Jamie Kilner sat alone within the cellar of her manor, lotus-style on the cold stone floor. Unlike most cellars which were bland storage compartments under houses, hers was fully decored with sinister grotesques and peculiar arcane patterns on the walls and floors. Just underneath her was an elaborate pentagram that served as the focus of the unusual feature that she watched before her. If one studied it closely, they would notice a ring of metal with a vibrant red jewel set on one side of it that could be shifted at different degrees of the pentagram.

The unusual feature she watched before her was a swirling, glowing pool of light set against the wall and surrounded by carvings of demon sentries. It was a portal, a portal that could go anywhere within the multiverse depending on where the jewel on the metal ring of the pentagram was set. Tonight it was set to the churning chaoses of Limbo and she was awaiting for one of her servants to return from the task she sent it on.

Eventually the creature emerged from the portal, its large hulking, hairy shape reminiscent of a gorilla but that's where the resemblance ended. It had a head that resembled a boar's and small feathery wings that sprouted from its back. The demon was hideous to behold, but it was powerful, possessing just enough strength for this particular mission.

Jamie stood up and smoothed the gossamer black fabric of her negligee over her curved form, its transparency hinting at things underneath but not fully revealing them. She locked her eyes with the lesser demon and it briefly bowed its head in subservience.

"Were you able to uncover anything?" she asked with a hint of hope in her voice.

"No, my mistress," the beast answered in growl that made the disappointing news all the more frustrating. "My contact revealed that nothing resembling her passed through their plane in eons. She has not been there. I apologize to bring my mistress such unfortunate news."

Jamie hissed softly and clinched her fists. This search had been taking her years and she wasn't the least bit closer to succeeding than she was when she had begun it. She turned away from the bestial demon in disgust and let her eyes fall on a peculiar pattern on a wall several yards away.

"Some day I will find her, even it takes me all of eternity," she whispered to herself. She turned back to the creature and spoke in a more commanding tone. "You will go to the Outlands and relay what you have told me to my agent there." She pointed at the pentagram and the jewel shifted thirty degrees to the left. The portal began to fluctuate for several seconds then resumed its swirling pattern.

"As you wish, my mistress," the demon responded with another subservient bow of its head before stepping back through the portal.

Jamie scowled venomously. The source of that fruitless lead to Limbo was about to become another casualty in her unending search for her twin. She would not forgive those with false information.

Jamie Kilner's high heels echoed throughout the chamber as she descended the steps. Rounding a squatting, leering statue of a grotesque creature, she entered the cellar properly and came face to face with a tall, blond man guarded by a pair of bird-like demons. His face spoke of an arrogance unparalelled by any other despite his capture by her minions.

She had to laugh at that look on his face, it reminded her of her first encounter with her top assassin, Nero. Still, she had humbled and broken Nero and he was hers body and soul. This smug blond would probably be a bit more challenging, but like all the rest, he would be broken. She strode closer to him and the two demons that kept him under watch.

"Jamie Kilner, I presume?" the arrogant man asked without hesitation.

"I might be," Jamie answered with a grin. "Who wants to know?"

"My name is Ataranes," the man said in answer, his arrogant expression unchanging, unwavering. "I have a message for Jamie Kilner, Mistress of the Sin Glades."

Jamie smirked at the man. He had done his homework well in uncovering where to find her, let alone knowing which layer of the Abyss she had recently established control over. She rarely spent time in the Glades aside from directing her demonic troops and her established rulership over it was so recent, word had barely had time to get around. She had to wonder if he was sent by one of the other Abyssal Lords.

"Speak your message then," she ordered.

"I have heard of your search across the Planes for an entity that you would call your twin," Ataranes said with that arrogant mask. "Her name is Jade, I am to understand. I assume there is much reward in finding her if I'm not mistaken." He stopped momentarily as Jamie nodded. "Good, then you'll be pleased to know that I've found her."

Jamie's solid black eyes widened. "What? Where is she?"

