A small, hunched over figure with grey skin, white hair, and robes that seem only slightly newer than himself walked down a well worn path downward with the ease of long practice as the golden light of his rock lantern shined the way. This was Gnal, the minion master, and he was going to visit the tower heart in its resting space under the tower. He sought just a single moment of blessed peace before the chaos began.

Not that Gnarl liked peace, or disliked chaos. Oh no, not at all. However he prefer the chaos of evil being brought about. This would not be that chaos. The most recent Overlady, in a long line of lords and ladies, had passed away not to long ago. It was rather anti-climatic. She had blown herself up in her alchemy lab. The lab was still in relatively one piece and the rest of the tower hadn't been harmed. It was quite sad really.

As it were most of the artefacts and possessions were still present, the hives were all accounted for and well stocked with life essence, the tower was at full power, and any possible enemies had already been slain or enslaved before the whole explosion incident.

However that would soon change. New heroes would find them and raid the tower, the minions would get bored and go their separate ways, and/or something catastrophic would happen causing their home to cease to exist, blow up, or fall apart. Either way soon things would fall to chaos once more before they could find a new overlord or lady to hold everything together, and that new master would have to pick up the pieces and reclaim everything all over again. Oh well. that was the way of the world.

It was an old song and dance that Gnarl was use to. However he knew he would persevere and if they were worth their armor, so too would the new master. And then darkness would rule the land once more, after all evil always finds a wa-

Gnarl stared into the dark empty room. He slowly blinked. Once. Twice. Thrice.

"Well that's new. The tower heart is never the first to leave. Now where did it run off to?"

Louise Françoise le Blanc de La Vallière always felt she was meant for something great. It was clear in her family history. Her mother was one of, if not THE, strongest wind users in all of Tristain if not the world. Her father was a powerful mage and duke in his own right. Her eldest sister was a well known researcher. Her other sister also showed talent despite her illness. And that was just her immediate family. Not including ancestors or extended. Her family was known for greatness so it was only natural that she would be too.

However the only thing that seemed to be great about her were her explosions, and she never purposely created those. They just happened whenever she tried to cast a spell. EVERYTIME! It didn't matter the elements, willpower used, timing, way of chanting, or spell type. It always ended up with an explosion instead of the desired effect.

And this time had been no different. The familiar summoning ritual had no element, and was merely meant to find the one being meant to match with you on the deepest levels. To carry out your will. And even THAT had exploded. Was that it? Did that mean that she was only meant to blow things up? To destroy all before her? Was that all she was good for?

She bit her lip as her grip on her wand became white knuckled tight. Her classmates behind her were too busy coughing to start their jabs but that wouldn't last too much longer. She had failed again. Her zero success rate had cont-

That was when she felt it. A pulse of magic rippling from the dust cloud. The magic washed over and through her. It felt familiar. It felt right. Not a second later another pulse came through. She took a step forward. Then another as a third pulse reached out to her. It was as if the magic was pulsing to a rhythm. Reacting to some unheard beat. It was as she walked to the densest part to the slowly thinning cloud, and felt several more pulses did she realize something very important.

The magic washing over her felt like her own magic.

The rhythm it beat to was the rhythm of her own heart.

She caught sight of it as the dust finally dissipated. Her hands touched it as its appearance began to register in everyone's mind. What stood before her was a perfectly round crystal sphere that was almost half again as tall as she was. It glowed with great magical power, and was warm to the touch. the pulses grew faster as her own heart accelerated with excitement. There was great power here. Unimaginable power. And it was hers. Like her second heart. Her heart of magic.

"Oh great pentagram of the five elements, bless this artefact, and let its power become my own." She chanted before pressing her lips to the smooth warm surface of the sphere. She never noticed the pentagram that appear beneath her. She was too busy feeling the rush of pleasure that enveloped her body as new power filled her. The warmth of the stone traveled through her lips and all the way to her core. With it came not just a sense of power, but also understanding and satisfaction.

She took a single step back from the crystal sphere panting in ecstasy. There were no runes on the sphere but that didn't matter. She knew what it meant.

"Professor, now that we have all summoned our familiars we are free to start bonding with them correct?"

The kind man looked uncertain. "I suppose…"

She nodded in return and started to walk to the right towards one of the walls. "Miss Valiere what are you doing?" The bald man called. the student in turn started to mumble amongst themselves. However Louise ignored them.

She stopped just short of the wall, and as if by some unspoken command the ground before her started to shift and rumble until a strange stone burst from the ground. It was a fairly large and was covered in strange runes. Then four mounds glowing different colors unearthed themselves around it.

