Royal Reboot: Level up, Your Majesty!

Queen vs. Her Pet

A crisp autumn wind curled around Eydis’s boots, tumbling dry leaves across the empty path that led to the cricket ground. Each step snapped a twig.

Stealth clearly remained a work in progress.

All clear on the field, Your Majesty, Envy whispered, slipping back into her mind like fog.

Eydis stopped at the edge of the pitch, noticing a green blazer lay in the grass. It was nearly camouflaged, except for the ugly splash of dried blood across the back.

She clicked her tongue and felt Envy’s cold aura coil close.

“Swallowing a whole student now? That's Gluttony, even by your standards. At least leave a scrap for the ravens, they adore leftovers.”

Envy’s aura wobbled, distinctly offended. Your Majesty, I—

“Dispose of this. Now.”

Mist thickened, hardened, and became a sleek, obsidian serpent. It slithered over, unhinged its maw, and gulped the blazer with a wet pop.

The texture, Envy groaned.

“Disobey me, and trust me, polyester will be the least of your concerns.”

Envy shuddered dramatically. I'd rather have your iron grip permanently latched onto my neck, Your Majesty.

Eydis smiled. “Then that's not punishment, Envy, merely incentive.”

She raised a hand. Violet threads burst from her fingertips, twined round a drifting leaf, and disintegrated it to ash.

Envy’s forked tongue flickered nervously. Message received, loud and clear. But your mana…

Eydis sighed, “Negligible. But it’s a start."

Unlike Tiffany, whose insecurities made her an easy, thoughtless feast, Eydis refused to be Envy’s willing sustenance. But the decision came at a cost: a chain on Envy’s true power.

Petty jealousy was beneath her. She would never be the Sin’s pantry, bond or no bond. No wonder it had latched onto Tiffany the moment it was free. Like a fly to a honeydew-covered simpleton.

I hear you, Your Majesty, Envy grumbled. Once my memories returned I swore loyalty.

"Bound to this body, you're about as free as a puppy on a retractable leash. Now, quiet down before I yank the cord."

Envy coiled up her arm in an exaggerated sulk, which she pointedly ignored.

She knelt on the sigil she had inscribed weeks earlier, pressing a palm to the markings. An inaudible chant rose from her lips. Purple lines lit beneath her, siphoning energy from the churn of adolescent resentment saturating the academy.

The irony was rich. This academy, with its cruel ranking system, unknowingly nurtured the very angsts fueling her power. 

Violet runes pulsed, numbers and equations swirled. Sensing her need, Envy coiled tighter, picking a specific brand of darkness into her.

Envy. Because, really, what else? The one emotion this place produced in abundance.

Yet even as the magic seeped into her, something resisted. A battle fought within herself. Like trying to fill a bucket with a crack in the bottom. 

Still, it was something. A sliver, small, but hers.

Pre-dawn glimmered at the horizon when she severed the flow. The sigil guttered out. She stood, stronger. But not strong enough.

To survive, she needed her Sins, every last one.

All of them.

“Explain Tiffany,” she said, brushing dust from her skirt. “Was she truly your target or just an appetizer?”

Envy’s golden eyes darted away.

Aside from her unique personality, she held traces of mana. Not hers… the Sin admitted. But left behind by those she lingered near, enough to make her useful.

“So the Gifted students were your main course. That explains your sudden affection for Natalia.”

An observant queen as always, Envy hissed. This school overflows with ripe emotion and mana.

“Then track Pride. Immediately.”

My range is limited, the serpent protested. Detection is your talent, not mine.

"Then use your wretched eyes for something besides ogling teenage misery," Eydis snapped. "Find the anomaly. Now!"

Air rippled as Envy dissolved into violet smoke.

As you command, Your Majesty.

Then, it was gone.

Envy had a point. Sins thrived in solitude, each attuned to their own domain. Worse, Envy’s range was tied to her presence. It could only detect anomalies within the academy’s boundaries.

That would change. Once she regained her strength, once her influence stretched further, Envy would have more to work with.

But that was fine. This place was dripping with mana. Just like Envy, the others wouldn’t be able to resist. The power here was too strong, too tempting. They would come.

And when they did?

Eydis would be ready. After all, she was in the mood for a good hunt.

She left the field and angled toward the library. Being a librarian, Eydis had discovered, came with unexpected perks. A private bedroom and a shower was a superpower in its own right.

The staff lounge was blessedly empty. She locked the door, splashed water on her face, and met her own amber stare in the mirror.

Skipping class today was survival, not rebellion. Last night she had fenced words with a girl whose vocabulary never rose above Me. By the time lies, lies, lies hit its tenth repetition, she’d seriously considered taking up poetry.

Ode to a Screeching Banshee had a certain ring to it.

She tilted her head slightly. Tiffany’s grimy handprint was still faintly visible against her skin.

Ah, memories.

If restoring her power was this tedious, returning home would take a miracle. And Damien, if he had landed here, was doubtless in some equally tragic predicament. 

Would he share the same fate, reincarnated into an ordinary doppelgänger, powerless? Or not, considering he stood out about as much as a pond in the desert. He was either wandering that metaphorical wasteland or, as Natalia put it, already strapped to a lab table while government-y people poked at his alien DNA. 

Either way, she had stumbled into that elusive, almost mythical thing called me time. 

In a plush hotel suite, two figures sat across a dark mahogany tea table. The room was sealed so tightly that not even New York’s usual hum of traffic could be heard.

That only made the tension worse.

Damien, a knight devoted to his “chivalric principles” to the point of absurdity, sat stiff-backed, his pristine white suit gleaming as though it had been polished alongside the furniture. He clung to the armrests with a death grip.

“Damien,” Indigo started calmly.

“Sir Damien,” the knight corrected sharply.

Indigo sighed. “Fine, Sir Damien. It’s just a—”

“That is not ‘just’ a needle,” Damien hissed. “It is a miniature pike, a device of infernal torture. Even Aurora fell to one accursed prick.”

Indigo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mighty slayer of monsters undone by medical equipment. How inspiring.”

“This barbarism demeans a knight.”

“It is a blood test,” Indigo said. “Not an assassination attempt.”

“Explain how this helps capture the Queen of Shadows.”

Indigo leaned back, tapping a file against the table. It won’t, but bureaucracy demanded sacrifices. 

“Listen, sir, hunting down this so-called queen has been… challenging. Look.” 

He slid a crude sketch of their target across the table: Wild dark robes, jagged teeth, the artistic flair of a toddler.

Damien shrugged.

"If her threat is so imminent," Indigo continued, "why hasn't she acted yet? Perhaps she's not even here. Which is why a bio-signature tracker, using a sample of your unique biology, is crucial. It could be the key to pinpointing her location.”

Damien’s scowl softened ever so slightly. Just as Indigo thought he might be close to convincing him, a cheerful birdsong ringtone interrupted, and Adrian’s face flickered onto the holo-screen.

“Hold that thought,” Indigo sighed. He stepped into the adjoining study and took the call. “Indigo here.”

“Professor, we have a situation,” Adrian whispered. “Chief Advisor Romanov just—”

“Of course we do.” Indigo’s voice went flat. He closed the door, leaving Damien alone with his needle-induced crisis.