"She is being held in a fortress a thousand leagues from my home," Ataranes said with his first actual smile. "The fortress is known as Kazakar and is ruled by an iron fisted warlord and guarded by an army of intelligent undead. It's in the wastes of Groazugar, a world not much unlike this one. In order to rescue your twin, you will need to kill the warlord."

Jamie eyed him skeptically. "A lot of those names sound hideously cliche and ridiculous to boot, how do I know this isn't some manner of trick?"

"That you will have to find out on your own," Ataranes replied with a smirk. "I will assure you that these locations are most certainly real despite their 'cliche' feel. Is doubt truly reason enough to pass up a chance to find your sister again?"

Jamie Kilner stroked her chin thoughtfully. A chance to see Jade again. How could she refuse the lead?

After leaving the town behind, the journey to Kazakar began. Jamie deduced that the jagged mountain range that reached to impossible heights, their peaks obscured in dark clouds, in the south were the so-called "Mountains of Death." Such colorful names spoke of either a highly superstitious people or an unimaginative cartographer. Then again, perhaps there was actual death in those mountains?anything was possible.

Nevertheless, she had no desire to walk the entire distance, and since she and her balor lieutenants had wings with which to fly with, the rest of the journey would be by air. Soaring toward the mountain tops on the warm currents of the arid land closed roughly a hundred miles of distance in a little under an hour. The mountains were extremely close and Jamie could now appreciate the intimidating heights they reached.

As she and her demon champions passed through the dark clouds that enshrouded the peaks, a powerful, buffeting wind began to overtake them. She hissed a few Abyssal curses as the winds sent her and the balors spinning for control of their direction. Sorcery was clearly responsible for this because the winds were at hurricane speed reaching close to 170 miles per hour; no such thing was possible under normal circumstances when the area surrounding the mountaintops was so calm.

She shouted an order to her balors to descend toward the mountains, she being the first to land on their summit. The glacier snow there was not a pristine white but a twisted, corrupted black. Jamie understood now why these were called the "Mountains of Death" for they would have proven a life risk to mortal beings. Fortunately, neither her nor her two demon warriors were mortal.

They traversed the mountain peaks blindly for hours and Jamie's impatience grew. If flight had still been an option, they could have been halfway to Kazakar by now. Occasional interruptions from fanged, clawed beasts lacking in any form of sentience also served to delaying their passage through the treacherous terrain. The creatures were slain rapidly whenever they appeared, posing no match for her and the balors, but the cretins seemed to think she had all the time in the world to "play" with them.

Eventually they found a rough trail that sloped downward and with the wild, magical winds still above, they followed it. Jamie's irritation became a raging inferno within her and she began to fantasize about the horrible things she'd do to the warlord at Kazakar for making her traverse every inch of this travesty of a mountain.

He'll learn to lick the dirt from my heels when I'm done with him, she thought.

Then she saw ahead the old man that looked positively out of place and yet amusingly appropriate draped in a tattered robe as he watched her and the balors descend to the rope bridge he stood by. Sickly green light bellowed up from the casm that the bridge crossed and Jamie wondered how many elements from bards' stories would be manifest within this world. He supposed the man was going to ask her a riddle in order to be allowed to cross.

"Greetings to ya," the old man said with a typical crackling voice. "Ya seek to cross my bridge but ya must answer my question first to prove ya worthiness and wisdom."

Jamie rolled her eyes; she was right on the money. "And I suppose if I get it wrong, we wind up in there?" she asked, pointing toward the casm. "Very well, ask your riddle. We've been through almost everything else typical of a fairy tale."

The old man nodded with a cackle, then he spoke. "I have a daughter. She has as many brothers as she has sisters. Each one of her brothers has twice as many sisters as he has brothers. How many sons and daughters do I have?"

((Reader contest! The first person to answer the riddle correctly gets 2000 silver. PM your answer.))

Her two balor lieutenants were quick to dive down to engage the monstrous creature in combat. They lashed it with their whips of flame and cut away at its tentacles with their vorpal blades. Regardless, the monster grew more and more enraged at each blow it was struck, further tentacles rising up from the jungle depths to deal with its prey.