Louise smiled to herself as several brown creatures leapt out of the brown mound and looked around. Their eyes fell upon her and their eyes shined brightly. Their mouths became split into very large grins that showed off their sharp teeth.

"Master!" One cried as it started to jump and hop in place waving around a small club. Soon the others were joining in. Calling her master and showing great joy in doing so. The pinkett's own smile grew as her ego and pride were inflated. However there was business to be done.

Dramatically and silently the young mage in training half turned her body and pointed towards the large sphere. All ten minions seemed to understand immediately, and ran towards their objective. With seemingly little effort the ten of them lifted the giant crystal that was easily several times bigger than themselves and had to weigh many times more. She watched as they walked past her in perfect unison and placed the sphere on the large stone where it slowly faded from existence.

She knew not where the stone led, but just knew that it lead to somewhere she wanted to be. To where her destiny lay. Her magical heart had told her so. Just like it had told her that these creatures were now hers. They weren't much to look at. But appearances were deceiving.

She turned back to her teacher and classmates. "I shall now go bond with my familiars. I shall do my best to return by breakfast tomorrow." She said calmly before turning back to the stone and stepping onto it. She felt magic course through her as she felt a sense of vertigo. Like she was moving while staying still.

She always felt she was destined for greatness. It was evident throughout her family. And now that greatness was within her grasp. She could feel it deep down in her core. This was the greatness she was destined for. She just had to reach out and grab it. And so she would. And nothing would stop her, as she took her first steps down her newly found path.

Gnarl was very confused, and he HATED being confused. He hated it almost as much as he hated elves and all things good. It was a really close call which he hated more, but elves and the all things good tended to happen more often.

Why was he confused? Well first the tower heart disappeared on its own. However despite the fact that it was missing, the tower still had plenty of power. THEN as Gnarl is moving to the viewing pool to see if he could find it before some hero did, EVERY minion felt a burning sensation on their left hand. Even him! It hadn't hurt that bad, after all as a brown he had dealt with worse. Though the blues and greens certainly didn't enjoy it. The reds, on the other claw, had hardly noticed. On top of that the tower heart started giving off a signal alerting Gnarl of its location. A tower gate with accompanying minion gates were quickly created and minions were sent through to retrieve the powerful energy source.

However the minions that were sent through the portal to retrieve the heart brought a bit more with them. That extra being a girl with long pink hair and an aura he was quite familiar with. But there was no way… so soon?

The young girl looked over the throne room with a critical eye until said eye fell upon Gnarl himself. "You must be the master of my familiars." She said as if stating an obvious fact. But… familiars? He had heard the minions being called many things. But familiar was not one of them.

"Yes. I am Gnarl the minion master. Who are you?"

"I am Louise Françoise le Blanc de La Vallière, noble of Tristain and your new master. As decreed by the magical artefact that I had summoned and made a contract with. Through it, all of you are bound to me. As such I require information of what you are, where this place is, and what I have inherited."

To say Gnarl was stunned by these turn of events would be like saying a brown enjoyed hitting things. A VAST understatement. He always knew evil would find a way. Just not quite this quickly. For an overlady to come into possession of the tower so quickly was unprecedented. Especially at full strength like this. It was as if fate itself was working in her favor. However she seemed to fit the bill well enough. Maybe this was one of those rare opportunities where he could mold his master to one of the better evil paths. To rule the land in a vast empire like few have seen before. It had been sometime since he was last able to do that.

"Very well sire. I will explain what I can. But first may I ask you a few things so that I may better fill you in? I need to know the situation better before I can explain it." He said with a bow of the head showing submission to the girl. Said girl narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms over her flat chest as a sign of displeasure, but nodded all the same. Good she had the instinct to intimidate and wouldn't take fools easily. Good traits for any overlord or overlady.

"Thank you master. Me and my fellows have been Isolated from the world for sometime so we have little knowledge of the outside. So forgive me, but what is a familiar?"

His new master sighed in exasperation. However instead of belittling him took on a pose one would take on if they were teaching a small child. He didn't LIKE being treated as such, but it was better than being kicked for not knowing. "I can't believe anyone wouldn't know but I will humor you THIS time.

When a noble mage such as myself reaches a certain age and experience they summon a familiar to serve them, and show off their power and element. Familiars are usually animals of some sort. From simple ones like snakes or dogs, to magical ones like dragons or manticores. During my own ritual I summoned that crystal artefact."

