(This is another story that’s bigger than I have time to write right now. So this is a placeholder)

She found that the magic worked better if she started the dance slowly. She could speed up once things got established but the beginning? That had to be super slow. Painfully slow. So slow that she felt like she was barely moving.

She could go pretty fast for the set-up, that didn’t seem to matter. Her ring of salt, the anchors at the edges, the chalk symbols. Those had to be done fresh every time of course, and she had to do them while holding the intention strong in her mind, but the speed was irrelevant. She didn’t have to slow down until after she had started the music.

For her first invocations, she had been very fussy about the music, but it turned out that music didn’t matter all that much either. It all came down to the speed of that first part. If she started slow enough she could be ready when the demon rose into the circle. If she was ready when it arose, then she could lead the dance and bend the creature to her will. If she moved too quickly, then she was at the mercy of the creature instead.

That was how those people died- she had been at the will of the demon. When she led the dance, she simply shaped the lives of those around her. She brought some to her bed, she had others bring her riches, and she chose chaos for the anyone she could bend toward it.

With every dance, she could feel her power growing. It would soon be time to put her true plan in motion.
When the whole village was hers she would march them on the castle and the prince would then become the subject.