Jamie Kilner sent down a number of destructive spell-like abilities to aid her two demon servants in their relentless assault. They were doing the creature damage, but unfortunately it did not seem like they were doing enough to it. Foul-smelling ichor poured from its numerous wounds, but it continued its hungered assault.

Finally a number of tentacles rose up high enough to reach her and she slashed at them with her sword. One of the tentacles roped around her leg and slithered up her thigh toward her crotch, predictable behavior of such beasts. It began pulling her down, closer to its open and waiting maw as other tentacles began to grasp her in ways her devious, filthy mind found highly suggestive.

She was being pulled closer to the monster's maw while her lieutenants hacked and slashed as many of the tendrils they could. She watched them with a sense of mirth, as the movement along her body from the creature's appendages was starting to feel a little pleasurable as they predictably tried sliding underneath her clothing. The jungle canopy was ascending closer now and she could feel the beast's hot breath below and it was then that the idea dawned on her.

Oh yes, of course... such a simple solution, Jamie thought to herself.

She raised one arm, the other heavily restrained, and pointed the palm of her hand toward the jungle canopy. A mere thought ordered the massive fireball from her hand and into the heavy vegetation. As she expected, the canopy caught fire and began to spread. Within moments, the flames were surrounding the massive creature and scorching its flesh. It made a deafening roar that could be heard for miles as it screamed in pain and loosened its grip on her. Taking advantage of the loosening grip, she flew back toward the sky, each tendril releasing her one by one.

She looked to her balors. "Come on, time to get a move on to more important matters," she ordered and led the way from the blazing scene of burning trees and monstrous flesh.

After that, I'll be fucking Jade madly when I find her, she thought impishly, then frowned. If I find her....

Bland stone walls described the interior of Kazakar rather well. Every so often there was a bland statue of something that was suppose to be a knight and was suppose to be imposing, but ultimately failed to impress. Other decorations involved stereotypical snarling grotesques which she herself was occasionally guilty of using. Regardless, the evil tyrant of the evil castle was equally evilly unimaginative.

Jamie only noted these things as more reason to kill the lame fucker. If he really had her sister Jade, he didn't deserve the honor of having her as a prisoner. Jade was like an eccentric black flower that deserved a captor that was also quite eccentric. If Jamie wasn't already her identical twin, she'd be that eccentric captor herself.

Off and on the undead minions of the warlord tried to get in the way, but she and her balors dispatched them all without much notice or effort. The creatures were weak compared to them and there was no reason to expect any sort of challenge from the impotent zombies. At one point, she decided to save time by igniting an entire hallway aflame. Anything flammable, including the undead, was instantly immolated.

A wry smirk crossed over Jamie's lips as she saw the twin oversized doors carved with bas reliefs at the end of the last hallway she and her demon lieutenants traversed. Evidently it had to be the warlord's throne room as she couldn't think of anything else such massive doors could be wasted on. If there was anything else then it would have been that much more pathetic.

She charged towards the doors and struck them with a palm. The stone turned a reddish orange as it increased in temperature before the doors blew apart in rubble. An expansive chamber lined with columns reaching to the high ceiling led to a distant dais across a dark red carpet. An armored figure that had been sitting there abruptly sat up with surprise.

"Who dares disturb the Warlord of Kazakar?" the armored man thundered from across the chamber.

"I do," Jamie answered before extending her wings and swooping across the chamber to land on top of him. "I believe you have something of mine."

"You will die for this inso?" The warlord was interrupted as Jamie struck him, knocking his ugly, black helmet to the side. Underneath, he was a thin, pale man with eyes filled with fear.

"Shut up," Jamie ordered. "Now tell me, where are your dungeons?"

"Um, um, um... take a left from her, follow the stairs and...." He trembled underneath Jamie's glare. "Third door on the right!"

"That's better," Jamie said, patting him softly on the cheek. Then she grinned maliciously, swung her sword and the warlord's head came off his shoulders leaving a geyser of blood where his neck was.

Jamie hopped off of the dead warlord's body and spun to face her balors. "You heard the man, left, stairs, third door on right. Let's go."