"May I recommend a donkey, or perhaps a helpless rabbit?" I shouted down at Morgana. "Or perhaps a turtle without its shell!"
The witch had started towards the door, but at my yelling, she turned back, one eyebrow raised. "Really?" She seemed intrigued, fascinated by my comments and their tone alike. "I've had men and women in that cage who begged for mercy, or tried to change my mind - but never one that offered suggestions."
Sliding back down against the wall of the cage, I shrugged, one hand brushing some dark brown hair from my face. It was true, I'd have never said such things before my father or his knights - but they weren't here right now. If I couldn't say such things before an evil witch, then who could I say them in front of.
"And I've met many princes and knights," I responded to her, my icy blue eyes glancing to the door before I returned to staring into her red-colored irises. "There wasn't a single one out of the lot whose head wasn't securely shoved into their own ass." In just nineteen years alive, I'd met no shortage of supposedly noble men who saw me as nothing more than an object, an accessory to place on their mantle and boost their already over-inflated egos. If one of them was cursed to become some awful beast, or truly a mere object, then I would hardly be the first to shed a tear.
My honesty, it seemed, had drawn a great deal of interest from the spellcaster below. With a snap of her fingers, my cage lowered to the ground, allowing her to speak more closely with me. "Not a believer in the nobility of God's chosen men?" She asked playfully, already knowing the answer even before I rolled my eyes.
"If they've been chosen by God for greatness, I shudder to think what awful beasts have been chosen by the Devil."
"Lucifer's Champions may not be awful as you think, my dear." She took a moment to rub her chin, before another snap of her fingers and the cage's door opened wide. She stepped in, smiling down at me as I waited to see what it was exactly that she wanted. "Tell me, Sara - you've surely heard tails of Morgana. What did they tell you about me?"
I shrugged, recounting what little I recalled from the stories passed around my father's court. "They said you were a she-devil, among many other unflattering terms. That you were born pure evil, and sought only to corrupt the kingdom at every turn."
She laughed quietly. "And did they tell me that I was once a member of your family's court?"
Before, I had at best been half-listening - but her question brought my full attention. My head lifted, focus now solely on the red-haired witch before me. "No... no, that was never mentioned." I sat up a bit straighter. "You were... a noblewoman, then?"
"One of the most prominent in the land," she affirmed. I parsed out her tone carefully; in my few years I had become adept at detecting deception in the voices of lying diplomats and nobles, but in her voice, I found no hints of such things. "Your great-great-grandmother, Queen Hannah, valued my counsel on magical matters. Without me, the Sorcerous rebels of Stoneheight, in the north, would never have been vanquished - your father wouldn't even have a kingdom to rule today."
I stood up, mouth slightly ajar in disbelief. "Queen Hannah?" I had heard of her name, once or twice, but she was hardly ever mentioned compared to her husband. "I.. I was told she had been infirm, and that King Samson had been responsible for that victory."
There was a spark of anger in Morgana's voice, though it was hardly directed at me. "Of course you were. Hannah's son couldn't bear the thought of letting the achievements of women stand." She sighed quietly. "That wretched man took pains to scrub the truth from history. Every woman who'd advised his mother was... disposed of, save myself... and only because of the pact I accepted."
The bargain she spoke of - I knew it well. "Then you truly did make a deal with the devil? Power and immortality, in exchange for your soul?"
"My soul? Is that what they say about me?" She threw her head back for a hearty laugh. "My sweet child - Lucifer had no need for souls." She was smirking now. "His price was simple: I was to remain free, never shackled to the rule of another. I have spent my many years since then doing as he demanded - in this lair, no man rules over me, or imposes his will upon me. My destiny, it is mine to make..."
She trailed off for a moment, before grinning at me. "I suspect, my dear, that you are in no rush to return to your home?"
Well, she had that correct, certainly. "I.. can't say that I am, no."
"Then perhaps... we can help each other." I raised my own eyebrow now, curious, as she produced a small wooden object from her robes - a wand, I guessed immediately. "I can see it in your eyes - you are a woman with little interest in being some toy or plaything, to be ordered by egotistical men. We are the same, in that way... and as it happens, I have long desired an... apprentice."
The knight at the door was slamming against it, trying to batter his way in, but I couldn't draw my attention away from the offer being presented to me. "Take this wand," she stated, holding out the thin rod for me to take, "And use it to make our guest into whatever you think most fitting. From there... I can show you wonders beyond anything you've imagined, and freedom greater than any man in this kindgom could ever afford you."
There was a twinkle in my eye as I took the wand into my shaky hands. I could feel the hum of magic within it - raw power, not like my father wielded, but real, primal energy, able to reshape the world. Every thing I'd ever heard about Morgana made her out to be pure evil... but it felt as if, in her, I'd found the first kindred soul I'd ever known. And all the power and liberty she enjoyed, it could be mine, if only I rid the world of one pesky, arrogant noble...