Beasts

"We - I - Astra, the collars..."

"I know. But we must! We are commanded!"

"Yes." Fred agreed, his voice turning even more gutteral. "Shiva - Mistress - commands."

"We obey Mistress," Astra agreed in an answering growl.

Without hesitation, the two of them picked up the collars and fastened them around their thickly corded necks. As each collar snapped closed, the fastener and hinge vanished, leaving only a solid band of spikes tightly bound around their throats.

"Very good, my pets," Shiva's voice rang. "Now, turn to face me," she commanded, "and receive your destinies."

The two of them turned back to the cloud, now the half the size of the room and still growing. As they did, two pair of chains, their links seemingly forged out of pure fire, shot from inside attached themselves to the collars.

"Your lives I now claim as my own," she said. Shiva's voice, still silky soft but impossibly loud, filled their heads, blotting out all thoughts other than hers, making it impossible to tell where Shiva left off and they began. "Henceforth, you are now my carnage beasts, and I name you 'Death' and 'Despair', for that is what you will spread in my name."

In repsonse, the monsters that had once been a knight and a princess snarled and howled unintelligibly, their three red eyes now gleaming brightly in the ever-darkening chamber.

"Yes indeed, my pets, we will begin now. Come, let my cloak envelope you we shall claim our first target:"

1. "The Kingdom of Allaria."
2. "The Matriarchy of Aqualaria."
3. "This desolate island, which shall once again be my seat of power."
4. "The wretched necromancer who trapped me here so many centuries ago."
5. "It matters not who or what - destruction is so much more effective when it's random."

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