Naria's face took on a more dour countainance, and she tersely replied

"Indeed they were. They have chosen not to show up. I believe that we can safely add them to our list of dissenters towards unifications."

Her face then returned to its former grin.

"Do not worry. They will be dealt with."

Naria's statement rung across the council chamber with a tone of grim finality.

A voice echoed out from the table's far end. Aradaz, daemon lich of the Ashen Citadel, rose from his chair and began to speak.

"What, exactly, is keeping them from killing you? For that matter, what is keeping me from killing you right now and seizing control of this would-be empire of yours?"

The lich began to mutter in ancient tongues of darkness, and fell energies began to gather around him.

In response, Naria's eyes turned a deep crimson hue, and she began to levitate in the air, surrounded by an aura of dark power. Talon like claws erupted from her fingers, and her teeth became akin to razors. The puppets flanking Naria raised their scythes and rose into defensive positions, moving to guard their owner.

Bolts of runic magic sprang from the daemon child's outstretched finger, flying at the lich. Naria's magics swiftly overwhelmed the lich, consuming him in violet fires, and the magic wards surrounding him were vaporized before he could even finish the incantation he had begun. The dark flames scorched Aradaz's bones, and the undead mage's form collapsed, bones spilling to the ground as the enchantments that held his form together were burned into nothingness by the daemon princess's spell.

Aradaz's head, now void of his conciousness, rolled across the table. Naria, satisfied by her spell's effect, returned to her more serene form.

"I would say that your death is doing an adequite job of preventing you from siezing my throne. As for the others, I can guarentee you all that there isn't a being in this realm who can withstand the onslaught of my empire."

Naria sighed as she uttered her next statement, knowing that someone would inevitably challenge it. She anticipated that she would have to kill at least three of the gathered archdaemons before her point was successfully made.

"No one else is foolish enough to try attacking me here, correct?"