listening to every word, "That you put all of those foolish speculations of yours to rest, that you put your efforts into something more productive, something that will not lead to any… unforeseen consequences. Do you understand?"

Princess Alessandria nodded slowly, coming to terms with what was being said to her. Lilly lay motionless next to her, the metal serpent still tightly constricted around her, but she was still able to nod in agreement as well. With a devious smile, Professor Kal clapped his hands together, standing from the chair once more and eliciting a wince from both women residing on the dirty ground.

"Ah, I almost forgot. Before we get down to the brass tacks about payment for slaying the monster, there's one other thing that you must do."

"Wh… what is it?" Princess Alessandria asked timidly, swallowing hard to keep the contents of her stomach in check.

With a serious face, Professor Kal motioned to Trist standing warily behind him, still seemingly terrified of the situation, "You need to apologize to the dog."