#ophidiophobia

There were many parts of her life Daphne had kept secret from her classmates at St. Myark's. She had learned quickly enough that anything that was viewed as a weakness of hers was something that could be exploited, and to the high-born fellows she had studied alongside, that included most aspects of her humble origins.

Beyond the boundaries of her home village, Daphne had never told anyone about how the roof she had grown up under was prone to leaking, and that was why she habitually kept a bucket in whatever room she slept in, for the sake of the floors.

She had never told anyone there was a winter after her mother's garden had failed to thrive, leaving them with little to survive off but tasteless or too-salty dried goods, and that was why she always pocketed a piece of fresh fruit from those who had an excess to share.

And she had never, ever told anyone about the most harrowing days of her life when she, an inquisitive child of only nine years old, had gone to investigate the long-crumbled ruins on the edge of town, in case they could yield any magical secrets to her, only to slip into a deep pit beneath the earth - one that had been made the home of countless live snakes.

Daphne had spent three whole days stuck in that pit before anyone was able to find her. If she had been able to call out and alert others to her position, they might have found her sooner when the search began, but surrounded by the mass of tangled, writhing bodies in the dark, she had been too terrified to move or to speak, and it had only been the sheer stumbling luck of one of her searchers that she had been found at all.

Ever since that day, Daphne had been terrified to death of snakes. Even the sight of the smallest garden varietals would make her legs shake badly enough that she would need someone to shoo it away before she could move again. Naturally, she had kept this secret carefully guarded from her classmates, making sure not to put herself in any type of situation where it may be revealed.

And so now, backed into the edge of Kyana's combat pit, watching as snakes began to flood into it from all the grates and doors, the question on Daphne's mind wasn't what her knight wanted from this situation, or even how she had managed to procure so many of these things.

All that was on her mind, aside from the sheer, heart-pounding terror of having her worst nightmares called into reality, was the question of how the hell had she even found out?

"L-let - let me out."

Sir Kyana, watching Daphne's terrified form pressed against the smooth walls of the pit from her usual perch of 15 feet above her, cocked her head with a smirk.

"Apologies, Mage Daphne, I didn't quite catch that. What did you say?" she called down.

Daphne flinched as her voice echoed around the pit, too terrified of it stirring the snakes to summon the usual rage she knew may protect her from the invading wave of fear. For now, the snakes were just crawling in, congregating at whatever urn Kyana had left in the center of the pit to attract them, but she could see them flicking their tongues, tasting the air.

And when they realized she was the only warm body within their reach -

"This isn't funny!" Daphne cried out. "Let me out of here, right now!"

"It isn't a joke, pet," Kyana called back. "It's a training exercise, to see how you carry yourself in the face of pure terror."

"Then give me my wand!" Daphne demanded.

It was taking all her strength just to remain standing. Her legs felt like the thinnest sheets of shale beneath her, brittle and ready to collapse - and some of the snakes were starting to slither in her direction.

"If you're so confident in your abilities, it should be no problem for you to remove yourself from this situation, even without this," Kyana said.

The knight deftly twirled Daphne's wand in her fingers, having collected it just before shoving her into the pit. It wasn't the first time she'd taken it before one of these sadistic excuses for training, but the worst it usually earned for Daphne was burnt fingertips when she forced herself to cast directly through her limbs without the help of her magical focus.

Now, though -

"Sir Kyana, please! I'm begging you - my wand - please, at least let me have my wand!" Daphne pleaded.

Her voice hiccuped with her terror, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. If she were in any state to think, her mind may have lingered on how she now undoubtedly looked more like the sweet, timid imitation of a mage Kyana had spent months dressing her as - but of course, all she could even begin to process was that one particularly thick serpent, black with iridescent purple stripes, was getting closer, and closer, and closer -

"I'll do anything you want, I promise," Daphne babbled desperately as at last, her trembling legs gave out and she sank to the ground, all that much closer to the approaching serpentine waves. "I - I'll keep my uniforms clean. I'll back you at all your formal dinners. I'll spend all my time tending your hedgerows and making your platemail shine and - I'll behave, I promise, I'll be good."

So thick was Daphne's terror that she barely even noticed the trickle of some liquid as it was spilled onto her head from high above. Poured from Sir Kyana's hand, it was the same concoction that had been used to tempt the snakes into the pit in the first place - and now it was attracting them directly to Daphne as well.

"You will do all those things regardless," Sir Kyana told her coldly. "Not because I did you one favor, but because you are my mage, and it is your duty, regardless. The only difference will be that after this, perhaps you can do it without this silly little fear of yours. Take care of this mess before dinner or you won't be eating tonight, Mage Daphne."

With that remark and with her mage's wand still in hand, Kyana excused herself from the pit, either not knowing or not caring that Daphne had heard none of it. She was too busy cowering in the meager protection her uniform offered her, catatonic with fear as the snakes began to swarm up her body, rendering her every bit as much a helpless as the child she had once been.