She paused there a moment to look along the path that the browns had taken the tower heart. The look on her appeared to be that of longing. However before the old brown could comment or ask another question, the pinkett spoke again. "The familiar is bound to the mage through another ritual. The ritual of contract. With it the mage tethers the familiar to him or her through their own magic. This usually allows the familiar to have a small raise in intelligence to allow them to understand and follow orders better. Through this the familiar gains purpose, and the mage gains a servant who will defend them, and assist them as they need."

"Fascinating master. Truly. So by contracting the tower heart, you contracted the entire tower including all minions with in it, and the hives from which they would be born. Truly fascinating." And it was… if annoying. It would mean no backstabbing later. Pity. Those were always the best ways to test would be masters. As well as the best means to get rid of those that were found lacking.

A clearing of a young throat drew Gnarl from his thoughts. He looked up to see his new master looking down at him expectantly. Right he better start explaining. "Sire you are currently standing in the throne room of the dark tower. Your new home and the center of your evil empire." Her eyebrow quirked at that. Apparently there was a LOT that he had to explain. That would prove useful perhaps.

"Sire you are the newest in a long line of overlords and overladies. Conquerors. Destroyers. Rulers. They are the epitome of evil in all its shades and glories. For all their reigns the dark tower has been their main stronghold. The place they planned, strengthened themselves, formed their armies, and rested after a long day of smiting and conquering.

At the center of the tower is the tower heart. It was that artefact that you contracted earlier. It is the source of power for everything in the tower. It is an object of pure power." He was interrupted when he noticed the young girl shiver. However he noticed it wasn't out of fear or pain. He also noticed the smile on her lips. "I see that you noticed such."

"Oh yes. As I mentioned the contract tether master and familiar. I felt its magic POUR through me. I have no words for how it felt." Oh dear. This was the first time he ever heard of something like this. Many before her had tried to tap directly into the power of the heart for themselves. It was very difficult to clean up the messes after most of those experiments. To have one succeed in such a manner though. Hmm and it would seem like it had awakened some sort of lust too. Very interesting.

"Well sire, as I was saying the tower heart powers everything. Everything in the tower is connected to it. Artefacts, the gates that allow one to go to and from various lands, the hives that breed minions, and the spells that the previous overlords and ladies have used. They are all bound to and powered by the heart. And now to you. That is quite fascinating. No other as done such."

The girl took a moment to look quite proud of herself and bath in his praise. Like she never heard any like it before. Odd. "What are minions exactly?"

"Minions are minions master." he answered simply only to get a hard stare. "They are creatures that are rather stupid, but loyal to the master of the tower. There are four types in total and each have their role in your vast army. If you allow me, I will save that explanation for when I can show you them, on the tour of your new domain." He received a nod,

"Thank you. Now here in the throne room we have the observing pool. It is where you can observe your acquired lands and even move to whatever tower gates are nearby. Our current location doesn't really matter. It will likely change once you start establishing your own empire."

The girl got a thoughtful look. "Your previous master, what happened to their empire?"

"The previous overlady didn't have one. She preferred to stay in the tower unless a rare artefact or reagent was located. A piece of the tower that was taken by heroes and such. She rather preferred to raid other people and leave. Though she was attacked several times and took non-material trophies. Hmm now that I think about it she was one of the few to NOT take a mistress of any kind."

"Mistress? Trophies?"

"A mistress is a significant other. It is the closest to marriage you will find here. After all no priest is going to bless an evil union." he scoffed. "A mistress can be male or female. It keeps it simple for the minion's tiny minds."

The girl nodded, accepting the logic. "And this old overlady didn't take one?" he nodded. "What were the trophies?"

"Female adventurers that caught her fancy. They were captured, tortured, raped, and broken to her will. Turned into maids and sex slaves." That seemed to disgust the new overlady. Before she could say a thing though he continued. "While I myself am a fan of torture, the screams are such beautiful music, such servants tend to either be useless in the long run, or will quickly betray you. It was the former that happened in this case. The last of the servants died soon after our master."

"Good. I want nothing to do with that." The girl then got quiet and stroked her chin. "Can the center of my empire be anywhere? And the tower will appear there?"

"Yes sire."

"Very well. Continue with the tour Gnarl. I wish to learn more about what I have to work with. After all I know just where to start this empire of mine, and I want to start as soon as possible."

"Already?"

"Yes of course. It is ripe for the picking and will prove a great place for manpower, and coin."

Gnarl was impressed. To have an overlady embrace things this quickly, and already have a beginning step? It was indeed unprecedented. No doubt it was motivated by revenge. Oh how sweet this was turning out to be. The fates were indeed in evil's favor this day.

"And where shall we strike?"

"Why at the very place I came from. The Tristain academy of magic. "