Prince Elystar and the twins left to go back to the tea party, which had gotten back to full swing. After the twins had come back from being blown away, Elystar instructed them to show fealty. The twins bowed down in respect towards Amber and informed her about Cray stealing Amber's book, which they had seen with Water Sight magic earlier.
Jenna had snuck away while everyone had been focused on the Eldest Prince's theatrics. He had loudly complained and acted like he had been mortally wounded, until Elystar's little sister, Crystal, questioned if all yuki-onna men were so delicate. This comment seemed to have magical powers, since the First Prince was miraculously all better. Which of course, made Crystal roll her eyes in disdain.
They had given Amber some space to pull herself back together. She was getting dressed in a sage green slip dress that they'd prepared for her. Along with a great deal of cloth bandages to wrap around her arms, shoulders, and neck. She appeared to be the victim of a horrible incident, and in fact, she was. However, she was currently perfectly unharmed. It was better for her current plans to appear weak and disfigured. The twins put up her hair in a curly high ponytail. Then she pinned the little black veil that had been part of her hat, into place onto her hair. The hat part was ruined, but there was enough of the veil part to obstruct the view of her face. She made them promise to keep her appearance a secret and so they did.
After they left, she did a self assessment to discover the damage. A great deal of her poisoned ice needles had been ruined and her book was missing. Her lovely goth dress was ruined, her hat and veil destroyed.
However, she'd gained two powers, had that stubborn brand removed, and learned some interesting things while the elves thought she couldn't hear.
She rubbed her hand over a thin metal band she had wrapped around her ankle.
"Come," Amber said to the metal band, while holding out her palm next to it. She felt crazy talking to a piece of metal, but it was worth a try.
After a few moments, the thin metal band twisted off of her ankle and slithered onto the palm of her hand. The bottom half of it coiled up like a snake and the top of it was curled up like a snake's head. Amber thought that it was quite cute and so an idea formed in her mind.
"Do you know what a snake looks like and could you form into one?" Amber said.
With that, the metal twisted in her palm and formed into a perfect tiny silver snake. It had scales, eyes, a mouth, and a tongue. After a few moments, it made itself black, its eyes became pale green, and its tongue became dull pink.
"Well done. I am your master now and from now on, you will do as I say."
The tiny snake bobbed its head and spun around on Amber's hand happily.
"I saw that your previous master had you shaped like a ring all the time. Can you switch between different forms?"
The little snake looked up at Amber hesitantly. Then quickly bent down, bared its tiny fangs, and bit Amber's finger.
Amber squeaked and flung the little snake across the room. Blood dripped from where the little fangs pierced her pinky finger. She glared at her dripping finger. Then she glared towards the snake curled in on itself with a drooping and pitiful appearance.
[Sorry. Sorry. I needed to make you my master with a drop of your blood, but couldn't tell you.]
It slowly unfurled itself before speeding towards her. It slithered over to Amber. Then up her body, almost faster than Amber could follow it with her eyes. As soon as it reached her finger, it licked the puncture wounds with its tongue. The wounds healed instantaneously, leaving no signs that they had been there in the first place.
[Please don't be angry with me anymore, master. I will do my best to serve you,] said the little snake.
It talked the same way Ena talked to her, directly into her mind.
[I am capable of switching back and forth between two forms. Although they have to both be small, because I can not change my size. Each form can only have a single purpose. These forms can not be changed during the lifespan of my master.
The man who had me as a branding ring didn't understand my nature and thus never fed me his blood. He was never my master and so when he fed me some of your blood, he allowed me to choose you as my master. I had never been drawn to any of the previous women he had branded, but your blood is different due to the nature of your true self. Thus I decided to accept you as my master and allowed your metal magic to unravel me. I didn't have quite enough blood to transfer ownership of myself to you. So I was forced to bite you, since you were unaware of how to contract with me.]
"I see. You will not bite me in the future without permission," said Amber.
[Yes master.]
"Would you be able to find and poison people for me without being detected?" Said Amber.
[That depends on what form I'm in. In my current form, I'm fully capable of that purpose. However, you would have to feed me whatever you wanted me to poison with and I would need to smell that person's scent in order to find them. It won't be possible for any random person to heal them though, because I am a Living Magic being. I am sorry about the brand I left, giving you so much trouble previously. Mana water isn't capable of removing it. However, the elfin healing magic I sense on you is, and myself; now that you've contracted me.]
"Excellent. You will keep your snake form as one of your forms and poisoning specified targets will be that form's purpose. The second form I want you to take will be a scalpel with a long handle and two blades. I want one blade to be white and the other to be black. The black blade will cut through whatever I want and the white blade will heal what I want. Can you do that?"
[I can, but I will need you to feed me obsidian, diamonds and elfin healing magic poured into refined mana water.]
The little black snake concentrated and then after a moment, it turned see-through, like it was made of thick smoky glass.
Amber frowned while thinking of his request. Obsidian wasn't the easiest thing to get her hands on and talking about eating diamonds sounded expensive. She also didn't know how to pour her magic and she didn't have refined mana water. For now, her lovely scalpel would have to wait, but that didn't mean she couldn't have a bit of fun in the meantime.
She walked over to her discarded and ruined clothing in the corner and opened up her hidden pockets. "For now, eat all of the poison in there. Once you're done, I have three people that I want you to poison for me, but I want you to poison them in different ways."
The little snake bobbed its head and eagerly rushed into the pockets, one after the other. He easily swallowed down the poisoned needles and other bits.
Once he was full, he let out a tiny burp and slithered back up to Amber's hand.
Amber tried not to smile at the little snake's eagerness and cute burp, but inside she was charmed.
The first person I want you to poison will be Jenna, my maid. I have the teapot she uses to boil water for me sitting on the table over there." Amber pointed over to a table in the corner of the room that had the brushed copper teapot with painted light blue flowers on its sides.
"Can you tell the difference between the person's scent who holds it the most and the scent of a person who only held it a couple of times?"
[Yes,] said the little snake.
"Very good, then find her and poison Jenna with the red leaf poison that causes the poisoned person to feel as if their skin is burning and causes their skin to break out in disgusting blisters. The poison doesn't go any further than the poisoned person's outer skin. Do you know which poison that is?"
[Yes master.]
"After you've successfully poisoned Jenna, report back to me. I will tell you who to poison next, but I need to head back home first, to put together some poisons for you. Will you be able to find me?"
[I will.]
"Good, then I will have you meet me there. Make sure you aren't seen by anyone. From now on, your name will be Sly."
[Yes master.]
The little snake happily bobbed it's head after receiving a name. It had been five centuries since it had received a name and had a full master. It had been made using ancient magic from the Celestial kingdom. Then it had fallen into the hands of a fool who didn't know what it was. Now the ancient living magic was a forbidden art. Now if he were discovered, he would likely be destroyed. He was thrilled to receive a proper master again. It felt like he'd finally gotten a piece of himself back that had been missing. He would do everything in his power to please this treasured new master.
Sly quickly slithered off of her hand and took off out the door. Amber simply blinked, and he appeared to be gone. She plopped down on the bed and stretched while yawning; thinking up her next move.
Out in the tea party, the lady's gossip quickly turned towards Amber and how hideously disfigured she must be. They also wondered about the rumors that the First Prince had an affair with Jenna, the maid. They figured that it must be so since she hadn't been sent to the dungeons and instead had simply been put under house arrest in a guest room within the castle. Outside the suite Jenna was shut in, there were two guards. One was stationed at the door and the other outside the window.