Mable begged Urgnox to surrender, but something within her dungeon had shifted. He was no longer listening to reason.

  "I am the superior core," Urgnox growled. "I will best this challenge."

  "Master, all you are doing is clogging the tunnels with bodies," Mable tried to warn him. "You are just feeding them. If you are going to fight, you need ranged minions. It is your only chance."

  "I will crush this threat like I have crushed every other," Urgnox responded firmly.

  Mable did not want to die, but she was bound to her core. Except in very special circumstances, the fairy died with the dungeon.

  Drip. Drip.

  Mable fluttered around the core room. She had nowhere to hide or go. There was only one way in or out of the chamber, and she could already smell the acidic fumes of slimes eating their way through the skeletons in the upper dungeon.

  Drip. Drip.

  Mable's only hope was that one of the other dungeons would defy Nefertut in this. She alighted on her shelf and watched her core slowly descend into madness.

  "Why can't I smash them?" he bellowed. "Slimes are the weakest monsters."

  "They are also the most adaptable," Mable chimed, but Urgnox ignored her.

  Something in Mable snapped. She had been bound to Urgnox for the last eight hundred years.

  Drip. Drip.

  She landed on his core and stomped a foot. "Why won't you listen to me?" she demanded as she kept stomping. She was doing no real damage. "You need a magical or ranged minion. Just throwing things into a living pool of acid is not going to do anything!"

  "You dare strike me!" Urgnox bellowed before summoning a skeleton to swat her away.

  Mable shrieked as she was propelled into the far wall, one of her wings snapping.

  "You dare question me!" Urgnox sneered. "I am destined to win. I have more mana, more minions, more years of experience. There is no way I would lose, no matter what happens."

  The skeleton drew closer.

  Mable cringed.

  Drip. Splat!

  Everyone finally looked to the source of the sound. A yellow slime had burned a hole through the ceiling and landed in the core room. It quickly pulled itself back together and threw itself at the skeleton, reducing the threat to nothing.

  Mable watched, trembling in fear. More slimes of every color began to flow in through the hole, one after another. She would have been mystified by the first sight of color in years if it were not for how inherently dangerous they were to her right now.

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  "What have we here?" came a warm voice.

  Suddenly, there was light and warmth in the cold, dead crypt. Mable shed tears as she looked up at the beauty before her. The woman was like a beam of sunlight trapped in flesh. Mable could not help but reach out to see if the woman was real. With pity in her eyes, the woman bent down and gently lifted Mable.

  "You poor little lady," the woman cooed. "What happened?"

  Mable sniffled. "My core won't listen to me. I tried, but he ignored me until I got upset. Then he hit me." Mable could not help but let her emotions spill out. All she could feel from Urgnox was rage, and this woman was so warm.

  "I am Rey, Envoy of the Vitalmire Crucible," the woman introduced. "It is a pleasure to meet you. Would you like me to heal you?"

  "You can?" Mable asked. "You can heal me?"

  "I am a being of life, magic, and vitality. A member of the Seelie Court," Rey said proudly. "I would be a poor representation of my kin if I could not."

  "Please do," Mable sniffled.

  With a touch, all of Mable's pain vanished, and she released a sigh.

  "I demand you leave!" Urgnox shouted. His core was surrounded by a tide of slimes. "I am the superior dungeon, and I demand your respect."

  "No, you demand our attention," Rey corrected calmly. "Respect is earned. That seems to be something very hard for certain people to understand. A position and a title do not entitle you to respect. You must prove yourself worthy of them. Respect is not meant to be a chain used to subdue. Respect is a currency—one that you seem sorely lacking."

  Mable looked up at Rey in shock. In that moment, there was no one Mable respected more. With all her heart, Mable wished she could be more like Rey. Rey seemed to sense the shift within her.

  "Do you truly wish to be like me?" Rey asked. "We seem to be kin, even if distantly. If you truly wish to change, I can facilitate it."

  "Yes," Mable nearly cried. "I want out of this cold place. I want to see colors again. I want to be like you."

  "And do you swear that if I grant this wish, you will serve the Seelie Court?" Rey asked, raising a brow.

  "If they are like you, then yes," Mable begged. "Make me like you."

  Rey placed a kiss upon Mable's head, and the infernal fairy felt a new kind of warmth flood through her. It was not the hellfire she was used to. It was life and light, like bathing in sunlight again. Then it was like the sun itself in her veins, burning away what she used to be.

  Light enveloped Mable as magic swelled within and without. It formed into a violet egg, and Mable felt as though she were floating in warm fluid. Moments passed as her infernal nature mingled with something far greater than herself, and she would have sighed if she could. Her connection to Urgnox snapped as she was fundamentally changed.

  A few seconds later, Mable felt it was time. She pushed against the shell around her. It resisted, so she struck it, cracking it. The fluid began to leak out as she hammered the fracture with all the might she could muster until the side of the egg gave way and she tumbled free.

  Mable panted weakly as she took everything in. She was still in Rey's cupped hands, which overflowed with a crimson fluid. At first, Mable thought it was blood and nearly panicked. Then something clicked. She could feel what the liquid was—raw vitality, quite literally life's blood, one of the rarest alchemical materials in the world.

  Shakily, Mable rose to her feet, her wings buzzing to steady her. Rey conjured a mirror, and Mable was stunned. Her skin was a healthy cream color. Her hair had become a blooming rose. Her eyes were solid red, matching the petals. She wore a dress of rose vines and leaves. Her wings were a blend of butterfly and dragonfly, and her once-round ears were now pointed, like Rey's.

  "I am beautiful," Mable gasped as she fluttered up to hold the mirror in her tiny hands.

  "Any final words for your old dungeon?" Rey asked.

  It took effort for Mable to look away from her reflection and toward Urgnox. He was strangely quiet, but she could feel his attention on her.

  "No," Mable said softly. "I think we ran out of things to say to each other a long time ago."

  Rey gave Mable a pained look as the slimes descended upon Urgnox.