The Witch and the Lich: The Plan

Credits; Krell, Rea,

Rea climbed through the trap door, and Krell followed her closely.  He noticed almost instantly that they were surrounded by very frightened yet determined people wearing ratty clothing and brandishing underpolished weapons.  Apparently the sane ones had gone first, but even the crazy ones were ready to fight to protect their treasure.  Considering the sort of oaths they were bound to by their blood, it wasn't surprising.  They were as dead if they let the treasure leave as they would be if they fought Rea.  And as he scanned the room he realized that all but the loopiest, most completely bonkers of them had realized that they were going to die today no matter what.  And from the looks of it, they'd chosen to die by the blade.  As a warrior, he considered it admirable; as a priest, he felt a twinge of guilt at the knowledge that he was sentencing so many to death for his own gain.  And the guilt was by far the stronger. 
"Rea, we shouldn't kill them."
"No kidding, but given the choice I'd rather kill them than let them try and figure out what to do with a skeleton and a fourteen year-old girl.  Most of these folks have only enough sanity to mindlessly fight anything that comes in here.  It's a conditioned response, I can't even say how many of them actually know what they're doing."
"But do we have to kill them?  There has to be some way of doing this without killing them all."
"Who said anything about killing them all?  A quick show of force and they'll all run, watch."
He grabbed her arm before she could get moving. 
"No, even if they run it'll still kill all of them when we take the diamond."
"Krell, we don't have time to take the diamond.  Just scare them off real quick and we'll get going."
"Wait, what do you mean we don't have time?"
She pulled out the little leather book she carried and flipped it open.  A picture of Holine met him, and the page next to it bore her name and vital facts, as well as a short run down on her habits.  It took him a second to notice that it was a complete entry, containing not only statistics on weight, height, and background but a date of death. 
"You have to kill her?  Why didn't you just say so?"
"Because I don't have to kill her, I just have to make sure she dies on that day.  Trust me, I've tried it.  I can subcontract all the hits, it's just more reliable to do it myself." 
"And it just has to be today?"
"Yes, but it has to be today.  I've never missed a hit yet, and I won't miss this one."
"How long do we have?"
"A few hours, it's probably six-ish, I think."
"That's not nearly enough time to make it into the throne room from the gate, even at my fastest."
"That's why I'm sending you straight to the throne room as soon as we have the diamond."
"Sending me?"  He noticed the Medeans edging closer and snapped a ring of flame into existance around Rea and himself.  It was enough to keep even the half-mad guardians at bay. 
"This isn't exactly my plan, I'm afraid I've been working on Arcania's strategems.  See, if I destroy you, then as a Lich you'll reform instantly at your phylactery.  Since Holine has your Phylactery, you'll reform at her.  Then I can wait here with her phylactery in order to destroy it as soon as you destroy her."
"That still leaves the problem of how she destroys my phylactery."
"Don't worry, Arcania has that covered.  All you need to do is throw this,"  She handed him a small pendant, the chain or string or whatever would have been used to suspend it from one's neck had been discarded.  It was the shape of an ornate cross set in two rings, all Gold, inscribed with runes where it wasn't encrusted with gems.  "On the ground and call out Urun, the Argent Flame.  He's a very noble fire Elemental Arcania's mother made friends with long ago.  The pendant will summon him.  Someone close to Holine has managed to plant a falsified tale of Urun into her mind.  As soon as she recognizes him, she will summon her own guardian, and while I won't spoil the surprise, I doubt you'll like what happens next."
"Arcania came up with all this?"
"She had some help, but yes.  I assure you, she's completely on our side.  Holine has made some bold statements about Arcania's sensitivities in the past, and the ol' Ice Queen was actually rather enthusiastic about the idea of helping to off her." 
He enchanted a few tongues of flame to grow, anthropomorphize, and begin dancing about the most squeamish mad folk.  He didn't like the idea of being destroyed , he had the feeling it would be rather painful. But if the alternative was having Rea rip through the palace wards and beat Holine to death with her own phylactery, then being destroyed as a part of Arcania's plan to get back at the villainess was probably better off, not only for him but for the whole palace.  The Medean resistance collapsed as one particualrly large flame began leaping from tattered cloak to tattered cloak, causing utter chaos to break out as the mentally unstable Medeans began alternating between curious attempts to taste the fire and subsequent frenzied attempts to extinguish their hair.  Few would die, it wasn't that sort of fire; but it got even those who weren't on fire panicked enough to leave them alone.  It was certainly better than killing them all, especially now that he knew the only one who would get destroyed when they found the phylactery was him.